Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Not much to write about today, as we dropped the girls off at their day care and won't be seeing them again until Monday. Jason had a formation this morning, right after we dropped the girls, and then went in for his PT session. After that we came back to the house and just relaxed. Tomorrow Jason has another formation, and then an appointment for a procedure that has to be accomplished. Otherwise it should be another day of relaxation, and I think I'll go for another bike ride, as I did today. Today I rode about 12 miles and tomorrow I will go for at least 15. Thank you, for all your continued support and prayers, take care and stay positive.

The girls were up early today, about 06:15, maybe a little earlier. I figured I was going to have a busy and active day when I heard them, but it turned out to be a rather relaxing day, although I was busy enough. It began with breakfast and then instead of going to their day care we waited around the house for a speech specialist, to talk with us about Jackie. Jackie has shown some signs of not being able to form all the sounds of a typical 2-3 year old, and the teachers at her day care asked us to get a specialist involved. Problem is they didn't show up. Actually, what happened was that Jason was supposed to go meet with them last week, and was double booked, so wasn't able to make that appointment. He called them and rescheduled for today, and now they didn't make it. Hopefully it will be taken care of early next week, with another scheduled appointment... wish us luck. We got the girls over to their day care, at about 10:15 and then were able to take care of everythi...

A very nice day, considering the one we just had yesterday. Jackie woke up feeling MUCH better, and full of energy. We still took it slow, and didn't want to chance her lapsing back into a flu or something, so we didn't get the girls to day care until almost 09:00. Jason didn't have any appointments, since he cancelled them yesterday after finding out that Jackie was running a temp. We did, however, have a couple of errands to attend to, and then we went and got some lunch. Lunch was actually kind of different - it was after 11:00 when Jason said we should go get something to eat, as he was getting hungry. I said sure, what do you want. He didn't have anything in particular so I suggested Chinese, and he thought that was a good idea, we hadn't had Chinese in months. He picked the Golden Dragon and we were off. The only problem with this plan was that neither of us consulted our "smart phones" so we didn't know what their hours were. We finally made i...

Other than a single excursion out to Costco, with the girls, I didn't leave the house today, and Jason didn't leave it at all. It was a simple laid back kind of day, except that for whatever reason, is seems Jackie caught some sort of bug - possibly the flu. This morning she seemed fine, and was running around like normal. She had a bowl of Cheerios, and then we went to Costco. By the time we were back home from Costco, though, she significantly slowed down and even volunteered to take a nap, about 1/2 an hour before I was going to get them to bed. When I got them up from their naps (Stacy went to bed about an hour after Jackie), I checked her temp again and it was within the normal range (99.0), so I wasn't too concerned. I checked it again, about an hour or so later, and it was 100.5. She drank apple juice and water, and then for dinner I fixed everyone chicken noodle soup. Funny thing is Jackie liked the chicken, broth, celery, and carrots - but she didn't particul...

Today began with a quick breakfast and then I packed a snack and other supplies up, and we were off to Jason's and Gracie's training, up in Oceanside. We had told the girls last night that we were going to be going to a park this morning, where Gracie and Daddy were in a class, and while we were there they would get to play on swings and other play area things. Both of them were pretty excited about going, so it was very easy to get them to get into the van, and then we were on our way. We got to Buddy Todd Park and Jason went over to their training area and the girls and I went and immediately found the swings. There was also the "train" with a slide at one end, and Stacy was anxious to explore that one. We even did some "tree climbing" before the day was over. Actually, the tree is an oak and the way it has grown allows for simply walking right up on to one of the limbs, and the girls felt like they were climbing a tree. I helped them get up a little hig...

Not much of an eventful day, other than to say that we went to the base and Jason took care of a number of appointments, after his regular 07:30 formation this morning. Since it was a day where Jason was going to be speaking with different folks, and all of them related to his med board process, I decided to take care of another issue that has been sort of sitting on the back burner for a couple of weeks now. That is, to take the van in for a regular service visit. The service check up took all of 20 minutes, and that was because the guys wanted to be sure to vacuum out the interior and there was some dog hair on the floor. With today's autos being computerized they just have to plug it in and as long as nothing is wrong, you're on your way with just a few minor adjustments and an oil change. Anyway, I was literally on my way back to the base before 08:00. I went with Jason to most of his meetings, though there was one where they needed to draw some blood for a lab work that ...

