Eclectic thoughts ...

Hubby is being deployed within the next 2 weeks for the Middle East Area. He'll be gone till July.

No, I have been nice thus far and have not shown him my immense joy over the fact. I do know how to behave! The Child however is preparing the parties. But yeah, my party will commense after he leaves LMAO.

Those of you that have known me forever know that I am harmless. Those that are just joining my Unpredictable Life need to understand this: Hubby and I do better when he deploys. It is a true case of absence makes the heart grow fonder. So his deployments help to make our marriage stronger (and much, much happier!! lmao). We are not the type of couple that have to live up each other's ass. If we could get away with having separate bedrooms, we would. Not because we can't stand to be around each other (well, with the exception of one week a month lol) but because we respect each other's need for space. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that I am not a Military Ho that jumps in bed with everyone as soon as my Hubby is gone.

But damn I hate these last minute deployments. They are always so stressful - on him, me & The Child. Speaking of her; when we told her she got this kind of sad look on her face but before you could register it in your brain, she got this excited look on her face and quickly exclaimed, "That means we can have Slumber Party Saturday's again! Yipee! WooHoo!" So *I* dodged a bullet on that but I don't think Hubby was happy over that. LOL I think it hurt his feelings that she wasn't broken hearted. Sorry Buddy but seeing as how I am the one who has to deal with her while you are gone, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to take her mind off of it.

---

So last night I put my Big Girl Panties on in preparation of this deployment. Hopefully I won't end up killing him before he leaves.

---

My new camera came in. I am absolutely terrified of it. I'm trying though. The biggest difference is that I am used to my point & shoot Kodak *doing the work for me* and with my Nikon, I have to do the work myself. Holy Bejesus but the pictures are awesome. Such clairty!

Here are a couple of pics of a neighbors kids that I took. I haven't altered them in any way other than to add my © logo to them. They aren't phenominal but I think they are a better quality than my Kodak would have taken.









So as you can see, I have a whole lot of work ahead of me if I ever want to become decent at this. A whole lot of work.

---

I finally have my appointment next week to see if the USAF is going to do my Cushing's Syndrome & Lupus testing or not. If not, then I have to contact my Endochronologist again to let her know that she needs to schedule it.

Normally I would have been seen much sooner on base but we had a horrible flu outbreak and the clinic is so far behind now, it isn't even funny. They had like 20 confirmed cases of Influenza A - over half of those had had the flu shot!

So my medical drama continues. Who knows, maybe by the time Hubby gets back I'll be cured? Hey! You have your fantasies, I have mine!

I just pray that I don't have to go through what I did when he was deployed to Africa last year. I don't think I can go through cancer testing/worrying/waiting on test results again while not saying a word to him about it until he gets back and having to blind side him with it. That was just so uncool on so many levels.

---

I get to have Starbucks with one of my faves on Tuesday morning! I can't wait!!

---

The Child ended up selling a total of 358 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. And when I say The Child, I actually mean ME! LOL But she ended up with 4 patches & 5 different prizes and gets all the recognition for all my hard work. The joys of Motherhood.

---

Well, got lots to do. Till next time ...

The Good, the bad, the Ugly & the HOLY HELL!

The Good ...

I ordered my new camera today ... barely.

I went to HH Gregg because they had it priced for $549 which is $50 less than all the other places I researched.

The were out of stock, including the display. Well crap.

The guy said they had 230 on back order but the Company (Nikon) were on back order so they (HH Gregg) didn't know when they'd be getting thiers in.

So I grabbed thier shelf price tag thingy and headed to Best Buy.

First things first, I got a verbal agreement for an exact price match. Then I headed to the Camera department and *gasp* there was one on display. So I ran down a GSR and giddily showed her which camera I wanted. She grabbed her keys and went to go get my camera. 

---

The Bad ...

"Ma'am, I'm so sorry but we are out of stock of that camera." she says to me. Well crap! crap!

So she gets on her computer to do a site to site exchange. Yeah, the closest store with one in stock was a little over 100 miles away. And of course the computer wouldn't let her do that.

So then she tries to order it online and have it shipped to the store (so I wouldn't have to pay shipping) and they wouldn't let her do that either.

As bad as I want that camera, it's not worth driving over 2 hours just to pick it up.

So I caved and had them order it online and ship it to me.

Of course, by going that route, I don't get the price match. Son of a bitch.

But Hubby was buying more memory for both of our computers and I was also getting the camera bag with Instructional DVD so she ended up adjusting the price on those 3 items to equal the difference in the price match for the camera and the camera bag.

So although it is good that I got the camera, I don't physically have it. It won't be delievered until somewhere between the 13 - 20th. Pooey.

---

The Ugly ...

So I've mentioned that The Child and I have been working on her independence. Today I allowed it to go a step further since she has been doing so well with it thus far. Today she got to ride her bike around the neighborhood with her friends ... without me trailing right behind her. Oh man that was hard. I kept imagining her falling of her bike and breaking a bone or scraping herself all up; her not paying attention and pulling out in front of a car; a driver in a mad hurry to go nowhere and not paying attention and running her over; some sick pervert luring her into his house to molest her; etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say I was a basket case and very near tears the whole time. But I survived.

And she had the time of her life. She came home with such a glow all about her.

Damnit! My baby is growing up!

---

The HOLY HELL!

