The State of Michigan...

Hello readers!

Meet the mascot of this blog. Marionette, Mrs. Peabody.

I am about to release this video that may or may not help me fight something that is happening in our country today that shouldn't be.  I have taken so many slaps in the face by the state of Michigan and they have treated me badly and gotten away with it for the last time! I will not take it this time. Usually I dust myself off and go on with my favorite saying; "All things happen for a reason!" But this is AMERICA! My family's dreams should not be continually shot down! And they won't! Not anymore.

To begin with, let me fill the readers in on what I have been through in this state of Michigan where I fell in love with my husband of 26 years (or I would have left it a LONG time ago!).  I will have to work around a gag order... so keep in mind this is only some of my bad experiences with the state of Michigan... just the things I can talk about.

We had a fire and lost everything. We were forced to live in a mouse-infested barn with raccoons that fell through the unfinished ceilings. This was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but we ended up fighting in court for ten years! My husband had lake property in the family since the early 50s and was forced to sell it so we could build a new home. During the investigation of our fire they accused my oldest son of arson. Being from a small town made matters worse, when we had scorned ex-girlfriend's parents telling the police that we had "red flags waving all over the place!" She didn't even know us, but this was enough to have all of us go through some terrible harassment and embarrassing investigation. The fire chief's son, a volunteer at our fire, told the girl working at the local video shop that they knew my son did it because his computer was taken out of his room! Not only slander... but so typical of a small town. I was told that they had some bad school sports blood between them. The reason my son's computer was removed is because he moved out and went to college and had his own apartment. Why wouldn't he take his computer?

We had to hire an arson expert to come in out of the state of Virginia (Michigan would not help us—conflict of interest they said) to investigate and the report proved that the fire was an accident and not arson. The state police ignored the expert's report but he was waiting to testify as an expert witness and it never went to court. But meanwhile they had accused my oldest son of the arson... embarrassed him around our small village by asking questions about him and they kept harassing him until the next thing we knew he had a terrible car accident and ended up with a severe brain injury and went into a coma. The doctors told the police that he would most probably die, so the police turned the blame to my husband. They took him in for the polygraph scheduled for my son, where they routinely lied to him and told him he failed when he didn't, put him through a long interrogation and left him scared to death! His EKG still shows a slight heart attack! He now has congestive heart failure. The worst thing was that they told him they were going to come arrest him! All lies, because he had really passed the polygraph! He was scared to death thinking if he was arrested they would take our younger son away from us because of the pour living conditions the insurance company left us in.

While my older son was at the University of Michigan Hospital he was abused by neglect. They allowed him to bite off the end of his tongue and they gave him five doses of medicine he was allergic to, ignoring his charts. The medicine made his fever spike to 106.5 and I was the one who would pack him in ice. I stayed by his side the entire time he was in the hospital, and even shared my recliner with my younger son so he would be safe with me. I couldn't trust what they would do next, since the doctors said he would be nothing but a vegetable the rest of his life... they didn't care what they did to him. But you see, his car was ran off the road at a high rate of speed causing him to crash into a church! And I knew in my heart, God would not let anyone die that crashed into a church!  And I was right. I watched miracle after miracle and my son learned everything for the second time in his 21 years– from sitting up to walking. He had to learn to talk, read and write...  And when he came home, we didn't even have a decent room for him to stay in because we were still fighting the insurance company!

My son lives with a brain injury now...and of all things decided he wanted to go back to college. How CMU ever let him come back in, I will never know. I had faith in him to do it, even at only part time status since he could only focus on one hard class at a time. They told him he wouldn't run out of financial aid, but after eight years he did. They never gave him the proper guidance he needed to plan out his path, so they just rushed him out the door with the first thing he could get his bachelors in... Majoring in Math and minoring in Chemistry. (With a brain injury) So after a couple years at home, he wasn't satisfied with his degree and went back to get his second degree in Chemistry. His dream job is to work at Dow so he moved to Midland to be close. He has had interviews but they will not hire him. It is no wonder, he slurs his speech with a bit-off tongue... and his balance is still awkward... so no one will hire him so he works at Walmart!! He owes over 85,000 in college loans and can't get a job.

