Another Loved One Affected By Cancer

Okay, I'm going to apologize now and only once for what you are about to read. I'm apologizing because this is not going to be lady like nor proper. But I don't know what it's going to take to get this message through. There's no other way to say this, so I'm just going to say it.

Ladies, look at your boobs. Feel your boobs. Check out your boobs. Get to know your boobs. If you aren't looking at them in the mirror when you get out of the shower, start doing it now. Please, please, do your monthly breast self-examinations. How are you going to know if something's going on with your boobs, if you don't know them! And as soon as you think something might not be right, go see a doctor. It doesn't hurt to be wrong. Guys, encourage the females in your life to take care of their boobs. If you're married, check your wife's boobs out with her. Make it fun. I don't care, just do it!

Our dear friend has Stage 3B Inflammatory Breast Cancer at 33 years of age. This was big in the news and spreading around in emails like crazy a few years ago. I haven't heard anything about it since. Don't stop talking about this. Cancer is not pretty nor fun. No one wants their loved ones to go through it. Please, please, please ladies, touch yourself for God's sake! Using light, medium and firm pressure in a circle without lifting your fingers off the skin, in an up and down pattern, for each breast, above and below the collarbone and your armpit.

Here are some links:
Breast Self Exam
Inflammatory Breast Cancer (same video I saw in June 2006)

Cathedral and News from a Friend

You know that sometimes I go on trips to get me the heck out of Walter Reed during the week. I saw that there was one going to the Washington National Cathedral this past Wed and I had to go. I have already been there several times, but the place is just so darn beautiful. Every time I go I find a different aspect that is just calling out to me. This time it was the light coming through the stained glass windows. The past few times I have gone in the summer, but this time it is winter. And the sun lays low in the sky for most of the day. From the time we got there until we left, the light shined through the stained glass and painted a heavenly and just beautiful splash of color on the walls and floors. I just could not keep my lens off of the resulting splendor.

We started off the trip by having lunch at this place called Booeymonger. I ordered a chicken cheese steak with light mayo. After a few minutes, they yelled that a cheese steak with light mayo was ready. Well, I didn’t order that, so I waited. Next they got on the sound system and started yelling. Since people that ordered food after me got theirs, I figured they screwed up and I’d better go up there. Sure enough, my name was on the receipt for the cheese steak (why didn’t they just call my name?). I clarified that I wanted a chicken cheese steak and I sat down. But then they kept calling out the cheese steak! I started to wonder if they were ever going to make it right and they did. They called me up and I got my sandwich. But then they called out for the cheese steak with light mayo again… sigh. The sandwich was pretty good and then we headed over to the Cathedral.

We were in a big tour bus and the driver was concerned that he was going to have to park on the street like usual, but they just finished constructing an underground bus lobby, as they call it, with enough room for about 15 buses. You get off the bus and get right on an elevator. They also completed a new underground parking garage. They claim that the Cathedral, which started construction in 1907 and has been continuously under construction, was finally completed in 2007. 100 years of construction!

As I said before, the Cathedral was as beautiful as always. This trip was organized by the Walter Reed Pastoral staff and so we attended a short service (the Cathedral is Episcopal). It was very similar a Catholic service, but easier to understand and follow, IMO. Then we were treated to an explanation of how the huge pipe organ there works and a recital. I wandered around close to that area and snapped some pictures. When the recital began, I wandered away but was still able to hear the organ as its rich sound filled every cavity of the Cathedral. It was quite amazing! After that, a docent gave us a tour of some of the features of the Cathedral and told us some of the history behind it. She focused a bit on the War Chapel and then took us around the Cathedral. After that, it was time for tea!

We made our way up to the 7th floor observation deck and enjoyed some very nice tea along with small sandwiches and other sweet goodies. We really had a great time. I took quite a few photos of everything and they can be found here on Flickr: Washington National Cathedral.

Moving on, I have a few birthdays programmed in my Outlook and I noticed that today was my friend Yoli’s birthday (Jan 31). On my drive to run an errand, I decided to give her a call to wish her a great day. Yoli and I met in the 8th grade, back in 1988, so I have known her for 20 years. She is one of a few people that I still have kept in touch with after all these years. Throughout High School I remember Yoli was one of the only people our age that had a job. She worked at a Christian Bookstore. At the time, I thought that was neat. I also remember how she always seemed to glow... She just has this happiness that made an impression on me and I secretly yearned for. We never talked about it and in 1993 we graduated. I moved to Texas and I stayed in touch with Yoli. One time when I went back to LA to visit, Yoli invited me to church with her. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited to go. I remember asking her questions about church and it was then that I realized what it was that she had that I was looking for, the Lord. I mean, I knew who God was, but I didn’t really understand Christianity that well. Shortly after I got back home to Texas, I got a package in the mail. Yoli sent me a bible… my first and very own bible. I still have it.

We didn’t talk that much more for a few years but we did still keep in touch. I don’t remember what led to it, but she and her husband Matt and daughter Kailee came to visit Holly and I during the summer of 2005 when we lived in Arlington, VA. And then Matt was in town in Nov 2006 and came to visit us again for dinner. We had a great time and we have stayed in touch since then. Fast forward to today… Yoli shared with me that she was diagnosed with stage 3b breast cancer about two weeks ago. They are going to treat her with chemo first to see what happens and then most likely perform a mastectomy and go forward from there. She had her first Chemo treatment this past Monday. I don’t want to get into all the details because you can find them here at Yoli’s blog. She’s a sweet gal and I know that she’s going to pull through this. Being a cancer patient myself, I was able to understand some of the feelings she’s having, so that was nice. I prayed for her on the phone and offered to lend my ear to them whenever they might need it. It just breaks my heart to know that they are now going through this trial. Yoli was the first person to put me on the right path to accepting Christ into my life… thank you so much Yoli. I am asking all of you to please pray for Yoli and her family while they go through all of this.

Finally! The Attic Is Done.

Well, I finished the attic today. It took me half the day, including the hour I sat up there laughing and looking at stuff in boxes from high school and early college years. I found stuff I can use for my graduation party and Roger's MRI's from when he was 13 in California. He and his neurosurgeon have been wanting to see those. I don't know how they can be in good condition from being up there all these years without being covered or in anything. I looked through them and didn't see any thing in the area where his tumor was, but I'm not an expert. I don't know what I'm looking at. I got to a point when I realized how close I was to being done and I decided to just keep going until it was finished. I nailed down the plywood I previously put down Saturday then moved everything from under the eaves over to that area. It filled up the entire space plus I finally put the Christmas tubs up there. Talk about a pain in the you know what. I really shouldn't have put those tubs up there by myself, but if I wait for help, nothing will ever get done. I did think once or twice, "You're going to hurt yourself Holly," but that didn't stop me. You get to a point when you just can't take it anymore and you have to do something about it. That actually happens to me a lot. That's how I find motivation to clean my house. Ha! Sad, but true.

Back to the attic. Moving all that stuff revealed a couple of pieces of plywood up there already so I used those and cut some leftover pieces from this project to cover almost all of the area under the eaves. Then I proceeded to move all our stuff around in a more organized manner. Only short term organized manner. When Roger gets home for good, he's going to help me go through every single thing in that attic. We have boxes of stuff from our lives before we got together and we seriously need to get rid of more than half of it. I think there were about twenty empty boxes from every electronic, appliance or set of pots or dishes we own. I understand the reason to keep them for ease of packing for our next move, but keeping all those boxes goes against every grain of sense in my body. I really don't like clutter and all that stuff up there kills me. But I have some patience to wait to toss or recycle or freecycle it all.

Oh it feels good to be done. Of course I'll feel even better once we go through everything up there and the other boxes left in the garage. I could move them to the attic, but they can wait for Roger's return. I can finally give my dad his pneumatic nail gun & long hose back. I'm sure he can use it. You think by owning a home there's always something to do. Most of the stuff there is to do on modern homes is stuff we create for ourselves to make our lives easier or more pleasant. On a farm, there really is always something to do, to fix, to repair, to make, to make bigger, etc. You get my drift. And my dad's fresh egg business is growing so much he added onto the chicken barn recently only to realize he's going to have to do it again. Demand for your product is not a bad thing. But with my dad's health issues, it would be easier to need to expand if he could work every day. He actually went to the doctor today. He was going to come to Austin with me yesterday and stay until I went back to A&M on Thursday for class, but he wasn't feeling good. I'm glad he didn't come after all. I think I would have had to take him back to Bryan after all. His knees were swollen this morning so my mom called and made an appointment for him this morning and they gave him a bunch of medicine. I don't know if it has to do with the usual fluid movement issues he has because of his hardened blood vessels, if he has gout again or if it's something new. And when he's going through all this junk, he doesn't feel good so he's not the most pleasant person either. Sometimes he can really fit the bill of an old, ornery, stubborn cowboy. If you've seen Lonesome Dove, think Woodrow.

