SOME GOOD THINGS

Yee-Haa! Finally got the use of our phones back the other day. I didn't realize how much I would actually miss the phone once it was gone. However, there were still times when I wish that it hadn't been working. I got a letter in the mail today stating that I have qualified for Medicaid benefits, so now Cassie and I are both on the program which will help us out a lot with the prenatal pregnancy and delivery stuff. That's going to help us out big time. I called Job Service but they said I didn't make enough money to qualify for any unemployment benefits. I am checking on jobs and the biggest down fall that I have been running into is that most don't pay enough for me to drive 30 miles to work and pay for day care. I have to find something that will at least give me $200 or better in my pocket monthly. I am determined to find something. I still have to call Social Services and let WIC know that I am pregnant so that I can get help from them too. Darren will be home tomorrow and with the 4th coming up, he will have a long weekend. Sunday we are going to spend the night with his mom and dad and then on the 4th we are going out to the farm where Darren's grandparents live cause the WHOLE family is getting together. I guess his aunt, uncle, and some cousins from TN are even coming up for it. I haven't the cousins from TN yet so that will be cool. I would have met them at our wedding but because of 9/11 their flights were cancelled. Right now, I think most of our weekend is pretty much open. We have to try and get into Devils Lake to do some shopping but that's about it.

PREGNANT, NO JOB, AND WITHOUT A HUSBAND

Today I was getting off of work and the manager caught me in the hall way on the way out and asked me to join him in his office. The plant's FedEx and Sample Kits were slowing down and the Sample Kits weren't turning out profitable for the plant anymore and they were just wasting time and money on them so they had to let me go today. So now I am pregnant, jobless, and my husband is gone all week so if something happens around home I have to try and fix it or pay someone to fix it for me. With York being so small and most of the population being farmers, there really aren't a lot of people around to help. I am really depressed about it because I was working at the plant to make my house payment so I am not sure what I am going to do about that now. I am going to check Job Service and a few other places to see if I can find a job relatively close by that will be worth keeping Cassie in Day Care and driving to. I doubt if I will find one as convenient as the plant. I really liked working there and I loved most of the co-workers. If I can't find something, I am not sure what I am going to do.

GOODYEAR SCREWED ME

Billy Jo and I ran Darren's pickup into Devils Lake yesterday to have ball joints, two new tires, and an alignment done. When I dropped the pickup off at GoodYear, I told them those were the only things I wanted done and if there was anything else they thought they were going to have to do I left Billy's cell phone number with them to call and talk to me before they did anything. While we waited for the pickup to get done, Bill and I went to the Old Main to eat. We sat there and talked for about an hour and a half and when we were done at Old Main we did some running around for Billy. Then we went back to GoodYear to check on the truck. They guys said that it would be 5 or 5:30 so then we ran to K-Mart just to snoop then out to the Old Country School since Billy hadn't been there before and then out to Wal-Mart. We ran into a friend and stopped and talked to her for a while then headed back over to GoodYear. When the guy printed out the bill and handed it to me I just about passed out. The bill for everything was over $1,100. I told the guy I only wanted the joints, tires, and alignment. Well they went on saying that this needed to be done and this needed to be fixed so they did it. I never told them to do it and they never called to ask if they could make those changes. I wrote out a check for $300 and told them that my husband would be in over the weekend to discuss the bill with them. There were charges for about 9 different things on there. And just before I left, one stupid shit had the balls to think I was so stupid and told me that the truck needed to come back in a week because the parts settle after driving the vehicle for a while so the alignment will need to be rechecked. Are you frickin' kidding me! Like I would take the vehicle back after how the screwed me just because I am a woman. I told Darren that night about the bill and he got pissed. He said that the next morning he was going to call GoodYear and chew their butts and that they can just eat the extra charges because I didn't authorize them. I hope it all works out and that we don't get stuck with the total bill.

