And Because I Can't End It On An Uneven Number....

I had to do one more post.

And I will be posting much more in 2018.

The End of Another Year

2017 is over....let the new year begin.

Fantasy Versus Reality

I don't think I'll ever have complete closure.

This Time

This time was goodbye.

One-Sided

It's always been one-sided.

It will always be one-sided.

Even with one always wishing and hoping and praying, it stays one-sided.

Yet, one still hopes.

Hopes.

4th of July....Not The Same

Days like this I really miss my mom. We were usually at her house this time of year and she always decorated for every holiday and today would have been no exception.

We would have spent the day going to Starbucks and then going swimming for the afternoon and afterwards having ribs or fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and corn-on-the-cob for dinner, followed by something yummy for dessert.

I am so homesick for all that now...

I miss you Mom.

And June Is Over

Twenty-two months from today and I'm retiring. I hope.

Yes

So...About a Week and 3 Days Ago...

I had an appointment at the VA in Richmond, and I had seen this restaurant on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (a show I normally don't watch because I think Guy Fieri is annoying as heck, but I stopped to watch that episode because it had Richmond in it), after seeing where it was in Richmond and that it was pretty close, we decided to try it out after my appointment.

This is their "glass" of water:

I had the rockfish sandwich:

I love rockfish and this was pretty good. The French fries were really crunchy too. Oh, and I had a strawberry cheesecake milkshake with it, I just didn't get a picture of it.

We also ordered their onion rings:

They were really good, but I didn't really think it was worth the price.

All in all, it was okay. I really don't see how it was tv worthy, but to each their own I suppose.  I just wanted to be able to say I tried one of the places on tv.  Now I just need to hit all the ones on Unique Sweets. Yum!

So at my appointment with the neurosurgeon, while the PA went out to get the NS, she had left these up on the computer screen, and I decided might as well get a picture of my spine. Apparently I have a tumor in the spinal canal between T11 and L1: 

This one is looking down at it I think, and it shows how wide it is:

And the question is, surgery or no surgery? Right now I'm going with not at the moment.

Random Thoughts

...I know I have been remiss in blogging...I just don't know why.

...I'm a month into 60 and I am no where near where I would like to be.  I kinda feel like I am just marching in place, so to speak. I just really want to get on with my life.

...It's been a year and a half since my mom died and I really miss her. It kind of hits me in waves; one minute I'm okay and then something will come up and I feel like crying.

...I have a mass in my spine and it will probably need to come out. I'm supposed to have another MRI in three months to see if it has grown, and then go from there.  They really can't say it isn't cancer without going in to get it, and that doesn't thrill me because they have to remove a piece of bone to get to the spinal canal. Um, no?

...I wish I didn't have to decide dinner all the time.

...CaliGirl watching "The Kitchen" on the Food Network. She seemed to be really into those pork chops.

...Blogs are always better when they have a picture or two.



California

(Boy I have been so bad about keeping this up...not sure why except I just haven't bee much in the mood to write.)

Anyway. My California trip pretty much sucked really. My birthday really sucked big time; none of my friends came over or anything, I actually spent most of the day with a friend of my mom's and our former neighbor on Tyler, Mirna, who had invited me over for lunch and I ended up staying until the evening. It was very nice of her to invite me and otherwise I would have been all by myself, something I hadn't invisioned for my 60th birthday. Huh.

Then I ended up with leaks in the bathroom and underneath the house, and had to leave them like that, though of course I turned off all the water before I left.

My last night there I was up all night, sick as all get-out, puking, and running a fever, and went home like that.  The good thing is I did sleep all the way home on both planes, so at least I wasn't awake and feeling miserable for 8 hours. Once I got home I slept until 11:30 the next morning, only to get up and go sit in my chair and sleep until 4.  I pretty much slept the next few days until Sunday, where I finally started to feel somewhat like myself.  Coming back from Cali takes longer for me to recuperate each time from the jetlag as I get older it seems.

The high point of my trip was my last weekend there, when Janie and Teresa came in  and then we all went to see Baby Boss on Friday night and then on Saturday night we went to Roger Rocka's to see a play and have dinner, and then we all went to church the next morning. So it was a nice weekend anyway. 

And I do have to say I love my mom's church; I went there both Sundays and the first one they were all so welcoming and even the pastor said he had just been thinking about me. After the service they had their Lunch Bunch lunch and invited me to stay for it and it was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon. I am really looking forward to going to the church when I finally get to move out there.

