A family night out

Out to dinner, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Tonight we went out for dinner as a family to MBFG. It was something that all of us really enjoyed. Tons of laughing went on while there tonight and we were all so full the thought of needing to be rolled out to the car to go home was actually talked about. I can say that Binky Sue works at a great place, and all of the people that waited on us tonight were wonderful! Our server now has a best friend named Little Bug because with that NY style cheese cake with baklava, our sweet server brought out a small cup of very rich chocolate to drizzle over it. OMG!! Trust me rich isn't even a word that comes close to describing it. WOW...oh so good, but only something that I could have one bite of.

The reason for dinner out tonight? Well, the girls wanted to celebrate their Daddies retirement from the Army. Only about 3 more hours left of him being active duty. When he wakes up in the morning he will be part of the retired Army ranks. I know it really has been twenty years, just like us being married for twenty years this year. It just seems like it passed so quickly. Which sitting here thinking about some of the years just doesn't seem like they could have passed quickly at all. There is a new journey about to get started here, and I look forward to making every new step not only with my Army Guy, but with all of our girls.

I hope that everyone has had a great and safe Halloween!

Feline, Furball, and Feather's Friday

IMG_7554, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Last Friday Miss Gypsy Rose crossed yet another major milestone since she came to live here with us. She spent six straight hours out in living areas of the house not only with the people, but with the dogs too! Now as soon as Binky Sue had to leave for work she hid for a bit behind and under the couch, but she eventually came back out and joined me on the couch. Because if you are a scared kitty cat who isn't used to spending that amount of time out of your comfort zone you really want to be next to the person who can offer the most protection from those big dogs and Mom of the house is the best one. Of course Gypsy had to have a bit more of a fort built up around her to make her really comfortable, oh and the laptop to lay on for extra warmth. Once again it was a happy moment on the path to healing this kitty cat.

So time for all of the great animals that fill our hearts with love and bring smiles to our faces to stop by. If you want to play along, all you have to do is post your own and leave a link in comments by next Friday. Everyone have a great weekend.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

This week is getting away from me and before I forget to post, I'm just going to do this real quick. SIX weeks! I'm at six weeks of being a non smoker as of today! I really am feeling good, and am sure that come the end of this box of medicine that I'm going to be ending the medicine. I need to see what life is like without it again, and hopefully it will mean the end to some real upset stomach issues that I have been having lately. So you only have two more weeks of this post on Thursday. I really need to start working on getting out and getting new pictures to post on a regular basis.

Sorry for so short with no picture, but I hope that everyone has a great Thursday!

Mindless Wednesday

IMG_7572, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Sunday's sunrise was beautiful! The same can not be said for this morning however. I would have to say that this morning sunrise was more of gray, green, yellowish. A very stormy looking sky for sunrise today. Of course we were expecting this for today and after the high winds that tore through the area last night taking out power, I'm really kind of surprised that we have a roof on the house. You know you have a really good wind going when it can make the whole house vibrate and sound like there is a train running just outside the walls. No kidding while I was trying to fall asleep last night, I put my hand on the wall which is an outside wall, and could feel the thing vibrating with the roaring wind. The power for what I'm guessing would have been at least most of base was knocked out by the wind last night, but they were quick to get it back up and going again. Only about 2 hours from power outage to power back up. It should be interesting taking Binky Sue out for class this morning and seeing just what damage was done and what debris is laying on the roads.
Oh and if the weather men are right there may be the season first opportunity for pictures of snow on the mountain tops, and our high is going to be 30 degrees less than yesterday. I'm not going to whine about being cold though...not yet anyway. : )
Anyway, I hope that everyone has a great Wednesday!

Sign of cooler days

IMG_7566, originally uploaded by torri_g.

The Arizona broom bushes started making their change last week and sure enough we have much cooler temperatures. Oh and as of today we have a return of the gusting blowing winds too so sometime in the next couple of days I'm pretty sure that the tree in the back yard will lose all of its leaves and the broom bushes will make it look like it is snowing. I'm hoping to get with the camera and see what fall colors I can find, and if that doesn't work then at least I have the colors of the hot air balloons to look forward to here soon.

