Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

We had a wonderful start to today, in that I got up very early, before 06:00 and managed to get a few things done (and cleaned) before Linda got home. That's right, Linda came home today. She is back from that road trip she took with her parents, up to Utah. They went up there to spend a few days with Linda's sister, Lisa, and it sounds like it was a good trip. On the way up they stopped at a few other places and saw some other family and friends, including a stop in the S.F. Bay Area. We're just glad that she is home safely and that Joe and Jess made is back home as well, after dropping Linda off. What happened was that they drove down, and when they were in San Bernadino (or close) they called and we drove up to Fallbrook, to meet them. As it turned out, they arrived about two (2) minutes after we did. I hadn't even finished getting the van closed back up, when they drove up. It sure felt good to see Linda, and the girls (yeah, we had them with us) were all over Grand...

I got up this morning about 05:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. Actually, it was probably a good thing I couldn't go back to sleep, as I had some things to do, and I needed to get started on them anyway. As it turned out, there were no scheduled things going on and so I went for a 25 mile bike ride. Actually, there was something scheduled, and I simply forgot about it. Jackie was supposed to go to a speech class, and I completely forgot about it, until Linda reminded me tonight, when I spoke with her. The bike ride was good for me, though, and it gave me a chance to just get out and take a little bit of time to think about life and the environment. There wasn't much else going on today, except for an appointment for Stacy, and I did manage to get her there, and with a little time to spare. The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed, and we had a nice dinner - I made salmon, rice and vegetables. Both girls enjoy salmon, so it is one of the easiest and healthiest of meals ...

Hard to believe this month is almost done, and we'll be half way through this year. As they say, "Time flies, when you're having fun." I got the girls up this morning and because I didn't have them take a bath last night, had them take a bath this morning. It was a little out of the regular schedule, but they dealt with it. I didn't wash their hair (it really wasn't too bad anyway) because I didn't want to have to deal with wet hair and get them ready for church. The funny thing is, Stacy dressed herself today, and she looked great! She even got a few compliments on how nice she looked. I hope she maintains the sense of style. Jackie wasn't hard to get dressed, though she did want to wear other clothes than what I picked out for her. I also got some help from Stacy, and if Stacy likes it, Jackie is going to like it - generally. We spent the rest of the day at home, where I was able to get a couple loads of laundry done and the rest of the days ...

Got up this morning and decided that it was a better idea for me to head over to the gym, instead of trying to get out on my bike. I got a good work out in, and the girls were still sleeping when I left, so I felt like it was the right decision. When I got back, about and hour later, the girls were now up and in with their daddy, having a great time. I asked them what they wanted to for breakfast and we all decided it was going to be French Toast. Well, it was more of a directional kind of deciding, as I had already bought the bread (Texas Toast) and I kind of encouraged them to go that direction. Anyway, that's what I ended up cooking. After breakfast I had promised to take the girls out on their bikes, so we went on over to the local school and the girls managed to get a ride in, around the parking lot. Jason called me after a single loop and asked us to come back home. Kojak had gotten himself tangled up in some wires/cables under his bed and he couldn't get Kojak out. Fun...

The day began with an early call to my lovely wife, Linda, and though it was supposed to be a wake-up call, she was already up and heading out the door, to take their dog for a walk. The dog is going to miss Linda, when she and her folks head on back home next week. Seems like she has been gone for a long time now, and I am ready for her to come back home. I went up to Fallbrook today, to check out the house and it is looking Great!. The floor is done, with only the base-board to be installed, and some other trim work. Most of the fixtures are in place as are most of the sinks and bathroom items. Next week they start the concrete work and not too long after that the yard work and landscaping begins. We are really getting close, and we're all excited. About the only thing that isn't moving fast are the Buy-a-Brick sales. I keep leaving them behind anytime I go anywhere, and keep missing opportunities to get some sold. Once Linda is back I'll be putting much more effort int...

