ok...very bad, but i HAVE heard worse.

now, while the story is crazy and saddening, i think the worst part of the story is the last part. placed into foster care? those poor kids will never be the same...worse off than they were with their dad probably.

Father accused of caging kids in his truck
Man's explanation: He didn't have a baby sitter
AP

POSEN, Ill. - A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter, officials said Thursday.
Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian, was arrested Monday after a woman at a gas station in Posen heard a crying child and spotted him pushing small hands back into a cage, police said.

He had a wire cage behind the front seats of his truck, police said. Black-tinted windows and a large plywood board in the back window concealed it.Gonzalez told police he used the cage because he didn't have a baby sitter. He also said he wanted to control the girls, ages 2 and 5, so they wouldn't run away. Police said the girls did not live in the cage.

Gonzalez will appear in court July 31 on charges of misdemeanor child endangerment. Cook County prosecutors were exploring Thursday whether the charge could be upgraded to a felony.
A telephone listing for Gonzalez could not be found, and it was not clear whether he had an attorney.

The children were turned over to the state child welfare agency and placed in foster care Monday.

Agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said the department was investigating abuse allegations against the father. It had previously found the mother neglectful and provided unspecified "supportive services" to the family.

mission: complete.

well, today the kids wound up waking up before 11:30, so we went on to the science center. it was super nice and we spent 4.5 hours there, taking it all in. since our passes are free for the entire summer, we'll be going back there again next week, probably tuesdayish or so. they really enjoyed themselves, and imagine the baby's surprise when she saw a fish bigger than her staring her straight in the face! she jumped up and ran to his tank and slapped on it, so excited she could hardly contain herself! the fish, on the other hand, seemed only mildly interested in her, and lazily scooted to the other side of his tank.

off to bed now, tomorrow is the 4th and we have a pool party/crab fest to attend! yay! i'm gonna get good sleep now hehe :)

what you miss out on when you don't get good sleep.

well, the kids and i were supposed to head on out to the science center today, but uh...well...they're still sleeping! and because i wanted to catch up on my home-based business idea...i am sort of wanting them to stay sleeping. i told them that if they weren't in the bed by a certain time last night, and didn't wake up early, that i was NOT waking them up. well instead of going to bed, they wanted to play alllllllll night long until i had to MAKE them go to bed...hence it being a quarter to eleven and they are still KNOCKED out!

well i am going to dry some laundry, and if they wake up before twelve thirty, we'll slide in 4 hours of science center experience. if not...we can always go on monday, because tomorrow is one of my very favorite holidays--the fourth of july! yay!

the best thing about this trip is that it's free! we get free passes for the entire summer from the science center, so admission for up to twelve of us is free everyday except for special events. we WILL be making good use of these passes--frugal momming at her best!

broadening my circle.

it's been two days since i've decided to "broaden my circle" of knowledge, information, social life, conversation, etc. etc. and so far, i don't like the results i'm getting.

granted, it is not safe to be so boxed in your own little world that you don't have a CLUE about the real world or other people's little worlds. but i can honestly say, that only after 48 hours, i am already remembering why i narrowed my world so much in the first place.

i am a very sensitive person, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. and honestly, this whole "circle widening" thing has me stressing already. last night i fell asleep worrying about issues that i wouldn't have ever worried about had i not read the latest headline news. questions like, "am i too hard on barack obama?" "will they ever lower inmate calls in america so we can afford to talk to our loved ones?" "will gas prices ever go lower" "God help those who lost their homes today" "is the stock market crashing lower than my momma's basement?" "will my momma's basement be ok if some weather catastrophe should befall us?" "can i get water and rice in my momma's basement anyway?" "is my husband living in at least somewhat sanitary conditions in the prisons (he'll tell me ANYTHING to keep me from stressing)?" "what good are all these coalitions and organizations and committees doing for blacks, latinos, even whites who are in need of help?" "where are all these little kids getting these damn guns from?" "when my husband is released from prison, will we be able to live without fear from police or old ways coming back to haunt him?" "is there anything i can do about all of this?" "what the hell am I going to do about all of this?!"