Anyway, so I'm done for the day. I'm starving. What else is new? I'm going to eat a snack before I jump in the tub because I can't stand myself. I had to take my clothes off in the garage before I came into the house because I was filthy. It's easier to scoot around on your butt & knees up in the attic so I was covered in dirt and dust. I'm going to work a little bit after my shower then get ready for class tomorrow and yoga before I go to bed. My back in sore and I'm stiff. I seriously have been doing yoga every day just to stay flexible and not get stiff from all this work and all the swimming. I am really enjoying swimming. I could tell yesterday that my endurance is increasing. So I'm looking forward to being able to do my workout plan completely. Right now I'm doing a modified version of it. I'm still swimming an hour, but not exactly the same as the workout. It's all building endurance. I will eventually have to swim longer. And once the semester ends and I no longer have to go to A&M anymore, I'm going to start looking for a gym here with a great indoor pool for Roger and myself to swim. I'd like to swim at least three days a week.

Roger had a photo shoot early this morning for the newspaper then he went to the National Cathedral on one of those field trips they set up for the soldiers. But of course, he takes his camera so the newspaper can use the photos if they need to fill space or decided to do a story about it. I really hope he blogs about it because it was a tour and tea. I can't wait for him to talk about the finger foods they had at the tea. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. No, actually I wish I was there. He said everything was delicious and the tea was stronger than he expected. He went to a Washington Wizards game last night. These field trips make it possible to get away from Walter Reed and forget the crazy stupidity that goes on there for a while. Okay, enough for today, I'm off to grab a bite. Oh, check out the pictures of the finished product in the Flickr set House Work. Later!

More Work On The Attic

After sleeping in late, cleaning the bathrooms, eating breakfast, checking my email and starting some laundry, I worked on the attic some more. I finished the other side except for nailing the boards down. Since I started late in the afternoon, I decided to call it quits when I realized it was 8:00 p.m. I notched four joists for electrical wiring, cut the piece of plywood that was already up there, cut another piece from the left over plywood I used on the other side and used a left over piece of MDF (that's medium density fiberboard) from a project three years ago to make a patchwork floor. I don't really care how it looks as long as it's sturdy enough to hold junk. When I finish my homework assignment, I will nail the boards down and move more boxes and stuff from under the eaves to the newest area with flooring to get ready to put more plywood down under the eaves for more storage. I'm about to eat some dinner, I'm starving! And then I'm going to start working on my homework assignment before I catch the new Trading Spaces on TLC with the return of Paige Davis as the host. I might have already missed it, but it will show again in an hour. I posted more pictures from today in the House Work set in Flickr. Enjoy!

I had to run an errand before I actually starting notching the plywood. It gave me a chance to go through the car wash. It was such a beautiful day today. High of 71 and sunny. I was able to open all the windows and air out the house. It was way too nice to be stuck inside. Lots of people were outside today in my neighborhood. Of course, there are those people who always stay inside their house no matter how pretty it is outside. I just have to give up on those people after a while. I spoke with my doctor's nurse yesterday afternoon. The x-rays of my jaw were negative for fracture or anything like that. But since I am still having pain, she is referring me to an oral surgeon just to be safe. Hey, I don't mind. Ever since Roger was diagnosed with brain cancer, every worst nightmare runs through my head when I have strange pain or symptoms. I think things like, "I wonder if I have bone cancer or a tumor growing near the joint." I don't mess around anymore. And when people tell me of some strange thing going on with them, even the littlest things, I'm like, "You better get to a doctor ASAP!" Don't wait too long with pain or strange symptoms. The sooner you get it checked out, the better for treatment and ease of mind. Okay, enough rambling. I'm hungry!

Religiously Transmitted Diseases

I drive to Texas A&M every Tuesday and Thursday listening to my favorite local radio station, The River (102.3). And when I lose the River, I switch over to KLOVE (92.1, 97.1 & 106.3). Sometimes I can switch back to the River but if I can’t, I move over to a Houston radio station, Country Legends (97.1). I love that station. It’s my favorite country music and I wish I could get it all the time. When I can’t get any radio stations, I turn to my MP3 player, a CD or for two more months, XM Satellite radio. XM is nice when you can’t get a decent radio station. But I’m frugal and will not be subscribing to it when my free three month subscription runs out. I already have a 4GB MP3 player, which holds more than enough music for me. Why would I throw that kind of money away? I only listen to a few channels as it is.

Anyway, Tuesday morning I switched over to KLOVE and the DJ was talking about a book he is reading called Religiously Transmitted Diseases by Ed Gungor. The title is misleading and it’s supposed to be. It is targeted to the church or believer who has lost “the joy of their belief” as one reviewer stated. The DJ spoke about one chapter in particular regarding judgment and giving people second chances. It sounded really interesting and funny. I wish I could read it, because I know I experience periods of “spiritual disease” and would benefit from this book. But as the semester has begun and I already have another book I’m trying to finish, I must add this to the list. I found a really cute article regarding his book plus a test you can take to see if you suffer from an RTD. Some of the diseases he lists are humorous, like spiritual elephantiasis, evangelistic rabies, afluenza, last days flu (I know people with this one.), sovereignty shingles and inferiorphobia. Most of the reviews said it was funny. I can’t wait to read it. I’m sure I’ll be suffering from some of those viruses then too.

Yesterday was the one month anniversary of my new car. I have already put over 1200 miles on it. And I still love it. But I need to wash it. I keep forgetting to call my doctor about my jaw x-rays. I'm going to do it now. The muscle relaxers aren't helping with the joint jaw pain, but they sure are helping with menstrual cramps.

Half Way Done

Wow, I'm bushed. I just finished putting flooring in half the attic. After I worked a little bit this morning, I cut my pieces of plywood. What was great was I didn't have to cut them down anymore to get them to fit through the attic stair hole. That was a relief. And using my dad's pneumatic nail gun made securing the plywood to the joists so easy. I moved all the tubs, boxes, luggage, leftover tile and bags of grout over to the side with flooring to get ready to work on that side of the attic. I wasn't sure what I was going to find under the piece of plywood that was already there, but it turned out to not be so bad. I only found a small Christmas decoration of fake holly, some kind of decorative wicker racket thing and a bottle of light beer. Although I'll never know for sure, I bet it was left behind by the construction workers when they built the house. I've been around construction my whole life and I know they drink a little beer. There was something else under that plywood I knew was going to be there, electrical wiring. Although I'm calling it quits for today, my next step is to cut some notches on the top side of the joists for the electrical wires to fit into so the plywood lays flat across the joists and doesn't kink the wire. Don't want to create a fire hazard. When I'm finished with that and putting more wood down, I will again move more boxes and stuff from under the eaves into that area. Then I can assess if I need to put more flooring down there just for storage.

It was really cold outside (34 degrees) when I was doing all this. So I pulled my car out of the garage and shut the doors. I pulled a fan we have to the doorway so it would pull warm air from the house into the garage. Since I knew the circular saw and nail gun would be loud, I wore my drummer's ear plugs while I was cutting and nailing. I did eventually warm up a bit with all the moving and carrying heavy items around. I even broke a sweat. I'll need to do some yoga tonight though for my back and from swimming an hour yesterday. All in the name of good health.

Now I am going to grab some lunch because I'm starving. Then I will start some anthropology homework and reading. We were given an assignment in class yesterday that's due next Monday. It's only worth five points, but anything will help in the end towards getting an A in my class. Actually I added up all the points each test is worth plus this assignment and you can technically make 105 in the class. So there's no excuse for not making an A. Okay, I'm off to eat lunch. Oh, I almost forgot, I posted pictures from today in a set in Flickr that has more house work pictures. Enjoy!

The Holy Land

Okay, my class, Introduction to Biblical Archaeology is starting to get interesting. Now that I’ve starting doing the assigned readings this weekend, my interest has been perked. The readings start with understanding what Bible Archaeology is by understanding the geography of the area which also affects the political (and religious) aspects of the region. And we’re also getting into the history of the region. I’ve never understood completely the conflict with Israel, Palestine, Jordan, etc. I mean, I understand they are fighting over who should own Jerusalem because it is a holy city to three faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But I’ve never been able to keep it all straight. So I think this part of the class is going to set it all straight for me and help me to finally understand it all. I wasn’t a huge fan of going to the Holy Land before, but since becoming a Christian and learning more about the Bible and where it took place, I’ve become more interested in it. But I can feel this class is really going to enhance my interest in it and I am becoming more and more intrigued with going to see the places I read about in the Bible. I do think it would be really neat to stand on the land looking at the exact places some of the stories of the Old and New Testament took place. I wonder if there are any walls of Jericho still standing. I can’t wait to get further in the readings. I’m glad we have four weeks of introduction. I’m going to need at least four weeks to keep it all straight.

As for what’s going on with Roger’s case, I’m hoping he will blog sometime this week with the latest updates. He has spoken with his assigned attorney and will meet with him twice before the hearing on Feb 13th. But I’ll let him go into detail. Please keep him and his case in your prayers. Thanks!

Weekend Update

Well, I didn't get much done this weekend except some laundry and homework. I watched way too much TV. I decided to take my meds and not try to cut any plywood. I did manage a 3 mile walk which was so nice. I wanted to keep going once I got to the park, but since I forgot to put on chapstick and it was so windy out, my lips were already burning and I had a mile and a half back to the house. Plus I didn't bring any water with me, thank goodness there's a water fountain at the park. But it was sooo cold, it was hard to drink. I got to see the beginning of some kind of medieval sword or jousting group. I wanted to stick around and watch but they were still gathering and setting up. Their costumes were really neat, some more elaborate than others.

