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Showing posts from May, 2009

Tell Me Why - Nevaeh Buchanan..5 years old

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Tell me why - Neveah Buchanan - Can someone tell my why? Why would ANY MOTHER of a YOUNG CHILD befriend and "pal" around with convicted sex offenders? Prepare your stomach, because if you're anything like me ...you're about to be sickened...................... On May 24th little 5 year old Nevaeh (Monroe, Michigan) came up missing. Evidently the little girl had been playing outside her grandmother's home just prior to her becoming missing. The girl lived with her grandmother. Sadly, missing children is not a rarity ....but what makes this story so DISGUSTING is the reports on who...what MONSTERS...this little girl was willingly, on the part of her MOTHER, exposed to....CONVICTED SEX OFFENDERS! Jennifer Buchanan (24 years old) , Neveah's mother, according to news reports, was an "associate" of convicted sex offender, Roy Lee Smith, and the girlfriend of yet another sex offender, George Kennedy. May 28, 2009 - Detroit News... ".......Kennedy was c

hmm..question

Hmmmm..question... Scenario - An accident happens....a car hits a tree. The police are called. There are two people in the car. The driver was legally drunk - but the passenger said they weren't hurt badly and ask the police not to give the driver a DUI....The driver has a long record of driving drunk.."the law is the law" ...right? Police issue the driver a DUI...and rightfully so. Then why when a husband with a long and known history of domestic violence convictions - beats and strangles a wife - is that not considered attempted murder? Does their marriage license trump the attempt to murder? And is it worthy of just a 500 dollar bail? I'll never understand why Francesca Weber was killed when Steve Weber should have been sitting in jail awaiting trial rather than paying 500 dollars to get out and go on to finish the job..... The tragic story May 20, 2009 The Verona Press "According to the criminal complaint in that case, his teenage daughter woke to the sound

A Special Education ; Justin

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I tend to write about Kyle a lot and that's mainly because he is one of those characters in life that stands out....always into something....always creating something new....just always there, on my heels and has been since the day he was born....my kangaroo baby that needed (still does) to be in his mother's pouch at all times. Justin, my eldest son, is very laid back...a calm and gentle soul - one that is perfectly happy taking a back seat and laughing at all his brother does. He shines away from the limelight whereas Kyle bounces towards it. But don't let that fool you - the day Justin was born not only changed my life, but made a significant impact for positive change in the lives of others. He was beautiful baby...one of those plump babies with a round head, and just a couple of little curls doting the almost bald head. A whooping 9lbs when he was born - and after 20 hours of natural child birth to that size baby...the reason I said "give me the drugs" when i

Accountability - Domestic Violence and the Weber Tragedy

This morning I was reading the Monday morning quarterback articles on the net...We're all good at that - heck that's one of the reasons I believe blogs exist. One of the articles I found detailed the incident that happened back in December of 2008, and why Steve Weber was out on a 500 dollar bail - http://www.channel3000.com/news/19520896/detail.html "The complaint said Weber was straddling his wife and was punching and choking her. When their 17-year-old daughter tried to stop the attack with a fire poker, Weber allegedly began hitting his daughter, according to the complaint. The complaint said that when police arrived, Weber resisted officers and tried to take a gun from one officer. Weber was arrested and charged with four felony charges, including suffocation and strangulation, child abuse and attempting to disarm a police officer. When he appeared in Dane County Circuit Court, his bail was set at $500 cash bond. According to court records, after the incident in Decem

The Good Ole Days!

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Yes, believe it or not I do have some of those too! It's not all gloom and doom! And, for some reason today, this chilly ...rainy...late May ...day - I am remembering a really special time - a time when I first got the taste of letting go of restraints. I was 17 years old and walking around with a time bomb inside me, an enlarged spleen. That freaky spleen of mine started enlarging when I was just nine years old and caused so many trips to the hospital that I have lost track of just how many times I was hospitalized for it....at least 6 times a year. This of course was back in the day when a doctor said he was going to run some tests meant two weeks in a hospital bed. Anyway....doctors...specialists (many...too many of them) just couldn't figure out why I was so ill, and why that damn spleen of mine kept enlarging. They didn't want to remove it until they could figure out the underlying cause...was it cancer? some weird autoimmune disorder? So, they ran tests after tests..

Memorial Day

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I hope everyone is having a happy and safe Memorial Day!! I was out bright and early for the paper this morning, and wandering from one Memorial Day ceremony to another taking pictures....here are a couple I took........

