We finally picked up Nicole's "new" used car last month 7/23....being the Ford family that we are it is--in keeping with tradition--a Mercury Sable (twin to the Ford Taurus).  It LOOKS like it's in good condition...but after driving it for awhile not so sure now.  The 'perfect' trunk that seems to have never been used might be that way because it was REPLACED.  Of course we did a CARFAX search but it showed NOTHING REPORTED....unfortunately if they don't report an accident it doesn't show up on CARFAX.  Oh well, no used car is perfect and at least it's driveable...for now.  SEE PHOTOS OF THE CAR! 

Robert made it to Baghdad after a multi-day trip to get there.  He's in temp quarters right now (4 person room, no internet, nothing but a bed pretty much).  He's been told he probably won't get into the permanent quarters until SEPTEMBER.  He's not happy about that.  The perm places are sleep 1-2 people and have internet access.  He said his new job he's going to be a jack-of-all-trades (like always!). 

 

I'm not trying to think of his time over there in days or months; but weeks.  So this is the beginning of week 1 of 52!  More updates to mark each week.

Joey got out of the hospital last week.  His cast is off and he looks alot better.  He had/has pins in one feet to fuse it back together and the knee on his other leg was/is messed up.  So in other words, one leg he can't put pressure or weight on it and the other leg he can't bend.  Obviously he's still in a wheelchair.

 

In a 'twist of fate' moment, we just found out today that the other person involved in the car accident (the car that Joey hit--only because it had already been involved in it's own accident and was sitting facing on-coming traffic on the highway, which Joey couldn't see until he was right upon it) was someone else that we knew.  It was the Uncle of one of Nicole's friends that used to live down the street from us!   WEIRD! 

On Monday, 11 Jun 07, we (as in Robert, Michelle, Rachel, and Nicole) attended Robert's official retirement ceremony.  Alex unfortunately wasn't there.  Due to his injury he didn't want to go and have 'everyone looking at him' so we didn't want to force him to go.  At the last minute we changed our mind and decided to bring him with anyway and let him wear an eye patch if he wanted to or not stand for photos, but at least have him there.  WELL....Monday was the first day of summer reading camp and he had to take a regular school bus to and from his School age Program that he attends over the summer on-base.  Being the first day of 'school' the buses were late....VERY LATE.  He was supposed to get out of school at 12/noon and should have been back on-base by 1pm at the latest.  We stopped by at 1:30pm and he still wasn't there and we couldn't wait for him.  So much for him going with us!

 

The ceremony was held in the main conference room and lasted about an hour.  Vice Admiral Nichols who is the Deputy Commander there and was also Robert's boss was the officiating officer.  Robert received an award, his retirement certificate (as seen in the photo), a certificate of appreciation from the command, a certificate of appreciation from the Chief of Staff of the Army (General Schoomaker), and a certificate of appreciation from President Bush.  He also received his flag case (also seen in the photos).  I received a certifiate of appreciation from Chief of Staff of the Army and another certificate of appreciation from the command.  The girls also receive a certificate of appreciation from the command, Alex did too of course.  Robert then gave a short speech and presented me and the girls with flowers (as seen in the photos).  He also then presented us with a gift (jewelery).

 

Afterwards we went outside and had the reception with cake (no photo taken of it unfortunately) and food.

Alex is doing just fine now.  The swelling has gone away and there is only a small bruise under his eye.  He had his stitches taken out on Friday and did just fine (no crying!).  There is only a small scab where the stitches were and still a few scabs where the bites under his chin.  He is back to his old self...thank goodness!

Well today was a rough day for poor little Alex.  We went to Rachel's college orientation and registration on Wed & Thurs only to return Thurs evening to find the air not working in the house!  Since this week we went to Disney-MGM for Star Wars Weekend for Alex's birthday (photos of that to be uploaded soon!) we decided to keep him home from daycare for the week.  Since he was at home and it was so hot with no air, his sister decided to take him to one of her friend's house. 