Jason and I were contacted by Jennifer Town (Cpt. U.S. Navy, Ret.) that Gary Sinise was going to be at Balboa this morning, and wanted to unofficially invite us to come and see him. We decided that it was a good idea, since we hadn't see Gary in a few months, and it would be a good chance to do a little catching up. The challenge is that I had also planned on going for a nice bike ride this morning - at least 20 miles. Well, the simple solution was that I got up early and took off for my ride and still got back early enough that we could get over to the base, before Gary had to leave (he had to leave around noon). I rode a relatively quick 20 miles, a little over an hour and a half, and got home soaking wet from sweat. It took me about 20 minutes to "cool" down before I jumped into the shower, and that's when I really cooled down. I turned on the water and stepped right in before the water had a chance to warm up. I stepped right back out a little faster... ;-) Once...

I woke up this morning to a quiet house, where Jason and the girls were still asleep. This just means I can take a few moments to brush my teeth and start the day. I checked my email and found that I didn't have much "overnight" email, which was good, and then I went down to check on the rest of the household. The girls were now awake and so was Jason. I got down there and I guess Stacy heard me coming because she was calling for "Grandpa" before I got to the room She wanted to let me know that Jackie was making noise and it woke her up. I told her that it was okay this time, since it was time to get up now anyway.  I got the girls up and then got Jason some breakfast. I fed the girls breakfast and finished getting them dressed and ready for the day. I was particularly pleased that Jason got himself ready, and that other than bringing him breakfast, I really didn't do much else. We loaded up into the van and then went over to the Naval Base to drop the gi...

Wow! What a day. It started off with me getting up at about 05:40 and calling Linda, to make sure she was up for her day. I then got started on a couple of errands upstairs, and more specifically, in my bedroom. I then went down to make sure the girls were up and moving, but to my surprise they were already up and in the room with Daddy (Jason)! Well, it was 07:30 by now and they were full of energy and life, and I needed to get them breakfast - Jason too. I fixed them some cereal and I am happy to say that Jackie is getting much better at feeding herself, and doesn't make near the spills she used to make. Stacy has been a pretty clean and tidy eater for some time now. After breakfast I got the girls over to their day care; and signed them in. Stacy was in her class and Jackie was back in hers, this time. I came back to the house and told Jason that because he really didn't have a bunch to do today, until after 14:00 (2pm), that I would like to get out on the bike. I hadn...

Not a great deal going on today, other than the girls are back with us, at least until Wednesday morning, when we take them to their day care. The communications between Jason and his ex seems to be going much better than it was just a few weeks ago, and I'm glad to see that. They have a schedule that has it totally outlined as to when the girl are with us, and when they are not, and it seems to be working well. The morning started with Jason going to formation, as he does on Mondays, and today's ceremony was topped off with the retirement of three other Marines, all from the Wounded Warrior Battalion. One of them was Sgt James Amos, who we met back in the early days of Bethesda. He is a double amputee and more than once, he and Jason would just sit and talk about their lives. I was glad to see him moving on, but I was also saddened by his departure, truly a hero in every sense of the word. After formation we both had meetings to attend to in Building 26, and then other thi...

Today was kind of a plus day for us, even though Linda had to travel back up to Livermore. The plus was that she wasn't supposed to be here at all, and should have gone home last night. As it was, when it was time for her to travel to the airport, I got her there late. I consider it all my fault, as I wasn't watching the time and so we had to go with a next flight option. She did get on that next flight and made it back up to Livermore about 30 minutes later than originally planned. A big THANK YOU, to Kevin for being available, on short notice, to pick her up and bring her back to the house. Otherwise, today was spent being relaxed, and just sitting around talking for the most part, along with eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. Linda had to leave right at lunch time. Jason only got out of bed to take his shower and for me to do the dressing changes, and I think this is probably a good thing, considering the amount of time he had been spending up, over these past few weeks. ...