A good day, again and we even had a visitor drop by. The girls went back to their mother's place and we'll see them again on Friday. Jason had an appointment with Wound Care, and things looked great there, so, aside from the continued soarness, things are going pretty good. It is probably going to be another few days (maybe a week?) before Jason is feeling like doing much more than he is right now. The visitor we had was retired Master Chief, Fred Thomson. He is a gentelman we met a few years ago, when Jason went to go "turn wood." Fred, along with retired Maj. Gen. Tom Lighter have been running and building the turning program for the vets for several years now, and it shows just how good they are at helping these guys recover from the challenges of war and battle. Fred and Jason talked about all kinds of things, though it frequently returned to wood turning. I think Jason is thinking about setting up a turning lathe at his new house, as soon as he can get things t...

One of those days where not much happened, and that is kind of a good thing. Jason's wounds are showing signs of healing more and we're all happy about that. Jason is still recovering from the surgery and feeling a bit tender in places, so he is better off just staying down and relaxing, and I believe that is all that is needed to keep the healing moving in a positive direction. The hard part is that Jason likes to get up and move around - something we're dealing with. I did take the girls to the library, today, and they had a great time. Stacy and Jackie both had a chance to play a video learning game that have there. It is a Dora The Explorer game and they told me all about her. Stacy checked out four books, and even got one for Jackie. Jackie doesn't have a library card yet, though that is being rectified with paperwork. It is getting late and I need to get to bed, so that is all I have for the blog tonight. Thank you all, for all the continued support and prayer...

Quite the nice day at the Ross homestead. We got up before 07:00 and when I came down stairs a few minutes after getting up, I find the girls in with their daddy, watching cartoons. I think this is one of the best times for the three of them, usually with Stacy snuggled up against Jason and Jackie close up next to Stacy. They look so comfortable I decided to leave them alone and go back and finish taking care of the kitchen - since I hadn't completed it last night. I finally tell them that I need to get breakfast going, and that Jackie has an appointment this morning. Reluctantly they get up and Jason tells the girls that they need to go get some breakfast. I get Jason's breakfast to him and the girls are soon eating, afterward. Jackie's appointment is over at Dewey School, which is about 1/3 mile away, so it isn't too far, and we all decide to walk over - that is, Stacy, Jackie and I. Jackie has a 1-hour appointment so Stacy and I walk back home and then walk back ov...

Well, about mid-day, yesterday, we experienced the summer solstice, and today we enjoyed the first full day of Summer! Oh, yeah, and a Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there, and even to those who are only at the point of thinking about becoming a dad. Do think about it though, as it is a very big responsibilty, and shouldn't be appraoched lightly. Today we enjoyed having the girls come over to the house at a little after 08:00 this morning, and they were all excited about seeing Daddy and Grandpa. They gave Jason his Father's Day gift, and then I received one as well. Linda had put all this together before she left, part of her on going effort to make sure things go right, even when she isn't here. I guess that's why she was working so hard before taking off to go with her parents. A little after the girls arrived, and the Father's Day gifts were given I told the girls we would still be going to church, and they were going to be able to go to Sunday S...

Jason text'd me early this morning and let me know that they were talking about letting him come back home today. This was a good bit of news to wake up to, as I wasn't sure what was going to be going on. I had too wait for Joselyn to arrive, so that I could leave the dogs at the house, and Jason wouldn't be able to get up before noon anyway. When Joselyn arrived, it was about 10:00 and I immediately loaded my bike into the van and headed over to the bike shop. I had made an appointment to get it tuned so all I had to do was drop it off and then I headed off to the  hospital. When I arrived at the hospital, Jason was watching television and simply waiting to get the final word from the doctor. About 10 minutes after I arrived the doctor walked in and we had a very good discussion about what happened; what Jason's condition was; and, whether or not Jason should be coming home. Everything was going great until we got to the "going-home" part. Jason was at the ...