 

While there he was looking for something to play with when their dog bit him.  Robert, who was on his way on-base to practice for his retirement ceremony (!), came back and tracked down the EMT's on his way home who then drove to the friend's house to check on Alex.  When they got there they said that his eye was rather swollen and he was bleeding from one of the bite wounds so they said it was a good idea to take him to the ER.

 

I got the call while at work and met up with Robert and Alex at the pediatric ER at the hospital.  His wound was still bleeding so they said it needed stitches.  They were also concerned about the eye itself and had to dialate it to take a look.  They said that the bruising would get worse before it gets better.  It took 4 of us to hold him down for the stitches but we finally made it through them!  They had also said that his eye had a slight abrasion on it as well. 

 

What a cr#ppy birthday week! 

According to an on-line article on the UK Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=454090&in_page_id=1773) 140,000 tickets for Prince's concerts in London sold out in a mere 20 MINUTES.  6 more shows were quickly added but those are probably sold out too by now. 

 

Also, according to his 3121 web site on July 7th, 2007 he will have a 24 hour charity event and performance by Prince.  This is introduce his new 3121 fragrance that goes on sale at the same time, with 7% of the sales proceeds going to various charities. 

Glad graduation is over!  It was good but the venue was so large it was hard to get a good/close seat.  It was held at the Florida State Fairgrounds...not sure how long they have been doing it like this but no one has graduation at their actual high school anymore (in Hillsborough County anyway).  The schools are so big and there are so many of them that they all have them at either the Florida State Fairgrounds or the USF Sun Dome (of course we got the cr#ppy location!).  The graduations end up being spread out over an entire week.  Hers was Tuesday, May 22 2007.

 

The photos (see photo album) are from before and after the ceremony.  There is only 1 taken during the ceremony, of her walking down the aisle, but that should give you an idea of how far back we were.  The medallion that she has is just a Blake HS graduate medallion.  The blue 'stole' that she has is for National Honor Society (NHS).  She graduated in 'white' which means that she was an HONOR GRADUATE (GPA of over 4.0 or top 20% of her class).  Her actual GPA was 5.2 (might be higher since that didn't include last semester classes), and she graduated 24th in the class.

 

The graduation ceremony last 1 1/2 hours and there were seven (yes 7) speakers.  There were also 'professional' photos taken before they walked on stage, while getting their diploma on stage, and then after they got off-stage (with their diploma, standing in front of the American and Florida State flag). 

 

Of course no parents were allowed on or pretty much near the stage itself to get any decent photos.   The whole thing from ordering the cap/gown to the event itself is all one big money maker.  I don't know how the lower-income families afford it.  The cap and gown was $70 (don't think there was even any option to rent it, or if there was the cost wasn't really worth it).  We didn't have to pay for tickets to the even, just $5 parking, which was the only cheap thing!  The DVD of the ceremony (yes, they video tape it now and sell it), $35.  Not sure how much the professional photos are going to cost though....I'm sure over $100.

 

HOWEVER....seeing your first child graduate from High School......PRICELESS.

Rachel's best friend, Joey, was involved in a very serious car accident last week (Thursday, May 17th).  The car he was driving (see photo) hit another car head on while he was driving on the local highway (I-75).  The other car that he hit had spun out (for an unknown reason) and was facing on-coming traffic, Joey didn't see him and hit him head-on doing 70 miles an hour.  Here is a link to the local news article about it: http://www.abcactionnews.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=1466@wfts.dayport.com

 

Joey was wearing his seat belt, the other guy wasn't (the other driver died at the scene).  Joey will be ok....eventually.

Well, May 1st was the deadline to make a decision on which college to go to.  Rachel had applied to and was ACCEPTED to the following schools: DePaul University (Chicago), Rollins College (Orlando), Florida State University (Tallahassee), University of South Florida (Tampa), Loyola University (Chicago), some small bizarre college in Pennsylvania that she didn't even apply to but was accepted!, and University of Central Florida.

