Parent teacher conferences

Had parent teacher conference for Cheyenne and Staci last night, they are both doing great, they have all A, A+ and a B on their report cards so it was good news. Staci is reading five levels above her grade (that is nothing new all the kids read very well) math is her hardest subject, she and Rich go round and round as he trys to help her, but she still managed to get an A. Cheyenne amazes me her grades are so good, seems like she hardley has to try at all to keep them up, we are very proud of her. Levi 's conferences are tonight, he did not tell me and so I had agreed to go to work early for Cari, making it so I cannot go, but Richard said he will, that is the one I am really curious about, Levi struggles alot more than the girls with school, he is smart, and tests really well, but he just seems to have a harder time when he has a time frame he has to stay within, if he can take his time he does great, I wish is was easier for him.

Home from the ER

I decided to go to the hospital last night, just because I thought I might have pneumonia, the pain in my chest was not the same as I usually get and my left shoulder was really hurting, so to be safe we went. I checked in, my pulse ox was 99% so really good for having my lungs hurting, but my blood pressure which is always really low was very high, so anyway they sent me off for a chest x-ray, it came back okay so they thought my shoulder pain was from a pulled muscle and were not really sure what was up with my chest, they gave me tylenol, an anti inflammatory and baby aspirin, to be safe they did blood work, when it came back it showed I might have a blood clot in my lungs so they sent me for a cat scan, brought me back gave me some morphine and we waited some more, when they finally got the results of that it said I most likely do not have a blood clot, but showed I might have some sort of fibroid or tumor on my right side, not surprising as I have had them before, part of the reason I had a hysterectomy last year, so they let me go home and said I have to call to make an appointment for a ultra sound. We were in the hospital for 6 hours and 3 minutes, and really we still do not know what is going on for sure. but I guess I do not have pneumonia which was my origianl concern.

no time for this

My fibromyalgia is acting up full force, I do not think I have had an all out attack since shortly after I was diagnosed several years ago, while I always have some symptoms, today it is like they have all come crashing in, I don't like it and I certainly do not have time for it.
For those of you who do not know what it is, its a a chronic syndrome that causes wide spread joint and muscle pain, chest and abdominal pain, memory "fog", sleep disturbances, numbness of the extremities, headaches, jaw pain (because I grind or clench my teeth all the time), dizziness, problems regulating body temperature, in combination with my scoliosis and arthritis my pain level that is usually at about a 4 (totally manageable for me) to a absolute 10+ today.
It is my own fault I suppose I have felt it coming on full force for a few weeks now, but I thought I was doing all the right things to keep it at bay, guess not!
I was diagnosed with this a few years ago after about 4 years of testing from numerous doctors in three states, for all kinds of scary things, I finally found out what it was after I ended up in the ER because my boss at the time thought I was having a heart attack, I had been complaining of chest pain and he said maybe you are having a heart attack, I said I cannot be I am only....and I realized I had no idea how old I was, my memory was completely foggy. (I was 35 years old at the time). After many more tests I was sent to a Dr who had trained at the Mayo clinic and he helped me figure out what was wrong. The good news with this is it is a syndrome, it may get worse it may get better depending on the day but it is not disease, it is painful and interferes with my life at times but it will not kill me, so I always say it could be worse, I have a sister in law with awful rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes that continues to get worse, another one who has a brain tumor and had to have brain surgery in her 20's, another sister in law who had surgery for thyroid cancer last year, a cousin with a terrible kidney disease, all of those are worse medically speaking and my heart and prayers go out to each of them, I try to remember it could always be worse and be grateful it is not, I know this will pass and I will be able to function again at some point (though it needs to be TODAY as I have to go to work later!!!!), but it is hard to not feel useless and depressed when I can barely get out of bed unassisted, and nothing is helping.

Cheyenne's essay

Cheyenne wrote the following essay for school about her Grandpa, makes me cry every time I read it.

Grandpa Who...

Grandpa who loved his family more than anything. He cared what was going on in our lives.

Grandpa who meant so much to me and my sister. Grandpa who looked so strong before. Who looked so fragile and frail when he couldn't even sit up.

Grandpa sleeps forever in peace and will never get sick again.

Grandpa who chased away the nightmares lurking under the bed. Who made me feel better when everything went wrong. Grandpa who smelled of aftershave and oil. Who spent so much time outside or in the garage working on some project or his car.

Grandpa who I could tell anything to. Who made Christmas or any other holiday a big deal.

Grandpa is waiting for his family but whispers in my ear to take our time. Who's tears are the rain that falls from the sky when we are sad, but when I am sad I remember that he would not want me to be.

Grandpa who's song has ended but who's melody will forever live on in our hearts and who we will someday be with again.

