Pg 19 - My story

Good day and thank you for coming back to my blog. 
 
When I was going to EMT School, I was having trouble with the tests and brought it to my teacher right away. I asked why there was a question on there about police when we were studying EMT. Bruna was my teacher and my inspiration for school.  She had me re-read the question to her, than just looked at me kind of strange.  She told me that she was making an appointment for me to get my eyes checked. I already had my eyes checked before school started and got glasses but this was different.  So I went to the appointment she set up and after all the eye testing, and answering questions I was found to be dyslexic.  Dyslexia is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and
process certain symbols.  Dyslexia is not a vision problem but a reading disorder that an area of the brain
interprets differently.  It is also does not interfere with thinking or understanding just the way we learn.  So I found that if I used a light green overlay on the papers I was reading, my brain would calm down and the words quit moving so I could actually read correctly. This was such a relief to me. Maybe that is why I had such bad grades in high school.  I will never forget Bruna for helping me with this problem so that I could go on and finish school. 

Well Easter arrived and we had our picture taken with our new addition. My daughter Kristina was going out with a fellow named Aaron who is now her husband. He had the sweetest parents and we spent our Easter dinner at Meers with Aaron’s family before going to Mt. Scott to hike and of course watching the buffalo.

Jessica, Jennifer & Adias, Jimmy, Marie Erik, Regina, & Kristina

As spring flew by we were busy fixing up our home, taking care of a new baby and just everyday life. Jimmy fixed for me some planter boxes in the front yard and for my mother’s day gift; the kids helped me plant flowers all around the outside of the house in the planter boxes along with our barbeque.  We tried
to go along with life as if there were no changes.  We did things like Frontier City Amusement Park with Grandma Marie and Grandpa Jimmy taking turns holding the baby so Jenny could enjoy the rides with her siblings.  Jessica was in a theater camp and Jimmy and I went and did paint ball wars for the first time.  We enjoyed Lake Arcadia with the boat and the tube being pulled behind with the kids taking turns for the ride.  That was the first time baby Adias was in a lake and Jenny had fun holding her in the water. Jennifer, Jessica and Regina were back on their soft ball leagues and Erik had his sixteenth birthday.
His party consisted of bowling with a big sub sandwich at the house afterwards.  

We decided to take a vacation and drove to Wisconsin. Yes this was a long drive from Oklahoma but it was so good to see my relatives again.  My mother had four siblings that I knew pretty well since I usually spent my summers on the farm growing up.  Only thing is my aunts and uncles had their kids after I was married so my cousins were closer to my kid’s age instead of mine.  I guess the hard part was to see if I was going to get any negative attitude showing up with a grandchild from my unwed teenager.  But my granddaughter was received with open arms from everyone.  My grandma had so much fun bathing her in the kitchen sink. My Uncle Bob took turns with my kids on his four -wheeler and showed them how to handle the machine so they eventually drove themselves around. This was new and fun for my kids.  They had a big family picnic, including my parents, so that all the family could get together and re-unite.

Back row: Jennifer & Kristina- Sitting: Jessica, Great Grandma, Regina & Erik- On grandma's lap: Adias

5 generations: Mom Jennifer - Grandma Marie - Adias - Great- Great Grandma Clara Ricci - Great Grandma Darlene Losacco

I love the city of Chicago so on the way back to Oklahoma we stopped in Illinois for a few days.  We rode the Al train, checked out the Aquarium, Navy Pier, The John Hancock Building, The Museum of Science & Industry and the Field Museum.  Ate downtown Chicago with my parents and siblings, checked out the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Art Museum.  My in-laws had a little get together at their house so we could see all the relatives on that side of the family before we had to leave and go back home.  We showed off our new addition to our family and I got home sick for the most wonderful city in the world to me. This was such a wonderful summer in our lives.

Great Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Jimmy, Great- Great Grandma Fostino, Mom Jenny, baby Adias

We finished the summer off with the lake and the boat and soon school began again. I got signed up for EMT-I at the same time.  The holidays were coming around; I was busy at the beauty shop, school, and helping with Jenny’s baby. I had a special Thanksgiving dinner for my customers  at our home, whom Jimmy cooked lasagna for them and they really enjoyed the company and the food.  Christmas was fun with a baby now walking around the tree and grabbing at ornaments. I loved having the life of a small one around again.  Jenny was now dating another boy and Kristina was getting serious with her boyfriend Aaron.

My parents surprised us and decided to stay with us for Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve we did have Adias’s father, Jason, and his mother whom Adias calls ‘Purple Grandma’ because she always wore purple scrubs from work.  I shed a couple of tears as Jenny sat with her child for her first Christmas helping her open gifts. That year for New Years Eve I put black trash bags taped to the ceiling full of confetti, balloons, and candy and when it struck midnight we tore them open to let the stuff inside fall down on us.

In EMT school you can only fail one test one time. If you fail again you are out. It was the middle of the
semester and we were doing our semi-finals.  I was not quite in enough mental state to study like I should have been. I remember like it was today. I had to do a procedure called Intraosseous infusion to a pretend baby.  This is a life saving skill to do with putting a big needle injecting directly into the marrow of the bone below the knee for my IV solution. I just started to cry. I guess I didn’t have it all together like I thought I did, but all I could do was see Adias in my head and I failed. So I was dropped from the class with the intention to come back next year and start again.

It was the beginning of a New Year, 1997 and I have come to learn that we have no control of what is going to happen in our life. I would never have guessed that I would be a grandmother already and the fact that this child fit so well in our family I am so sure that this was a gift from God and that he has a plan which we will soon learn about.  That is all for today. Remember there is a plan for you. We will not totally understand it. Sometimes we think we got it all figured out and then the rug comes out from under us and we are confused again.  Keep your trust and faith in the Lord, you are in good hands. Thank you for reading this, and see you  tomorrow.