And I also made it to the 7pm service at Austin Stone to the excitement of Chris Tomlin leading worship. Man, that guy is full of the Spirit. Of course, if you didn't know who he was or what he looked like, you'd have no idea who he was other than a lead worshipper. And as usual, the message was good. I won't go into too much detail about the message since you can listen to it here, but I love that I learn many new things about the Bible and God's word every Sunday. And Matt, as usual, was funny. The surprising thing about service this Sunday was the church is now using the entire gym for all four services. It was weird when I first walked into the gym and the new set-up threw me off at first. Then I realized why, they were using the whole gym. Matt announced that he didn't want to have to go to five services on Sundays so to have enough room for everyone they pushed the stage back. Even though I don't particularly care for large or mega churches, I don't get that feeling once the worship and message starts. Another funny thing was during announcements, one of the elders was discussing some of the more interesting classes they are offering this semester and I thought about checking one out. It was called Transitions and it was geared toward senior college students or students who just graduated. So I grabbed a class schedule after service ended to read about it and quickly decided it was not for me. It kind of made me laugh. The description reads, "Graduation brings many changes in your life. This class will look at persevering in Christ and practically preparing for life after college. Topics include finding and investing in a healthy church, handling finances in a Godly way, redemptively engaging your work place." It sounds like a great class and I'm sure there a lot of "kids" who would benefit from it, but after being married for almost five years and in the workplace for fifteen, I don't think I need it anymore. We've experienced enough changes for a while.

So I completely forgot today was a holiday which means my doctor won't get my x-ray results until tomorrow. I hope there's something that can be done for my jaw. It's still hurting and the meds aren't really helping much. I stopped taking the Tylenol with codeine completely. All it did was upset my stomach and make me feel whoozy. The muscle relaxers aren't doing much either. I can't tell if my jaw ever stops hurting. But of course, you know I'm not missing any meals. Nothing will come between me and food. I'll puree it and suck it through a straw if I have to.

Let The Jokes Begin

Well, today was an interesting end to a good start. I started school on Tuesday. I’m so stoked, my last semester of school. The semester just started and I’m already excited about graduating. I even have a cap and gown already. My mom’s friend Tribbie is letting me borrow her cap and gown from her master’s graduation at A&M this past December. All I have to do is buy a tassel. I tried it on Tuesday night and it’s perfect. That will save me some money. Thanks Trib. We know the graduation will be either May 9th or May 10th. Once the university goes through all the graduation applications they receive by the end of this month, they will know how many students are graduating from each department of each college and will create a schedule to make it all fit into four ceremonies, two on each day.

As for school, my class, Introduction to Biblical Archaeology, so far has been interesting. I’m not as impressed with the professor as I hoped to be. He doesn’t use any of the available resources or technology the university has created to make his life or the students’ life easier, except for electronic course reserves at the library. Those are old hat if you ask me. The class is packed and you have to be in the room at least 15 minutes before to get a decent seat. You know I like to sit in the front and so far I’ve had to sit about half way up. It’s hard to hear him even with a lapel microphone. I’m going to have to start getting there earlier. Even though we got the “this isn’t a Bible study” lecture the first day of class, he mentions specific scripture and stories from the Bible often. He’s even mentioned Jesus a few times. So for me, it is a Bible study because I’m learning things about the Bible I didn’t know previously. For the next four weeks, we are covering the introduction to Biblical archaeology before we get to specific times periods. We will cover 10,000-8,500 BC to the first century AD. So far we’ve been given a 45 page reading assignment. But of course, the textbook for the class isn’t in the bookstore yet, so the prof (actually his teaching assistant) had to scan the pages in for us and post them on the library electronic course reserves. I don’t think it will be in when the bookstore says, (not surprised) so I ordered mine from Amazon.com (saved $7) and it is already on its way to me. I bet I get my book before the bookstore gets them in.

As for swimming, Thursday was my first day to actually swim. It was great. Everything came back to me, breathing, head placement, arm and leg movement, torso twisting, a few strokes. But I’ve decided to take a stroke clinic or two depending on the cost so I can get further instruction and correction. I was tempted to attempt a flip turn on Thursday, but decided to wait a few weeks. I did a workout I found online. It’s part of an eight week program, but I plan to spread it out since it’s been two and a half years since I’ve swam regularly. The pool was set up for 25 meter lanes. I swam for a total of 45 minutes to one hour with a short 15 minute break in between for a fire drill that required the entire rec center to be evacuated. Turns out workers in one area of the rec center smelled gas so the staff decided to be better safe than sorry. I can appreciate that since I was in an area closer to the boilers and natural gas and heat don’t mix well. It was disturbing to my workout and the cold outside didn’t help. We weren’t allowed to go into the locker rooms to grab more clothes or anything, just evacuate.

So there we were soaking wet only in bathing suits and they are telling us we have to go outside where it is 41 degrees. Yeah, we were happy about that. I had one towel already and they gave us as many towels as we needed plus these huge insulated parkas the swim team uses. I was happy to see those. They helped a lot but it was still cold. We finally went back in and I resumed my workout with a short warm-up. I wish I had some kind of abacus or counting frame to keep up with my laps. I swam about 200 meters before we had to evacuate. That was a 9 minute warm-up and the start of a 9 minute skill refresher. Then I did a 22 minute main set plus a 5 minute cool down. I think in total I swam 700 meters which is about 0.44 of a mile, almost half a mile. Not bad for my first swim in two and a half years. I was starving after that and my legs were slow. My right hip hurt a little also, but I have been doing some yoga hip openers to help with that. I’ll be doing yoga everyday to combat the pain I’ll feel from all this swimming. The time of day I swim isn’t busy at all. I plan to continue swimming at that time. It also gets me in a locker room shower before a swimming conditioning kinesiology class gets out filling up the locker room.

As for the title of this post, two weeks ago I started having pain in my left lower jaw. It has progressively gotten worse, but slowly. I have no idea what I did to my jaw. (Here’s where the jokes begin.) There has not been any popping, grinding, ear pain or headache, just pain near the joint when I chew (more jokes), but not any when I talk (even more jokes). Around Tuesday of this week it actually started getting a little stiff and was tough for me to open. So on Wednesday night I decided I better go to the doctor before it gets worse and I can’t open my mouth at all. (Insert more jokes here.) How would I eat? I’d starve! I did some research online about jaw pain because I wasn’t sure if I should go to the dentist or my PCM. The census online was to go to a TMJ specialist, but I am not comfortable with my dentist at all and on Thursday morning I made an appointment with my PCM. By Thursday evening, thank goodness after dinner, the pain started moving up the side of my face and giving me a headache. I did not feel well. I had previously tried Tylenol and Advil but neither helped. At my appointment, my doctor examined the area externally and internally (which wasn't pleasant) and decided to send me for x-rays. She also gave me prescriptions for a muscle relaxer and Tylenol 3 with codeine. I went straight to the lab for the x-rays hoping they’d be able to get the results to her the same day. After a 30 minute wait in the lobby and ten x-rays in different positions, I was informed the results wouldn’t get to her until Monday. So I have to wait to see what’s going on.

I turned in my prescriptions and ran all the rest of my errands before picking them up to go home and take them. I was planning to work when I got home, but that was before I found out I was going to be prescribed those meds. I wanted to get them in my system as soon as possible. I ate a small meal as to not have an empty stomach then took a half pill of the muscle relaxer and one Tylenol 3 with codeine as the pharmacist recommended. I waited a while and felt nothing. So I took the other half of the muscle relaxer and that helped. I was actually able to chew with no pain. I started to feel a little woozy when I stood up from the Tylenol 3 with codeine and decided I better stay down for a while and that I didn't need the second one yet. I think it has worn off a little, hence being able to blog, but I can’t take anymore for a bit. Darn.

My plan for tomorrow was to go for a long walk in the late morning as it warmed up to 52 degrees and cut plywood for the attic in the early afternoon. I’m not sure how I will feel tomorrow when I wake up, but I can’t drive or operate machinery on either medication. So I have two options, go with the pain until after I do those two things or take the meds and not do anything at all. I probably shouldn’t go for too long of a walk on muscle relaxers and Tylenol 3 with codeine. I wonder if I could walk at all. I was really hoping to be done with one side of the attic this weekend. Oh well, they say when you own a home you never run out of things to do. So putting that off a little longer won’t make a big difference. It will also give me time to hit my family up for help. :)

Project Gutenburg

I came across this article, "Peruse the world's best public library" and thought I'd share it. It's about Project Gutenburg which you can download 22,000 classic books for free. And they are adding more every day. I recommend reading the article first so you can get an idea of how and why the project began before you jump over to the website. I think it's a really awesome thing they are doing to save great literature, but I also think it's a great way to read books without having to buy them or if you have transportation issues getting to a library to check them out. Also imagine riding the subway and reading a classic on your palm or smartphone or whatever device you have. You wouldn't have to lug a huge book on the subway, save space and stop getting dirty looks from other passengers because you're taking up so much space because you have to turn the pages while you read. Yes, the DC rush hour riders can be that nit-picky. You should see how they act when you're trying to read the Express which is regular newspaper size! I hope many of you partake in this great service.

