It’s been pretty busy what with Duckman here, and Squirts birthday just around the corner – we’ve been going, going, going. Thursday night the kids went to the HS for the school play as several of Ducky’s friends were involved. Friday Duckman went to school with Ducky, and then they went out on their date – to a nice sushi / teppanyaki place right around the corner. Tonight they have a movie night scheduled. Unfortunately – all of Squirts friends are out of town this week end, so we are doing a small get together later on this week for her friends. They are going to go putt-putt and to an arcade. The local Haunted house opened this weekend and it’s supposed to be excellent, Duckman wants to go and is trying to convince Ducky that she can cuddle next to him and feel safe – ha- good luck with that! Next weekend we will head towards Silver to visit grandparents, and then the Balloon Festival will be here. I’m looking forward to that.

Mostly I’m ready to get back to work. I haven’t lost any weight (that medicine doesn’t seem to have helped there – but it does make me feel sick most of the day, yippee) but continue to work out and exercise. I just waiting on the professional references to come back so I can start subbing. Man I’m ready.

Alright, I’m off to pick up and go shopping for some junk food. Here’s some pictures from the State Fair.

Face painting is fun!

Very cool and elaborate face paintings.

Ducky on one of her many adrenaline highs for the day.

For the Zipper she even convinced her father to come along for the ride.

Here’s Squirt, Ducky and even Hubby trying out the swings ( these days I can’t handle any ride that goes around and around, I get sick just thinking about it — ugh.)

Here’s a view of part of the midway from the Ferris Wheel and a shot of Squirt trying to win a big stuffed animal. She won 3 small ones that day, but just couldn’t pull out the win for the giant ones, although she came close many times!

• I’ve got the hiccups. I’ve had them three nights in a row now.
• I hate hiccups. Mine are the painful, move your whole body type, not the dainty little *hic* that some women get. And I have no pickle juice.
• The girls are arguing over who has to put away the last of the dishes. Just another night of family fun.
• We gave Ducky her own set of keys – she loves it, she says she feels so grown up.
• Squirt turns 14 in 5 days — I have to say that 12 and most of 13 has really sucked for us. She’s moody, temperamental and snappish. When she’s not behaving this way she’s very sweet and lots of fun, unfortunately since she hit her pre teen / teen age years, a lot of moody was thrown in. Not fun.
• Duckman arrives on Thursday – let the countdown continue.
• I missed the premier of my all time favorite show – NCIS. It was set up to record with the DVR, but we had to reset the DVR this week and guess what? I didn’t even think of resetting all my recording —- AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH.
• Lunch today with a friend from Maui – then some shopping.
• I love Target. I missed it while I was gone.
• Worked out at the gym this evening, haven’t gone much in the last two weeks so I was feeling it!
• Went out this morning in shorts, t-shirt and slippahs (aka flip flops for you non-hawaiin folks) and froze my tushie off. We I got back home I changed into warmer clothes.
• I’m going to freeze this winter.
• I love the cooler weather, I can’t wait for fall to really get here.
• Balloon Fiesta starts in a couple weeks, that should be cool and some good pictures should result.
• I have to clean/ organize and store files tomorrow – Ugh, what fun.
• We bought a super heavy duty shedder that should make that task if not easier, than at least more entertaining.

What is your best / favorite cure for hiccups?

OK, I haven’t gotten around to my challenges, although both have some really interesting challenges going on. Please stop by and see what everyone else (who’s not being a bump on a log and who is actually participating this time) are writing about at the Kween of the Queens site and Featured Grownups. Alright, enough advertising.

I was tagged  by MAMA2GRLS and this one seemed pretty fun (and admittedly a no-brainer blog) so I’m going to go ahead and do it. Here are the ABCs of me – woot.

The ABC‘s of me…

A- Attached or single: Definitely attached – 21+ years – go us!

B- Best Friend:  aha – a trick question right off the bat, ok here we go: 1. HUBBY, from there we have Zingy, Deanna B, Robin and Annette².

C- Cake or Pie: Cake – definitely, although some good pie a la mode can’t be beat!

D- Day of choice: Tuesdays – NCIS is on, need I say more?

E- Essential Item: Coffee.