A nice quiet day at the Ross household, where we all got up a little later than usual (about 07:15) and nothing planned for the day, other than my needing to be on a conference call with PMI. (Project Management Institute). The conference call lasted for just over four hours and when it was over I spent the time with Linda as she packed for her travel home. While I was on the call she was busy with other things such as getting the last of the laundry all done and cleaning the house the way she likes it to be done. Anyway, we did a few little chores, like hanging pictures and running to the store to pick up a couple of things, then the time was getting to when we needed to head for the airport. Linda did the final touches of her packing of the bags; I carried them down the stairs to the front door; and, then she came down just a few moments later. I took the bags out to the car and placed them in the back of the van. I walked back in to the house and was standing in the kitchen, ready...

First, what happened yesterday? Yesterday was a fairly normal Thursday for us, other than; 1) Linda took Jason to his appointments, so that she could get a feel for what it was like; and, 2) it allowed me to go for a longer bike ride (close to 30 miles) and not have to wonder if I'm being out too late, rolling around in the back of my mind; and, 3) we went to a Freedom Alliance benefit dinner that lasted longer than we thought we were going to be out - but more on that later. Linda had a pretty good experience, even though she accidentally hit a switch under the dash that shuts off the ramp extender. It took a little bit to find the reset button, and everything went back to normal. The real positive is that now she knows about the switch and reset button, so that if it should happen again it won't be any problem at all. She and Jason got back to the house a little after I did, and my ride was very good as a solid training ride. I went out to Cabrillo National Park and then ...

This was one of those early mornings, where we didn't have to get going early... i.e. the girls simply got up early today and we didn't need to leave the house until almost 08:45. That made it kind of a fun and crazy morning, with Grandma (Linda) and I working on getting the girls all ready and their hair looking great. Actually, I've been taking advantage of Linda being here so that she can teach me a few things about how to fix a little girl's hair, and when she takes off in a few days I should still be able to at least make them presentable. We got the girls to their day care and then Jason over to his appointments and then we came back to the house. Jason said he wanted to head out to lunch and Linda said how about Olive Garden. Me, I was just hungry since all I had was toast for breakfast... and a cup of herbal tea. We got to the Olive Garden and the food was good, as was the service, though it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, as we kind of expect that wi...

Today started out very early, with Jason needing to be at a "class" for those who are starting the medical review boards. Jason has just recently started that, so he is obligated to take this training. The interesting part is that it is typically an all day session, meaning about nine hours, and Jason can not remain up in his chair for more than five hours at a time. Going more than four hours begins to cause him a great deal of dis-comfort and going over five there will be damage. What they have had to do is split the class in to two sessions and the first one is today with the next one happening next week. We had to get the girls up early as well, since we wanted to get them over to the day care and then Linda and I were going to get to spend the morning, or at least most of it, together. What actually happened wasn't quite what we expected, but then it usually doesn't happen the way we expect anyway. We did get the girls over to their day care, right after droppi...

Good day for the family, and for Jason in particular. He had a great morning with Physical Therapy (PT) and before that his morning formation was over in a matter of less than 20 minutes. After PT he did mention to me that he was a little soar in a couple of places where Dawn was working his shoulders, but that wouldn't be the first time that has happened. We did get to go see Pacific Rim, and it was an entertaining movie, though I am glad we went to the matinee and that we didn't have to pay full price for it. I got the impression that the people who put it together wanted to put something together that was a bit like Godzilla meets War of The Worlds, and there were some interesting turns with it. Overall I'd give it a B-, though I did enjoy the characters Ron Perlman played and the crazy professors, and that's all I'll say about that. Tomorrow is going to be another early day, and Jason is going to be heading in very early for some classes he is required to atte...

First a little explanation of what happened yesterday, and why no post. First it began with my system running slow, so I did some work on cleaning up the buffers, cache, temp files, defragging the hard drive and when I was done the system seemed to be functioning much better... for a little while. As I sat down to do a little catch up with my email, and then the blog (my normal routine at the end of the day) I noticed the battery was low and not charging. I was concerned with this and started to look at the cables and then it all just quit, with a black screen. My first thought was that something was wrong with the system in general and that I had done something wrong with my clean up effort, and was concerned that I was going to have to possibly get a new system. This was not very appealing to me, as that means spending money we don't have. In the morning I did a quick bike ride (too early for anyone to be open) and then headed over to Best Buy, since they hold the warranty on t...