A nice relaxed kind of day, or at least that was how it started.... I got up this morning and before I could get my teeth brushed Linda called me. Darn, I wanted to call her. She and her parents are doing well and plan on making it to Nevada later in the afternoon, and as you might expect, they do. They are headed there to visit some friends and spend a little time resting and enjoying themselves. I miss having Linda around here to keep me on point, but for now I am doing my best to write lots of notes to myself. I went to the gym, once I got off the phone from Linda, and it was still kind of early, about 07:45. The fortunate thing about where we are living is that not too many of the residents seem to want to use the gym in the earlier hours of the day. I figured I'd get some time in on the treadmill, since I didn't think I had time to go for a bike ride. I can jog and walk for an hour, and I need more than that if I want a good bike ride in. I ended up going about 5 miles...

Good day for all of us. Jason is doing well at the hospital, and they should be allowing him to go to more solid foods tomorrow. He is in good spirits, though he is getting tired of "clear liquid" diet - one can only eat so much jello... ;-) The doctors are saying that he should be out in four days, so I'm guessing that he will be coming home sometime on Friday, or worst case, Saturday. I managed to get in a short bike ride this morning, though I did seem to misplace my backpack. I always ride with my backpack, as it carries all my stuff, like spare tubes and bike lock and such. I finally did find it, after I had made a second one and got back from the ride. I ended up with  about 20 miles, on a relatively flat ride (only a few small hills). Tomorrow I don't think I'll be able to get out for a ride, though I should have some time to get over to the gym in the early hours. The dogs should be okay for a little over an hour, by themselves. A real positive is that K...

Jason's surgery went well, yesterday and though it did take a little longer than originally expected, he came through wonderfully. I spoke with the doctors and he was very pleased with all that took place, and even got to speak with Jason, who was still coming around from the anesthesia. Jason is now in the hospital, and will be there for a few days, probably three, and then be coming back home. This is good, as it makes it easier to take care of the animals (Gracie and Kojak). Actually, last night I took the girls, Stacy and Jackie, to go see their daddy and also brought along the dogs. Gracie handled it like a veteran support/service dog that she is and Kojak behaved himself better than I expected. I think both dogs are trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and Kojak is spending a great deal of his time under Jason's bed. The girls were happy to see Daddy, as they did not fully understand what was going on, and neither of them wanted to leave when it was time to c...

Perhaps I'll need to start blogging and posting in the early morning hours. Last night we (Jason and I) were up kind of late, due to some extra challenges, and I didn't get to my blogging until late. As I attempted to write this up my connection became very sketchy, and it was taking more than a minute to write a single word. This morning it is much better, so maybe I need to switch to morning. Heck I normally wake early anyway, we'll see how it goes. Yesterday and the day before were very busy for us. We went to the Gary Sinise Foundation / Lt. Dan Band concert at the Hotel Del Coronado and had a great time. Getting ready to go was a bit of a challenge, as things kept going in different directions and we had to work to stay focused on getting to the event/concert. We made it to the hotel and checked in with the idea that Jason was going to get some rest, prior to the concert. I guess the excitement was a bit much for everyone and Jason wanted to get some social time in, ...

I woke up this morning, at about 05:50 and felt like I was wide awake. We were planing on going to the Gary Sinise Foundation  concert of the Lt. Dan Band a little later in the day, but for now we just had a few little things to do. With this in mind I decided to go for a quick bike ride, and get some needed exercise. I managed to get in about 15 miles and I was gone almost exactly one hour. At that point, everybody was up and we all needed to start getting ready for heading out. Linda did the packing, so that the girls would be able to get into the water. once we got to Coronado Island, and the Hotel Del Coronado. The concert was to be on the beach, right there by the hotel, so it all worked out nicely. I was hoping to get out by 10:45, but we didn't make it, and actually left at about 11:45. Since I had not driven to the hotel I was grateful that Anthony and Angelica were also going, and they stopped by to pickup Jason's paramobile. We just followed them, as he had driven t...

