Our Year 2006 Recapped

Our Year - 2006
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!


We find ourselves with another year gone by way too fast. They seem to go by faster the older we get. We are recapping some of the highlights, so you can share with us some of the things that took place in our family the past year. I am still licensed for home daycare. Hubby is working full time & is still a volunteer Fireman in the town we live in. Gman is doing great in 1st grade this year & is still “Mr Popular” & makes friends everywhere he goes. We still have our dogs Uno & Sasha & our kitties Gitmo & Spike. We also acquired a new addition, Callypso (Cally for short). Our new boxer puppy that was born in May 2006. Hubby still has his reptile collection & his hobby is taking care of them. Our older son, SJ is over in Iraq right now with the 82nd Airborne & my step daughter C is in the 10th grade & living in the city with her mom.

January: *Hubby celebrated his big “40th” Birthday on the 2nd at our home with family. SJ started Airborne jump School at Fort Bragg, NC on the 10th,, also on the 10th, our Grandson J (D’s son), celebrated his 5th birthday. Hubby & me attended the “last” Military ball on the 14th (the last that we would go to because of Hubby's retirement in July) Hubby started a math class at College on the 24th & when finished got an “A”. On the 26tth, SJ graduated from jump school at Ft. Bragg, NC.

February: *Gman started taking Karate classes on the 8th. We had a nice Valentines dinner out on the 14th. Also this month hubby received a phone call one night with a great job offer for a job right in the town we live in, after lots of consideration about retiring from the Army when he still had 2 yrs left that he could stay in, he decided the job offer was too good to turn down. He accepted the offer but wouldn’t start work until April.

March: *We celebrated my 41st birthday on the 12th with a cake & dinner at home with our family. On the 27th, Hubby, me, & Gman took a trip to Ft. XXXX in XX to out-process & sign all the paperwork for hubby's Retirement from the Army. We stayed overnight on base & returned home the next day. March 31st was Hubby's last day working in the Army (his retirement date is July 1st though but he took leave & vacation time).

April: *On the 3rd, Gman lost his first baby tooth. That was a big day in our household. & on the 6th he lost his 2nd baby tooth at school. On the 9th I gave my daughter S a baby shower that turned out great & she got lots of great gifts. On the 10th our grandkids J & E came to live with us full time for a few months while their mom D got her apartment all set up for her & the kids. The 16th was Easter & we had fun the night before coloring Easter eggs with J, E, C, Gman, S & her husband N. The next morning they all had to find their Easter baskets & then have the Easter egg hunt. It was fun. During school vacation week hubby painted the outside of our house from mauve to a nice tan color. It looked great! On the 24th Hubby started his new job as a “Civilian” as the district manager. On the 27th Gman started T-ball!!!!

May: *On the 23rd SJ called us from Ft. Bragg to tell us he got his first tattoo. He got a man in the moon on his shoulder just like his dad has. On May 24th S went into labor & her hubby N took her into the hospital at 11 am. On the 25th our new grandson, L was born & I got to be there for the birth. L was born on (Uncle) Gman’s 6th birthday. So now our son & our grandson have the same birthday. LOL On the 26th Gman sang in a Memorial Day concert at school & did a great job singing.

June: *On the 3rd we celebrated Gman’s 6th birthday (May 25th) with a birthday party for him & his school friends at a bowling alley. The kids had a blast bowling & we found out how much Gman loves to bowl. We had a huge flood in our basement (our sump pump failed) and it was a huge mess. On June 10th SJ came home from NC on leave & we picked him up at the airport. The 16th Gman had his first field trip with his Kindergarten class to the Apple Farm to pick apples & see the animals. I was a nervous wreck all day but Gman had tons of fun & came home with a big bag of apples. Father’s day was the 18th & we had a huge family cookout at my
mom & her bf's place on the Lake. It was great & everyone got to see SJ before he headed back to NC then to Iraq. We all got to go out on my mom’s new party boat. It was a great day with all our kids & family all together. On the 25th we took SJ back to the airport to go back to Ft. Bragg. It was great having him home & seeing him again. It was hard saying bye to him at the airport cuz we knew he may have to deploy to Iraq & didn’t want him to go. The 26th Gman started his 2nd yr of swimming lessons. Our grandkids J & E moved back in with their mom in an apartment in the city. We had a very full house for a while there.