I hope that everyone is having a good week so far.

Sibling Sunday

Oh it is Sunday again and here I am with no picture of any of the siblings. Well, that is not completely true. I have tons of photos of them in archive but not on this hard drive...and I'm being pretty lazy here today...and don't feel like moving to get to a hard drive where I might find a picture or a hundred that could be used. Yes that is my excuse and I'm goind to stick with it!

Anyway for some news about the siblings:

• Binky Sue is steadily learning to juggle school, work, Lions Club, home work, and new for this week...class room observation. She is starting at her old middle school, and when they remember you by your voice I think it can be said that you made an impact in their memory. Great for Binky Sue is that it was good memories. So she start working on getting her ten hours of middle school observation done. She also has set up with a friend who is getting private tutoring due to back surgey to get her two hours of alternate done. Binky Sue this week also got that first pay check and that feeling comes with the very first one. So all in all things are going pretty well for Binky Sue right now.

• Sweetpea this week was just pretty calm life wise for the most part. Well at least until report card was put in Mom's hand on Friday. I don't think I'm going to get into that one here at all other than to say we talked. Photography class for Sweetpea this week had her developing her first roll of film and with mistakes made good lessons were learned. I haven't seen any of the pictures, but I am hoping to see some soon since I love seeing how she views the world. Oh and that dreaded announcement order stuff landed in my house for this year! Good grief just so not sure I'm ready for all the fun of that order of announcements, caps, and gowns brings with the school. Before Thanksgiving break is the due date though, and I'm going to have to be ready no matter what.

• Littlebug was pure clumsy Littlebug this week. Crutches for the 5th time in her 14 years. It is the 4th time injuring her left ankle and I'm wondering if it is just more prone to injury because of how many times she has already hurt it. This was yet again a gym injury, you know the same class that brought us emergency room tag, and Littlebug won because she got to make a trip to the ER. Oh all the great times she has had in gym, and I personally can not wait for this class to be OVER! Due to changes for the freshmen this year, she thankfully will only have to take 1 semester of gym, and then I swear I'm never letting her anywhere near one again! Well, at least not until she is grown up and moved out. Two weeks of solid crutches use and then probably 2 more weeks with air splint. I guess the second base plate meant bussiness. Oh and yes Littlebug also had a report card come home on Friday, and I'm not going to say more than we talked.
  

Now to be fair to Sweetpea and Little Bug for the most part they had good report cards, it is just for one there is a huge problem in the making and for the other one it was basically that straw that just snapped the back because of seeing same words on hers.

Alright I think that is it for this week. I will try to make sure and get a new picture of all three of the girls together for next week. I hope that everyone has had a great weekend, and that there is a great week ahead for all of us.

Feline, Furball, & Feathers Friday

Gypsy Rose, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Gypsy Rose has finally laid claim to a favorite spot out side of Binky Sue's room! This is a great thing to celebrate! Gypsy has been spending more and more time out of Binky Sue's bedroom recently and with her laying claim to a favorite spot brings her willingness to stand up against any other animal that tries to move her from it. We still haven't had her spend to much time with the dogs, but we have had to do really tiny baby kitty steps with Miss Gypsy. By the way her spot is right in front of the corner section chair, just a little off of center for watching the television on the carpet. Don't walk there while she is out or she will have to chase your foot.

Friday again means it is time for Feline, Furball, and Feather's Friday. So time for all of the great animal friends to come out and show off how wonderful they are. If you want to play along all you have to do is post your own picture and story, and then stop by here and leave a link in comments by next Friday.

I hope that everyone has had a good week and have a wonderful and safe weekend!

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG00044, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I didn't forget about this last week. It's just that Little Bugs birthday took center stage, like any birthday should.

Last Thursday I hit the one full month mark of no smoking. Which mean as of today I'm at the month plus. Excuse me for just a minute...YAY!!!.
Alright now that I got that out of my system. I'm starting to notice that at some point in time during the 9 weeks that I must have learned something, because even with all of the stress of life here lately I haven't wanted that cigarette. That is the best thing of all really. Learning other ways of dealing with things.

