When your sibling isnt what you expect!

 When your a kid and your parents tell you a baby is coming you have all kinds of stuff running though your head. your only 4 but mom says the baby will be here after you have your birthday so you get excited at the prospect of a birthday of your sister or brother right after yours. Then the big day comes. And at first every thing seems ok. But some how you see and hear the tension in your parent voice and movements. They are quiet when your around whispering things you don't understand. Cerebal Palsey, Mental Retardation. And you wonder what is that? You wonder will your new baby sister be able to share secrets with you? will you and she be able to walk to school together? talk about boys? go to the proms?do homework together? As you watch your parent do things to your baby sister you scream at them to stop they are hurting her. Thing is she probably didn't even feel what was happening to her. Mom said it was to strengthen her legs. Dad said hopefully she will be able to walk. AND as you watch you think hopefully she will be able to walk? why wouldn't she? And then the chants from others come at you if your sister is retarded you must be a retard too. RETARD RETARD! Man I began to hate that word so bad. Then they tell you your baby sister has to spend some time in the hospital and your to young to go in to see her but you can go to her window and peek in. That went on for a while. Then came the next new mom was having another baby. But instead of being excited about this new baby your scared ...will this baby to be retarded? different ?  I was 5 when sister 1 was born and very different that what everyone expected. I was 9 and sister 1 was 4 when sister 2 was born. The only thing wrong with sister 2 was she was very tiny, and they had to keep her till she gained weight but even when she is dad said take her back till she was bigger. Sister 1 was coming home same day as sister 2 was so the brought new baby home left her with me and one of our aunts then wen to get sister 1. Sister one got home and mom showed her the baby and sister 1 hauled off and slapped her. poor baby sister 2. Mom found out if was very difficult to handle all the special needs of sister 1 and trying to take care of sister 2 so she handed me the baby and said you have to help take care of her. SO at 9 I became a mom in  away, I fed her her bottle I changed her diaper (oh and back then we had cloth diapers and pins and I stuck sister 2 a few times not meaning to) and when she was old enough to start baby food I fed her that as well...well ok she got the vegetables but I ate her fruit! When sister 1 did start learning to talk there were certain things she either couldn't say or in her head heard them differently. So things like spaghetti became goy, water melon was oh ,boy yum yum was mania mania (a song we all pretty much hated but she loved). But when you came down to it us 3 girls were sisters in every way shape and form you could be Yes one was very different that then other 2 but still she is our sister and we love her very much. And she had defied all odds thrown at her. Mom was told she wouldn't live past 3 months 6 at the most. Her last birthday she turned 64. We have lost both our parents but us girls are still here. 

I never listened to them

 we are grandparents to 8. We have 6 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. 1 granddaughter we never see or talk to not our choice, hers....and 3 grandkids 2 boys and 1 girl that we rarely get to talk to but do once in awhile. and then 4 grandsons who we talk to almost every day some times every other depending on their schedules. I think they should be grateful to have grandparents still alive who can tell them things about when they were young. But then again I never listened to my grandmother on either side. Well there is one thing I did listen to and I dont know why that stuck in my head but it did because it was like a fortune teller telling me the future. She said to me you will have 5 but loose 2, you will have 2 boys and 1 girl. Your daughter will only have sons she is not destine to have any girls, and her oldest son and her youngest son will be the only ones to have a girl.  Well of course I didnt pay any attention to any of that..............Until I had 5 and lost 2, When our daughter  tried for a girl I kept telling her she wasnt destined to have a girl she got mad at me. Well Im sorry but when my grandmother told me this all these years ago it was the only thing I listened to because it was about me in general. She told about how her live was easy. EASY???? NO grandma your life was hard. No my life was easier than my grandmother's was so mine is easy. (huh I never thought of it like that) I remember my dad always telling me us kids had it made our lives were a piece of cake compared to his. Well now that I can agree about and my grandchildrens lives is even easier than mine was. When dad was in his 90's (and at the time which I didnt realize was dying) he spoke often (about the same things over and over again) about how they had to put a rope between the barn and house so they could get to the barn after a snow storm to feed the animals, and how many times they would get into the barn and find the animals dead because they had froze to death. Now see I know I heard that story so many times as a child because I almost knew it by heart, but I didnt really listen to it. Same with grandma she used to heat water on the stove to wash the clothes in a tub and her grandmother used a rock down at the creek. BUT I DIDNT LISTEN TO THAT to me that wasnt part of me of that was going on now. BUT now as Im getting older and I have 8 grandchildren I can actually remember my grandmother telling me these stories of when she was just a girl. of how her mother and or grandmother did things. and my dad how things happened when he was a boy. I always thought he told those things because his father was killed by lightening when he was just a year old and so he grew up with out a dad. But no he actaully told those things to me to tell me how his childhood went compaired to mine in the days of my childhood. SO I did listen, Sorta I heard but didnt know that I heard until I sat down and thought about telling my grandchilden "when I was your age we didnt have......." spiel and think well they aren't really listening to me so why bother. 

We celebrate 50

 Can you believe it? HECK we can't. LOL. But yes Mr Gab and I celebrated 50 years of marriage this past May 6th. 2024! Oh and our daughter had a party for us. She flew us back to MN Bandit and all. She paid for our hotel room and the party Plus she invited everyone. We even had the surprise of our lives when hubby's sister and her husband walked through the door. They said they wouldnt be able to make it so we were not planning on seeing them (we understood why they weren't coming their daughter was having a baby) But baby came early and so they made the party! We had a great time even had something to laugh about after. OH MY OH MY OH MY! Daughter wanted us to wear matching black pants. Well both of us had been loosing weight and so she had to buy us pants twice before the party. Finally she bought a pair of each of us day before we arrived and brought them to the hotel. Day of party hubby grabbed pair of pants put them on and said they fit really well. But the pants I was to put on were so big I was swimming in them. SO I ended up wearing my icky jeans. YEAH you guessed it he was wearing my pants the WHOLE NIGHT LONG and he had no problems. Boy was that a great laugh.  Here are a few photos from the party.

