ryenn's talent show

Ryenn had her talent show last week and she ROCKED. she did "mad world". i just had to giggle because my 8 yr old is singing such a sad but beautiful song. the instrumental version my brother made, while i thought was wonderful, she just couldn't keep in time with and the same happened with the "karaoke" version off itunes. so, that afternoon before the talent show as she cried out of frustration and fear of not being able to sing with the music i suggested she sing it acapella (sp?). and that she did. and my lovely talented daughter stays on key the whole time. the video is off izsak's phone so its not the greatest and he wasn't the most still. and he ended up having to delete something real quick to fit the whole song, so there's a pause and it resumes in the second video posted. enjoy!

on the eve of veteran's day

I'm feeling pretty bitter this particular veteran's day eve. the vet we're associated w/ is floudering so badly he's acting extremely out of character the last couple months and has caused turmoil and pain to his wife and children. but this is not the government's fault. it's his. he refuses counseling and drinks to quell the effects of his ptsd. its just easier.

and so here i am, separated from my husband while i desperately look for a job and am told today that even a temp agency isn't able to help me because i haven't worked in the last couple years. "what have you been up to since 2001 then?" and i told her. i was a stay at home mom who got a ba in history and wrote a children's book about ptsd based on my experiences. she was kind enough to suggest some other temp agencies that hire "entry level" clerical positions. it's just sooo frustrating and discouraging and so totally disheartening to the point of tears that the general public just DOESN'T UNDERSTAND the sacrifices made by the SPOUSE of a disabled vet. that when that spouse has to suddenly find herself a job, the fact that she went to school, raised two kids and was a part-time caregiver to a disabled vet doesn't matter. doesn't count as any sort of work. the vets and disabled vets have a nice little box they can check stating they are such things. but there is nothing for the SPOUSE of the disabled vet to check. that she hasn't just been sitting on her ass the last 8 years. there's no special treatment for the spouse. there SHOULD be. yes...i feel there should be! we make ample sacrifices that are completely taken for granted....

done venting for now. but still upset. maybe someday i'll figure out a way to change things.

halloween 2009

So, it was a pretty low-key halloween here...as a disclaimer, the photos were taken w/ cell phones...i thought the length-wise pic of izsak was in focus and megan (ryenn's best friend aiden's mom) has a new phone she's still figuring out, so some of her pics a bit blurry too.

izsak was a post-apocolyptic raider or something like that...that's why he's all dirty w/ dirt and blood. he was invited to go to a halloween party and trick or treating w/ a bunch of friends from school and that's what he did.

miss ryenn was a vampire and she was invited to go trick or treating w/ aiden (that's his little sister ava w/ them) and spend the night.

look at ava copying everything ryenn does. :)

ryenn wore my high-heeled black boots and to my astonishment they didn't seem to look too big on her and upon inspection w/ our feet together found that my big toe is only an inch longer than her's. for heaven's sake that girl has big feet. :)

anyways...the only kids to come to my door were the ones brought by izsak. very slow going on our dark street. so i just got me a couple movies (not scary ones) at blockbuster and enjoyed the time alone. :)

a bite

Received a letter yesterday from a subsidy of the Macmillian publishing company saying they'd like to see a copy of my book for consideration! its been sooo quiet on all the various book fronts i got going on i was feeling discouraged. and right now in my life, this little bit of encouragement is so appreciated! God's timing is perfect. :) and while i know they may decide not to publish it, at least a copy has been requested! so exciting!

sharing

Ah...finally got 3 rolls of film developed because i'm so old school and w/ my old school camera i scored some pretty cool pics when it decided to cooperate, so i'm sharing cause i'm proud. :) (izsak says i should take pics for natl geographic...ah. isn't he sweet?) ps--ryenn just held up the developed film and asked "what's this?" :)

mt pisgah

So. We went to Mt. Pisgah, which i don't think is really a mt. for a hike on sunday w/ our friends carl and michelle and their dogs dakotah and bixie (leo is not as well trained and due to lack of energy lately dealing w/ him and hiking would've been too much for me)

Izsak was given full reign of the camera at one point. just guess which pics are his...