So a couple of pictures:


While I was there, I decided to try a new drink at Starbucks, the Pink Drink:

It was pretty darn tasty too. (I also have to say I love that Starbucks; even after months of not being around they always remember my name and even asked about CaliGirl. It's like being "Norm" of Cheers. lol)

This was at Roger Rocka's:

Teresa and Janie. I was trying to post a picture of the four of us (Vanessa was there too) but for some reason it keeps showing up as an "x", so I don't know why it won't let me. Grrr.

So that was my trip. Definitely not one of my better ones, and I won't be going back for quite some time.

Two Years

60

And today I'm 60. And if the rest of this year goes like it did today, I'm sunk.

So Long...

Goodbye 50s...

Slacking Off

Yeah I know I've been slacking in the blog department.  I better put that as my "New Years" resolution when I turn 60 next week, huh? Anyway, how about some pictures?


A friend of mine posted this on Facebook a couple of years ago, saying it was my sonogram picture, and it came up in my "On this day" on Facebook, so I thought I would repost it, just because I thought it was funny:

Friday night I had a craving for a Big Mac, something I never eat anymore, and so we went and had one:

After dinner, I went down to Newport News to visit Vickie for the weekend, and she took me to a restaurant for lunch in Williamsburg called Waypoint. They had the tables all pretty:

Vickie had fish-and-chips for lunch, and I had a cheeseburger. (I only ordered it because it came with homemade chips.)

  

For dessert I had their Signature Snickers pie, and let me just say that was some of the best pie I have had. I am going to try and recreate it when I come home from Cali.

When I got home, this was what I found:

She loves rolling around in stuff and I have no idea what this is. I would have given her a bath but we had no electricity and that means no water (because we have well water).  So the bath had to come later. I do have to wonder what they all do when I'm not home.


And six more days I will be 60....

April 1, 2017

Here it is, the month I turn 60.

Not any where I thought I would be with anything, but I guess that's how it usually happens when you make plans for yourself. But truthfully I just have to put my original plans on hold until I'm 62, and hopefully by then it will all work out like I want.

And even though they didn't work out, I will still end up turning 60. No stopping that no matter what I do.  It is really hard to believe though that I am that old.  I know I've said it before, but man oh man I just don't feel 60 in my head...and I don't think I ever will.  Even with the medical problems and every day problems, etc.  In my head I still think I'm in my 20s. Boy do I wish.
Anyway, only 23 days left of being 59. Somehow I don't think being 60 will be any different.

Stuff

I know I haven't been doing so great with the blogging this year. It's like my brain wants to, but my fingers don't, or vice versa. I don't know.

On the other hand, I've had so much going on health-wise too that I just haven't felt like it.  I was sick for most of January and February and while I have felt much better this month, I've had to other issues they're looking at involving my liver and gallbladder and now my spine, complete with MRIs. I have to go next week to have another MRI, this time for my chest to look at my spine.  Not looking forward to it at all...I've never really been claustrophobic before (well, except when I have a stuffy nose) but last week when I had the MRI on my liver I was like, whoa! For some reason I just figured my head would be sticking out of there, but oh no...I was in there and that thing was right in my face. it took me a few minutes to calm down some and get through it.  When I was done and in my car, I got a call from them, asking me if I had left yet and I said no, and they asked me to come back in and have a few more pictures taken because they had missed a note my doctor had added. So I had to do it again!! Yikes! 

And now I have to do it again next week.  Hopefully that will be it because from what I've read about abnormalities on the spine, its usually just because of aging. Which is what I'm doing. Aging. Quickly.  At least the MRI on my liver came back mostly okay, I do have fatty liver (big surprise...though most of the time it is associated with drinking and I may only have a drink a couple of times a month) and I have gallstones (which don't bother me).  I can reverse the fatty liver thing, just have to set my mind to doing it so it doesn't cause other problems.

Getting old sucks.

I'm going to be 60 in 26 short days. And I'm no where near what I had planned on. Most of it my own fault, but some of it not.  I really would have liked to have retired, but it looks like that is on hold until I'm 62, though I'm hoping that it just might happen next year instead if things go through work-wise. We'll see. Keep your fingers crossed. But I'm not holding my breath.

In 24 days I will be in California to celebrate mine, Vanessa's, Janie's, and Teresa's birthdays. I bought us tickets to go to a dinner play at Roger Rocka's which should be fun.  And I have things planned to do at mom's while I'm there, like measuring every room and planning them out and probably buying a bed this time around. 

My retirement just can't get here fast enough!!!

Picture Time!

