My Brother...

When I tell people that, at 37 years old, I have a 19 year old brother, they laugh and say "well, wasn't he a surprise?"

Actually, he wasn't.

I was raised in a foster home, the oldest biological child of three.

I still remember the day that I came home from kindergarten and there was a baby there, my parent's first foster child.

Our family always considered it our mission, helping out children and giving them the loving home that they had not had in their lives. Our parents weren't just foster parents, we were a foster family.

Over the years, I have seen some pretty bad stuff. You wouldn't believe what human beings will do to a child, it's heartbreaking. I've seen babies with third degree burns, beaten, abused, neglected. We once had a 16 month boy that weighed less than half what he should have at his age.

At 17, I thought I had seen it all. I thought I was a hardened and cynical when it came to seeing bad stuff.

You see, to do what our family did, you had to have at least some emotional distance. For me, it was crying. I never let myself cry over what I saw. If I got too attached to one child, it would devastate me emotionally, and I wouldn't be able to be there to help the next baby that needed us.

Until I met David.

It was a week before Christmas my senior year in high school when Mom got the call that there was a 3 month old baby in the hospital that had been abused. As soon as he was released, he would be coming to our home.

I was going into work that day, so I went an hour early to stop in at the hospital. I knew the nurse that was on duty that day and she told me "Wendy, this is a bad one."

When she brought that 3 month old little darling in and laid him in my arms, I cried. I broke down and sobbed and I rocked him and I held him and I promised him right then and there that no one would ever hurt him again. Not while there was still breath left in my body.

He was beautiful, blond, blue eyed baby and his biological mother had sold him on the black market. The people that had adopted him had done horrible things to him. He had broken bones, cigarette burns, razor cuts, and they had thumped his little ears so bad they were swollen masses of flesh on the side of his head. It was your worst nightmare.

A few days after Christmas, he came home to live with us in a body cast from the armpits down. We all fell in love with him, he was so sweet and so wonderful.

When I was in college, my Mother approached me. She wanted to know what I would think about the family adopting David, and making him my real brother. I was ecstatic! He already was my real brother in my heart, we just got to make it legal.

Mom always said that David and I must have bonded in those first few minutes, because he and I have always been close. Even though I got married and moved away from home when he was 3 years old, we always stayed very close.

He's grown into a handsome young man. As a teen-ager, and spoiled rotten from his doting family, he's been a handful. But even as trying as he can be, I still love him with all my heart.

I really hate when people find out that he's adopted and ask about his real parents. I tell then that his real parents are my parents. They are the ones that nursed him when he was sick, taught him values, and were with him every step of the way.

While he may not be my brother through blood, he is as much my real brother as my blood sisters are my real sisters. He is my real brother in every way that matters, legally and with love.

Scrap Products I Love And Hate...

So our challenge today was to discuss products in the scrapbooking world that we can't live without and that we can't stand.

I'm glad that the scrapbooking industry has finally started to recognize that not all croppers are soccer moms doing "Live, Love, Dance" kind of sappy pages. When I first started, all that was out there was hearts and flowers kind of stuff. Now there is a Harley Davidson line and even a line of embellishments alcohol based! LOL!

Things I Can't Live Without:
1. Xyron - This is the greatest invention ever. I love my Quickutz system, but before I discovered Xyron, I was having to use a glue stick to try and get each letter stuck down. How did I live without it?
2. Bazzill Cardstock - I'll admit it, I'm a cardstock snob. I will not use any other cardstock but Bazzill. The texture, the weight, the fact that it's not white core....it can't be beat!
3. Chatterbox Pattern Papers - I am an admitted Chatterbox Whore. 75% of my layouts use Chatterbox papers. Although I don't like their brads...what a horrid idea, they are too thick and don't lay flat.
4. Herma Dotto - The adhesive of choice
5. Glue Dots - I once had the nickname "She Who Flashes For Gluedots".

Things I Abhor:
1. Zots - The cheapo version of Glue Dots...they are hard to use and don't stick worth a damn.
2. Anything cutsie!
3. Stickers - I'm way past that stage.
4. Anything by Creative Memories - I dislike the company on principle. They are very exclusive and push their members to only use their products. Plus they value volume over quality.

I have a funny CM story. I was at a weekend crop retreat with 8 or 9 other ladies and the hostess asked that in consideration of people sleeping, that no one pound eyelets after 10pm. The leader of a group of 6 ladies said "Oh that won't be a problem, we're Creative Memories scrappers. We don't use eyelets".

