Karen’s Place

I’m now trying a third home for my blog.  This one is on Typepad.  I’ve heard of problems trying to get in to blogger, and although I really love Google I’m extremely frustrated with the fact that there seems to be no Customer Service.  This makes me NOT a happy camper!!!  Here’s the link to my 3rd and hopefully final blog home.
http://hazeleyedgirl.typepad.com/behind_these_hazel_eyes/

If this one stops working, I quit!!

If you wish, on the new site on the top left corner there’s a subscribe link. enter your email address and after you confirm it you’ll get notified of when I’ve posted something new.

Have good one!!

Hi everyone - I just posted a new blog post over on blogger.  My new blog home.  a couple of you told me you couldn’t access it before.  Will you try it out again and let me know if you’re able to now or not?  If not, I may be trying yet another new home.  I just really don’t like WordPress…or maybe I’ll finally just stop blogging altogether…or maybe I’ll go back to

Hi everyone, remember me?  I used to blog and bore you to death on a simi regular basis.  This past year I’ve been using a forum called Wordpress to post my entries, and over the past year it’s been getting more and more difficult to use.  I’ve made the decision to start blogging over at blogger, I’ve already set it up and so far it seems that maybe it will be a happy medium between Windows Live and Wordpress.  So, if you (3 who actually read this :D) would indulge me and follow me to:

http://hazeleyedgrl.blogspot.com

Thank you!!!

One day in August when I was 11 years old one of my best friends called and asked if I could walk with her and our other best friend to the new mall that had just opened. I wasn’t very hopeful as the mall was about a half mile away and it entailed crossing a couple of major streets. It was a Saturday I remember like it was yesterday I asked my Mom first because she tended to be a little more lenient than my Dad. Her reaction was for me to ask my Dad, which meant she didn’t think I should go and counted on my Dad to be the bad cop. Dad was in the back yard doing some work; you always took a chance being in the same vicinity as my Dad when he was working because if he thought you didn’t have anything meaningful to do, he’d find something meaningful for you to do. There was no chance he was going to let me go anyway, so why not give it a try, right? I approached my Dad and just laid it out there. Hey Dad? Uhmmm, Janet and Tricia are walking up to the new Mall, is it okay if I go with them? I don’t even remember him hesitating before he said yes. YES! I couldn’t even believe it.

The three of us felt so grown up taking that half mile walk, pushing the cross walk buttons and being completely on our own. For all intense and purposes, this was our first taste of freedom. Sure we’d had our bikes and ridden them, but always been confined to our neighborhood. The moment we walked through the doors of that mall we walked into a whole new world. It was like a carnival for our senses. The lights, the smells from the food court, the sound of a band playing in the distance, it was all so overwhelming at first we didn’t know where to start. We decided to follow the music. There was a huge center court area and in the middle a rock band. I don’t remember much about them except how cute they were and the fact that they were much older; looking back probably at least 17 or 18 years old. We sat on the riser type steps that during the Christmas season would lead the Children to Santa’s lap and watched that band for quite a while before moving on. The mall was huge for our little neighborhood; I think I remember hearing stories that it was the 4^th largest in the country at the time.

It became a constant in our adolescents. Janet and I took our allowance each and every week and saw a movie. That was our thing. If there wasn’t a new movie out that we liked we saw the movie from the week before. I’ve lost count how many times we saw Dudley Moore in Arthur. That theatre is where Tricia introduced us to dipping our popcorn in the nacho cheese and we learned that Tony Danza should never have agreed to work with an Ape!

The mall became the hang out for everyone we went to school with, we were there weekends upon weekends, almost every free moment was spent there; it was THE place to be. We were the original Mall Rats. So much so that in fact in the mid 1990’s the producers had narrowed it down to our place and one other to film the Kevin Smith movie. Word has it that after reading the script, management for Bannister Mall decided to pass, was this a good or bad decision who knows.

I received my first pay check when I was 15 years old. It was from David’s Cookies on the lower level South end, I had never been happier to have my own money. What I failed to realize was that I was only hired as a seasonal employee and was promptly let go four months later. I was devastated! It wasn’t long before I made my way over to the Funnel Cake place in the food court where I seemed to give away more food than I sold and to the Macy’s kids department, then eventually to the office supply store. Those jobs served me well, among other things they taught me that people are grumpy when they’re hungry, they can be extremely patient when you’re learning how to work a cash register for the first time, and if you’re genuinely pleasant to them, they will return the favor.