July: July 1st was hubby's “official Retirement Date from the Army”, after 22 years of Service. On the 3rd we went over to the Lake to watch the fireworks. We all went out on my mom’s party boat in the middle of the lake to watch them. My sister has a summer camp on the lake
too so they were here for the summer with their kids. It was nice watching the fireworks out on the lake. On the 9th Gman finished up swimming lessons for this season, he did a great job. The 13th was our 4th wedding anniversary. On the 14th we left for the a few days at the ocean. Gman stayed with my daughter S a couple nights & one night with my mom. We had a great time & perfect weather. We headed back home on the 17th & were missing Gman a lot. On the 23rd we picked out our new boxer puppy Cally. She was born on May 5th. On the 29th SJ turned 19 out in NC & on the 3oth C turned 15. Also this month we were out for a drive just looking at new homes in our town to see what was out there & came across an open house for a brand new Colonial home. We went & looked at it & loved it. Of course we didn’t ever
imagine that we would be buying it. Our ranch house needed so much work & then even more work because of the flooding that occurred in our basement earlier. So when the real estate lady called & told us that the builders of the new house would be interested in buying our home so we could buy theirs we started the process.

August: Our Daughter D celebrated her birthday on the 6th. The week of the 7th we watched our grandkids J & E while D took a vacation to Penn to see her family there & to NY with her boyfriend B. On the 8th, SJ deployed to Bayji, Iraq for a year. The 20th Aunt M had her summer cookout, which is always a fun time & great to get together with family. On the 23rd, S & N celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary. The 26th Gman started up his 2nd season of soccer. The 28th S had to return to work after her maternity leave & I got to watch our grandson L. Gman started his first day of 1st grade on the 29th & C started in the 10th grade.

September: On the 12th Gman started his first year of Cub Scouts. We spent most of the month getting rid of things we didn’t want to take with us when we moved & beginning to pack. On the 28th we closed on our new house!!!!

October: By the 4th, we were all moved into our new house. It was a lot of work & we were so glad when it was all done. On the 6th SJ came home on leave from Iraq. Hubby & Gman picked him up at the airport. We were so glad to have him back home again. On the 11th, our daughter S celebrated her 25th birthday. On the 15th was our grandson L’s christening. SJ was asked to be L’s God Father which of course he accepted. On the 21st we had a nice big family dinner with lasagna (SJr’s choice for dinner) & on the 22nd it was another hard day as we had to take SJ back to the airport cuz he had to return to Iraq until August. Please keep him in your prayers. On the 27th Gman was in a “Halloween” parade & dressed up as Ninja. On the 31st we went trick or treating up town w/S, N & L. It was L’s first Halloween.

November: Our granddaughter E turned 4 on the 7th. She’s getting so big too fast. She is a real cutie too. The 14th was a meeting with Gman’s teacher to find out how he was doing in 1st grade. We were very pleased to find out that Gman is in the top reading group in his class (he loves to read to us) and is doing excellent in Math as well. He was the only one that got 100% on a math test they had in class. He’s doing great in School & we are very proud of him. On the 16th Gman had a trip to the dentist to get his teeth cleaned. No cavities & all is going well with his teeth. That’s what we like to hear. He loves going to the dentist. On the 23rd we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at our house. S, N, L (his first Thanksgiving), C, D, J, E & my mom all came to our new house for dinner. Me & my daughter S cooked most of the day making a perfect dinner. We lit our first fire in our new fireplace & we all enjoyed it a lot. We really were missing SJ a lot though & said prayers for him at dinner. He called from Iraq & it was great to talk to him.