Today was the last day of school for Jackie, and she got to go to school (pre-school) in her pajamas. I remember the excitement of being able to do silly things at school, and I hope she remembers this one. The sad part was that some of the parents/kids didn't get the message and when they saw the others in their pajamas they became very upset that they didn't get to wear their pajamas. Jackie had a great time, and I was to come back at 11:30 to pick her up. Problem with that though was that for whatever reason, I had it in my head that it was 12:30, and so yes, I was late. Funny part is, I thought I was actually a little early - it all worked out. Linda was off taking care of a bunch of errands and getting ready for her trip with her parents. For the past couple of days she has been running from place to place getting things for the trip; getting things for the girls; and, getting things for the house. She is even taking some time to breath, a little. The one thing that I th...

Today started out early - Linda was up a little after 04:00 because Kojak was being a puppy and again chewing on things that he shouldn't be chewing on. In this case he managed to pull up some vinyl and fortunately Linda caught him early enough that the damage was kept to a minimum. None-the-less, she was up and there were things to be done so she didn't come back to bed. I managed to sleep in until a little after 06:00 and decided to get up, since I was the only one in bed... ;-). I need to get up early, anyway, as I wanted to get Jason's new track chair on to the carrier, which needed to be mounted on to the van. This also meant that I had to clear things in the garage so that I could get the chair out. I managed to do this, despite the fact that Jason's truck was parked right out side the garage door and limited my maneuverability.  I moved a bunch of things and there was my clear path. Before bringing the chair out I decided I should get the rack mounted on to the...

This morning started out as normal as any that we have. We got the girls up and Jackie off to her pre-school, and that was that. Stacy managed to stay in her pajamas a little while longer and finally got dressed, so that she could spend some time with Grandma, since she was going to be going to take care of some errands. In the mean time, Jason and I had an appointment with the folks at The Ability Center, where I needed to get the lift system looked at and some possible minor adjustments. When I dropped the van off I made sure to ask that it be ready before the end of the day, since we were going to be needing it tomorrow. I had put my bike in the back of the van, so that I could ride, to get myself back home. I decided to head over to A1 storage to make a payment, on the way back, and it still provided me a little over 10 miles, with most of it being down hill. Kind of a fun ride, but I have to admit, it wasn't any where near the exercise I really need. As it was, they called a...

We got up this morning, with pretty much the usual Monday morning craziness that happens around here, especially when we have the girls with us. This is the final week of school for Jackie, and Stacy is now enjoying her summer vacation. Jackie's class had a "favorite costume" day, and she decided she wanted to go as a Ladybug. Linda had found a ladybug costume a few months ago, and it still does fit, but just barely. Jackie was very happy, and we all went to her class with a very high level of energy and excitement from the girls. Of course Stacy's was simply because she knew she got to walk back home after dropping Jackie off, and that's okay. After getting back to the house we had a quick breakfast and then Jason and I started to get ready for our trip to the VA. He had an appointment with their Wound Care folks, and as it turned out, I'm glad we went. His wounds have not closed, and in fact they have grown considerably since the last time we were there. T...

Today was a "work" day... again. We are in the midst of beginning our packing for the big move, and there is so much to go through. On the positive side, and there are many positives, Jason has been able to just stay down in the bed for most of the past two days, and that makes us happy. It allows his wounds to get a little more healing in, and that is something that we really need to happen. Each day also brings us closer to the big move, and that is definitely a positive. It is also "forcing" us to go through all our stuff and thus organizing it better. The down side is that we didn't get over to the storage to work on reducing that down. We found out this morning that the girls would be coming over this evening (they're actually here now), and we needed to get a few more things ready for them, than we originally thought. They normally would not have come until Monday morning. The other down is that we didn't get to go to church this morning, and we re...

