My Journey to Sanity, again

And the walls came tumbling down...

2012-02-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

That's what happened this week. Valentines to be exact. The walls surrounding my sanity came not only tumbling, but crashing, taking every bit of me as it went. My Valentine's Day present from the ~~oh so wonderful~~ USMC is a deployment. Not only a deployment but five months of workups in other countries. This came as quite a shock for us. He was not slated to deploy but if he was tasked, we were only expecting it to be 7 months total.

Without giving away too much information, Mike will be home about a month and a half total over the next year starting mid-March. He will be spending time in Virginia, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, and Afghanistan. He will be working alongside the Georgian military, teaching and training them on how the US does intel.

Out of all the deployment situations we have been in, this one is probably the worst. Instead of having to say goodbye once, we are having to say it 4 times. It never gets easier but it is what it is.

Needless to say the girls and I will do what we usually do in order to make it through the next year. It's sad to say we are pros at this and we know what to expect. We have an awesome group of friends out here that will hold our hands, provide shoulders to cry on, and wine, lots and lots of wine (just for mom, candy for the girls, lol).

We ask that you keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers over the next year, we'll certainly appreciate them! I'll update as we learn more (right now things are a bit chaotic), and hopefully Mike will be able to write about his experiences as well.

The System Failed

2012-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I am a news hound, I read the news every day, keep up with current events, know the latest celebrity gossip, etc. What I also keep up with is crimes, especially ones that involve innocent children. I was a huge follower of the ~~murderer~~ Casey Anthony case and I have been somewhat following the Susan Powell disappearance. If you don't know the background on the Susan Powell case, I encourage you to Google it, it's a sad situation all around and Susan's family has suffered greatly at the hands of Josh Powell. Even more so now...

Yesterday, Josh Powell committed murder/suicide. He burned his children alive in the house Josh lived in, the house they were allowed to go to for supervised visitations. I cannot for the life of me understand why social services in Washington allowed these children to have visitation at Josh's house. This man had undergone psychological examination and had been told he needed further examinations. Did Washington not realize this is a huge red flag? The system failed these two boys and their dear grandparents (Susan's parents).

I honestly cannot wrap my mind around this whole situation. Josh clearly had documented psychological issues. There was child pornography found on his computer. He likely murdered his wife. He was denied custody of his children for a reason. These boys were innocent in all of this yet the state of Washington let them suffer at the hands of this evil person. (I want to say that I, in no way, blame the social worker that was to supervise these visits, I blame the system for the death of these boys.)

I hope the Cox family knows the boys are now in the arms of their mother and their cruel, evil father can never hurt them again. I also hope the state of Washington takes note of this and rethinks their rules about supervised visitation so that innocent children will not have to pay the ultimate price of evilness.

It's bound to happen...

2012-01-31T15:10:00.000-08:00

I always say one of the best things about the military is the people you get to meet. You make connections, relate with, share your life with, and become friends with people from all over the world. Sometimes these connections last a lifetime, a lot of the time they do not.

I used to hate meeting new people. That, of course, has changed with great effort on my part. I prefer to have my close group of friends but being in the military it's hard to keep that group of friends, especially when we all live in separate location. So you have to make a new group of friends. One lesson I have learned is that you still have to be picky about choosing said friends.

Sometimes you befriend someone to later find out their true colors. They silently judge you, do not acknowledge you when they are with their "other friends", and before you know it, you are left wondering "what did I do to cause this person to treat me this way?". This is one question I don't think I'll ever know the answer to. Phony people suck and it never fails, I always find myself trying to be friends with at least one person like this wherever we live. I think they just have this aura about them that draws people close. Once you get in, it is they who decide whether or not you are worthy of their friendship. It should be the other way around.

This all being said, I am making a promise to myself. I will not dwell on these false friendships, I will not let someone else decide if I am worthy enough, and I will not make excuses for these type of people. What I will do is cherish the friendships I have across the world, make more of an effort to be a better friend to those people, and know that even if we are thousands of miles apart, or just a few feet, there is a reason we are friends.

I usually end up with three or four close friends at each duty station and I would say that I am very lucky for that. I can call someone any time of day (literally) and chat like we talk every day (even if we have spoken in months). So to all my true friends, you know who you are, thank you and you all rock!

