But I don't want to go!!

I have had so much fun working at the Garrison Headquarters.. I don't want to go back to my "old" job.. I still haven't heard anything from Homeland Security.. I guess no news is good news... I keep trying to visualize working there, Living in Denver again. I'm hopeful.

I've been dealing with a C5-C6 disk rupture for a little over a week now..

New Camera..To document our new life..

Aaron and I managed to clean out and close out the storage unit over the weekend.. It held the last bits of my former life. There were wedding photos, old clothes (mine, kids and James') kitchen supplies, decorations from two houses ago. It's amazing to me what a time machine a storage unit can be. It took three trips to clean out the unit, between Aaron's big truck and my SUV with all of the seats down. it filled my 2 car garage. He and I spent hours Saturday and Sunday sorting and throwing things away.. 80% of what was in storage went to goodwill.. 5% was garbage, 5% I put on Craigslist, 10% I kept.

The best thing that I found was a motorcycle trailer that James told me to Get rid of.. because he didn't want it..The dang thing sold for 550.00!! I've also sold an old 4 poster bed frame and a weight bench.. and managed to save 120.00 per month in not having a storage unit..

So,

I bought a really good camera. It's a Nikon 10.3 MP DSLR. It shoots in HD for both photos and video, and has a 28x zoom.. I swear, I was able to take a shot of a flower from a half mile away.. it was amazing.. the micro photos are beautiful as well.. The camera has more features than I could ever use.. But I really like the smart portrait setting.. It will "see" a smiling face and track it and get the photo.. Did I mention the 16 frames per second? Oh yes, this makes me happy since everyone in my family moves at the speed of light, and I always seem to get blurry shots.. I can't wait for Spring soccer now..

 I can almost burst that I have an outlet again.. It has been so long!! The kiddos are already tired of me following them around and taking sneak shots while they are doing mundane things like homework (Piper) and Singing & dancing to the TV (McKenna), it was a fun night.. They even figured out how to turn on the night vision and take photos of me with "Spooky Eyes".

I think that the camera is going to be a good thing.. I want to have memories with my girls, and my old little 5MP camera just wasn't making the cut in my book.. McKenna was more than happy to inherit it. She took some great photos from the Baseball game yesterday with her class.. It's amazing to see her point of view in the photos.. there was only one image of the game.. All of the rest were of her friends, her teacher, and the activities of the day.. There was even a shot of her lunch.. Silly girl!.. The photos of the bus ride back to the school was the best..

What made me the happiest was that she was smiling in each and every photo.. She is a happy, healthy kid.. and Life is Good!!

Nerves get on my Nerves

Life has been a little on the crazy side in my neck of the woods.. I sneezed Sunday night and managed to injure myself.. It didn't hurt too badly Monday, just a little catch in my neck like I had slept on it funny.. It hurt more as the day wore on it began to hurt much worse and travel from my neck to behind my left shoulder blade and down my left arm.. I went home and had Piper roll up my back (sounds odd, but the kid has a way of rolling from my shoulders to hips and it always pops what needs to be popped) Anyway, she put her hands on my left shoulder blade as I was lying on the floor and I felt a pop and extreme pain. I couldn't breathe, move or feel my left arm at all.. I cried out and shook.. It was awful.. I had to call out of work the next day and see a chiropractor. Apparently I have a bulging disk in my C5-C6, which was caused by... Sneezing! When Piper touched me, it allowed the bulge all of the way out... Poor girl thought that she hurt me..

So I have had one adjustment on Tuesday, Primary care doctor gave me a shot of a steroid and muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory felt a little better with the muscle relaxer (read: I passed out!) Wednesday was a little better but still couldn't stand to be at work and noticed that I can't cross my left leg over my right.. it hurts. I have another adjustment this afternoon. I hope all of this is over soon.. I am not a huge fan of feeling loopy or dingy and the muscle relaxers make me feel just like that.. And for anyone who knows me, I talk.. A LOT.. and with the muscle relaxers, I talk out of my head.. McKenna had to tell me to be quiet.. It was funny..
I never gave much thought to the importance of my spine before there was something wrong with it.. Be kind to your body..

More coming.. I have a lot on my brain today and I have to keep my thoughts together in seperate posts..

Little things I love today

I'm sitting here in the small kingdom known as My Cube (awesome country, you should visit) and I get a phone call from my oldest daughter.. She's telling me that she has been dropped off after school, and rattles through the highlights of her day (read: Classwork, friends, what she had for lunch, a cool rock she found, the possibility of a sleepover at a friends house and a ladybug landed on her and she and the ladybug made it most of the way home together) this entire conversation took less than 10 seconds.. The child talks just as fast as I do and skips around like me.. But my favorite moment, my absolute favorite moment is when she and her sister sing-song chorus, "We Looooovvveee you Maaammmmaaa!' and McKenna says Buh-Bye..

Where did the kiddo learn to Buh-Bye me so cutely? I just love it!!

Month 4 Update..

Four Months down.. Maybe one or two to go.. I have to say.. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! My skin is no longer red, flaky.. I don't wear foundation anymore, and I have only had one very small pimple.. I just can't believe the difference.. It is nothing short of astonishing!!

I have uploaded a photo that I took over the weekend.. I have to say.. I'm lookin pretty good..

I still go crazy over the chapstick, and always, always, always have a tube or 20 with me.. I'm still very sun sensitive and feel very overexposed when I go outside without long sleeves on.. My arms and shoulders are very dry, thank god for CereVe.. It's the only thing that is holding me together..

I had four days off of Accutane this month, because my Derm went on Vacation.. I was a little worried and had still been dealing with the side effects of the Accutane. Within the second day the (facial) flaking stopped (and still hasn't come back), The bloody noses stopped (but have returned) My sense of smell and taste returned by the second day..and the joint soreness/stiffness was gone by the fourth day. It has also returned. I was relieved to just know that it was something that would go away quickly.. I have since somewhat lost my sense of smell and taste again.. I was only able to smell stinky feet (more like week old gym socks) If I was able to smell anything at all.. Now it has changed into the scent of something electrical burning.. It's odd to randomly smell Ozone, but it's better than stinky feet, so I'll take it!

It gave me hope that all of the symptoms went away fairly quickly when I stopped the medication it made me really happy that all of this would go away and stay away when I am finally done..

Now for another side effect that I hadn't anticipated.. Self-esteem.. We all have it, High, Low or in Between.. Mine was always pretty stable, I knew I was a smart cookie, could hold my own in conversation and relatively Okay looking.. But the Acne.. It's a self-esteem killer.. even when you look half decent, you always see people focus on certain points of your face and know that they can see what you are trying to hide.

But now?

BOO-YA!!

I'm damn Hot and I know it.. I show it.. I smile more, and generally in a Fantastic mood, and when the boy says that He loves me and that I am Beautiful.. I know that he means it.. He said that I was always beautiful.. But now I feel it.. I see it in the way that I am treated at work, by people that I come into contact with during my normal day and oh, yes, by the Jaw drop that I got from an ex.. Now that was PRICELESS..

For now, I have hope, boatloads of newfound self confidence, and happiness.. Life is good..

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