Izsak wanted ryenn to pose like they're throwing spears, she had other ideas. :)

It was a gorgeous fall day and perfect for a hike. So glad we did it.

The following is a pic of ryenn in our bkyd....she has taken to this spot to just sit and look at the sky and feel the native clover underneath her. couldn't resist taking some pics of her one day.. enjoy this one. :)

google!

you can find adjusting w/ daddy website on google now! under my name, the title or "children's book about ptsd" (i'm the last site on the FIRST page!). woo hoo!!!

feeling discouraged

i'm feeling rather discouraged today as i sit here and print out envelopes for flyers about my bk. last wk i sent plenty to all the various va places listed on the va.gov to washington state and nothing. there is a stack of envelopes w/ flyers ready to be sent to idaho and nevada once i go get stamps and now i'm working on california (va clinics & hospitals only...man, one forgets how big california is until there are tons to send flyers to). but just thought i'd share that the silence sure puts doubts in one's head as to whether one had a good idea or not. on the other hand, my first little check for a little order came today, so that's good, but somehow i'm not very encouraged. maybe if i just got enough sleep i wouldn't feel so down. stupid husband and his nightmares and old dog w/ his wandering in the middle of the night (last night he needed to go out every two hrs. for what i don't know but he'd wander --on our wood floors, clink clink clink--and scratch til we let him out). what a bitch session! its done for now. :)

beatin' the heat last week

Last week it was in the hundreds, as in 103-106, and while i grew up in that kind of weather we had the benefit of air conditioning. here in the pacific northwest, the need for air conditioning isn't as great and many of the older homes (like my own) do not have ac. therefore to beat the heat we headed to the coast for a couple days w/ rob's cousin jamie and her brood. i brought my own camera but didn't use it due to the glare which would've washed out the pictures (especially w/ my shutter being tempermental). but jamie took pics and i copied them and am now sharing. here they be:

at a beach in lincoln city, ryenn and goggles in a section of trapped water between the beach and ocean

izsak in same water and as always, a hat
rob and jamie's husband, cory, waiting for the frisbee to come there way

rob looks like he's walking like a robot

me. notice my eyes are closed, jamie obviously too this on the sly...but there are so few pictures of me, i posted it anyway

rob playing frisbee and if you look real hard you can see the kids in the bkgnd

end of day one and a dinner trip to mo's. one of the rare pics of izsak sans a hat

izsak, 2nd cousin courtney, ryenn and the girl in pink is 2nd cousin emily. they proceeded to dig a large hole between some logs

rob, who stole is hat back from me (and now i have new "old lady freckles") kickin' at beverly beach. you can't see them, but the dogs and myself are behind rob up the beach. it took leo a bit but he soon was obeying "no bark" and managing to chill out. i brought sparky's crate for him and he was very happy he did i think. he seemed quite comfortable. poor old dog.

2nd cousin connor and miss ryenn

here's ryenn again. i should tell a little story. there to the left out of view, is a fresh water trickle to the ocean. i was looking out there watching the kids and there was this girl bent down with blonde hair and i thought "wow, that girl is so dark." and then she bobbed up and i noticed it was MY dark, tanned blonde girl. :)

the cutest picture ever of courtney and izsak (they are almost a yr apart in age, courtney turning 13 this month)

and one more picture of miss ryenn all buired in sand (course she was not enjoying sand all the various places after the fact)

So, there ya go. there's the lastest of the neill adventures. next on the agenda is a wedding we're all going to in a barn at silver falls in two wks! woo hoo!

new website

welp. i got a website up and running about my book. its www.adjustingwithdaddy.com. i have a friend who knows about marketing my site and i'll have to talk to him soon because i don't come up on the search engines (except for my fb stuff). but just thought i'd put an fyi out there. :)

a bit more about today

I couldn't help myself, here is yet another picture of our pool deck from the view of sitting on the patio deck.