Yep, I'm going there...

2012-01-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

Today is Primary Day in South Carolina. I will be SO glad when today is over. It's not a secret by any means that the South is primary deeply conservative, right-winged, and very anti-Obama. But lately, what has really been grating my skin is the whole "you're an idiot if you support any Democrat". Granted, both sides are guilty of it but if you're going to do it, do it with knowledge and facts, not blatant lies and mistruths.

Lately, people are in an uproar over NDAA. I get it, I understand. Congress thought they were being sneaky by putting section 1031 in there. Obama basically said "this is crap". Congress basically said "oh well, we don't care, we want to go on our vacation". Obama signed the bill but added a signing statement saying he would not enforce section 1031. Yet people are still mad. Blame the people that wrote the bill. Blame the people that could care less because all they care about is pissing Obama off and going on vacation. I do wish Obama would have stood his ground more but you know what, he didn't. So by him not doing so, the military gets paid!

You see it's really a catch-22 for me. I don't agree with indefinite detentions, no trials, etc. But, I also do not like wondering if we're going to get paid on the next pay day, is my husband going to have enough safety gear when he deploys again, will my friend's spouses be riding around in broken vehicles with no way to repair them. The military has had to deal with all of this (thank you Congress) time and time again. It's not fair. Of all aspects of the federal government, the ones that step up and serve should not be the ones to suffer.

If you aren't affiliated with the military I don't expect you to understand. I think Obama knew exactly what he was doing when he signed NDAA and knew the legalities of it (how section 1031 would never be considered constitutional if it came down to the wire), he's a lawyer. But alas, like I said before, so many people are anti-Obama that anything he does (even if it's singing, lol), he'll be criticized for it. Hopefully come election time we remember how Congress has screwed us over time and time again and Obama is just one of their pawns.

Introducing...updated!

2012-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

The Single Lady (or something else, her name will be officially decided once she arrives and we figure out her personality. Regardless, she's Beyonce's cousin). If you need to know the back story, look here. She should be here before my birthday, happy birthday to me!

She has arrived. Her official name is Genevieve, the Single Lady. Knock Knock....

Random x 2

2012-01-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

1. I was driving home tonight from a quick trip to the store and one of my favorite songs from days past came on the radio. I naturally did what EVERYONE (don't try to deny it) does, I started singing along at the top of my lungs. Then it hit me. What if every car had a hidden camera in it just for moments like that? How many interesting self-conversations would everyone be privy to and what new music would we be introduced to?

2. I am always amused when someone finds out that we have a slew of January birthdays in the T family. The jaw dropping, wide eyed, "are you for real" look always makes me laugh. Yes, we're for real, no it wasn't planned (seriously, how could we ever do that, especially since Madison's due date was mid-February?), and yes, all of our names begin with M (that was planned). I kind of like having our little claim to fame among our friends. :)

My friend's great aunt's nephew once removed.

2012-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

The other day, my crazy friend and I were having a serious discussion (about as serious as beer itching and evilness, lol). Somehow it lead to her daughter having a trait from her great, great, great aunt twice removed. My friend, we'll call her Dawn, lol, asked me what that meant. Naturally I have no idea but it does sound kind of funny when you say it right? "Oh that's my counsin's baby daddy's brother's uncle five times removed". See?

So what exactly does that mean? I did a little Googling and think we all need a little lesson in genealogy (because you really have wondered, at some point, what all that removed business is about right?). Here you go, it's when someone is of another generation of you. One generation (like your mom's cousin) would be your cousin once removed. Your grandmother's cousin is your cousin twice removed. Make sense? Yeah, I don't really get it either. Example: My cousin, Jeremy, is Madison and Mikayla's first cousin once removed. My other cousin, Matt, has a daughter, she is M&M's second cousin. Got it yet? If not, the ever so loved Wikipedia has a great chart to explain it all.

There you have it. Hopefully you understand it all a little better now. More importantly, if it really matters and you can use it correctly, I say kudos to you!

She's a lady

2012-01-01T10:43:00.001-08:00

She's so lady-like isn't she?

The best 12 Days of Christmas EVER!

