Waldo Canyon Fire

I’ve never had a hometown.
I’m not from anywhere.
For me to tell you I have never felt more at home and peace in a place would be an understatement.
Colorado Springs is my home now.
I have lived here for 5 years and I don’t plan on leaving.

Saturday June 23 a wisp of smoke was spotted.
The next day we had a full blown forest fire.
A whole town, Manitou Springs, was evacuated.

On June 26th we watched this devastating fire lick the peaks of our beautiful hills as it got dangerously close to homes…then the sky blew up as the winds gusted.
You could see it all over from many vantage points.
Burning eyes of red flames dotting and spreading as we caught on fire.
Mouths agape covered with our hands we watched in shock.

Let us all be thankful that those people in those houses were evacuated in time.

The firefighters have come from all over the country to help fight this fire.
Our police have been busy as well keeping the criminals from entering evacuated sites.

The Care and Share drop off has had a mile long line as my/our community comes together like I have never seen a community do so.
This is not a normal town. This is the second largest city in Colorado but still a small town where everyone knows someone affected.
We learned today that 346 houses/peoples homes were destroyed.
16,500 acres burned and over 35,000 evacuees.

This city of Colorado Springs and the state of Colorado is one of the most amazing places I have ever been and lived (that says a lot, I’ve been all over the world).
The people are happy, and wouldn’t you be if you got to live here?
I know my checkout cashiers and the guy that bags my groceries.
I even like my landlord.
My Children will know Colorado Springs as their home town.

This is MY Colorado.

The Denver Sidewalk Chalk Festival.

Hanging Lake.

Boulder

Random deer...

This is my LoveBug two blocks from my house

This is OUR Colorado.





If you want to help there are many sites like the Red Cross, and you can ear mark your money to go where you desire…

One site I kinda like…a lot is
http://www.wildfiretees.com/
You can also like them on Facebook.
El Pomar is also a wonderful site that has been a local and loving member to our community, as it IS our community.
This is a beginning not an ending. Our economy will boom.

Dumb-Ass Hot-Mess

How do you tell your Mom and Dad…
Me…”Sorry Mom and Dad, I’m not sure if you raised a dumb-ass of a hot-mess or I just became one as my years as a klutz on this earth escalated into this Un-Holy being that I am now."
I can sorta blame it on them right? Well maybe her. (I love you Mom…I’m YOUR girl.)
My Mom did take a tumble while I was busy minding my business trying to take human form, although Un-Holy for sure, in her Uterus sucking every fun quality I could from her…she kept many for herself though as she puffed away on her Virginia Slims, thankfully.
I’M JOKING!!! Not about the tumble and I was the one of the four of us that she didn’t smoke with while pregnant.

I think I have always been a disaster, a ragamuffin, a pigpen…
…Even at the age of 40, put me on a water ride with a bunch of Children and I’m the one that gets soaked to the bone, hair matted down to that of my greasy headed youth…
I can’t walk up the stairs with out tripping…This shiz has amplified as I’ve grown older.
When I was a Child I broke my thigh bone connected to the hip bone so high I was in a body-cast for some time…wheeled around in a red wagon by my siblings and cousins…I had to learn to walk all over again…Ahhhhhhh...Youth!
Youth is no longer on my side and Karma seems to be taking over. You would have thought I followed direct orders and killed an innocent bystander…he was guilty though, I swear. (That’s a joke people. I don’t think I’ve ever killed anyone…Not even on our road trip last year when the rear lights weren't working we turned ALL the lights on in the camper we were towing during a heavy down pour at dusk:/ I’ve done everything I can to prevent it.)

Some/Most to include my passive aggressiveness of my ailments are just remnants of injuries that have gone haywire in the last months as I’ve tried to ignore them, knowing deep down inside my mantra is…
…”Cells are just a pre-cancerous condition”
I should be thankful so far that all I have wrong with me is some bone, nerve, arthritis and tendon issues.

Note…We are all gonna die…it’s inevitable.

I could put it off no longer…I had to make an appointment with my hand/wrist Doc/Surgeon.

For the last 5 months I’ve lived under the guise of not being crippled. (I’m not really crippled, I’m just bitchy and probably PMS because if I’m not in the midst of my cycle, well you should just gather that I am PMS.)
In my right wrist I have an evil case of tendonitis only appropriate for an Un-Holy being.
It’s left a protruding ‘painful' nodule about the size of a penny on the underside of my wrist.
I’ve had it for months, 7(?) of them. My Doc tried injecting me with 'I don’t know what' but it looked like a 7 month old babies snot that’s had a cold for a couple weeks and the Mom is sick of wiping it on her sleeve so until someone looks she just lets that young child have a snack that’s dripped from it’s nose to perhaps ease the tension? blow up the tendon? I don’t know…but it was the easiest most un-invasive procedure that could possibly fix my problem. I waited for it to perhaps suicide subside. It worked for a few weeks then came back like that 3rd cousin that finds you after you win the lottery and Judge Judy can’t get rid of them with out the help of sidekick Byrd…After I had another visit with him where he said another shot won’t cure it and that I should see how long I can take it then go from there.
Well here I am months later and surgery to remove my tendon is now really only debatable in my psyche.
How excited am I?!
Not.
I made suggested we try another shot hoping the pain would at least ease for awhile. Now my wrist hurts and is bruised but I think it will ease my discomfort...a bit for a few weeks till I set the date to get rid of that bitchy tendon that it turns out …I don’t need?!!!