Okay, so what happened yesterday? Yesterday, Linda and I went to Sea World, and spent the better part of the day there - just the two of us. Jason had an appointment with the VA, and that was over in a matter of a couple of hours, and the Marines did the transporting to and back to the house, for us as Linda's Mom and Dad spent the rest of the day with Jason. It allowed Linda and I to had a nice day together, and we simply did whatever we wanted to do. Linda's parents (Joe and Jessie) had to take off this morning, and they will be continuing their trek around California, visiting with family. They are the head of a very large family, and do an amazing job of staying in touch with as many of the family as they can. It was both an honor and pleasure to have them stay with us, for the week (okay, almost a week). The only down side for yesterday came later in the evening, shortly after Linda and I returned home. We left Sea World and got home at about 19:00 (7pm) and had just...

Jason and I started out with an early meeting at building 26, and immediately after I dropped him off for that I had to drop the girls off at day care. They spent the past two days with us and will spend the next two days at their mother's place, then on Friday they are back with us for five days. The schedule is a little confusing at first, but once you get it, it seems pretty easy. Anyway, they are spending half the time with Dad and the other half with Mom. Anyway, when Jason was done with his "administrative" stuff, he had to get over to the VA for his next appointment there. This proved a bit of a challenge, as I also had an appointment, but mine was not at this location, so I had to drop him off, and then come back to pick him up, about an hour later. The appointment itself, for either of us, wasn't bad and is just another in line for all the appointments we have to take care of. The real challenge was making sure I wasn't delayed any longer than I needed ...

I am going to apologize to begin with, as this is going to be a very short post - I'm tired. It has been a very busy day with trips to the base and some initial VA trips for Jason, and his initial exams. This is the way it is going to be for a number of weeks and some days it is going to be a bit on the crazy side. Funny thing is that as new surgeries come the VA stuff has to get restarted, each time. Not sure why they want him to go through all this right now, but that's the directive we've been given. This is one of those, "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do..." Tomorrow we'll be doing more. My birthday was quite nice and I had a bunch of wonderful family members here to help me celebrate. Thank you, for all the continued support and prayers. Take care and stay positive.

Today we did a couple of things a little different, and it turned out to be a pretty exciting day, with lots of fun and not too much additional stress. The day started with all of us getting up to go to the Charlie Linville retirement ceremony, and it was something that none of us had seen before. Charlie was a gracious as ever and made the comment that in his entire Marine career he had never had other Marines stand at attention for him, for any kind of presentation. He figured that this was okay, since it would also be the last time he had asked anyone to do it. Reality is that all of the guys there were happy to be able to be a part of the ceremony and recognized the importance of the event for Charlie. After that there were a couple of other things that Jason needed to get done at the base, and with other appointments, and I had to take off for my appointments at the VA. Fortunately, Linda is authorized to drive the Rollex Van for Jason, so I took the other vehicle and went to th...

We got up early today and I fixed a nice pancake breakfast with eggs. I ended up making a few more pancakes than needed, but that's okay, we can save them for later - I think. Linda's parents are going to be here with us for almost a week, so we can have some good times with them, and the girls will get a chance to see their great grandparents for a couple of days. We didn't do too much other than to go to Charlie Linville's going away lunch at the Bol Weevill. It was nice, and Bob Hamer was the one who organized it. There were a few other EOD Wounded Warriors there, so it was a nice social time for Jason, as well as a chance to do some catching up with the Linville family. The official "retirement" ceremony will take place tomorrow morning at the base, and we will be there too. I have posted a couple of pictures with this blog - Charlie is the tall one and Bob is the one on Jason's right. There are some appointments we need to take care of, and ...

