Another Year..and then some!

Another year**sigh** where is time going? My little Nana is now three!



And she has been joined by a baby brother,Bubby. He has just turned one, so he isn't so little anymore either.



There has been so much going on. I have been working at the local VA for over a year now. I love it, but it can be very stressful at times. But things can never be static for very long in this household! We have made the decision.(it only took us about five years) to move to another state. There really isn't anything holding us here anymore. Gary's son rarely contacts us..he is busy with his own life, his daughter's will never really be a part of our lives, as much as that pains him and my family has been after me for years to move closer to them and I think it is about time for that.
So we're selling everything off that we can't fit into a 6x12 trailer and the back of a pickup and scooting off to the middle of the country...where there is actually sunlight more than 2 weeks a year!! YAY!!!!

Damn..its been a year!!

Can't believe that it has been nearly a year since I have posted anything on here! Doesn't seem possible that time has flown by that fast. So much has happened in the last eleven months, though, a real eventful time.

Many of you already know of Gary's mother's passing in July; it was a sad, hard time for all. I'm really proud of how well Al has dealt with her loss, how he concentrates on the good times that they shared. That he is now facing his own mortality when it was discovered that the bladder cancer that they hoped they had beaten last year has now spread to his lungs, is another blow to the family. We're all still kind of numbed with the news...

My son-in-law was re-stationed clear across the United States last fall. Broke my heart!! Not having my daughter and grandchild nearby has been a real challenge for me! It was a good move for them I know; a better chance for Toby to advance in his career, but I sooo miss holding that sweet little one in my arms and seeing her learn to do all kinds of things. And she is getting so big!! She is going to be taller than her mother is, I'm sure.





More news is that in August we'll be welcoming another member to the family, as Jennie is expecting another baby. Don't know how I'll be able to stay here while that is happening! Grrrr.

I'm still taking pictures; Gary gave a beautiful camera for Christmas, but with school & the weather I haven't been able to get out much to take many pictures. Here are a few of them though.





I guess that'll be all for now. Hopefully I'll get on here more often than I have been!

Ehhh....

Well, I guess its about time I got off my ass and wrote something on here. At a loss on what to put down though, not much exciting happens around here.

Gary did go into the hospital for one night last week; apparently his potassium levels were too low and it made his heart begin to throw a lot of PVC's, which made him wobbly and dizzy. The Dr's bumped up how much potassium he has to take & it seems to have done the trick, cause he is almost back to his old ornery self.

School is going okay, made a 3.4 grade average last quarter. This quarter is a little whacked though. They have me in a 'career development course'. Its a good course to take, if you are in your teens or twenties, mabe even your thirties! It teaches you how to map out or plan your "career", how to do a "vision statement" ect., ect....Eeeeek. Plan my career? At 50+ years? Not a heck of a lot of planning left to do there! Sometimes I really have to wonder if advisiors actually LOOK at the students that come into their offices for advice.

Got me a camera for my birthday, or I should say Gary did. Its not a fancy Nikon one, but it has some good features, which of course, are as confusing to figure out how to use as any fancy camera..lol. Here are some of the pictures that I have taken with it. Not to bad, if I do say so myself.

Leanna having a snack

PawPaw and Leanna

Heron in Woodward Bay..telephoto shot

Back yard flowers

Just Piddlin'..

Well the end of the first quarter of school is drawing near with all of the drama and panic that goes along with it. I only get 5 days off school though, which sucks. How come the rest of the colleges around get two weeks off? **whines & cries** In any case its over; only three quarters left!!

Kudos need to go tho Gary for all the hard work he is putting in the gym. It tuckers him out, but he is getting stronger and healthier. He even has started riding again!!! We went team penning the other night with Chance & Elisa. Gary did two runs on Chance's horse Cowboy, and then I did two runs. I have to say it felt good to be back in the saddle again, even though Cowboy was being a butt. You'd swear that he had never seen a cow before in his life. He didn't go all spastic on us, but he flat refused to get closer than 4 feet to any of the steers. God, I miss Ziggy!! Remember him at the team penning's we used to go to Tonja & Meredith? **sigh**

Here are the required pictures of Leanna, who turned 9 months old the day after these were taken.

This last one was taken with my cell phone. I love it because you can really see her beautiful eyes.

Long Time no Post....

I guess I should have gotten off my butt and posted something on here a long time ago, but things have been hectic with me returning to school. This quarter I am taking 16 credits, going to school 6 days a week and working 25 days a week at a clinic in the local VA hospital, so that gives me 1 1/2 days to do homework, clean house, do all the other stuff that we reserve for the weekends. Errrrggg, I'm pooped! Next quarter looks to be a little lighter; I'm only going to be taking 14 credits and I'll have 3 days off!!! Yipee!!!

No post goes without mentioning the light of our lives, Leanna. She is 8 months old now and getting to be quite the character. She is still Papaw's girl all the way.I was informed that lst night she has started to crawl. Up to now if she wanted anything she'd just roll for it. Jennie tells me she rolled under their futon the other day and got stuck..poor baby..lol.

Chance & his girlfriend Lisa went to their first schooling show this weekened. They did rather well; Chance got a 2nd place, a third, a couple of fourths. Lisa did about the same except no 2nd place.

Gary is still on track with losing weight. He goea tto the gym and is now taking water areobics as well (all under the watchful eyes of a trainer & others) His BMI has dropped nearly 3 points, which is quite a bit, I am so proud of him & how dedicated he is.

Dreaming of a White Christmas....

