Update Tomorrow

Okay I'll make a better blog post tomorrow.

I have a few picture of the ball to share and maybe one or two more that are still going to be sent to me as well as the ones I took.

Tomorrow is my ultrasound to see if I have any ripe follicles.  I'll let you know how that goes too.

I'll give a weekend round up while I'm at it too.

For now its a long weekend and I plan on spending my time with my spouse enjoying it.

MORE LATER.

Preparing For The Ball

painting by Alfred Stevens

Tonight is the Army Ball that is being held to celebrate the 236th birthday of the US ARMY.  Happy Birthday!  Let's party.

Today I finish all my preparation work so that I can look as normal as possible at the ball tonight.  I say normal because my dress is ill fitting no thanks to someone who is not to be named.  Yes I'm still livid about that incident.  I wrote about in my blog one day about my former respite care worker.

My jewels are laid out.  My shoes and stockings are ready for me to don.  Every part that needed hair removed has been cleared.  Now its just time for me to shower, style my hair and dress for the event.  I can't believe that I'm actually a bit nervous.

I opted for ballet flats instead of heels for tonight's affair.  Why?  Well because I've broken both ankles, have tarsal tunnel syndrome, plantar fascititis, and basically unstable ankles.  Oh, plus I'm handicapped so I'll be lucky if I get in any dancing at all tonight.

If it was a full sit down occasion I would opt for heels but not tonight.  I realize that my shoes will be seen but hopefully not frowned upon.  My dress is ballet length which is still appropriate for this occasion.  I'm sure there will be floor length, tea length, ballet and cocktail length dresses worn with hopefully very few mini length there tonight.  I find a short length dress highly inappropriate for this event.  But some think otherwise.  If this was a white mess event you can be sure I'd be wearing floor length however its just a black tie event.  I wonder if the Army still wears their white mess?  Probably not since most everything has gone to the new ASU.

Ah now the ASU does look rather fine but I do prefer the high waist-ed dress blues on the male figure.  There is just nothing better than a nice silhouette when in reference to the male derriere.  The lower waist line just does nothing for the figure in my opinion.

Off to get the rest of what I need done before show time.  I'm going to try like heck to enjoy myself to the last bit tonight.  I'd like to dance, hold my soldier close and make memories to last me a lifetime tonight.  Now I'll leave you with this music video to enjoy instead of more of my blathering.

Moon Sickness

A few days before a full moon I have troubles sleeping.  It never fails.  My body always knows when its going to be a full moon.

Tonight is a full Sun Moon, the moon of Aradia.  Its a great time to make a magical brew.  Or so I've been told.

For me this just means another night of little or no sleep.  I would celebrate this full moon tonight if we weren't in a little ice age here in the Pacific Northwest.

Speaking of a little Ice Age.  Seems that because the solar flares are going to quieten down a bit we are going to be experiencing for quite a long time this cold weather here.  I guess I should prepare for one extremely cold winter too.

The heat kicked on earlier today, no more than about an hour ago and its closing on noon here.  I keep my heat set on 66 so that should tell you just how cold it is here.  There will be no dancing sky clad under the moon tonight.  More likely I'll be seeking out my winter coat just to step outside.

I get more restless around a full moon.  I find it harder to concentrate and write a coherent blog post.  I have more energy and no place to use it which makes me one cranky witch.

So with that said I'm ending my blog post for the day and I'll go try to find something to expel some of the energy.  Maybe some cleansing will work.  First the body, then the mind.

Tick Tock, Scattered Thoughts

My mind is everywhere and on everything of importance to me and my family today.  I'll eventually sift through it all to find that which has to be my number one priority.

First off today I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY US ARMY!  I'm proud to be married to an US ARMY Soldier.  I'm proud to be an Army Wife.  Our ball is just two days off and I'm really excited about the celebration of the Army birthday.

