Yea, no good news really

So.we are not going to Japan *pout* But I see the bright side, I get to see
one more winter here in Alaska. Technically we aren't even leaving Alaska
anytime soon. Hubby is being put under a MEB. We might know something
about it in about.ohhh.February. No biggie for me cause I love it here, but
the hubbys shop stresses him to no end. Plus the "whats next" when the
final question is answered. Does he stay in or do they kick him to the
curb?

I had my discogram today. (Discogram is when they stab ya in the back with
needles, pressurize the disc and see if the pain response is that of your
normal everyday pain or OMFG IT HURTS.) They done this at L4/L5 and at
L5/S1. L4/5 was normal pain that I endure daily but at L5/S1 I was
screaming and crying and wanted off the table. I seem to remember (I was
half sedated) them saying that it was fractured and leaking, so im assuming
that disc has ruptured. What this means..L5/S1 spinal fusion. They
haven't told me this straight up yet, but that was the point of us doing the
discogram and since it was positive im sure that is where im headed. If so,
I plan on having it done as soon as possible that way we aren't going to be
in the process of moving during recovery. I don't look forward to the next
few days of soreness from this procedure.

Nothing else to report.I don't think.

Daughter turns 9

Wow, where has the time gone. My precious lil baby is 9. She got to spend her birthday money frivolously, she got tons of barbies, and a Wii game. I made her a pretty pink birthday cake, and her bubba, daddy, and I decorated it. Bubba sang happy birthday, and she served the cake. She had a great day. Most of the important people called and wished her a happy birthday. There are still a few that have yet to call, and it really hurt her feelings. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

She had a blast tho, and I wouldnt have it any other way.

The good news....

So, hubby managed to get our orders back. JAPAN here we come!
BUT....
With health issues, we could still lose it again, which would totally suck. But I am on the path of planning for Japan. YAY.
I go see the neurosurgeon for my back in a couple days. Hope all goes well there. I really DONT want surgery but if that will make me feel oh so much better, Im all for it.

Nothing else new.
Kids be home in FIVE days. Im so excited. It has been a hard summer without them. I dont think ill ever let them leave for the full summer again lol. Its not only me that is counting down the days. Shelly is too! She misses home so much.

Til Next Time.....

Pissed, angry, MAD, upset....etc

Well we found out today that MPF royally fucked up, and in turn we lost our orders. The hubsters went LAST MONTH and reenlisted for 4 years. Today we check the hubbys email and there was an email there pretty much confirming his VOLUNTARY SEPARATION! Someone at MPF never put in his reenlistment. Since their incompetence had him separating in November, our orders, that we HAD RETAINABILITY because he REENLISTED....was gone.

Im so pissed.

We are working on getting his reenlistment fixed and hubby talked to someone today and we are going to try to get our orders back. If they get off their asses and get this stuff done before its too late. AFPC said that if the slot hasn't been filled then we MIGHT be able to get them back....but I'm not holding my breath.

A trip to California in my future

Well there seems to be a trip, or two, to California in my future. My neurologist here has finally got things set up to where I can go see a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon is at Travis AFB in California. This could be a GREAT thing. The first trip will be to just see the doc and see if they think I need surgery on my back. If they decide that I do then they will send me and the hubsters back.
Wee bit of a snag in those plans tho are that I wanted to get this done ASAP because the kids are not here until the middle of August. I would have liked to have everything said and done before they got home so we wouldnt have to find care for them or buy a plane ticket for them. I guess that is one problem we will have to deal with when the time comes.

Plans for Japan are still on so far. This back issue could push back the orders which would totally suck but anything to get my back better. We have to get busy on the paperwork though.

Thats all for now...

Back issues....

Well I finally got to talk to the Neuro about my back. I had to do it on the sneaky side because I can NEVER get an appointment to see him, but my husband can, go figure. So during my hubbys appointment I asked him about my back and told him how I have been in some excruciating pain lately and that even my toes go numb from time to time. He assured me that this could be due to the sciatic nerve being pinched by the bulging disks in my lower back. So at least I know that its not something more serious (the numb toes).
He put in for a referral to have a surgery consult. I go to referrals and find out that this is one of those things that has to be reviewed first before they can approve it. So they told me to call back Friday (yesterday HAHA July 4th) So they wasn't even going to be open. So I will wait til Monday to give them a call. Here's hoping. I can sure use the pain relief at this moment.

Randomness...

So...nothing really new to add. Last week I got a referral for a surgery consult on my back. Im hoping like heck that all goes well and they see fit that I need something done. Dog is still hormonal. Ya know, I thought once I had my hysterectomy that I would be free and clear of the hormonal stuff until my daughter hits puberty. HAHA jokes on me. This past weekend we worked at the airshow here on Elmendorf. It was fun to get out of the house and meet some new people, even tho I didnt get to sit and chat with many of them for a long time. I got to see the F22 up close. Which was pretty cool even if I do say so myself. Here is a picture of said F22.