Anyway, I'm going to keep doing the Thursday posts for at least the next 3 weeks. Which is how many more weeks I have to take the medicine before it becomes my choice for maintenance. I hope that everyone is having a good week and have a great Thursday.

Crazy Monday

Clouds, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Mondays aren't always the best kind of day anyway, but add a couple of hours with Little Bug in the clinic waiting to get x-rays of a swollen, bruised up ankle and it is less of a great day. Little Bug is on crutches for the next couple of weeks because of a level 2 sprain to her left ankle. I was happy that we didn't have to head to the ER today, but the urgent clinic was insanely busy. She is doing okay tonight after napping for a while once we finally got home. Tomorrow should be interesting for her out at the high school though. I'm thinking for the next couple of weeks till she can drop the crutches she is going to be exhausted every day coming home.

I'm not sure how this picture is going to look, but since the only camera I have had handy the last couple of days is my cell phone camera, it is just going to have to do. I hope that everyone had a good Monday, and that tomorrow is an even better day.

Sibling Sunday

IMG_7488, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Ah Sunday! I'm so glad to see you on the calendar today. This last week was one of those crazy busy weeks and I still have the feeling of needing more sleep. Little Bug and Sweetpea were on fall break, which I thought would have made for a calmer week but boy was that thought wrong. Binky Sue had a week of juggling classes, work, home work, making calls for getting observation hours done for a class (hopefully she has also remembered to e-mail her teacher about needing a letter for the base middle school). Little Bug wanted her birthday portraits done, had a friend that came to stay for a couple of days, and then the whole birthday party. Which I now know that 7 14/15 year olds are louder than just about anything I can think of. It all went well though and Sweetpea and Mom just sat hiding out for a little bit till they all seemed to have enough sugar in them to balance out their already naturally hyper. No joke they got quieter and calmer with the more sugar they ate. I swear sometimes watching the kids at the parties is like watching a science experiment unfold, but Sweetpea and I enjoyed watching it.

Alright, I think that is going to be about it for this week since I need to get going here soon. I hope that everyone has had a great weekend, and that today there is lots of time spent with those you care about the most. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Feline, Furbal, and Feathers Friday

Angel and Gypsy, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just a real quick for tonight and a promise to come back either later or first thing tomorrow to add links to Carly and Dylan. Angel and Gypsy are currently hiding from the 7 extra 14 year old that have taken over the house tonight. After the current noise level drops down to just 2 extra 14 year olds I might be able to coax them out of hiding again, but I'm not going to make any bets on that. They know the noise level that has happened to the house tonight.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend, and remember if you want to play along just post your own and leave a link in comments by next Friday.

Update:
Yes I know it has taken me all day to get back but I have been very busy. As promised though here is the link to Dylan over at Carly's. He was busy with yarn, and keeping his Mom amused while she was sick. Super cute pictures so click and check them out.

Happy Birthday Little Bug!

Little Bug, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I have only thought about sitting down and getting this posted a million times today, but before I run out of time I'm going to say...Happy Birthday to my Little Bug! Of course I've actually said it do her about a million times since it rolled over to the 15th, but one more time with a post all about her. Or maybe it will be all about me and the fact that I'm oh so very tired right now after this insane busy day. I will try to get Little Bugs portrait shots posted for family and friends to be able to see in the next couple of days or as soon as I have enough time to sit and finish working on them. I hope that everyone enjoyed a great day, and join me with yet another Happy Birthday Little Bug!!

Sibling Sunday

Little Bug and Sweetpea, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm glad that I caught this picture late Friday night when there was some goofing around going on, because Little Bug really has lost her happy this weekend. Friday marked the end of the first quarter and for these two it means Fall Break Time! They will be off this whole week, and Little Bug was very happy about that because her birthday is this week. She very skillfully negotiated her way into having a boy/girl party, and the invitations were delivered Friday.