I was simply being curious and asked "Why is that?"

She sneered "Well, we believe that our pages should tell a story!"

I laughed "So what do my pages do? Tell knock knock jokes?" I picked up the page I was working on and said "what is this page about? I don't know, it has an eyelet on it, I can't tell!!"

She did not find me amusing!

I'm a Planner

Actually I'm a Planner married to the King of Planning.

Dave and I have plans for organizing our plans. We have plans of how to go about making plans. We have Excel spreadsheets detailing our plans. We enjoying planning. Planning a vacation; picking the route, finding the hotel, deciding on the mode of travel, creating the itinerary; well that's almost as fun as the vacation itself.

Unfortunately, the Marine Corp usually messes up our plans as promptly as we make them.

*le sigh*

So, here are my plans for the next few months...
Before Dave Comes Home:
1. Hire an exterminator, the ants are super bad this year and he hates bugs.
2. Lose 4 more pounds.
3. Clean out the drain under the bathroom sink. It's backing up.
4. Get my hair color touched up.
5. Straighten my house.
6. Pay someone to come in and clean it from top to bottom in every nook and cranny!

After Dave Comes Home:
1. Take a few days off, depending on his schedule.
2. I'll go back to work, Monday through Friday only, for a while.
3. Take 2 weeks off work when he gets his 2 weeks leave. We'll probably go home to visit all the families.
4. Take 3 days off work the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of our Marine Corp Ball weekend, be lazy and hang around the pool in Primm, drinking too much and having lots of sex.

Now our plans for the next few years are up in the air. If you would have asked me three days ago, I would have rattled them off for you without a doubt. But now, Dave has changed his mind, once again, on what course he wants to take in his career.

So until that plan is decided and made, all I can say is we plan to continue to save money and beef up our investments so that when he DOES retire from the Marine Corp after somewhere between 20 and 26 years of service, we plan on traveling around in our RV, see the US, and just generally be lazy, enjoy life, and have lots of sex.

Most Embarrassing Drunken Story

Our topic for today in our blog challenge is:





Most Embarrassing Drunken Story.

Hmmm....where to start?

Was it the time that I got kicked out of Las Consuelas for....well, I'm not sharing that information.

How about the time that Dacia and I....hmmm, nope, can't share that one either.

Well there's always the time that Dave and I....no, way too many family members read this blog for that story to come out either.

Oh, I know a story I can tell. I was at Las Consuelas (they let me back in) with 4 or 5 girlfriends celebrating someone's birthday. I was on the dance floor dancing with my friend Roberta when some guy came up and started dancing up on her. She gave me this "could you help me out" look, so I tapped him on the shoulder and said "could you leave her alone, she's mine."

He just got a shocked look on his face and walked away.

We thought that would be the end of that.

Nope, one of our other girlfriends hooked up with that guy's best friend and they ended up sitting at our table. So Roberta and I had to spend the rest of the night pretending to be a couple. Since both she and I are married, and both wearing wedding rings, we regaled the guys with the stories of our recent "wedding ceremony". It was stinking hilarious when our friend Courtney piped up "oh I was there, the flowers were BEAUTIFUL!"

I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Of course, I then remembered that Dave was supposed to be showing up at any time, so I turned to Roberta and said "oh, I forgot to tell you, I talked to your brother DAVE today. He's going to meet us here."

A little later, who walks in, but Dave. Roberta jumped up, ran over to him, hugged him, and whispered in his ear, "Wendy and I are pretending to be lesbians, play along."

He's such a good sport.

Music for a Deployment

I'm participating in a music CD swap with a bunch of girls over at The Red Lily. I've done these before and they are tons of fun, you get a lot of new music and you get a look at other people's taste in music.

Mostly when I do my CD, I just fill it with my favorite 20 songs at the time, but this time, I decided to go with a theme. I created a CD of Deployment Music. Here is the song list for my CD.