Still miss my kids. Hope to be able to talk to them this afternoon. Only a month and a half until they come home. Too long for me, but I guess Ill survive.

Suicidal fish and a hormonal dog.

The other day we were sitting on the couch just minding our own business, watching a movie, when all of a sudden we hear a THUMP. We look at each other like what in the world was that. We see that our hormonal psycho dog is looking at the fish tank. We notice that the water is moving and see that one of our fish is just sort of floating around like its about to die. Putting two and two together we figure that this one particular fish, the suicidal one, decided to be bright and jump out of the water. Unbeknownst to him (or her?) there's a hood up there! That fish slammed head first into the tank hood at a high velocity and knocked itself silly. For the next hour or so it was swimming nose down, in circles, upside down, laying flat, or just floating upside down like a dead fish. It had knocked itself nuts. That ladies and gentlement is my suicidal fish.
On to the hormonal psycho pup. Well our puppy turned 1 in February, so that makes her about 16 months. Not quite sure how old that is in puppy age but im guessing teenage years since the psycho pup is in heat! She whines, she cries, she whines some more, until we pet her. Shes bleeding all over my carpet! I am going to have to go get a mastiff size tampon (joking here folks gross..ewww, yuk...gag) to get her to stop this nastyness. We have to deal with this for THREE weeks at least. OMGOSH. I told the hubby "YOU are the one that wanted a female" this is what he gets.

FINALS!!!

A majority of my day today will be filled with school work. FINALS!! Yes that is with an S meaning more than one. I have a computer networking final which should be a peice of cake. The one I am concerned with is MATH.. Now, I have learned quite a bit, but.... I ended up 4 weeks behind and rushed through most of it to catch up. I just hope I can remember that the numbers DO work with the alphabet.

So I shall eat a good breakfast and get busy. Wish me luck!

The Vacation.....across town.

At the last minute me and the hubsters decided we NEEDED to get out of this house. These four walls were slowly shrinking in on us. So we got a hotel room downtown. It was pretty darn expensive but it was worth it to just get out and away. So the first night we got there, checked in and left to go get something to eat. We went to a place where we have eaten before and love the food there, but this night, of course, was different. The food was cold and I was afraid I would catch some weird disease by eating cold seafood, so I didn't eat much. We left and ran around a bit and got back to the hotel and slept. But here is where it sucked. I still heard airplanes. OMGOSH!! Yes that was our reasoning for leaving these 4 walls of suddenly small comfort and get away from base with huge c-17s flying overhead damn near every morning. I traded in c117s for prop planes. I wanted to pull my hair out. Luckily I am sort of used to the airplane sound by now that I slept through most of them.
The 2nd day we went and watched a movie, "Don't Mess with the Zohan", It was stupid yet funny. Just what I am accustomed to from watching Adam Sandler films. It has been.....I don't know maybe 3 years since Ive gone to a theater to watch a movie.
We went to eat at Benihanas. THAT was neat as heck. Our chef was a hoot, and I am so envious of their sharp knives. The food was amazing as well. We will definitely go back!
So back at the hotel I enjoyed our in room jacuzzi tub. Watched movies on the laptop, and just relaxed. Our jacuzzi tub was in the room, you could lay in there and watch TV until you shrivel up like a little prune. Although I did do that, my reasoning was cause it felt good on my back.

We shall do this again one day, before the kids come home. Maybe get OUT of town this time. Sad thing about living in Anchorage tho is that every interesting place is really far from home. And staying in town we were still able to come home and feed the dog LOL. Yes this is my life. Go on vacation, come home to feed the dog, then go back to the hotel.

That wasn't the most exciting part about the weekend. Well, if you could call it that. After we left Ihop one morning we heard a *thump thump thump thump* from one of the tires on the truck. Hubby said it sounded like a CV joint going bad. Well upon arriving home (to feed the dog and let her potty) we discovered that one of our lug nut studs was MISSING! and that the remaining 4 lug nuts were REALLY lose. It wasn't our CV joint, our tire was wobbling! So the hubby fixed us all up, tightened the nuts real good and checked the other 3 tires. All was fine. It seems that when hubby replaced the brakes/rotors on the truck he used a limiter on the impact. WOOPS! Bet he wont make that mistake again.

Moving, a waiting game...

Well we have turned in some paperwork but other pieces cant even be worked on outside of 180 days. So we wait. We did get word that our doggy is A-OK to go to Japan. Her FAVN results were good. We just have to figure out HOW to get her there and if she cant go (expenses, size) we have to figure a way to get her to Arkansas to stay with my dad until we get back. YAY....hurry up and wait.

