~The Most Important Things in Life~

OXFORD The attempted abduction of a 14-year-old boy yesterday and a report of a missing 7-year-old girl about 30 minutes later had police initially concerned the two occurrences may have been related. The two incidents were not connected, Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said in a telephone interview last night. The girl was reported missing by her mother about 4 p.m. and located safely about 7:30 p.m. at a friend’s house. “We were ready to issue an Amber Alert,” he said. The attempted abduction of the boy was reported about 3:30 p.m., Mr. Conte said. The youth was approached by two white men. “We believe they were posing as Wal-Mart police.” The victim was taken to the Clara Barton camp on Ennis Road. The two men attempted to tape the youth’s hands with duct tape. “He resisted and was able to run from the scene,” the district attorney said. The above quotation from the paper is the reason there has been no posts from me. This is where I live, my street, my quiet, rural, historical, beautiful, New England country road. This is where my children play outside with their puppy and practice their basketball and softball skills, hopscotching, catching snakes, salamanders (ick) and occassionally poinson ivy! We walk our dog up this gorgeous road to the camp, waving at our neighbors and their children, or watching the horses.... you get the idea. Although I have always warned my kids that "bad" people travel, and I have taught them (too often they would say) what to do if someone approaches them, it still rocked my world when my phone started ringing off the hook about the police, state police and helicopters at the top of the hill. I, who am normally not at a loss for words, found myself searching for just the right words to explain the goings on to my kids, and to reinforce what I've been teaching them without causing them to panic. The investigation continues and we watch our kids even more closely than before. **************************************************** Wednesday is my "work from home" day. I love Wednesday, I usually get a TON of work done, while catching up on laundry and other tasks that fall by the wayside because of work, sports and school activities. I also can find some good knitting time. I had planned on adding cookie baking and meatball making to this list of things to do because my son is coming home from college for the weekend! YAY! However.... Today I opened my eyes and was greeted with blinding white pain. Now, being the optimistic person that I am, I got up, took the puppy outside, came back in, took some tylenol, and told my family I was going to lay down for 5 minutes. 45 minutes later, the pain was WORSE - I was SHOCKED! I managed to get the girls off to school, came home started some laundry sat down to work and gave up. I went and laid down - I was unable to open my eyes without wanting to scream until 2:00 this afternoon when it was getting on the time to watch the kids get off the bus (see above). I managed to go to their middle school band concert (that did little to help my head), and I now sit here waiting for the Ibuprofen to help me out. Being one who is not prone to headaches (unless there is a sinus infection involved), I was brought down. I am not easily brought down, I now have an even deeper sympathy for chronic headache sufferers. Since there is no knitting to show you today, I will share with you the absolutely gorgeous Betta Fish that keeps me company at my computer. I normally lean toward vibrant blues and purples, but this fish looks exactly like an opal (my birthstone). I'm afraid the pictures don't do him justice (click on the thumbnails for a better view), I'll try to take a daylight picture and see if I can improve on it - he truly is beautiful. I am going to take my pounding head to bed, after checking all doors and windows and tucking in the kids again. Be Safe, Cathy