Happy 20th Anniversary Army Guy!

Thinking, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I should probably make sure and put wedding anniversary in the title. Oh wait, you know which 20th anniversary comes first. So many miles since this day all those years ago. I know I used a picture of you on here and you hate that, but it is one of my favorites and it is my blog.

For the last week I have in my mind tried to figure out just the perfect thing to type here, and it has just lead me to thinking about so many things. The tiny apartments when it was just you and me at the start of the traveling the world with the military. The look on your face when each one of our daughters were born. The tickling, teasing, tormenting Daddy that you were just bound to be. I've thought about all the laughter that has been shared between us, all of the tears and oh so many other emotions. I know I loved you then, but I'm sure that I love you even more now. So what do you say to we renew for another 20 years?(Umm...you better be nodding your head yes for that one sweetheart.)
I love you Army Guy and do look forward to seeing just what new adventures we will face together. Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!

Monday again already?

IMG_7102, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just doesn't seem like it should be Monday morning again already. The weekend had slow feel but just to quickly was done and I'm not ready for it to be Monday again.
There are lots of things going on this week, and hopefully I will find a little bit of time to get out with my camera. Would like to see about getting back up into the canyon area's one more time before all of the butterflies are gone.

I hope that everyone has a good start to the week.

Sibling Sunday

IMG_7039, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Finally a picture of one of the siblings. This entry will probably not be all that long of one, but since Binky Sue had such a happy week it really needs to be shared. Binky Sue got a job! So needless to say that after spending the whole summer looking and hoping to get one she is very thrilled. Monday she walked into open interview times and she walked out being hired. She will be hostess at a soon new to be opened restaurant. The name of the new restaurant? My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. She did her orientation Thursday and this Tuesday starts her training. They are not officially open till the 5th of October, but do have some events starting next weekend. Binky Sue has her black, on black, with black uniform all set, and really can not wait to get started. She is also getting close to being done with her first term math class, which I think she is happy about because doing the 8 week version versus the 16 week course has been pretty insane on the homework side.

Sweetpea, and Little Bug continue to be just settled in for the quarter which is quickly nearing an end here. Little Bug has been keeping Mom busy with the seemingly never ending "Mom can I go here?" or "Can I go do this?". This weekend was her first football game with friends and I can say that she and her friend had way to much sugar and made it feel as if there was something wrong with my car because of the bouncing around. I got them home though and at some point in time in the wee hours of the morning they both actually finally slept.

Alright that is it for this week. I know I could probably do more but instead I'm going to get back to sitting chilling out watching a football game with Army Guy here tonight. I hope that everyone has had a wonderful weekend spent with those that you care the most about.

Feline, Furball, & Feathers Friday

Kiki, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I love taking pictures of Kiki! Unlike the lovebirds, Kiki just likes to take her time walking from place to place. Probably because her flying skills are horrible! Actually her flying isn't the biggest issue that Kiki has, it is the landing or in her case the crash landings that are the huge issue. Never seems to fail that Kiki will find the trash can to land in, or the water dish for one of the four legged animals, or even worse...the walls! So unless she is trying to escape me and the water bottle for spritzing her for bath time. Kiki is very happy to keep both her feet and all her feather's on the ground, which makes for a much easier photograph to be taken of her.

So it is Friday and time for all the felines, furballs and feathers to shine. No pouting pictures this week because they were so pouty that it would break hearts to see them. (This is actually not a joke since Trinity was in her "poor me" routine just about all week long.)

This week Carly stopped by with Hendrix showing off a new perspective of the world. Great pictures of a wonderful cat!

So now time for how to play along. Grab your camera and take a picture of your feline, furball or feather friend, post the picture and then stop by here and leave a link in comments. It doesn't have to be done today, just by next Friday.

I hope that everyone enjoys a great weekend and see you next week.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG_7068, originally uploaded by torri_g.

YAY ME! I'm right back at one full week of not smoking. Hmm...I feel as if I have been here before already. Oh yeah, I have been! I'm going to celebrate anyway because it was easier to get through this week one than it was the first week one. I've had less urges and thoughts about smoking this week than I did before last Wednesday. So maybe this is getting easier to do. I'm really happy with myself for not having the feeling of needing to give up on this journey. I'm happy that slowly but surely I'm learning new ways of dealing with stress feelings, urges, and the boredom feelings that used to mean time to smoke. So one week down again and the goal of hitting week two next Thursday and going even further this time. So there is still the lonely one cigarette sitting in the pack from a month ago, and the thought of throwing it away has crossed my mind a couple of times, but I'm not ready to do that yet. Maybe right now that is my security blanket, or just a way for me to visually remind myself of what I want to achieve.