DEMOLITION DERBY

We went to the Willow City demolition derby over the weekend and it was really good. Cassie even enjoyed it and I was a little worried that it would be too noisy for her. When the cars started up she would just shout "loud" but she had fun watching them crash into each other. She would get bored now and then so Darren, his mom, and Darren's sister all took turns taking Cassie for a walk. There were these three guys standing next to Darren's folks truck who were really great with Cassie. She would stand over by them and "baby talk" to them, she would pat their arms and pick at their watches. They smiled, laughed, and even talked back to her and played with her a bit. When she was eating Cheeto's as a snack, she tried to share them with the guys by holding the Cheeto up and trying to push it into their mouths. I apologized but the guys said it wasn't a problem and that she was just flirting. Close to the end of the derby she was really concentrating on the guys and they were watching the derby and Cassie let go of a big sneezed and it must have reached all three because their arms moved a bit and then just laughed and smiled at her. I was starting to feel a little embarrassed, especially after that sneeze, but they took it every well. It was almost like they had small children of their own. They were pretty cool and I still don't have any clue who they were.

LIGHTENING STRIKE

Saturday night we were laying in bed and all of a sudden the house filled with light and there was a deafening crack of thunder and it shook our entire house. I really thought I was going to be shuck right out of bed. It didn't wake up Cassie, thank God, but it killed our phone lines. I called the phone company...they happen to be out of Stanley, ND...and they said many people were having problems and they are sending someone up to check the lines. Hopefully the will be there today since we have already been going 2 days without a phone. If I have to use the phone I have to go over to my parents place and use theirs. I really miss my phone and I miss my internet and email even more. I hope it's fixed soon.

SOME BIG NEWS

Okay, so I have been neglecting what my body was trying to tell me when I just thought being a little sick was some bug going around. The icky-sick feeling got worse and didn't feel "normal" for just being sick so I decided for the hell of it to take a pregnancy test that I just happened to have and when I went to check it, wouldn't you know, there were two bright pink lines. I just about passed out. I called the clinic the next day to get an appointment with my doctor and the doctor confirmed that Cassidy is, indeed, going to be a big sister. The baby is due February 1st, however, the due date may change because with my PCOS I was only having 1 cycle every 3 months and the doctor can't really go by my last cycle. The doctor told me that right now, my pregnancy is considered high risk and they are worried about uterus rupture because when Cassidy was delivered by c-section my uterus tore badly to both sides. They don't want me going all the way to my due date so the doctors will schedule a c-section 2 to 3 weeks before the due date. I have an ultra sound on July 8th so we can better determine a due date. My doctor said that for me to have PCOS and conceive without any fertility meds was a 1 in 2 million odds of actually conceiving. I guess that this baby is meant to be. Right now, morning sickness is worse with this baby than with Cassie and it's an all day sickness on top of it. I can't eat a lot without feelin sick and if I don't have little bites to eat periodically then I feel worse and I even start to dry heave. Nice mental image huh. I just thought that I would let everyone know our good news, even though April knew yesterday, but we happened to be in town and we were close to her place of work and decided to wander over.

SOME NEWER PICTURES OF CASSIE

It's been a while since I have posted any pictures of Cassie so I thought I would share some pictures of Cassie from the Rolla Park and from when we went to AJ's house to swim on Wednesday. They are cute pics, the light in some could be a little bit better but with two small children on the move, I accept any pictures that get taken and look modestly good because I can't take pics that April or KSoFM can. I hope you all enjoy. Oh, and KSoFM I love the picture of the Jefferson Memorial you took through the branch of a cherry blossom tree. I think it's very pretty. You could make money off that one.

AJ and Cassie, they look almost the same except one is shorter and the other has longer hair. 

AJ on the move. It's scary how much he looks like his mother! 

This is Billy Jo, her son AJ, and Billy's nephew Tristian. 

Cassie playing with AJ's toys. She thought the were pretty cool. 

Yuck, I think I put my hand in someone's gum! 

Cassie getting ready to go down the slide. 

