Dru’s New World

Earlier this week I wrote about a very important Milestone in my older daughters life. Well I guess my younger daughter could not let the week go by without reaching her own little milestone.
Today was going to be a very busy day. I was going to get up and work on the Three bedroom apartment for awhile so the tenants can move in this week. The Electrician was going to come over and get some work done and my older daughter, Ashley, had a Soccer game for her indoor team. I was over in the Three Bedroom apartment while Ashley and one of her friends that lives in the building were at my apartment watching Jessie, my Youngest. I didn’t even have time to open the can of paint before Ashley came running into the apartment saying, “Jessie is hurt.”
I ran over and sure enough Jessie was sitting on the couch with Ashley’s friend holding a cold wet towel over her face. I pulled off the towel to see a nice little cut to the left of her left eye. From the blood on the towel and the drops of blood on Jessie’s pants I could tell this was not going to be fun. Of course, since the moms that live in the building were in the 3 bedroom helping me so they could get away from their kids and gossip about their husbands they came running in.
The one thing about me is I hate blood, when I was in the military I saw my share of blood and would prefer to never see it again, especially from one of my children. The cut really wasn’t that bad and the bleeding was very slow so I got a band-aid and just sat there and held Jessie while I asked for an explanation about the situation. There are 8 years difference in age between my girls and usually get along really well although Jessie does get annoying according to Ashley.
“Well, I was using the wrench to hammer in a nail on my bedroom wall. When I was done I lowered my arm and Jess came running to me at the same time. The wrench hit her.” Of course I know my daughter would not do anything like this on purpose and I also know that at 12 years old and has a lot to learn in life… Why would you use a wrench as a hammer?
So the Mom’s came in and looked at it and said, “Ohh that is not bad she will be fine.”
Jessie calmed down and started to play again so I got Ashley’s soccer stuff together and got ready to leave. We met Mima (my mother) and GG (my Grandmother) at the soccer game along with my girlfriend and her youngest daughter. The game was great and my daughter did great as the goalie in the first half. The Final score was 5-2 and we lost but only one goal was scored on Ashley.
After the game I noticed that the cut on Jessie was still bleeding a little. The band-aid was soaked. The three of us said our goodbyes to everyone and headed over to the nearest Urgent Care. While waiting in line Jessie started crying because she absolutely hates the Doctors office. One of the Nurses came up to us took a quick peek and told me, “we will not touch that here. She is going to need to be seen by a plastic surgeon.” She game me a cold compress and some gauze and we left for the emergency room.
This emergency room was great, almost everyone was great. The only person that I didn’t really care for was the one that took our information about insurance and stuff. I actually think that she was trying to make sure I didn’t hit Jessie or something and the fact that I had custody and she lived with me really confused her.
Anyway, after a two hour wait a Doctor, Nurse and some kid that was probably an intern or something because he was all of about 19 years old came in. Jessie is a very strong 4 year old when she is pissed. Now here the four of us are trying to hold this poor kid down while this strange guy is threading a needle. I would be kicking and screaming also. This 19 year old kid actually started signing to Jessie and they started sewing my daughters face.
Finally, after getting asked 3 times, “Mr. U are you OK?” The Doctor was finished with my daughters first stitches. I was so proud but because I was so pale the nurse made me sit down while she gathered up the paperwork. We left there and Jessie had her first set of stitches and me and my two daughters were doing high fives out the door.
I am so proud… I do know that there are going to be more stitches in the future but none of those are as important as the first time someone uses a needle to get your skin back together. To have your first set of stitches on your face is an honor, right there to display to the world.
Congrats Jessie…

