Wallpaper, Popcorn Ceilings, and Stuff

Listen up you old and slightly younger farts. As the years grow on those tired bodies of yours, take a few notes on how to help your kids and grandkids out.

The older you get the less you need and the less your kids are going to want. Anything we want or need we most likely have stolen from you or purchased ourselves. As you’re sitting there with nothing to do in the later years start reducing! Eventually you’re going to end up in one of two places. One, an old folks home and it is only big enough to hold a small apartment full of items. The other will only hold an old green suit. Don’t leave your stuff for your kids to figure out what to do with. We will end up with just more stuff we are going to have to try to get rid of in the end. It all boils down to a yard sale. Give what you think your family wants, and donate the rest.

Wallpaper- I know, I know wallpaper is coming back in style. The Misses loves HGTV and I see people are making the horrible mistake of putting that crap back on the walls. Just do us a favor. Long before your hands are too stiff to tie your shoes so you make the switch to Velcro, start peeling that crap off the walls. Pay some poor starving college student or even better find a soon to be 18 year old scout and offer him your walls to donate for his Eagle Scout project.

Popcorn Ceilings- I only mention this for you old old farts. The ones that have no TV now that TV’s went digital. Take the time to remove that crap off the ceilings yourself. You’re going to die soon and the asbestos won’t hurt you as much as it will your son-in-law, and youngest grandkid.

Finally, don’t go kicking and screaming to an old folks home (Grandpa didn’t go kicking and screaming, he just couldn’t remember signing the papers saying he wanted to start living there). Our only regret is not sending Grandpa their sooner. His mind has gone, and most days he can’t remember 5 minutes ago. But one thing that is for certain, depending on the day there are 8 to 15 women to every man. I hope it isn’t the only reason he has started to enjoy his time there, but I’m sure it helps.

As you can guess my family (Pops, Brother-in-law Dave, and I) have been working on my grandpa’s house. Here is a picture of Pops taking his turn scraping the Popcorn off the ceilings that cover every inch of grandpa’s house. Not a great picture, but at least he does have a mask on. He’s pretty sure that when he removed the crap from the first ceiling at his house, a mask didn’t cross his mind.

Catching Up

God it’s good to have The Misses home. We’ve been busy, is the excuse I would use why you haven’t seen much of us. What have we been up to? Here are some pictures to help explain:

Catching up with friendsIt's been good hanging out with Rich and Sarah. You really learn who your close friends are when you go through tough times.

Wine Pairing with Family and Friends

The day started with a hike up above Alta. It was a beautiful day. Jeda and her friend Nancy joined us on the hike. The Mister was still in Norway so he couldn't be with us.

After the hike we got cleaned up and met up with Mom and Dad. It was a great evening full of good stories, 9 different wines and incredible food to go with it.

Vacationing in Yellowstone with Jeter

The trip started with a night spent at Grandma and Grandpa's in Idaho. It is always a great time. Jeter wasn't able to go throughout Yellowstone with us. So we spent a day hiking in the mountains just outside the park. We were having a good time until we saw a big pile of fresh bear poop. We decided that was a good time to turn around.

Yellowstone was great. We saw everything except the wolves. I would highly recommend going in the park around 7:00pm. There were so many animals, so little people, and one incredible sunset. This view was on our way back to west yellowstone from Old Faithful around 9:00pm.

Spending time with Family

With the summer usually brings Jada's family and lots of time spent together. It is always fun watching the kids in the pool. The girls are getting too big. Now days we spend too much time drinking water from being dunked by them. There are also lots of BBQ's and a lot of laughs.

Jeter gets very spoiled. Kids love making him sit and shake, and he loves doing it for treats

Reconnecting It is true that after a deployment husbands and wives need to reconnect. There have been several tears, and lots of laughs. One of the things that has changed is Jeter. For some reason he doesn't like us to be together without being included. If we ever snuggle up on the couch or in bed, he has to be right in the middle of us.

I'm extremely proud of The Misses. There are things that I wish would have been different, but in the end she did what most wouldn't and I couldn't. There is nothing we can do to change our past, but what we have gone through has brought us closer together and we have learned so much about ourselves in the process.