The summer before my senior year I left my final retail job and took my first office job. About three years later the Mall and the area around it started losing steam and customers. Apparently the crime rate was on the rise in that part of town, although myself I never did nor do I now feel afraid to be over there. Maybe because I was raised there, maybe it’s a false sense of security I don’t know. Slowly stores began pulling out. Then major department stores followed suit and we all watched it die a slow painful death. Finally in May of 2007 it was taken out of its misery and closed for good. How sad to drive past it to see the doors and windows of this once thriving epicenter boarded up and over grown. It was now becoming an eye sore and the city had to decide and decide soon what to do with not only it, but the entire shopping area that surrounded it.

Late last year the residents of Kansas City voted to tear it all down and built a 19,000 seat professional soccer stadium that will house our Wizards and alongside that will eventually also house a 12 field tournament soccer complex, a 250 room hotel and millions of square feet of retail space. The hope is it will jump start a revitalization for the area, I sure hope it works. This is not unlike what Wyandotte County, KS did a few years ago when they built the NASCAR track and so far it’s worked for them. Let’s hope we have the same good fortune.

Meanwhile, last week word got out that demo had started on the Mall. You should have seen how fast the news traveled with everyone my age from work to facebook. I went that afternoon with my camera and took pictures of the demolition, it was all so very sad. There’s a message board on facebook called R.I.P. Bannister Mall, all people like me sharing their memories of a building, only to us it wasn’t a building it was an experience. A part of our life.

As you know, I’ve been kind of stuck with my writing.  Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of thoughts rattling around in my head I’m just having a hard time forming them into sentences and paragraphs.  I’ve started so many posts and deleted them because trust me anyone reading them would get whip lash (more than usual) from trying to follow my train of thought.  I think though, today I’m going to dedicate to my Mom and Dad.  I’ve been thinking a lot about them lately and coincidentally enough, I just noticed I missed a call from them.

I am blessed or cursed depending on who you ask with having memories that go as far back as the play pen…literally.  Are they all crystal clear?  No, but I do have them.  and for that I do feel blessed.  What I remember first is how incredibly hard my Dad worked.  He was a teamster and drove a semi tractor trailer truck for a living.  We were lucky that he drove in town and not over the road so we got to have him home at night.  What I remember most about his job was winter time.  He worked very long hours normally, but I don’t think I seemed to notice it as much in the summer; maybe because I was busy with my own life, more on the go, I don’t know.  In the winter it was bad.  He left for work around 7am, and there were nights he didn’t get home until after I was asleep.  Those were the nights when it was snowing outside, the roads were bad and the traffic on the freeway was at a complete stop. Being that Dad’s route was in town he had to drive all across town to make his stops, all I would hear about on the news would be this wreck or that wreck, I would be so worried.  I don’t know how my Mom managed it, this was the time way before cell phones.  So when Dad did get home he would take his work gloves off and his hands would be so cold I would of thought there was no way they couldn’t be frost bitten.  We had a wood burning stove back then and I remember him warming his hands over stove just trying to defrost…He would eat a (very late) dinner, go to bed, then get up a few hours later and do it all over again.

I’m the youngest of 3 kids and when I began 5th grade my Mom went to work for the school district, Mom and my memories differ on this however.  She says it was part time in 5th grade and I say full time.  I’m sure she’s right but I’ll never admit it to her.  ha ha.  So Mom and Dad are both working then every single weekend of the summer and every other weekend in the winter they pack us kids and the family dog into the station wagon and head to lake a few hours away.  Mom and Dad purchased this lake front lot when I was about 2 years old and after working these I don’t even know how many hour weeks Mom and Dad would come down to the lake lot and proceeded to build on their own, our lake house.  Mind you, neither of them had a CLUE how to even begin this process but they did it.  I remember one summer it was God awful hot out with a humidity level that would make you think you were in a rain forest and my Mom is laying on her stomach on the roof of the house (two story house overlooking a lake) hanging guttering.  I still shutter thinking about it.  Eventually the house was completed and one by one us kids moved out of the house.

This was our first home at the lake, the camper.  It didn’t even have a bedroom!

I remember so clearly the day this picture was taken.  Crazy, huh?

This is 5 years later.  I’m sure even weather like this didn’t give us a snow day from school on Monday!

I’m loving their use of cabinet support here!  You know they just got a new stove this past summer?.