F- Favorite Color: Black

G- Gummi Bears or Worms:  Can I get a cavity please? If I must choose, I choose Worms, assuming they are Gummi worms, if not then I would much rather eat gummi bears than worms.

H- Hometown: Kinda hard since we moved around a lot, but I’m going with Tucson, AZ

I- Indulgence(s): Romance novels, only occasionally, but I admit, I love a good cry and an easy read

J- January or July:  Birthday is July, so I’m going with that one. Love me some gifts.

K- Kids:  Yes, I have two I’m willing to trade for motorcycles……

L: Life is Incomplete Without:  Ditto on the family and friends thing.  Add to that God, music, my computer and coffee. Alright, you can scratch off the last two…here I’ll do it.

M- Marriage Date: 1st wedding – June 14th, 1986, Church wedding September 13th, 1986 

N- Number of Siblings: One sister, two half brothers.

O- Oranges or Apples: Braeburns.

P- Phobias or Fears: Being buried alive – aka claustrophobia  

Q-Quote: “Well-Behaved women rarely make History” ~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

R- Reason To Smile:  Coffee. (sorry, can you tell it’s early and I haven’t had enough coffee?)

S- Season:  Fall. Yep — LOVE fall – it’s so nice to be back where there IS a fall. And a winter, and  a spring.

T- Tag Three +: ThisIsBullDookie, DiniHJ, LIF1955, akbo1955, and Jackee0779 — anyone else that would like to play along please join in!

U- Unknown Fact About Me:  I’m allergic to pineapple.

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal:   Proud oppressor of Animal ~ I love me a good rib-eye steak. and some ribs, and brisket, salami, bacon, and a good roast, some grilled chicken……..

W- Worst Habit:  Blogging too much.

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds:  I’ve had both, prefer neither. Ultrasounds suck because of the full bladder thing, and Xrays — hey it radiation, what’s to like?

Y- Your Favorite Food:  Pasta and chocolate. Not together…ewwww gross.

Z- Zodiac: The Crab aka Cancer- couldn’t you guess?

On the homefront, Ducky made her first solo drives this weekend. She looked for her first excuse and found it Friday night, lol. She then drove her and her friend to the homecoming dance and out to Sonic afterwards. Although I was waiting up for her, I did very well and did not panic. *pats self on back* .

Both girls had friends over for sleep overs on Saturday.

And, since Hubby got a job he went out and bought his retirement present – which luckily has changed over the last 5 years from a white M3 (to match his silver and red ones) to a new set of golf clubs. Considerably cheaper! Alright, off to catch up, and then get some housework done…laundry time – what fun.

I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But the people in charge of licenses decreed that Ducky may take the road.

It’s official.

Ducky passed her drivers test and now has her license.

I don’t know whether to be excited, relived, terrified or worried to death. Maybe I’ll just cycle through all those emotions for 10 or 15 minutes each. I’ll look like Jim Carey in the MASK by time I’m done I think. She’s already asked to borrow the car. Yipe. And she wants to take Duckman out on a date when he gets here next week. Double yipe.

Is there anyway to turn back the clock. To make it so that she’s just getting her training wheels off and ride a big girl bike? Back to a time when the only driving she wanted to do involved pushing the stroller? How oh how do we make it stop? And yet…..I’m thinking about those times when I’m out of milk or another dinner essential – and now I can send her instead of dragging my own happy butt up to Smith’s. Of the afternoons where I don’t have to pick up Squirt, ’cause Ducky is on the job.

You know what this means though? That she is growing up. They both are. How did that happen???

You know what it absolutely DOES NOT mean?

That I’m getting anywhere close to the “o” word.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 Last night was a total blast! My ears are still ringing a little – and that from the garden seats which are way out in BFE.

It was well worth it though. Definitely one of the best concerts I’ve been to in years – of course not without it’s downsides! Last night we went and saw….

It was awesome! They both totally rocked the place. For us old rockers, we know that the “classics” are the best and these bands are right up there at the top of the list for me. We went with some folks that hubby met through work on Maui – actually some of the same folks that we went to see Gaelic Storm with at the zoo. We also took Ducky and her new friend (who amazingly enough LOOKS completely normal). The three other folks we took wanted a DD – and since neither hubby or I drink – ever, we make perfect DDs.  Trust me when I say our friends were feeling no pain last night. That can not however be said for me……..

