Keep Trying

I keep trying to get back into the routine of posting pictures and small entries here, but life just has been keeping me so very busy. Running kids here, there and every where...rapidly approaching the end of yet another school year and all the chaos that brings. Riding lessons, work schedules, printing projects, announcements, and the list continues. In the last couple of weeks it seems that Sunday morning and bringing my laptop out to the back patio is about the only time I am actually sitting down at a computer anymore. So even without any picture for today how about an update.

Todd- Work is going fine and he is coming up on another TDY trip here quickly. I think this time it will be GA but I honestly would have to look at the schedule to be sure about that. He had a good 46th birthday this week, and enjoyed all of the gifts that the girls and I got for him. His netbook will make traveling with computer much easier come June and I'm blown away by how small yet powerful that tiny little thing is.

Stephanie or Binky Sue- She finished her freshman year of college this week and by Friday she had a second job. She is juggling riding lessons, 2 jobs, and driving lessons for the summer vacation and I hopefully I will get to see her every now and then for a meal.

Paige or Sweetpea- The final countdown is on as of tomorrow with only 5 more days of school left for her. I still need to shoot a cap and gown portrait of her and put together the last of my printing projects for her senior year. Paige let her grade fall in the third quarter in a major needed class and will be sweating this week to hear if all of her hard work paid off or not. Graduation is on the line and there has been a major lesson learned and I got to hear the words "Mom you were right". I can honestly say this is one time and one thing that I would have rather not been right about, but hopefully it is something that she will not forget. I have done everything for her with the thought that if she pulls this off I'm going to be yelling at the top of my lungs "Thank goodness I'm done!"

Cheyenne or Little Bug- She is another one that is trying to keep me trapped in my car for endless hours but other than that there isn't all that much. She is already looking forward to her sophomore year and we haven't even hit the end of her freshman year. She has already made changes to her schedule for next year and hopefully come registration time she won't feel the need to make even more.

Me? Well I'm stilling trying to take over the world via spending as much time in my car as possible. Still thinking about adding a coffee maker and small fridge in there since I always seem to be in it. :) Life is good and very busy but I'm hoping for some down time coming up here and maybe some real time to grab that long neglected camera of mine and shoot some pictures.

I hope that everyone is enjoying a great weekend and I'll keep trying to get back into some kind of regular posting.

Should be sibling Sunday

IMG_8701, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Hold on a minute...I'm making another post in less than a week's time? Yes I am! I am trying to deal with my posting issues here. My biggest issue right now is that my internet is great for things like browsing the web or sending e-mail, but for uploading pictures to my flickr account it is painfully slow! Painfully slow tends to not work well for me so I keep just closing things down and walking away. Which of course will lead to nothing being posted. Tonight though I have made myself sit for the upload and I am going to post a real update about family.

Let's see how about we start with Ret. Army Guy. He had a good share of this last week off because of getting back from his TDY. Since he was off he helped me with some projects out in the back yard, and getting the last of some stuff moved over to storage. We also took a day to just go shopping for a few more new clothes for him. There are a couple other pieces for his work wardrobe that I would like to make a trip up to Tucson to buy, but he is pretty set otherwise. I enjoyed our day of shopping because it had been such a very long time since we had done that. Then again I loved working out in the yard with him for the same reason.

The girls...they are still the girls! The school year is running down quickly, and I think all three of them are starting to look forward to summer vacation. Oh and it is April which means that it is time for family and friends to look at portraits of Sweetpea and start thinking about what you want. I will probably send links back out to everyone in about a week or so. Don't worry though Sweetpea will be making her choices for what will go out for anyone who just can't narrow it down.
I know that I should probably have more to type about the girls but to be honest if I wrote down every thing I would still be typing come tomorrow morning, and I really just don't need to do that.

As for me...I'm loving finally having the feeling of being settled into the new place. I'm really loving living out here and I'm starting to pick my camera up more often again. I find myself smiling contently most days, and love the sound of laughter that has started filling this house. From birthday last year to birthday this year there isn't a whole heck of a lot that hasn't changed, but here I am on the other side of it all and finding that I really do love just how it all has gone.

Alright...I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter spent with those you love. My goal for this week it to make myself sit daily and do an upload of at least one picture. Fingers crossed that I can not pull out any hair in the process!

Simple Saturday

IMG_8765, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm taking forever here with trying to get back to posting on a regular basis. Between the move and setting up the house, all the running of kids, getting sick twice and company, I'm just not doing a real great job of it. Oh and let's not forget that since it is March there is the round of three birthdays in this house this month! I'm trying though and do hope to get better about it now that I have some photo's to share of things.

