Busy little Scarab still needs to brush up on her photography. :/

Here are some grownup Belle pics, with a few of Kahuna thrown in. Kahuna is now the family baby at just over a year old. Belle is two, Sidney is 12, and Andy there is 36! Wow! Geriatric!

It finally motivated me to order a new PC.

Intel i7 960 cpu - not the fastest, but still one of the short list for the top
12 gb of PC 1600 ram
a basic 1tb hard drive
2 ati HD5850 video cards. FIrst time for me doing multiple video cards
Also has a killer Xeno pro "gamer networking card" to offload networking from the cpu and a dedicated sound card for the same.

In theory this box should be ok for nearly as long as my current pc. (which is pushing 6 years)

I blame star trek online, Dragon Age, and Mass effect2 with a little blame aimed at the future release of Knights of the old republic online.

So.. at work they decided to do a halloween thing on 10/29.. it was also a de-stress event before our big drug study announcement.

Originally, I had no plans to wear a costume, but the cat work we up at 5:30am, and in a fit of sleep-deprivation, i thought of something..

So looked around, noticed this mostly-abandoned trash can that only holds one item - carboard rolls used for toilet paper.

in a flash of Ozwyn evil, i took them to work, wrapped them in duct tape, then taped them to a trench coat. I dressed in a shirt and tie and slacks (massively out of character). The bomb components were finished with a dead cell phone and car charge for a detonator and 3 ethernet cables.

Kuwait and Iraq are just as squalid as ever, and if I ever see those two places again it'll be too soon. Odds are, next time out I'll be in Afghanistan. (Woo.)

Anyway... I'll spare people the gory details, but suffice to say I won't be on as often as I'd like, mainly because my little brother LOST MY COMPUTER. Granted, it wasn't completely his fault and the insurance is covering it (something to do with the airline and them having to deplane in an emergency situation) but it'll probably be somewhere around Thanksgiving before I'm fully up and running again.

In the mean time... I'll be on and off on James' computer, so hopefully I'll see you around!

My Grandma died Thursday night.
Sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to GA.

Super Sucky.

I had yet another round of Kidney stones late in 2008, which resulted in an operation yesterday to remove on stuck in the bladder. Except it was not just one kidney stone, it was TWO, one stuck in the pee tube.

looks like a lot of my chronic kidney stone issues may have been these two kidney stone not passing.

so the good news is they are gone, and with luck they can be studied and such

Now for the bad news - PAIN AND BLOOD.

the Blood - well, I get to pee a lot of blood, which, due to blood thickness compared to pee, hurts and burns a little.

the PAIN - they had to put a from my bladder to my left kidney, when I pee, it almost feels like a pain baloon inflating in my left side. It hurts a LOT, insanely so. They gave me Vicodin, but it doesn't slow down this pain ONE BIT.

So the internet at the house has been down since early Wednesday morning. I'm feeling the withdrawal from WOTLK. Someone bring the internet back... I gots to have it! Please... I'll leave cookies!

Hopelessly jittery,
Meni

My Husband
I honestly felt like I had to write this blog tonight. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I know that some of my friends have husbands like this. I know that all of you are experiencing different circumstances, but those of you who know who you are you just know! Ya Know!

My husband and I have been through more than most couples can attest to in a lifetime. He has had to work 60 to 70 hour work weeks just to make ends meet because I am in a wheel chair. My surgery should have put a huge strain on our relationship, but it has only brought us closer together.

I realize how much he cares and wants this to work. He puts his heart and soul into everything we do. Right now he is asleep on the couch on a Saturday night after he worked a 9 hour shift non stop, and refused to go to sleep. Instead, he took me out to eat, to the movies, and to get ice cream. He then came home and proceeded to play our game with me. He didn't sleep all day because he wanted to spend time with me.

Me as a Person.

I am constantly seeking approval. I am severely upset when someone is mad at me. Mainly because I look at every single angle as to why I am the problem. I am constantly looking for something I could have done better, or something I could have changed.

"What could I have done to change the situation?"

I do this instead of searching for an answer to the situation.

Inevitably I find an answer. I debate the problem I am having in my own head, yet it is hard for me to find a solution to the problem when I am not sure what the problem was in the first place. I have come across this problem more than once. People get angry and they don't talk. Either because they think the situation will escalade, or they are afraid of the answer.