Cheyenne Jones 2009

Grades

Got my grades back for the last four term papers I did, I got two A's and two A+, all available credit, plus extra credit on two, so needless to say I was very happy and a bit proud of myself! I have four classes left to have enough credits to have my associates degree, then have to go on to finish my bachelors, after that I will decide for sure what I want my masters in, I will have to have a masters to really do anything in the field I am looking at so that is my goal. I am leaning towards either going ahead with my masters in Psychology (that is what I am getting my degree in now) or Social work, either one will allow me to work in the field I want so I guess it will come down to schools and who has the best program in which area, and which I can finish quicker since I am not 20 anymore I do not have the luxury of all the time in the world lol.

Cool News

Mom called tonight for various reason, but in the midst of our conversation she asked me if I knew yet where my brother Tyler was going to graduate school, I knew of several places he had applied but I did not know the end decision, well now I do, he will be going to Dublin Ireland, is that not just so cool!
He and his wife Beth will be moving there in August and he will start school in September, so I am very excited to add that to my places to visit next year!

Term papers

I wrote two term papers back in September and unfortunately the school did not receive them, AND of course I did them on my work computer, since I no longer work there that was a problem! Luckily for me I had printed and saved a paper copy so I spent most of Saturday typing them into my computer, since the school now allows us to upload and send papers in that way! Those papers were easy one was done on suicide within the military and our veterans, that was easy to write though disturbing after working for the VA and seeing first hand suicide attempts and one that succeeded. The next was on ADHD in children, that one took almost no time to write after all the research I did when we had Krissy living with us. After completing those I had to set to work on the newest paper I had to write, this one was a bit harder, it was on the fundamental attribution error, group influence and deindividuation, all concepts I completely understand, but it was supposed to be set around a sports event, I do not do sports, I have little to no understanding of sports, the closest I come to watching them is reading a book while Richard has football on the TV, so needless to say it took some hard work, lots of research and writing and rewriting but it is done and now I can start studying for finals!
Richard bless his heart is on leave so he took over all most everything while I holed up to study, he feed the kids, they all cleaned the house (except laundry that I prefer he not do!) went to the grocery store and checked in on me often to see if I needed coffee or snacks. All I had to do was go to work and try and make sure I spent at least some quality time with him and the kids. I felt a bit guilty so he did get a back massage as thanks, but then he did mine so I guess I still owe him!

My sweet husband

I woke up this morning to my kitchen being cleaned from top to bottom, bless his heart Richard hd gotten up at 4:30am to not only do that but to run off to the store to surprise me with an early Valentines Day...isn't he sweet!

Lifes Plan

Everyone keeps asking what our plan is so here we go, as most of you know Richard was set to retire from the Army with his 20 years this year, after much discussion we decided to pull his retirement papers and stay in another three years. Part of our reasoning behind this was the economy is so bad right now, in three years Richards truck will be paid off, Stevie will be almost done with college, Levi will be graduating high school, I will hopefully be close to having my masters degree, with any luck we will be pretty much debt free. Plus he thinks he will be promoted again next year so our retirement percentage will increase. He just got another good conduct medal and gets to add another strip to his dress uniform, it already looks so nice, this will make it even nicer!
We are busy now trying to figure out what not retiring will mean as far as what job he will be doing, he cannot/will not do recruiting anymore, so we are trying to get a straight answer as to if he can return to his previous MOS, also we are taking care of all the doctor appointments he has now, he got so behind on taking care of himself in Colorado when we were 5 hours from the nearest post hospital. Today he went for injections in his back and next week he is getting a machine that will deliver low grade shocks to his back, all this should help his herniated disk. He is temporarily assigned to the WTB unit, which basically means he has to many appointments to be in his regular unit, but we have been told he is close to being RTD (return to duty), I think he is getting anxious to be back in a normal unit.
Then there is the on going question of where we will be stationed, Richard thinks we will most likely be left here for the remainder of his time, but that could change, will he be deployed? Again that is possible, they just deployed from here in October and he did not have to go, but it is always possible he will go later. Where will we live when we get out? Our agreement was always that we would return to Colorado when we were done, but now we are discussing some other options just giving us somethings to think about.
Think that should answer every ones questions for now, as we know more we will update you all.

The newest member of our family has arrived, so I am an aunt again! Kaleb and Trish (and of course Isaac and Kate) have welcomed Henry Konrad Anderson!

wedding

We are finally oficialy married, took us awhile to get here, had a few bumps along the way but in the end it was well worth it. We held our ceremoney at the Main Post Chapel on Fort Riley, and plan to have our reception/party in August in Richards home town of Oregon.
My Mom, one of my sisters, one of my brothers and his wife were able to make it for this part, it was very nice to have them here.
We got some good news last night, my brother Kaleb and his wife had thier third baby, a boy, we do not know the name yet, so we are anxiously awaiting news on that, and pictures of course.