The Soap Channel

I don't know but Jeanie is addicted to this channel. I thought the other night I had found the cure. It was the TV Land channel and they were having awards. It had all her faves. Donny and Marie, and believe me she is so addicted to Donny it's scary. They even had short clips of hte Barbara Mandrell show. Jeanie's absolute Idol. She watched every second. I just don't get her atraction to the soaps. Well we went to dinner with the desperate housewives of Jasper, and Jeanie started on the soap operas. Well, these ladies had been so uptight. Not one of them would have ever admitted to watching a soap before this night. But each one had their favorite. And of course Jeanie knew them all. Jeanie follows these soaps as if the characters were her girlfriends. She kept going back to the stories, and they all folloewd her. Oh yea, they all said I don't watch every day, or I just catch it when I can , whatever, they all knew what Jeanie was talk'in bout. It cracked me up. These were the same ladies that were too hottie tottie to even say they watched TV. Here is little Jeanie talking Soaps with them. It ook Jeanie one night for them to be open and genuine with her, it only took me two freak'in years. Jeanie has that way about her. And it made me feel good that they wanted her to feel comfortable with them. What they didn't know is that the way they treated Jeanie just made me realize that they are not the people I originally thought they were, shame on me. And that I should not guess how people react, I should let it happen. These ladies were awesome , as I have said before what's not to love. We had a fun time.

Flat Stanley

I have two visitors at my house this week. My sister Jeanie who came back with us from the Y-town trip and Flat Stanley who just arrived today. So I not only have to come up with entertaining things for Jeanie and I to do, but Stanley wants to go to special places to see in our town. Well in the little town of Jasper, we are really at a loss of interesting places. Let's see, there is the second largest Super Walmart in the state of Indiana. Too bad we don't live in Richmond any more because you guessed it folks, that's number one. I need help. Can any of my readers give me some ideas that might be interesting to my niece's third grade class? I guess the Schnitzelbank restaurant might be a sight to see.That's our biggest most popular attraction in this German community. Jeanie and I have hit the Elder Beerman, the beauty parlor, and the grocery. Not very newsworthy. We are hitting Las Bravos tonight with some ladies, we'll bring Stanley there, not sure how many of these pictures will be appropriate for the students. Too bad Stanley wasn't in town for the St. Paddy's Day party or the Strausenfest this summer.I will need to talk to some home towners to get some ideas. Wish me luck!

Wedding Faux Pas

My niece Nadine got remarried last weekend and we all made the trip back to Youngstown. That was very special because the five of us as a family do not get together as much as I would like, so for all of us to be able to make a big whole family function was great. My sister Jan could not make it, so that was an empty space. I kept looking for her and her family in the church can't wait to tell her every detail. I am waiting though because the mother of the bride , Judy has first dibs.
It seems as though the older I get the more I have the tendency to disappoint my children. Do they not get me yet? I don't know what drives me to say the darnedest things at the wrong time and place. At another y-town wedding many moons ago, I proceeded to cuss out the guy in the coat room that wouldn't give me my coat. The family was asked to come before the reception started to eat, so I never got a coat check number. So this old guy would not give me my coat till I gave him a number. I had to wait till every single coat was gone till he would give it to me. I was not happy and said so in not very lady-like terms.In other words I dropped the "F"-bomb,

I will paraphrase,Give me my freak'in coat!

Well I found out the next day that mean old guy was a priest. EEEEEEEEEEE!
At this wedding , I did a reading. I wanted to give the couple a little inside message from their Aunt Jillsy. At the end of the reading, I said ,"And in the end , the love you take, is equal to the love you make". Isn't that sweet? I thought the only people who would pick up on it would be my brothers and sisters. Well Robby and Bri freaked. Not to mention Big Rob.

I'm surprised the priest didn't call you out on that one.

