Good news. I have heard what every parent wants to hear. And what ALOT of people think about their kids, but is in fact not true. My 14 year old comes home in tears. She thinks her teacher accused her of cheating, she was going to get a failing grade on a paper yadda yadda. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say I called the teacher. Who nformed me that my child does NOTHING wrong! *faints*

Bad news…I found my first gray hair. *pouts*

Well, I see sun, blue skies, its warm, and flowers are blooming. Leaves are sprouting on the trees. we’ve seen this before, and then it had the gall to SNOW on us.  SNOW!! I hate snow. It makes me want to hibernate.

Nothing real exciting happening around here. The kids are still teenagers. No matter how hard I wish, I never wake up and find them through that particular stage. The oldest is a little less emotional and moody than last year, but right on schedule her younger sister took that over. When do I get to be smart again? I swear after year thirteen of motherhood we apparently become some babbling idiot for our kids to roll their eyes at.

I need to get my camera out and get some pictures of my tree blooming out front. I don’t know what kind of tree it is but the flowers are pretty, and really that’s all that matters right? I’m also still working on getting rid of a very bad habit. It’s going to take time, there are no quick fixes, and the sooner I accept that the better it will be. Baby steps here. Change the habit to break it.

Can I please just tell my kids that and have them listen? GAH!! it’s not fair! My youngest, now 13, is leaving us for a whole weekend. She’s taking a trip to Oregon with one of her friends. when did she get old enough to do this?? OK, so it’s only 4 hours away by car. It’s not like it’s cross country by plane. Man, I have one babysitting reglarly, one taking road trips, what’s next???

How many guys would let their wife, not only set up a froo froo in game moment for their anniversary, but remind her of it! Mine would.

I told him I wanted a screenshot of our characters in their dressy clothes having a romantic picnic, and that’s exactly what I got.

The weather went insane (read that first)

Which is why my anniversary is today and not tomorrow. We raced a blizzard 15 years ago today. It was the day of our rehearsal. My mom called me at home from work to tell me "we have a problem" to which I replied "NO WE DON’T!!!". The electric company guys made reservations at the Holiday Inn in anticipation of some big snow storm. Me being 19, and having grown up with weather scares all my life didn’t believe it. I mean come on, it was PA in winter. We knew snow happened, we weren’t THAT far from Lake Erie so lake effect snow/cold was common.

Nope, it was coming, we had to postpone my wedding. Have I mentioned I was 19? Ever tell a teenager they can’t do something they’ve been anticipating for weeks??? You might as well have told the head cheerleader there was no prom. So, I say to my mother, who’s still on the phone from work…"Why can’t we just do it tonight??". I mean after all it was our rehearsal, everyone was going to be there anyhow for the dinner.  My dad, who was giving me away was already planning to be here. There was silence for a moment…then she agreed to call the preacher. He had no openings for another 3 weeks, so he agreed to it.

Let the race begin. Phone lines were burning up, people were reacting with everything from "OK no problem" to shocked indignation. My family , being so small was easy. Telling Hubby, and him having to tell his family…that was a bit rough. But they all came through. except one uncle, who got stuck at the airport. The people that volunteered to bring the food all managed to pull it off. We got to the church on time, got me ready, got my maid of honor ready, and panicked because we hadn’t seen hubby yet. Turns out he went to my Gram’s house. Where he met his Father in Law for the first time

My mother who was singing for the wedding, was asked how she didn’t cry during the songs. She replied "I didn’t have time!!!"…lol! Other memorable quote…caught on video I might add. My best friend Tiffi was my maid of honor. So of course we were together for the trip to the church. And being teenage girls we chattered the whole way. Someone mentions to my mom in range of the video…I think it was how quiet I was. and I hear my mother say…"well they didn’t shut up the whole way to Strongstown!!!"

Speaking of Tiffi…I owe her a huge thank you. If not for her,I wouldn’t have met hubby. She was at the mall with me when he walked up to say hi to her. They’d been friends for ages. She mentioned she was supposed to fix him up with a friend. I piped up with "oh! how bout me!!!", he  said ok, poor Tiffi looked a bit shocked and confused. I wasn’t the friend she had in mind. I think she MIGHT have wanted to kill me.