Sweetpea and I spotted this butterfly yesterday and did a search of the tree's around the house for more chrysalis and boy do we have a good number! Sweetpea would like for us to daily do a watch of them in hopes of catching pictures of one as it emerges. So finger's crossed for that.

All of the girls are doing fine and have been enjoying their spring break this past week. To bad it ends come Monday morning, but we have had a pretty good week here with some great temperatures. Now if we could just get rid of the wind that seems to be never ending this year!

There is probably a lot more that I could post about but since it is Sweetpea's birthday today I'm just going to keep this short for now. I hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful weekend spent with those you care about most!

Moving done...working on setting up house

image, originally uploaded by torri_g.

One of the very last pictures taken while in the old place the night the movers packed everything up in boxes. The girls true to form and holding with very long tradition made themselves box forts in which to hide in. Because you know hiding in an empty box may be fun, but hiding in towering stacks of full boxes is so much better! The teddy bear with the tape roll for a hat holding the cell phone what Little Bugs fort buddy, not sure just what they were hiding from or defending it against but it did make everyone laugh.

We did our final clear of military quarters this past Tuesday and passed with flying colors and I really couldn't get out of there fast enough! Doing the final cleaning of the house took an unexpected turn over last weekend because Little Bug and Sweetpea got very sick. Wednesday after what seemed like a case of pulling teeth to get answers about who could see them sooner than 2 weeks from now, they were seen at the HDC urgent care. Sweetpea had bronchitis, sinusitis, double ear infection (which would be another "itis" ending word if I could think of the spelling for it), and conjunctivitis. Just a major case of the "ITIS" actually more like attack of it. But we didn't stop there because then it was Little Bugs turn to be examined. Little Bug had strep throat, and laryngitis. I know her list is much smaller but Little Bug had on doozey of a case of strep...and got to be put on penicillin. Which I'm not sure just why that impressed me so much that day.
Anyway, I'm happy to report that they are both doing much better and were even able to return to school for the first time on Friday.

Well, I'm going to stop here for now and will be getting more photo's up and working my way back into some kind of routine here. I hope that everyone has had a great weekend!

Last Entry of 2009

I know that I have been down right horrible about posting on any kind of regular basis here lately. I've been horrible about picking up my camera on a regular basis which I'm sure is helping to keep me from posting. Anyway, it has been a year of so many things I'm not sure that I could sum it all up in just a quick posting, so I will pass on trying to. I do hope that everyone has a great start to 2010. Stay safe, enjoy and maybe I'll find the motivation to pick up my camera and start shooting again here soon.

Happy New Year! Bring on 2010!

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.

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.

Not much

Since I've been having horrible headaches, knee pain that is just barely manageable, and a couple of busy days, I'm finding myself with a lot I want to post about, but not a whole heck of a lot I'm willing to post about. I'd like to say that I'm going to try to get back on track here soon, but right now I'm thinking a total derailment and taking time off would probably be for the best. Probably not for a very long time, but long enough to get things back in order in my mind. I hope that everyone has had a good week, and I will keep track of and sort out all the things that I think are important enough to post about.

Please no pictures!

There will be no picture for tonights entry, mostly because I'm really sick of looking at picture right now. Alright so not sick as much as just tired and blurry eyed. We shot Sweetpea's senior portraits today, and will be heading back out to shot again tomorrow. The most amazing thing is going on with these portraits, at first look no one belives that it is Sweetpea. To say she looked beautiful doesn't even come close to describing her today. Hopefully we will have another good luck kind of day tomorrow. This time when we head out to the canyon area's I would really like to not start the day off with a bear wandering down into the area. Although it is kind of funny to see a group of Army Guys go running in the oppisite direction screaming like girls. I'm not sure what the picking up of rocks and sticks was going to do other than irratate the bears. Since I was driving I couldn't get a hold of my camera to take any pictures of the bears, and the brave guys sent them back running into the woods. I think the bears were more affraid of their crazy antics than anything else.

If we are lucky and get these outdoor pictures shot the way that I want, I should have senior portraits for everyone to see here in the next couple of days. Oh and I did download the pictures tonight because I thought we might have what I wanted done. But because of keeping watchful eye out for more bears the outdoor one's just are not good enough. I do have some indoor one's that are mind blowing though.

Anyway, enough of this ramble tonight. I hope that everyone had a good Tuesday and that tomorrow is another good day.