Secondly I'm thinking about yesterday's ultrasound appointment.  I think it went quite well.  I still have one cyst that is measuring 13 mm on the left ovary.  Its a far cry from the 7 cm it was before and I'm happy to have it shrink on its own.  After the rupture of the 9 cm cyst on the right ovary I was worried about the two cysts on the left ovary doing the same.  We were told that we finally have a green light on sex.  YAY!  Something else to celebrate.

We were also told that I'm still fertile enough that we could possibly try on our own with ovulation prediction kits to get pregnant.  However, we opted for the IUI and clomiphene citrate therapy.  Its an egg quality issue for us with my age not a quantity.  I have plenty of eggs just not very good ones.  The RE cut my clomiphene citrate dosage in half.  He said one whole pill is  too much for me since I'm so sensitive.  So I'm now taking 1/2 pill daily for the next 5 days.  I really hope that such a small dosage will still do the trick.  We really want a baby.  I'm scheduled for my next ultrasound on Monday.  Fingers crossed we'll see some ripe follicles.

My third thought is resting on my blood pressure.  I had it measured yesterday at the appointment.  For the past few months, due to the intense cyst pain, my blood pressure has been really high.  There are major concerns for my blood pressure since I am on medicine and it should not be 160 systolic with over 100 diastolic.  As luck would have it my bp yesterday was down to 125/60.  I haven't seen it that low in years.  I guess being so tired and sleep deprived is working on some parts of me.  I'll take it.  I still have to be on the blood pressure medicine labetalol of 100 mg twice a day but, I'm just happy that its finally getting under control.

My final thought is with my husband.  Things are rather sketchy for him right now.  He has a lot of paperwork to fill out and he might end up with a job change this fall if things don't get approved.  On the other hand another set of paperwork is in the works and if it gets approved he might have yet another choice of job change.  I can't discuss further the details as all of it still isn't where it needs to be.  Even if it was where it should be I couldn't talk about it until it was a done deal. 

I can only imagine how much stress my husband is under right now.  Work, change of work, change of location, change of mind.  So much change is going on in his life.  There are days that I have no clue what to expect from his moods.  The worst of his moods would be akin to not having one's morning coffee, or at least that would be the worst he'd let me see.  He must be bottling up his emotions.  He really is stoic.  If I were in his situation, being the fact that I'm hot tempered, I'd be yelling.  But I'm not him and he isn't me.

My thoughts always come to rest on my husband.  I'll be sending good thoughts and positive energy his way.  I want things to work out the way he wants them to be.  I want him to be happy.

New Clothes Plus New Cut Equals Happy Me

Yup this is me.
No makeup.
Just a smile.

My dark circles testify to the fact that I haven't been sleeping well in weeks.  Not much can be done about that.  Still I don't think I look all that bad for a gal that is almost 42 years old.

Yesterday I spent over 5 hours at the beauty salon getting my hair colored, cut,  and straightened.  I'm not about to divulge the price but lets just say that it was costly and I'm not going to be doing it too often, even if I do love the result.

I think the main reason I went to the salon this time is because my tendonitis is too painful for me to hold a coloring brush for long enough to do my own hair.  I admit that I need help getting my hair styled and colored now.  For years I've been doing it myself and when I feel up to it I might just do it again.

My husband likes the new cut and color.  He says it makes me look younger.  I'm not so sure about that however it does make me feel happier.

Over the weekend I went out and purchased several clothing items.  I refused to pay full price of course.  So I hit the clearance rack and to my joy they were offering an additional 50% off of the already marked down price.  I managed to snag a pair of Pendelton wool dress slack for only $15.75.  They were originally marked at the Exchange price of $126.00.  The only thing wrong with them was that they were missing half of the hook part.  Easy fix for me since I sew.

I also purchased a new pair of sneakers.  Its been three years since I had a new pair.  Its about time I broke down and bought a pair of sneakers.  I purchased several blouses, some for dress wear and others for pairing with jeans.  I saved about $300 according to what I added up on the tags.  Just another reason to smile since I only paid about $80 for all the garments.

I'm up early this morning doing a few loads of laundry before I head over to the RE's office for my transvaginal ultrasound.  Need I say that I'm not looking forward to this appointment.  I think it might be the only reason I won't be smiling today.

