No, not gone AWOL

I am sorry I have been off for a little while. The last few days I have been pretty busy running about, the last two days spent out in the sun at the ranges acting as the Combat Lifesaver (scary thought isn't it?) I am working on a fairly different blog that I will most likely post after returning from Miami over the Memorial Day holiday. Yep, laying down more rubber on I95:-D

Random Photos

Welcome to the first ever Random Photos entry. This is a substitute for those days when I am just too lazy to think of anything to write about, and what a quick shortcut. So, for your amusement, are a few random photos from my archives.


Moochie Moochie Ok, there is a short story behind this one. I had just gotten into Tewksbury, MA after arriving from Iraq on R+R leave. Mummy, the family and I hit Cracker Barrel for a bite to eat, and while there I picked up this duckie, that when you make it quack, it quacks out Old MacDonald, and 2 other songs. WAY too irresitable! And yes, I still have it..

Oh I love sitting on top of the world 

Santa Claus's elves in Kuwait 

Awwww, so cute sleeping:-D 

Go here

For a really good site, go see Catcher In the Rye ! I enjoyed myself greatly there.

Answers, Finally

They may not have been all the answers I was looking for, but it is a satisfying thing to finally know. My appointment with the Orthopaedist was this morning, and it took him only a few minutes to analyze the issue and tell me what was really wrong: When I tumbled in the accident, I broke my leg, when that happened, it readjusted one of my joints and in the past 5 1/2 months it has healed in a not so good position, and there really isn't much that he could do surgically speaking, and that chances were that I now have a higher risk of having early onset of arthritis in my knee. Ok, now that I have outlined all of the bad stuff, what this also boils down to is that the doctor also recommended a medical board, which means that they would consider medically booting me out. No, that's not so bad. Kinda what I was hoping for honestly, as there is a whole other world out there that I want to know about, and experiance. I was talking to someone the other night, about the fact that I have really realized my mortality. This doesn't mean that I am now suddenly afraid of death, only in that I know that I could quite feasibly die tomorrow. If that happens, I want to know that I have lived my life the best that I could, and done as much as I could in achieving my greatest potential. e.g. starting college, settling down, etc.

Blatant plug in hopes that maybe someone at Google will notice me (or not, who cares:-D)

Man I gotta pay more attention to what I am doing. The first time I published this I did so without any text LOL. Anyway, this is just something wicked cool that I noticed today. As I am an avid Googler and blogger, I likey this store : http://googlestore.com

In other news now that I am done being a wise ass, I am not so hot today. Last few days I have been down with g-d knows what, causing headaches, sore throat, and other assorted pains on top of the current existing pain. Lovely. But I am dealing with it appropriately, yes I am getting an appointment with my doctor and in the meantime taking Tylenol.
Only a few more weeks until I switch to the admin job and I have to say I am dreading it. Not because I am afraid to do the work and put in the hours, but just because I am starting to feel as though I am not a part of any team anymore. My team is starting on to new projects, while I am assigned another project and so I feel seperated although I have not left the team yet. Not to mention that I will not have as much training as the team, and that sucks, but unfortunatly that is mostly due to the faact that I am broken. OOOOOO I hate that. It seems that no matter what these days, it always comes back to the fact that I am injured. Go dancing? nope that's out (regardless of what I was up to in Kuwait), Swimming? Beleive it or not even that hurts. Wear high heels? Yeah, been getting into trouble with that one lately. 20+ pairs of shoes in my closet and I can legitimately wear may 4 pairs. Can you tell I love heels and shoes? Had I more money I've no doubt that my closet would be full. But I am nothing compared to Grandma though, SHe has shoes to match every outfit and then some. You can't open a closet without finding shoes. Oh, Such a high goal to aspire to;) May hap someday:-D (I love you Grandma hehehehehehe *said in a very not so apologetic little girl voice*)
Well, I am back to my misery and a tall galss of OJ.

Odd things

I spent this morning babysitting for 2 little girls this morning and now know for sure there is no way I am only having one child. Definatly gotta go for 2 or more:-D It was just alot of fun watching them play together and interact (they are not siblings)
Driving to Target this afternoon I was driving by the mall and noticed this kid walking across the parking lot wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a LONG sleeved black over shirt. Did I mention that the tempature here is in the 90's?
Giving new meaning to the joke "it's just more protien" : I saw this book on a Food network show called Incredible Eats. You have to see to believe, so click Here.
And can you imagine eating Rattlesnake? Yeah, not me. But apparently in Sweetwater, TX, they love it. One of those things that makes you want to say "only in Texas" :-D Yep, I like the Food network. I just can't wait until I can actually cook some of the things I see