I had a relaxing but productive weekend. I got a few things done on the house that Roger & I didn't have time to do while he was home. I was able to get all the Christmas decorations down and packed into tubs, hung some decorative metal gates on the front porch, got rid of another box in the garage by putting all our photo albums in a basket under one of the end tables, and started working on the attic flooring by nailing boards across the inside of the exterior walls for the plywood to sit on since the joists are flush with the wall and the plywood doesn't have anything to rest on. It felt good to get those done. Now I start the rest of the list on Wednesday. Wednesday I plan to cut the plywood pieces I need and place them in the attic. I know I will have to cut them in half to get them up there through the attic stairway hole. If I have time, I will also nail them in and move stuff from another area to that area and start working on the flooring in the next area. I borrowed my dad's pneumatic nail gun and man, what a life saver! No pre-drilling or manual hammering. It took me a whole five minutes to get those exterior wall boards put up. Pneumatic tools are a life saver. Thanks dad!

Today is going to be filled with work related tasks and getting ready for school tomorrow. Texas universities officially started today, but my class is on Tuesday/Thursday, so tomorrow will be all about school. I'm also going to start swimming two days a week before class since I'll be there anyway and the Natatorium at A&M is unbelievable. I have to pay the Student Recreation Center fee anyway, so I might as well use it. By the way, my dad helped build the Student Rec Center that holds the Natatorium many, many years ago. I'm hoping to figure out a time when the lap lanes aren't busy so I don't have to circle with anyone. Indoor pools are rare here so they get packed at certain times. Before I moved to Virginia, I used to swim at the downtown Austin YMCA's indoor pool and after work the lap lanes were crazy busy. I usually had to circle with three other people. That's not fun, especially when only one person may be a trained swimmer and the rest of us aren't. Fast swimmers throw my whole workout off. They push me harder, but that tires me out faster. So we'll see how crazy the university pool is and I'll let you know how it goes.

So as you can see, I didn't do a whole lot this weekend, but I am really happy with what I achieved especially all the relaxing. I went to the 5:00 p.m. service at Austin Stone last night since I worked in the morning on the attic. It was a really good message. We're still going through 1 Corinthians and yesterday Pastor Matt covered 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 and his two points were 1) we must remember church leadership does have authority in our lives and we must honor the leaders of the church, but our loyalty is to Jesus Christ and we must never submit to the point that it defames or dishonors Jesus and 2) our hearts need to be in love with the message not the messenger because God moves and works through men. The church in Corinth was doing both of these. His over all point was if there is ever a situation or time where there is a division or argument or quarrel in the church, he hoped we would be the one to stand up for unity. The church was all a buzz because all the new classes, trainings, forums, etc are starting up for this semester. They have a lot of different classes to offer. I read through all of them and there are many I'd like to take, but I've decided to stick with the one day forums this semester. The thought of a 5-10 week study is more than I want to handle right now. But there are some good ones. The message was good and funny, so if you get a chance you should listen to it by clicking on the link above. And of course, the worship was moving, like always.

Boogie Back To Texas

Well, I boogied my way back to Texas today. Even after taking off late because of an approaching storm and turbulence all along the way, it flew by thankfully because it was a non-stop and I was preoccupied with a great book (Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge). Roger drove me to BWI for the flight and dropped me off at the curb. I wanted him to come in with me, but I knew if he came in I would cry. I was already feeling it well up inside me as we were driving up the beltway and I didn't want to cry. Plus I didn't use waterproof mascara this morning and knew if I cried I'd feel and look miserable the whole way. And I hate the feeling that I look like something's wrong. I don't want to look like an emotional wreck. I miss Roger a lot already. He was home for two weeks and I got so used to him being here. I guess that's why I avoided going to bed for so long tonight. Even when I started to head to bed, as I passed our bed walking into the bathroom to get ready, my first thought was, "My first night in bed without my husband again." I hope this next two months goes by really fast and he doesn't have to stay longer, again. We had a great additional week together. Although it's tough staying at Walter Reed and I was happy to come home, being there with him through all the things he has to do everyday made me wish I didn't have anything to do and I could stay with him. But we both know me being here is best. I'm finishing school and taking care of our house. I'm glad I was able to drive back with him and spend some additional time together. I'll take any I can get. You know how people take their spouses for granted? Yes, everyone does. I feel like there's no way I could take Roger for granted after all this. But I know, as human as I am, I'm sure I will as time goes by. I hope over the years I'm reminded not to. Maybe we should hang his radiation mask on the wall instead of sitting on a closet shelf. Hopefully how we have both changed through this and what we've learned about our love and God's love for us will remain in our hearts, always.

We Made It!

Thanks for the prayers. They worked. We made it safely to Walter Reed in DC about 9:30 p.m. We arrived later than expected due to the above. Lovely DC traffic. Can you believe that at 9:30 on a Saturday night there is traffic that bad?! We found out later a car accident was blocking three lanes on the beltway. In that same traffic report we heard something about an airplane down on a roadway. We were like what the heck?! We thought the bad drivers on the interstate was crazy but this takes the cake. After unloading the truck, Roger checked in with the CQ on duty, we ate some dinner while watching the end of the Steelers/Jaguars game, then got ready for bed. So finally after driving 1560 miles I can say, "Good night!"

460mi to DC

We left Nashville an hour later than planned... We sat down for a bite with Justin and Molly around 8am and all of a sudden it was 9! Anyway, we're doing well. It is cloudy today and it sprinkled earlier. We just got on I81 from I40 and we should be in DC before 9pm due to the time change. I am about to take the helm.

Roger

Sent from my AT&T Tilt mobile phone

In Nashville

We pulled in to our lodging for the night a little after 8:30pm CT and after 800 miles.

A few months ago in VA, I stayed at Ryan's house one weekend and met Kyla, who is pictured above. I could tell from my short time around her that was very spirit filled. I knew she was moving to Nashville in the future and we kept in touch. When I knew for sure that we were going to be driving through TN, I contacted her to see if she could help us find a place to stay. Long story short, she hooked us up with a fabulous couple, Justin and Molly, who are taking care of us quite nicely. And I got to see Kyla again! Kyla, thanks for your help.

Tomorrow we make the last push of just over 600 miles to DC. It should take us just over ten hours. Thanks for your prayers!


Sent from my AT&T Tilt mobile phone

Half way there

It is just about 2pm and we have driven 427 miles and the GPS says we have 447 to go. We left the house around 0730 CT (later than we planned) but if we're about half way I figure we should be there close to 2100 CT.

We're about to stop for a bite, stretch, visit the facilities and get back on the road. Weather has been great and the drivers not too stupid. More later!

-rog


Sent from my AT&T Tilt mobile phone

DC or Bust

We're on our way to DC. Please pray for our safety. Thanks, Roger & Holly.

Christmas 2007 Photos

Before we leave for the drive back to DC, I better post all those pictures I've been promising. Because you know if I don't do it now, I'll forget or not do it at all.

And since everyone has already received our Christmas card this year (Joy, your's was returned so it's on its way now.), I'm starting the set with that picture because Wal-Mart over-exposed our Christmas cards and frankly, I don't like the result. So I want everyone to see the real picture and know it is much better than the Christmas card.

So click on the picture below or the Flickr link to the right so see all our adventures while Roger was home on leave for Christmas. Happy New Year!

Roger's Christmas Presents

I mentioned in a post about a month ago that I was working on a personal Christmas present for Roger but I couldn't say what it was because he would find out. Well, it's after Christmas and he knows what it is now, so I'll share it with you all. Since Roger has had many photographs published in the Walter Reed post newspaper, The Stripe, our stack of newspapers was getting quite large. And I started to think about what the heck we were going to do with all of them. He wanted to keep them for memories and proof of his published photos but there had to be a better way to store them. Not to mention every time he wanted to show someone his handy work, they would have to strum through pages of pages of newspapers to find only his photos. So I thought about it for a bit and decided he needed something he could just hand someone kind of like a model's portfolio. Then it struck me, duh, photographer's have portfolios also. So I did some research online for a few weeks then went to our favorite local photography store, Precision Camera to see if they had the supplies I would need. I wanted to also see the items in person before I had to order online. It would give me a better idea of what I wanted or needed to order. But of course, they had exactly what I needed and cheap. As soon as the semester ended, I organized the newspapers in date order and the Sunday before Roger flew home, I printed blank pages with the citation for each article one of Roger's photographs were used in. It took me all night. I didn't realize how many of his photographs were published. Especially since the Stripe doesn't have a photographer on staff at all, Roger's used as much as possible. I almost filled up the entire portfolio which has 24 pages, front and back, so 48 pages total. And some pages have several photos on a page. He had many photos published on the front page. I was quite impressed with his work. I took some pictures of the portfolio to give you an idea of what it looks like and I will post those tomorrow with all the other pictures from Roger's Christmas leave. There are only four pages left in the portfolio and I know it will fill up soon. Now that he's going back for at least another three months, I'm sure the newspaper staff will take full advantage of him. And many of his photos have been published in other periodicals and brochures, so those will go in there as soon as Roger gets a copy of them. Some of his pictures are being published in a USO brochure. I'll probably have to buy another portfolio. That's not a bad thing though.