Well, I think John Lennon is up there with God and they both liked it. Now I am paranoid. I had this really bad dream about a priest from my highschool talking about this "bad" girl that they didn't want any of the other kids to be influenced by, and that person was me. He didn't know it was me because my name tag said Jill Mullally not Allen. Good God, loosen up people, I just wanted to give the wedding couple a message. Instead, I get the business. Now I am going to freaked out about receiving the wrath of God through lightening bolts headed for me not just my hubby.That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Anywho, back at the reception,I ran into a cousin of an old friend from gradeschool.actually I babysat their kids. Well she asked me about my kids and stuff. And my brother John came over. She said , is this your son? No Be-autch! My brother John is two years younger than me . My mind went blank. I did not hear one more word she said. She sounded like the teachers do on a Peanuts cartoon. Maybe I couldn't hear her because John was laughing hysterically. Now maybe this was my penance because, this story will be told by John Edward at every wedding , funeral ,graduation etc. People be sure of what you say! If someone looks pregnant and you are not sure ...do not ask when the baby is due. And if you see a pregnant person don't go on and on how big they are. No one likes that either. Eventhough I was huge, I didn't appreciate Joe Corroto calling me Shamu the Killer Whale behind my back. I can laugh about it now because it's 26 years later. Those things stay with ya.
I got rid of my little cover up and danced the night away to get rid of the bad juju I felt. We had lots of fun dancing to all the songs. We had even more fun getting together the next day laughing and telling of the antics from the night before. It's all about family and how much fun we have when we are together.

You know what, screw being 51, I can't wait to be 70, then whatever the old bag does is cute. If she says something rude she's feisty,people cut her slack. If she adds her own line to a reading , she's gutsy. If she drinks too much and dances she's spry.
So I just need to skip 20 years and be just fine. Do you think I can keep my mouth shut till then?

"Erin Go Bragh! in Southern Indiana

I started off my St. Patrick's Day weekend on Thursday the 16th. with Carolyn who stopped on her way to St. Louis to pick up Grandaddy. What a great surprise! We watched Indiana basketball drank Guinness and Killians Red. We can make a party about anything. It's a Thursday let's party, it's vacation let's party, it's sunny let's party, it's raining....You got it,party. It's St. Patrick's Day PARTY!. She always makes me happy and as you all know she's so fun to be with.
She was gone early the next morning, but she called on the road, and was the first to wish me Happy St. Paddy's Day. On to the next part of the Green Weekend. There is a little town near Jasper called Ireland of all things. It's not very big but it does have a resteraunt/bar called the Shamrock Cafe. Of course that was our stop on the big day. They had it all, corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, green beer and a real live leprechaun.(who I wanted to take a picture of ,Rob wouldn't let me)I am sure the revenue that they take in this one day, keeps them open the rest of the year. I wore my Everyone loves an Irish boy, kelly green T-shirt. As the night wore on I think any person who lived near Ireland and had the desire to celebrate the green was there at the Shamrock Cafe. It was door to door green. The characters that this non-federal holiday draws out of the closet are mind boggling. There was a lady that had so much Irish garb that we decided that she had clover car air fresheners hanging from her ear lobes. She kinda resembled Mimi from the Drew Carey show. There was Karoke, of course. There were lots of country western songs sung.Irish Mimi was big fan of the Redneck Woman lady 's songs. You know,Gretchen Someone. She really had a good voice. There was an 80 year old guy that kept singing Frank Sinatra songs to Diedra at our table.There was the typical group of Irish drunks that had to sing Danny Boy. It was hilarious.There was a son of the DJ that was way too young to be up with all these drunks,he sang his little heart out. The Moms at the table all made comments of child abuse or neglect having this kid perform to these drinking green people.And of course the ladies at our table had to get up and sing a Suprem's song."Hell yea" as Irish Mimi would sing.
It was a memorable night. One to add to the St. Paddy's day memory book. I much prefer my 5K-Shamrock walks that I have done with Bri the last three years in Indy. Or the year she went to National's in Canton, and my family all met at JoEllen and Dave's. The St. Patrick's Day parties that the O'Maley's put on every few years, that has Mock Turtle soup, green beer, the coolest decorations, and REAL Irish people that include several generations of the O'maley family. They have the purest celebration of the Irish traditions. Good friends ,great families telling stories, singing a song or two, definitely a feeling of love, always feeling very lucky to have such good friends. Add just a little bit of blarney and lots laughter.You just described our friends.So count your blessings, make a toast, God bless the color.(For those of you who don't know what the color is , it's GREEN.