Can't Ignore it Any Longer...R.I.P. Francesca

This week as I was focusing on my lawn and the dire need for a lawnmower, I was also doing something else; avoiding the news reports here in Wisconsin on the recent domestic violence murder suicides that have taken place. I needed to take that mental break, especially after receiving Tim's letter from prison reminding me that he is still out there, and still thinking of me...trying to "invoke a response"...his own words. But the break is over and this story needs to be told................... News On Tuesday (05/19/09) Steve Weber's, 49, of Verona Wisconsin, body was found after an intense manhunt lead by the SWAT team. The body was found in Madison's Hoyt Park at approximately 7:00 p.m. Weber was a victim of suicide, and had been the target of the manhunt as he was suspected of shooting and killing his ex-wife the Saturday before at her Fitchburg apartment. The couple's divorce had been just finalized the week prior to Francesca's murder. That's how t

Need I say more????... (update to Whack it!)

Whack It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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So my lawn mower is fried! This has been confirmed, and I have come to terms with it's passing....but that doesn't stop the grass from growing now does it? The weather, along with my schedule has created a mess....a tangled web of overly grown grass and weeds in my backyard. The front yard we've been able to keep somewhat under control with one of those old manual push mower things....you know the type - dull blades, rusty...and just a major PAIN! Hard to believe that I once, as a kid, went around my neighborhood cutting lawns for money with one of those things..... Anyway...that marsh of a backyard! UGH! Yesterday I was out there with my darling "what's there to eat?" teenager, Justin. And BTW..I swear he should become a magician - that kid does some of the best disappearing acts I've ever seen! The push mower torture device wouldn't budge - grass was too long, and I am old! (well I felt old yesterday!) Every time Justin went to use it, within minutes

I missed this?

I started with the newspaper back in September of 2006. I can remember the very first story I covered- a community event; The River of Memories. The River of Memories is an annual rendezvous that happens along the banks of the Lemonweir River here in Mauston, Wisconsin. Attending it is a trip back into time when trappers and travelers lived off the land while making trades with the Natives that called the dense woods and rolling hills, home. It was an easy article to write because there were so many stories ...so many glimpses into the event I could grab on to and create a picture of with words. Yes, my first published article, my first by-line was a full page spread and I was hooked. Having not been one who paid much attention to language arts in school I never thought of myself as a writer, let alone a reporter. I never quite understood the rules, and why they even existed. As far as I was concerned if you can talk and spell fairly well, then you can write...so why the rules? Just w

If it weren't for them.........

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Them...yes...my boys. I could be having a horrible day...week....one in which I feel like curling up and hiding under a quilt - but somehow, and eventually my boys will bring me out of that self defeating action, and cause a smile to creep across my face. The last part of this past week has been one of those emotionally hard, depressing times. On top of dealing with that situation with my ex, Tim, there were problems with my car - the house - my bank account - and some other personal things, that really took hold and had me wishing I could just escape...run away, and never turn back to what has been my life these past few years. To do that would mean I would have to make my way through the jungle of grass in my front yard, as my lawn mower is broke and the greenery is out of control! UGH! I fell asleep Friday evening (actually the wee hours of Saturday morning) with tears hitting my pillow - and what seemed like minutes later...but actually was hours....I was awoken to a loud screech .

Enforcing Boundaries

Yesterday I wrote about how my ex (abuser) violated court orders, and contacted me from prison...yet again. Well I did the right thing and notified his probation and parole agent and informed her of the violation. I love the age of technology because I could do so in an email, and not have to worry about how nervous...scared...or upset I sounded over the phone. She handled the situation swiftly..responded to me within an hour, and contacted his social worker at the prison to enforce a warning that should he decide to violate the terms of the conditions set forth, he would suffer consequences. In addition to that she forwarded to me all the communication between her and the social worker. I found that to be very considerate on her part, as I am sure she could tell that while I may seem "in control" , inside I was shivering with the residual fear all those memories of the assault bring on. It's not easy to involve the police when you're in an abusive relationship...usua

The Letters Keep Coming...........

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Today I have to do something I am not looking forward in doing. Not only am I exhausted from spending the first part of the week out of town at a domestic violence advocacy training and find that the task I have before me today kind of ironic to say the least. Yesterday evening I walked into my home looking forward to collapsing on the couch and vegging out. I wanted to not think about domestic violence...victims, survivors nor offenders. I just wanted to enjoy being home and listening to the continuous ramblings of my children as they detailed their time while I was gone. I missed my boys and just wanted to focus on them and nothing else. I surveyed the kitchen taking in the mess that greeted me there...the piles of dishes, and the counter showing the evidence of all the food that had been consumed by my teenager over the course of the last few days....and that's when I saw it....the letter. A piece of mail waiting for me. A letter with the telltale red stamp on the envelope alarm

Waywad, Woywad, Woy what?

