Dramma's Place

  Yessiree Bob....I quit everytime I put one out!  :)

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Last Tuesday, the last day of school before Christmas break, Kaeden made this astute observation on the way to school: "I think we're all God's play toys." Where DOES he get this stuff from? Anyway, I said, "So, then, as God's play toys, we should all behave our selves." He simply said, "Nah, 'cuz God doesn't care if we're naughty once in awhile." DOH!

We had our traditional Christmas Eve here at home with Kaeden & his mom.  None of us felt much like celebrating this year.  Standard feast of chili & cornbread followed by pumpkin pie & cool whip (sugar free of course), for dessert.  After supper, we all gathered 'round the tree bearing gifts so Kaeden could open them.  Most were his, but there are still a few there for Aaron, (coming over next weekend), and for my bgf, Romy.  Pretty skimpy Christmas this year...economy and circumstances to blame for that.  Too many deaths too near the holidays, took too much money away from the gift giving.     But Kaeden seemed pretty happy with what he got and most especially with what Santa dropped off early, a big ol' Tonka Dump Truck and End   Loader!  After all, there's EIGHT TON of sand in the sand pit out back that needs to be 'moved'!  LOL  Thank KOHLS for their huge Black Friday sales for this one!  It was like 75% off by the time I entered all my discounts!

That brings us to one special gift, that he JUST requested the day before Christmas Eve.  Nothing like waiting till the last minute.  Don't want to give Santa any kind of notice.  That morning, the day before, Kaeden announced to me that he wanted a snowboard for Christmas!  WHAT?  NOW you tell me this?  Not sure Santa can fill that order so late, but I'll talk to him.

Later that day, after Crystal's funeral/visitation, I called my brother to ask if Cody, his stepson, might have an old snowboard he could hand down or if they knew of someplace I could buy one on short notice.  I told him I'd already scoped out all the stores in town and couldn't find one.   Tony said they didn't have any, but they were planning to do a little shopping for their youngest son, Talbot, tomorrow afternoon, Christmas Eve day.  He said they'd look while they were in Ames.  That had to be tough, shopping for Christmas gifts the day after  you bury your child.

Anyway, during our Christmas Eve supper, I got a call from 'Santa' Tony.  Miracle of miracles, he managed to not only find a snowboard, he found one that we could afford, bought it, and was asking exactly how I planned to have Santa deliver it, since Kaeden was already here opening his gifts.  I told him I'd pick it up later, after I took Kaeden & Brandi home, then deal with the delivery issue. 

I talked to Brandi and decided I could sneak it over to their place then she could sneak out and grab it from me.  Kaeden was already in bed, trying to "scrinch his eyes shut really tight to go to sleep".  LOL.  As I arrived at their house, I saw her Dad's truck sitting out front.  Oh great!  Papa Mike!  Now I'm positive that Kaeden is no longer in bed....but Brandi must have seen me pull up, cuz she came running out to meet me and grab the board.   She said she'd told her Dad to take Kaeden to his room, occupy him for a few minutes and to STAY in the bedroom!  She apparently managed to make her plan work.

Christmas morning at Kaeden's house:  Kaeden woke up about 7, checked out the gifts under the tree, and went in to wake his mom up. "Mom, mom, I think Santa brought me a snowboard!" "Mom?"

Sadly, I’m here again, to add yet another very special someone to my wall of tears.  My niece, Crystal, died this week.  She was just 2 years younger than Cameron.  She suffered a severe asthmatic attack complicated by a respiratory infection.  Crystal will be sorely missed especially this time of year.  Christmas was her favorite holiday, as it was Cameron’s.  This year, and for all Christmases to come, they’ll be celebrating it together.  We know they’re together because Tammy and Talbot watched Cameron’s hawk come get her Thursday morning as she passed.  Below is Crystal’s obit as it will appear on the funeral home website at:  Walter~Schroeder Funeral Home.  It should be posted either later today or tomorrow.  Please feel free to stop by and leave your condolences & support for my brother & his family.  Thank you.

