Thursday Back and Bis

Yesterday was a good day. My seedlings are starting to sprout. Well at least three little broccoli plants are sprouting. I cannot wait to get that tray full of little seedlings and then be able to move them to larger pots and outside. I love watching stuff grow. I have a really neat variety planted in this tray...some veggies, an herb and some crafting stuff. I planted two different types of gourds. I planted some bird house gourds which make awesome martin birdhouses and those little guys eat tons of insects and mosquitos. They are also great gourds for painting, beading and other neat crafting stuff. I also planted some dipper gourds. Primarily they were used for water dippers but they are also great for various craft projects. I planted four varieties of tomato, spinach, broccoli, a sweet red pepper, summer squash and some echinacea. We went to the gym and I had a great back workout but my bicep workout was kinda weak. My right shoulder is really giving my trouble and it would not let me handle the heavier DBs. But I got the workout in using the 20 pounders and a barbell. I am feeling it today for sure which means I worked it enough to feel it. Yay! Well more later.

It is Wednesday...Tonight is LEGS!

I do so love leg workouts. I have actually been looking forward to hitting the gym all day. It is odd how I look forward to certain workouts and others I cringe at. LOL

Meanwhile, I am going to call my son and check on him, call my mother and see how she is feeling following her recent procedure and then cook before heading to the gym. The weather is sort of threatening rain so we will see how that goes.

Cheyenne is doing fabulous in school and gearing up to start a huge end of the year project that will require tons of stuff...a model, presentation, oral report, interviews and so forth. This should prove to be fun...just deciding on a topic has proven to be interesting. But we shall get one chosen this week for sure! More later....

I often wonder why things happen in our lives...and yes, I know everything happens for a reason. But when things go south because of a misunderstanding, I was always taught to believe that adults can talk things out and work it out. I now realize that requires TWO adults wanting to work it out. Maybe by circumstance or situations, one person is too occupied to realize that the other is hurting. Maybe it is because one person refuses to see the other is trying to reconcile and mend the matter. Or maybe the relationship just was not as important to one person as they once thought...maybe they do not have time for it any longer. Whatever the reason...it just plain sucks. I always believed in being honest and accounting for your actions...saying "I'm sorry" when you were wrong and trying to make right the wrong. I guess there are some that do not take "I'm sorry" with as much value as I do.

There was so much I was looking forward to in moving to the NW and also so much that I feared. I tried my best to make the best of every situation and circumstance thrown in my path...but my fears won out anyway. I guess it is life's way of reminding us that nothing lasts forever. So I guess I must now focus on the future and not on what I wanted in my future...time to punt and re-plan.

Some losses are so much worse than others but nothing matches the loss of a sister and best friend. This is a heartache that will take a very long time to mend...if it ever does.

This and that.....

Hubby and I took a nice little day trip today with some friends and all of our kids. It was a nice ride, we drove into and out of a snow storm on Mt. Ashland, as we headed south to Mt. Shasta in California. We spent several hours in Shasta, letting our friends' kids visit their mother and then we headed back, one kid short, and called it a day. Delivering kids for visitation is always stressful and tiring. But, it went pretty well and the oldest went back to Nevada with her mother and the boys came home with their father. Cheyenne is tickled because she will get to go spend the night with our friends possibly next weekend, which means a night of PS2 with the boys. We know it is hard on her being the only child at home and we also knows she misses her brother very much. Ben was her buddy and playmate and since he passed in January, she has been a bit lonely. Hopefully, making new friends at her new school and the boys, will help ease some of that loneliness for "kid" type interaction. We parents as adults can only compensate so much.
Next week is starting to stack up to be another busy week...much running to Grants Pass and much stuff to get done. Tax week always bites. LOL. More later...

All in 2 days work....

A fun filled week. I had the wonderful pleasure of friends coming to visit and spend a few days, during which we had a photoshoot here. It was great! Steve is an excellent photographer and made it fun...even outside when it was quite chilly. We turned the livingroom into a photo studio as well as the mountain behind us and several other places. We did over 1000 pics and spent much time chattinga nd enjoying the visit.

We talked about PSO stuff, websites, web graphics and all even intentional communities. It made for a nice time for sure. Steve and Summer brought their 10 week old bunny, Rose, with them and she was such a joy. She was so cute and cuddly, Miss Cheyenne had a fabulous time with her. Rose was thoroughly spoiled during her visit with fresh broccoli, carrots and other nibbly things.

Hubby has an appointment with the VA tomorrow so that will blow the afternoon and early evening for sure. Nearly 4 hours of commuting to and from not to mention waiting for and seeing the doctor. Grrrrrrr. I also need to make some phone calls to get on the ball about the re-eval in July.

So much to do and so busy, but I am getting in my workouts and feeling good. I am also spending a lot of time with hubby which always makes me smile. Cheyenne is excited as we are making plans for her month plus in Florida this summer and her Grandparents are thrilled also. One set is making plans to take her for a week to Puerto Rico and the other set is making plans to simply spoil her for a week. Gawd help us when she gets back here. Hubby and I are making plans for a long overdo 'honeymoon' of sorts. Basically just some quiet time together and maybe get away fro a couple fo days, as we never got to enjoy a real honeymoon as normal because we were moving across country with the military...we are looking forward to the time just to re-connect and enjoy each other.

My chest is on fire!

Wow my chest is on fire this morning...but it is a good feeling. I worked chest and tris last night and hit is pretty hard. I am really enjoying my workouts and the time with hubby. As always, our time in the gym is not only important to us but also "our" time. No kids, no dogs, no phones...just us and the weights.

