i wanna be a widow

My daughter wants to be a widow.

She came into my room one morning not long ago and announced her decision. I smiled slightly and asked, "Do you know what a widow is?"

"No."

"Well, let me know you. A widow is a woman who was married and her husband has died."

"Oh.... Yup, that is what I want to be. A widow."

I had to giggle. My daughter wants to get married and have her husband die?!

Fast forward to today when she was playing with her Mr. Potato Head toy and she made a pretty potato and announced, "This is a widow."

Now, I am not sure what she is thinking exactly with these widow things. I think part of it is from the Bible stories we read about the widows in the Bible. She knows the stories of Elijah and the Widow and she knows the story of the widow and her offering in the temple. I can only suppose that these are influencing her remarks. Perhaps they are drawn as pretty ladies in the book? I have no idea. Perhaps she remembers how God commands us to care for the widows and the orphans and she wants cared for?

In the meantime, while other little girls dream of having weddings with their pretty things, my daughter dreams of her husband dying and her being alone! YIKES!

my first tag! should I cry or cheer?

So, I have been tagged and I decided to go ahead and take the plunge! My wonderful friend M at Faith, Hope and Love tagged me. The process was rather amusing to me, as I had watched this tag float around a few blogs I read and finally it came to rest here on me. I really thought I had dodged the bullet, but the bullet has come home to rest.



The Rules: In order to accept this Bloggy Award/Tag, you must do the following.....

1. Write a post showing it, together with the name and link of who has given it to you.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Honest Weblog’.
4. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. And then, pass it on.

10 Honest Things About Me! (does it get more egocentric than this?)

1.I love the smell of babies. I think that the smell is second only to the smell of coffee. No, really, I don't know anything better then the smell of babies. Actually, I don't think there is anything better then that baby smell. I will be down visiting my friend again soon and I will be frantically sniffing that baby every chance I get. My friend will have to beat me off with a wet burp rag.

2. I am pretty good at many things, but I don't feel that I am VERY good at too many things. I feel that while I can do art and I can do a bit of writing and I can do a bit of speech stuff and I can do a bit of decorating and a bit of gardening, I don't feel that I have any one area that I am stellar in. I am not complaining... I just feel like I am good at many things, but not amazing at any of them. I am content with this.

Isn't he a cutie!!!

3. I love my husband more then I probably should. He is my rock and I stand amazed by him everyday. He is strong and patient and loving and kind. He has a very common sense outlook on life and he sees things for what they are. He is able to be to the kids what I cannot be. He relates to them in ways that I cannot. One of my favorite things is watching him play with the kids and watching him read to them or watching them and their love for their daddy. He balances me and I do need that. I can be very artistic and spontaneous and flighty and forgetful and he is able to bring balance to my force... sorta like Anakin Skywalker.

HA! He would be so proud of my Star Wars reference!

4. I do not eat breakfast unless I actually cook something and I certainly do not cook breakfast everyday. I do however drink coffee. Everyday. Without fail.

5. I love my life as an Air Force wife. I am very proud of my husband and I enjoy being a military spouse.

John in Iraq.

I like talking to people about the military and what is is like being part of that culture.

The garage door decorated for a homecoming from Iraq.

I remember what is it like being civilian looking in and I understand the questions that people have. I have no problem answering them, actually I welcome them because if anything, the military needs more people to understand what is going on now in our little culture bubble. We need people to understand how to help military families as our spouses are deployed again and again.

You see my kitty keeps trying to grab me in this picture. She likes me too!

6. I like animals a lot. If I had my way I would have a small zoo here. Fortunately, like my earlier post stated, John keeps me in check. He allows me to have the one beautiful puppy and the one sweet kitty and the one boring sucker fish. If it were up to me, I would have another 4 or 5 pets. Then I would start going crazy cause I can't bring balance to the force of the litter boxes and the tanks and whatnot. It would get scary people and that is why we have Anakin... er... I mean, John here.