Crystal Dawn Wilson, 27, of Boone, died Thursday, December 17, 2009 at the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

Visitation with the family present will be held on Wednesday, December 23, at the Walter ~ Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 Noon.

Graveside services will be held at 1:00 P.M., Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at the Lincoln Cemetery near Polk City, Iowa. 

Crystal was born July 27, 1982 in Des Moines, Iowa.  She attended school in Boone, following school she worked various jobs in Boone.  Crystal’s last job was with Heinrich Envelope Company of Boone, for 2 years before the company closed. 

Crystal was taking liberal arts classes at Des Moines Area Community College in Boone. 

Her hobbies and interests included looking for artifacts, boating and camping.  She enjoyed spending time with her two brothers, Cody & Talbot.

She is survived by her mother, Tammy S. Wilson and stepfather, Tony J. Martz of Boone, Iowa; her companion, Brandy Otis of Ogden, Iowa; her two brothers, Cody L. Wilson and Talbot L. Martz of Boone, Iowa; her three aunts, Teresa Lehman (Jeff Bolton), Twila J. (Martz) Ingham (David) of Boone, Iowa, and Teresa J. (Martz) Fogg of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, an uncle, Thomas J. Martz of San Francisco and numerous other relatives.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at Walter~Schroeder Funeral Home

Memorials may be given to the family, to be used at their discretion.

Walter ~ Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone is in charge of arrangements.

(Picture(s) to be added soon.)

One more thing….this is enough!  I simply won’t allow anyone else, near and dear to my heart, to die before me!  And I’m not leaving this earth anytime soon….I plan to stick around for a very long time, just to make everyone else’s life miserable!  That’s it…no more!

WOW!  Can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving!  Where has this year gone!?  Someone please stop the clock!  Speaking of time, it’s been a month again since my last post.  That’s just ridiculous!  Although I don’t have much news to write about.

I joined Curves on October 7th, but I didn’t start going until October 27th.  I’ve lost 16 lbs!  But I don’t think it’s ALL due to Curves.  I suspect the month of October itself, had a lot to do with my weight loss.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat much that first couple of weeks.  And I know I was running on shear nerves during that time.  Anyway, the weight is off and I plan to keep it off!  Regardless the reason for it.  My jeans are hanging on me and I love it!  Gonna’ need suspenders pretty soon!

I love Curves!  It’s a great place to get rid of stress, anxiety, and frustration as well as a few extra bulges.  The staff is wonderful and the other members are great too.  The nice thing about Curves is that it’s for women only, so we don’t have to go through the embarrassment of being in a regular fitness place with a bunch of insensitive brutes working out next to us, all the while laughing at us ‘older women’ and making crude jokes.  Nope, we get to do that ourselves.  We’re not laughing at each other, we’re laughing WITH each other.  And the monthly fee is way cheaper than I thought it would be!  Yep, I LOVE Curves!  I’m going at least 3 times a week.  My plan is to get in there every week day.  Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way of my plans.

Some good news has come in.  There’s been a Federal grant awarded to our city, for people in our neighborhood, to get their homes rehabilitated/repaired etc.  But, only 11 lucky homeowners will win those grants.  I applied hoping we can get some help with finishing our ‘money pit’.  We haven’t received definite confirmation yet, but we did get a letter telling us that we’re number 4 on the list of applicants and that we should expect further application progress in late winter, that they only ‘do’ 2 or 3 homes at a time.  Exactly what that means, I don’t know.  Does it mean we’ll be talking to the city and the contractors early next spring, or does it mean we’ll have more paper work then?  We’re keeping a positive outlook around here and thinking we’ll be talking to the city and contactors.  At least we haven’t been told we don’t qualify or that we’re number 12 out of 11 applicants!  Keep your fingers crossed and I’ll let you know when it all begins to happen.  I AM thinking positively here.

