Living in the house today....
Hal, my husband of 34 years. He works nights at GM which has been a constant irritation to me for years. I always wanted to have a "normal" family. I will acknowledge that would probably never would be the way we would be described, even if he had an 8 to 5 job. But there could have always be a chance of the illusion of it. Maybe.
Myself, Iris. I am a permanent part time employee of FEMA. Yes, the ones that go out on disasters. The butt of all Jay Leno's jokes.. My official title is D.A.E. which stands for Disaster Assistance Employee. I worked in New Orleans after Katrina. Greensburg, Kansas after it was flattened. And several other tornadoes and floods and one other hurricane. Gone for weeks at a time and I guess then it doesn't matter if Hal works nights.
Greg. Hal's big brother. Greg has been with us a bit over 3 years. He works as a security man. Also nights. Sleeps days and is planning on moving out on his own sometime this year.
Shane. He is an interesting sort of guy. 17 years ago, in my old neighborhood, I spend my days and nights trying to catch sight of him, just to call the police on him. These days he, his wife Debbie, and 4 (soon to be 5) kids call my basement home. He has plans to start his own business. Jobs seem to be rather hard to come by. Especially those that would allow a man to support a family of six. Most likely soon to be seven; I suspect Deb is prenant, but they are keeping very quiet about that.
Debbie. She is Shane's wife and a full blooded Chippewa. I only mention this as she is my very first Indian *Native American* and I got to work on her genealogy. Was most exciting to me. With her family names of Curry, Anderson, Samm and so on, I really didn't believe she was "full blooded". I was expecting names such as Morning Star, Rushing Wind, Iron Feather... Talk about not knowing much... I have Census work on her ancestors back to the early 1800s and every one of them are marked Full Blood. Just too cool.
Cameron. He's 8 years old. Attends 2 grade. Thinks school is just "so-so" but likes math class.
Andrew. Five and in Kindergarten. He loves school and feels gypped that he gets on a half day.
Abbie. Three years old and taller than most kindergarteners. Her other name is "the Princess" and has her Daddy just wrapped around her pinky finger.
Jacob. Eighteen months. He's crawling, and just attempting to stand. He will be walking soon.
Ben. Debbie's brother calls home my sofa his special place. I ran out of private areas for him. I did get him a sleep mask to try and cut out the front room light. But Ben has a good sense of humor and maybe all will work out for him soon. He's waiting for some grant money coming via the U.S. government for schooling and then he will be getting a place of his own.