So his other Christmas present, although he's estatic about it, is for both of us, but really for me. We normally have five remotes to control the TV, cable box, dvd/cd player, stereo receiver, etc. And it drove me crazy. So I got him one of those universal remotes. Not the simple, easy ones. This one is a bad, mamma jamma. Roger had to download software to the computer and program all our devices into it and program all the settings for each possible activity we would do. And no, I did not pay the price shown on that link above. I did my research and found it way cheaper. It controls up to 15 devices and can even control your lights and curtains if you have those wired too. Of course, we don't but it is so nice to push one button on one remote and all the devices you need to turn on and go to a certain setting do it. I definitely don't miss all those other remotes.

Time Flies When You're Crazy Busy

I can't believe it's been a week since I last blogged. A lot has happened so I'll keep it as brief as possible. So we bought the Hyundai Santa Fe last Monday, on my birthday. We love it and are very happy with our purchase. Christmas Eve service at Austin Stone was beautiful. Christmas day at Roger's parents was great. We had a lot of fun. We watched a few footballs games over the past week. Happy UT won, sad A&M lost. Too many pro games to talk about, but enjoyed them all. On Wednesday, Roger received the date of his formal hearing for his disability appeal. It is set for February 13, 2008. Not only is that much later than he expected and means he will be there even longer than expected, but it's also his birthday. What a way to spend your birthday plus knowing it's going to suck is worse. So that means he won't be home at the earliest until March 13th. He was quite bummed that day knowing he has to be there so much longer. Tells you how bad it sucks at WRAMC. We've been getting numerous things done around the house since Roger is home to help including organizing the garage. This has taken the most time but we're pretty much done. We are very excited about how the garage make-over has turned out. We can definitely get both vehicles in there again once I get rid of a couple items. So I am spending today freecycling tons of stuff to continue organizing the garage while Roger is taking care of his truck. We are planning to drive him back to DC so he will have a vehicle while he's there so his remaining time won't suck as bad. This will also help him when he comes home for good as he has lots of stuff to bring back since he's been there so long already. We have a bunch more stuff to accomplish before Roger leaves, but only a few things that have to be done. The rest can wait for me to do during the semester or when Roger gets home for good. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but oh well. Tonight we are going to Roger's sister Mirna's home for New Year's Eve celebrations. Hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a happy new year.

Today Was A First

Roger and I laid down last night after midnight. I knew it was after midnight and it was technically the next day, but it did not dawn on me that it was already my birthday. So as we were snuggling down to sleep, Roger said to me, "I want to be the first person to tell you happy birthday." Oh, he's so sweet. The next thing I know, it's really bright, obviously it's the next morning and I hear a loud, "Good morning!" Roger is walking towards me with a big tray in his hands and a huge smile on his face. He brought me breakfast in bed. I was like, "Huh, what?" I'm a pretty good sleeper when he's home so I had no idea what was going on. That boy got up earlier than me, turned my alarm off, moved our phones far away so no texts or reminders would wake me up. He shut the door to our room and tried to be as quiet as possible. And he pulled it off. I can't believe he did it. I have never had breakfast in bed before so I really had no idea what to do. It was kind of strange. Before he left the room, I thought this is going to be strange sitting here eating all by myself. So I told him I wished he could eat with me. So he ran to the kitchen and cooked his breakfast and joined me. And he was done before I was half way done with my breakfast. Which if you know Roger any bit, that's fast for him. He said he tried very hard not to be perfect and cut corners to be faster. He usually takes forever to do most tasks because everything has to be perfect, the toast to the right browning, the butter at room temperature to it can spread, the jelly spread at the counter before he comes to sit down, his coffee just perfectly mixed with Splenda and creamer by that time my food is cold waiting for him or I'm done eating. So I was quite impressed. He had only gotten up about 30-45 minutes before he brought the food to me. Of course he told me don't look in the kitchen. Don't worry, I didn't. He also gave me a beautiful birthday card on the tray. I love it and can't believe he found it at HEB, our local grocery store. What a great way to start my birthday. Roger always tries to make my birthday special. He's so sweet. I wonder what the rest of the day has in store. Of course, I'll let you know later.

Weekend Update

Roger and I are sitting here Sunday night watching the Washington Redskins whoop up on the Minnesota Vikings. We had a pretty lazy Sunday. And we deserve it. Friday and Saturday were non-stop so we need a bit of a break. Friday I woke Roger up about 5:30 a.m. because I couldn't sleep. We laid down about 12:30 a.m. and I hadn't been able to sleep yet. So he woke up so we could talk about the 3F's, feelings, fears and frustrations. This is one of many things I miss about Roger not being home. I can tell him anything and he listens well and helps me see things the way I need to see them. We end in prayer and shed tears which always makes me feel better. We talked until 7:00 a.m and I got up and baked those red velvet cupcakes finally. Then we headed to the south steps of the Capitol for Tuba Christmas with Roger's dad and his sister Cindy. It was really nice. We try to go to Tuba Christmas every year. Here in Texas it can be outside, but in DC it has to be inside. After lunch at Waterloo, we ran a few necessary errands before heading back to the house to ice the cupcakes and so Roger could wrap all the gifts he picked up. It takes Roger a while to wrap gifts now so since he didn't want me to see my birthday or Christmas presents, I ran to HEB for some last minute groceries and to top off the gas tank for our two hour drive the next day and then I went to Michael's to exchange my cupcake stand because it was missing parts which made it unable to be put together. Upon my return he was still not done wrapping gifts and I finished icing the cupcakes. Then we ran over to my friend Susan and Tim's house to say hello, drop off some cupcakes and have a glass of wine. It was so nice to hang out with them again. They are definitely our kind of people.

Saturday we went to Smetana for the Wise family Christmas. It was a great day. We'll post the pictures from all these events at the end of Roger's leave and you'll get to see how much fun we had at my parents. Going home to the farm is always interesting and you never know what you'll end up doing. All the kids had fun and us adults too. The food was great. There's nothing like your own parents' holiday cooking. Fried turkey, glazed ham (real ham, not spiral, with homemade glaze), tamales, cornbread dressing, etc. Oh and all the desserts. We took a great group picture in front of one of my dad's tractors and then shot handguns in the front yard. I know, so country. This was the first time Roger fired a weapon in a long, long time and he said it felt good. And he did a good job too. Better than me. We fired a few different handguns, a couple revolvers, a .22, a .45 semi-automatic pistol and another one or two I can't remember what they are. I don't know how exactly it all got started. I was in the driveway hanging out with the youngest kids while they were playing in the sand and saw the gaggle of men, my mom and sister walking to the side yard with pistols and a couple of coffee cans. Of course I had to walk over and see what was going on. None of us had ear protection so we stuck our fingers in our ears except when it was our turn to shoot. I fired a few times before I shot one of the revolvers once and my left ear started ringing and hurting. So I decided I needed to stop. See, you never know what you'll end up doing when you go to the country.

Today we slept in really late. Roger cooked us scrambled eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast at noon. Roger watched football for a bit then we proceeded to trim some bushes, mow the grass in order to mulch all the leaves, fold cardboard, get the trash and recycle out for trash pick-up on Monday and to bring my plants inside from the freeze tonight. But our lawn mower refused to start. It was quite frustrating. I think if Roger could have picked it up and threw it in the street he would have. He finally gave up and we decided we were done with that lawn mower. We've had a lot of problems with it this year and we're not about to spend any more money or time on it. So after getting the trash and recycle bins out to the street we went in to watch more football and eat dinner. While Roger watched football, I decided to do some research on electric lawn mowers on his laptop in the living room with him. I was just interested in finding out about them because I'm sick of gas lawn mowers and wanted to learn about the performance of electric lawn mowers in preparation of maybe getting one in the spring. Roger moved over to join me in my research and we found a really good deal on a highly recommended one at Sears.com. The sale ended tomorrow and we thought about Christmas Eve at the mall and quickly decided to go tonight. So we drove to Sears and bought it. Now, this was pretty impulsive for Roger and I but I am glad we have it so we can mulch the leaves in the yard and I can mow the grass whenever I want to now and much easier than usual. I can't wait to try it out. We already use an electric weed-eater, edger, blower, tiller tool so we're used to using a corded yard tool. And we won't have to worry about mowing the grass early in the morning anymore because it's supposedly as quiet as a vacuum cleaner. And electric lawn mowers don't need any maintenance like tune-ups, etc other than blade sharpening. I'm glad about that because loading that gas mower in the truck by myself over and over again this year was getting very old. Hopefully I won't have to worry about that ever again. And, the best part is the touch of a button start and the fact that electric mowers give off no emissions which is great for the environment. I feel good about that.

So, we didn't buy a car on Friday. Turns out the great deal the area Mazda dealers were having was non-negotiable. So we have decided to get one of our other first choices which is the Hyundai Santa Fe SE. We already test drove it a few times and did some preliminary research but we did more research Friday night and will test drive it again tomorrow. They have some great rebates right now, plus a military discount and Hyundai's come with a 100,000 mile warranty which is unbelievable. I feel very comfortable with the Santa Fe which I didn't feel as comfortable with the CX-7. And in the process of doing all the research on it, Roger found out that Hyundai donates a certain percent from all their sales to pediatric cancer centers across the country. I was already impressed with the vehicle but knowing this made me even more impressed. So maybe we'll buy a new car tomorrow. Maybe.