When the economy took a dive, so did my husband's electrical work. Our new home was facing foreclosure. It was all we could do to keep our home. We had to put all our other bills on hold... and had no foreseeable way to pay them and catch up to clear up our crashing credit, because I couldn't get a job. I couldn't find a minimum wage job that would hire me for enough hours to make the price of gas worth the drive in from the rural area we live in. Then when I did find a job worth applying for they did a credit check and wouldn't hire me. I found myself asking how a person was supposed to be able to agree to any payment plans to get your credit rating back up, if they can't get a job because of it?

Being a "displaced homeworker" it was suggested that I take advantage of the Pell Grant and financial aid and go back to college. So at 54 years old, this is what I did. I studied and had classes every day, while trying to save our home. I worked with a community action agency... which by the way... we have a great county... it is the politics of the state that I am unhappy with.

Thanks to Obama's bailout plan, we were able to save our home, and the interest rate was dropped so that my husband's social security would cover the payment and tax and insurance escrow, with around 100.00 to spare. We have an offer in compromise with the IRS and they have excused us from capital gains taxes we couldn't pay and build a home... but the State won't excuse you from anything! So we give them that other 100.00 a month!

By the Grace of God, we have gotten by, as I am sure many Americans were in much worse shape that we were. I have sold a lot of my personal heirlooms, which was hard to let go of, from when my mother and father died just two days of each other.

So... I have worked very hard in college. I was already a huge history enthusiast as my family was in the Oklahoma land rush, and started the first telephone lines using barbed wire fences there. I have had college math, many psychology classes, business, communications and everything you need for what my college boasts as "Real World" education. Now I have a huge debt to repay, and I am just a few months short of my bachelor's degree. Carrying a 3.5 GPA I needed 90 credits to become a substitute teacher and that was my goal... what kept me going (at my age).  I love working with the children in Sunday school and could hardly wait to become a substitute teacher. Then after a few years, I was going to use my degree to further my education to work with children, possibly as a social worker.

Michigan goes through a company called PESG for their professionals needed in most of the school districts. Not all of them, but all the ones I can afford the gas to drive to anyway. It barely pays minimum wage, so that was going to limit where all I could work until I got a smaller economy car. My car was repossessed. Something that had never happened to me in my entire life! What a humbling experience to go from being a comfortable stay-at-home mom, to scraping for money to survive. Praise I was SO excited to get a job!

PESG are there to make it easier on the schools. They have you take all kinds of additional courses for working with children. You have to pass all these classes and their tests, then I had a wonderful seminar with PESG to prepare me for substitute teaching. Their added education was great. I was SO excited. I had a background check and my fingerprints taken and I was about to have a wonderful job working with children! WRONG.

This is the state of Michigan and they would not accept my college transcripts because it is from a nationally accredited college instead of a regionally accredited college! I asked if they would accept my bachelor's degree, and they won't accept that either unless I want to teach on the college level. Huh? Does this mean I wouldn't been able to use my degree to go on in my education here?

This is  crazy! You mean to tell me that the Dept. of Education will let you go in debt with a college education that Michigan will not accept?

So... I have been stewing about this for some time. I have been reading all the wonderful blogs there are on substitute teaching... and right now, my county really needs substitute teachers. And I am sure that this isn't the only state doing this, nor that I am the only one facing this problem... so the stew thickens for me.

My hobby is puppets. I am a singing ventriloquist that loves to hear the thrill and comments come from children when they watch a good puppet show with marionettes. I plan to use my puppets to teach music in Sunday school. I was looking forward to taking a puppet or two into my classes (if of course the school will allow it) to use as teaching aids.  I had my bag of tricks together and I was just waiting on the finale okay.  Now I am SO disappointed. I should be answering calls at 5:00 in the morning and being there for those children that need substitutes, right now!

I don't mean to sound so negative, as I feel a good positive attitude is important in life, especially working with children. But I have had it up to my strings!  I usually let God work those... (smile) but sometimes we just have to take action!

I have started a Mrs. Peabody for America Crusade... and hope that you will join me. The video will be up soon! And by the way, the name has nothing to do with anyone else by that name. I just liked it.


Thank you for reading, and I will try to keep you up to date on how things are going.  I would appreciate it if you share the video with everyone you know and follow my blog.

My best wishes-

And God Bless America!


LeFerna Walch