Caught By Surprise

OK, not all of you know about my friend Savannah, who passed away this summer, but for those who do, you can understand this experience. For those who don't know the whole story, here's a brief synopsis, and I mean VERY brief. For the whole story, ask me and I can share or if her mom doesn't mind, point you to their blog.

Savannah was the daughter of some dear friends of mine. I babysat their kids when I lived in Maine. Savannah fought a very long and valient battle with cancer and passed away in August. That's the briefest version I can come up with and not make myself bawl. The rest of this post will be hard enough to write without crying and crying will be awkward, considering I'm at work and, well, it would just be awkward. So, here goes...

On Tuesday night I took my client to McDonald's for a snack and to play in the playplace. I was sitting at a table watching her explore, when a lady behind came in with a tray full of kids meals and called her grandkids over to eat. There were three names that she called. I don't remember the scond and third names because the first that she called stopped me cold. The little girl's name was Savannah.

My heart clenched, and my eyes immediatley filled with tears. I was immediately pulled into my own memories of playing with and taking care of the Pink Princess and her 2 younger siblings. I thought of all that she struggled through and how inspiring her life was and about how I didn't get a chance to see her when I visited in July because my trip plans got changed and shortened and how guilty I felt because I never got to say goodbye to her. I was overwhelmed with emotion and I probably weirded out everyone around me...oops...

I found myself sitting silently with tears streaming down my face remembering all the happy and sad things about my times with Savannah and her family. She has been such an inspiration and a beacon of strength in my life and I'm not sure that I've ever really made it clear to her or her family how much she really meant to me.

I hope that this makes things a little clearer. I love Savannah and her family like they're my own family and I feel that, even though she's gone, that she watches over us from Heaven and she is still a big inspiration in my life and in my writing. My writing has changed since getting to know her. It's become more...I guess you could say more about light and life, and less about the darker aspects of things that I have written a lot about in the past. I can honestly say that she is currently my muse, the spirit behind much of my current creative activity and I feel blessed to have been a part of her life, even if it was a small part. I know that she was, and ever will be part of mine.

This is the poem that I wrote the night that I heard of her passing. I sent it to her family, but I am now posting it for all of my blogging friends to experience, and hopefully to enjoy. Please let me know what you think.

Free

Beautiful princess, precious and sweet
Waiting at her Maker's feet
Gently, He gathers her into His arms
Vowing to shelter her from further harm
Sadly she leaves the ones she loves
Promising to watch over them from up above
She leaves her prison of sickness and pain
To live forever on an exalted plain
Glorious in her Heavenly glow
All will miss her, that we know
But happy, also, we must be
Her beautiful spirit has been set free.

Ummm...So, yeah...

OK. SO this week has been pretty much a nightmare (see last post) and I decided to go out and blow off some steam last night with Deni and a bunch of other peeps. Karyoke is a great way to clear your head. And then the night got all weird and random and now I think I might sort of kind of have a boyfriend. Weird, I know. Random, too. Deni's brother just moved back to Pocatello and we sort of hung out and talked a lot and I really like him and he likes me (shocker, much???) and so...yeah. I guess we'll see.

Oh, and someday I really should learn that staying out until 2am and then going to work at 8am is a really, really dumb idea!!!

Everyday Angels

It has been, I will freely admit, a nightmarish week. We found an apartment that we love and want to move into and our application was approved. The landlady told us to bring ha;f of our deposit in on Monday. Of course, what none of us remembered was that Monday was a holiday and absolutely everything was closed. Oy. So she told us to bring it in on Tuesday. So D went in to get the money to put into a money order (the new rental company only accepts money orders. Frustrating and dang inconvenient, but...what are we to do???)only to find out that the bank issued credit card that is extremely overdrawn and past due found out that D is in the process of filing for bankruptcy and went into the checking account and took $450 out. They did this without informing us, which apparently they have full authorization to do, and so we paid our bills thinking that there was money in the account from the recent paychecks that I deposited, and the account was $300+ overdrawn.

Can you say PANIC???????

So D calls me in hysterics and I start to panic. I mean, our lease is up in 2 weeks, we absolutely cannot afford to keep paying $625 for rent plus all of our other bills and the new rental company can't hold our apartment without the deposit. What are we going to do? We have exactly $46 to our names between us, in cash and we're already past the deadline for turning in part of the money. It seems like we're totally and completely screwed.

But someone is looking out for us.

I call the rental agency and explain that there were some "technical difficulties" at the bank (a nifty way of saying it without actually explaining the embarrassing truth) and they agree to hold the apartment with a $200 deposit due by Wednesday, and the remaining $175 (to equal 1/2 the deposit) by Friday (when I get paid) and they are allowing us to pay the remaining half of the deposit in small increments added onto our monthly rent as long as it's completed by March. Hallelujah.

Now, if we can only come up with that $200...enter another angel.