So goal for the next week, just once again take it one day at a time and learn to deal with whatever gets thrown my way.

Fun...Some assembly required

IMG_7109, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Yesterday while driving Binky Sue out to the college I noticed that the park was filling with trailers, and figured I would drive through and check it out on my way heading back home. The trailers are all pulling in because it is time again for the Fun Festival in town. Today we drove through because they are doing the some assembly required to...well to everything. All the trailers with "City of Fun Shows" on them and my thought today was a lot of the people out there working don't look like they are seeing the fun with this whole thing. Wait that is because they are working on the some assembly required part of the show, and I don't imagine that climbing the outside ring of the Fire Ball ride is all that much fun on a pretty wind day. I also can not imagine that trying to get the 70x30 canopy tents set up would be all that much fun either. By this weekend no one will think twice about those things though because everything will be up and running and there will be real fun to be had, and lots of yummy carnival food to eat. While I do hope to get out and get some night photo's of everything all lit up, I will once again be skipping on heading over to the carnival though. When what will seem like the whole town converges into Veteran's Memorial Park, I would rather be anywhere else.

Simply Tuesday

IMG_7069, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm happy because I was able to get out of the house this morning with my camera, and headed out to Huachuca Canyon after dropping Binky Sue off at school. Some flowers, some butterflies, and tons of bees. Hiked about a half mile up the canyon looking for the butterflies and whatever else I could find, and then hiked back down to the car. Wasn't going for anything to long because of needing to get back into practice with the knee, but was very enjoyable.

I hope that everyone has had a great Tuesday.

Simple Saturday

IMG_7012, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Happy to see the weekend here, and even happier that there isn't really any kind of errands that need to be done. The little guardian angel in my car needs a rest. Crazy busy week this past week and way more close calls due to people not paying attention than there really should have been.
I hope that everyone has a great weekend, and stay safe because things just seem to be really crazy on the roads lately.

Feline, Furball, & Feathers Friday

Angel, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Look it is a statue of a kitty cat! Oh no, wait it is a kitty cat pretending to be a statue. If Angel is now sitting still and posing for pictures the end must be close so let's all be very careful. :)

Alright it is Feline, Furball & Feathers Friday, now I know it is difficult to when memes change home locations, but I'm really thinking that if we don't get at least one link for next week, I'm breaking out the big pouty face pictures. Trust me you really don't want me to do that because I have the queen of pout living under my roof. All joking aside, what could be easier than taking a picture of your loved animal friend, make an entry post, and dropping a link here in comments.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

Self in thought, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Oh another week has passed and I was looking forward to being able to come here and say that had 16 days...two complete weeks plus two days without smoking. Instead I can tell you that I had 15 straight days without a cigarette, which really isn't a small deal for me. At the appointment to check progress and get next month supply of medicine on Monday Ms. K. A. was very happy with my progress. When I did the breathing test to check the carbon monoxide levels there was no way to make it any more clear just how happy I was with my number than throwing my arms up in the air and doing a cheer of "YES!" From a number of 60 to 4 in just three weeks, something to celebrate really. By the way the average non smoker has a number of 1-5, and I had a reading of being a non smoker and I could not have been happier about that.

Now to share about yesterday. Yesterday I made a choice, and heaven knows I may make the choice again, but I'm not going to hide it because that isn't going to get me anywhere with this. I smoked...I smoked 5 cigarettes. Why? Because I wanted them. Because after trying to fight the urge for half of the day my body and mind were making life miserable for me. But mostly because I made the choice to smoke them and nothing more. I have a lot of habits that I have to learn to redirect while making this journey. Yesterday, my biggest and possibly hardest one won because I chose to let it. When I lit the first one Binky Sue was close enough to see what was going on and hear me say "I'm sorry". She thought I was talking to her, but I was saying sorry to myself. Now no I'm not beating myself up about it here, but I really did feel sorry about for myself. 15 days of being able to beat the cravings and urges, and all gone just like that. Each one I sat and smoked I thought about that and wanted it less and less and by evening wanted to get going forward on the journey again instead of the backwards step that I had taken. After all it is one day, and today is a new day. What I know today is that I'm not giving up. I really do want to quit and will work hard every day to achieve that...but odds are still very high that I'm going to have days where I will make a choice to smoke and I need to deal with that by picking back up and going at it yet again the day after.

