I know it has been awhile but our internet has been very slow. It would take a long time for the pages to load and I just didn't have the patience to wait. It is still not as fast as it should be. It's all because of this thing called "Fair Access". We have satellite internet and if you use too much bandwidth they slow you down. I think it "stinks", but what can ya do???? We are paying for it, we should get to use it....Enough of that.....
My neice has just finished her second week of radiation and chemotherapy. The doctors told her that everything is looking "good". The baby is doing great.
She weighs 6 1/2 pounds and is 20 inches long. I have not been around the baby since she was able to come home because last week I came down with a cold. I sure wasn't going to get her sick. I can't wait till I am over this so I can hold her. Ritzy can't wait either because my night coughing keeps him (and me) awake...
It has been wet and cloudy for a while and I am ready to see a sunny day. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.
It is after midnight and I am wide awake. Could be because of that frozen coffee I drank around 8 tonite ;-)
The daughter was telling me about them and I had her get me one on her way home from work tonite. Quik Trip has them. It sure was good, but I am paying for it now. I went to bed and tried to fall asleep, but that wasn't working so here I am........
Ritzy and I bought some new furniture and it was delivered yesterday. I love it!!!!
A large couch, a chair and 1/2 and a large ottoman. NICE!!!!!!
This should last Ritzy and I quite a while....."it better as much as I spent on it, haha!!"
I have already told those 2 adult kids no eating, drinking, or dogs on it....I expect them to follow the rules...
We saved the old couch, for whoever moves out first, hahaha!!!!! nothing really wrong with it except it reclined on each end and was smaller than the new one. I was ready for a real sofa.....
I was telling the daughter that we have enough furniture in our garage to furnish a small apartment, hint, hint.........
Ritzy has been busy cutting and selling wood. Wow, that big woodpile dwindled to almost nothing the past couple of weeks. People are getting ready for winter.
My sister's and neice's friends are having a benefit supper at our church for the neice tomorrow night which I hope does well. I told Ritzy that is where we are going for our supper. (I smarter than I look, haha.) That way - I don't have to cook or clean my kitchen.......
This is about all I have for now. Hopefully my next post won't take as long....
Ritzywife out!

My neice is doing ok after her surgery. She still has to talk slow and sometimes can't think of the word she is trying to say. A BIG difference frome the way she used to be. The baby, a little girl, is still in the hospital. She is finally starting to drink from a bottle. We are hoping that by the end of the week she will get to come home. I learned today that my neice has Astrocytoma - grade III cancer in her brain. That is not good at all. She has been to the dr.'s who will be treating her the past 2 days to set up a treatment plan. She goes to get the staples out Friday and next Wednesday she starts 6 weeks of Radiation 5 days a week. She will also be taking a chemotherapy pill for a year. This is going to be a long haul for everyone. I realize that sometimes healing doesn't take place. God never promised it would. What He does promise is that He will be there to help us through whatever happens. I am going to leave it at that.
It has been busy around here. We were either going to the hospital or down to my sister's or babysitting here at home the past few weeks.
I still cannot believe this is happening.
She is the first grand-child of our immediate family. Of course I spoiled her rotten when she was little. She was 4 years old when Ritzy and I married. We have always been close. I could always tell her what I thought, good or bad. Granny & Papa have 20 grand, great-grandchildren now. No thanks to my two kids ;-) I wish they would contribute their part, haha!!!!!
On to other things............the weather here in Oklahoma has been wonderful lately!!!! I know it won't last, but it will be hard to see it turn colder.
I think with the weather pattern we have had we are due for a beautiful Fall. I see the leaves on the trees turning and it is really pretty.
Ritzy is talking about bringing some wood up to the house to prepare for the cold weather.
This looks to be a busy week also, and with that Ritzywife is out.............

I don't know how else to say it. What do you do????
My neice just delivered her baby 9 weeks early. Baby weighed just a little over 4 lbs. She is doing very well. As for the neice, not so hot. During the pregnancy she learned she had a "mass" in her brain. The plan was to let the baby be born and then do a biopsy on the mass. Well that did not happen. Tuesday she was having a bad headache and her baby doctor suggested a ct scan. It showed the mass had grown significantly in the past couple of months, so......change of plans. Wednesday, they put the neice out, delivered the baby by c-section, and immedietly went to brain surgery. The surgeon told us ge got "all he could" (maybe half to 3/4 of the tumor) without hurting her. She was still having a few problems thinking and talking, dont know if that is due to the tumor itself, the surgery or the swelling, but Ritzy and I went to visit her last night and she was not doing well at all. Could not think,or tell us where she was and had a very limited vocabulary. I was more than a little worried. We found out this morning that the mass is malignant cancer. Geez, she is only 28 years old with a husband, 8 yr old son and daughters - ages--4, 10 months and newborn.
This Aunt is ticked off and that is putting it nicely!!!!!!!!!!!
We will be pulling together as a family and helping with the kids or neice or whatever. I think they are going to send her to Houston soon for treatment.
That is about all I have for now.
Ritzywife is out!!!