St Paddy's Day

I have really missed my St Patrick's Day celebration . Rob has never been a big fan, so I sort of kept it to my girlfriends and my work place.My mom always decorated the house big time. Cornbeef and cabbage was always on the menu. And you could always get a cold beer on that day , what am I saying ? Any day . I love my Irish stuff. And I actually decorated our whole department Reid hospital. And if these people didn't know about St. Patrick's Day before I was there, after fifteen years they got it. Well I think it sort of got out of hand because, now I have a whole bedroom of Irish periphenelia that could make a grown man puke. I love it.
To me it was sort of fun. I wore green for the whole month of March. Which really wasn't all that long since St. Patty's day is the 17th. So that meant for seventeen days I wore green, whatever, it's my best color.
Guess what, my scrubs that I wear to work are emerald green. Shut up! How about that? I have been wearing a shamrock pin of course this month. And one of my patients was confused, and told the nurse that someone from 4H came into her room and tried to make her smoke a pipe. She said, I don't know what was in it , it could have been marijuana. That was the highlight of the week. She became less confused and more cranky but she said she never said any of those things. You know this is a predominantly German community. Maybe they are not used to shamrocks.They are more into Strausenfest. Which is a lot like St. Patrick's Day only with Polka music.
So to my two wee ones, who were definitely named for the Irish side of their family, Brianne, which means strong woman and Robert Patrick, you can't get any more Irish than that, have a Happy St. Patrick's Day with old traditions or new ones. And our family and friends just think of your Little Irish buddies O'Jillsy and Big O'Daddy Mullally.

O B Visit II

Another visit to the OB doctor for Bri and me. We missed the Doc last time due to a delivery, so this was just a catch up meeting. I couldn't miss because I needed to make sure that Brianne's doctor was good. I know, what do I know. She seemed very nice and asked Bri all the right questions. She shook my hand and looked me in the eyes. That's a good sign. I have had physicians that can't make eye contact and if they do shake your hand it is very limp. What's up with that? If this is the person you trust to help you give birth....they had better have some social skills.
I have had some real doozies. I had a doctor that carried on a whole conversation on the phone while I was in stirrups for God's sake. And another, that never faced me when asking questions. And the kind of questions that a gynecologist asks, you really want some kind of facial expression to respond to, not a back of a head writing things down at a desk. Brianne's Doc passed my test.
Everything is great, and we heard the heartbeat again. It was 160. Loud and strong too. It was pretty cool, that this tiny little thing has such a strong heartbeat. Bri looks good, and is not throwing up as much, so that helps her disposition and her tiredness factor somewhat. We spent that evening looking at Jake's baby pictures. It was fun. He was a really cute baby.
Bri and Jake are so laid back. I feel so comfortable with them. Jake was so excited that Bri had gone grocery shopping. She had bought his favorite things. I am so amazed that a basic grocery store has such cool stuff. And it wasn't even their nicest grocery store that has special parking for expectant mothers. Isn't that funny? Indianapolis is so progressive.
We went out to dinner again. This is getting to be way fun. At least we get to try these different restaurants. Come to Jasper it's the Schnitzelbank. Go to Indy, it's endless. We went to this great Chinese restraunt, by Keystone at the Crossing. We all got something differant so we could taste. Robby drove, because he has a new car. Very spacious. It was very fun. The only thing missing was Big Daddy. And I haven't seen him for ages, Cause I've been working some hours, and they are all shifts. I don't know but if I keep this up I just may want to move to Indy. Foremost it's where my kids are but they have cool grocery stores.