Letter From Iraq- 15 Mar, 2009

Hey Everyone,
It’s been a long time I know. I am so sorry about that. My work has really kept me busy and then with not having a computer… I am here now though. As The Mister previously posted I am currently on R&R (rest & relaxation) in the country of Qatar, phonetically pronounced, {cut-er} very near the city of Doha. It has been very enjoyable and some much needed time off. I have been able to get out and do some fun things to include a city tour, shop, boat trip with jet skies, swim in the Persian Gulf, ride a camel, eat some camel, 4 wheeling in sand dunes and spend some time at the beach. It’s been pretty great. The Mister posted some pics before of my city tour, but let me talk a little about the area. The Middle East (not including Iraq) is a very beautiful area. Food is good, people seem nice enough, very diverse. Iraq might be beautiful too, I just haven’t seen those places. I would have never thought of traveling to the major cities of Dubai or Doha but after having been here, I would come back and recommend it to you. It has been really nice. Here are some more pics of what else I have been up to since I’ve been here.

And now eating the camel… I know they were not the same camel because I actually rode the camel on a different day. It was pretty good actually. It was a sandwich that reminded me a gyro or a donor kabob if you know what those are. If you like them, then you would like a Kartof camel sandwich. (I think that is what it was called)

I jet skied for the first time. That was pretty dam fun! I can see why people buy those things. I was scared at first cause I thought I might fall off or try to stay on by holding on so tight and end up pulling out my shoulder… again. Well I didn’t do that and really enjoyed it. I could still see it happening if I got too carried away

Here is a pick of 4-wheeling in sand dunes. Again, also pretty fun racing in the sand anywhere between 30-70 mph.

While at the beach I was able to try on some traditional dress. Yep, pretty darn hot under there and I don’t know how those women do it. This is a girl I met here and have been spending most of my time with. Her name is Suhoney. That is the nice thing, well one of my favorite things about the military. You can go somewhere not knowing anyone and always end up making friends.

Here are some of me relaxing, on the boat… at the beach… and writing love notes to my sweetie in the sand. I had a lot of fun doing that.

Sitting on the beach as the sun went down was really nice. It reminded me of what The Mister and I have done in Spain and Mexico. I am really missing him right now. It’s much easier to cope when I am busy at work all the time, but being here just reminds me of all the great times we’ve had and will have. As much fun as this has been I can’t help but think it would have been that much sweeter if he were here too. I never thought being apart would be as hard as it is. I mean, I knew it would be difficult but… we have a great marriage and it has been rough. I don’t know how a rocky marriage could make it through this. Sweetie, just know how much I love you and I still know and believe we will get through this. We were meant to be together and we will be here again soon. Just in case you all haven’t guessed it already. The Mister and I have been discussing my future in the military. When I get home I will have one year left on my contract. At that point I will have 12 years in service and would only need 8 more to retire. I used to see myself as a “lifer” as many call it. This deployment has shown me this is not the life I want. I have decided to close this chapter in my life. Do I love what I do? Yes most definitely. I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t miss it. I will wonder how far I could have gone in my career and how many more places in the world I would have gone. I will never regret my decision to join and serve my country. Mostly because it helped me to discover my two greatest loves in life; my love for taking care of people both as a nurse and a Soldier but more importantly, I met the love of my life. My Sweetie. It is now with him I will be a “lifer.” To Iraq and Back My Love.
Love The Misses

Hope your paying attention up there!

Been thinking a lot, and doing even more....

I was blessed with incredible parents. I have several traits from both of them, actually too many to list. This weekend as I worked in my basement to give my Sister-in-Law and he boyfriend a proper shitter to plant their butts upon. I came across two traits, one from each of my parents that caused me to...well, pull my hair out.

My pops has been known to think for years and years before starting a project. Every project that has been attempted at his house, you can bet he had been thinking about it for years. I too have this trait. Most projects don't happen without a good amount of thinking being done. My mother has this quality about her that when there is work to be done, and when there isn't work to be done she is up doing it. She never sits still and is always working on something. I too have a hard time sitting still, and I cant do a thing without some thinking. Truly I am happiest when I am busy working on a project.

