There's really no appropriate title for this post......

The Wednesday before Christmas she was soooo excited to be going to Maryland to see her twin sister for the holidays, it was also the first time in a very long time all her family was going to be in one place for Christmas, I had just gotten to know this person since her new desk assignment next to mine. Never one to be down, talk negative about her job or anyone...She also took great pains to see her Mom well taken care of...this was a person I could admire and get to be great freinds with...

"Promise me that you will make me a snow angel while your up there!" I asked , jealous that she was going to be around snow and have that white Christmas I can only dream of for now...Her Mom and her other sister and all the family were going to be with her as well...Sounds like the kind of Christmas we all dream of and occasionally get...

"Laura, I promise to make you that snow angel!" she chimed as she counted down the hours until she left the Clerks office we both worked at...CHristmas came and went , and I occasionally thought of her up in Maryland playing in the snow...Yesterday I remembered that she was due back into the office and I as gearing up to ask how the snow was...Unfortunatly , a Doctor's appointment for her Mom had been switched to that day and she called off to take her Mom to that appointment...Oh well...There's always tomorrow I thought......I'll ask her then....

The following comes directly from the Palm Beach Post:



Metro report
By Palm Beach Post Staff Reports
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Police blotter
A 51-year-old woman was caught in the crossfire after gunshots broke out in a Riviera Beach neighborhood just after 6 p.m. Wednesday. The woman was sitting in her car on the 1100 block of West 27th Street, when another car pulled up in front of a home and at least one person began shooting at the house, Riviera Beach Police spokeswoman Rose Ann Brown said. People inside the home came outside and began shooting back. The woman died at the scene. Her identity was being withheld until next of kin were notified. No one was arrested, and police didn't know what caused the shooting, she said.

Thus the life of Berthel "Bebe" Becton tragically ended...Devoted daughter, freind to all...When we found out today , shock went thru the department, many tears were shed, everyone angry at the senselessness of this. She was sitting in her car waiting at the light, no rhyme or reason to this at all...

For those of you wondering, the reason there's been no arrests is they are still sorting thru the shooting and ballistics, trust me...arrests WILL be made...

Thoughts haunted me all day, the biggest is the hope (however fruitless) is it was quick and she had no knowledge of what befell her...To think that she may have spent her last moments on this planet in stark terror doesn't sit well with me at all...she didn't deserve this

I do take some solice in the fact that she was able to be with her entire family one last time...I hope that brings some comfort to those left to figure out how to go on....

"Bebe, promise me you'll make me a snow angel up there?""

Thanks for letting me get to know you, if only for a brief moment in time.....

Okay...Now the long version......If I make it that long

Is it me or is EVERYONE waiting for E-lo to have this kid? WHEW! This is taking tooo long...! hahahaha....Seriously....I'm just hoping everything turns out okay....

That said...Life here is slowly turning back to normal...well as normal as my family can possibly be...It's great to be back at work, getting that paycheck...I work in the probate/traffic division...primarily learning to input all those wonderful traffic citations...It gets interesting cause while I thought Doctors had the bad handwriting...I have come to find out it must be a job requirement for cops as well...Thank heavens I have the ability to look up the Driver's license numbers so I can at least spell the name correctly(that's providing I can READ said numbers) I caught on fairly quickly to that...but there's still lots to learn...Some are infractions, some are crimes, and some are felony's....it really interesting to see what happens with what...I've seen some pretty interesting stuff so far...Keeps me hopping...The only thing that sucks is while I have internet access....you cannot use it and yes they track it carefully....So no hopping online whilst at work guys...Oh well..I can understand that...I also have no phone...Oh there's a number people can call if it's an emergency...or if my kid needs to reach me but that's about it...I guess I can deal with that too...If the kids need me, they can beep my pager...But all in all I really like this job....Just starting out with it and still tons more to learn....

As far as the Hurricane Wilma went....We made out okay I guess...Lost power for about a week...and it really didn't suck as back cause the weather was actually on the cool side...we weren't all hot and muggy, we had generators that powered up the fridge and T'V's and such....but the cold showers really bit the big one...I had to laugh as I started the job the friday before the hurricane struck and was on paid administrative leave for the entire next week...how cool is that? The kids were out of school for 2 weeks straight until they could get all the schools powered up and the traffic signals working again...so now they get to play catch up...yeah...The dilema down here is we have something called FCATS...they are standardized tests that all kids 3rd grade and up must take in March...(They are a pain in the ass, but don't get me started on those!) the problem is the kids lost 2 weeks of work that they need to have done to be prepared for the FCATS...The dabbled with having the kids make it up on Saturdays, but that got nixed cause the parents screamed (not me-other parents) they wanted to shorted Christmas break and again parents screamed (they had already made travel plans-I can sorta understand that one-but only sorta) so I have no clue what they are going to do....should be interesting....The debate continues....don't understand why the heck they just don't push the FCAT's back 2 weeks...that would make sense, but I had actually read a story that it wouldn't be fair to the school district's that could have them on time....um....people....we had a hurricane...you know...high winds, lines down, no power, trees up rooted and yes...I did see a witch on her bicycle flying by when the back wall came thru....it's not like we were just slacking off...Heck no one wanted this thing to come thru....it's funny to see the debates that is going on down here....just totally ludicrous if you ask me....all for a test that really doesn't do anything for the child, it doesn't get recorded for college, it's basically used to measure teachers....like report cards won't do that just as well?? But the pressure they put on these kids over this stupid tests is absolutly insane....Oh I wasn't going to go there was I? Sorry!!!!! I just don't like them and don't believe in them...

But other than that....We are doing fairly well...Manissa is down here with Kairi and I am so happy about that....Kairi can now pull herself up, crawl all over the place, and can run over Asha in 10 seconds flat if you put her in her walker...(The dog hasn't learned to get out of the way yet...and sadly...I have to wonder if she ever will!!!!! hahahahaha) She has all four front teeth in....and just a cute as a button!!!!! Patrick is doing okay...He misses all of us but he stays busy over there....in fact...they are getting a band together over there....don't ask...I have no clue, but Patrick plays bass...should be interesting to hear...he promises to send us recordings if he can...But all in all things are just wonderful all around....It's just hard to get onto the computer to check out everything....I am trying to adjust my schedule so I can get on here more often....

Well that should bring everyone up to date...Will check in on everyone else's blog this week!!!!

Take care all of you!!!

The short, short short version....................

Been too busy to update, job's great, kid's great, hubby's great....Still waiting for Elo's fuzzball to make it's appearance in this world...(Come ON kid! The time is NOW! hahahahaha) (See Squirrel Stories if you don't understand)


Will give the longer version soon.....hopefully.........:)