If we get that grant, we can get this house finished!  The grant requires that contractors do the work!  That would be so nice!  Cuz if we can’t figure a way for someone else to do the remaining work, we just won’t be able to finish what we started.  Much of the work to be done is pretty labor intensive and David just can’t do it anymore.  And I sure can’t do it by myself.  Maybe, by this time next year, we’ll have the two bedrooms added on, so we can actually sleep in a bedroom instead of the dining room!  The siding will be on, the front corner of the house will be straightened, the interior walls will be done, the doors and windows trimmed out, the floor coverings will be in and this place will actually look like a home!

What else is news?  OH, Kaeden & his mom are moving back to Boone!  The rental company I work for had a small 2 bedroom house available last week.  I talked to her and her Dad.  Her Dad paid the deposit and first month’s rent.  He also rented a truck and helped with her utility deposits.  They’re planning to move down over the Thanksgiving weekend!  We’re all very excited about that!  It’ll be so nice to not have to drive an hour one way, to help her out or to pickup Kaeden for visits!  And the house is less than a block from grocery stores and shopping, so it’ll be really convenient for her to get around and even more convenient for me when she needs a ride somewhere!  The tough part will be keeping Kaeden at his home instead of ours.  Their house is only about 5 or 6 blocks from ours.  And only 2 blocks from his best friend, Nathan!  So he will have some rules to live by.

No more nasty winter roads to drive on and no more deer trying to ‘see themselves in my headlights!’  At least not as often as in the past.  I’ve come th___is close to hitting several of Bambi’s relatives this fall.  Just a week ago, had a 6 point buck try to cross the road in front of me!  Scared the bejeebers right outta’ me!  Thank God he thought better of it….but only after I’d managed to STOP!

Yesterday morning I had to get out and go meet a gal in Madrid, about 15 miles south of Boone.  The Des Moines Metro ReUseIt group had their annual Thanksgiving basket drive this past month and deliveries to the nominated families was yesterday.  Someone nominated a family in Boone, so I volunteered to meet one of the DSM gals so she wouldn’t have to drive all the way to Boone.  Guess it’s a good thing I did, because dense fog and frost created some nasty driving.  Took me about 30 mins to drive that 15 miles.  I did get a couple pix of what I was seeing….or not seeing as it were.  There IS a train on the tracks in the pic to the left.  and I love the frost buildup in this shot on the right.  Pretty cool huh?  Yeah well, only if you like driving through pea soup!  I could only see about 2 highway stripes ahead of me.  I had to laugh at myself cuz I realized at one point, that I was squinting and leaning way forward up into the windshield as if that would make the visibility better!  DUH!  Anyway, we both made it safely and I got the basket with all the goodies, including a nice sized turkey, pumpkin pie and Cool Whip, all delivered to the family.  Everyone was happy!

The DSM ReUseIt group did a bang up job this  year.  They managed to collect enough food to fill 23 baskets for Thanksgiving!  Their hopes were to fill 16, but with the economy in the tank, they just weren’t sure they could do that.  Not only did they get the food they needed, they also got enough cash donations to give each family a $50 gift card!  WOW!

In years past, our Boone ReUseIt group has done the same thing, but I just wasn’t up to it this year.  We decided to simply collect all the foodstuffs and nonperishable items/paper products/cleaning supplies etc that we can, and just take it to our county wide food pantry to help them restock their shelves after their Thanksgiving basket give away.  Their shelves are pretty empty now and that’s not good, going into the winter months.

