Pg 15 - My Story

Good day to everyone today. First I want to thank you for reading my blog. I hope you have had a chance to read my books and if you feel up to it, I would love a review from you. Also since I do not have an agent it would be nice if you could pass along to others what you thought of my book so maybe they will buy it helping my book get known to the outside world. With that said on to my story.

Life was good in Indiana. Erik had his birthday party at Diamond Jim’s Water Park, and when my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Bill and their kids came to visit us from Wisconsin and we showed off our wonderful Zoo. Labor Day was spent at Frankee Park since the city had a big picnic going on with a petting zoo,
Inflatable party jumpers, face painting and lots of games like potato sac races.We went bike riding; the kids would skate in the church parking lot next door to our home and let’s not forget their sports.

October was a sad month with the death of my grandpa. How lucky my kids were to have a great grandpa for a while.  I truly appreciated the time with my grandpa and my grandma as they would take the time to visit us at their age. I decided to make Halloween lots of fun with all the kids carving pumpkins and a Halloween party.  I had a big party, and the house was so decorated up with so many good treats and games for the kids to play.

Kristina, Regina, Erik, Jessica, Jennifer & Marie

 In November my sisters and brother decided to try and get together. We all lived fairly close to each other except for my sister Patti who lived in the state of Washington.  There were only five of us siblings now, and we really had a great  time catching up on each other’s lives.  We talked about my sister Jeannie and how much we missed her also but what peace we felt inside knowing she was now with Jesus.  We hoped that we could try to do this every year but life goes on and that never happened.

Nanci, Patti, Marie, Beverly, & Johnny my sisters & brother

Christmas came with the decorating of cookies, putting up the tree, church, and Santa Claus.  January came and the birthdays began again. Jessica turned eight and we went to Pokagon, Ill to go tobogganing
on the giant toboggan hill.  Snow filled our little town and the kids again had fun making snowmen for the nursing home tenants.  Jimmy’s birthday came with dinner at Banditos, and Jennifer’s birthday we went to the bowling alley for her party.  Kristina had her first semi-formal dance. I just couldn’t believe how fast she was growing up and so happy we were a family to enjoy this time together.   Regina turned five and we had her party at Chucky Cheese bringing the elderly woman who took care of her at the nursing home with us. What a treat for all of us as this woman would smile and enjoy herself with our family. My heart just beamed in delight as I watched her enjoy herself  and as she thanked me for including her at our family event.

Regina's birthday party at Chucky Chese

That March my parents and my little sister Beverly came for a short visit and we took the kids to the roller rink. April came bringing us to eighteen years of marriage. It was hard to believe it was just a couple of years ago when we were going through such a hard time debating divorce.  This is when I discovered that love is a choice. I mean, we first fell in love by chance, but to keep our love alive and to keep our family was a choice. We learned to give and take, to accept each other’s good and bad habits.  We
decided to have a romantic night of celebration, after all we deserved it. So we had Kristina babysit and went to the Fort Wayne Hilton for the night. We had a carriage ride, and spent the rest of the night in the hotel.  I kind of missed the kids so in the morning we picked them up and let them go swimming in the hotels pool before check out. That was a great way to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  I don’t want to make a false picture that everyday was one hundred percent happiness. We still got into arguments;
the noise of the kids would bother Jimmy. I loved being outdoors with my kids whether at the park or taking walks and Jimmy really didn’t think that was fun. Jimmy hated the fact of how much money I would spend on birthday parties or my family pictures and still to this day he says he would be a millionaire if he could get all that money back. Yet he loves when he looks into all my photo albums of our life when he is alone. We would get into our moods from the past sometimes, but we also knew that we wanted to stay together and we were willing to work at it.

Happy 18 Anniversary

Easter came with the coloring of eggs, church and the hiding of Easter baskets. Regina graduated nursery school and Erik graduated fifth grade bringing in the summer with Jennifer, Erik and Jessica in soccer.  Kristina turned sixteen years old, where did the time go, and so we had a party for her. She
invited twenty friends; the house was full of balloons and a feast of potato salad, baked beans and lots of lunch meat, cheeses with different kinds of breads.  The kids had music playing, played volley ball and just sat around and talked until we sang happy birthday.  What a surprise to all of us when dinner was over and gifts opened up from her friends. They put on the music to The Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show and one of the boys had on a slip, with his face made up like a woman and sang and danced for us. This was a birthday we would never forget.

The summer went on with Erik’s birthday at Fun Spot Water Park where Erik threw up on one of the rides and a camping trip in Wisconsin with my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Bill and family. We went to visit my
grandma who now was living alone, but in good spirits. She taught my children how to snap beans for dinner and showed them how to play cards.  We saw a lot of our other relatives in Wisconsin, went fishing and four wheeling. We got back to Chicago just in time for the family Gaeta picnic before going back home to Indiana. The one really neat thing about living in Indiana was were not far from relatives to visit or for them to visit us and we needed that family feeling again.

Jennifer, Jessica, their Great Grandma, Kristina, Regina & Erik

Jimmy had been looking for another job. He said the only way to climb up the ladder was get so much experience at one bakery before you put in resume's to more. Well he got a phone call from another bakery in Norman, Oklahoma. He landed a job from being a supervisor to assistant plant manager and we were on the road again.  We were moving far away from home again, not a close enough  drive for the holidays. I was not sure I really wanted to be alone again, away from family but what choice did I have. Thank heavens for our old best friends in Lawton, Oklahoma as they went out of their way to include us for the coming holidays and helping us feel like family was around yet. 

Well that is enough for today. Thank you again for reading this and have a wonderful day!