Janet In Hospital

Janet is in Kennestone Hospital with blood clots in her lungs. Yikes!!!!!

She says she is doing okay. They've put her on blood thinners to dissolve the clots and will likely keep her through Monday. I will visit tomorrow and bring her something to read so she won't be bored out of her mind, but I bet she'd appreciate a phone call. She does have her cell phone with her but it's pay as you go so it's probably best to call her room (#552).

The main number for the hospital is 770-793-5000.

Enthusiastic Fan

Yeah... I met this dude at the last concert I went too and thought I should share hi with you... Everybody else seems to love him...

PICTURES!!!

My Purple Hair


My Newest Hair


My Dorky Friends...

How cool is this?

"Toys" for me are usually good kitchen gadgets, cookbooks or computer-related things. But I would buy this cool little helicopter in a second. Heck, maybe I will - and I know at least one other mom who's fun enough that she will probably put it on her birthday list!

Lisa's Crew

Time to stock the refrigerator - Adrian gets to come home for summer vacation! Yay! I won't know the exact dates until tomorrow, but it's likely at the end of the week. Jazz didn't ask for them to fly her home in time, 'cause she thought they only paid for minors so she will have to stay in CA :(
Nothing else new is going on. The pool was closed today without notice or explanation so the kids were bummed. The water was looking a bit green, so I imagine that's why but I am still majorly irked. First of all, if you perform regular testing and maintenance the water will not get gross. Second of all, how about at least hanging a closed sign on the gate so I won't stand there forever like an idiot trying to "unstick" the freaking gate? So anyway, just to sooth their troubled souls it cost me a dollar toy at Target and a trip to Taco Bell. I got off easy. Lea Anna was trying so hard to drag me to the mall.
I have to find a new place to stash the goodies. Lea Anna can now reach most of the shelves in the pantry. She has already had four brownies today, not to mention how many I've intercepted before she crammed them in her mouth. She must have a hollow leg, or a hole in her belly button.
Two more weeks and Daniel gets his cast off. We'll both be glad, but especially Daniel. It's hard to feel manly when your mommy has to button & unbutton your jeans for you every time you go pee. He's accidentally whopped me with it a few times. Ouch!

What's Goin' On With Jazz...

I have been up to A LOT since I last posted…

Job Corps is still ok. Just last Friday they had their June graduation ceremony. I got paid to design the graduation programs, which is, of course, the BEST part. I don’t know how much I’m being paid though… I get my check today or tomorrow. I didn’t bother asking either because I told them if they projected me out (or, sign papers saying I completed the stupid course) of Business Technology, so that I could start my trade they didn’t have too. They agreed to project me out, so I was happy. (Money’s nice, but I’d just spend it on crap anyway!) A couple days later, I was told I was going to be paid for my services AND projected out, so YAY FOR ME!!!

I’ve also been going to shows at The Whisky (A Go Go) a lot more. The most recent ones I’ve been to were Goatwhore, the 6/6/6 show (a bunch of metal/industrial bands were playing that night), and Orcus’ (they’re a local death metal band) album release show (which was this passed Saturday).

They’re really fun to go to and I always meet really cool people. I also got to know most of the band members over MySpace, so whenever I go, they always say “hi” and talk to me ‘n’ stuff… Like, I asked Neurobox (who opened for Orcus) if they could play “Red Carpet Sniper” a few days before the show and they did (yay!)… It was their second song. When Orcus’ drummer, Chris, was throwing drumsticks in the audience, he actually handed me on… It was awesome. I even get tickets at a lower price too, and that’s always cool.

I am also part of two street teams. One is for the band Skumlove and the other is for BlessedBeThyName. It’s fun work (if you want to call it that). I just hand out CDs, make banners for websites, and hang fliers on occasion. All of Skumlove’s street team members get into their gigs for free, so that’s another bonus point for moi. I joined the street team for H.I.M, but it’s mainly run over the Internet…very impersonal since they’re a huge, major band. I like working with the local bands a lot more because you actually get to talk and joke around with them.

As far as shows go, I am planning on attending, at least, 4 (or 5) more… It’s probably more than that, actually, but that’s no big deal ‘cause I always get in for cheap. (Yay connections!)

Hopefully, they will project me out of Business Tech QUICKLY… I would REALLY like to get on with my career training.

Until next time…

Love, Jazzy

Father's Day

A friend told me I should call Dad today, wish him a happy Father's Day, and generally make a fuss over him on what should be a special day. I didn't know what to say.

I'm not angry or bitter or vengeful or any of those things over what happened to all of us growing up. It's an unfortunate reality that he used what he had to work with, probably what had been handed down to him. And I'm empathetic about that to a large degree. I also know that most of us have developed strengths we might not otherwise have had as a result of growing up under the conditions we did.