During Blackout (one of my all time faves by the way – darn it) some idiots had started a mosh pit, which normally I would care less. However, since this was an outdoor arena, and we were on the grass which is quite sloped, this did affect me. One of the idiots behind us was doing a mosh pit somersault / throw yourself move and kicked me mid air right in the kidneys. He then landed on hubby and knocked him forward about 20 feet. Luckily hubby managed to jump over the lady seated on the grass talking on her phone right in front of us. Who goes to a concert to talk on the cell phone anyway? *shakes head*

Anyway, that really hurt and I was kind of out of commission for a few songs before I shook it off and continued head banging away. Before long a blonde chick starts giving me crap – she was moving our blankets and stuff around, I tried to tell her they were ours, but she was feeling no pain also. She was hanging on my shoulders, her nose like an inch and 1/2 from mine. She was trying to explain how she thought we were her group. I was like “OK” thinking all the time I don’t want to chat, I want to rock. Eventually I just moved her arm off me and suggest she listen to the music. I probably should have predicted this, but she freaked the heck out! She started going on and on “Don’t touch me! I’m serious keep your hands off me” Don’t f****** touch me”. I just ignored her and went back to the show. 5 minutes later, she’s back with a friend – what’s your problem you f***** B***** …… you get the idea, all up in my face and stuff. I just moved. Went to the other side of our group and continued to rock out. Nothing was going to keep me from rocking out to the Scorps.  They started in on my pal Mo – who handled them very diplomatically by telling them she remembered her first beer…..LOL.

Eventually they went away and during the encore this girl found me and apologized, she was very sweet about it. Course she was still trying to be Mo’s best friend – but Mo wasn’t buying what she was selling.

Walking back to the car became painful – that kick in the kidneys was really starting to be felt by now, and even the contact buzz I’m sure I got from all the reefer in the air wasn’t taking the edge off. Mo had some Naproxen and gave me some. For those who know me, you might remember that I don’t partake in ANYTHING – so guess what? I got a little buzzed off the Naproxen. This amused Ducky to no end. Ha…ha…ha. I’m glad to say I’m back to myself today, although a bit sorer and with a nasty headache. Luckily,  it’s a cool, overcast day. Perfect for napping. So guess where I’m headed? That’s right – back to bed!

I love being back on the mainland with REAL concerts.

ROCK ON!!!

We just got back from a fabulous dinner at one of our favorite places:

We actually haven’t been yet, since our return to the mainland and restaurant heaven. But tonight we had the perfect excuse to go. Wanna know what it was? Sure you do,

Hubby…………………..

GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woot!!!!!!!!!!! Its the job he wanted, and the salary he hoped for and the benefits we dreamed of. He is officially part of the civilian work force!

He also managed to free a bag of green chile today, so that gave us two reasons to celebrate mauahahahahahahahahaa.

Yesterday we went and enjoyed the state fair as much as our budget could stand…. and guess what? Guess?

Yep…. I’ve got pictures! I’ll upload them tomorrow. Just wanted to share the good news with everyone. We are so excited!  A bonafide paycheck – ahhhhhhh….. sweet relief!

Congratulations Hubby!!!!!!!!

 So Hubby came back from Maui yesterday. It sure was good to have him home. Course Rashwe didn’t feel that way as she had to give up his side of the bed, and go back to squishing in at the foot of the bed. Not only was it nice to have him home, he brought us goodies from Maui — hooray!

Some plant seeds for me to start – of course these will be mostly inside plants, but I’m hoping I can grow them, especially the red ginger. We’ll see. I’m technically a plant assasin — not the best hope for these guys, but I’m ready to give it my all.

And then Kona coffe, Li hing moi for Ducky and Chocolate covered Macadamias for Squirt (he brought extra for the family too).

Punky Colour, Flamingo pink for Ducky – now she’s be happy!

And then there was a surprise for me.

Now for my past reader they may remember I got some black coral turtle earrings for Christmas and for Mother’s day I got a Mama Turtle with two baby turtles pendant. These came from a jewelry company called Maui Divers Jewlery. So here’s my surprise:

Ohhhh…… I’m so excited already! I open the bag and OMG – there are two boxes in there!

