Tuesday, February 11

Destiny has had a high temp for 6 days now, but it totally goes away with Motrin. Still, I am home with her. I have been working on my auto biography a little bit. I don't spell check stuff til the very end, so you will see plenty of misspelling here!

I am still on my health plan and working out, eating right, and all. I don't trust any of the scales. This one at home says I am down to 202 pounds from my starting point of 216. I can't see that dramatic a change, but I do feel better. I am doing aerobics twice a week and walking/jobbing a lot! I just bought some Tae Bo tapes from a lady on Amazon. Think I can handle it? Of course I can!
Some more of the life story............

I remember the drive to California in my Grandma and Popa's Cadillac. It was the kind that had big fins on the back. The highway wasn't the way it is now, it was really just a road heading west. We stopped one time at an abondoned gas station and resteraunt and my grandmother and I went inside to potty.
There were signs along the way advertising gasoline. They all had big pictures of dinosaurs on them and I have found out later that that was the logo for Sinclair gas.
The next time I saw my mother was in Fresno California. She was married an pregnant. Her husbands name was Dwight Williamson. He was from Oklahoma. In the summer of 1964, my aunt took me with them to Missouri where my Uncle Jack's was from. I guess they wanted to give my mother and her new husband less stress during the time the baby would be born. I had a great time in Missouri. We fished, and I was able to keep the fish I caught in the horse trought. When I got back to California, my mother had given birth to my baby sister, Paula. We all got together and that time, me, my mother and sister, and her father. We all moved to Bakersfield Californa and that is eventually where I was raised.
I started Kindergarten when we lived in the house on L Street. As I grew older we would always refer to those few years as when we were in the house on L Street. It was basically a very happy time. My mother was happy. She wasn't drinking that I know of. She was working what she called the "graveyard shift" as a waitress, and my step dad was working in the oil fields. We were living the typical working class life, it was a happy time most of the time. There were a few issues with my step father that let me know he didn't really care for me as much as he did my younger sister. One time her and I were in the bathtub and I was squirting water on her through the gap in my front teeth. She was crying, but I kept on doing it. Dwight came into the bathroom, when he found out what was going on, he SPIT in my face and ask me how it felt.
There were other subtle things that let me know how he felt and many mornings I would lay in bed listening to the footsteps to determine where I was going to get up or try to stay in bed as long as I could tolerate it. His footsteps were heavy and my mother's were light and fast. One morning I had thought I heard his footsteps and had stayed in bed as long as I could, but when I got up it was my mother and I was so disappointed that I had not gotten up sooner.
The time on L Street ended when my step father stole my little sister in the middle of the night and took her to Oklahoma. My mother and I stood in the middle of each room with a man with us, and she went from room to room telling him how much she wanted for the furnishings. We had gotten a dog named Boots and a Cat named Pussy (I named them after the story "Puss and Boots") while we were there. We left the them both outside the house on L Street and we caught a Greyhound bus to go to Oklahoma and get my little sister.
Dwight had taken Paula to his mother's house in Shawnee and that is where we went. Mother had manipulated the situation to where Dwight thought they were getting back together. Soon, one morning, he went to work and my mother had told me our plan to take Paula and run. We waited until her grandmother went into the bathroom and we picked up our suitcases and Paula, and RAN! We caught another Greyhound bus back to Bakersfield. This would make my 6th cross country trip.
Memories around the next time get a little sketchy. We had a duplex apartment for a while and my older sister Sherry was there with us. Moma had a couple of boyfriends, but things were okay. Then one day Dwight showed up. I still wonder sometimes how he found us this time. Anyway, there was another plan and this one had a man coming to the door and delivaring divorce papers to Dwight, and my Sister Sherry and I running out the back door with Paula. We had a motel room ready at the Royal Palms Motor Inn and we went there and got the room. It was in my mother's boyfriends name, Harry Hake. Eventually mother and Harry showed up, but Dwight had found us soon there after. He managed to get Paula after he knocked Harry Hake through a plate glass door. Things kind of went downhill from there. I think my older sister went back to live with her father and mother drank a lot. On my 6th Birthday, I woke my Mom up and she gave me $5 and told me to go to a friends house and have her mother get me a cake. I was sad. I walked to the drive in resteraunt on the corner and bought myself and handburger with mayonaise only. Then I decided I would walk back to the house and try to wake my mother up again. When I got there my Grandmother and Popa were there. By this time they had moved from Fresno California to Lindsay. They got my clothes and took me with them back to Lindsay.
It turned out to be a great birthday! Grandma made me a cake with three teirs. I missed my mother, but I loved my Grandma and Popa too. At this point, we were blessed because my great grandma Nicky lived two doors down, and I was able to stay with her when my grandma and popa were working. My brother Billy came to live with us some time during that time, but they sold the house eventually, even though Popa had put in a new cedar closet and we moved to Bakersfield. I wonder if it was to keep an eye on Moma.

Monday, February 3

"A few scars, a little aging of the skin, all traced with beautiful
memories and perhaps not so great moments in nlife. Our bodies are
gifts! You'd be amazed at how you can change it from bad to good just
as you can from good to bad. If only it were as easy! Stay
positive, you never know til you get there!"

That is a quote from the "leader" in a fitness group I belong to now on Yahoo. It's the only group I really have time for lately. Did I tell you I am trying to get more healthy and LOSE weight?

I have been eating like a hog ever since I as on my Hep C treatment, and I just can't go on like this. I am up to 215 pounds. I weighed 170 when I met my husband and got down to 150 soon thereafter. I have been steadily gaining weigh for about the last year and a half!

I keep record of what I eat and what activities I have on Fit Day, like I mentioned before. I like the group in Yahoo. It's called FitnessExchange!

I am up for comments and advice now...................