I am slowly getting out of my funk of missing the kids. Don't get me wrong I still miss them tremendously, I am just occupying my days with ways to keep me busy. Housecleaning seems to be the top of the list, then school work. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE MATH! I shall get through, I hope.

We are getting off of this base this weekend. Maybe I can sleep where there aren't huge planes flying overhead at 8am. Even if it is to a neighboring town, I am all for it. I feel stuffed into these 4 walls with no escape route. So we are getting out.

Til next time....

Day 2 big fail

Well I was starvin last nite so yep day 1 was a bust. Im going to reattempt it in a couple of days. I should have known better to start something so soon after the kids have gone.

I miss them terribly. Trying to come up with a creative way for me to go down south to visit so I can see them. People think im crazy but I dont care. They are my kids, they are what makes me ME. Without them here, what am I?

My kiddos are gone :( Im off to a new me.

Saying bye was actually easier than I had thought it was going to be. Our usual goodbyes (even for them just going to school for the day) can get pretty clingy and tearful. The day before they had their moment of tearfulness. I just knew that poor Shelly was going to go crazy. She kept saying things like "But your my family we should be together" I assured her that she could call me whenever she wanted to and she could write me as often as she needed. On the way to the airport she was giving me a list of things to do "feed Andrew (her fish), make sure you feed your fish, make sure you feed Mya twice a day, make sure you put on a load of dishes and laundry every day." LOL it was hilarious. I have never been without my babies for longer than 3 weeks so this is going to be new to me.
I have thought about what I will do while they are gone and besides doing school work I shall work on me. I am going to start out the summer with a Master Cleanse.

Day 1. 178 lbs. I feel like crap. Constantly eating out while the inalws were here just absolutely left me feeling like crap. I am hoping this Cleanse will leave me feeling refreshed and new. When my kids get back I hope that they will have a mom that can play with them and not hurt all the time.

Time will tell.

Visitors, Traveling, and Loud Noise....Saying goodbye

Ever have visitors from different time zones. Yea? Well then you know how it is. They just dont work with your schedule. I really want my SLEEP back. The noise...ugh.

Traveling is fun tho....Unless you have a couple bulging disks in your lower back and your traveling for HOURS at a time on bumpy roads. Yep, that hurts...lots. Ive been in constant pain for a couple of days now and all I want to do is cry.

Well My kids will be leaving me for the summer. Im bummed. I have never been without them for that long. This is going to literally tear me apart. I will have absolutely no clue what im going to do. I guess I will just pick some super hard classes and get busy with them for the summer. I will at least be able to concentrate. Is it just wrong of me to want to stuff them in my pocket and say NO CAN HAVE! They are my life....I dont want them to go away for the summer. But I figured if we are going to another country for a few years this might be the last time that some people get to see them for a long while. So its for the best.....*cry*

So....Hi!

Well I figured this would be a great medium to keep in touch with everyone on our trials and tribulations of traveling. To introduce myself I am Stephanie. I am a stay at home mom of two wonderful kiddos and currently in college for my bachelors degree and married to my Airman, Richard, for almost 10 years now. We are currently living at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska and Rich got orders to Kadena AFB, JAPAN!!!

So now that you are caught up on us...our story begins.
Wow...moving. again...so soon. Well not soon, I mean we have been here for just about 3 years, but heck....soon ya know. I absolutely love it here in Alaska. The views are just breathtaking. The temps are comfortable and I am finally acclimated. I mean, I can wear shorts in winter at 10 below and not have a care in the world. And along comes orders to a tropical island. Are you freaking kidding me?! I mean, I'm ecstatic as they come but holy cow am I in for some climate shock. People keep saying "Oh man your in for CULTURE shock" and while that may be true...I think the climate issue will send me reeling for the nearest deep freezer with a 500 rpm fan while watching reruns of the winter Olympics just to "feel" the cold again. LOL.

Oh that's not the only issue there is. We have this enormous puppy. Yes puppy. She is an English Mastiff (Mya) and she just turned 1 in February. She is still in all sense of the puppy form....a puppy. She is 120'ish pounds and has to have a giant kennel. How in the world are we going to get her to Japan. And if you think I am going to melt as we walk off the plane there, gosh, imagine her. She LOVES the snow. She would rather be outside at 10 below with me in shorts than stay cooped up inside a hot house LOL. We are kindred spirits. See, here in the cool climate, if you are cold you put on clothes, if you are hot you can un-layer. No biggie right. Well in a HOT climate.....there is only so much you can LEGALLY take off.....unless they have those kinds of beaches there LOL. Then again if I walked out there they would start screaming "BEACHED WHALE!!!"

So We have about 6 months to plan this whole move thing. Decide what we will bring what we will trash, what we will store....You know the whole drill.

Any Advice please feel free to comment.