Yesterday was a physically taxing day, with me moving more boxes and things than I have had to do in quite a long time. As a result of that I was quite tired by the time I got to bed, and with that I slept pretty soundly. That is, until about 06:00 this morning, when Linda woke and said she was getting up. She had plans on getting up to a memorial, in Vista. She was asked to attend as a member of Blue Star Mothers, and she was going to meet up with one or two other members to show support for the family. As it turned out, it was a very nice memorial/funeral - the kind I think I'd like to have. Most of the men were dressed in Aloha shirts and they basically celebrated the man's life. When I go I want to have the people enjoying themselves and remembering the good times. Anyway, I drove Linda up to Vista, and since Vista is relatively close to Fallbrook, I decided to take my bike with us, and while Linda was there I would be out doing a little exploring of the Fallbrook area. I...

Busy day today - We got up a little prior to 07:00 and actually had to hurry to get ready, as we needed to be over at the girls school. They are not staying with us for the next couple of days, but we wanted to go anyway. Jason got to wear his SF Giants shirt, as it was Jackie's Father's Day sports day for their favorite sports team, and Jackie and Jason are both SF Giants fans (so are Linda and I). It was fun being there and having the kids sing "Take Me Out to The Ball Game" and then we got to look around. This was a special visit as it is going to be the final week for Jackie next week, and then she will be moving on to her new school. Stacy was involved with yet another program at the same school, and because of what was going on at Jackie's area we didn't get to see the beginning of Stacy's program. Linda was able to see more than Jason and I (she went over ahead of us), but we did get to see her sing with her class and then complete the Kindergarte...

Another day, that felt like we were very busy getting some loose ends tied up, yet it doesn't feel like we got much accomplished. I did take Jason's truck in, as there were some issues going on with the electrical. As it turned out the Chevy dealership said it was a problem with how the lift system was installed, and not their problem. We are now planning on taking the truck back to Ability Center and having them look at it one more time. Funny part is, last time we were there we asked about the electrical problem, and they took some time to check it out - they said it was a Chevy problem. Guess we'll see what happens next. Linda spent a big part of the day doing clean up around the house and then the two of us went down to the consignment store to take another piece of property - it was a popcorn popper. They have been the place to go to sell some of the stuff we are no longer going to be needing. This was probably one of the best ideas that Linda came up with, as far as...

Not much to report on, again, for a second day. We did do a few things, like working on our storage and getting things moving on reducing what we have. We need to get as much down prior to the move, so that we will know that it all fits. We have our remaining possessions from the house in Livermore, and also Jason's possessions, so in affect we are putting two houses into one, and on top of that with the new smart home there is going to be some donated furniture. Because of this we need to be sure that what we have is what we want and need. Linda and I worked for a few hours moving and "inventorying" what is there. Needless to say, we were worn out by this evening, so we decided to just take it easy. I made a quick dinner, an orange sesame seed chicken and Linda made a wonderful fruit salad. These are foods that Jason really enjoys, and so do we. After dinner we sat down and watched a couple of movies and stayed up too late, but the girls are gone, so we can stay up a l...

WOW! Coming into the sixth month of the year, and it seems like it was Christmas just a short while ago. We woke up early this morning, to the sound of my phone going off. Jason kind of uses it as an intercom when he wants to get some help with something, and early this morning, about 03:30, he needed help with Kojak. Seems Kojak had had an accident in the house, and unfortunately when he did, it prevented Jason from taking care of it himself. Actually, Kojak has only had a couple of accidents in the house, and considering that he is a puppy, and not yet quite house trained, that's pretty good. Even more impressive is the fact that Jason has been able to clean up after him, with this time being the exception. I have to admit I wasn't too happy about getting up, and even more interesting was the fact that it took me awhile to figure out it was my phone that was ringing. I just sort of stared at it for a few seconds before I realized I needed to answer it - I was very asleep wh...