So we're in the new house. Several friends pulled together and broke their backs to move massive amounts of junk I should probably yard sale, but can't because I'm a black belt pack rat. Wednesday evening we were picking up a few straggling items. It was late. I was tired. I fell down the stairs and landed in the ER for 4.5 hours. My left ankle was the size of a coconut and my toes looked like cocktail sausages. Apparently I didn't break it again (as the last time I fell down stairs I did - same ankle), but the bones in the joint are separated. So they put me in a temporary cast until I see the orthopedist on Tuesday.

NOT EVEN SURE IF ANYONE LOOKS AT THESE LOL

Most of my closest friends and family know that Moordread and I moved to be closer to his work. I helped him move a lot of stuff out of the trailor. That was almost two weeks ago.

My hip has started something new now. It is an unstoppable burning sensation. Like my hip is literally on fire. I am so confused and frustrated by it all.

The two specialists that I have talked to made it seem like my hip wasn't a big deal, but at the time that the two of them saw me I was not in any accute pain.

I plan on seeing yet another Dr. I am going to go back to the one I have been seeing first and explain everything, but if I get the run around again I am going to find someone else. I don't care what kind of Dr. you are, a person should not have to endure the ammount of pain I have been going through. I can barely walk in the mornings. I take 1000mg of ibuprofen in the morning and 800mg in the afternoon.

We spent the weekend with Andy's parents in Temple, TX. It's a 45 minutes drive or so for us, so it's easy to get up there and hang out a bit, plus his folks live about 2 minutes away from this nice lake that people go to swim in and bring boats/jetskis/whatever. We also get to bring dogs there, so long as we keep them out of the designated swimming areas. So, we left Sidney at home napping because in his world, water is something you drink and it is otherwise to be avoided at all costs. But now that Belle has had the benefit of her little wading pool (see previous blogs), she is perfectly comfortable in the water; in fact she's a great swimmer. Hooray for little webbed Catahoula feet! Sid's a husky/wolf hybrid, and his feet are webbed too, for getting around in the snow supposedly, but Belle puts him to shame. She's got such webbing between her toes that you almost can't separate her middle ones.

I thought this was cute!

Choco-Scopes, an Astrolgical guide to chocolate consumption

Aries (March 21 - April 20) Eats the whole bar on the way home from the shop.

Taurus (April 21 - May 21) Loves good chocolate, especially if it is in expensive packaging.

Gemini (May 22 - June 21) Chooses their chocolate by taking a bite out of each piece.

Cancer (June 22 - July 22) Makes ven the smallest bar last for at least a month.

Leo (July 23 - August 21) Likes to be in charge of dividing up the chocolate.

Virgo (August 22 - September 23) Cuts their chocolate into bite size pieces with a knife and fork.

So I realize again I haven't been keeping up to date with my Blog:

I have a new theme song - see more below it.

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

So it's been a little bit since we brought Belle into the family, and she's grown so much! here are some updated photos. Beward the cuteness, it's toxic!

She's a little afraid of water, so we bought her a little pool and here she is... successful!

Here are a few of her favorite passtime - annoying Sid!

Whose frisbee is it?

Tomorrow night the kids play their last ballgame. Regular season ended last Thursday with our team placing first at their park. Unfortunately, our kids didn't get much of a celebration since some of the parents and coaches of the team we played decided to start a fight right there in front of the kids. As I was bear hugging one of our boys to keep him from running into the fray (his dad is the one that had the first punch thrown at him), I thought to myself, "I can't believe these grown men are acting this way over a kids' baseball game." It made me sad. To think that when my son looks back on that game, he won't remember the play he made to keep the go ahead run on third base, he won't remember that he got on base for the first time on a bunt (he'd been on base before of course, but not on a bunt), he'll remember that stupid fight. I rode home with him that night trying to figure out how to undo what was just done...how to reaffirm to him that violence isn't the way to solve your problems.

So we've been "officially" married (in the eyes of our families anyway) for almost a month now, and what gets me is our relatives are -already- asking us if we're trying to have a kid.

What the... are you all serious? We're trying to NOT have a kid, sure! Because I'd be SUCH wonderful mom right? *smack* "Cut it the f*** out right now!"

Yeah, I can see that. All joking aside, sure, I want to try this parenting thing. I've told Hunden if he wants more than one though, he'd better arrange for 'em to all come out at once, because I can't guarantee I wanna go through the preliminaries more than one time!

After 3 days in a row of no pain and almost no painkillers, I called my boss and tried to go back to work.