Sweetpea is just happy to be done with projects and have the whole week to do nothing. This last week saw the arrival of the ever dreaded cap, gown, and announcements order stuff. November is the deadline once again to have it all ordered and I'm so happy that they not only raised their prices, but the shipping and handling fees, and the taxes! Gosh we are so lucky! Speaking of things senior year related...I'm going to need family and friends to start giving thought to what portraits you want of Sweetpea. If I missed sending you a link to them let me know and I will correct that. I really would like to see her senior portraits go out sooner than what I did last year.

Binky Sue...well she is done with her math class and couldn't be happier about that if she tried. I think next term she may make sure that the math class she is in isn't accelerated. She worked her first shift this past Friday and was exhausted when I got there to pick her up. She is happy with her schedule for the next week though and looking forward to getting that first pay check.

Other than that there really isn't to much else about the siblings, but that is way more than I've really had in a while about each of them. I hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful Sunday surrounded by those you care the most about.

Feline, Furball, and Feather's Friday

100_8653, originally uploaded by torri_g.

This morning brought a major shock to the house and has left everyone pretty upset. When I uncovered the birds this morning I didn't see Puff in her cage. Which of course lead to a frantic search, and then a sudden stop by me to think and go back over to her cage and look. Puff I'm very sad to say has passed away. Looking at everything it looks as if she for some reason tried to curl herself up in a food dish, and possibly smothered herself once getting stuck. There were lots of instant tears in the house since all the girls were out helping to locate her since I had first thought she had gotten out of her cage. Little Bug is taking it very hard since Puff was her little buddy. The girls are going to take the day to deal with the shock of what has happened, and figure just where they would like to take Puff to bury her. Tomorrow may not be much better for girls because I would like to have Puff laid to rest by then. It is an odd day for me since I keep expecting to hear her scream at the other birds about their noise, or to hear the sound of her bells as she chirped into them. Of all of the animals in the house, Puff was the one that was happiest making you smile because of her never ending antics.

I've debated with myself today about putting the link to Carly and Dylan for this week, and I'm going to hold off till next week to post it. It will be a fun post for next Friday to go with the pictures that I was going to use today until the day just went bad. So everyone try to have a good weekend and hopefully things will go better this coming week and I will get back to a normal Feline, Furball, and Feathers Friday post with links.

A short delay

I'm sorry but there is just going to be a short delay for Feline, Furball and Feather's Friday. I promise by tomorrow night I will have it posted. Today has just gotten away from me because of Army Guy having a bone marrow biopsy done, which meant up very early and on the road because just about everyone likes it an hour and a half away from here. Then trip back and local errand running, oh yeah and talking to girls about what is going on and when we will get preliminary diagnosis. Which means for anyone who might be waiting to hear from me that there where no results other than blood work and the bone marrow biopsy will tell the whole story.

Since this is turning into a post about Army Guy anyway, just let me tell everyone that he did great. I'm sure that he was, is, and is going to continue to be in a good deal of pain...but he had that doctor and nurse trying so hard not to laugh and then finally giving into laughter. Yes I was in the room with him for the procedure and really pray that is not something that he ever has to do again. For that matter no one I know needs to ever have that test done. I was in awe of Army Guy today, oh and I managed to not cry for him during it.

Anyway, I will get a picture of one of the many animals and get the Friday post up tomorrow. Tonight I'm just to tired, and probably have to many thoughts running through my mind. I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Friday, and this weekend I hope there is lots of time spent with those you love and remember to laugh lots.

Update: As of Tuesday October 27th all but one of the bone marrow test had come back normal. Meaning no cancer cells, and no myeloproliferative disorders. Just don't ask me to explain what it is that is going on with Army Guy's blood.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG_5791, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Another week done, and I'm now at 3 weeks of not smoking. I saw Ms. K. A. for what will be my last time and got my month 3 of medicine. After the third month it is up to me if I want to stay on the medicine or not and does not require having to see her to get it because there are refills on this one. She was very happy with my progress and said I should just be counting it as a 5 weeks of not smoking. I pointed out to her that just wouldn't be honest because there is that one day in there. Next Thursday will be the start of the third month pack of medicine and I can honestly say that I may not continue with it much past that. The good thing is that once I'm done with the third month, I can choose to drop the dosage that I take daily after that or just drop it entirely. Thinking down the road has me debating dropping to just one pill a day and see if any of those sneaky urges come back, and then drop from there. I'm getting to far ahead of myself on that though and it is better to stay focused on just one day at a time. So three weeks and I'm going to give myself a great big YAY ME! Next week will be my big milestone...the first time to ever reach the one month mark. Heck I may have to throw a party or something...oh wait that is Little Bugs birthday so there will be a party already. : )