So here I am on day one again, and in that pack that was opened three weeks ago there is still one. My goal for the next week, to be able to return next week with one full week, and maybe a new way of dealing with some things.

Sibling Sunday

Once again we are at Sunday, and once again I really don't have all that much to report for or about the siblings. Notice the lack of a picture of them yet again. Honestly they are still here, and I will at some point in time this week actually try to get a picture of the three of them. They have just really settled into a good routine this school year and I so don't want to disturb that, because I know for a fact I would be the one to pay dearly for that. They are all happy and doing well and the longer that lasts the happier I am.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed a great weekend, with lots of time spent with those you care about the most. I also hope that there is a great week just waiting for all of us.

Feline, Furball, and Feathers Friday

Puff the Love Bird, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Have one of the feathers to share this week. Puff has been the bird that makes me laugh since she came home to this house over a year ago now. Her antics when it is time to clean the cages makes everyone crack up, but her thing this week with cleaning and changing of food and water dishes really got me. Seems that Puff thinks that the food containers are just the right size of dish for her. To the point that when the lid was put on the container she sat on top of it knocking and doing her best mad screech. Once again I say, she may be the smallest of the animals in this house, but she sure has the biggest attitude.

So it is time to grab the cameras and take pictures of your feline, furball, or favorite feathered friend. Make a post and leave a link here in comments. Doesn't have to be a post made on Friday, just a link left in comments by next Friday. I hope that everyone enjoys a great weekend.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG_6692, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Well, another week done and time to share how it has gone. My hopes last week were to be able to come here and say that I had not smoked at all, but also said the reality was I didn't know how it would go and was just going to take it one day at a time. One day at a time got me to today and past the one full week point of not smoking! Today is day 10 to be exact. I'm happy, I'm excited, I'm hopeful, I'm glad that I think I have finally adjusted to everything that the medicine can toss out at me for side effects. I know I'm not done yet with this journey, but it sure feels wonderful to have such a great start going here.

Yesterday I was a little worried that I was going to miss my 10 mark because I kept thinking about wanting one so much, but I managed to distract myself just enough. The difficult part is the distraction from the urges. As a smoker I've never really given it any thought as to why I wanted a cigarette, I just did and would have one. This time with the quitting I have tried to pay very close attention as why I suddenly want one. I can honestly say that a lot of it is just because of habit. First cup of coffee in the morning meant smoke a cigarette. Yes I actually had to drop that morning cup of coffee for a couple of days to break that one. In the last three weeks since starting this I have noticed a lot of things that I do that just some how over the years became connected with it. The hardest one to deal with though is going to be the thought "I need a cigarette because I'm mad". It isn't so much that I need the cigarette, that was the timer for the time out. I like to take a time out before I go off the deep end screaming at someone, the cigarette urge was my time out that would keep me from doing that. It was a deep breath...a deep unhealthy breath, but a deep breath none the less. What I have noticed in the last week is that urge is going to be my most difficult one to deal with. Mom's lose their tempers when kids or husbands don't seem to hear them till they are to the point of yelling. To avoid that yelling the urge would hit and I would take a time out. Now the urge hits and I'm trying to ignore it and it just keeps getting worse and so is my mood. It is the one urge that I'm probably going to work on the hardest to figure out a way around, and since I don't think the kids selective hearing is going to suddenly go away, I will be working on this one quickly.
Wow! I think I just made myself sound like a real witch there, but it is the real witch that I'm trying to avoid. Besides I said I planned on being totally honest about things during this journey. Anyway, that is about it for this week. Monday I go see Ms. K for my new box of medicine and to check how I'm doing and I can not wait. Again I thought all week for a reason why and I'm still just coming up with Because I want to. Actually after making it 10 days without smoking, now it is because I really want to do this.

I hope that everyone has a great Thursday.

Mindless Monday

IMG_6712, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Mindless seems to be the name of the game for me the last couple of days. It was another day of doing a lot of nothing for all of us. Tomorrow is back to the routine though which means lots of time spent in the car for me. I hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend and that the week is good for all of us.