December: On the 9th we went to Hubby's company Christmas party while SJ’s friend J babysat Gman for us. We had a great time & Gman loved having Jenny take care of him. On the 16th we went to another Christmas party, S & N watched Gman that night. On the 22nd Gman has his Christmas party with his class at school. C comes over on the 22nd to spend Christmas with us & will stay until the 26th. We are really missing SJ – it will be his first Christmas not at home. We sent him a little xmas tree w/ornaments & lots of goodies etc. though. He also has a new tv & we sent him his xbox & a new folding chair so he was happy.

December is always such a busy month. SJ calls us about once a week from Iraq & is doing okay. We are very proud of him. Please keep him in your prayers. Please also pray for all our other military troops & their families.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!
All our love & best wishes!

Catching Up Oct 2006 - Feb 2007

Ok I'm back but I sure do have lots of catching up to do. Sorry for the long lapse in no posts. Thanks for all the support & prayers for my step son who is over in Iraq. He's 19 years old & has been there since Aug 2006. We hear from him about every 1 1/2 weeks which we are happy about. We miss him like crazy.

This post is just going to be a quick caption about catching up but will post more details about certain things soon.

In Oct 2006 we moved to a brand new construction home & left all the moldy wet in our flooded basement behind. It worked well for us cuz the house we bought, the builders of it bought our old house. Weird i know but true. Our new house is 4 bdrms, 3 full baths, 2 1/2 acres of land, etc. etc. We love it.

We also bought a boxer puppy back in July 2006 when she was 10 weeks old. She was born on May 5th, 2006 and now is 9 mos old but in Dec right before xmas she jumped off a 3' stone wall in our yard & broke her back leg. It was horrible. She had to have a very costly surgery but is doing fine now.

My husband also retired from the Army in July 2006 after 22 years & is having a tough time adjusting to a civilian work place but I'm so proud of him cuz he does have a great job & he is doing a great job. We both miss him being in the military though.

Our youngest son who is 6 is doing awesome in 1st grade. He's reading at 3rd grade level & his teacher said he's very smart in math. That made our day.

Well here is some updates I am taking from some of my e-mails that will have more info for now til I catch up:

12/26/06
My boxer is 7 mos old & her name is Callypso (Cally) for short.
Well this summer she had lyme disease. She was limping one day so i took her to the vet & they said she had lyme disease so we treated her for 30 days for that & after only 2 days on the meds she was running around fine again. Anyway the other day I had her outside w/me - she loves to run around & play outside. And we have a stone wall that is edging on our driveway that is about 3' tall & at the bottom there is about 3' of grass area then the driveway. I called Cally to come to me & i was in the driveway & she wags her tail like to say ok mommy i'm coming & i turned around to walk to the side yard & i hear her yelping in pain & turn around & she's jumping around in a circle screaming in pain. She jumped off the wall but she must have hit her hind leg or something. I didn't see it so i don't know. This was Sat & most vets were closed for the holdiday weekend & referred us to Tufts animal hospital. So we put her on her dog bed & drove her to the hospital. They admitted her & got her on an iv with pain meds. They took xrays & said it was a totally clean break ( we saw the pics) above the growth plate (so that was good) but that she would need surgery & have a plate put in. Its costing us $75 a day for her to stay there - it was $140 just to walk thru the door & they said with surgery it will be about $3000. Now i wonder since its a "clean" break why they can't just put her in a cast like people do for clean breaks of bones til they heal? Why do they have to put a plate in her leg & do surgery?? They are scheduled to do the surgery tomorrow at noon cuz they were off til tomorrow cuz of the Christmas weekend. Also we wanted to bring her home til the surgery cuz she has a cast thing on now & is hopping around & seems in good spirits, would have saved us about $600 in fees for her staying there. Our Cally girl is only 7 mos old & we miss her alot. I'm sick about her breaking her leg cuz i called her to come to me. This is a bad time of year to have to come up w/an extra $2700 for surgery but we will find a way.