The Latest and Greatest

No new car today. We have narrowed it down to a Mazda CX-7 Sport. We have test driven it several times each and read a ton of reviews about it. We have our numbers calculated and actually spoke to a salesman today about buying one when we were done test driving. But he didn't even want to hear an offer amount from us if it was below theirs so we left. The salesman was a real b.s.-er. That is one of the biggest annoyances to me about salespeople and it's so hard to not call them on it even as they are saying they don't b.s. But I was raised to be respectful towards people especially in their face. So we just told him good night and left. We will be making an offer to another dealership tomorrow morning if they have the one we want via email and/or phone, the way we like it. We'll see what they say.

We spent the day at home and we really enjoyed it. We did have two visitors, a plumber and an electrician. The plumber came to fix the overflow plate in our master bathroom bathtub. He was not able to pull the rusted screws out of the pipe and had to cut a hole through the sheet rock in the wall behind the tub which is in the entry of our house. But he did such a beautiful job cutting it that he was able to put the piece of sheet rock back in the one foot square hole and you can barely tell it was ever cut. He was proud of his handy work as we were impressed. He made it very easy to fix. Our home warranty company will send a contractor out to fix it, but if we had to, it would be a cinch. I tell you, having a home warranty has been great. We have used ours three times this year and it has been completely worth the cost. We pay a $55 "co-pay" and that covers everything. Our disposal stopped working a few weeks ago. And because it couldn't be repaired we not only got a brand new disposal but it was a higher horse power and quieter disposal than we had to begin with. All for only $55. If we would have had to hire a regular plumber for today's work, no telling how much it would have cost. And the guy was good. Our home warranty company, American Home Shield, uses ARS as their contractors. And the ARS technicians that have been sent to our house have been great. I highly recommend home warranties.

Now the electrician came to quote the cost to add an electrical outlet to the front of our house and add on two or three light boxes for security lights on the sides and back of our house. After seeing the numbers, we have decided to wait a while before we do that work since we are about to make a huge investment on a new car plus all the expenses of the holiday season.

And as for Roger's PEB, he made a decision today and faxed it to the powers that be. He has decided to appeal the PEB because after reviewing all the specific regulations, the Disabled American Veterans have advised him that he should be receiving 100% disability through July 2008 and be re-rated after July not just receive 30% for the next 18 months. Here's my take on it: the Army is trying to get him for as little as possible, as usual. Most people don't know their options or just give up and take what they are offered, but Roger is not about to give up and he is well informed. Not surprising if you know Roger well. So he signed and faxed his appeal, requested a formal hearing and designated the pro bono attorney assigned to him as his representative. He will also be scheduling a physical with the VA upon his return to DC to continue with the VA disability process. Keeping all this stuff straight is tricky for me and explaining it is exhausting for Roger. It's not surprising that he doesn't like to talk about it nor his grueling experiences at Walter Reed. It's already depressing to live it so why make it more depressing by talking about it. Poor thing. I hate that he has to endure this longer, but no one said life was easy.

Last night we walked down 37th Street to see the very eclectic Christmas lights with Roger's dad Roger Sr, sister Mirna, brother-in-law Joey, niece Ariana and our friend Denise. Tomorrow we are meeting Roger's dad and his sister Cindy at the Capitol for Tuba Christmas then having dinner with our friends Susan and Tim and maybe their daughter Steph. Depending on the response of the dealership, we might stop in to finalize the sale. Then Saturday we are off to Smetana for a Wise family Christmas.

It's Official!

Okay, it's official. Here's the proof:



I made a B in my history class. Yeah!! I think I'll celebrate by buying a new car today. Just joking! I'm not that impulsive. Roger and I are going to test drive some vehicles this afternoon to figure out which we prefer the most. He will also hopefully be talking to the legal counsel assigned to him today to get more answers regarding his PEB and eventual medical retirement. There are so many details and scenarios. He wants to make sure fighting the PEB is worth it. Please pray he gets the clarification he needs to make the best decision.

We're having a great time together. I wish every day of his leave could be this laid back and relaxing. Of course, I'll have to work a little and we have holiday family obligations. And you know how much fun family events can end up being. I pray those are fun times too and we all remember and focus on the meaning of the season and how blessed we truly are.

Good News! Praise the Lord!

Okay, before I post about Roger being home, sorry babe, I have to share my grade for my history class. So I went to check my grade online and where the official grades are posted it said, "Grades are currently not available for this term." Aughhhh! It was even a few hours after the official time when grades would be available. You know I was quite nervous about my grade in this class and I was not happy about this. So I thought, let me check my degree audit and see if there's any change from "in progress". And there it was, "HIST 481 SEMINAR IN HISTORY 2007 Fall 3.0 hrs B" I made a B! I am soooo happy!! I was almost shocked, but very elated. I immediately thanked the Lord over and over and over again. If it wasn't after midnight on a Tuesday night, I'd go celebrate. But we're in the house for the evening, so we'll have to celebrate tomorrow. Although this is Austin and there are plenty of places we could have gone even this late. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Wow, what a relief. Now I know for sure that I only have to take one class next semester and I WILL graduate in May, 2008. Oh, I am so happy. Have I told you how happy I am?! :) Now, I don't know how official this is, especially since it's on the degree audit but not in the grade display. You know I will continue to check it because I won't feel completely at ease until I see it in the grade display which is official. This also means that I didn't do so bad (I know, not correct grammar, but I don't care!) on my research paper.

I really don't care what grade I made on the paper as long as I made a grade high enough to count for my major so I don't have to take that class ever again. I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but this was not my first attempt at this class. I tried it first many, many years ago and didn't make a grade high enough to count. I'm sure it had to do with all the partying I was doing in Northgate. The second attempt I withdrew for some reason I can't remember now. I'm sure it had to do with partying too much and a certain loser in my life that I let influence me negatively. And the third attempt, many, many years later, I dropped because I couldn't handle all the many obligations I took on Roger's first year of deployment. So this was my fourth attempt. Talk about pathetic. I'm almost embarassed I shared that. Oh well, those of you who know me very well, know I'm not the person I used to be. And I'm sure you, and my parents, are all saying under your breath, "Thank goodness."

Okay, now we can talk about Roger. I picked Roger up at the airport about 4:15pm today. It was so nice to see him in the Austin airport again. I love it when he comes home. I really don't enjoy going to Walter Reed to visit him. It's awful there. But we have been laughing since he got home. He's pretty much unpacked and seems like he never left except I have to remind him where things are and go. We went to his favorite bbq place, Rudy's on 360, for dinner then stopped at Scooter's on William Cannon for coffee and dessert. We discussed our schedule while he's home and all the things we would like to accomplish and people we need to see. I told you we'd start a new list when he got home. Of course this schedule is not set in stone but it gives us an idea of what we can try to accomplish.

So as far as Roger's day yesterday trying to get answers to his many questions regarding his PEB, I will let him go into detail in a future blog. But I will share that most of the advice he received was for him to appeal the PEB and go to formal hearing. He also found out it probably won't go to formal hearing until the end of January. Which means he won't be home for good until February at the earliest. Although I've have decided he won't be home until I pick him up from the airport for the last time, he is quite disappointed with the thought of staying longer. Of course, we both know we have to do what we have to do for his future health.

On that note, I'd like to share some scripture I came across Sunday. I can't for the life of me figure out where I came across it, but I know I was led to it for a reason. And I'm still trying to figure out what version it is. I've gone through every English version on http://www.biblegateway.com/, but no luck. So if you know this version, please let me know in a comment below. It's the same concept and meaning, but I'd like to find the version because I like it. I hope it moves you as much as it moved me. And I pray for this kind of joy for you.

I've learned how to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. Phillipians 4:12

Weekend Update

I intended to post earlier this weekend, but I had such a productive weekend I got distracted. I ended up getting sick and didn't bake those red velvet cupcakes nor help out at the benefit event Thursday night. The volunteer coordinator told me to stay home and get rest since they had plenty of help coming. Did I do that? Well, I stayed home, but I didn't rest. I started working on my to do list but I didn't work super hard so it's okay.

My parents were in Taylor, northeast of Austin, for another funeral Thursday for a farmer and blacksmith friend of theirs, Charlie Stolte. He and my father were a lot alike and related very well to each other although Mr. Stolte was a couple decades older than my dad. They had similar backgrounds and appreciated each other well. My mom and I always said Mr. Stolte was what my dad was going to look like when he gets old. After the funeral and lunch with friends, my parents drove to my house in South Austin and helped me with a bunch of stuff. I bought an air compressor a week or so ago. We will be able to use it to make putting flooring in the attic an easier task by borrowing my dad's pneumatic nail gun. And we'll be able to air up balls, bicycle and automobile tires and blow leaves from under my front door on the front porch. And if you've ever driven to convenience store after convenience store trying to find air for your low tires to have them not work and lose more air, you know how much we will love having this air compressor. I've been wanting one for about five years now. You know I am going to find any excuse to use it.