honestly, the news and broadening my circle causes anxiety to build deep inside the pit of my stomach. now as a Christian, i'm not supposed to be afraid. i know this. but sometimes, i have to just take a deep breath and try to calm my own nerves because if i don't, i'll lose it. i look at my children, i look at my husband, i look at myself, i even look at my pets. they all depend on me. i need to know how to be strong in the face of adversity for them. i stress about my husband coming home to this world. i stress about the police harassing him, i stress about the streets inviting him, i stress about his own weaknesses taking over. sometimes i do this even when i KNOW God is here for us. i don't know why. i don't know if it's the humanness in me taking over, i don't know what it is. but i feel the world is starting to spin wildly out of control, and sometimes i feel like we are all going in different directions with no real unity anywhere. and that--is stressful.

this is why i prefer the four walls of my home as opposed to the outside world. this is why i am content never watching tv--EVER. this is why i am so "out of the loop" politically, socially, and even mentally i suppose. because it stresses me out to take a chance and put my feet onto a different soil in an effort to explore.

it doesn't SCARE me. it STRESSES me. there's a difference. but either way, the results that i get when i broaden my circle are not good.

but then again, maybe that stress is something that i need to be able to get off my hiney and do more than just care for my family and household. maybe i need to be stressed, because a certain amount of stress is good, right? maybe i can take this stress and do something MORE for the world and not just my immediate concerns. and as long as i know God has my back, i can handle whatever comes my way.

i'm going to keep broadening my circle. even if it's just one news headline, group discussion, or google search (instead of 10) at a time.

that daggone treadmill

i am SO wishing i would have brought that gym membership. *sigh*. i keep revisiting this topic because UGH! i want to get some exercise. hmph! and it's really on my mind. now wait until i get the card--i'm probably never gonna get on the treadmill.

"if i am not good to myself, how can i expect anyone else to be good to me?" ~maya angelou

of things related and unrelated - 7/1/08

i have a really bad cold, and now i'm getting an earache. i am going to force myself to go to the doctor...it's been literally years since i've had an ear infection.

in an effort to expand my horizons/borders/mindset more, i've decided to add a google newsreel to my blog. that way, when i view it, i can also view current stories. i am doing this because i don't watch tv nor do i ever read the news. one time there was a main water break in the city and i didn't find out until a week after it happened. people went without water for five days--i had NO clue. not good.

advil pm really, REALLY works. i use my coupons of course and get a bottle worth 5.00 for about 0.80, so of COURSE it's worth it to me! but it really works...and if i say that, it's good! because i have an extremely high pain tolerance, so most regular medicines and doses don't work well for me.

adopt a soldier! i adopted one, and he hasn't written me back. it's a little wierd writing and mailing off letters when you aren't sure that they reach their destination. in my mind, i imagine them going on a journey and winding up in some far off land that i'll never get to see. a little bit wierd, but hey. the instructions say to keep writing, even if you don't recieve a respons. and they aren't coming back to me...so they are going somewhere.

blogs on racial justice and racism and american politics really have me questioning some of my prior beliefs. i guess you can say that i grew up pretty sheltered or something because i have yet to experience racism on some of the both subtle and grand scales that i am reading about, despite being a black woman. my mom says that i probably had no clue when it was staring me in the face. at this time, i am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.

i've decided to get a dyson, and not a kirby. i've also decided to hold off on replacing the carpet in the living room until i see how well (or not well) the dyson works for us. whatever i can do to save money, i'm all for.

lately we've been cooking, and cooking good meals at home. i might be the next emeril.

i am still feeling lil' wayne. i heard his entire CD, and i love it. of course i have no real clue about "hip hop" and what not, i am really commercial in a sense...but i still am snapping my fingers and clicking my heels to the beat (he is my guilty pleasure).

for some odd reason, our pit-bull isn't reacting as well to the ivermectin drops this time around as she usually does. i'm not sure if it's the humidity, or the being in the house so much, or what. but i expected a way better improvement than i've been getting from the medicine.