Lazy Sibling Sunday

I wish that I had some great picture to post, but I don't. Wish I had some great stories about the siblings to post, but I don't. It has just been really pretty quiet around here the last couple of weeks. Everyone is settled into school year routines and there just isn't all that much going on right now. Well, other than the never ending amount of time spent in the car transporting back and forth to things. I think today will probably be a very lazy Sunday since it is raining and has been since the wee early hours of the morning. No sun tends to equal very lazy day.

On a side note, yesterday was day 5 of no cigarettes for me!(YAY!) I'm really looking forward to hitting one full week in the next couple of days, Tuesday to be exact, but that can all wait for my Thursday posting. I hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful Sunday, and if you have sun shine enjoy it even more.

Feline, Furball, and Feathers Friday

Shhh....be very quiet, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Angel has had a bad week here after getting banned from entering my room. I would call it a grounding, but since I'm leaning towards a forever thing, banned is a much better word. Miss Angel gets upset about things...lots of things actually. You know things like, the water is to dirty (which if she wouldn't drink from the dogs water dish this wouldn't be a problem) or there aren't anymore kitty treats (once again I have to point out that if she wouldn't shred the packages I wouldn't have to get rid of the treats). Basically her list goes on and on and it all boils down to one thing if she wouldn't do the first action I think she could be a happier kitty cat. However, Miss Angel doesn't play that way and in the her kitty mind I am to blame for all things wrong (Hey! That is just like my kids too!). So she when she is feeling down and wronged she heads to my bed room and causes havoc and chaos on a grand scale. Well, last Saturday I finally reached my breaking point and shut my door and have not allowed me Miss Angel in since. She has spent every day this week wandering the house during the day meowing as loud as her little kitty lungs will let her (which is really very loud!) and she really isn't taking time to rest during the day. She has to keep watch for that door and the possibility that Mom will leave it open or maybe Dad will move just slow enough so that she can make a run for it. The poor kitty cat is just ending up exhausted and being forced to sleep on the back of the couch! I know, I'm such a horrible kitty Mom.

Alright we have birthday's to celebrate this week! Carly's boys turned one!

It looks like a great celebration with a very cute cake. Happy Birthday Dylan and Hendrix!

Now remember if you want to play along also, all you have to do is post your own and leave a link here in comments by next Friday. I hope that everyone has a great Friday and a wonderful, safe holiday weekend.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG_6776-1, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Well it has been a week and it is time to open the new package of medicine. Kind of difficult to believe that this is going to be the start of the third week here today. Now I would love to say that with the quit date Friday that I set those cigarettes aside and haven't looked at them since, but that would be a lie. I can more honestly say that Friday I smoked 4, and Saturday I smoked 5 but something happened Sunday I didn't smoke any. To bad come Monday I smoked 5 again, because it would be great to say that I have been cigarette free for four full days. After Monday though I felt a real determination to get another day of zero smoked and did just that Tuesday oh and did it again Wednesday. So right now this morning my thoughts are about having another goal day of zero. It is not an easy thing do and I really have to pay attention to what I'm doing during the day. There are so many things that I associate with "time to have a cigarette" that I have relearn, but in the last two days I've gotten a great start on. To be honest my brain would love nothing more than if I would go out to the pack that is sitting with 6 in it and smoke one right now, but I'm going to make myself sit here with my cup of coffee instead. (don't even think that I'm ever going to give up coffee)
I know I said last week that I wanted to post a weekly reason why I want to stop smoking, but to tell the truth I still really only have one reason as to why and that is because I want to. My goal for next Thursday is to be able to come here and say that those 6 cigarettes are still sitting in that pack and that I'm 10 days smoke free. The reality of that goal is that I will take it one day at a time and no matter what the counts look like I'm not giving up.

I hope that everyone has a great Thursday!

Rough around the edges

IMG_6663, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I have been trying to think of something to post for the last couple of days, and really still don't have anything. The girls are all good and just busy with school, Army Guy is good and just busy with appointments, and I am good and just trying to keep my sanity with all the new routines that every one else has settled into. I actually had a moment tonight that had me panicked thinking that I had forgot to drive someone to a class. With all of the changes in the last couple weeks I still haven't found time to get back out with my camera for a day, but hopefully coming up here soon I will manage a trip.

I hope that everyone is having a good week.