Life's Moments: That Time of Year!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

That Time of Year!

Yes, it's that time of year when it starts to get a little colder outside and spiders and mice want to make their way into your warm home. On Monday, I was on the phone with our health insurance company asking about a claim when one of our cats was trying to get on top of one of my craft shelves. When I went over to see why she was doing this, there sat a little mouse. Not what I was expecting to see!!!! I'm not afraid of mice, but it just grosses me out. My dad told me to get a plastic bowl with a lid and trap it in there and take it outside. I had my mom come over to watch the girls while I took on the mouse. He tried to make a run for it only once, but I was able to get him trapped in a Ziplock container. I took him outside and let him go in an empty field behind our house. I'm sure all he did was try to find his way back to our house, but at least he was out for now! When Brian got home, he found that some insulation in our basement had been chewed through. He bought some spray foam and filled in the holes, so we are hoping this helps to keep any other mice out. Poor Hailey has also become the victim of spiders coming in. She has a bite on her wrist and two bites on her back. Her only complaint is that they itch, but I feel bad for her. We stripped her bed and washed all her sheets and blankets in case they were in there. It's strange, because in the almost 4 years we've lived here, we've never seen a mouse come in and no one's ever gotten bitten that many times from spiders. I don't know what the deal is. On Monday night, Brian played basketball with our next door neighbor, Jeff, whose been trying to get Brian to come play on his team. Brian has always been hesitant to join because he travels so much and didn't want to not be available for most of the games. However, Jeff said that many of the guys can't make it to every game. I know he's happy to be playing again (as long as his knees and ankles hold up!).

On Wednesday night, for the first time, Clara slept four hours straight in a row! We were excited! She's done this maybe once or twice in the last three nights since, so hopefully this means we're getting closer to just two feedings a night! On Thursday morning, we got our first snowfall of the season! It was so pretty. Hailey was hoping it was going to accumulate enough to go out and build a snowman, but all we got was a dusting.

On Saturday, we cleaned out and organized our garage. It had been on our to do list for a while, so we were happy to have another weekend of nice weather to be able to work on it. Our next big organization project is our basement. We're hoping to work on that this Winter. We went to church this morning and noticed that they had placed a rose in the chancel for Clara's birth as you'll see in the picture below. It warmed my heart. Hailey had a great time at Sunday school learning about Joshua.

After almost three years, the murder trial for the teacher's aide at Hailey's old daycare has started. It began on October 31st, and I have been following the proceedings in the newspaper. I have to say that as the details come out, my heart is so heavy and I feel more betrayed of the trust I placed in that daycare to take care of my child. In one article, it mentioned that the owner gave one of the teachers (that was in the room that day) a statement that she was going to give to police and wanted that teacher to give the same statement in order to be consistent. That statement was one that covered up the fact that there were not two teachers in the room when the murder took place (DCFS rules state that there must be 1 teacher present for every 4 children). At that time, the aide had not yet confessed to the murder, so the owner didn't know she was covering up something so severe (and I'm not saying she should have been covering anything up at all). However, on the Monday after it happened, the daycare called a parents meeting to answer any questions we had and to assure us that our kids were in good care. The owner was there and by now, she knew a murder had taken place, but she stood up there in front of all of us and continued to lie about the fact that there were not two people in the room. It's amazing what greed can do to a person, right? She was more worried about losing her business than letting us know that breaking DCFS' rules was common practice at that daycare. She makes me sick and I feel she's as guilty as the teacher's aide. She was charged with obstruction of justice about two weeks after the incident and the daycare was shut down. Her hearing starts on Monday, November 21. I know I shouldn't feel guilty for putting Hailey in their care, because I didn't know the rules were being broken, but I do feel guilty. I always will. Of all the things to entrust someone to care for, your own flesh and blood is the most important. And when that trust is broken, you feel deceived and betrayed. If you'd like to follow the trial, you can visit this link http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111104/news/711049646/ and then view the rest of the articles notated in the panel (titled "Related Articles") on the left side of the screen.