Cassie swinging in the Rolla park. 

FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS

The last couple of days I have spent over at my mom's because my dad isn't home and our house doesn't have central air and theirs does. It can get pretty hot in our house and the window air conditioner has trouble keeping up when it gets over 85 degrees. When I came home later this morning, there was a message on our answering machine from Farmers Union Insurance about the accident that I had at the pool. The guy said that there was very little damage even done to this lady's car and it's less than $1000 worth of damage so it's not going to effect our insurance rate and we DO NOT have to pay the deductible. I guess it's a liability claim so they will take care of everything and it's not going to hurt our insurance. I was extremely happy to hear that because the last few days I was trying to think of ways I could get the $500 for our deductible and now I don't have to worry about it!! Finally something fell in our favor once.

BUSY

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I have had a few busy days. On Monday I took Cassie to the clinic in DL because her eye was red. Tuesday I got up as usual to take Cassie to Day Care at 7:30 am and when I got to the sitter's home there were no cars in front of her place, the lights were off, and the door closed. I went to my mom's house and used her phone to call the plant and let the supervisor know that I didn't have a sitter and I didn't know where she was. There is another gal at the plant who also has her two children at the same day care so the super ran and asked the other gal where the sitter was and it turns out that the sitter's husband had a Dr. appointment in Hazen and this gal knew about it for some time. Well, I haven't had Cassie at the sitters since before we left for Minneapolis for my sisters house party. I think the supervisor might have been a little upset, but oh well. It's been hot and muggy so Cassie has been spending time in her pool. Today we went over to a friends house because she also has a pool for her son and he and Cassie swam together. They also got a new puppy the other day and she's just adorable. It's a St. Bernard pup and it's the most beautiful St. Bernard I think I have ever seen. I have been sick lately and my nose is stuffy so I hope that goes away sometime soon. Darren said that he found a home in Harvey for rent and wants me to go down there sometime this weekend to take a look at it and see what I think about it. Darren is coming home on Friday and we are hoping to get time to clean up the barn and get the rest of our crap out if it, run to Willow City to see his folks, and then check out this house but that is so much for two days that I doubt that we will get it all taken care of.

Work tonight wasn't too bad. The forklift driver forgot to get some stuff down for me before he left for the evening so it limited what I could get done at work so it was a short night. When I got back to my mom's place, she and Cassie were watching the ballet "Swan Lake" on PBS. Cassie was leaping circles in the living room and shouting "rina rina rina", her word for ballerina. I brought some smoked mozzarella ravioli home for mom to try and then after we ate Cassie and I came home. Cassie had such a busy day that she started to fall asleep in the car. When we got home she woke up a bit and played with Scrappy for a while, but she was still in bed by 9:30 which is pretty good. I wanted her in bed before 8:30 cause that's her normal bed time and I have to get her up at 7:30 to go to day care but I am sure she will do just fine. I was going to take my last dose of PCOS meds with the ravioli and when I started looking for my purse, I remembered that I had forgotten to take it out of the truck and I won't get it back until tomorrow sometime because the truck is parked in the shop overnight. I may stop by in the morning when they open so I don't miss two doses of my meds.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY

When I got Cassie from her crib this morning, I noticed that the outside corner of her right eye was blood red. Darren told me yesterday that he thought it was pink but I didn't notice anything until this morning. I took Cassie to see the Dr and the doctor wasn't too worried about it. The Dr figured that Cassie somehow scratched her eye and it is okay. The Dr wants me to watch for drainage and puffiness because they have seen a few cases of Pink Eye but not many. The Dr doesn't think it's Pink Eye but wants me to watch it just in case. Then I grabbed lunch and Mickey D's and I stopped at the Liquid Bean and I took our lunch and coffee up to the hospital and Cassie and I ate lunch with my mom. My mom gave me shopping lists for Leevers and Wal-Mart. So Cassie and I ran to Leevers after we were finished with lunch and met Nana over at Wal-Mart when she got off work. Nana bought Cassie her own plastic swimming pool since Cassie likes going to the pool and Nana also bought this cool computer type toy thing for Cassie, it was more expensive than we thought because of a price tag error but Nana bought it anyway. Then Nana followed me over to Cenex so the guys in the shop could take a look at Darren's truck. Hopefully they won't have it too long and it won't be expensive to fix. When you go down the highway, sometimes is shifts really hard. Darren is thinking it might be just a vacuum or a vacuum line and that's supposed to be an easy fix. I also go information today that there is a website that Minneapolis put up to keep friends and family here in North Dakota updated on her condition. The website is www.caringbridge/visit/jtollefson.com Hopefully we will hear some great news soon. I am posting at my mom's right now because I have to go to work soon. My mom is making buns for a pot luck lunch at work tomorrow and when she is done, she and Cassie are going to take a dip in Cassie's new pool.

NOT A GREAT FATHER'S DAY

The day started out great. I was getting Cassie and myself ready to go to my mom's and wash Darren's work cloths and I also planned on taking Cassie to the pool later in the day. Darren decided to go over with us so he showered quick and we got there around noon or so. My mom made pork sausage, cheesy scrambled eggs, and toast. They watched part of the NASCAR race and then they took off on the motorcycle to go to DL. Darren hung out but he's not a NASCAR fan and was getting pretty bored. Then he had to take off around 3:30 because he had a Park Board Meeting in York and he wanted to get home and change cloths before he went to the meeting. He came back around 5:30 and said that his truck was acting up and leaking oil. This really bummed him out because that is another expense and since I am using the truck to get to and from work, we have to get it fixed. The only thing else he really had to say today was that he wanted to run to either Rugby or DL and go to the grocery store. I told him I didn't have to take Cassie to the pool and if he gave me a few minutes we could be ready to go and he told me "If I go, I am going by myself." He went outside to talk to my dad about the truck and I was getting Cassie ready to go to the pool. When Darren came back he wanted to go home and didn't want to go up to the pool so we all jumped into the pickup and I took Darren home and Cassie and I drove back to Leeds because all Cassie could say was "pool" after getting in the truck. I was hoping that I would get lucky and she would forget about it when we got home, but no luck. When we got to the pool, the kiddie pool was closed because they were having problems with it. I was really disappointed and Cassie wanted to swim badly so they guy just charged us $1 to use the big pool since I really wouldn't be able to swim by myself with Cassie. We only stayed for about 45 minutes and Cassie started to get cold and we left. When I was backing up I felt a light bump, I pulled forward to check the car behind me but it looked okay and Cassie was putting up a fuss so I left for home. Shortly after I got home the owner of the car called and said that there was some damage. I told her I would call our insurance company and take care of it. I told Darren what happened after I got off the phone and he just blew. He looked at me and said "You just can't make my fucking day any better can you." I got upset at this because we hadn't gone anywhere all weekend except for the restaurant on Saturday and I even mowed the lawn so he didn't have to when he got home. I told him "Yes I can" and I threw the stuff down that I was holding and I went into the bedroom to change out of my wet cloths. My intent was to just go to my parents place for a while. I told Darren Cassie's bedtime was 9:30 and I started searching for my keys. I headed for the door and Darren stood in front of the door and asked me where I was going. I told him I didn't know yet and then he wouldn't let me out of the door and told me I wasn't going anywhere. This made me more upset because when ever we have the slightest argument he takes off for a few hours and then comes back...but I wasn't allowed to do that. Then he asked what he was supposed to do about the accident and I told him he didn't have to do anything. I called our agent myself and she told me another rep would contact the lady tomorrow so I called the lady, told her I reported it and someone would call her and if she had any questions I gave her the number and name of our insurance agent. When I got off the phone Darren asked me who was going to pay for it and all that junk. I started to cry and Darren said "well, how am I supposed to react" Well, one, he didn't' need to swear at me for it, two: he didn't have to make me feel like shit, and three: he didn't' have to act like nothing I do makes him proud or happy, It's like he doesn't have feelings for me. I told him he didn't have to react like that because in our entire relationship, this was my first accident, actually, this is my FIRST accident in my life that I can remember. I asked him if there was never a time that he had an honest accident. He said no and that it was always his car and he never his anyone else's. I just started to bawl and he just said "well". I told him he made me feel like crap and whenever I so something little like this he just gets pissed and makes me feel that every bad situation either of us are in, everything is all my fault. He still wouldn't let me out of the house so I went out the back door, I couldn't find my keys,... they were in the glove box of the truck but I never checked there...I grabbed the wet cloths out of the truck and brought them in. We haven't said anything to each other and he hasn't apologized, he probably doesn't think he needs to and maybe he doesn't. I wasn't expecting a reaction like that but maybe I wasn't looking at the situation hard enough to think that he would react like that. Maybe I did need to be hollered at. But it's not like I had the accident on purpose and I do understand we don't have the most perfect financial situation, but accidents happen even if we don't mean to make them. I was hoping that Darren's weekend home would have been a lot better than it was. I am really hoping that next weekend will be A LOT better.