It is nice because we have a 30+ mile drive to the gym each way and it allows us to spend time talking about our workouts, retirement, our search for property to buy, what we want to build, our daughter and tons of stuff. It gives us time to laugh also.

I am going to change up my workout exercises and add some different ones, just for the chance. I think I am going to throw in some romanian dead lifts, cable crossovers, reverse crunches, more skull crushers and more lunges. That is not the big issue for me right now as much as my diet is...it is getting warmer and I tend to eat less. This is not good as I want to be eating more! Trying to force down a minimum of 2800 calories a day is near impossible. But I will not give up...I will eat more each day.

I got a new picture of my grandson in the mail yesterday which tickled me. I am amazed at how much he has grown. It is now time to start my birthday shopping for him as he turns three on April 17th. YAY. Son is doing well back in NC and I miss him. But I am very proud of him also.

More later...back to work here.

Some great workouts have been happening!

Hubby and I have been hitting the gym hard...we have had a great Leg workout on Tuesday, Wednesday was a day off and last night it was shoulders, traps and Abs. I love working my shoulders and traps.

I did 3 sets of everything I did, hit is hard and lifted heavy. I did overhead barbell presses, DB lat raises, DB front raises, DB shrugs, Knee ups, twisted knee ups and straight leg knee ups. It felt great!

Tonight is Back and Bis...I love working my back so this will be another great night. I am still struggling with increasing my caloric intake and getting the food down. Eating clean and trying to cram 2500 - 2800 calories down per day is not easy. I wish there was some way I could stimulate my appetite during the warmer weather. Sounds like a new research project for me.

This weekend should be fairly relaxed but next week is going to be crazy! Thursday is a trip to the VA hospital with hubby and then drive to Washington state and load up the remainder of our stuff there. Whew! Then the fun part starts...unpacking and sorting through all of that stuff.

More later...

Things as usual are heating up with the military and finally I have made some headway in getting hubby's retirement pay corrected, the VA has finally made a decision and I can now start getting his medical care taken of again. I also learned that in a very short few months, he must be put back through all of the horrid testing he went through before getting out of the military. I am not looking forward to giving him that news. They have no idea how upsetting it is to continually be tested over and over for the same thing...of which nothing has changed since 2003! He worries me some days because of his depression levels but, we will fight our way through this as well. Eventually, maybe, one day they will just stop this ridiculous stuff and fully retire him so I can finally stop getting some normalcy into his life again.

Our anniversary was a bust with sitters pulling a no show...but we had a nice evening at home as a family and are making plans to spend at least one evening by ourselves soon. Meanwhile everything is status quo...still trying to sort through the gunk to find our new life after the military. The more the days pass and the more soldiers I come across who have been royally abandoned by the military, the angrier I become over it. Their medical treatment botched, the discharges and retirements botched and getting little assistance after they leave active duty. It is just so wrong in so many ways. Not all of them have wives who are still there and supportive and some never had wives. It is very sad indeed.

Well onward and upward...tomorrow is another day!

Finally an update!

Well 2007 has not been off to a snappy start. So much has happened, so much has changed and a major loss suffered.

We are still in Oregon and now have a cute little place we rented, hubby is wonderful, Cheyenne is in a neat school and loving it and I am embarking on a new enterprise here at home. But on January 30th I had to say goodbye to my 13 year old wolf. He had an inoperable bladder tumor and I had to have him put to sleep. I would not see him suffer or be in pain yet, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I was with him the entire time and right to the end. Even after he was gone, I stayed there with him, finding it hard to hear the thought of leaving him. He has been cremated and is in a nice box on a special shelf with his lead...so I am adjusting to him being physically gone.

Hubby and I are still lifting weights and embarking on a new bulking cycle so I will get even BIGGER....yay. I have my eyes set on a competition in October in the bodybuilding division and if I am not ready I will try for the Emerald Cup in the spring of 2008. Marriage is great, retirement great & frustrating and hopefully freedom from the fight with the Army will appear somewhere on the horizon.

Another trip approaches....

The last minute details are being handled for the next trip to Oregon. We will leave tomorrow morning and spend two or three weeks down in Cave Junction. Meanwhile, I have begun searching for property up in the Rainier and Yelm area of Washington as well. While I love Cave Junction, I am fast coming to realize that there is not much there for children and this causes me concern.

They have just announced due to county budgets, all the libraries (21 of them) are to be permanently closed down effective Jan 2007. In three months law enforcement in Cave Junction will no longer be open or funded. These things concern me in having a young daughter and having no library for her as I view reading to be a valuable and important part of her education. If the county cannot afford to have libraries open then why would I want to invest 300k or more into buying property there? I have also come to learn that schools are rated poorly also and it is my intention to put Cheyenne back in public school in the middle school grade levels.

Meanwhile, the fight with retirement pay continues. Eventually, and hopefully before I must get too nasty with them, they will get their act together and get hubby's retirement pay correct. VA on the other hand is totally ticking me off. They were to make their decision within 90 days of his last retirement date and I am told when I called that they are running behind because of the holidays and it will be another 40 days...and yes they understand it is a law that they have it done within 90 days but it is what it is. Grrrrrrrr Incompetency and Laziness are my trigger buttons for sure. If you cannot do your job then get the HE** out and let someone else who can do it, do so. Sheesh.

So, I will post when I can during the next two - three weeks. Hopefully when we return, we will have located property either here or there...at a minimum, located a rental for awhile.

Meanwhile, I am about to begin my new 12 week workout cycle. This is going to be 12 weeks targeting major mass gain, lifting heavy and super setting. I cannot wait to get started and see how it goes. I am also increasing my calories to a range of 2000 - 2300 per day. So onward and upward!

Stay safe and happy everyone until next post.