I wouldn't, however, feel good about putting on a face, acting like nothing had happened or that he was alright now, or feigning a relationship that isn't there. The way he is is the way he is. I have accepted that. He was not capable of being a dad to us in most ways, and it shows in the way we've all struggled with our lives since coming through the experience of growing up Rosche.

I'm pretty impressed by our collective resilience since leaving home. Yup - we've all made bad decisions, some with overwhelmingly negative consequences. A third of us are probably damaged beyond repair, but the rest are good, smart, warm, funny women who have, by some miracle, done a pretty decent job of raising our kids despite often not having much to work with (and these kids are something else!). We've learned from our mistakes and made better choices, including picking better brothers-in-law the second time around.

So, I still don't know how, or if, I should respond to my friend's encouragement to make a fuss over Dad. But it got me thinking about how a father can often be the person that makes or breaks a child. If you find yourself with a few minutes to reflect and respond it'd be great if you shared your thoughts with everyone.

I've been meaning to post this picture for the longest... my family on Easter Sunday. This is a three-day weekend for me; today was a corps training holiday. I made good use of my free day: this morning, we watched the last couple episodes of "House" that we'd recorded and then cleaned up the house a lil bit. After we picked Julian up from school, we went to see "Cars." On the way home, we stopped by my mother-in-law's house and annoyed her for a while.

Tomorrow, we're going to get up around 0630 to make the three-hour drive to San Antonio, where we will spend the day at Sea World. It's free for all active duty military personnel, and that was a motivating factor. We're gonna be bringing the camera along, so I'll make an effort to post some pictures. Happy Father's Day everybody.

-Dave

(No) Fun in Douglasville

Well, no trip to the Dandridge Riviera or Sea World for me. But Sara is finally, finally making decent progress in her recovery from being attacked by my neighbor's Lab last month and spending almost a month away from home as a result. Grayson is getting back to his big old self, too. He seems glad to have Sara's company again and eager to beat her out the door or see if what's in her food dish is better than his.

Taking care of her has been at least a part-time job. Examples: cooking meals for her to try to put the weight back on even though she had no appetite, dealing with "The Big D" (no, I don't mean David!) that resulted from her consumption of large amounts of food, having to keep a muzzle or e-collar on her at all times so that she would not reopen her wounds, hydrotherapy twice a day, dressing wounds and caring for staples and stitches, and cleaning up the resultant mess from all of the above.

If my life=0 before it's at least -1 or -2 now. I'm seriously considering putting up a personal ad and titling it "Must Love Dogs - and Be a Veterinarian."

The Dog Whisperer is right to stress the importance of exercise to our pets. Sara wasn't in any condition to resume our 1 - 2 miles of walking per day when she returned home. Once she seemed a little better I was hesitant to take her out for walks in the neighborhood because she had sores on several of her pads that I didn't want to aggravate. They were healing very slowly and leaving spots of blood everywhere she walked (great for light beige carpets and white floors!). But it's funny - even though we started walking last week, so her paws have been on asphalt, they're healing up more quickly now. And I'm seeing those tail wags again that have been absent for so long.

Pretty soon she'll feel good enough to start bossing Grayson around again ; )

Where Have You Been?

These are the states I've visited for more than an airport layover. Admittedly, many were states I just drove through. I haven't seen nearly enough of this country, and I've got many places outside the U.S. I'd like to see. What about you?



Create your own visited states map.

Fun on the Redneck Riviera

We drove down to see Suzanne and pick Daniel up this weekend and everyone had a blast. Besides having the perfect excuse to see my Sis and her family again, I also got to try the four wheeler (I may drive like an old lady but I didn't crash) and we went out on the lake and I got my first ride on the innertube. My arms finally stopped aching today, which is a good thing since I am out of ibuprofen. It was worth it. I also found out when we hit a wake that Suzanne flies better than me :) I want a boat!
Daniel had so much fun last week that he wouldn't even speak to me at first. He just buried his little head in the corner of the sofa. Lea Anna tried to talk us into riding back out there as soon as we pulled into our driveway. I sympathize, but no.

Fun at Hood

Things have been slow at work lately... still recovering from our month-long field problem. This equates to down-time for my battle-buddies and I. I've been taking advantage of it, though: I've made several trips to finance (hopefully my last), cleaned my weapon a couple or three times, and even got some time off to take Liubinka to the doctor. We think she was having some acid-reflux problems, but won't know for sure until she goes to her follow-up appointment. The guys up at finance said my company's headquarters was jacking off instead of processing my paperwork to get my extra money for rent and food. They're gonna start it at the end of the month and throw in three-months-worth of back-pay. My weapon can't get any cleaner... I cleaned it several times in the field but never fired it. For some reason our first sergeant inspected the arms room and put my name on the list of personnel with dirty weapons. That old man is a fag. He still hates me for getting that DWI back in January. Word on the street is they finally got my paperwork in order to process my Article 15, so I should be standing in front of the colonel within a week or two. First sergeant really fucked me on this one... he waited until three months before deployment, when everyone is taking leave. What a great time to knock-out my extra duty. By the time I'm done with it, I won't be able to take leave because we'll be getting ready to get on a plane. The rest of the family is doing much better than me. Leya and Jordan have been sleeping-in while Julian is at summer school and Liubinka's been taking them to the pool in the afternoons if she isn't busy with something else. I've been getting off of work after 5:00 lately, so by the time I get home I just want to eat dinner and go to bed. We went to the pool for a few hours today, though, and everybody had a good time. I finally finished setting-up our home-theater system in the living room (after three months) so we all watched "Hoodwinked." I had promised to go see "Cars" tomorrow, but we'll see if anyone remembers... I've got a bunch of work to do around the house. Take care everybody.