We’re not planning much for our Thanksgiving.  It'll just be me and David, so we’re just gonna’ relax and put our feet up.  Probably watch a football game or two.  Should try to find something for dinner that’s healthy for both of us.  Maybe just a small Jenni-O turkey roll.  The one with the gravy already in it!  Yeah, that’ll work.  And I’ve got some fresh sweet potatoes.  I can cook those for us.  Although I suspect we’ll have Kaeden part of the time because his mom will be busy moving.  Always easier to pack and move when you don’t have little ones taking things out of the ‘throw away’ boxes and putting it back in their ‘save this, I don’t wanna’ throw it away’ box!  LOL

OH, I knew there was something else…one of my nephews, from Virginia Beach, VA will be here Tuesday!  He and his wife and their daughter, Amber.  I think Amber’s almost 2 years old.  So we’ll have a little one here for just a bit.  Peggy’s mom lives in Missouri and the kids always come back for T-giving to visit Peg’s family.  So, they’re taking Tuesday to drive up here and see us!  I’m so excited!  I have seen TJ since 1995 and have only ‘met’ Peggy online at my FaceBook page.  It’ll be really nice to see the kids and spend a couple hours with them.  They’re not staying long, just a few hours.  They plan to take us to lunch, then we’ll all go over to my brother’s house for a bit so they can see them too.  Then they’ll head back to Missouri to stay with her mom for a few days.  Then they fly back to VA on Friday.  So, that’ll be kinda’ cool. 

TJ’s older brother, Ty, can’t come right now.  But he’s hoping to come out next year sometime when he gets some vacation from work.  They both felt really bad that they couldn’t come back for Cameron’s funeral.  Ty was going to use his rent money.  I told him absolutely NOT.  He needs a place to live much more than he needed to be here.  By coming out later, we’ll make better memories of his visit anyway.

Guess that’s about it for now.  Like I said, not much going on right now.  That’s a good thing, right?  OH, one more thing…again, I just wanted to thank everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for all your support, in helping me (emotionally) and Cameron’s sons (financially).  The dollars donated are going into a memorial fund for the boys.  We’re hoping to get enough to put it into a CD or something so it can grow with them.  If you wanted to help and need the address again, here it is:  Cameron Tuhn Memorial Fund, c/o Bank of the West, 715 8th St., Boone, Iowa 50036.  Thank you all again, so much! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! 

Oookaaay.  Seems things are beginning to get back to normal around here.  We finally had a quiet weekend.  Got some badly neglected housework done.  Dusted floors, washed the dishes, yes, by hand.  No dishwasher in this house….yet.  Washed 4 loads of clothes, including bedding.  Hauled a bunch of ‘stuff’ to the garage for winter storage and even more stuff to the trash for permanent storage, off premise!  All that just yesterday.

No clue what I did Saturday.  That day escapes me completely!  OH, I remember….I relaxed….didn’t do much of anything.  That was nice.  I did return some clothes to Kohl’s Saturday evening.  Stuff I bought for the funeral, but didn’t wear and won’t.  No point in keeping something that’s a full size too big for me.  So, returned $99 worth of stuff but spent $74 before I managed to escape the store!  Hmmm.  Only a $25 profit?  There’s a reason they put the Customer Service return department at the far back corner of their store.  Anyway, it was fun, just to wander the store without anyone saying “Can we go now?”  or “Are you done yet?”

I’ve been enjoying Mother Nature lately.  Fall colors have been beautiful this year.  Glad I have a phone with a camera…many times I simply ‘stop & smell the roses’ and snap a quick pick.  As you can see, I’ve been snapping a lot lately.

  These are shots I get to enjoy everyday while driving to & from work.  What a great way to start a day! 

  On the way home from taking Kaeden home a few days ago, I got this shot of a rainbow with a huge, bright splash of color at the end of it.  It was much more brilliant than the pictures show.  It did cause me to stop for a moment and reflect on recent events.

  The week after Cam died, we had Kaeden for a few days.  He & his best friend, Nathan wanted to go to the skate park.  Time for a break from all the hubbub.  The park is usually loaded with teens, but they seem to tolerate the little guys very well.   Here Kaeden is trying to decide if he can roll down the ramp.  He’s been attempting that trick all summer, and on this day, he finally did it!  YEAH!  WTG Kaeden!  Your daddy would be proud!