Its been nearly a month since I've made my last post & I'd love to say that I have been just to busy to post anything, but the truth is I've just been to dang lazy.

Gary & I kept Leanna last weekend so Mom & Dad could rest..uh-huh, right!!
While she was here we had a little bit of snow, so we bundled her up & took her out in it so we could participate in her first snow experience. The expression on her face, I think, says it all.


And while Gary took that photograph, I have still been doing my fair share of snapping pics. Especially these last three or four days. We have had snow almost non-stop. Urrrggg!! But I have managed to get some nice shots.

This is the garden by the driveway..or what you can see of it.


The trees on the corner of the street on a short sun break..


Christmas decorations across the street...


Our poor little frog in the back yard...


All the kids were supposed to be coming to our house for Christmas dinner, hopefully they'll be able to make it!!

More photographs

I am continuing taking pictures, but I have to admit it is getting harder to go out when we are having our typical wet, gray and cold Washington winter weather. Ugh. But nonetheless I have managed to get a few good shots, and Gary & I have enjoyed jumping in the car and tootleling about the country so I can take pictures. Here are some of the recent ones;

Grandchildren

Someone asked me recently "How does it feel to be a grandmother?" I have to say that I actually had a hard time answering that question. Just how do you explain a feeling that you never thought would be possible?

What do I mean by that? Well, I never thought that I would feel anything that would equal to or be greater than, the love that I feel for my children. It just wasn't possible! Until the morning my grandaughter was born and I was looking down at her sleeping in the hospital. The love that rushed through me just about floored me with its intensity. I couldn't belive it.

Understanding also came as I rememberd something that I had seen my father do after I had taken my children to see him in Texas. My father was a big man 6'5" & about 250 lbs (not much fat either)This was a lifer in the Army, a former DI who went through 3 wars and won a bronze star, and while I remember him frequently playing ball & such with us kids, he nonetheless wasn't the type to ichy-gichy-goo a infant with " baby" talk or get down on the floor & crawl around in play. One day though, I caught my father laying on the den floor with my son straddling him, bouncing up & down & laughing while his grandfather, Mr. Tough Former DI, was holding my infant daughter in his huge hands and saying " Isn't you just the most precious widdle girl in all the world? Yes you is, yes you is granpa's widdle girl"

My father never knew I had witnessed that scene. Personally at the time, I thought the man had completely lost it, was getting senile or something. Until 5 months ago, when I reached out a finger and touched a tiny, soft cheek & thought "Isn't you the most precious widdle girl in all the world? Yes you is...."

Veterans Day

I think this says it better than I ever could!!




Free Comments and Graphics

Playing with Photography

A couple of weeks ago a friend, who does photography on the side, lent me one of his cameras to play around with to see if I like taking artistic type of pictures as well as seeing if I have an eye for it. There have been a lot that were quickly deleted and some that we (meaning Gary, myself & some others) have liked. I thought I'd post some on here for you to look at & offer an opinion if you care to. Whatever the results are I have been having a blast!

Okay Tonja..Here goes!!!

It has been pointed out that just following a friends blog is not enough, that I need to start one of my own. Well it may be as boring as hell but here goes nothing!

In the past year our lifes have changed quite a bit. For those who weren't around to experience it first hand here is a recap.

Last October we came very close to losing Gary. It all started with some atrial fibrillation, which quickly escaladed into what the doctor's called V-Tach storms. In other words his heart started racing uncontrollaby fast, not a good thing at all.After this happened a couple of times in one week the Doctors put a AICD(Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) in Gary's chest. That was a Thursday; on Saturday afternoon they let him come home; on Sunday morning the dang thing started going off. Imagine, as Gary put it, having your privates hooked up to a very strong battery (or a strong electric fence-300 joules worth) and someone flipping on the switch..12 times. Thats how many times his defibrillator went off before they could get him to the Madigan emergency room. Scary, scary, SCARY stuff. Not as bad as watching him flatline a couple of times during his hospital stay, but still very frightening for him & myself as well.

To make long story short, we sold the horse & left the small town of Roy where it took the paramedics about 20 minutes to reach us & another 15 to 20 minutes to get him to the hospital( not their fault, its an isolated area) and moved to the wonderful city of Olympia ( note the sarcasm here) where we are a whole 3 miles to the closest hospital. Takes the EMS crew a whole 10-15 minutes to get here & get him to the ER on a busy day.

Since then Gary & I have both quit smoking; he a year ago, me 3 months ago. Gary went through a cardiac rehab program & than began to go to the gym on Ft Lewis 3 times a week, under his Dr's guidance & with a personal trainer. It has helped his self-confidance tremendously as well as his whole outlook on life, so I'd say the move was well worth it, though we miss having the horses terribly as well as friends. Though we only live 30 miles away, you'd swear that we moved to another part of the state since it is apparently to far for people to drive down here & visit once in a while.

On a much happier note, my daughter Jennifer not only married last year but she presented us with our first grandaughter, Leanna in June of this year. Leanna was a month early & weighed in at 4lbs 9oz & 18 1/4 inches. She had a few minor setbacks but was out of the NICU in 6 days & for the first 4 weeks she & Mom stayed with us. Then last month Jennie's husband, who had beem deployed for 15 months got to come home! He hadn't seen Jennie since last October (R&R) and he had never gotten to see or hold his baby girl. We got some very good pictures of the homecoming & there was even a short write of the homecoming in the local paper.

And because I think she is the cutest baby around here is another picture of little Leanna.

Okay I think that is enough for one sitting..sooooo so long for now!!