Still hanging in there…knee still painful and so is the other one. Getting old and really feeling it. Still at the Red Cross and so glad. Something to do to keep me out of trouble! Ha, ha.

Another year, another leave for Brian. He goes back for another 6 months and then he goes back to Texas and we all hope this will be his last deployment! Enough already! He has been in the army for seven years and spent three of it in Iraq!

I am so lucky! Not only do I have a signed book by Susan Sackett who was Gene Roddenberry’s secretary and friend, but I just received a gift from Brian’s girlfriend Christine…..a signed book from her brother who is a designer for Star Trek (John Eaves). So awesome!

I will be going to Idaho for the 50th High School reunion. That should be interesting.

I can’t believe another year has passed.  We talk all the time about how fast time goes - now it is 2008.  What happened to the expectation of the year 2000? 

It was a good year and a bad year.  My knee surgery was successful, but I have been in pain ever since with nerve damage.  It is slowly getting better, but I still can’t stand to wear long pants or walk for very long.

My son Brian came home from Iraq in June, moved to Texas and now has to leave again in just a week for his third deployment.  It is very hard for him and us to see him go again.

My daughter Debbie took me with her to go to Idaho where she had to do an audit for her company.  Would you believe it was in my home town of Preston!!  It was a short trip, but had a great time seeing family and my sister who is recovering from breast cancer. 

While Brian was home on leave he took me to Las Vegas to see a show and I even gambled and had a few drinks!  Ouch - out of practice.

Still volunteer for the Red Cross and love it.  They do so much more than I ever thought.  They are very deserving of any donation they can get.

My cats are doing well - Teger, the oldest had his tail cropped.  He had a large cyst on it.  He wasn’t too happy for awhile, but now gets along  just fine. 

All in all, it has been a good year.  I try to be grateful for I do have and take each day one at a time.

My son will be going to Fort Hood in Texas….he is at Fort Bragg. 

Just a quick update….still having a lot of knee pain, but it isn’t as bad as it was.  It is still stiff and hurts to walk, and now so does the other knee! Glad I don’t have to do steps, I would never make it up or down!

There is a website where you can go to read about everyones experiences with knee or hip surgery.  Thank heaven for that, at least I know I am in a small catagory that does not heal fast and well, so I am not the only one.  Misery loves company!

My son will be coming home from his second mission to Iraq in a week!  He has rejoined the army and will be sent to Fort Bragg in Texas in October.

My daughter has passed an exam and has been offered another job in the Brokerage company she works for.  She also got an employee of the year award!

Summer is almost here, we are looking at our first 100 degree mark this weekend.  Next surgery I do will be over the summer when there is nothing going on!

It has been 7 weeks since my knee replacement.  I am not doing all that great.  It has turned out to be so painful and being alone does not help to push me to do more things.  My doctor does things a bit different as far as physical therapy is concerned.  He puts you in a knee exerciser right after surgery that bends your knee the whole time you are in the hospital.  Then, if you are doing okay, after 3 weeks of home PT, he says you don’t need to go to PT after that.  Being a big baby, (I’ve heard horror stories from others of how painful it can be) I am glad, but I am having a lot of nerve pain which I guess not everyone has.  I can’t stand anything to touch my skin around the knee so it is painful to wear long pants.  I went to the doctor and he said that is normal and I am doing fine for 7 weeks.  Not what I wanted to hear but decided to go back to taking pain pills and that has helped.  I wanted to get off them as they really screw up your digestive system, and of course that caused me a lot of gas pain and indigestion.

Now that I am getting around better, I realize how bad my other knee is.  I just really dread thinking about having it done.  At least I know to write off at least 2 months of my life.  Whoopee.

 Besides the pain, the depression is the hardest part of this ordeal.  Everyone says that once you are recovered, you forget how bad it was.  Hope so.

It’s been awhile, not much going on anyway.  Still volunteering at the Red Cross and enjoy it….somedays anyway.  It is very interesting.  Can’t comment more than that…signed a confidential agreement.

I have scheduled my knee replacement surgery.  I put it off since July when the doctor told me both knees are bad…which I knew of course, but I dread the surgery.  It’s pretty painful and a long rehab so not looking forward to that.  I go under the knife Jan 28, 2008.   Recoverery is 6 weeks…hope I can do better than that and go back to work at the Red Cross.  Its the only thing I have to do to keep me sane.  At least I will have my daughter here to help me out and we live close!  Yea!

My son was on leave..finally after 7 months over in Iraq and we had a good visit.  He had his 40th birthday while here.  He is trying to decide if he wants to stay in the Army.  I will support him whatever he decides to do.  The army has been pretty good for him.

I just had a unreal experience.  I felt like I may have been in a Stephen King movie it was so spooky.

A couple of nights ago I was wokeup by one of my cats scratching at the door.  I yelled at him and then I realized it was very dark.  I have a night light in the kitchen that helps me move around at night when mother nature calls.  It was so black I couldn’t see anything!  Even the clock was off.  Okay, I figure…the electricity is off, but boy is it black!

This is my new house, and I have only been it for about two months so this is a new experience and kinda spooky.  I feel my way into the kitchen and whew, I find my flashlight.  I go to the front window and look out.  Total darkness, and its so quiet!  Nothing, and no one about!   The things going through my mind…sometimes it not so great to have an imagination, especially if you live in Phoenix and your life depends on the air conditioning!  

Its funny all the things that go through your mind to do like …  turn on the radio to see whats on the news…turn on the fans to cool the house, duh.  I went out to the car and turned on the radio and there wasn’t any terrible news I was dreading, so I went back into the house.  I tried to lay down and go back to sleep, but couldn’t.  I wandered around for awhile and wondered if I shouldn’t call the electric company.   I was getting really frantic.

 Then the calvary came!  Yea!  Two power company trucks and men!   It was a local power outage and they ran a temporary cable in front of my house.  They are out there today digging up everything to put a new one in!   Thank God!   It wasn’t the end of the world….yet.

I have moved into my new home and I am 98% settled in.   I have been busy scheduling people for quotes on A/C, landscaping, patio cover and buying new kitchen appliances.  I was going to go with the patio cover but turns out the A/C is pretty old and does not work too well.  The Home Inspector really messed me up by missing several items…

I really like this place, it is bright and interesting.  I love my back patio and enjoy going out in the morning and letting the cats roam around while I drink my coffee.   Even better, it is close to my daughter and I really like the area I am in.

Now the long hot summer draws near, and I have to find something to keep me busy.  I just don’t have any motivation to write so haven’t done anything. 

I have purchased a new home and move in on May 1st.  It is a much smaller house, but it is bright, airy and has windows in the front.  Also, it is much much closer to my daughter and grand daughter!  It has been a long haul and can’t wait to get moved!