From the windows of my world

July 21, 2010

Hello World,
It has been to long since my last entry.  I have been looking for a job since March of this year and still have not had any luck. I somehow thought It would be easier then it has been.  It really is rough out there. My life has taken a drastic change in the past two weeks. My son and his family have began the move back to Florida to live with me and my husband.  The economy as it is has made it very hard to survive for everyone unless you have a ton of money. My son had a business in Chicago as a Handyman. He was doing well for a while but it got the best of him too. His business all but folded up and well now he's coming home. Maybe we can all help each other.  My husband and I live in a 2/2 townhouse and its about to become very crowded. My son has a wife, two small children Alex 6 and Phil Jr.4 my grandsons. and 1 large dog Baby. Ironic, my dog is a min-pin named Bruiser and he weighs 12 lbs and Baby is a 75 lb Shepard/Lab mix. I hope they get along, I would hate to see Bruiser kick Baby's butt. (joking)  plus we have a cat Emma, she will probably want to move out now too.
This whole ordeal so far is wonderful to me but, hard at the same time. My husband is not used to small children. We have had the kids here now for two weeks and the quite solitude we had become accustom to is gone and its replaced by laughter, wild play, tears, fighting between brothers and seeing just how much a grandmother will put up with. They test my patience daily and grandpa's too. But all in all it's still great to have them here with me. I was devastated when he packed up and moved to Chicago when the youngest was just 2 months old. Seeing them only once a year for two weeks was just not enough. I collected Disney movies from the time my son was about 8 years old for the grandchildren I might someday have, but in my dreams they lived very close by not 23 hours away.
We have started looking for a new place with at least three bedrooms that we can afford. I refuse to purchase Real Estate in Florida at this time so we rent.  I know its going to be hard to find a place that will rent to us with three animals 2 kids and four adults. But I am still keeping my fingers crossed that someone will understand we all need to live together because they can't do it on their own at this time.
My husband got my son a job with him and that scares me too, my husband  recommended him very highly to his boss and I am afraid my son won't be able to live up to his high expectations. My husband is in his dream job and loves his boss but the job my son is going to be doing is not his dream job, its just a job making very little money to start and my husband expects him to bust his butt to impress his boss because he got him the job. I know this will be a problem sometime down the road. This will definitely be a test on the strength of my marriage, but family is all we have and we have to help each other when and how ever we can even if it means making drastic changes to our lives.
My sister moved here to Florida from Chicago last November and still has not found a job either.  Her kids never talked to her when she lived near them and now that shes here it seems they need her more then ever and she has to keep going back for one thing or another. On her last trip one of her daughters found out she has a serious health ailment I won't go into details but she has two young children the same age as my grandsons and my sister needs to be there to take care of them now for her daughter. Her other daughter is getting married at the end of the month and opening her own Hair Salon just before or after the wedding, I'm not sure which, and they want her to help out at the front desk until the salon gets going and they can hire a book keeper. My sister has nowhere to live there, she will not stay with the newly weds and the sick one has no room for her so I don't know what she going to do. She is so depressed and torn on what to do but she went anyway because it's her family and she's a great mother.  My mother found out today she has blockages in both main artery's in her neck and has to have surgery very soon, this will cause my sister even more stress because she lives at my mothers house in Florida. And my mom will make her feel guilty for leaving her to go back to Chicago. 
There is drama all around me and I am holding up surprisingly well. I can offer opinions and advise when asked and lend my shoulder to cry on or an ear for them to talk to but I have come to the realization that I can not save the world like I used to think I had to do, I can only fix my little piece of it for myself.