 

After much discussion (and bribery), she decided on the University of Central Florida (UCF).  She has the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship that pays 75% of her in-state tuition which really helped make the decision.  Her 2nd choice was DePaul but they only offered us $6,500 for a $40,000 a year school.  She will be majoring in Digital Media at UCF.  EA games is in Orlando as well and she hopes to get an internship there at some point.

Great review of Prince's 3121 show in Vegas (April 2007); from my friend Mya Bocca.  Check out her myspace web site at: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=23523566&blogID=256944581&MyToken=e23b9c9b-b095-42d9-8e2d-a7d1d11c43ff  (or just go to http://www.myspace.com/myabocca and select "My 3121 Las Vegas experience".  Some great photos too (which I'm trying to steal/borrow from her and put on this site!).

Well, we're back from Vegas!  We all made it back ok.  Some of us are more tired than the others but we all made it back in one piece and ON TIME!!!!  Alex has some photos to take with him to school tomorrow (he's too tired to go today).  When I asked him what he thought of Vegas he said it was AWESOME.  I totally agree.

 

Here's an overview of what all we did when (sorry I didn't get to update as we went along):

 

THURSDAY= Nellis AFB (saw the Thunderbirds and other airplanes that are stationed there).

 

FRIDAY (AM)= Timeshare sales pitch (we got the hotel so cheap since we agreed to see one of Hilton's timeshare sales pitches, it was actually FUN...actually our sales person was really nice and once he realized that we never take vacations and with all of our changes going on this year (retirement, college, etc) he realized that it didn't make any sense for us to get it.  What a change!!  So worth the time and the Hilton Grand Vacation Club itself was AMAZING).

 

FRIDAY= Prince concert (since it actually started at midnight, was more like Saturday event!).

 

SATURDAY (PM, Rachel/Michelle)= Thunder From Down Under (Rachel and I went to see them, can't really say much because as they say "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"....but just ask Rachel about the 'butt in the face' and that should give you some idea!).  ;-)

 

SATURDAY (PM, Robert/Nicole/Alex)= Tour of the strip at night (went to watch the Volcano at The Mirage and the pirate show/Sirens of TI at Treasure Island).

 

SUNDAY= Shopping! (went to M&M World, CocaCola World, and also Gameworks--kids had the most fun there).

 

MONDAY= Timeshare sales pitch #2 (we had to switch hotels since our package deal was only until Sunday so we moved to Circus Circus hotel and then heard the Westgate Resort sales pitch, MUCH HARDER sales pressure but we still said "NO!".  Westgate is part owner of the new Planet Hollywood Hotel/Resort that is being built where the Aladdin hotel is/was.  If we had the CASH it would be worth it but to pay 17.99% interest on it and finance it for 10 years--NO WAY!  We got $200 in casino money which Robert won $125 in REAL money within a few minutes!!!!!)

 

MONDAY (PM)= Planet Hollywood (went to planet hollywood in Ceasars for dinner....wasn't that great but it was FREE due to going to the timeshare sales pitch #2! :).

 

TUESDAY= Flew back

 

I will start uploading photos tonight. 

Just a quick post on the show in Vegas last night...obviously one word to describe it--AMAZING.

I was really hesitant about getting general admission standing room only tickets but we got there early enough to grab a corner (near the stage) and have a place to sit while we waited...and it was worth the wait!!

I can't even begin to list all of the songs he did, my head is pounding right now and I'm still barely awake from staying up til 5:30am for the aftershow (guess I'm getting too old for this!).

I do remember "Kiss", "Purple Rain", "Lolita", "Housequake", "3121", "Black Sweat", "Shy", and many more.  There were quite a few that DJ Rashida played before the show that if I listed any others I'm not 100% sure if he actually played them or I heard them being played by the DJ! %-P

Oh, and he also played "Love Bizarre".  This was my absolute favorite song of the entire show for two reasons:

1-  Wendy Melvoin and her sister, Susannah, where at the concert and both of them came on stage.  Wendy played guitar and Susannah provided backing vocals.

2-  This was the song where Prince came out onto a smaller stage that was right next to me and sang and danced.  He was literally inches away!! 