Having both of these traits usually works out pretty good. Most everything I work on I have thought through every detail and I don't stop until it is all done. The bathroom I didn't have much time to figure out every detail. I could have used another 3 or 4 years, because of this there were several "Son-of-a-Bitches", and "all be damned" uttered from my lips. I was far to antsy to sit still and figure it all out. It did get done. Okay, not really I am still waiting for the damn plumber to show up and hook up the crapper, there is no tile on the floor and the shower is nothing but 2X4's. I couldn't do the finish stuff without The Misses here to pick them out. I did get some drywall up, the electrical is done, and there is a little paint on the walls. I just wish I could have spent more time with the little things. There is flaws in the drywall, the window seal is a bit slanted, and the TP holder is as level as a shelf in a Dr. Seuss house.

The reason for the big hurry, you ask? The Misses and I decided to let her pregnant Sister and Boyfriend live in our basement. It is just for a short time. I have told them they will be out by the time The Misses gets home. I will not worry about where The Misses and I decide to have the occasional argument, and more importantly where we will decide to make up. So they have till the middle of August until they have to be out. Our hope is that it will give the two of them an opportunity to give living with each other a try, without the commitment of a 6 or 12 month lease or more importantly a large rent payment. Hopefully they will take this opportunity to save a few bucks and figure a few things out about each other.

It wont be long, about a month and I will have a screaming baby in my basement. The Misses is fairly jealous ours wont be the first baby crawling around here. I'm a bit sad it wont be our baby screaming in the middle of the night, screaming while I am watching my Monday Shows, and driving me absolutely nuts. I really hope god is paying attention. I have decided I must have done some fairly bad stuff to deserve all I have gone through. My hope is this will earn a few Kudos or Gold Stars or what ever he does to decide who gets the shaft and who doesn't.

The Misses is in Qatar for her 4 days of R&R. She seems to be having a great time, laying out by the pool, visiting the city, spending her hard earned money, and even taking a day cruise that includes jet skies. Her computer is back in Salt Lake getting repaired, and she is still really too busy to sit down and write how she is doing. Know that she is doing great things, and there is no one more proud of her then me. I did finally tell her I would support her through anything, except another damn deployment. We were meant to be together! Here are some pics from Qatar.

Out of Office Reply

I'm sure your wondering where the hell have we been? You haven't seen anything from The Misses forever. She has been extremely busy. Instead of taking a position where she would be out of site and out of mind. Hoping she would be able to just concentrate on herself with exercising and schooling. Instead she was put in charge of the whole clinic. She barely has time for herself not to mention schooling, her family, friends, and me. I've been told she has been working on something to post, but don't expect it for a while.

Me, I've been out of town for work. I just got back from Sacramento for some training for my Job. In SPD (Supply, Processing, and Distribution) where I work in the VA Hospital the big deal is to be Level II Certified. It consists of become Level I Certified by taking a series of test. The information you are tested on is on the processing of reusable instruments, sterilizing them, storing them, as well as issuing them. The test are easy, they are open book. For Level II you have to take a 200 question test on all the material in the Level I Certification. About a month ago I took the Level II test and actually passed it. I had already signed up for the training in Sacramento, so my boss said I was going anyways.

The training was taught by the big boss "Bobby", from Washington DC. He is the person responsible for taking the VA from the Dark Ages, as far as Sterile Processing to the where we are today. Nationally the VA Health Care System ranks at the top as far as sterile processing. He started out by saying he does not teach the class to the Level II certification. He is there to teach us the latest information in sterile processing. We would be taking the Level II exam at the end of the week, but if we were worried about it we needed to study on our own.

At the beginning we had to stand and tell the class where were from and if we were Level I or Level II Certified. There were 60 students in the class and four others including me said we were Level II Certified. One of them said he was, but I think he was full of shit. He didn't know a thing. At the end of the week I took the test. I really thought I did worse then I did the first time. It turns out I did the exact same. I was the only one that was Level II Certified that passed it again.