It’s amazing to me that my Mom is younger than me in this picture.  I would never know how to do what she and my Dad did!

Dad had put his 30 years in at his work and was ready to retire.  Good thing because his company was purchased at the same time and every one of the drivers were laid off.  Mom finished out the school year and she and Dad officially made the lake house their permanent residence.  I was so happy when they retired, it was well deserved and they worked hard for it.  I know no matter how long I work in my life, I will never work has hard as my parents have.  In fact I know few people who have or will.

Not long after they retired they picked up their old love of camping, this time with ATVs, as it turns out my parents had a sense of adventure!  They then purchased an RV and started traveling across the country in RV tour groups.  They saw parts of our country like Canada and Mexico they would never of seen before.  Then a few years later Dad had a little scare and ended up with a stent in his heart.  It seems ever since that time they have been traveling everywhere and they possibly can and really, why not.  It also seems since the time of Dad’s heart incident he can’t handle cold temperatures any longer.  I think that first winter after he was in the hospital was just unbearable for him.  I’m not sure he made the correlation, but my sister and I did.  It was the blood thinner medication he was required to take (as a side note, my friend Laura who is now also on blood thinners is having the exact same problems with the cold).  The following couple of winters they left the day after Christmas for warmer weather and came home just in time to file their taxes.  Then the follow year and this year they didn’t even wait for Christmas, they went ahead and left before Thanksgiving.  Do they feel guilty?  I think so a little bit.  Speaking for myself, I want them to be happy and live life to the fullest.  They both have worked so hard their entire lives that they deserve everything they have now.  Every time they come home from a trip they say “That was the last one for a long time.  Won’t be another one for a long time”  Next thing you know, Dad’s talking to us about a trip out west or up north or to this place or that.

If there were one thing that bothers them the most when they do travel, it’s the fact that my Mom’s Dad is quite elderly and although lucky enough to still be living in his own home, the task of looking out for him falls on my wonderful Aunt because she lives in the same town as him.  Mom and Dad get over to see him as often as they can, when they are home but I think the kind of help my Aunt needs (and I hope as she reads this she will correct me if I’m wrong), is the day-to-day help.  I know now first hand from watching my friend Kim do the exact same thing with her Grandmother what a toll it can take on you to have that kind of a responsibility.  Although Mom and Dad are gone a lot and their other brothers are not around to speak of there are a few grandkids that would jump in at a moments notice whenever needed.  I hope my Aunt knows there is a special place in heaven waiting for her.  A place filled with lots of sun (not heat), flowers, kittens and puppies and books. lots and lots of books! 

Back to my folks.  So as we speak, they are relaxing on a beach in Mexico.  The last few years they have traveled with a couple who have internet service through a satellite dish, so we’ve been fortunate enough to email with them.  Well okay, we actually email with their friends then Mom writes out on paper what they want to say and the friends email back.  Mom and Dad wouldn’t touch a computer if they had to.

Here’s our Christmas card from them this year, oh this better not get back to them…Mom will KILL me!  Good thing only 4 people and a bunch of spammers read this!  ha ha

I really need to blog…the words in my head are just not coming out my fingers however.  Soon hopefully…

It’s 10:00 on Friday night.  Here I sit in my friend Laura’s hospital room once again.  I wouldn’t wish what she’s going through on even my worst enemy.  Her daughter - my Goddaughter, Sammi and I called each other at the exact same time this afternoon.  Me to ask her to do me a favor, she to tell me she had just dialed 911 for her Mom.

I met them at the ER to find Laura had just had a spray of nitro in the ambulance and her heart pain was down from an 8 to a 5 and she could hardly breath.  Just changing clothes took all the energy from her.  When the doctor examined her he listened to her lungs then her heart and asked her to breath deep.  She did.  Then he asked her again with more insistence, she again took a breath.  Then he demanded it, I looked at him and told him she was breathing as deeply as possible I could see it on her face.  We found out a little later he could hear fluid around her heart and in her lungs.  Their initial thought was that she was in the beginning stages of Congestive Heart Failure.  Tests results have now shown she does not have CHF, but there was a great possibility that she had a blood clot either in her lungs or in her heart.  When Sam and I returned after a little break Laura was down having a CT scan to look for the clot.  As of now, we don’t have the results so we are waiting.  We did find out she also has an infection of some sort as well.  Her white count which should be around 5,000 is at 11,000 so she’s on some IV antibiotics on top of everything else.

