strike

i wish this strike would end! i have two families that have parents laid off because of it. i haven't seen one of "my" girls in over a month! she starts kindergarten this fall, and i won't be seeing her then. she's a good kid...very active, talkative, and helpful. her mom (she's laid off) is a really neat person. i like her a lot. the baby i started watching last week, well, her dad got laid off on friday. so who knows when i will get her again. i would have liked to have all my kiddos consistently, that way in the summer, it's not as huge of a transition. after all, i will be getting one of my families back in may (when mom goes back to work after the baby) and i was hoping to not have to try and juggle getting 2 babies used to the new environment at the same time. so basically my house is so quiet. i only have one or 2 kids during the day and maybe 2 or 5 in the afternoons. and the extra 3 are just because their mom is out of town for work this week. i don't know what to do with myself!

my mom started a new job last month. she is traveling 3 weeks out of the month. she gets to come home on the weekends. she really likes it. it's the perfect type of job for her. she is really excited about the people she works with. she says her bosses are tops in their field. so far she is just traveling in the US but it could be an international thing in a couple of months. if that happens, she will be gone for months at a time. i think she'd like that. i know she loves seeing the kids, but i think she likes being "independent" more. when she lived in chicago, we saw her 2 or 3 times a year. she came in town every 2 month or so. she just liked hanging out with her friends when she was down. most of the time, she didn't even tell us she was down here. not a big deal...except when she would say things about the kids not knowing her. she has been around a lot more since she's been back in MO. we were seeing her every friday for lunch for a while. the little guys know her now. the bigger kids love hanging out with her. so i think she knows she wants to keep that going. i'm really proud of her. she just has a high school diploma. her bosses were so excited to get her because they said she had great experience. she went from customer service at MCI to management at worldcom. she knew the jobs she was asking people to do. she was friends with lots of her bosses...and still is friends with them. they gave her great references. i'm glad she did such a great job that her bosses still know her name 5 years later. that says a lot about her work ethic.

the pig is still doing well. she's still friendly, and growing well. she's put on about 2 pounds a day. alex has even been giving her baths. so far so good!