Inside the boxes are a black coral and gold braclet and the final piece for my set – a black coral and gold turtle ring. I ABSOLUTELY love it! So much! And it looks great next to my class ring and with my braclet! Man….I love being spoiled. Bring it on! (I guess he was feeling guilty about 10 days in Maui – the surf, sun and fun. LOL. Actually he said he planned to get it as soon as he heard he was going back, he said he had to finish the set! I LOVE it.

Now before any gets any mistaken ideas about hubby being perfect or something even close let me share this:  before he left he put up two 40 lbs bags of green chile, one mild and one medium hot. He had it roasted, bagged it and stuffed it in the freezer. Well one section he REALLY stuffed. Tonight he went to take a bag out and guess what? When it froze it a) expanded – uh duh, and b) got hard and inflexible – again uh duh. Well — he can’t get it out! He still hasn’t solved the frozen chile puzzle, but it’s been amusing to watch him try!

I’ll keep you apprised of the situation – I’m afraid he’s going to have to defrost the freezer — ugh. Alright, I’m off to read and visit. Have a great day.

Question of the day:

What would you want someone to bring you from a distant place?

 Thanks to everyone who gave me compliments on my hair. I’m not sure I like the chunks, they may go, but I love the bottom. At any rate, it was fun and now I can say I did it. Ha ha ha. We’ll see what hubby thinks, he comes home today.

Speaking of hubby, Thursday was the 21st anniversary of our Church wedding. I’m not sure I’ve covered this, but we were married twice. No divorces, but we got engaged and planned a big Catholic church wedding (which hubby even converted for). At the time he had orders back to AZ where we met. Unfortunately, he got “diverted” to Germany. He was scheduled to arrive about 3 weeks after the wedding. We found there was no way for me to go with him, if we waited to get married. So…I ended up flying out to MS, and getting married that summer in JOP wedding. Although all his /our friends in MS couldn’t stand the thought of us getting married in a courthouse, and they were unable to come to AZ for the wedding, so they threw us a wedding. No kidding. They did everything. Got me a dress, arranged for the JOP, got a cake, decorated, did the flowers, set up a little reception the works. It was a sweet backyard wedding that I will never forget. Then 3 months later, we married in front of all our family and close friends in the church. The only ones that knew we were already married were our parents and immediate families and the priest.

You know what’s really funny about that story? Even though we were technically married, the week before the wedding when Hubby arrived from MS and was staying with us — he had to sleep on the couch!! No lie! My dad was adamant. LOL

On my anniversary I had lunch with a good friend. Her husband is also friends (so to speak – they golf together) with hubby. She was in a state, talking about how bad her marriage is. Her husband is really a butt munch. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say she stated during the lunch that she was “surviving” the marriage. Not fun at all. I am so glad I’m married to a wonderful man who supports me and not just financially, spends time with me, respects me, and loves our children. He may golf more than he should, but he helps around the house, and appreciates me. We never fight – we sometimes have heated discussions, and occasionally snipe at each other, but have only had 3 real fights in our 21 years of marriage. That’s pretty hard to beat. 

That night we were on the phone and talking about our friends, wondering how we could help. The next morning, early for hubby in Maui, he called and said he’d been thinking it about all afternoon, evening and morning and was so glad he was married to his best friend. He just called to tell me that.

Everyone go “squuuueeeeeee”

Isn’t he great? 21 years and he still makes me feel special. I tell you – I am truly blessed in the marriage department.

OK – in light of this great squishy lovey-dovey post – here’s some pictures of the hubby and me over the years. Now…nobody pass out. I understand this is two post in a row that includes pictures of me, just breathe deep and hang in there!

Here we are when we first met – October of 85. Then at his parents house after we were engaged, Dec 85 and finally at teh church wedding September 86.

This us our final year in Germany, summer of 89,  A series of portraits we had done in 90 in Florida (look how tan I was) and then with our baby Ducky in 91.

This was us when we first got to Maui summer of 2004, and this was us at a banquent in 2006.

You what I just noticed? In every single picture, we are touching. I think that’s true with most photos we have of the two of us. Awwwww……

Alright, enough sappiness in here — TIBD might just gag on all this so I’d better reel it in.