Good News, Bad News

The good news...Army Guy had his farewell lunch today and got a couple of really cool "parting" gifts.
The bad news...Odds are that I'm not going to post pictures of them here because they have his full name on them. One is just very funny to me though but would need so much explanation done for it that I don't think even if I photo shopped his name off I would want to try and explain it.
The good news...Army Guy enjoyed his farewell lunch and is really done having to go into work.
The bad news...That means that there are a million other things that have to get done before his October retirement from the Army.

Great news...Army Guy and I got to go out to the farmer's market and pick up a couple of favorites, and it has been really nice having him home this week.

The good news...I had my follow up with orthopedic surgeon today.
Bad news...He was running an hour and a half behind schedule.
The good news...I don't have a damaged meniscus!
The bad news...I do have a problem with the back of my knee cap, and the option of surgery isn't an option, and I will just continue to have the pain probably forever because he isn't really even sure just what it wrong with the back of the knee cap because he has never seen anything like it before, and neither have several other's he talked to.
The good news...It is in my records that when I want an injection for the pain I can call and set appointment.
The bad news...Getting injections for pain is probably the best that is going to be able to be done.
The good news...The cartilage and ligaments in my knee look really, really good otherwise.

I think the last part about my knee was the doctors way of trying to cheer me up after telling me that I would just have to learn to live and deal with the pain in my knee. Yes I'm very happy to know that my knee looks great inside, now if we could just figure out just what it is with the back of my knee cap that is the problem! I didn't go with an injection today because of not having Army Guy there to drive home if I had needed that, and didn't want to take a chance and find out after the fact. Plus there is the whole thought of the injection in the knee that I really just didn't like. I'm thinking about trying to get back into walking and getting out with my camera and see just how much pain I can take before I give in and make the call for an injection. I was making jokes all day about the fact that I was sure I was going to hear that the meniscus was perfectly fine. I can honestly say that I wasn't even surprised when he said it in the office. The reason I knew I would hear it...any time a doctor says they are sure it is this to a female in my family, it isn't that at all. I really just stayed true to form for the family. However, I think Army Guy and my Mom thought I was being a real smart ass when I told them what the doctor had said, but that is only because they were the one's that I told earlier in the day what I thought.

All in all it has been a very good day. (Okay the never ending pain part is not such a great thing but hey I will learn to deal with it...I hope.) I got to spend another day with my girls being a bit crazy, and time with Army Guy which is a great thing. I hope that everyone had a good day! Now to plan a trip out and see if I can cause some real pain in this knee of mine.

How I spent my summer vacation

Do you remember when you were young and in elementary school and one of the first things that you wrote was about your summer vacation? It was a great easy assignment for that first day back for the teacher to give. Well, if I had to write one this year come the end of summer I think it would be filled with all my trips to see doctors. Considering that before April my last trip was October and my trip before that was more than a couple of years ago, I think I'm doing nicely on making up for lost time in the doctors offices. Wait a second though I should get credit for all the time spent with kids in doctors offices shouldn't I? Oh well, to late to see if that excuse would work.

Anyway, I had my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today and after I was able to climb back down from the ceiling that he sent me flying through while examining my knee, the final decision is that I get to have surgery. I've torn my meniscus and if I want to be able to do all the things that I should be able to do with my knee, I really need to have this repaired. First step is to wait for Tricare to get me a referal for a MRI to see just what the total damage to the meniscus is, and shortly after that is done I will be sitting down with doctor to discuss what and how this will happen and then the when. I don't think it will be all that long of a process to get from today to having the surgery, or at least that is not how it sounded with doctor this morning. Probably the longest waits will be the referal and then the appointment date for the MRI. Right now I'm pretty willing to bet that come the start of the new school year I will be spending time on cruches and back in a brace after having had surgery. Could prove to be a very interesting start to the new school year. You know the time of year when there is the non stop running of kids here, there, and everywhere! But that is just my guess, and in the coming weeks I'm sure that it will get much clearer on just when. Although I will admit that the idea of not being able to go and do the back to school registration out at the high school would not break my heart. I think Army Guy should have the joy of doing two registration on two different days and losing several hours of his life due to standing in lines that never move just one year at the high school. Alright I'm aware that is a mean thing, but people you really have no idea just what it is like with this school!

So basically this is going to be a summer spent with doctors, on crutches, in a brace, doing a whole heck of a lot of nothing other than bordering on the verge of pulling my hair out because I'm bored! Now that is just some real great fun. I hope that everyone is having a good week so far, and I'll be back tomorrow with another picture from archives.