Turned out I needed a doctor's note to return to work. So I called the urologist and said "Hey, I think I am doing ok.."

Then I had another "4am pain wake up call" Lasts like 3 hours before the meds got it under control. Also had the experience of peeing a little blood.

Fortunately, my director (boss's boss) was incredibly cool (along with my boss) and even drove my backpack with my personal cell phone from the office to my house so I could charge it before I fly off to Texas this week for Blackrabbit's wedding.

Saw the urologist today after still feeling pain.

He now believes something, which, considering I am Oz, makes all the f-ing sense in the world.

Apparently normally kidney stones up to 4mm pass easily.
However,l some evil sonsofbitches get kidney stones with SPIKES. therefore they stick. and hurt.

Oz + kidney stone = evil spiked kidney stone, stuck or perhaps very slowly sliding down the tube, ripping its way along slower than a snail through the piping between my kidney and my bladder.

So... now I have 2 new perscriptions: flowmax ("You are now Sir pees-a-lot of the kingdom Urine. serve the cause well..") and Percocet (remember the tv show House? this was one of his favorite "get sotned" drugs)

...but I thought this would be the easiest way to keep the few folks that have expressed an interest updated. As many of you know, our son plays baseball (I mention the ballpark constantly since I'm there more than I'm not during ball season). I actually have had quite a few people whisper me and ask how he's doing this year. In the interest of my laziness, I'll update you all here.

A little background: This is Alex's 5th year playing. Yep, your math is correct, our son has been playing since he was 4. He spent 3 of those years playing tee ball...and he was good. He was damn good. So good coaches got into a bidding war for him his last season of tee ball and he made All Stars playing first base. The next step would have been coach-pitch. Unfortunately, last year the coach-pitch league had barely enough kids to form one team, which meant that team would have to travel. Due to his dad and step-mom's schedules and crazy hectic lives, travel was impossible. So we did the only thing we could do, we moved directly into the kid-pitch "pony" league his ballpark calls "The Minors".

Had some massive side pains Tuesday morning. In fact, they happened just as I got into work tuesday.

7:45am, the IT area is deserted, and I was in so much pain I had to call an ambulance because I could not trust myself to drive like 1.5 miles to the hospital. I mean it is in walking distance from work.

2 hours of no pain meds or treatment later, I managed to literally scream myself into warm and fuzzy and lightheaded place... a place with no pain. Everyone figures the stone must have dropped, and I am sick of waiting, so I get a ride back to work and drive myself home.

Wednesday: still feel a little sore, took the day off just in case, and after getting 2-3 v ery supportive calls from coworkers and my director (mnaager +2 levels above me), I am thinking I should be ok, and I barely notice some slight feeling in my side again

Alright so I dont't blog but here we go...

If you are a true blue design engineer and are easily offended please do not continue!

Preface:
I have had a few ( Sticky McDoogle & Diablo and yes they are very good Skee )

I am a Manufacturing Engineer by title. I chose to go to a technical college rather than a "real" engineering school. I could have gone to an engineering school but the idea of putting theory over hands-on work really turned me off. I grew up on a farm in a rural community so being hands-on is just a way of life (The only way that bale of hay is getting in the loft is by throwing it!). Currently I am an ME for a dehunidifier manufacturer. Not to be arrogant but these are not the crap-in-a-box that can be purchased from a big box store. We produce high-end residential, commercial, and industrial machines. Our dehu's are more effecient than anything else you can buy and if you have allergies related to air quality (certain conditions created by moist air) we have the best. We have niche market of sorts but plan to expand into others. We are very proud of our mature products.

Alright so I dont't blog but here we go...

If you are a true blue design engineer and are easily offended please do not continue!

Preface:
I have had a few ( Sticky McDoogle & Diablo and yes they are very good Skee )

I am a Manufacturing Engineer by title. I chose to go to a technical college rather than a "real" engineering school. I could have gone to an engineering school but the idea of putting theory over hands-on work really turned me off. I grew up on a farm in a rural community so being hands-on is just a way of life (The only way that bale of hay is getting in the loft is by throwing it!). Currently I am an ME for a dehunidifier manufacturer. Not to be arrogant but these are not the crap-in-a-box that can be purchased from a big box store. We produce high-end residential, commercial, and industrial machines. Our dehu's are more effecient than anything else you can buy and if you have allergies related to air quality (certain conditions created by moist air) we have the best. We have niche market of sorts but plan to expand into others. We are very proud of our mature products.