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due to my general inability to type, this blog is going to be short and sweet:-D I had my appointment with the hand surgeon this morning and that went rather interesting. I now have 2 issues down, 1 more to go. I now have a schedule for what I can expect to be done. The first treatment was a shot to the wrist, ick factor!!!! We started off going through the various scans that have been done, and then talked treatment options outside surgery. He said that he has seen this a few times before, and so knew what to do about it. Great. He told me though that the shot was rather unpleasant, so I was expecting a large needle. When he pulled out this itty bitty short thing, I almost laughed. He had me prop my arm up and prepped to stick me. He warned me that it was going to be a bit painful, as he was putting in some numbing medication , before the stuff that was supposed to help out in the area between the bones. Before sticking me, he looked at the other doctor and made a comment about patients flopping around like a catfish in the bottom of the boat. I immediatly protested that I wasn't like that, to which he replied that he hadn't stuck me yet. I may be a little annoying, as I constantly pepper my various doctors with questions, but an bad patient, never. Anyway, he proceeded to stick me, and after he finished, he remarked that it was the easist (insert REALLY big medical word here) stick he had ever had:-D Well, afterwards he flipped my wrist around and voila no more pain. However he did warn me that for the first few days the pain would probaly get worse before it got better and that the numbing medicine would last a few house. Unfortunatly for me by the time I got back to work, it had worn off and it started hurting again, and by that afternoon, I couldn't move my wrist at all and that is the way it has stayed. This SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But enough whining, I just hope that the steroids I was injected with works. And would you look at what I can do with one hand:-D

In Honor of Mother's Day

I would like to introduce you to 3 of the most courageous women I have known in my life:

My Great Grandmother, Aileen (after whom my middle name was chosen). The first time I can remember meeting my Great-Grandmother, I was 8 years old, and quite the tom boy. Grandma had been raised in the times when young girls were young ladies, and my climbing trees in the backyard didn't quite fit with that. So I didn't like her too much, and for years held on to those memories. When I was 16, my family took a vacation to to go see my Great-Grandparents. At the time Grandma was in a nursing home, and was having a hard time remembering who people were. She always remembered who I was though, as at the time I was using my middle name. I went to visit her everyday for as long as we were there, and left that former dislike behind. My Great-Grandmother lived through the Depression, raised a daughter when my Great-Grandfather was away in WWII, and later in life, started painting. Her paintings are my favorites and I have several of them. She was in my humble opinion, the first matriarch of our family and when she died in the late 90's, the world lost a great woman.

My Grandma Dona: What's not to love about Grandma Dona:) Grandma Dona went back to school later in life, and became a drug and alcohol counselor in Massachussetts helping many people kick their addictions. She has always been on the other end of the line when I call and always sends me stuff when I am deployed. I love visiting Grandma and don't get to do it often enough. One of my favorite visits took place in January '98, when I was 17. Grandma had broken her wrist on a visit to see my new cousin in Oklahoma, and on return to her house needed help. I had just discovered that my choir had taken their mystery trip to Gatlinburg, TN, rather then to FL like I had thought. I was upset about this, so Mummy sent me up to MA to stay with Grandma. I had to wait a whole week and half for snow, but when it did........... I had so much fun creating snow angels, sledding, and playing in the snow. And best of all I had my Grandma all to myself.

And of course, the most important woman in my life, MUMMY:-D My rock, my support group, my counselor, my stylist, my confidant, my best friend, and of course my mother all rolled into one. She is the most courageous woman I know. She has had to make some of the toughest decisions that no mother should have to make, to protect her children. She has supported me in all my choices, whether or not she agreed with them, and is the one person I trust without a doubt. I tell you what, don't threaten her children, cause she will roll right over you! Hehehe

To Mummy and Grandma Dona, I love you very much, and Happy Mother's Day.

In Memoriam, Margaret Aileen Beavers.

What fun can be had under the stars

As I do not keep up on current cultural events in my town, it often happens that I find out about interesting events at the very last minute. Such was the case today, when driving to the grocery store, I saw signs for concert parking for the Augusta Symphony. So I went home, logged onto their website, and discovered that they were having a free concert tonight, "Pops under the Stars". I haven't seen the symphony in years, so I went and loved every minute of it. Growing up in Tucson, my parents took us to see the symphony, the ballet, and classical music was played in our house frequently. I also played the violin, and was in the Tucson Junior Strings orchestra. So, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy a little Sousa, Tchaikovsky, or anyone else you like:-D It's good for your mind!

On the Topic of Tattoos

Not going to say much on this, because you all are going to go read it Here.
But I will mention that I had my first tattoo done at age 23, while stationed in Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq. :-D

Blood boiling at this point

OK HELLO: SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE: http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/05/06/call.suspension.ap/index.html

Ok, so the kid used profanity, whoopdeedo he's 17! And if you told me to get off the phone with my mother, you'd be facing a world of hurt. Parents, children, and spouses who have deployed overseas DON'T get to the phone that often. We didn't have the luxury of calling anytime we wanted. Oh, and not to forget the time difference, Iraq is 8 hours ahead of us! Ooooooo I am so mad right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(PS, Thanks to Sam who alerted me to this injustice)
UPDATE: Someone who had time to research the numbers and email for this school, posted HERE