I know what your saying. You just posted a blog saying you had memory issues. And now you are saying you passed this test that only 16 out of 60 could? What I didn't mention was how much I studied for it. In the military I did very well. I finished at the top of my class or second in the schools I went to. When I went to the two week school to become a Medical Supply Specialist, I partied every night. I drank heavily and did not study at all. There were Soldiers there really trying to become the Distinguished Honor Graduate (the Soldier that averaged the best scored on all the tests). They sat at the front of the class taking notes. They didn't go out at night so they could study. At the end of the training I was sitting in the back of the class nursing a hangover. The Sergeant Major was up front issuing the certificates of training. Before they got started he said he would be issuing the Distinguished Honor Graduate the certificate first. The Soldiers in the front of class adjusted themselves so they could stand up easier. When he asked for SGT Mark Taylor to come forward, you could hear the groans of dismay. I believe I even heard a "What the F*&^?" It was like this for most things I had done. There wasn't much studying and I passed fairly easy.

So yes, I passed the Level II Certification. What I didn't say is how many times I went through the Level I book. I bet I could easily say I read the book, studied the chapter test over a hundred times. I still couldn't remember some stuff that I should have. I could remember a question from the first time I took the test. It had to do with naming the different types of Homeostatic Forceps. I must have read them over and over and over. When I came to the question I still couldn't remember the exact names. It's seems I have learned to cope with what I have. I know I would have a really hard time if I was to learn new material and be tested soon after. If I had weeks to study information and then take a test, I'm sure I would be fine.

Hopefully you will hear from The Misses soon. I too miss reading about what she is going through. I did just get off the phone with her. She told me about her "day off". There wasn't much time for her in the day, let alone time to sit down and write to us. She does however have time to stand ontop of her clinic with her Sergeant Major and smoke Cigars????

Nothing Funny About U.C. Part 13 "The Memory Olympics"

It finally happened. Ever since the bout with Listeria my memory has been a bit off. When it first happened it was really off. I couldn't remember anything from one day to the next. It really hit home one afternoon when The Misses began saying how amazing (I may be embellishing just a bit) the night before was. I had no idea what she was talking about. Now my memory isn't that bad, but it still isn't what it was before I got sick.

The VA set up an appointment with a Neuro Psychologist for a memory test. They are trying to determine how much memory loss occurred because of the Listeria. Depending on how much memory loss occurred the VA may provide me with compensation.

The test started more like an interview. He asked me about my grades and life in high school and college. Luckily he didn't ask for the transcripts from college. It was much easier to tell how much better I did in the military when I figured out what I could do with a little discipline. Then he started to ask me random questions. "Where is the Sahara Desert? Who was Martin Luther King Jr? At what temperature does water boil?" I knew all of them but "Who was president during the civil war?" For some reason I was thinking revolutionary war. Anyways I was wrong.

Then the Memory Olympics began. He started out by reading me a paragraph. All I had to do was listen and repeat back what I heard. Sounds easy right? As he began I really tried paying attention, by the third sentence I couldn't even remember the lady's name the paragraph was about. There was so much information in such a short paragraph. Needless to say I didn't do well. Luckily I got to hear it two more times. Each time I remembered a bit more. Right after in the same voice he read me another paragraph one time. It really threw me off, I couldn't remember a thing. Maybe I got the guys name and something about a storm that would bring temperatures down 15 degrees. I don't know. I looked at him with a blank stare and he said "Okay, lets move on."

I think next he gave me a design on a piece of paper. There were lines all over the page forming different shapes. During this one, all I had to do was copy what I saw. Not a problem. After having a great High School Art Teacher, I nailed it. He quickly grabbed both pieces of paper and put a book in front of me. Now I had to just look at pictures and tell him what was wrong with them. It started out simple. A door without a door knob. A fence without a post. But after twenty-five or thirty I couldn't see anything wrong with them. All he said was "Okay" as he wrote something in his notes. Whatever confidence I had from the picture I drew was gone.

