Happy Valentine's Day!

Especially for my husband... who typed and posted my last post.  I was obviously feeling no pain.  :)  I remember thinking of all the skill sets my kids were learning while I was in the hospital but it doesn't really look like I was compos mentis at the time.

Currently recovering from some complications, but doing well.  Since my husband is also getting ready for another deployment to the sandbox, I thought I'd note that for a while I will be recovering (then comes the PT to get me back on my feet) and the rest of my time is solely my family's.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

No Drama...

If you didn't notice I was gone... Great! SINCERE Happy Holidays!

HOWEVER:
If you have left me a comment. I'm sorry, I haven't seen it.
If you have emailed me or snail-mailed me. I'm sorry, I haven't seen it.
If you have called me. I'm sorry, I haven't been able to answer it.
If you have even knocked on our front door.  I'm sorry, I wasn't able to answer it.
If you have tweeted, face-booked, circled, hell, smoked-signaled me or whatever new communication method that has been discovered in my absence....  just lather, rinse, repeat...
If you have visited me... I can't remember so don't take anything I said seriously...
I just wanted to let all of those who were starting to wonder if I'd gone on vacation...

I AM alive.
I HAVE most definitely been able to spend A LOT of time with my family (you know, you birth a child and they grow up so you think you really know them... apparently not. Luckily most of it has been humorous).
Our family even got to spend a day with my best friend's family! So YES. The holidays were lovely. As you can see I even still have my sense of humor.  :)  Unfortunately, I have had some complication issues come up with my back and am BACK on the serious drugs... (don't worry though... the humorous drug's aren't far behind I'm told, which means I will be fine.) It also means my computer looks like the spin cycle of my washer... So I just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be back... without a Schwarzenegger imitation...  It might take a little while so don't worry.

Happy New Year!

from typist. You can obviously tell she's feeling fine at the moment.  She's just impatient and a bad patient and a loopy patient and won't stop trying to get around.  Don't tell Mom I typed that!  She IS ok tho and she so picky about the spelling and she actually swore

Santa's Training Mission Almost Ends In Tragedy...

Once upon a blue moon, I was actually stationed at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (otherwise known as NORAD) inside Cheyenne Mountain and I can tell you that they DO track Santa on Christmas Eve... Over the years, the ability to actually see this phenomena has evolved with the digital age.  This years plans were already being put in place as Google will clearly tell you... but apparently Santa did NOT tell them he was doing a few practice training missions with his reindeer and... well?  Ummmm, there is now at least ONE pilot who won't be seeing anything but coal in his stocking this year... unless, of course, the reindeer decide to leave their own 'presents'...  The pictures below the fold line might want to be kept from your offspring unless you are SURE that you can explain exactly what happened and how, everything by Christmas Eve will be the way it should be... (just thought I'd warn ya)

Technology Is My Friend?

It's computer time here. Or should I say lack thereof? We started a snowball with one car accident with one of our daughters. The next day, my husband and another daughter, were in my car when they had a fight with a falling tree...  and didn't win the argument.

So many other things have suddenly decided to come for an extended stay with our family, that I am overwhelmed. SO. Everyone is doing fine... however, since chipping a bone off and herniating a disk in my back last February... somehow the TAXES never got filed! Just wanted everyone to know that all is well except for the entire family's filing skills. You do NOT want to know where I have been finding missing documents and receipts. If you have never heard of a Pulse (or Echo) pen by Livescribe... you should check it out. It is saving our collective hides and shortening my tax imposed stay glued to mountains of paperwork! (between organizing, putting lists together and recording (by voice) my very creative use of verbiage about all the places I have already searched... it also does something I never knew it could... I just have to write an equation on a piece of paper and it tells me the answer automatically... how cool is that?)

Anyway, I know I am known as the Queen of avoiding anything that looks like technology of any form. (understatement of the year) I just want to let everyone feel my pain of technology by watching this 6th grader... absolutely unbelievable!

To Live Like You Were Dying...

Today is Thanksgiving Day.  A time to reflect and appreciate the things we are gifted and blessed with.  I am deeply grateful for the immense amount blessings in my life, but most of all, I am thankful for one more day.  Today.

What if you knew you only had one more day to live... What would you do? What is so important to you that you would do it right away? What if you had only a Week? One Month? One Year?

Today is a day to give thanks and I sure have an immense amount of blessings and gifts to be grateful for, but so much contemplation has also brought home to me that most of us never know how much time we have left. So I have been asking myself these questions: Did I kiss my family goodbye this morning? Did I tell them that I love them? Can I find time to call my sister and tell her how proud I am of her or call my best friend to tell her how much I miss living closer to her?

Did I try my very hardest today to be a good wife, mother, friend? Did I unmistakably express to my family and friends that even when I'm gone, I'll have loved them. I'll have cherished how much they've touched me and made a difference in my life in so many ways? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind? What kind am I actually leaving behind? What can I change? What can I still accomplish?

Am I wasting precious time on things/thoughts/worries that do not really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? How much more time will I waste instead a playing a board game with my youngest? Talking with my oldest? Enjoy just being with all my children? Laughing with my husband?

I want to not only live every day to it's fullest but to inspire my children to do the same because our time is finite. We are only alloted so much and whether the end is near or far it is still the end of this life.

So will you live like life is a never ending series of events or will you live like you were dying? Will you seize the day and use the gift of tomorrow, if it should come, to accomplish what is most important to you? Or will you waste it on worry? Anger? Frustration? Things beyond your control? Will you wait to do something important until the time is right? Will you wait until the New Year? The next free weekend?

Just a thought.  Happy Thanksgiving, all!

QOTD: "Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows." Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)