My wonderful and amazing friend and coworker, Deni, loaned us the $200 out of her school money and child support money. Now, understand, I was very much against this, as Deni is a single mom of 3, soon to be 4, little children. SHe works full time and is going to school. She really is a superwoman. I resisted and refused until she very politely kicked me in the butt and explained that she would not offer to help unless she knew that she could afford it. "All my bills are paid, my kids have food and clothes, no one is wanting for anything. If I thought otherwise, I wouldn't offer. So shut up and take it." Well, I guess that settled things. :D

So things are working out much better than we could have possibly expected. We have earthly angels looking out for us, all under the watchful care of our wonderful Heavenly Father. I'm thankful every day for the simple miracles and wonderful gifts that we receive.

A Frustrating Weekend

Well, it's been quite a weekend. Not nearly as productive as we'd hoped, but...such is life, I guess.

Diane's procedure went well. She was in and out in 2 hours, including wait time. She had the kind of anesthesia that doesn't put you completely under, but you don't remember anything afterwards. She said some pretty cute things coming out of it, but I won't embarrass her by posting them. She knows where I sleep. :S She's doing fine now and has spent a very busy and frustrating weekend doing bathroom remodeling.

Things have been going wrong all weekend. The tub didn't fit, then the wall had to be taken out, then the paint rollers wouldn't dry out, and the tub wasn't stable enough. Tiles got broken and the dust from sanding the walls made me absolutely ill. We were hoping to get a lot more done than we actually did, but Diane's gonna come back next weekend and help out some more (I have to work).

I have some pictures of our renovation efforts, but my camera battery needs to be charged before I can download them and take some more. I'll post them as soon as I'm able!

Work, Work, Work, and just a Little Play

I know I haven't posted in quite a while, but it's very hard to keep up with all of my online stuff without internet access. We can occasionally get a weak signal from one of our neighbors and steal some free internet time, but it's rare. There's always the library, but with my work schedule, that doesn't always work so well. I can use the internet at work when I work graveyard shift (like right now), and we take full advantage of the internet when we visit Rigby (like this coming weekend!!!).

So, here's a quick update of what's happening in my life.

I started my new schedule at the shelter tonight. Instead of working one shift a week I'm working 3. One day shift and 2 graveyards. I'm also working anywhere from 20-40 hours a week at the A&CDC, so I'm ALWAYS busy and NEVER home. But it's ok, because I'm earning money, so hopefully I'll be able to go back to school next fall (keeping my fingers crossed).

Diane is still looking for a job, without much success. Please pray for her. She's getting very discouraged because her unemployment runs out after this week and she feels like she's a burden on me (she ABSOLUTELY is NOT, but that's how she feels). It's harder on both of us because we've been without our medication for a while, so we're testier and snappier than we usually are. We're trying to get in to see the doctor as soon as possible.

This Thursday, Diane will have her final procedure in her long and complicated "simple procedure." This time they're removing the stint in her liver that was placed there to stop the leak that was made by her first surgery. It's a simple day procedure (in theory) and we're going to spend the weekend at her parents house, relaxing and also helping remodel the bathroom. I'm excited because I get to paint and I looooooove painting!!!! YAY!!!!!

I'm excited because I've finally started making some friends here in Pocatello and they get me out of the house occasionally, which is always a good time. I love to go out on Saturdays and sing karyoke. One of the friend's I've made is Deni and she has 3 of the cutest kids in the whole world and they looooove me (*grin*). Zach is 6, Maddy is 2, and Mary is 8 months. Baby Kenny is due in May. I love helping her out with her kids and being an honorary "Auntie." It's always good to have kids around to spoil rotten!!!! When Deni has to work late, I pick up the girls from daycare and they get to hang out with me. Good times.

Last night, they accompanied Diane and I around town as we looked at possible rental places, because our lease is up at the end of the month and we're rather anxious to find a new place because we have very obnoxious upstairs neighbors. We're hoping to find a house or townhouse or duplex to rent so we don't have upstairs neighbors. They're just not our favorite things.

I told Maddy that we were looking at houses and she proceded to point out EVERY house we passed. "There's a house. There's a house." She's so cute! Mary just napped through most of the drive. Daycare is exhausting, you know.

Aside from my mad-crazy work schedule and the occasional outing with friends, our life is pretty quiet. We spend a lot of time at home watching movies and TV on DVD. Oh, and playing Sims on the computer. Mustn't forget that. :D

Occasional drama, more than occasional stressful moments, but overall life is good.

Happy New Year

After a very long day of work, I spent a wonderful evening with Diane and her family. We spent the evening playing games and I spent a lot of time do cross-continental texting. We rang in the new year and then I crashed HARD. I slept for a very long time, I don't even know how long and today I spent the day recovering from a night of too much junk food, cider, and 'nog. I have high hopes for this coming year. Things are looking up for us, slowly, but surely, and I just have a good feeling about it. Trying to keep a positive outlook on things. I hope the New Year brings you all the joy and happiness possible. God bless you all.