So my dad helped me set it up, make sure it was ready to go and showed me how to use it and maintain it. I cleaned out a section of the attic which we will tackle first. The previous owners of our house left us lots of great stuff when we bought the house and I didn't realize how much they left in the attic. Of course everything they left was pretty much trash that we have had to dispose of ourselves. Thanks Stewart family! Anyway, my mom consolidated leftover garage sale stuff into fewer boxes while my dad and I messed with the compressor. She helped me load the boxes into my truck to which I took to Goodwill and helped me clean the garage from the trash I threw out of the attic. They also took a bunch of spare wood we had which helped to empty the garage out more. We're not only trying to organize the garage better but make room for another vehicle. We got two in there before I totaled my car in 2003 so I know we can get two in there again. Friday and Saturday were more projects I've been trying to get done for a while and I got almost all of my list completed. All I have left to do is clean the house tomorrow after I work in the morning and complete a personal Christmas gift for Roger which I'm working on now. I'd tell you what it is, but then Roger would find out. He's already been bugging me about his "real" Christmas present. Once Roger gets home, we will start on a new list. I'm sure he's looking forward to it. You never know, he might be happy and feel more normal to be doing things around the house.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got my anthropology final exam grade Thursday afternoon. I made a 91, A! So according to the professor's grading policy that means I made an 88.75 in the class BUT I went to a museum for two extra credit points. Which means I made a 90.75 in the class. That's a A! I'm so happy about that. Now I have to wait until Tuesday after 8:00 p.m. to find out what I made in my history class. When I think about it, I get nervous. So I try not to think about it. But I have to make a C or better in that class. I really don't want to have to take it again. I've had enough of research papers for a while. I don't want to have to do that again until I go to grad school. So I'm begging, please pray for me to make a C or better in that class.

So the museum I went to with my dad was the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History. I was really impressed. I was quite surprised with the collections they had and he and I really enjoyed it. Our other choice was the Houston Museum of Natural Science, but I couldn't afford to lose a whole day, three hour drive there and three hour drive back, at the time. I'd love to have gone there, but I needed the time to work on my paper. I can still go but I'd like to go soon since they have Lucy, the "missing link" according to evolutionists. I don't really care too much about seeing Lucy, but I've learned from past experience not to miss out on any opportunity that comes across my lap. I wish I wouldn't have listened to everyone else when they said, "Don't waste your money going into the Great Pyramid. It's not worth it." when we were in Egypt with the Army. I could seriously kick myself for not going into the pyramid. Even if there wasn't anything in there, I could still say I've been in it instead of just saying I've been there. Lucy's only going to be in Houston for a short while and only in a few museums in America so I'd like to see her if I can help it.

As you read in Roger's post from Friday, he got his PEB that morning but was unable to get any questions asked and therefore no answers. I still can't believe two offices whose sole jobs are to be there for the soldiers in these moments were completely out of the office on Friday. I worked for state government for six years before I moved to DC and we were never allowed to all go out at the same time. There always had to be a "skeleton crew" as they call it. I guess federal government is a little different. I mean, I basically knew that from my prior Army experience and with the history of what Roger's experienced so far at WRAMC, I'm not really surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. Roger will probably have a very hectic day tomorrow trying to get answers in order to make the best decision. He's planning to bypass formation at 0730 and go straight to getting those answers before he starts packing to fly home on Tuesday. Please pray for him. I can imagine it becoming frustrating with the Army and WRAMC's history. So please pray for the Lord to be with Roger tomorrow and help him deal with the answers he receives and for him to get great advice.

Thanks all. Sorry this is so long. That's what happens when I wait to post. I'd say I'll try to be better, but you know as well as I this isn't the first time and it surely won't be the last. One more day and a wake up and Roger will be home. I can't wait. I'm very excited. I know he is too.

PEB Results Questionable

I got my PEB results back today, but they only rated me at 30% on TDRL. I can’t get into specifics right now, but I am not sure if I should go along with this or contest it. There are two organizations here, the American Legion and the Disabled American Veterans, who help answer questions we have regarding our PEBs. Unfortunately, they’re all out today at a Christmas party at the headquarters office. All day?!? Well, whatever. I left them all voicemails and slid letters asking for help underneath their doors, so I should get my questions answered Monday.

I have a list of questions ready to go and will add to it all weekend. I just want to make sure that I completely understand what is going on here. In the meantime, I have to stew all weekend long. I apparently haven’t learned enough about patience, so the Lord is teaching me another lesson. Please pray that all my questions are answered Monday so that I can make a decision soon. I have until Dec 26th, but I don’t want to have to wait that long. And please just pray for peace for me over the weekend and that this does not drive me crazy. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Finals Are Over!!

Finals are done and the semester will be officially over December 18th when grades are available for continuing students. But we should get our grades for the anthropology exam we took today sometime tomorrow to which I can calculate my grade in the class. It was actually a fairly easy exam. There were a few questions I had concerns about but answered with an educated guess. Hopefully they were the right educated guesses. Now I get to start my list of things to do before Roger gets home next Tuesday like putting up Christmas decorations, taking boxes of garage sale leftovers to Goodwill and many other fun, fun chores. I have a list!

The funeral for Mrs. Fore last Friday was nice. It was like a reunion in Smetana. Every one's lives are so busy these days, that it takes a funeral or wedding for all of us to see each other. Father John gave a very endearing homily about Mrs. Fore during the funeral mass. He used 1 Corinthians 13:13 to describe her which was perfect because faith, hope and love epitomized her life. I have to think about it to realize she's really gone. It's obviously going to be hard for many to imagine her not in our lives.

Roger has been extremely busy lately with the usual stuff like physical and occupational therapy but he's also had a lot of MWR trips, meetings with the VA and shoots for the newspaper lately. He's been meaning to blog about all his adventures of late, but has been too busy to do so. He even got all our Christmas cards out last night. (Don't tell him I said so, but I'm so glad he did those this year.) Hopefully soon he will blog and let you know all about the cool things he's been doing and interesting people he's been meeting. And post some pictures too. Only five more days and a wake up until he's home. I can't wait. This is going to be another memorable Christmas for us this year.

Maybe I'll post some pictures of my red velvet cupcakes from tomorrow night. Check out the post below. Until next time, Au revoir.

Studying For Finals

Well, after a weekend in East Texas at my sister's for my niece's 5th birthday party, a small town Christmas parade my nephew's class had a float in, shopping with my mom, sister and her neighbor, witnessing a freshly shot deer being skinned & butchered and eating lots of bbq and cake, I'm home studying for my only final this semester on Wednesday. I'm getting more and more excited about the semester ending. I have a ton of stuff I'd like to do before Roger gets home on the 18th which I can't start until after my final.

To celebrate the end of the semester, Thursday I will be baking an enormous amount of red velvet cupcakes from scratch with homemade cream cheese icing. And you're invited to come taste one, or two, at Ten Thousand Villages in SoCo Thursday night next to Continental Club. I will be there from 5:00 pm-9:00 pm volunteering for VSA Arts of Texas Holiday Benefit. There will be live music, delicious holiday treats and great shopping. 5-15% of the evening's sales will be donated to VSA to support their programs and services. Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade gift store with colorful, beautiful and unique items from all over the world which provides vital, fair income for artisans in Third World Countries, helping to build sustainability in their communities. VSA Arts of Texas strives to create a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts.

So come out if you can. You can see all their beautiful products on their website. Or just listen to the live music and enjoy some yummy treats. I hope to see you there!

Now back to more reading. :(

Regina P. Fore

August 29, 1933 – December 4, 2007

Regina P. Fore passed away on Tuesday, December 4, 2007, at St. Joseph Regional Health Center with her family by her side. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, December 6 at Memorial Funeral Chapel in Bryan with a rosary at 6 p.m. Funeral Mass is set for 9:30 a.m. Friday, December 7 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bryan with Monsignor John McCaffrey officiating. Burial will follow at Smetana Cemetery.

Regina was born in Smetana, Texas, on August 29, 1933, to John Jacob and Elizabeth Nemec. She was a lifelong resident of the Smetana community. She was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church and was a member of the KJZT Association. She attended Stephen F. Austin High School of Bryan. Regina met and later married the love of her life, Daniel Ray Fore, on January 25, 1951. They were married over 56 years. She was always an active homemaker. She worked for Texas A&M University's Agricultural Extension Service Riverside Campus, where she retired.

She really had fun working in the home, making quilts and cooking her special dishes and desserts. She will be remembered for her outpouring love and affection for her family and friends. She was always there to give a helping hand and practice her Christian faith, which could be seen by all who knew her. If she was not at home, you could find her at the cemetery working or tending her Longhorn cattle that she loved so much. She served as the Democratic chairman of the Precinct Four, member of the Brazos County Sheriff Auxiliary, KJZT Association, past president and Board member of the Smetana Cemetery Association and she was a member of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America.