  Here’s Kaeden again, practicing on the half pipe.  Nathan doesn’t have a skateboard so he took his scooter.  He zipped all over the place!

Speaking of color, here’s a shot of a gorgeous sunset.  Grabbed this shot out the passenger side window on the way back from taking Kaeden home just a week or so before the rainbow shot.

  Just a couple weeks ago, some kid stole Kaeden’s good bike up home.  The one we usually insist that he keep at our house?  Well, we weakened and let him take it home with him awhile back.  I barely got home when Brandi called to say that some kid just rode off on it….and the worst?  The damned neighbor kids just sat there and watched him take it!  I can’t believe it.  Anyway, in an even weaker moment, we took Kaeden to buy ‘another’ new bike!  Ain’t it purdy?!  And NO it’s not going to his house!  Here’s a shot of Kaeden & Nathan admiring that new bike.   And poor Nathan, his bike fell apart just after this.  Now I feel bad.  Been thinking about trying to get him a new bike too.  He gets to ride his scooter along side Kaeden on his new bike.  Somehow just doesn’t seem very fair.

 Thomas the tank engine came to town in September and so did a long lost cousin that I’d never met, never heard of.  She found my family tree online and figured out we were related.  Contacted me, then drove from California to Iowa via New York to meet me.  We spent a few days tramping the local cemeteries and found LOTS of other relatives.  We also checked out the local courthouses for family records to corroborate our stories.

Her granddaughter, Lyndsey came with she and her daughter, Angela.  NO, not MY daughter Angela, Carole’s daughter Angela!  Stay with me here.  Try to keep up.  Lyndsey is 5 and fit right in with Kaeden & Nathan.

The 3 kids had a blast riding the train being pulled by Thomas!   And playing on the old open air passenger car.   Carole, Angela and I absolutely loved getting to know each other and finding out that we weren’t the last of the line.  So now we’re working together online to grow our tree even larger than any of us ever thought possible.

Oh, look, more fall colors!  See?  Didn’t I tell you our trees are way beyond colorful this year!  They’re gorgeous!

That’s about it…OH, except for Dexter.  I’d like all my friends to meet Dexter.  Dexter is a pretty little gray tiger striped kitty, about 4 months old.  Romy has been pleading for a cat and Dexter is that cat.  He’s very friendly and finds all kinds of trouble to get into.  But Romy LOVES him anyway.  We got lucky.  One of the shelters near by had waaay too many cats so they were giving them away, literally.  Including free shots, neutering,spaying.  Unfortunately for Romy, until we found out about the free part, she’d decided she couldn’t afford to pay the shelter the fees they were asking.  Anyway, Dexter now has a wonderful, loving home and Romy has her kitty to spoil rotten!  Isn’t he adoreable?  Yeah, Romy thinks so too …at least until he starts batting his toys around causing a backlash that smashes Romy’s favorite ceramic pumpkin!  WTG Dex!  Now you’re in the ‘dog house’.  Or is that the ‘cat house’?  Hmmm.

Speaking of Dexter…have you ever taken a cat with you on a 2 hour drive?  Without a cat carrier?  Romy did that tonight.  Damned good thing she thought to take the cat box with her!  Needless to say, he took a dump…a stinky, steamy dump, in the cat box….cooped up in the car with Romy!  Eeeeewwww!  What’s that smell?!  Oh DEXTER!  And she had to drive the 2 hour trip home with that smell!

‘K.  That’s about it.  Yep, I think I’m getting back to normal.  Well some semblance of normal anyway.  On that note, I’d like to thank all of you, my friends, for all your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, cards, letters, AND your donations to Cameron’s memorial fund.  Those funds will be put to good use in helping Cam’s sons when they need it.  Thank you all so much!  Your support, both monetary and emotional, are greatly appreciated and humbly accepted on behalf of Aaron and Kaeden.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!