7. I have this really weird tendency. I talk for things. Things like animals but also things like tea kettles. My tea kettle doesn't just whistle it yells. No kidding. The tea kettle will be whistling away on top of the stove and my kids will yell at me to let me know, cause obviously I cannot hear the screaming tea kettle in the room with me and I will start talking for the tea pot, "HEY! I'M HOT!!! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! I AM HOT!!!" I will also speak for animals that are in videos or pictures or just out. I am afraid it is a sickness. I will talk for our pets. For example, the dog will be looking at me and her eyebrows are dancing and I will be saying something like, "Are they talking about going for a walk? I can't tell cause they have learned to use that code word. Maybe they are! I would love to take a walk, but then again, I would love to snuggle them. I love everything cause I am a goofy Lab and I just love life! I love my pillow and I love my dog dish and well... I love my toy! Yippie! Mommy is getting out Peanut Butter! My favorite!" Do you see how this is a disease?! The problem is when I do not feel like doing this and the kids really think I should. They ask me constantly, "Mom, what is that bird saying?" If I am tired of it I will reply, "Nothing. The bird is saying nothing." They beg. They just know that the bird is saying something SO funny in their momma's head.

"Nope, I don't hear the train coming, but I may or may not hear a herd of buffalo."

7. My husband is helping me out here, so for this one, he says that I need to put down that I talk in a very "theatrical way." He says that I sound like I am narrating a play when I talk all the time. Maybe I should ask him what that means? Does he like this? He has never mentioned it before? Does it grate on his nerves and he feels like he finally got the chance to tell me? Who knows... I am not going to risk asking him. He will just have to deal with the narrator's voice for the rest of his life, cause I do not think I can change that.

8. I love my coffee. I have teased you all here in the past about me quitting my addiction, but I do not think it is going to happen anytime soon. I have even bought that Teechino stuff and I have not brewed ANY of it. It is supposed to help me break my coffee addiction and it was expensive. It is still sitting on the shelf in my kitchen. I have contemplated brewing some in the evening for a nice warm drink, but I haven't even thought seriously about brewing it in the morning. That is crazy! I stumble into the kitchen and start my coffee making and I have never contemplated brewing Teechino for my morning brew because at that point my body needs only one thing. Caffeine. My body needs it bad. I know my whole house will be happier if I just have my caffeine, SO I just have my caffeine. Ah well. Anyone want a full bag of Teechino?

9. I am Obsessive about things. I am not OCD... I am just obsessive about things. When I get interested in something, I get REALLY interested in something. When I want start learning about something new, I mull it over in my head constantly. I dream about it, I watch information on it. I read about it. I check out books from the Library on it. My friends have to listen to me talk about it constantly. I am sure it is a chore for them, but they must be good friends cause they are still around. My poor friend Kristen has seen me through many of these obsessive times with me. I am sure she was ready to pull her hair out during the WoW faze. I am sorry Kristen. What can I say? My husband was deployed?! I don't know. I am hanging my head in shame. Honest.

K10 and K26 checking out a brand new egg!

When I was going through a Bald Eagle Obsessive time, we were watching the Bald Eagle web cams and reading up on Eagles and we went on a field trip to a Birds of Prey sanctuary and one morning My Girl came in to ask me a question when I was stil mostly asleep. She asked, "Momma, who are Doodle's parents?" I replied in my sleepy stupor, "K10 and K26 of course." Then I stopped and paused and woke up slightly and said, "No, they aren't. K10 and K26 are EAGLES and Doodles is a cat. We don't know Doodles parents." My daughter went away confused. Poor girl.

10. Sometimes I take really, really random pictures.

It is sorta scary,

but you never know when you are going to get a really great shot.

Right? You just never know.



Now, I am supposed to tag 7 people. Are you worried? Oh, come on, this is fun!

Anyone and everyone who reads this blog is tagged. That should be about seven! hehe... Now, all of you, go out and type up ten true things and hit publish on your blog. If you don't have a blog, make one. If nothing else, it is therapeutic and a great way to waste time on the computer!

Liberty and Justice For All!

My dog is named Liberty. This is her, the sweet goofy spastic Labrador that she is. It is VERY hard for me to take pictures of her because as soon as I pull out the camera and point it in her direction she comes over to see what is going on AND she gets all excited. I was sitting on the floor when I took this one and when I laid down on the floor to get a different angle she had to come over and give me kisses, regardless of my asking her to stay. She kissed my filter on the camera lens. Wasn't that sweet?

This is the best picture that I have ever gotten of my dog. Let me see if I can find some others... you will see what I mean.

Ah yes, you see this is a perfect example. This is what I normally get. Now, I do need to tell you that this picture below was taken with my old camera. My old camera was dropped and it didn't work great, so you get to look at this fuzzy picture BUT this is what she normally does. She runs over as soon as the camera is pointed at her and she looks up at me in her sweet adoring way. This just does not make for the best pet portrait.