She was preceded in death by her parents, John Jacob and Elizabeth Nemec, and brother, Steve Nemec. Survivors include her husband, Dan Fore; three children, Gina Pavlas and husband, Darrell, of Bryan, Danny Fore and wife, Patti, of Hover, Ala., and Danete Pribilski and husband, Don, of Tomball, Texas; four grandchildren, Tim Pavlas and wife, Lori, of Bryan, Ashley Fore, Trey Fore, both of Hoover, Ala., and Matt White of Bryan; and two great-grandchildren, Paris Pavlas and Michael White, both of Bryan. Pallbearers will be Tim Pavlas, Trey Fore, Matt White, Joe Allen, Donald Ray Allen, Raymond Fore and Duke Singer. The family would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Berigan and nurses, Lynn Harkey, Sherri Moore, Johnnie Walton and Lori Brockette, for the special care they gave Regina.

Donations can be made to the Smetana Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 3133, Bryan, Texas 77805. Obituary can be viewed at http://www.legacy.com/theeagle/Obituaries.asp.

Update on Mrs. Fore

Mrs. Fore passed away this morning at 3:02 a.m. I think it's going to take a while for it to sink in that she's not around, ready to help out at a moment's notice. She will truly be missed. Please keep the Fore family and friends in your prayers. I found these great pictures of my mom and Mrs. Fore in June, 2005 participating in a maze at the Prater John Deere County Fair. I know, so Texan and country. My mom drove blindfolded while Mrs. Fore gave her directions. It was a hoot. They tore up the course. Mrs. Fore obviously had no fear.

Funeral arrangements have been made for the dates and locations below. Interment will follow the funeral at Smetana Cemetery with lunch immediately following at the Smetana Community Center.

Rosary: Thursday 6:00 p.m.
Memorial Funeral Chapel
1515 S College Avenue
Bryan, TX 77801
(979) 823-8125

Funeral: Friday 9:30 a.m.
Saint Joseph Catholic Church
600 East 26th Street
Bryan, TX 77803
(979) 822-2721

Turned In Research Paper & Last Day of Class

Well, I just turned in my research paper, again. It's kind of funny now, but of course I was freaking out inside at the time. I submitted my research paper this morning at home. I had gone over it several times to check for, well, everything! I uploaded it to turnitin.com and as I was about to hit the submit button I prayed a little prayer. Actually I prayed a big prayer. I was so nervous about hitting the submit button, but I did anyway. I finished getting ready to leave for campus and thought about something. I ran to the office and grabbed one of the library books I used for a secondary source. I opened my final paper on the computer and found one of the references I used from that book then I checked the end note. My hunch was right. I put the wrong book title and author for it. Yes, my first thought was, "Crap!" I went straight to turnitin.com to see if I could resubmit my paper, but of course, I couldn't. I got the pop-up error stating until the earlier submission is deleted by your instructor resubmission is impossible! So I emailed my professor explaining what I wanted to do and what I needed her to do. I finished eating breakfast and checked my email again before I left. Nothing. I knew she would be in the office today but wasn't sure what time. She has a young child and sometimes gets in later than planned. I had already saved the document to my thumb drive so I would have it with me where ever I happened to be when I was able to upload it. I also emailed it to myself at my school email and my personal email, just in case. So I drove to B-CS and went straight to the library to check my email. The first email listed was from her stating she deleted my first submission. Thank the Lord! I checked it one more time and submitted it. Yes, I said another prayer. Talk about relief. I'm still a little gitty inside but I know this will go away soon enough.

Today is my last day of class. I am really happy about that. I actually only have one class today, anthropology. My history professor gave us the day off to work on our papers. She's wonderful like that. Obviously I needed it. Sometimes I just put my head in my hands and shake it at myself. The rest of this week is work, catching up on reading for anthropology and outlining all the reading for the final next Wednesday. Then Friday I'm picking up my mom on the way to my sister's in Huntington for my niece's 5th birthday party this weekend. My dad will drive up Saturday for the party and my mom will ride back with him. I'm also going to try to test drive a vehicle or two this weekend with my sister and probably some of her kids in tow. Roger & I are trying to figure out what vehicle to buy when he gets home for good, hopefully in January or February. We'll need two vehicles when he returns since I'll have one semester of school left. I'm thinking a compact SUV and Roger wants us to also check out cross-overs. I figured out I don't want a car as I thought I did before. I've been driving our truck for the past four and a half years and have gotten used to the power and being higher off the ground. I've driven a couple of friends' cars in DC the last few times I was there and it drove me crazy. I do not like being that low. I also like the power in our truck but prefer fuel economy. So we've been reading Consumer Reports for recommendations and checking the government crash test ratings. It can be overwhelming. But I've been praying for the Lord to help us make the best decision and I have complete faith He will. If you know anything about Roger's purchasing habits and my research habits, I'm pretty sure the Lord has equipped us with the ability to make a good decision.

It's weird. I've been looking forward to this day the whole semester. But so far it's not the fireworks and champagne popping kind of day I thought it would be. Maybe after this class is over or next week after the final. I kept thinking I should do something to celebrate like indulge in a kolache for breakfast. I know, pretty lame. But I'll control myself and celebrate with birthday cake this weekend. Off to read...

Prayer Request: Mrs. Fore

A very dear family friend, Mrs. Regina Fore, had a stroke this afternoon (Monday, Dec 3rd) and was taken to St. Joseph's hospital. Mrs. Fore is a friend, sister, mother and grandmother to our family. She and her husband, Dan, are institutions in the Smetana Community. My mom and sister-in-law went to the hospital this afternoon and were able to see her and Mr. Fore and their daughter Gina. It may be too early to know a prognosis yet, but an MRI revealed a lot of blood on her brain. I will keep you posted on her condition. Please keep the Fore family in your prayers, praying for the Lord to meet all their needs during this time. Thank you.

Feeling Better

After meeting with a writing expert at the University Writing Center Friday morning, not only am I almost finished with my research paper, but I feel a lot better. She helped me rewrite my thesis to match my research and understand how to expand my qualitative analysis which were my two largest issues. Thursday night I was able to go through the whole document and correct the easy stuff. It wasn't a lot but I didn't want to waste time with her over silly things. It's funny, for a "writing expert" her spelling was awful. I didn't want to correct her out of respect but she finally mentioned her spelling was really bad and she depends on spell check. Reminds me of most accountants and their dependence on a calculator. But she was really nice and helpful. She's a graduate history student from Del Rio or somewhere close to the border. And of course, there was a fire alarm during my appointment so we had to evacuate the building. But while we were standing there waiting to be allowed back in, she & I talked about how she came to be in graduate school (couldn't get a job as a teacher) and her thesis topic (something to do with how home economics in schools affects people as adults and parents), which I thought was very interesting. Although most of my appointment time was lost to the fire alarm, she stayed as late as she could, but what we did get through helped me figure out the remaining questions I had planned to cover with her. I greatly appreciate her help and the fact that the university even has a writing center. More people should take advantage of it. The writing center consultants attend trainings for their position. I think it would be good to attend some trainings like that not just for future graduate school plans but also for work. Any improvement in writing would be beneficial in many areas. I'll look into that after I graduate next year.

But I am happy to be feeling better and not so worried. Now I can catch up on my anthropology reading and study earlier for my final so I can get an even better grade. I'm excited to be able to finally have the time to get to some personal reading also. I've been wanting to read Nehemiah for about two weeks now, but I might have to push it aside to read 1st Corinthians. Austin Stone is starting a new message series tomorrow so I'd like to read ahead a bit to be better prepared. Any Bible reading would be good for me.

Roger is at the 108th Army-Navy game today in Baltimore. Go Army! I hope he has a great time. He deserves it. And I hope he stays warm. It's 41 degrees with 27% humidity which feels like 36 degrees according to weather.com. They were supposed to wear their uniforms and he was concerned because he does not have all the new ACU warm weather gear yet. But they were told yesterday that they could wear civilian clothes and they were getting some kind of jacket. I hope it's not another one of those huge leather Army jackets like he got when he was in the Navy hospital last year. It was way too big for Roger plus it's not really usable here in Texas. And I know this is ungrateful, but it was ugly. It was like a large leather high school letter jacket with really big appliques. I could see it in the inner city, but not in Austin, Texas. I think we may still have it in the tub of winter clothes in our attic or we gave it away to someone. I can't remember.

But he took his camera with him so he will probably get some great pictures and I'll ask him to post some. I don't know if this is also a Stripe assignment for him, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind some great pictures of the WTB (Warrior Transition Brigade) soldiers at the game. I was able to meet all the Stripe staff while I was there during Thanksgiving. They are really nice and care a lot about Roger. I'm glad he had them to lean on during this time and a productive, therapeutic way to spend his time there also. He's learned a lot and of course, his photography bug bite got deeper while he was there. I brought back a whole stack of newspapers with his pictures published in them. Although being separated from him this past seven months was hard at times, it really was a blessing for Roger to get more precise physical and occupational therapy and continued medical care. Plus all the cool things he got to do, people he got to meet and opportunities he would have never received. And it was a blessing for me to be able to concentrate on school this semester since it was a tough one.

Okay, enough sappy stuff. I'm off to run errands I haven't been able to do in weeks and months. I have a list! The best one of course is to return all my library books I used for my research paper. I'm really excited about that. Then I'll drive down the street and pick up some paint color samples for our spare bedroom. I'm really excited about that. I can't wait to paint the samples on the wall to help figure out what color we like best. I want to live with them for a while to see what grows on me. If I can wait for Roger, he'll have a say once he gets home for Christmas leave.