15 years later, here we are. 2 kids, a career in the army that started at 9 years. Obstacles that some said we’d never overcome have been destroyed, and the marriage that a few said wouldn’t last, and was too soon has turned out to be one of the best I’ve seen. I love that man more with every passing day, and I’m so glad we beat the weather and the odds.

The weekend was pretty uneventful. Mostly hung around the house doing nothing. Except for my Saturday trip the the ER. I like our ER, you go in, they check you in, and after your BP and temp is taken you’re placed in either Fast Track or ER waiting rooms. Fast Track is the non emergency stuff. My problem was my ears itching. This started slowly I guess around January. My right ear would just itch incessantly. Nothing I could point to and say oh this is what does it. Now both ears do it. The gland thingy under my jaw/earlobe is swollen too.

So, I went to get some relief. It’s been diagnosed as seasonal allergies. I came home with Clariten, flonase, and Deconamine. The allergy meds to stop the itching, the Deconamine to decongest my ear tubes, presumably the reason for the swelling. The flonase smells like dirt and roses when you inhale it…ironic for an allergy spray. The Deconamine makes me loopy, and the clariten definitely stopped the itching. But this morning, my head feels just wierd. Kinda lightheaded but not really…I can’t explain it, and I haven’t taken anything today. I’m giving the swelling another day to go away, then I’m calling the clinic for an appointment.

Seriously, I have woken up to a real live Alfred Hitchcock movie. this is just ONE tree, not including the covered grass patches in the front and back of my house, the playground, other trees. These birds might be the first sign of spring but dear lord they are LOUD!!

Thought I’d try out some birdie pics. Although my friends in Alaska might just pitch in to get a plane ticket just to come down here and hurt me for this. But…I just can’t help it. Lookie what we have!!! (click for full size)

Now, I must say I am up early, and apparently the early bird really does get the worm. Or, the picture of the bird with the worm. I still need alot of practice with this camera. I’m not getting the full potential. I’m out of practice, and I have to manage my handshake. Image Stabilization can only do so much for that.

Along with this happy little Robin. I found my little chickadee out back. Well I think that’s what he is. He’s a cute little bugger regardless. And I was quite happy with the details my camera got on this shot. Really happy actually. Thus ends my morning photo playtime, I’m gonna go train my dogs to save me from Angry Alaskan friends

I have been very productive today. I got up late. Gosh darn bed is just so comfy sometimes I hate crawling out. Anyhow, I had my morning coffee, finished up some laundry, cleaned up the yard, mopped my kitchen floor, and vacuumed. I vacced yesterday too, but I have realized if I do it daily I don’t need to stop every 3 swipes of the carpet to empty the canister. Der! That took me maybe an hour.

The rest of the time I’ve been fighting with my media reader refusing to acknowledge my camera’s memory card. I gave up and just plugged my camera into the USB port. Guess I need a new card reader. I was too cheap to get one included in my computer. silly me. All because I caught this adorable pic over the weekend of my two boys…

Now how cute is that??? They stayed like that for hours. And by the way getting shadow to look at the camera is a real chore these days. He averts his eyes like it’s the boogie man trying to eat him. He’s 85 friggin pounds of pure unadulterated wuss. Seriously. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be the bad guy that pushed him either.

Yes, I KNOW I need to get pics of the kids too, but they dodge the camera worse than the dog. I’m trying I SWEAR!!

I haven’t thought much about us living in base housing that was privatized. other than thinking it’s not as big a deal as it seemed when it was first started. I mean on non privatized bases, they still take your housing allowance, only now it shows up on our LES and is then deducted under deductions. The only difference is utilities. There is an "average use" amount for our electric. the way it works is, if you go over that amount, you pay the difference, if you are under, you get the difference. We’ve lived here roughly 8 months, have yet to have a bill, and today got $25 in the mail. I’m betting next cycle we have a bill after all that laundry though…lol