I hope that everyone is having a good week, and I'm sorry about the lack of brand new photo's and spars posting but there have been lots of things going on which I may or may not post about at some point in time. Have a wonderful Thursday and hopefully I will get busy working on a photo for Feline and Furball Friday before midnight tomorrow.

Monday morning

Artwork by Sweetpea, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Yet again the weekend passed to quickly. Of course having all but one person sick with flu I really would have liked for this weekend to take a little extra time and give everyone the possibility of feeling better. Sweetpea is the only one not being taken down by the bug in right now. I was doing a good job of out running it till late Friday night. Saturday I tried to keep going, but come Saturday night that was it for me. Binky Sue and Little Bug seem to be feeling better, but like said I would really like for them to have a little bit more of a weekend to rest. It is Monday though and time for heading back to the school that had 21% of the student body out last week because of flu and flu like symptoms. So I'm just going to cross my fingers, hope and pray that we can be done with the flu in this house. Now with that said excuse me while my body tries to make up it's mind if I'm going to have a hot flash or a case of the chills. I hope everyone has a good day, and try to avoid the germs that are flying around early this year.

Feline, Furbal, and Feathers Friday

Angel, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just real quick for today since the crud that has been making its rounds through the house is finally winning and taking me down for the count too. Angel isn't worried though because her girl Sweetpea is only fighting with allergy issues. Only thing Angel needs Mom for is to either remind someone to do something for her, or to get those blinds open at the right time for prime bird watching. So the rest of us can feel free to sneeze, cough, and blow our noses as much as we want. Heck she doesn't mind if we run a fever, just as long as she can get access to us to curl up on whoever is running the fever, because it would be a crime for all the heat to just go to waste. Don't bother complaining about body aches to her though, because she just doesn't have time to listen to that, there are toy balls in the back hallway to bat around and tease the heck out of those furballs with. Angel was kind to me though and actually sat still for a change for me to get a picture of her, so any blur to it is because of me and having a chill or two while trying to get the camera as steady as possible.

So it is time again for the all the great felines, furballs, and feathers. If you want to play along just post your own and leave a link in comments by next Friday.
I hope that everyone has a great weekend, and look of for the the crud because it is super fast moving.

Thinking Thursday...A journey to stop smoking

IMG_6781, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Please excuse me this morning while I'm a bit of a smarty pants with my choice of picture for my new weekly Thursday post. I had the thought go through my head that I was zooming along with the stop smoking journey and for some reason this picture that I shot earlier in the month of Army Guy's bike came to mind. So just why would I think about his bike and this picture and my stopping smoking? Well, I guess because of the thought it may not look like all that much, but some times looks are deceiving. It might not look like it is going very quickly but when I stop and take a look at the over all it really is. I am again at the two full weeks without smoking a cigarette. When I take a look at the bigger picture though since August 31st I have smoked 5 cigarettes. Wait a minute five, just five? Yeah for someone who has never smoked that number is way to high, but for me and how much I was smoking per day, this is huge! So here I am at week six since starting the medication, 5 weeks since the quit date and I can say that in the last 4 weeks I have had one day with 5 cigarettes. I think I'm doing great!
Alright I will stop with all of the week counts and other crazy number things...oh wait there is still one more number I want to share. That 1 cigarette in the pack...it is still sitting in that pack. I think when I finally hit the full month count I'm going to celebrate by throwing it away. Until then though it is going to continue to sit and be my reminder.

I hope that everyone is having a good week and see you again next week for hopefully a post that will make more sense than this one.