-Dave

La Buena Vida

David, Liubinka, Chris, Ashley, Greg, Angela and I took in Vientos del Pueblo on the plaza in downtown Douglasville.

Nothing much going on here either

My life is so boring, but I am happy. Hector is having an awards ceremony next Tuesday- They won't tell me what type of award he is going to get, though.Ruben is Ruben. His teacher called again....time to take the television/video games out of his room. BTW I am making him go to summer school. It is not that he isn't intelligent enough, but it is just that he is motivationally challenged when it comes to turning in his homework.Chela is going to summer school also, it seems as if she has trouble reading.She has to catch up to the other kids. Me, I am taking the two classes that I need to graduate in one shot over the summer. I am so scared that I will fail.I have been having brain problems when in comes to doing the writing assignments. My intellect fails me.Well, what is left to write about? I baked an awesome pound cake. I got the recipe out of moms old cookbook. The big fat, falling apart book without a cover. The one from the 1950's, before they worried about cholesterol. Well, I feel a little guilty because it wasn't the healthiest thing to make.Luis is fine. he is all about school-no free time. Once in a while we will watch TV together but that is it.It is finals week for him right now. Well, despite the early hour, I am sleepy. (Probably from eating a big meal.) I think I will go lay down......: ) God Bless Everyone

Ramblings from Beantown

There hasn't been much going on since the last time I posted. Just work and home mostly and I don't post much about work except in the most general sense, because you just never know what can get around. Many an idiot has been fired for posting stuff on line that any intelligent person should know not to do, then they are crying the blues when they get fired. I remember one particular incident from a woman last year who posted slightly risque photos of herself in her flight attendant uniform online and then got canned. Well what did she expect to happen? Duh!

Daniel's finger is still broke, but they put a cast almost up to his elbow -- for a broken finger! Hopefully it will teach him to be more careful next time but I am not betting the farm on it. He's been living it up at Suzanne's since Saturday. She took him camping and they are going to Dollywood today. Yep, I think he's being treated real good. I'm glad he is having fun. He said he misses me but he didn't miss home. I just hope I don't have to hog tie him to get him in the car for the return trip.

Lea Anna freaked Gary out a bit yesterday. Out of the blue she drew a picture for Grandpa who "lives in the graveyard". He asked her if Grandpa talks to her. "No". (Big sigh of relief) His four year old grand-niece sometimes has conversations with Grandpa and has described him in detail to her mother, even though he passed away before she was born.

All yesterday evening I kept hearing the annoying doo-doo-DOO-doo alarm of the "News Channel 5 storm watch". Apparently there was some nasty stuff heading our way, but it was down to a trickle before it reached us. Thank goodness. I'm not a native. Earthquakes and riots I can deal with, but I just don't do tornados.

Here's a new word for the day:
MALEDICTAPHOBIA: The fear of bad words (yes this is a real phobia!)

Whats New

Since nobody is posting anything, I guess it's up to me, no matter how boring my life is. I got a second job as a server at a sports bar across from Cumberland Mall (yay!) and I'm not sure if the extra money in my bank account is coming from me working more or just not having the time to spend any of it. Not that I care, as long as it's there, right? So aside from working my tushie off, the only thing I have to look forward to right now is six of my soon-to-be-in-laws coming up from Florida to stay in my tiny one-bedroom apartment for a few days at the end of the month. Steve's mom apparently has talked to him about it before, but he never mentioned it to me (not sure when he would have had the opportunity- I'm always at work). I gave her a call on Saturday when I was in between shifts and she said something to the effect of "we'll be up sometime around the 29th or so, and we're all going to crash at your place and wake up early and go to six flags" and I tried not to sound like that was the first time I heard anything about it. It's going to be Steve's mom, his middle brother, his wife and baby, his younger brother and his girlfriend, too. Plus me, Steve, and the three dogs. I love his family, but I don't think they realize just how small our place is, and just how crowded it's going to be. Not to mention the fact that we only have ONE BATHROOM...aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! I think I'm going to need a vacation after their vacation.