2011-12-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

I heart Randall. I really do.

http://youtu.be/ylOKdD6ITeg

Santa's snack

2011-12-24T17:35:00.001-08:00

Instead of cookies & milk, we are leaving Santa a mini pizza & Blue Moon (because we're cool like that)

A little culture (and here I thought the semester was over)

2011-12-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

Last week was the last week of the semester for me. I was taking a Cross-Cultural psychology class that was about to be the bane of my existence (next to statistics). To make it short, instructor got sick, dropped the class, left us hanging for nearly 2 weeks, got a new instructor, left us royally confused with no feedback throughout the course. ~~I ended up with a B which annoys me but it is what it is~~. I made an A!! I went back and figured out my grade and I had a 90, which is an A! ANYWAY! Never did I imagine I would be looking, straight in face, with some of the things I learned in class so soon.

The San Diego Ballet invited members of the military and their families to attend the Nutcracker last night. So we trekked down to San Diego, again (trip 3 of 3, YAY) to experience our first ballet. Little did we know we'd end up right smack in the middle of Occupy San Diego! So here's our tastes of differences in cultures, the ballet and the protesters.

The protesters were quiet, just hanging out on the steps with their sidewalk chalk messages. There weren't a lot of police when we arrived so that was good. The ballet was eh. I had always wanted to see what the hoopla was about and now that I have, I'm not overly impressed. The girls didn't seem impressed either. The best part of the night was Madison exclaiming the male ballet dancers' costumes were inappropriate (imagine her with a super serious look on her face saying this, hilarious!).

As we were leaving there were more police outside, scrubbing the courtyard to get rid of the chalked messages. The protesters had dwindled with a few making comments to the officers. I'll be the first to admit I support the Occupy protesters but I feel that last night, on private property, was not really okay. Hopefully they find a public place to have their protest today.

So that was our little taste of two cultures blended into one. Two entirely different groups of people, existing in the same place, each with their own agenda yet accepting of the other. Kind of amazing and how life really should be.

Poinsettia Bowl

2011-12-21T19:22:00.001-08:00

This afternoon we ventured down to San Diego (trip 2 of 3 this week) to attend the Poinsettia Bowl with other Make A Wish families in SoCal. We were part of the pregame show, everyone in red, white, or blue sweatshirts. Unfortunately we only stayed for the first quarter, Mikayla was bored & Madison was tired. (Madison was actually enjoying the game though, she is a southern girl afterall (born in VA), college football is in her blood.) we had a good time & hopefully the Bulldogs won!

Being crafty

2011-12-20T20:22:00.001-08:00

I made this carseat canopy for a sweet friend that is due w her first next month (sorry they are sideways)

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

Dates

2011-12-19T13:26:00.001-08:00

I hate driving to San Diego to find out they cancelled Madison's pacer ck. I do happen to love lunch dates w my girls!

Ciao la la la la

2011-12-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

I decided this morning to deactivate my Facebook account. Over the last few days I've read numerous complaints, saw people being preached at and then the same person doing the preaching doing some judging, saw people put down others, read a lot of unnecessary drama, etc. I then realized that all of that was unnecessary and served absolutely no purpose in my life. If anything, it caused a lot of eye rolling and agitation.

Now there were some good things, some things that I would want to know (like someone being sick or needing some good thoughts) but those have become few and far between lately.

I think people get so caught up in everything they forget about life in general, especially at this time of year. I mean, it's the holidays, time to be cheery and bright! But no, people want to miserable and complain instead. So for the next few weeks, my Facebook will stay closed. Right now I want to hear good things, happy things, things that this season is all about.

So ciao to Facebook, I want my Fa la la la la and for whatever it's worth, I'm going to get it.

P.S. I did NOT delete anyone, regardless of what SOMEONE is saying. I simply deactivated my account and will reactivate it in 2012. :)

Procrastinating

2011-12-14T12:39:00.001-08:00

Because I have a paper I need to working on....check this out. I'm so easily distracted

Oh my cuteness!!!

here we go again

2011-12-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

I know y'all are probably tired of the back and forth with the blogs huh? I promise not to delete this one and I promise to write on it. It might not be a regular thing when I'm in school but when I feel like I need to say something to the world, this is where you'll find it. Sometimes you won't like what I have to say, in that case, you don't have to read it! If you do like what I say, then yay! Either way, you're entitled to your own opinion as I am mine.

So that being said, let the journey, once again, begin!