12/29/06
Cally is home from surgery for her broken back leg!!!!

We picked Cally up tonight & we just got back home. Keeping her "quiet" for the next 8 weeks is going to be VERY hard to do. She's use to being caged at night (thank God) but not all day. We walked her around outside for a few minutes so she could go to the bathroom then kept her leashed & she walked around the house but if we let her off the leash she thinks its playtime & will race all over the house so we can't do that. But the problem is when we keep her on the leash or cage her, she's NOT happy in the cage she scratches at the door trying to get out & crying horribly. I feel so bad & don't know what to do but they said to keep her from playing, running, going up stairs etc for 8 weeks.

But the good news is she already puts weight on her leg & she seems great. The surgery ended up being about $500 less than they said!!! YAY!!!

Cally thinks she never even had surgery. But that's the problem with keeping her quiet for the next 8 weeks.


(1/21/07)
I have been really sick for over a week now. Wicked sore throat, earache on the left side, massive sinus headaches & a cough that makes you gag & cough up green & yellow stuff. Its so gross. Even my 6 yr old son tells me, "mom that is so gross." When i can't stop coughing. This morning i couldn't take it anymore after 3 nights of coughing all night & no sleep, i called the dr on call. I have taken so many meds & cough drops now my stomach is sick. They didn't even see me, just called me in some cough syrup with codeine, antibiotics & afrin nasal spray (which is bad for you from what i hear lately).

I had been in there last week & they didn't do anything. I am so sick of feeling like shit & being sick. Gman has been sick too & has been to the dr 4x's in the past month. He has had a dry cough for over 2 months now & an itchy eye that gets red around the outside of his eye at times. Its not bloodshot inside the eye & its not goopy. And the eye thing has been going on for a few weeks.

I think i am going to switch him to a pediatrician instead of our family dr - only thing is our family dr is here in town, a 10 min drive & the closest pediatrician i can find that will take on new patients is a 40 min drive away. Not sure what i should do but the 4x's he has gone to the dr he has seen 4 diff dr's & all have said he had something different so that scares me. One of them said they think its asthma even though we have no history of asthma & his lungs sounded fine??? She wanted to put him on a week of prednisone (steroids) to see if it "knocked" his cough away sort of like a test to see if its asthma or not. Hubby & I talked & even though i filled the perscription we didn't feel comfortable giving a 6 yr old w/out any signs of breathing troubles in his lungs prednisone.

Anyway have I have to go dose up on my cough syrup & try to sleep. Hope
everyone is doing well. On a good note, our son that is in Iraq wrote me on myspace today. He said he would call but hasn't called yet. Usually we get the phone call about 3am. LOL He sounded good. Said the weather is really crappy rainy, cold, windy & that he's not addicted to hot chocolate so to send him some hot chocolate.



2/7/07
Cally went back to the vet today for her follow up xrays from braking her back leg and having surgery to put a plate in it back on 12/29/06. She's been on restricted exercise since then but doing well.

The vet said the broken bone healed up well. He said he didn't like the plate they put in, he said he would have used a pin (but unfortunately it was xmas vaca & he wasn't around ) and we had to have the surgery done. He said to keep her on limited exercise for another 2 months. He found a spot on the xray just below her knee that looks like a gouge out of the bone. I don't think it was in the xray that we saw from when her leg was broke. He is a bit concerned about it but said he hopes it will be fine & just to watch her & if she ever shows tenderness or limping to call him.

She weighed in at 48.6 lbs & is 9 mos old.

I can't wait til we can just let her run around again without telling her no Cally stop. She's a puppy that wants to run around & play.

Ok well that's some of the updates - will post more later.

"And Now these three remain: faith, hope & love" 1 Corinthians 13:13