Yesterday was a very upseting but exciting day. Every Parent remembers taking thier child to the first day of Kindergarten. It is an emotionally draining day, you are excited because they are reaching school age, you are excited because you will either have more free time or you will start paying less for daycare. On the other hand you are depressed because your baby is now school age, you are depressed because they are going to start their path to independence.
Yesterday I realized that taking my older daughter to Kindergarten was just the begining. I remember walking her to the school on the first day. I remember she was crying and scared and as she walked away with her new teacher I felt a wave of different emotions. Since then I have seen this beautiful little girl go though all these important steps in life but for some reason I thought the next stage of growing up was going to be High School age, First date, driving, graduation, etc… I totally was not ready for yesterday. Although I knew it was coming I was not expecting the call already.
My Daughter Started Her Period…
I am a man and very glad that I am. I have seen what this monthly monster does to women and I am very proud of the fact I do not have to deal with it. I knew this was coming and I have been talking to my daughter about it for the past year maybe a little longer. It might have been about a year ago when I actually took her into the store and looked at the different boxes with my daughter to see if we could figure out what to buy. She was always scared about this happening and knowing there is nothing I can do to keep this away from her I tried to talk to her about it and make it sound exciting.
Yesterday around 2:30 I got a call at work from my daughter. She was so excited to tell me that I am sure if anyone was around they would have thought she was crazy.
I guess I did my job making it an exciting thing for her, although I know like any other adult, she will grow to hate it… I just never realized how grown-up she would look to me once this started, she is now a woman…

(Post Transfered from old Blog)
This weekend was a rough one for me. I closed on the house last week and was very interested in pouring money into it all weekend. Had a couple of scheduled appointments with a roofer, an electrician and a heating specialist.
Since the weekend was going to be so hectic I turned my phone off on Friday night so I could get some sleep. When I woke up Early Saturday morning I checked my voicemail. There was one message from my father.
I called my dad back and found out my uncle Joe had died. My dad and stepmother were making plans to fly in and make it to the funeral.
I ended up talking them into flying to my place and we would drive up together. Uncle Joe lived about 4 and a half hours from me so it was fun to have company on the drive up. Especially since I do not get to spend to much time with my father.
I grew up visiting Uncle Joe quite often since he owned a duplex and rented the other half to my grandmother before she died in 2001. I remember since I was the youngest of grandmothers youngest son all my cousins were a lot older than me and I was closer in age to their kids than them. Uncle Joe realized this and also realized that grandma’s house could get boring for a kid under the age of 10. He lived in an area that had a lot of Amish people o he would come get me and take me for rides though “Amish” country and give me history leasons. It was never boring when Uncle Joe was around.
Yesterday I had to say goodbye to my uncle and the feeling of regret for the times I was to busy to visit him overwhelmed me. I left for the military 14 years ago. In that time I went to visit him once, saw him at my grandmothers funeral and he drove to my wedding. Definatley not enough time to extract some more of his knowledge before Cancer won the war on Friday night.
After the funeral yesterday we all went to the Moose Lodge to eat and drink in the place Joe loved. I got to once again remember the amount of time that has passed since I left for the military. Joe oldest granddaughter is now a high school teacher and just got married last month. Seeing the picture of Joe dancing with his little granddaughter at her wedding brought tears to everyones eyes. The man that was invinsible to me and larger than life itself looked so tired and beaten but you could see the happiness in his smile as he held his baby girl.
Uncle Joe, you will be missed and the lives you have touched in the 72 years on earth are countless and priceless. Your children and grandchildren have so many memories of you that we could not stop talking about them. We love you and miss you.