EARLY FATHER'S DAY GIFT

Since Darren hadn't seen Cassie in almost a week and a half and it is Father's Day weekend I decided to let Darren take care of Cassie during the day and I would get outside and mow the lawn so Darren wouldn't have to do anything this weekend while he's home. We all woke up around 10:00 am, I gave Cassie breakfast and then I headed outside and got the front yard mowed all the way to the road, then I came inside to cool off and Cassie was getting hungry and so was Darren so we all jumped into the truck and went to eat at the restaurant in Leeds. When we came back I put Cassie down for her nap (even Darren and I took naps too while Cassie was sleeping). Cassie woke up around 5:30 so I went back outside and finished mowing the lawn. Then I came inside and I made grilled chicken and mashed potatoes for supper. After supper I put Cassie in the tub and she played for a while. As I was getting jama's on Cassie Darren went into Leeds to visit some friends in town. I am really tired from the yard work, doing supper, and getting Cassie to bed. I am ready to take a shower myself and get into bed. It was so damn humid today that I thought I was going to die while mowing the yard, but I got it finished without even getting heat stroke doing it. I am so proud of myself.

FRIDAY

Yesterday my mom stopped by cause she was getting a propane tank filled at the Cenex here in York. When she left she took Cassie and I with her. When we got to my mom's house I put a little swimmer and swim suit on Cassie and I took her to the public pool since it only cost a $1 for both of us. She really enjoyed it and they even had little water toys too for the kiddie pool. When she got used to the temp of the water, I had Cassie sit in my hands and I would twirl her around in a big circle and the waves from the water would rush all around her and up her neck and she would kick really hard and giggle. We were there for an hour and a half when Cassie started to get tired so I took her back to my mom's and as soon as I got her in some dry cloths she immediately fell asleep in the crib. Cassie slept for about two hours and when she woke up I gave her a orange sherbert Push-Up and then my mom, Cassie, and I left for Rolla to see my brother. When we got there, Mike wasn't done with work yet so we took Cassie to the city park in Rolla and let her run around and play on the gym equipment. We were at the park for about a half hour when Mike called to say that he was back at the Star office. We went to the office, picked up Mike, went to Leevers so mom could by Mike some groceries, then we went to Subway to eat and then we dropped Mike off and came home. Cassie had such a busy day that she climbed into bed about 15 minutes after we got home. Darren surprised me and was home by 12:30 so we actually got to talk and do some stuff before we went to bed. It's nice to have him home even if it's just on the weekends.