And, to celebrate our anniversary we ordered a papa's pizza and ate it on the front room floor, just like we did one year ago. :)

1 yr anniversary as homeowners!

A year ago today we moved into our first house as actual owners. And we have been busy! Here is a look back at what was and what is today.

This is how the front yard looked when we first moved in. And while its summer so its all green and lovely, come winter those big, huge bushes die a rather sad, ugly death and require maintenance we just didn't want to deal with...

So i tore it all out. And just started getting rid of the hedge last week. Its not as involved, but we have plans to push the front room out to the garage someday, so its just temporary. this summer its been an experiment to see what comes up!
This is the very edge of our yard in the front. cherry trees that don't produce cherries. and lovely pavers

So...since the pavers weren't really lovely but lame, i removed them and added the daphne's from the front...i have no idea what i'm doing. our concentration has been the bkyd. one day our front yd will look much better.

so...speaking of bkyd, let's go there next. this is what this section of the bkyd looked like upon arrival. we found this dirt spot w/ nasty dying plants odd.

after consulting with and "hiring" (at no cost) our landscape architect friend danae, we've made some changes. our goal is a bkyd w/ a nw/ japanese feel.
this is what we've done. put more dirt in a more logical fashion, added a stone wall, asian pear tree, a japanese willow, hostas and ferns. the daisies were a replant of mine that won't be staying...i'm going to replant them in the front this fall

and this is what the deck looked like when we first moved in! we cut into that section our original pool was on and added our above ground pool last summer.

and of course this year we've been crazy busy (well, rob mostly) creating our new deck. and this is where we currently are as of today.

its amazing isn't it?

let's go in side...

this is what the back room looked like when we checking out the house as a possible purchase (so the furniture is the previous owners).

the walls are teal and the floor is pergo.

well...teal walls is hardly our thing and pergo floors do not go well w/ surround sound and kids laying on the floor watching tv. so we painted the walls nugget and added soft carpet i got for a steal!

next is the bathroom. oak shutters (ugh) and the walls were this odd light blue that i found hideous. so much it hurt.

so...we painted them royal blue w/ a sponge and purchase and painted royal blue some wainscoating. the sponging was awful (live and learn!). made it too dark, so...all on my own because rob wasn't nearly as bothered, i re-painted it all white.

and we added faux-wood white blinds.

let's venture to my bdrm. this is what the previous owner had going on. LAVENDAR walls. obviously, anyone who knows me knows that i couldn't possibly sleep w/ lavendar walls.

so for the time being, we simply repainted the walls w/ the same nugget as the tv rm.

(avert your eyes from the mess)

and light fixtures. man. have we learned about light fixtures! this one is a unique one we found. we love it. not terribly complicated to put up.

ah...and the bthrm. the light fixture in the bthm originally was the simple oak (what wood in this house ISN'T) w/ round lights. and an oak medicine cabinet. this mirror was on the wall behind. so we moved the mirror and purchased these lights. this light fixture seemed like a breeze after our first experience....

which is THIS light/fan fixture. good golly! this was such a pain in the butt!! it is remote only (no switch) for the fan. it has more than two electrical wires. it is heavy. we put it up, didn't work. tried again. didn't work. left it for a couple days. tried again. didn't work. left it for another day and tried again. still nothing. fed up we went to the store and asked for a new remote in case it was a remote issue. came home w/ a new remote (no charge. wonderful store). and waa laa. all that time it was a dud of a remote and not us and our wiring....we highly recommend that if your ceiling fan is w/in reach, one does NOT bother w/ a remote only fan...

but isn't it pretty? much better than the brass and white one w/ lovely flower lights...

and lastly. our addition to our family! gaiden and sweetie (as kittens)

and leo (when we first got him...he's about 10 mos)

i hope you enjoyed this journey through the last year! who knows what will be the update for year two!