Hubby just spent the past 2 hours watching Dancing with the Stars with me. I didn't ask him to. But I wonder how bad I will have to suffer because of it. Worse, I wonder will sex be involved?

---

So here are the pics of The Child I took yesterday that I promised to post today ... just ignore the dirty, sweaty face, and the left over traces of a Krispy Kreme doughnut.





















I think she was extremly jealous of me taking the neighbor's pics. LOL Girlfriend could not do enough poses for me. All the poses were her own idea.

I have to admit that I just love her smile/laugh. I know I am biased. But still. And her hair .... Lord have mercy but does she have hair!

---

Okay then, I am off to go read some Sookie Stackhouse. Till next time .....

A tribute ....

... to my Kodak Z740 camera ...

Tomorrow it will be put to rest as far as my *only* camera.

Tomorrow, I will be purchasing a new camera that I have been drooling over for many, many months. Well one of many anyway.

So today I did a Mini Photoshoot with The Child and a neighbor's children. I got some great pics ... and some not so great ... but that is the so called frustrating fun with a *point and shoot* kind of camera. But after tomorrow, I will have control of the camera.

Anyway, here are my faves from today.






















Tomorrow I will post some of the pics I took of The Child today. I still need to add my © logo to those.

TIll next time ....

You damn Doctors ...

... are gonna be the death of me yet.

What? Is there a special sticky note in my medical record that says, "Harrass patient as much as possible!" ???

What are the Doctors doing to me now you ask? I'll tell you ....

Not a whole hell of a lot.

So as you may or may not know, we dodged the Eastern Snow Storm by about 100 miles so my appointment with my Endochronologist did not get cancelled. There is a plus sign.

So I go.

*sigh*

Apparently they (and I mean the nurse and the Doctor) were trying to remember me by not looking at my record first and yeah, it wasn't working out so well for them. They finally gave up and referred to my record.

So anyway, to make a long story short (as if I could ever do that LMAO) I have been *Medically cleared* of having Hyperthyroidism. In English - I don't have hyperthyroidism anymore, if I even had it to begin with. Doesn't explain the cysts on my thyroid that she wants monitored every 6 months by ultrasound. But there you go ... I do NOT have hyperthyroidism.

So what the hell is my problem? Good question. Even the Endochronologist thinks that is a good question. She doesn't have a clue but she is willing to try to find out.

The hell?

What the hell does that mean?

I played the guniea pig once before by doing the IVF with an experimental drug not yet approved. I never agreed to be another guniea pig!

So the game plan? I have to go have a screening done for Cushings Syndrome.

What the hell is Cushings Syndrome? I'd never heard of that till she mentioned it yesterday. And the reason she mentioned it and wants me tested for it? I apparently have physical characteristics of it.

WTF?

And you didn't notice these so called physical characteristics back in Dec. when I was last in your office because why? Did I just develop these physical characteristics since my last visit with you? Clue me in here Doc.

And then, I have to go get screened for Lupus.

Of for fucks sake people, even I know that that is a damn long shot in the dark.

Hey Doc? How about we try aiming a little closer to Earth in trying to find a diagnosis for me? I mean, I myself am no Doctor but even I have managed to diagnose that my problem is physical and NOT mental. I have even managed to find a pattern of good days and bad days with the Birth Control Pill so maybe we should lean more towards my *mystery illness* being hormonal? Better yet? Let's look at Menopause for a second or two. Think maybe *that* could be my problem? But what the hell do I know eh? I am after all NOT a Doctor.

So when I go for my wonderful yearly with a Civilian OB/GYN I will discuss my issues with him/her and who knows, I might just find a damn Doctor who knows what the hell they are doing AND, *AND* is willing to help me.

Come one now, that idea has to be more realistic than me having Lupus right?

And to top everything off I have been sick as a dog since Saturday. I thought it was just allergies but nothing is working. Not even NyQuil and you all know how I love my NyQuil. And yes, I am using the Adult NyQuil ... the one WITH Alcohol in it. I've had to stop blowing my nose and start using a (hell I don't know what the hell it is called but I used it on The Child when she was a baby) bulb. After the last time I blew my nose yesterday I got scared that I was fixing to blow my eardrum. The pressure is so intense in my head. My hearing is sensitive to sound; my eyes are sensitive to light. I'm a friggin' mess people.

I can't use my CPAP machine because I need to be able to breathe through my nose. I lost that ability Saturday.

I can't taste anything.

Everytime I get comfortable on the couch or in the bed either A) The phone(s) rings and my dumb ass forgot to bring them with me when I laid down B) I have to get up to pee because of all the fluids I have been intaking and having a duplicate system in my right kidney does not help that out one bit C) The doorbell rings D) I have to fix a meal for someone in this house E) The Child has regressed to babyhood and all of a sudden isn't able to fix herself her own drink or bowl of cereal or whatever it is that she is needing me out of the bed or off the couch for.

So yeah, I'm a mess.

And on that note, I am off to take her to Brownie Scouts. She (:::me:::) has sold to date 314 boxes of Cookies now. I'm gonna crash in the parking lot while she is in her meeting. Someone should wake me up in time to get her from the meeting. I hope.

And no Hubby can't take her because he started his 6pm - 6am night shifts last night and is working it again tonight so I am on my own. As is par for a Military Wife.

Till next time ....