Today started with a nice bike ride of 16+ miles over some unfamiliar terrain and with plenty of hills. Well, the first part of the ride was familiar, as I am getting to know the first 3 to 4 miles of area around the house, pretty well now. I enjoy exploring new areas, and it is like a way to help me stay focused on the ride and I don't seem to get as tired. The funny thing is that at about 5 miles out I realized that I had forgotten to take my backpack, and I always bring that along. It has all my emergency stuff like spare tubes and a little bit of food to keep my energy up. I decided that I would continue on with the ride and then remembered that I also left my cell phone in the backpack, so if something were to go wrong I wouldn't have a way to call home, and I didn't even have my wallet or any ID with me. Again, this made me a little nervous but I did so want to get in at least 15 miles today, and when I got going, stretching that out to the 16 mile mark wasn't too...

Not much to write about today, other than to say it was a day similar to yesterday. The main differences are that we didn't have celebratory fireworks today, and today we went to get pictures taken of Jason and the girls (and Gracie). The pictures came out very nice and Linda bought a few of them, though the most important item was the CD that we were given afterward. The photographer we had was excellent, in that he knows how to work with children, especially the young ones who have short attention spans. He was able to get them to focus long enough to get their pictures taken, and also able to get them to smile when needed. The rest of the day was spent here at the house and we all just enjoyed each other's company. Tomorrow the girls will be going back to their mother, and the timing is kind of unfortunate as Linda's parents will be coming in tomorrow night sometime. On the bright side is that they will be visiting long enough that they will be able to see the girls an...

Good day for resting, and Jason took advantage of it. Other than getting up to go pick up the girls this morning and taking Gracie out to the backyard he stayed down, and I was happy about it. I know the wounds are looking better, and I'd like for that to continue. The progress is good so I am allowing myself to be a little optimistic about future developments, and will continue to be that way as long as I can. Tomorrow we will be heading out to the Picture People, to take a few more pictures of the girls with Jason, and we hope we can continue to do this every 6 months or so; at least annually. They have grown so much this past year, and now we're getting ready for Stacy to go into Kindergarten... STARTING SCHOOL ALREADY!! As for fireworks and celebrating, it has been a very low key kind of holiday. Jason doesn't want to be up any more than he has to be, and the girls shouldn't be out that late anyway. Actually, I think Grandpa wouldn't be able to stay out that...

A great day for Jason as we were able to finally get the appointment scheduled for him to have the updated MRI and CT Scan on his pelvic area. This is something that we have wanted to get done for several weeks now so we feel like a mile stone has been achieved. The rest of his appointments, today, were good in that he  was able to get some needed attention from the right folks, and everything was done by 10:30 and we were able to head back to the house. With today being July 3, the day prior to a National Holiday, and the fact that we're living in the middle of a military area, we find that people are anxious to get out and start their holiday as early as possible. This had an impact on my bike ride today. I think I may have gone as far as 2.5 miles and did not like the traffic one little bit. I am going to be getting out early tomorrow and go for a long ride, and see if I can get in 25+ miles, as I continue to build on my endurance. Still looking for more sponsors, too so feel ...

We had a nice day today, with Jason taking care of his appointments, and me taking care of mine (I went to the VA to get some lab work done and set up a follow up appointment). Linda was along and had a chance to speak with some of the staff there, and along with that there was a special event going on in the quad where there was a celebration of the different cultures that make up the military family. The three she enjoyed the most were the dancers from the Islands, Philippines, and India - though I guess Philippines are probably considered part of the Islands, also. Then there were these two Nay Chiefs that left a heck of an impression on her, for their singing talent, so all-in-all she had a great time. While she was doing that Jason and I were in talking with Plastics and Primary Care. The good things that came out of those conversations is that we think there is going to be some movement on  getting a new model developed and built of his pelvic area, as well as some of the o...

Today started early, with a trip to the base, so that Jason could make the 07:30 formation, and while he was getting ready for that Grandma and Grandpa took the girls to their day care. We won't have the girls for the next two days, or at least that is the current schedule. We have had them for several days now and it has been a great deal of fun. They are growing so fast and showing us that they are learning so much. Having said that we're looking forward to getting Stacy into kindergarten, this coming school year and thus the beginning of her "formal" elementary education will begin. After we dropped off the girls we went back over to building 26, where the formation was, and took care of a couple of paperwork issues. We also spent a little time visiting with some friends and basically having a good time, while we waited for Jason to finish up all the stuff he was doing. We then headed off to breakfast, or I should say to their breakfast. I wasn't going to hav...