April 28, 2012

• The Kids And Tara

  TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

  I'm sorry it took so long to post it but the house has been busy except for the time the kids spent at Tara's house, visiting with her.  I know it was therapeutic for Tara because of what she told me when she came over to our house after putting her little one to bed for the night.  She wanted to spend as much time as she could with the kids.

  It was cute that they made her laugh.  They told me she kept herself busy cooking all kinds of things while they were at her house.  In fact, she fed them so much that they didn't even eat anything more until around 8pm.  The Beast had made some sloppy joe and I was glad they finally ate some.  In fact, they ate damn near all of it so he was happy.

  Part of the reason I'm late getting this done is because my techie sons decided, along with the Beast, that our satellite system was for shit.  So they hooked us up with a wireless system that is incredible.  It's not like it's free but it's a lot less than our satellite cost us and it's as fast (or maybe faster) than cable.  Unfortunately, a part of the system was bad straight from the store but took us a while to figure that out.  The boys had gone back out to visit with Tara (they were all sitting around in the cottage) so we had to get them back in the house before we discovered that.  BUT...the impressive thing is that we can use Magic Jack and there's no lag or echo on it.  We tested it out tonight and were happy to pay for the service.  We told them if we had any problems with it, we were going to stop payment on them.  No need for that though.  **Smile**

  Tara told me tonight that she really didn't feel like it had hit her about the loss of Kevin.  I told her she probably wouldn't until she no longer had scads of people stopping by.  It would hit her when it was just her and the two boys there and she would feel the *hole* of him not being there.  We cried together (we can't seem to help that) and she is going to pick me up on Sunday so we can sit together for the memorial service at the high school for Kevin.  The Beast has his church service to go to and they have someone from the church headquarters there this week so he was really torn.  I told him to go since Kevin was MY great-nephew and Tara understood and isn't hurt by it.

  I read the obituary that Tara's brother wrote for the newspaper back in Kevin's hometown and it was really moving.  He did a good job on it.  I have to remind Tara to make a copy of it and send it to her mother so she can read it, too.  She feels so desolate about not being there for her daughter but Tara, bless her heart, understands why she couldn't.  Her mother's husband is very old (16 years older than my sister Cee) and he's both crippled up and getting senile.  He doesn't walk well.  Plus she has taken in our youngest sister, Baby Brat, and Baby Brat has short term memory problems from being very ill a few years ago.  She's much better physically but not mentally.  That's a lot of concern.  When left alone for any length of time, Frankenstein has a tendency to take too many of his pills and could easily kill himself by accident since he is on a lot of very heavy pain medications.

  I'm just glad I am here to represent our family and be there to hold her hands and cry with her.  I miss Kevin a lot every time I think that I won't see him again in this life.  There will be a hole in my life that I never expected.

  Tara got a huge surprise when she came home.  About 20 kids from the high school and most of their parents showed up at the house while she was gone and did some serious landscaping work.  They made the place look absolutely wonderful for her.  It was a huge surprise with the flowers and shrubs they added along with rock work and colored wood chips.  She wanted to do that but just never had the extra money or the energy.  It took them about two hours to do all the work and Chance's father, Tonto, who was staying at the house babysitting, said not one kid complained and no one was shirking.  They were all enthusiastic and pleased with what they had done for her.  I was also pleased.  What a wonderful gift!  What an act of love for a fellow student lost under such tragic circumstances.  It was a fantastic outpouring of love and support for the family.

  Well, I think it's time to get this posted.  My kids will be leaving for home tomorrow and I will miss them loads.  I haven't spent as much time with them as I would have liked but I love them for coming and spending the time with Tara.  I enjoyed having them around even for a short time.  They have made plans to get together again with Tara but up in Nashville at Marcus Aurelius and Raven's home.  They will have their own little *family reunion* in either September or October.  I told them I thought that was a great idea and not to let it fall by the wayside.

  Love you all.  Have a great weekend.  I hope you spend some of it with family and/or friends. 
  

  • 2:55 am
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