Sonography, Running, and Geetar!!

Much has happened since my last post.  I was accepted into the Diagnostic Medical Sonography program at Tacoma Community College and have been working my tail off since starting the program 7 weeks ago.  I am already past mid-terms though and am getting good grades.  Today was fun because I was able to bring in my sister Tammy and my Mom and they were good sports and let me scan them.  I felt bad because it took me FOREVER to scan Tammy -- 2 hours to be exact.  I got some good practice though and was able to get a good look at the Aorta, Inferior Vena Cava, Liver, Gallbladder (or fossa in Mom's case since hers was removed a long time ago), Main Portal Vein, Common Bile Duct, Pancreas, Kidneys, and Spleen on both of them (Mom's scan only took me an hour compared with Tam's marathon session).  The good news is that everything looked awesome on both of them!  No pathologies to report.  That is my official amateur Sonographer's report on their abdominal scans!  Other than that I have been trying to keep up with my running.  I've been running about 50 miles per week and have been enjoying some racing.  I'm blessed to have my good friend Trevor live so close by so that we can go running together.  That has been a good motivator for the both of us!  Anyway, studying has pretty much taken over my life.  We also finished the guitar we started working on way back in May of this year (Dallas and I).  I will include a few pictures of it in this blog post.  Dallas designed the guitar, applied the tape scheme, and picked out the colors all by himself.  He also did most of the sanding and prep work without my help.  I'd say it turned out nicely.  I may also include an image or two from my scan session with Derrinda from a couple of weeks ago.  I was on a machine where I could save my images to a thumb drive then.  Thanks again to Tam and Mom for being my guinea pigs today!  Thanks to Dad for your patience today too!

Happy 40th Lisa!!

I can't believe my sister Lisa is the big 4-0 today.  It seems like just yesterday that we were racing each other towards the old 50 chevy pickup parked at the foothills of dry canyon.  Life goes by way too fast.  Happy birthday to an awesome sister who I love very much!

Dallas and the Guitar

Dallas has been practicing the guitar very hard.  I have been teaching him a few riffs and he has really taken off with them.  I taught him "Stay together for the Kids" by Blink-182, which is actually a fairly advanced guitar riff, because he really wanted to learn it.  I taught it to him thinking he would see how difficult it was and just give up and try to find an easier song to learn, but he has practiced and practiced and is making great progress with it.  I recorded him playing it the other day and another song.  Check him out!

Pimped Out Neon Guitar

I'm in a new project called Atomic Pop and our colors are black/white with neon accents.  I already have a white stratocaster with a black pickguard and thought it would be cool to throw some splashes of neon on there so I got a neon green neck pickup cover, a yellow selector switch knob, and a hot pink volume knob.  To top it off, I got some cool neon pink, green, and yellow strings.  This band is going to be a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Anybody who knows my mom knows that she is the most caring, selfless, and entirely most awesome person to ever live.  I am thankful that she is my mom.  I would have never had the guts to try the things I've done in my life were it not for my mom and dad instilling the confidence in me to know that I can do whatever I put my mind to.  My mom is fighting cancer and still taking care of my sister Tam.  I have met a lot of people who think they are tough, but I have yet to be impressed since my mom is the toughest I've met by far.  I am so glad that we live close enough so that I get to see her almost every single day.  I feel very blessed for that.  Thanks for who you are Mom and I love you so much and hope you had an awesome birthday!

Happy 66th Dad!!

Today my awesome Dad turns 66!  I have learned many things from you Dad and I thank you for being there for me any time I need you.  I know I can go to you with anything and I appreciate all you do for me and for the rest of the family too!  You are very loved and looked up to!  Can't wait to go see Merle Haggard with you!  I like this picture of Dad.  He is hugging Juliet while at the same time eating a banana.  He always was multi-talented.

Guitar Hangers

I've been wanting to get some guitar hangers for the wall in my studio since the beginning of time, and Derrinda bought me some using her sweet Amazon discount!  Check out my studio now.

New Camera

Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us have their old canon digital camera. As you can see, I've already started to put it to good use. Today was a fun day, I wish I would have taken some pictures of my outing to Seattle with Dad and Brandon to pick up a commercial soft serve ice cream machine for my sister Tammy. But I did get a few pictures. Dallas and I went swimming this morning at 6:30, and Dad even joined us today. That was fun. I taught Dallas a new chord on the guitar tonight. He now knows the E, A, and D major chords. He also knows a little bit of lead guitar from Nirvana unplugged "Lake of Fire". We all still miss Willie a lot and the kids and I watched his slideshow about 5 or 6 times tonight while Derrinda was working. What surprised me was that towards the end of the slideshow, Brandon started crying as he was sitting on my lap watching the video. I said "What's wrong Brandon?" And he said, "I miss Willie." Anyway, we are going on with life. Dakota even played ball with me today. It is the first time she actually wanted to play fetch since Willie died. She has been uninterested when I've tried to throw her the ball before, but I guess she is starting to feel a little better. Her and Willie were within feet of each other for every minute of the last 10 years so I can't blame her for having a hard time with it. Anyway, enjoy the photos! (Sorry for ripping Cody off, he was already down in bed when I took these, being the responsible young man that he is.)

Willie's Slideshow

I have been working on getting all these photos collected since Willie died almost 3 weeks ago. I am still having a hard time accepting him being gone. He was such a big part of the family. Every time I go outside to do anything, it just doesn't seem right without him there. I put a lot of time into the slideshow and I wanted to post it on my blog so I can see it whenever I feel like it. I am thankful for Derrinda because she took most of the photos.

For Willie -- My Faithful Friend to the End

The carefree way we’d run and play,

Oh how I long for yesterday!

A stronger love could never grow,

A truer friend I’ll never know.

Your youthful body time did steal,

But not your playfulness or zeal.

I wish that I could find a way,

Go back in time to yesterday.

I’d wrap you in my arms to stay,

Oh how I long for yesterday!

I never thought you’d go away,

Oh, how I long for yesterday!

If one-thousand years I live,

A stronger love could no one give.

Than the love you’ve shown to me,

A love I’ll feel eternally.

And if my tears could wash away

Today and bring back yesterday

I’d wrap you in my arms to stay

Oh, how I long for yesterday!