While catching up on news today I saw an article about an AP photographer taking a picture of a Marine in his final moments. A lot of people, including our Secretary of Defense had a problem with the publication of this photo. As I sat here and looked at the photo I was saddened that this young man lost his life. Some might say he knew this could happen when he enlisted. Yes, he did, but not for such a cause as this. I stopped and said a prayer for his family, I was surprised that it caused so much emotion in me. I guess being an army wife all these years has caused me to care maybe a little more, I don't know.....
As for the photo, I believe it should be published along with others so people can see the reality of what war brings. WAR = DEATH, that's the bottom line and if you don't have anyone affected then you have nothing to lose. Those who have loved ones fighting in this war have everything to lose.
What are we really doing over there anyway. Those people are never going to change and what right do we have to invade their country and take over when we haven't done such a "hot" job of our own. Yes, there needed to be some repercussions about 9/11 but we did NOT go about it the right way.
On to better things, life does still go on here in "another world"......I did get that bedroom papered and loved the way it turned out. Got it done before Ritzy got home from work, just barely...... I laid tile in the kitchen and have been doing some VERY heavy cleaning this past week. It felt good to get all that done. While Ritzy was gone I just did not care about anything and he has been back almost a year now and I just now have felt like doing all this work on the house. Pretty soon we will be putting a new roof on. It will be a metal one. That ought to be fun ;-)
This is Labor Day Weekend and the "last" summer holiday. I am sad to see the days getting shorter (unlike last year when I could not wait until Fall cause that was when Ritzy was returning home from Iraq) and the leaves start to fall from the trees. I know it won't be long until the trees and bushes will be bare.
Monday we will be eating Bar-b-que at Mom & Dad's. Yummmmmmmm.............
I have all my housework done for the day, nothing to do now except go outside and watch Ritzy work ;-)
With that Ritzywife is out..........

A person can usually count on August being HOT and humid, but not so much this year. It's been a pretty decent August except...... the other thing we can count on here in the Sooner State - ragweed....YUK!!!!
The daughter, a neice, Ritzy and I have all been having itchy watery eyes and sneezing. The daughter asked me what was going on and I told her it was probably ragweed causing her problems. I let her know that it will only last until that first freeze.
The sun set before 8:00pm tonite. It always makes me a little sad to see the daylight get shorter.
I have a surprise for Ritzy tomorrow....hehehe!!!!!! I am going to paper the bedroom,put up border, put up new blinds, and change all the bedding. Mom is going to show up early in the morning and we are going to try to be finished by the time Ritzy gets home. I have had it "hiding" in the closet for a couple of days. You see, Ritzy and I have separate closets, so he doesn't have a clue.
I hope he likes it.........Darn - he came in here and started to look at the screen and I had to tell him he could not see it yet, but he would find out tomorrow why.
I am excited to start doing the work, sure hope I get some sleep tonite ;-)
Well, I better call it quits for the night and "try" to get some rest. I gonna need it!!
Ritzywife out...............

Around here I see leaves falling, the grass is not as green or growing as fast. I know some of this is happening because of lack of rain. Oklahoma has had an unseasonably cool August this year. Ritzy and I have been eating our suppers out on the patio each evening, then spending time on the porch swing listening to & watching the birds or watching traffic as it goes by, or just sharing our events of the day. Usually in August it is too hot to even breath outside, but not this year.......like I have said before: it's been a strange one....
Our garden is mostly gone, only the okra and a few pole beans left. I need to pick the grapes and make some jelly in the next couple of days. We only have one vine, but it is loaded. It takes up about 20 feet of fence. Dad planted that vine there when I was a teenager. That thing is OLD!!!! hahaha!! This has been the first in a number of years that the weather has cooperated and I have been able to have grapes to pick.
Our last official summer holiday is soon coming upon us. The hours of sunlight are shrinking. I have to get myself ready to face the fact that Fall & Winter are just about here. Don't get me wrong, I like all the seasons, but Spring & Summer are my favorite.
I guess that's all I have for this time. Ritzywife out..........

But, we had a very happy anniversary on 7/30/2009. Ritzy and I got away for the evening. Just to spend time together without any interruptions. We just "chilled" in the hotel til dinnertime. Went out to eat at Olive Garden, came back and did some more"chillin". After spending last year's anniversary alone, with Ritzy in Iraq, it was wonderful just to be together.
It doesn't take much materially to make Ritzywife happy. I just wanted to spend time with Ritzy. We really had not had a chance to do that since Ritzy's return last October. We were always doing something for family, his or mine.
I cannot believe it has been 26 years already. Where did the time go!?! Looking forward to whatever the future holds for us. Hopefully some grandkids, ;-)
My niece is going to have a garage sale here tomorrow and the next 3 weekends. I've been busy cleaning and finding things I don't need anymore. I did find some things for the sale, but Ritzy took a lot of it to the dumpster. It feels good to clean and get rid of stuff that I don't have any idea why I kept it in the first place. I just bet Ritzy had a big smile on his face as he was carrying that "stuff" to the dumpster. hehehehe!!!!!
Our daughter lost one of her chihuahuas (ROO) this week. It was the one she bought after graduating high school. I am sorry it happened, but there was nothing we could do. She still has a male chihuahua. He is a little over a year old.
She brought home 2 kittens, but they seem to have disappeared.
Today is "Sissy's" birthday, she is 4 years old. Her party is this Saturday.
It is hard to believe it is August already. The Oklahoma troops (The 45th Fires Brigade) that were deployed last year about the same time Ritzy was returning home have started to return to their re-deployment site. They should be in Oklahoma next week. There are about 800 of them. For the most part we will have all our Oklahoma National Guard home for the first time in quite a while. As I sit here I think about what their families are feeling and the emotions they are dealing with. I came across some pictures of the day Ritzy deployed and it brought back the feelings I had when I knew it would be a long time before I would see him again. Deployment touches you in ways you never thought of. That's why you should cherish every moment you have with your family, even if they are driving you crazy.
Ending with that, I am outta here..............