After the show we headed to the jazz club and waited in line.  Shelby walked by and was talking to/with some of the people in line.  We heard her mention that Prince could play all night long (or something like that).  It was already after 3am and I wasn't sure I could stand in line for much longer.

We finally got in but there was no more seats in the main dining room where he performs.  We sat in an adjoining room but you could still see him through an opening in the wall (large opening).  His band played for about 45 minutes while Prince sat in the back area behind the other room and ate (a salad, if anyone is really curious).  Shelby also sang 2 songs and was amazing. Prince played the guitar or piano for a few of these songs but would run back and sit down to rest/eat before heading back up again.  He finally settled down and started really getting into it with "Sweet Thing", again by this time it was about 3:45-4am and he was going into one song after another.  It reminded me alot of other aftershows from previous concert tours.

Well, my headache is getting the best of me now so I had better go ahead a post....  Just saw a note on the 3121.com web site with something about "Planet Earth, coming summer 2007", new album or better yet CONCERT TOUR!?!  :)

Well, we all made it in one piece.  Thankfully none of our flights originated in Chicago...the rest of the people traveling to/through Chicago were SOL.  All of our flights were pretty much on time.  Rachel and I even lucked out on one flight where there were 3 seats so we should have had someone sitting next to us but they were't there (probably didn't make it from Chicago!).  Even finally got to see DREAMGIRLS on the in-flight movie.

 

We're not impressed with Dallas Forth Worth airport.  Talk about confusing and BORING.  We got there right around 9pm and everything was CLOSING.  I don't think even Tampa airport resturants and shops close that early.  The only interesting thing there was a IPOD vending machine.

 

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott hotel Wednesday evening (more like Thursday morning by the time we got there).  It wasn't too bad, it was SOUTH of the airport and that area looks totally new.  In complete contrast to Vegas, there was NOTHING open when we got there except for a 24 hour diner across the street.  I went to bed, everyone else ate. 

 

We got up this morning (Thursday) and went up to Nellis AFB.  We stopped by the Thunderbirds museum which made Alex very happy.  The girls were amazed by the mountains that surround Vegas.  Something totally new to them (they can't remember the mountains in Germany...too young).  We bought discounted tickets to the wax museum at the Ventian, Nicole can't wait to go there.

 

We just checked in to the hotel that we will be staying in until Sunday, the Hilton Grand Vacations Club (on the strip).  NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The girls acted like they had never seen indoor plumbing before and were running from room to room checking it out and screaming.  It's a 2 bedroom suite.  The master bedroom has  a king bed with it's own bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and separate glassed-in shower.  The center unit has a sofa bed a large HD tv with Bose DVD/speaker system.  Also in the center unit is a dinning table and a full kitchen (full size fridge, dish washer, stove/oven, microwave, toaster, etc) and a small washer/dryer.  The 2nd bedroom/unit has a king bed with it's own (smaller) kitchenette (microwave, mini-fridge, and toaster).  The pool outside is BEAUTIFUL (w/waterfalls), not that big though.  I'll try and take pictures when I get the chance.  We have an SD chip in the camera but haven't figured how to off load them on to the computer (the computer at home has the SD slot but not this laptop).  Oh, and obviously the room has internet access (free wireless!).  Yeah, I could live here!

 

Well, just trying to rest up and figure out what all we are going to do for the rest of the time we are here.  Have to prep myself for the Prince concert/show tomorrow (aka, take a major NAP in the afternoon.....oooh, I miss the good old days when I could just stay up for 24 hours+ straight).

 

Believe it or not.....haven't even gambled yet!  ;-P

 

More updates later.

Getting ready for our family trip to Vegas.  We're flying on 2 separate flights so it will be interesting to see which one of us get there first.  One flight is going via Dallas the other flight is going via LAX (yikes!).  Hardest part so far is waiting for work to be over.  While in Vegas we plan on going to Nellis AFB (Thunderbirds won't be there though), Thunder from Down Under (Rachel and I only--of course!), checking out the hotels on the strip, and seeing PRINCE at his 3121 club at the Rio!!!!  I'll try and update our adventures as we go.