LOL-I see I am not the only one who loses my stuff when I get involved in a book!~glad that you are gonna get it in "in time"-it's such a bear to have to deal with late house payments. (I deal with rent, just as much fun) Heavenly Father is pretty awesome-He is there even when we don't know we need Him! have a great Sunday- lynn k

I have a son who is wayward. He is in the Drug Court system. Which is a voluntary system that has four levels to it. In order to reach a level, the offender must do a certain number of community service hours, attend substance abuse therapy, call in three times a week to the probation officer, and go to court once a week to check in with the juvenile court judge. In return for completing this program, all the charges are dropped. It is a very demanding program, physically, financially, emotionally, mentally, you name the resource, this program drains it. But it's worth it. My son has come a long ways and matured tremendously. Sometimes you have to smack your child upside the head, so to speak. I put my son in Drug Court. It was a good hard smack upside the head. It's been a good smack upside the head for me too. I've learned things I never would have learned any other way. Hang in there. Get tough with your girl if you have to. Someone is going to run your household and you want that someone to be you. Not your daughter. You'll have to tough and consistent if you want to get control back. Lynda D.

You asked so now you're in for a long answer. You asked how everyone was doing. Weight wise wonderful. Life wise. It's the pits. We are sinking and sinking fast. I think we're down to our last count. We lost our job on January 1st. (We own an ambulance service and we held the county contract to supply ambulance service for the county for the last 18+ years). No thank you, no reason, just a curt letter telling us that they were no longer going to use us. We were absolutely blindsided. We have since learned that our only full time employee has been plotting this takeover for more than 2 years. He was finally successful. This employee has done everything in his power to undermine us. For example, the county claims they've had 10-12 meetings the previous year concerning the ambulance. We haven't been involved or informed of ANY of them. The commissioners always went to this employee (even though we asked them not to) and involved HIM. The commissioners really like this man and they are in cahoots together. This employee also is the Homeland Security person in our county (small county we all wear lots of hats). When we had the county contract we responded to a Hazardous Materials incident. I filled out all the paperwork for the amount of money it cost of (wages, etc..) to respond to this emergency. I turned the paperwork into the Home Land Security person (our loyal? employee) within 2 days of the incident. I've been checking on the status of this claim since we hadn't been paid for it yet. This used to be an employee (when we lost our job, we laid him off) told me repeatedly that this incident was still being processed. Since we have NO money coming in and I have to rely on collecting from all the people who owe us money, I called the State and asked them why they hadn't paid yet. I spoke to the number one person in charge of Homeland Security in our State. I was told that this incident by law had to be closed within 60 days of the incident and our claim was NEVER received. I got right back on the phone and called this former employee who told me that he had just checked on the status and it was still being processed. That damn liar (sorry but that's calm for how I'm feeling) never called anyone. The claim had been closed for 6 months. He never turned in our paperwork. We have NO recourse. By state law they can't re-open the claim and pay anyone else. EVERYONE else got paid but us. Another knife in the back. I could go on and on and on about how we've been screwed over, injured, beaten etc... The county has done EVERYTHING in their power to prevent us from working. When I asked the commissioner in court point blank "why", the answer was "I'm NOT going to tell you". There is a light. Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers, in ways we can never guess. I got a visitor from an 78 year old friend that lives in California and was just visiting Idaho for the week. He had heard about our problems and he came by to tell us that he was sending his personal lawyer (one of the best in the area) to our home to talk to us and look at all our paperwork and if he feels like we have a case he would take on our county and handle the legal part of it all on a contingency basis. My friend told me that HE was going to pay the attorney's initial fee to come to our home and talk with us. This came out of the blue. We are very blessed. We've been able to survive for 5 months on collecting monies that people owe us for ambulance service. We can get through May (a tight squeeze) and after that I don't know where the money is going to come from. My DH absolutely REFUSES to talk about our finances. He is in such denial. Sorry about venting, but you made the mistake of asking how everyone was doing and I really needed to vent. I know Heavenly Father loves me and is mindful of my problems. I have faith that He will take care of my family. Sorry for the length. I could fill a volume with the stuff that's been going on. I gave you the Reader's Digest version. Keep on smiling. Melody

I'm sorry about the loss of your grandmother. Isn't it wonderful to know that this isn't the end and that we'll have a wonderful reunion someday? I sure hope that your daughter is just going through a rebelious stage. Don't give up on her. Sometimes these wayward youth really turn out to be wonderful adults as they mature. (If we can just make it through this stage!) Thinking of you Sherrie. Melody

wow -141 is so great. It really is a blessing to be able to do this for myself, and for my family! thanks~ lynn k