The next event in this two hour Memory Olympics was a list of twenty words that he went over four times. After he finished each time I had to tell him what words I remembered. It was amazing as he was saying the words on right after another I got hung up on a word and would miss three or four. I would realise I was missing them so panic set in. I tried to listen more carefully. I couldn't remember many. Each time was a bit better, but never great. Immediately after he read me a different list and I had to remember them. All I could think about was Horse, Moon, Parent, Spoon the last four words from the previous list. He just sat there looking at me as I stared out the window trying to remember anything. As soon as he knew I was finished he pulled a piece of paper out with fifty or sixty words on it. Some from the first list, some from the second and just a bunch of random words. Come to think of it they were all random. He asked me to circle the words just from the first list. I could recognise a few, but I am sure I missed a bunch.

There were a few more events like these. He then handed me a blank paper and asked me to draw the design from earlier, you remember the one I nailed. I got the outline of the design and a few of the lines in the middle and I was lost. I was sick of looking up at him with this worthless feeling. He took the paper from me and handed me four pages. On them were numbers with objects next to them. I could tell some of the objects made up the design I just tried to draw. He asked me to circle the numbers of the objects that were from the design. By page four I realised I was circling the object and not the number. I began wondering if I screwed that one up too. There was so many shapes that they all started to look like they might be able to work. He took the paper and said only a few more.

Now he wanted me for sixty seconds to list all the words I could think of that started with the letter "A". The only words I couldn't use were proper names or pronouns. "Go" he said as he pushed the button on the stop watch. I know your thinking easy, right? You try it. Easy at first, like all his test. I started with "Apple, Art, Army..."The first thirty seconds were easy. Then "Ass" popped in my head. "No don't say ass! No don't say Ass. Ass Hole! no no something else" I couldn't get it out of my head, "Um," I uttered "Ant, Aunt". "Ass hole, Anal no no no." finally I heard the stop watch beep. "Okay now the letter F". Good hell what is he doing to me. You can imagine the first word that popped in my head.

He finally said "Okay, know tell me everything you remember from the first paragraph I read to you. I'll give you a hint it was about a lady." I'm sure I looked at him like a deer in the head lights. "Ummmmm, Something about her being a lunch lady....." I could remember a few things, but not much. "Okay, and the second paragraph, it was about a guy". I could remember very little.

Once I was finally finished he told me that he had to go over all the information. But from giving these test for as long as he had, he was fairly certain they would come back that I did in fact have some memory issues. He explained that he would take the results of my test and compare them nationally to people my age and see how I did. He also told me another comparison he would do, but wouldn't you know I don't remember it. He mentioned that there are some real issues in my short term memory, as well as in my concentration which was related to the memory functions of the brain.

We began to talk about my memory and how it may be as good as it was going to get. He really didn't know. I may be on a plateau, and as my brain continues to heal it could get better. But this may well be as good as it gets. I asked him about going back to school. He really didn't think it would be a good idea right now. He recommended I wait another couple of years to see if my memory does improve. If I don't wait and try now he felt I would have a very hard time with it.

So there it is, I may in fact have memory issues. I do what I can to compensate for them. I take a lot of notes with most any task I do. I really try not to have any "serious" conversations late at night. I'm just very grateful I have a wonderful and very understanding wife. I will always remember when told how wonderful last night was. Answer it with "Yeah, I really nailed it!"

Letter from Iraq- 4 Jan 08

The Rainy Season…
So in my mind prior to coming to Iraq, I imagined that Iraq was a desert; lots of sand, no plants, the ground just thirsty for water. So exactly how Kuwait was. Some parts of southern Iraq are like this. Baghdad is not one of them. December and January are known as the rainy season. The mornings are brisk, but the days are quite pleasant. Actually the weather this time of year is quite perfect. It’s only rained twice but when it does, MUD!

And it sticks around forever! No pun intended. It’s been over a week and some of these puddles are still here.

All I can say is, I miss the snow. Love and miss you guys. Hope you’re all doing well.
Love, The Misses

P.S. So since I wrote this. The last couple days here have gotten cold. Especially in the morning, I can’t imagine being a gunner driving on patrols. I am lucky I get to work in doors for the most part. Cause burr. Who would have ever thought Iraq gets cold.