Bare Shelves At AAFES Exchanges

The following photos were taken by Kenneth Randy Whitehead.



Now what I'd like to know is this:

How much longer until we get our shelves stocked?

Last night I was in the Exchange here on Lewis Main and if I wanted junk food I could have purchased that in large amounts.  But I didn't want junk food.  I wanted to replenish my personal care products.

Unfortunately what was to be had for personal care products wasn't what I needed.  Sure if I needed sunscreen I could have purchased that but I wanted face cream.
 

If I wanted dvd's I could get those too.  But I wanted feminine products an all together different format of plastic mind you.

My husband who came with me had a hard time finding his favorite energy bar.  He likes to have something in his stomach before morning PT.  Luckily there were a few left but not much in choice so he ended up getting 9 bars of the same flavor.  Its something and I should be grateful for that at least, right?

Its a good thing neither of us had a headache or stomach ache as the OTC shelves are getting to the point they look as empty as the manual tooth brush selections.  Mind you there was not one manual tooth brush left on the shelves last night.

I've been to the Exchange at McChord and things aren't much better.  They are also out of the same items.

Our commissaries at Lewis Main and McChord are also experiencing empty shelves.  So how is this just an AAFES problem when supposedly DECA is government run?  Conspiracy or budget cuts?

I just don't get it.  Why are we not getting the stock?

Is this part of the budget cuts?

I know our military benefits are on the chopping block but seriously why are they taking away from us before the budget has been settled?

If anyone who is reading this can figure out why the shelves are bare on more than just one military installation please let me know. 

I've been told by various employees their theories of it being a new vendor, a new inventory system, limited goods.  So which is it?

Comparing Garden Years

My first year in this house on JBLM was 2009.  That year it was a scorcher.  Temps that summer reached 100+ and my garden thrived.  My sunflower were above the window sill by June and growing even taller by the end of the summer.  Tall enough to hide tree frogs.

I planted three varieties of sunflowers that year. Red velvet which looks rather a rusty color, teddybear ones that are more of a tall pom pom and the generic yellows.

The pom pom ones reached the tallest heights while the yellow generic and red velvets reached the same heights.  I was okay with that since my garden looked beautiful.

June 2010 the temps were a lot cooler.  I still planted the yellow and red sunflower varieties along with the pom poms. When compared to 2009's crop my sunflowers didn't reach the window sill at full maturity.  Most died off.

The purple violas and strawberries did quite well last year.  Wish I could say the same for this year.

This year my sunflowers have yet to reach the height of the second brick.  Our temps are reaching a blistering 69 here today.  Highest we've had all month is in the low 70's.  Not much sun here this year either.  My strawberries are hard green berries still and not looking to produce much of edible delights.  The only thing in my garden that is growing well would be the rhubarb.  The rhubarb seems to love the cool, wet weather we have here.  I should go cut some and make some rhubarb crisp this weekend.  Maybe I'll get a second cutting of it before summer is out.

This year for splendid display I've had to go out and buy hanging baskets.  I like having a nice dwelling.  My green onions are growing though slowly and the tomatoes have a few buds on them.  I doubt they'll produce anything of size this year.  The pepper plants have no fruit yet either.  Oh well.

So this is my hanging garden on one side of the house.  The hummingbirds sure do enjoy it and I'm happy that someone is getting something out of it.

See if you can find the sunflowers in the back row.  Yes they are that small.  Pretty bad when the yarrow and lemon balm in the front row dwarfs the sunflowers.    Also in the bed is green onions, strawberries, dahlias, snap dragons, hollyhocks and campanellas.

The rest of the flower bed in front.  With the same flowers I mentioned above.  I do have more photos of the two other beds but lets face it, they aren't spectacular.  Just rhubarb, lemon thyme, parsley, rosemary, campenalla, carnations, birds foot ivy, snap dragons, delphinium, poppies, forget me nots, pansies, and tomatoes.  If only my garden would grow as lush as the years before.  I need some sunlight and warmth for my plants soon!