My left arm has also acted up in the oddest ways…my pinky and ring finger have enjoyed a great deal of attention and are acting like brats…The pain(?) enjoys taking road trips up my forearm and likes to party at night with my right forearm.
I have to see a nerve specialist. We will have to go from there about that…

My thumbs are…”A monkey can do that!” They don’t have thumbs…I have thumbs that are just malicious and bad tempered and need to be shackled into submission (braces when they hurt is what I mean, that’s not a sexual reference, pervert;).

http://behindthebookscover.blogspot.com/2012/02/rock-and-hard-place.html

This was written not for sympathy…Phleeeeease…Big picture people…I’ve got that.
It was written for my friends that got frustrated with me when I didn’t tell them that I had injured my right wrist…
…And most of all for my own entertainment.

Surgeon Is Retiring

OEF ‘06

My Ex Husband, "Surgeon", is retiring tomorrow from the Air Force after 25 years of service.

Yes, we have had our differences and are probably two of the most opposite people on the planet but to say I wasn’t proud of him and his accomplishments would be a lie.

Honor, dignity, integrity…

He is a 1987 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.
He was a T-37 instructor and an HH-60 pilot, a Jolly Green Giant.
He was Commander of the largest Rescue Squadron in the Air Force.
He is retiring as the Chief Of Staff, Domestic Relation, NorthCOM (I think that’s his title) as an 06.

I don’t even think I can count the multitude of deployments to…
Kuwait
Turkey
Iraq
Afghanistan
Sri Lanka
…yada, yada, yada...
ALL the TDY’s, that number would be off the hook...

All the deployments, TDY’s and his dreaded Blackberry end tomorrow as he begins a new life…a less stressful one as a math teacher at one of the best high schools in Colorado.

I don’t believe he shared his retirement date via social media so this is me announcing it for him if you had not heard.

…”These things we do...that others may live”…was his motto for so many years and his green feet I believe he will always wear with pride.

The Coupon Craze

I used to coupon years ago but it was an unorganized mess of cut-out colouful pieces of paper shoved haphazardly in no particular order in a battered envelope. I wasn’t very successful.
I’m successful saving money at the store/cooking our meals and not buying prepared foods and such (mostly)…but I knew I could do better.

Note…Kat and I come up with ingenious ways to save money…not just irritate people.

Several months ago Kat and I were hanging out trying to find nothing to do as our children ran wildly around making animal noises irritating each other…Flipping through the channels we came across the show, ‘Extreme Couponing’…She says to me…
…”Don’t you coupon?”
Me…”No.”
Kat…”You are gonna start.”

That Beeeeahtch decided to set me up.

She brought over some of her sons clear baseball card insert thingys and I put them in a notebook.
…and off I went.
On Sundays now I go over early and steal her newspaper from her driveway to check for good coupons. If there are any one of us will go to the local Walgreens and grab a few papers for each of us.

You HAVE to be smart about this and not get caught up in…
…”Oohhhh…I have a coupon, I should buy it.”
You have to look up the store you frequent coupon policy for one. (Extreme couponing does not really exist.)
My favorite grocery store allows 3 like items with coupons. It doubles coupons up to $1.00 everyday as well.
Sales start on Sundays and Wednesdays, you most likely get circulars in the mail and you should read them.
If you are able to take time in the store you will see additional sales.
You can download coupons on to your store card so you don’t have to carry coupons, but you can not load multiple coupons but you can cut out multiple coupons.
Take a calculator with you. Often times when a gift card or ‘Walgreens cash’ or such is involved the items are not on sale and math is involved…
It might still be a better deal or it might be a better deal to wait to use your coupons till such items go on sale, forgoing your ‘cash' or gift card.
Don’t buy shiz you would not use.

Sometimes the store brand is cheaper than a name brand even with a doubled coupon.
Sometimes somethings will be cheaper at one store and others cheaper at the store you regularly shop…is it worth your time and gas?
Sometimes shopping at Costco or Sam’s is a better deal. If you don’t think you can use a case, or don’t have room for a case, of apples? or an absurd amount of salami, go in with a friend and split it.

It’s like a game of 'The Price Is Right’.

I have been able to get toothpaste for less than a dollar, deodorant for 6 cents, Raman (which my boys love) for free, Tide for $2.00, Ragu (which I bought for ‘emergency purposes’) for 17 cents.

Other ways I save money are much more traditional...
…Buy meat on sale, only when it’s on sale.
Plan your meals ahead of time as you look at your circulars but don’t get stuck on said meals…I plan meals while I’m at the store as I see what’s on sale.
Chicken with bones in are always cheaper and removing bones is not that difficult or time consuming with practice.

Above I said ‘extreme couponing doesn’t exist’…That does not mean you can not save 1/3 off your grocery bill.
http://www.jillcataldo.com/supermarket_apologizes_for_extremecouponing

Some of my favorite sties and Apps are below…
http://www.passionforsavings.com/2011/04/extreme-couponing/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-Coupon-Lady/142411752444680?ref=ts

http://www.couponsherpa.com/

http://www.totallytarget.com/

There are so many site you can access these days and it only takes a few minutes to do so. It’s only worth it if you DO it though.