An Incident....

Lee got home real late from work last night. Apparently there was an incident, and a helo crashed during training. All three that were aboard walked away. The helicopter came down on one of the runways at the airport...the air station is located at the airport. It will take forever for the reports to come out and we find out what happened.

The new budget for the Coast Guard is equal to the budgets they had in the early 90's....they are cutting active duty positions, they are letting people out of their commitments...it is a little bit of a scary time to be in the CG. The money is a lot less....but the mission never changes...the CG was one of the first on scene in Haiti...even with less assets (such as the loss of this and other helo's, planes and the decommissioning of the older fleet)...they still get the job done...under the craziest of circumstances. The CG's budget tends to make me get on my little soapbox and rant a little...ok, quite a lot really!

I am still so proud to be a CG wife and very proud of Lee....he works very hard for our family. He is really good at the job he does for the CG, and thankfully gets a little recognition here and there. Lee is Semper Paratus...always ready to do his job.

Click on the title of the post for the local papers coverage.

I forgot to introduce Bianca!!!

WE ARE GRANDPARENTS!!!

OK...so she is a little furrier than I anticipated our first grandbaby would be....but I find her irresistible!! Mason and Arrielle adopted a puppy....her name is Bianca. She is a Chihuahua Pug mix....also known as a Chug....which makes me laugh. She is almost 9 weeks old now. She is also being spoiled by her grandparents and great grandparents on both sides. We sent her a little care package of goodies and my dad had Mike deliver a little dog bed for her. I am jealous, because Arrielle's parents get to see her and snuggle her!! She is doing well with crate training and has Mace and Arrielle wrapped around her little paw! Isn't she adorable!!!

A little road trip....

Happy Monday! I got lucky over the weekend and got to get out of the county a little!! I know it sounds kind of funny.....but leaving the county is a big deal here!! I got to take a really quick trip with my buddy Susan to the Bay Area to look at a truck she was interested in. (No offense to all my Bay Area friends...I went as moral support for Susan, and to be her extra driver in case she bought the truck). We left late morning on Friday an got home on Saturday. It was a nice drive down....sunshine all the way. We hit the Bay Area....and I admit to being a little over whelmed....traffic in Eureka is nothing, we have a slow down on Broadway in the afternoons and that is about it except for summer when we get a little more tourist traffic. We navigated our way into Hayward....worked the deal on Susan's new truck and then high tailed it out of there....all the while I prayed that I could navigate us back to the North Bay from highway 580!! We made it though, with out incident. We did make stops to have breakfast with Makenzie (Susan's son's girlfriend) at Black Bear Diner.....they have amazing breakfasts, I will not forget the biscuit I had there anytime soon!! We also stopped at the outlet mall....I made my way into a Coach outlet store and did not buy a darn thing.....I must be losing it! I was thrilled with our stop in Ukiah, at Wal-Mart....funny how much you miss a store when you do not have one close by! I was like a kid in a candy store!! I slept like a baby on Saturday, tired from the driving and sunshine. The above picture is from the cows greeting us when we returned to Susan's to drop off the old truck, so she could take me home in the new one.

Elliott is on spring break this week. I am gonna try to get him out for some sort of adventure...and hopefully a few pictures!

I am bored.....

Here are a couple of the flower pots I have out front! I love the one with the snap dragons in it, it also has the Iris's Dad sent down planted in there as well! I also have some lavender and an African daisy out there. My tulips grew, but only one has bloomed and I do not think the others will...there is always next year. The heavily pruned rose we have by the front door (it came with the house) has sprung up like mad in the last couple weeks....there are even a couple delicate red roses that have bloomed. I am hoping to add more flowers as summer gets closer....I love a yard with lots of color!

Ok....so I will admit I am bored. I think I am bored with tv, bored with the internet, bored with cleaning and doing laundry. I have been looking for jobs....but there is not a lot of them out there. I am hoping that with the summer tourist season coming soon that there will be more availability. The budget is tight and it stresses and it stresses me out a lot. I should be taking advantage of all this free time and do all the crafts I have stashed in this room.....scrapbooking, crochet, cross stitch, beading...not to mention all my moms goodies that are stuffed in here as well. I am thankful for the friends I have here, that keep me going and get me out of the house to somewhere other that picking up Elliott and the grocery store.

I went to the doctor last week....it is the same doctor that delivered Elliott 17 years ago! How crazy is that. She was awesome and I am glad I chose her. I have been trying to take better care of this tub of a body I have been lugging around for far too long. I have been walking with my neighbor and with Lee and I have even drug out my Wii Fit game. I am not running marathons, but that 30 minutes of moving around does wonders for my self esteem and choosing to eat a little better. I hope the motivation sticks around this time!

Remembering Adrianna...

This is Adrianna.....she was a beautiful ball of fire!! She passed away three years ago today. Her mom is my wonderful friend Amy. I have four friends who have lost children.....much love to Christine, Amy, Judy and Jolette. These are the women that inspire me the most. I can not imagine the loss, and these women have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and have carried on. I have learned how to be a better friend from these women...making mistakes along the way, I learned to just be there. From the mistakes I made with Christine, when her baby died (I had never dealt with type of loss before, and it scared me)...I learned to just be there for Amy, spending the day on the couch, just listening and being another soul in the room so the house did not feel so empty. I would be sitting on that couch today if I could.

You are missed Adrianna....our butterfly!

Mason's visit.....

Mason finally getting off the plane!

Holy crap! We head off to go pick up Mason at the airport Friday evening and just as his plane should be landing...he texts me and say s that the plane hit a bird and they had to go back to Redding (CA) to see if there is damage. All I could think was....Shit! When planes hit birds..they land in the Hudson! The ground crew did not seem alarmed at all....so I tried not to worry....and since Redding is so close the delay was less than an hour. Scared me though. We had a great visit. lee and Mace went to the local music stores and played some guitar. They both loaded new music on their Ipod's (their Ipods use the Itunes on Mace's computer). We hit local pizza places two nights in a row!! Yum!! I got them to Easter egg hunt....with the promise of money in the eggs. Susan and William came over for Easter dinner....Mason's choice- cajun chicken and fettuccine alfredo. The weekend was too short!! I had to take him back to the airport on Monday morning.....he did leave his mark though....his bed was unmade and his room messy...just like normal!!!

scroll down for more pictures!!!!

Even More....

Getting ready to play, in Lee's guitar corner he set up in the garage!

Mason

Lee and Mason....Lee had a huge wad of gum in his mouth!!

Mason with pals from 4th grade, Angela and Kelsey!

More More....

Tired boy, tired dog!

How do you make a 17 & 19 year old hunt for Easter eggs??? Slip dollar bills in the eggs!

They say greyhounds are not always cat friendly...no one told Key!!

More.....

The boys Playing Super Smash Bros. ....this always leads to giggles!!

Mason, eating the last of the Ferndale Pizza Company pizza!!!

Squinting in the SUNSHINE!!!! It rained like Hell most of the time Mason was home!

An Angel was born....

"My beautiful baby girl Piper went home to be with Jesus. She was so loved! I will miss her so much but I know they had a party waiting for her!" Written by Piper's mommy tonight.

Baby Piper was only with us for 7 weeks, she gave it all she had. I'd like to think that the angels needed her more than we did. The strength her mom (Jolette) and dad (Shawn) have shown has been amazing. Jolette's faith never seemed tested or seemed to waiver. For being so young, Jolette turns 23 on Monday.... she has shown wisdom beyond her years, and a bravery that astounds me.

My deepest sympathies for the LaCombe family....Jolette, Shawn and Chloe. I wish I had the words to make everything better, my love is with you always.