MORE BAD NEWS FOR THE CITIZENS OF CHURCHS FERRY

I heard from someone on Tuesday after work that on Monday a friend, Julie Tollefson, was in a bad accident. She was on her way to Brinsmade to have a dress for her daughter altered once more before her brother-in-laws wedding this weekend. A gravel truck failed to yield and struck her vehicle. Her daughter was okay, she just had some scratches and bruises that will go away with time. But Julie suffered a broken collar bone, broke either an ankle or foot (I'm not to sure which one yet) and she had damage to an arm along with many other things. Julie was fine, considering what happened. The ambulance took her to Cando but the doctors in Cando couldn't so anything for her broken ankle/foot so they transferred her to Grand Forks and when she was in Grand Forks she suffered a stroke due to a blood clot and went into a coma. Grand Forks sent her to Minneapolis and she is on a respirator and they say she has no brain wave activity. She squeezed someone's hand just the other day, but they aren't sure if she is responding or if it's muscle spasms that is causing her hand to squeeze things. Julie's family won't know anything for about another five days. If she is brain dead, I hope that the Lord will end her suffering. I would hate to see Julie end up like Terry Schiavo. They say that she could come out of the coma with little or no brain damage, she could be severely brain damaged, or she may not come out of it at all. I am hoping for the best. My thoughts are always with her husband, son, and daughter. By the grace of God, I hope she pulls through.

MOA AND UNDERWATER ADVENTURES

Our last stop of our trip was to Mall Of America and their Underwater Adventures. If any of you get the chance to go I highly recommend it. It's a super cool place! We had to walk through Camp Snoopy to get there. When we got to the ticket line, Cassie started shouting "Nemo, Nemo, Nemo" and she wouldn't stop through the whole thing. Saw a lot of cool fish, northerns, walleye, paddlefish, and they had some unreal sized sturgeon that I didn't get good picks of. I swear the sturgeon they had were 20 yrs old and about eight feet long and as wide as a car tire. Imagine having something like that on the end of your fishing line. When we got to Shark Cove they all sorts of salt water fish, no whales obviously, but good sized sharks, huge mana rays that I couldn't even fit into one picture, and eels. At the end of the Adventure, they had a tank specifically set up for the fish in Finding Nemo. Cassie was in pure delight when she saw Nemo. She didn't want to leave the tank. You had to go through the gift shop to get out and Auntie and Grandpa bought some things for Cassie and she played in an enormous sandbox outside of the gift shop. Then we went into one room where you could actually pet little teeny sharks and rays. I was actually surprised by the feel of the rays. They were super soft and slimy. It reminded me of the way pudding feels in those little pudding packs. Then we headed out. I was going to stop in the middle of Camp Snoopy so that Cassie could play with the animals in the petting zoo but admission was $4 so I skipped it. I thought it was a little expensive for two baby goats and a few fuzzy white birds. Then we went back to my sisters place and finished packing up the car and headed for home. I am really happy to be back. I will visit once in a while but I don't think I could ever live there again.

Underwater Adventures, below the main floor of MOA. 

So we begin 

You can't see it every good, but there are some trout in a stream that follows the woods. With the trees and lighting that they have it looks and feels like you are actually in the deep woods. 

Here fishy fishy fishy. 

Cassie checking out some turtles. 

Auntie Lennie and Cassie sitting with a big beaver. 

Mighty Mississippi 

Normal fish that we see each summer except of the paddle fish and stergeon...and a few other odd fish. 

DA....DA....DA....DA..DA..DA..DADADA 

I thought this boat floating in the water above us was really funny! WHO LIVES IN A PINNAPPLE UNDER THE SEA 

Sharks just swimming along. 

I thought this pic turned out cool. 

A sea turtle. Looks just like the ones off Finding Nemo. 

Now we are entering Rainbow Reef where you find all the tropical fish that there could ever be. 

some tropical fish 

Cassie and Auntie Lennie checking out the Nemo tank. 

Can't get enough of that Nemo. 

Cassie playing in the huge sandbox right out side of Underwater Adventures gift shop. Ironically, they had things arranged so you had to walk through the gift shop to get out of Underwater Adventures. Nice marketing ploy.