 So last weekend I took the dogs out and I see this bird fly by and I look and see it's a bald eagle. He landed in the tree right across the street, and I just knew I had to get his picture. So I hurried the dogs back inside (finished or not with their bulldog business) and I grabbed my camera and rushed back outside where yay! he was still sitting on the tree. The pictures aren't the greatest because my camera was having a hard time focusing because it was getting dark and it was already cloudy. Still, I'm happy I got the ones I got:

 And this past weekend I finally went down to NC to celebrate Nicole's birthday and of course took more pictures.  Beau and Nicole:

 Awwww! look at Beau being sweet to his sister!

Beau, Bri, and Nicole:

 And of course me, Beau, and Nicole:

We stopped at a bakery nearby and bought Nicole some cupcakes and other bakery goodies:



 (The cupcakes look a little smushed because, well, they were. They accidently got dropped. Thankfully though they were in a container):

And last but not least, last week I made our office Christmas tree into an Easter tree (it was a Valentine tree in February but I forgot to take a picture of it):

So there ya go.

Always Remember (Even When It's hard To)

And Some Of The Things We Did Say

Random....

I love Thursdays

You can buy funeral urns on Amazon (who knew?)

I have an unremarkable pancreas (good)...

...but my bile duct could be a different story (bad)

One month, thirteen days from now, my happy self will be in Cali (now if that time would just fly by so I can get there)

You never know how much you're going to miss someone until they're gone (seriously, you don't)

Vanessa is over it on National Get over It Day

This weather is really messing with my allergies and making them go wonky; my eyes are so itchy and red that people think I have pink-eye (I don't)

I didn't have Starbucks at all yesterday (grrrrr)

I did have Starbucks this morning. (and I could use another)

Because I Can

😁I do have other topics to talk about, just don't feel like it at the moment. So here's this:

I mean you just can't get much more adorable than this.  

Interesting Posts On Other Blogs

So I was reading this blog that asked the question, " What would your 18 year old self say to you now?" and this is what I came up with:
1) Whadya mean we aren't married to Ed anymore?!?!?!
2) We've been married how many times?!?
3) Thank goodness we're still friends with Vanessa Thompson and Janie Genet ....
4) We joined the Marine Corps??? That's nuts.
5) Wait a second...we're how old? Yikes!!
6) Are you sure we're divorced from Ed?
7) Why don't we live in California anymore?
8) Boy we've done some crazy things in this life (and oh my we were a bad girl at times...)
9) Hey...what happened to weighing 120 lbs?!?!
10) We had kids? And have two grandkids? Never saw that coming.
11) We are as cool as Grandma was though...that's good.
12) I don't see Mom...where is she???
13) Our soulmate wasn't Ed???
14) Man I can't believe we aren't still married to Ed.

Bah Humbug...Valentines Day

I'm kind of anti-Valentines Day, but at least it was a pretty sunrise.

Wishing Our Lives Away

Yesterday I was talking to my pal Janie on the phone and I was saying how I couldn't wait for 2 years, 2 months, and 16 days to go by so that I could retire and go home to California and start a brand new life on my own.  She said that she would often wish for time to go by also, like  when her vacation would start or I would be coming out, etc,  and she remembered being 17 and wishing she could be 18 so that she could do whatever she wanted, and then wishing for this or that etc.


Then it dawned her that in actuality she was wishing chunks of her life away at the same time.  And she's right...if the next 2 year, 2 months, and 16 days went by in the blink of an eye, so would that amount of my life.  But then I decided in this case, I would be okay with that because my life isn't all that anyway and I could do without it.


Really though I think everyone wishes at one time or another for time to go by quickly so they can get to the next chapter of their life, or go on that vacation, or start that new job, etc.  They don't think about their own life aspect in that period, probably because after all, just wishing for time to go by doesn't actually make it happen.

This Weather is Nuts!

Yesterday:

 Today:

I just hope this doesn't screw with my allergies...

If Only It Were That Simple

I wish I could. But I just can't yet. It will have to be later. I hope there is "later".

Pictures

 Because I can never resist when I see the beautiful colors in the sky. God's way of saying "Good Morning!"

And then we have this:

We just bought those chairs and the dogs are supposed to stay off of them. Working really well, huh? lol   Can you say "Spoiled?"

First Month Done

So the first month of 2017 is done and over with.

This Morning

As I was driving on base this morning, I could see it was going to be a beautiful sunrise. At first I was just going to go on to work, but seeing the colors, I couldn't resist going to the river and taking these:

What a gorgeous way for God to start out my day.