So, right now we are playing a waiting game on test results and doctor visits.  I can’t even count how many times in the past year she has been in the hospital, she and Sammi have handled it so well.  We were joking with the nurse earlier that we think she’s been in every CCU room on this floor.  Sadly, that’s probably not an exaggeration.

Let’s see, anything else new?  Nope don’t think so.  Quiet weekend planned now with my favorite house guest staying with me at least for tonight.  Currently she’s crashed in the recliner next to her Mom’s bed.  I know I should take her home but I just can’t make myself leave until her test results are back…

Does this look right to you???

Thank you for shopping at http://www.WolfCamera.com. 
 
   Here is your order confirmation: 
   ******************************************* 
 Order #        Order date 11/27/08 
 ——————————————-
 Sold To KAREN 
         
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  Merchandise   Freight                      Total 
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I ordered the three 4 gig cards as advertised and they send me a receipt for 2 gig cards??? Talk about false advertising! When I contacted Customer Services, oddly they couldn’t help me, they said it would take 3 – 4 business days to get back with me. Well the cards will already be shipped by then. This is ridiculous!!!

I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of concerts recently.  Unfortunately all the shows have fallen in the month of November.  The shows gave me a chance to see the inside of our brand new Sprint Center.  It’s gorgeous!

Check out this picture:

This place is so cool!  They have an actual Quick Trip store inside the building!  Want a slushie and donut to munch on while you’re watching the concert?  Head up the Isle to the QT!

There’s also a full bar inside.  Not in an enclosed room, but right out in the middle of the walkway!

It’s crazy! But not just these amenities, the acoustics are much better here than any other concert hall I’ve been to.  Speaking of, the last concert I had on the books was this past Saturday.  I saw Rick Springfield.  Yes he’s still around and as cute as ever.  We saw him at our Midland Theatre (also in the heart of the Power and Light district).  We had seats in the lower level, but way at the back.  I was still very pleased with our seats we could see perfect.  Perfect until an 8 foot man and his 7 1/2 foot woman came and sat directly in front of me and my friend Samantha! Ugh!  I’m 5′2″ tall and Sam is shorter than me so to have Mr. and Mrs. Giant taking seats in front of us was extremely disappointing to say the least.  Worst than that, we’re pretty sure these weren’t their actual seats.

Rick has a routine of walking through the audience during his performances, Saturday was no different.  As soon as it became clear he was headed into the seats my friend Kim rushed the stage, after about 30 seconds of thinking about it I followed after her.  Security didn’t even look twice at us.  We ended up literally in front of the stage, probably second row.  I was totally kicking myself for not having my camera.  Closest thing I had was my cell phone.  I snapped a few pictures with it, but they turned out crappy.

I had a nice visit with my parents last weekend.  They were on their way south for the winter (kind of like the birds) and stopped by my sisters house for a short visit.  It was a great visit, we missed our Abby though (my niece) she was kidnapped by one of her cousins.  Funniest part of the visit, in my opinion was when we were all reminiscing about the old days at our lake house.  Danny described in detail the day my Dad bought a new motor for the little aluminum fishing boat.  I was amazed this man who can’t remember what he did yesterday remembered everything about that event.  When I commented, my Mom says “A man never forgets his first boat motor!”.  Yeah, you had to be there, trust me it was funny.

So, Thanksgiving is Thursday as well as Abby’s birthday party and my goddaughter’s 14th birthday.  These kids are getting so grown up! Man oh man!  Saturday we are having a huge girl’s night out.  Not sure how that’s going to go, we should have at least 7 of us.  We are invading our new regular favorite hang out, PBR Big Sky bar where are friends are playing.  We haven’t seen them in 5 or 6 weeks so I’m sure they think we’ve deserted us.  Yep, I’m sure they spend all their time thinking about us ha ha.  I’m sure there will be pictures to come.

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  If you are traveling, please be safe and if you’re driving - watch for deer!

Hi Everyone!  Just a quick post to direct you toward my Guestbook page.  On my old blog over on MSN spaces, there was a guestbook where people could use HTML.  Wordpress doesn’t allow for HTML in their comments, so I added the Guestbook.  Should you want to leave any embeded pics or notes you can feel free to do it here.  Just click the ‘post’ button and you can get started.  There are only two required fields: your name and where you’re from.  The rest is optional.

Have a good one!