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IT'S WOYWOD!!!!!! Yes, W-O-Y-W-O-D....."Woy" rhymes with "boy" and "Wod" is pronounced "Wood!" "Well what kind of name is that?" It's my name!!! That's what kind! I cannot tell you how often I've had to explain to people how to pronounce my last name nor can I even start to describe how many times it's been butchered by others. So many times in fact that when someone new pronounces it, and gets it right, I am stunned..I congratulate them...I thank them as I shake their hand!!! For almost 17 years in my adult life people knew me as Eva Marie Roberts...nice and simple, right? Well not really because even then it was my first name they got wrong....Ava? Eve? No, E (long e , it says it's name) - VA! E-V-A! But even then if they weren't sure a quick and simple "Mrs. Roberts" always did the trick. It didn't matter that I actually hyphenated my last name when I was married, Woywod-Roberts, as long as

A new feminist movement....

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"Women need to have respect for other women" Was the one statement that really stood out for me in Oprah's interview with Elizabeth Edwards regarding the mistress in the affair with her husband, John Edwards. It's so very true and unfortunately I think it's something we're not teaching our daughters to do. It's a role model that needs to be passed down.. a living example of that Golden Rule. It's like anything else...I cannot expect someone who has never been abused...sexually, emotionally, physically...to ever really understand the struggle, the pain, and fears that I have lived and experienced. I can tell my story, share with them my words, my emotions, but unless you've been there, the depths of those emotions cannot be felt for what they really are. How many times have you heard a group of teenage girls sit around and critique one of their peers for the way they look, or their lot in life? It's vicious. I remember those days clearly. To say

I'm Getting Redundant

Yup, I am...getting redundant that is. What a week!!!! Yet another week where..EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!!!!! Summary: Sunday: Strange email from someone that provided some clues to missing pieces of a puzzle...puzzle pieces that my gut had told me were true for a very long time. I wouldn't even no where to begin filling everyone in on that one...by the time you got done reading it you'd think I needed medication, and/or a padded room (come to think of it...maybe I do need them) Monday: That Prince Charming I wrote about back in March...well, we're talking again....but there is still more to that one...and also with that good friend of mine in Oregon (confused, yet? - try being me the last couple of years! - it will be a bestseller by the time that last chapter is written!!! - Love Ameriken Style - The Twilight Zone Version...and no, that's not a misspelling of American - it is what it is!- buy the book!) Tuesday: A day filled with a lot of smiles! Wednesday: Thi

Rainbow

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Today was a really good day, and it ended with a beautiful rainbow. I'm a little tired tonight so I thought I would just post the pictures, and write about it tomorrow...do you see double?

YIKES!!!!!!

"Yankee Doodle went to town... riding on his mother...Every time they hit a bump... he got an another brother." Now imagine sitting in a little diner with your children....chewing (choking) on your meal as those words come out of one of your son's sweet little innocent mouth. "KYLE TIMOTHY!!!!" Heads turned...I could see people grinning...and there Kyle sat. Cute little Kyle with that precious face that endears every woman he meets. Elderly women fawn all over him...little girls follow him around...girls his age whack him with their backpacks...yes, he will be my gray hair...he is my gray hair!!!!!! And then two minutes later Kyle says............... "Mom, a girl socked Justin in the face the other day." "They hit him all the time!" I turned to look at Justin who was sitting next to me in the booth. He was grinning ear to ear. I asked myself if I really wanted to hear this ...but as I was telling myself "no" the words came out of my

A timeout, kinda

Well I haven't written in a few days. I tend to go through streaks like that...one day all I can do is write...vent, and then other days words just don't come. Over the past fews days I've tried to write.... Sat down with my cup of coffee, news in the background...all the elements I need to be creative but before I would know it I would be doing something else. I have been busy with the Energy Fair I am volunteering to help organize. That's been an interesting trip. I did manage to get a barebones web site up, and also a myspace page for it: Local Energy Excellence Fair . Stop by if you can! We did have some drama this weekend...the damn lawnmower died! Poor kids had to use the push mower on a very uneven yard....not to mention the grass has gotten too long. I am not sure what I am going to do about that. Pray for a drought? Last year when the now deceased lawmower first started acting up, we did use the weed whacker thing to cut grass...but then that died too. I'll