It's a sad time here in the Gab household

 It's been hard for me to write this and so it's been awhile since Lucky has actually passed away. Yes our Lucky of 15 years has passed. He was in my lap one morning I was petting him, when he jumped down into his box and died. I can't tell you how hard I cried. Worse part is hubby cried too. it hit him that hard. Our traveling baby is gone. Traveled from Minnesota to South Dakota to Florida to South Dakota again. With all the states in between Stayed in Hotels/Motels and had all the girls in many Mcd's going is that a cat? really? Awwww! Does he really travel with you? I would says yes and under my breath saying Duh we are in a car.

Bandit on the other hand can not find him and keeps running around trying to find him. OH DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO BANDIT IS? 

Bandit is our puppy He is Part Shitz-Tzu and Toy Poodle making him a Shih-Poo. we got him at 8 weeks old and he is now 9 months old.  AND SPOILED and NO NOT ME THIS TIME.......DADDY. 

Hubby didn't want a dog he was happy with just Lucky and saying when Lucky is gone that is it NO MORE! Except it didnt work that way. One day he tells me I can start looking. Well I started looking and by the next day I had found Mason. I showed hubby and he goes ok. SO we went and got him and first thing daddy did was change his name to Bandit.  Well it wasn't long before Bandit was getting in daddy's lap and not mine. and no matter how many times daddy said go see mommy your her dog but Bandit would stay put in daddy's lap.  Yes Lucky and Bandit got along it took Lucky about a month to accept him but he did. The only time he growled and hissed at him was when he tried to eat his food! 

this picture is of Lucky and Bandit on me. together. as you can see. 

The last picture I ever took of Lucky. 

Bandit on daddy's lap sleeping. 

I really hate sleeping in hotels with Lucky.

 It's bad enough these hotels charge an arm and leg for you to spend 1 night but then they charge you more because you have a pet. And many times they will put you in a room where another pet has left their mark and the smell is awful. And ever since this covid situation many places DON'T clean as well as they should. So I keep praying that we get extra money some how to buy another camper and that way we sleep in our "own" bed and if you haven't been here since our $40,000 mistake well let me tell you we are now super leary about even getting another camper. When your spending that much money on a camper you expect it to be 100% working order especially when you buy it brand new! I will be so glad when this is done and we are back home in Florida

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Our last Good Byes

 This may be one of my longer posts. We sold the land in South Dakota, last summer with the agreement that we would get everything out of the garage in 1 year. we got a load out last year but it wasn't all we wanted. But now going through what I thought I wanted to keep I'm getting rid of. This will be the hardest good bye to a house I've ever did. Did I ever tell you the story of this house? Well let me tell you now. First when we were going around town looking at homes for sale we had passed this house (not for sale at the time) and I said I wish that one is for sale That's the one I want. It was a smallish house on a double corner lot (like our house in Bloomington was till we added on) and had a big garage. Well we didn't find a house that time around and went back to MN. a few weeks later we came back a couple days earlier than planed and stopped in to see our realtor. He said a house just came on the market that morning and he didnt even have it listed yet and he said would you like to go see it? I said sure. So we followed him.....to the house I wanted to be for sale. I walked in that house and said we want it. SO we bought the house. We moved stuff over and then Dad had a class reunion coming up so I said come on over you can stay at our house. Well dad gets there and he's like I know this house. I said you cant dad we just bought it. He goes I know I know this house. We went to bed that night and the next morning as we were eating breakfast dad said THIS HOUSE IS MY OLD GIRLFRIENDS HOUSE. Then came the stories of what him and his old girlfriend used to do in that house. UGH!!! Then that night I met said girlfriend and she asked where I lived and when I told her the address she goes oh my old house do you know your dad and I? I go oh yes dad told me all about it and then she told me all about it as well. So here we are in a new house not even a week into it and we learn my dad's old girlfriend used to live there. So the house meant a lot to me so when we had to tear it down it hurt. and now saying good bye to the whole land and garage is just killing me. 

Then our son, oh damn him he's been in jail so much lately and I feel so how its my fault. He was such a smart kid. Now our daughter seen him and said he looks like he will die any minute. and our second oldest grandson the one who shares our anniversary with his birthday well he is following in his uncles foot steps and he doesn't look much better. DAMN THOSE FUC**** DRUGS. 

I have cried more tears that I care too

 I haven't heard from our oldest son in awhile. Last I knew he was back in jail again. Pisses me off so much that he chooses that life over the better life he could have had if he had just finished school. Then we have our second oldest grandson who is following in his uncle's footsteps. he quit school. He is drinking and using drugs and stealing, and he is in total denial. Right now he is in the hospital in the Phsyicaratic ward and we really hope they can keep him the whole 6 months he's suppose to be there. In fact he probably needs to be there much much longer. They used the fact he has an infection in his leg and his leg is swollen way beyond normal to get him in the hospital to begin with now just to keep him there. There is a court order for him to stay but he will wiggle out of it if he can. WORST part is he wants to come here to Florida and I can't have that knowing he steals. I don't need my neighbors to know this of my grandson and then find out he stole from them. I already have enough stress in my life I DONT NEED HIM TO MAKE IT WORSE. IF THERE IS A GOD I HOPE HE HEARS THIS ONE PRAYER KEEP HIM IN MN KEEP HIM IN THE PHSYIC WARD PLEASE DEAR GOD PLEASE