According to my daughter a long term relationship in her school is approximatly one month. I remember those days. I honestly believe that the only reason this break up affected my daughter so much was the situation.
The other day I left work early again and made it to the school so I could pick her up before she got on the bus. As I stood infront of the office looking over this wave of short people I noticed my daughter (she is one of the tallest in her school). She was walking towards me with her eyes firmly planted on the ground. Her best friend was walking beside her with the look of concern. My daughter looked up and greeted me with a painful smile.
As we walked to the car I asked her what happened at school. Of course I got the mechanical response, “nothin’”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Tony Dumped me.” she said with a crack in her voice that told me she was about to cry. I knew then my busy plans for that night were changed. The car ride was quiet, she didn’t speak. Then she noticed that I turned the wrong way, “where are we going.
“You’ll see, you need some breakup medication.”
We pulled up in front of a Mom & Pop shop in the tiny town next to ours. We walked in and she actually started to look around for the medicine ilse. I said, “its back here.” We walked into the back where there is an old counter sat on stools and I looked at the man behind the counter. “Two Chocolate shakes, bad break up moment.”
The man gave a little smirk and went to the back kitchen. When he returned he handed the largest milk shake I have ever seen to my daughter and said, “it heals the heart” then placed a small Milkshake in front of me and said, “the large is on the house.”
Although my daughter has never been to this place I am there every morning on my way to work. Bobby, the man behind the counter, has heard about my daughter almost every week day for the past 6 months.
After a couple of ice cold sips my daughter told me a tragic story of pain, suffering and betrayal. I sat there listening and secretly thought, “boy are horrible creatures, but girls are just down right mean.”
I will have to explain this whole story someday but as for now it has snowballed into splitting a school in half and two fathers getting called to the Principals office.
The good news, after my daughter finished her milk shake and told me this horrible story, she got up with a huge smile gave me a hug and said, “I am so glad you will let me talk to you about this.”

Friday my daughter stayed after school since the school was showing a movie. She is in Middle School and she has been growing up way to fast this year. I left work early and decided it would be fun to go pick her up and then go out for an Ice Cream cone before we picked up her little sister from Day Care. I make sure that there are those little moments that the two of us can sit down and talk without the interruption of her 3 year old sister looking for my attention.
So I walk into the Auditorium and look among the mass of 11-14 year old in this huge room. I couldn’t see he and thought it was no big deal (there were a lot of kids) Then my eye caught her best friend. She was sitting just a few rows in front of me and was with a big crowd of kids joking and having fun, they definitely didn’t care if there was a movie there. I scanned the smaller group and sure enough there was still no sign of my daughter. Then I did a double take, there she was, right next to her best friend. She has a favorite sweatshirt, or Hoody I think they call them, she always wears it. There it was, how could I miss her? Well this whole time I was looking for this beautiful young girl with 2 arms and 1 head, I was not looking for the kid with one head on someone else’s shoulder. I was not looking for a boy with his arm around my daughter. I was not looking for this boy that was holding my daughter like she was the most valuable possession he has owned.
I will admit at first my blood was boiling over, I could not believe what I was seeing, then the humor set in. I know none of her friends saw me so I grabbed my camera phone and tried to sneak up a little closer. It was to dark I had this image of snapping a picture of this and sending it to every relative we have. I just couldn’t get the picture, well here I was standing right behind one of her friends that was right behind my daughter, look there, its an empty seat. I quickly tapped her friend on the shoulder and gave her the signal to be quiet. Sat down next to her and started watching the movie. Her friend leaned over and whispered, “Tony asked her out today.”
I quickly responded, “I see that,” with a little grin on my face. I was sitting there in this group of my daughters friends trying to think of something that I could do to embarrass her. I could have thought all day long and I would have never came up with something good enough. So I leaned over to her friend and said, “just tell her I will be up there waiting.”
On my way up towards the school lobby one of my daughters teachers stopped me. so I sat there and talked with him for a few minutes and was taking glimpses of my daughter and her new boyfriend. Then all of a sudden it felt like I was jumped on by a Linebacker in the Super Bowl. It was my daughter, I guess she noticed I was there.
She jumped on me and wrapped her arms around me and said, “Tony asked me out.” Of course I had the same reply, “I noticed, and again I had this grin. At this time I looked at where my daughter was sitting and I see this 13 year old boy sneaking away very quickly.
After telling my daughter I was waiting until the movie was over and then I would take her home, she gave me another hug and then went to sit down again.
“Wow, not to many daughters would be excited to tell their father they have a new boyfriend,” her teacher said to me.
“Yeah, I know” I said as I thought about every major milestone I have seen her go though, and realized this was the next one.