This is another example of the same trick she plays. This is when she was younger, she learned this trick pretty early.


This is another little thing she likes to do. She likes to simply roll over on her back and beg me to rub her tummy. She really doesn't care about my picture taking at all. It is all just about her and her tummy needs. She is just so selfish. Man.


Now, this is yet another problem I have taking pictures of Liberty. She is a very dark chocolate brown. She is nearly black and in this picture you basically just get an outline of her on the white snow. Liberty? Are you there or is that just your shadow. Liberty? Well, the shadow sure is moving around fast like her. Who knows, but look at those ears! She looks like she is trying to fly like Dumbo!


Now, the following is a wonderful portrait session done when Liberty was just a puppy. John was deployed and Libby was about seven months old. I had a two year old, a four year old, a spazador chocolate puppy, a teen cat having kittens in my garage and yes, my sweet husband was deployed. My wonderful love was playing over in the Sandbox and he requested that I send pictures of the puppy so he could see how much she had grown.

I had a very good friend of mine assist in taking pictures of the crazy puppy. I need to let you know that my friend spent most of the time cackling with laughter and snapping away. Many, many funny pictures came out of this photo session and I felt that they were very telling of my dog's personality.

Notice the grip I have on her collar. That should tell you something right there.


This is where things started to get a little crazy.

Do you see my eyeballs popping out of my head? My friend was still laughing by the way. Some friend! HA!

This next picture is when the kids came out of the door. Liberty took one look and then all Hades broke loose!


WATCH OUT! YIKES! I think she ripped my arm off in this picture. She probably only weighed about 40 lbs here, but I am telling you what, it was 40 lbs of muscle. Every last ounce.

My Liberty can still be a crazy dog. She can still go ballistic at a plastic bag blowing across the field behind our house. It could be an enemy you know. She still gets outrageously excited when people come to the house. She still LOVES, LOVES to play with kids and she still does find occasion to nearly rip my arm out of socket. She has come a long, long way though and she mainly lays around on her pillow like she is at the top of this post.

That is actually a new pillow that I picked up for her. I brought it home the other night and moved her old worn out pillow and put this one down and she was excited to see me, but she hadn't realized what I was doing. I patted her pillow and told her it was hers and she started wiggling all over and smelling it all over and then she kissed me. She wasn't going to get on that pillow until I told her it was hers and her expression and her excitement were so telling of what was going on in her head.

She is such an amazing dog and though I will never forget what a challenge it was to have a puppy with everything else going on while John was deployed, I could never ever regret having this super sweet, super dedicated, super personalitied dog.


Just look at her. She is mournfully looking at me because I am making her stay on her pillow. She desperately wants to get up and wiggle herself over here and kiss my lens. Sweet puppy, I can't imagine life without this spazzy sweet puppy.

things you find in your house

I found this guy hiding in the bookcase and asked a few kids what in the world was going on with the chick with a gi joe hat on. I will admit that the whole thing made me giggle when I found him and I wanted to know the kid story behind this one.

The Girl fessed up. Chick has his helmet on cause he is going on a bike ride. Makes sense to me too. Yup.

Odd Thing of the Week

You never know what you may see driving down the road.

The Bane of Moms Across the World

This is what I just pulled out of my dryer. Which now I will need to completely rewash in order to not look like I had balled my children up and stuffed them in the luggage to get them anywhere.

I Got a Promotion!

A few years back I received a piece of mail from someone that was addressed to Colonel Anna Lastname. I thought it was so funny at the time. My husband isn't even on that side of the fence in the Air Force and somehow I am a Colonel?!

Today, I went out to the mailbox to get the mail to find a piece of mail for me, Colonel Anna Lastname, and this mail is from Armed Forces Insurance... I laughed all the way back from the mailbox. Maybe I should call them up and demand back pay for all the time I have served. I should ask them why I am being mistreated as a woman? Why am I stuck against this glass ceiling at home teaching two kids? I could be in that great sandbox and could really turn things around I tell ya! I could teach everyone of those Airman what a noun is for goodness sakes! ;)

I am now commanding my troops to stop sucking on their lollipops and to get in here and learn about the Babylonians! See! I am already commanding my troops around that great sandbox!