I do not know my Grandmother

I googled myself. We all do it from time to time to see what is out there with our name on it. I had - nothing. But I found the birth records of Jackson County from 1948 from when my Dad was born. While looking at it I realized I have never known my Grandmother M's middle name. I find it very odd that I do not know it. But then again, I do not know much about her life or family history. My Dad has always said that she does not talk about her childhood because it brings back bad memories. So he knows nothing either.

What I do know is...

• She was born and raised in England. I do not know what town.
• She belonged to the Church of England and is now Presbyterian.
• When my Grandpa went there during WWII, he met her, married her, and brought her back to the States.
• She worked for a construction company in Lolita forever being the secretary/bookkeeper. Mabye this is where I get the number crunching thing from.
• She has a very large scar on her knee from falling out of a tree she tried to climb when little.
• There may be a few brothers. One of which died due to not receiving medical treatment because at the time he went to seek medical services at the doctor's office (not ER), others were chosen to be seen first because their ailments were deemed worse.
• She had one miscarriage before my father was born.
• Her birthday is in December after Christmas. I do not know what day or how old she is.
• When I became pregnant with My Little Girl, I found out the real reason she had a step-father. Her mother was not wed to her biological father when she became pregnant. He wanted to marry her and her father said no. He committed suicide.
• She hated my family history project in jr. high.
• Her maiden name is Clark. I do not know if this was her bio or step-father's last name.
• Her middle name is Margarite.

Keeping The Innocent Innocent

Wow!!! That is, I think, all I can say. I am basically speechless, which is quite rare.

Tuesday is Library Day in My Little Girl's 5k (AKA Kindergarten) class. She has brought home some very interesting books, but none compare to this one. It is a little book called In the Night Kitchen written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Sound familiar? Not to me; never heard of it.

I open this odd looking little book to find a baby with his booty sticking up and a little "something" barely poking around. I flip through the book and see full frontal three times. Needless to say I take it and prepare for a little sweet chit chat with the teachers this morning.

I politely say good morning, open the book, and ask them if we could try again. They were shocked. They had no idea that this was in this book and proceeded to tell me that they felt that the Librarian had no clue either. Really? She further said that she heard the girls giggling over the book, but all she saw was the hiney. Again...really? My child does not need to be looking at hineys in a book from the Catholic School Library! Who? Where is the responsibility?

I did a little research and became more disgusted with our Librarian for their lack of knowledge of the content they manage for the kids of the school. Especially when a friend told me that their librarian reads all books from cover to cover before they go on the shelf. Here is what I found:

Controversy in the United States

When Mickey (who looks to be about three years old) enters the Night Kitchen, he loses his pajamas and spends much of the story fully naked. Critics of the book object to Mickey's nudity (which explicitly depicts his penis and testicles), with some librarians drawing little pants on Mickey with a marker, or diapers with correction fluid. Some also take a Freudian interpretation of events, with the nudity, free-flowing milky fluids, and giant (allegedly phallic) milk bottle. Sendak himself claims not to have been trying to be controversial; his decision to derobe Mickey was to avoid the "mess" that falling into the batter would make of Mickey's clothes.

As a result, the book proved controversial in the United States on release and has continued to be so. The book has been ranked 25th place on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000" compiled by the American Library Association.

And there is another copy of this book that was checked out by MLG's best friend. I happen to work with her mom and she did not see it in her backpack last night. She has been praying her mother-in-law does not find it today when she picks her up.

Below are the cover and 3yr old boy flying around the pages...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Busy Season Is Here....And for anyone reading this...no I DO NOT DO TAXES! I audit. AUDIT. People's businesses. It really annoys me that people cannot understand that there are many, many areas of accounting. And even after I tell them, they still ask me TAX questions. I do not get it. Oh well..

So since life has been very busy, here is a quick list of things over the past three weeks.

1. Arrive at work at 8; take 30 min lunch usually; leave at 7 on most days. Work Saturday 6-8 hours and then some more on Sunday. It all ends in....MAY!

2. Giz has her days. My Mother and I give her fluids via a needle once a week. She perks back up. Vet says that she has maybe a few months. That was two weeks ago. :(

3. My Little Girl had pneumonia. Again. Her 3rd time. And before that she had bronchitis. And after the pneumonia, a sinus infection. 3 rounds of different antibiotics, steroids, an expectorant, and singular makes for a happy little camper. Especially because of steroids which probably led to ...

4. The Blue Note. AKA as the conduct report from school. BAD. Very BAD. It says that MLG was "saying unkind things to and about her friends." MLG's side = she was talking about her birthday party and was only inviting 7 people. One of the two girls she was talking to, but not the other because she wanted to invite one of my friends, cjh. Her b-day is not until July and I have not even began thinking about it. Will deal with note and conference with teacher hopefully this week.

5. Bad behavior has continued. This morning, I disconnected the cable from all TVs and put up her Leapster. Unfortunately I will need to reconnect mine in my room so I can watch American Idol.

6. MLG told me she wanted her lip pierced! Luckily friend on phone told her a story about her college friend whose lip got infected and fell off. YUCK. I think the desire has passed.

7. Actually had time to go fishing at Granny's with the parental units and MLG. We caught crabs. Ha, ha , ha... and my phone fell in the river while trying to feed a crab over a 7ft drop off. My Daddy saved the day while I held on to his arm so he would not go for a quick swim. Phone is currently drying in a bowl of rice. Please, please, please little phone work. I have sooo much info in it I need.