 Here they are…you know you’ve been wanting them. PICTURES!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……………….

Alright. Enough screwing around. Oh BTW, how do you like the new look? I was tired of the yellow. I’m planning on making a new banner, but there’s some pictures on our old hard drive that died that I want to use. Hubby is trying to recover the data. I also got rid of my Meez (although she might come back) and my cbox – no one ever used it anyways. I added some blinkies though…just because! I’m hoping my site won’t take so long to load for those with dial up (does any still have that? It’s like having a rotary phone…. just kidding ~ cable is expensive!)

So to start with, it was time again to color Ducky’s hair. We bleached it Sunday, and then colored it, but we couldn’t find her Punky Colors Flamingo Pink so we used a pink from Manic Panic. It turned out bubblegum pink. She was NOT happy. Monday I went out and tried a different pink, Hot Hot Pink. It was the ticket. To top it off, it has black light reactants, so it glows in the black light – how cool is that. However those pictures are very hard to take, but I’m posting one of the blurry ones anyway, just to give you and idea of the awesomeness of this hair.

While we had the dye out, I decided to take the leap. I figure I can cover it up if I get a job, or cut it off!

The second one is kind of weird looking, but I discovered it’s really difficult to take a picture of yourself.

And finally, my class ring and my cradle. I ended up having to find a ring box for the class ring, it it’s difficult to take a picture of yourself, it’s almost impossible to take a picture of your right hand when you’re righthanded!!

So there you go. Lots of new stuff to look at today! Enjoy! I’m off to clean up for a lunch date with a friend I made in Maui. Hope everyone has a great Thursday.

When I was looking at past challenges, the Kween had “A moment in time” as one. I thought about choosing that one, and knew the perfect moment to write about. It wasn’t a happy moment, it wasn’t a peaceful moment. It was an eerie moment. Since today is Patriot Day and the Anniversary of that moment, I’ll share it now.

Like my mother’s generation all knew where they were and what they were doing when they found out JFK had been shot, my generation, and my daughters, have the same knowledge of where they were when the attacks happened on 9 / 11. Since we were on the West coast at that time, I was sleeping when the first plane hit. Hubby was up, doing his early morning workout before starting his day. He woke me up after the second plane hit telling me they were sure there was some sort of attack going on. I was dumbfounded as we watched the events unfold on TV. The collapsing of the first tower, the plane hitting the Pentagon, the plane crashing in the fields, and the collapsing of the second tower.The horror of it was too big. By that time the girls were up and I had them get ready for school, although I had the feeling it would be canceled, and wasn’t sure I would let them out of my sight anyway. We lived on an Air Force Base at the time, and I was concerned about our safety, but at the same time so glad we were protected there. Hubby was called into work as soon as the second plane crashed. When he left I went outside, just out of a need to check that everything was still the same.

It wasn’t. This is the moment I will remember forever. Our base street was usually busy, busy, busy with neighborhood activity. Barking dogs, walking  ladies, kids on bikes going to school, sprinklers going, people leaving for work. Not that day. I went outside and it was like I was completely alone in the world. No sounds, no cars, no kids, no dogs – even the birds were quite in the trees. No wind. No movement of any kind. The houses could have been empty. It was completely and utterly silent and still. Like the world itself was still in shock. I knew, in that eerie silent moment, that my world, the whole world, would never be the same again.

Later that morning I found out school was indeed canceled and base was locked down. NO ONE went in or out. Active duty personnel were let in at the gate if someone from their unit who was on base came and verified them and escorted them. No one else came in. The next day the gates opened, but every person was checked thoroughly, every vehicle examined. The wait to get on base was sometimes up to 3 hours. Armed security forces patrolled the perimeters on quads. Gate guards had their M16s at all times. It was a frightening time, but I felt safe and grateful. Watching the rescue efforts and crying for the losses everyday and knowing that my family and I were safe, for the moment, made me grateful.

Every year I look back and think of that day, and that moment. I mourn for those who lost everything and for those who had unspeakable losses. I mourn for all the losses that have followed. Today I take time to remember all those who lost their lives that day. The heros and the everyday people who were just going about their day to day lives. May they and their families find peace.

So there is my moment in time.

Where we you on 911?