The Havasu Ghost Hunters

Yesterday we cleaned up the old house and milled around discussing the delicate subject of suicide.
But we weren't delicate in our discussions for the most part. We were honest. Suicide is stupid. It's the most selfish thing a person can do. It's horrible.

And we didn't want the kids to walk away from it with nightmares, so I suggested that we come back to the place after dark and do some investigating. Some might think that such behavior would promote nightmares and bad memories, but I knew we'd find a way to make it alright for them. Mostly I wanted to show them that it wouldn't be right to walk away feeling creepy about that house, because I have very many happy memories from the place. We had birthdays, Christmas, barbecues, and all kinds of family gatherings there. The kids played together as babies there.

As we wrapped up the day, the kids and I stepped out to where the suicide happened. We were perplexed because a very heavy swing that was sitting there was overturned and apart. We'd just been out there a few minutes before, and the swing wasn't like that. Hmmm..... perhaps someone was telling us how he felt?

After a great dinner we went back to the house. We actually had some personal items from "whatshisname" and I placed them in the area where he died.
And then we sat and waited.

Sometimes, we texted...



Sometimes, we just stared at the stuff....



And after quite a while of hearing and seeing nothing, we went inside the house and poked around in the empty rooms.



I became depressed, because I was sad to see another piece of our family history go.
I imagined the times we had, with our little babies, and all the memories that would be struggling to keep a place in our minds as things began to fade.

This was once a spot where the kids liked to sit and play with the books from the overflowing book shelf:



And now it's a dark corner in an empty house:



Geez, now I'm getting sadder...

It's ALL IN THE PLANNNNN!!!!

My Republican Women's Club voted last week to donate $600 of copy paper to the local schools. So I took advantage of the opportunity and got my picture in our newspaper. My name too!




Shay took the photo.

Juicy Gossip

I guess you could consider this gossip. But I have nothing to hide. So I'll spill.

My brother began dating a high school friend of mine back in the 90's. They bought a house together, had a baby girl, split up a couple of years later. She moved in with her new boyfriend, they have been together ever since. My niece, their daughter, lived mostly with her mom. My brother remained in their house for many years, and when he decided to move to Tennessee three years ago he rented the house to his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. Yeah, I know, lots of words but I suppose they'd appreciate me keeping their names off the blog....

None of us knew about all the strife over there. They kept to themselves. They never let me see my niece. We just assumed they wanted to be left alone.
But apparently there were problems.
Right before Christmas, he (the ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend) threatened to kill himself. And then he actually followed through.

She moved out, but left a large amount of belongings behind. My niece made the decision that she'd rather go live in Tennessee with her dad. Rightfully so. She wanted out of the chaos. My brother decided to just sell the house. He flew out this week to do paperwork and empty the house. He had no idea that the place was so full.
We decided to put it all in a garage sale. Today was the only day we could do it, because he and his daughter are flying out to Tennessee tomorrow. We busted our butts, made several hundred dollars, and I got to spend a little time with my niece. And so did Shay!!!!



By the way, Shay is the younger one. She was born about 9 months before him.

Yes, we did the garage sale just a few feet from where "Whatshisname" killed himself. It was cleaned up, but there was a little evidence of what happened. We've explained everything to the kids, they are aware, and of course they were curious and wanted to know details. We tactfully gave them enough information and of course talked about the stupidity of it all. And since Shay and I are great big fans of the Ghosthunters........

To Be Continued....

Timing

Timing is everything, right? Somehow I managed to make a big decision and the timing couldn't have been more precise.
I must talk to a thousand people a day. Sometimes more. When I'm carrying my clipboard around getting petition signatures, I find myself campaigning more than really would be necessary just to get that ONE SIGNATURE. On Thursday I spoke for over an hour to a lady who wanted to know my views on health care, abortion, gay marriage.....the Sunnis, the Kurds, the Iraquis.....
None of this would EVER have anything to do with a seat on our City Council but she had to make herself feel better about signing my petition. And believe it or not, I run into this every day. A petition page has room for 15 signatures, and to fill one page in a day is a miracle. Because sometimes it takes 15 hours of talking to get them.

So....back to the timing thing.

I like to compare it in my mind to the whole Obama mystique. He used the Hope and Change ticket to advance in the election and his timing couldn't have been better because people were tired of the old white guys who've been running the country. And now that mentality has spread to our little city. I never thought it would be really necessary to have my picture on campaign items, but people are saying over and over to me, "Good, I'm glad to see a younger person running. This City Council needs some young blood."

Then I read the online forums. They're saying the same thing.

Luckily, my friend Kenny set up a little studio in his garage last July (110 degrees in there, I must add...) and I dressed up....and we took pictures. Thus, the "Legitimate Me" series of photos. And those suckers get used EVERYWHERE.



It's even on my car....



Shawna Thornton. Thornton Means Business.

Busy. Busy. Busy. And...... Busy.

It's been a very hectic month and I'm wondering if the activity will be increasing or decreasing in March! I've got the normal stuff to do, plus a nice new load of things that I didn't expect to be my responsibility. Oh well. Deal with it, right?

I began promoting shawnathornton.com recently, and I'm ever so thankful that I had time a year ago to put it together. Really, a year ago!! I need to get on there and change a couple of things, but other than that it's pretty straight forward.
I also began campaigning every day. I introduce myself to people and let them know I'm running for City Council. Not really necessary at this point, because a City Council race is all about name recognition. People aren't going to be at the polls on August 24th and remember that they met me waaaay back in February. That's why I should be fundraising right now. I need lots of dough to pay for the advertisements this summer.

And I need a latte. Like right now.