1. Anchor’s Marine – Nothing stirs my heart like a reminder of the Marine Corp pride! It makes our sacrifices seem worth it!
2. Good Bless The USA, Lee Greenwood – See Above!
3. The Way You Look Tonight, Michael Buble – Memories from those last days, carry us through the long deployment.
4. You’ll Be In My Heart, Phil Collins – Just a thought to carry me through the long days.
5. Sleeping Single In A Double Bed, Barbara Mandrel – one of the things that makes this so hard.
6. Call Me, Blondie – those calls are so few and far between.
7. Lean On Me, Club Nuveau – without my friends, I couldn’t do it!
8. With or Without You, U2 – life goes on, even when he’s gone.
9. I Will Survive, Gloria Gainer – we just go on, surviving.
10. Living On A Prayer, Bon Jovi – prayer is the wife’s only weapon.
11. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Supremes – I just have to believe, he’s coming home to me!
12. Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin – Sometimes you just have to smile!
13. I Only Want To Be With You, Vonda Shepard – wanting him here with me!
14. Holding Out For A Hero, Frou Frou – He’s my hero!
15. You Can’t Hurry Love, Dixie Chicks – Time just passes, nothing can push it!
16. We’ll Be Together, Sting – Time is getting close, I’m starting to get excited!
17. The Boys Are Back In Town, BTO – standing there waiting on that bus to pull up!!
18. Celebration, KC & The Sunshine Band – The bus is here!!!
19. Never Say Good-bye, Bon Jovi – Not only does the song have meaning in this playlist, but it also “our song”
20. At Last, Etta James – The wait is over and I am complete!

List A Fault - Blog Challenge

I'm lazy!

There, I admitted it out loud. I'm lazy!

Of course anyone that has known me for more than a few days is laughing right now saying "this isn't news". I'm notoriously lazy!

But for those faithful readers that only know me through this blog, I'm putting it out there.

I never put my shoes away, why should I? It's easier to find them in the middle of the living room floor where I took them off the night before than in the closet. I never make the bed...I truly don't get the sense in that. I'm just going to get back in it tonight. If there is an easy way to do something, I'm going to find it and make it even easier.

The saddest part of the whole thing...I'm not even that embarrassed about it.

Making A Difference

A lot of people talk about how they want to change the world and accomplish "great things" with their lives. I don't have such high aspirations. I just want to make the little bit of the world I live in a better place. If I can make one person's day better, each day of my life, think how much good my life will bring about.

Most days are little things; looking someone in the eyes and giving them a genuine smile, listening when they tell me stories from their childhood, making a really killer mojito, making someone laugh.

But every now and then, I get to make a big difference. A while back, I had a lady sitting at a table in my restaurant. It was late in the afternoon and she was my only customer and we got to talking. I mentioned where Dave is now and she went off on a tirade about how evil Muslims are.

I stopped her and said no, terrorist and people who use the Muslim religion as an excuse to do horrible things are terrible; but the Muslim religion is a beautiful and peaceful faith. She was aghast that I would say that; how about the World Trade Centers, how about the USS Cole? To her, these were prime examples of why she should hate all Muslims.

I asked her, what about zealots that blow up abortion clinics and kill doctors who perform abortions, what about those people in Kansas that go to the funerals of military people who were killed in Iraq holding the most hurtful signs? Do those people really represent main stream Christianity?

She agreed that they did not.

Then why, as asked her, would you think that these zealots spreading hate and violence would represent the teachings of the second largest religion in the world? It doesn't.

That woman left my restaurant with new thoughts and an open mind; and I felt very good about my place here in this universe.

Some days, I make the world a better place in small ways, but every now and then, I get to make a bigger difference, and I love that.

How did you make the world a better place today?

Questions for Thursday

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?
*Yes....don't ask, the story is way to embarrassing to go into!
2. Do you close your eyes on a roller coaster?
*Nope, I want to see it all!
3. When's the last time you've been sledding?
*Never, I didn't even see snow until I was 20, and I wasn't impressed then. Cold and wet!
4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
*With my man only, other than that, alone
5. Do you believe in ghosts?
*Not particularly
6. Do you consider yourself creative?
*Yes
7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?
*While I believe that he did, our American justice system (no matter how broken it may be) says he's innocent. I honor that.
8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?
*To be a wife or a friend, Jennifer. For just some down and dirty physical stuff, Angelina
9. Can you honestly say you know ANYTHING or EVERYTHING about politics?
*I many not know everything, but I consider myself well versed.
10. Do you know how to play poker?
*Yes, but I'm not very good.
11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
*Yup, but I wasn't functioning well.
12. What's your favorite commercial?
*I have Tivo, I don't watch commercials
13. Who was your first love?
*the first time I thought I was in love...my high school boyfriend before Dave, Heath. First time I really was in love, Dave.
14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around you, do you run a red light?
*no, I'm very rule oriented.
15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
*no, I don't have the ability to keep secrets
16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees?
Neither, I don't like baseball. Too slow
17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?
*once, in an ice rink. I hated it
18. How often do you remember your dreams?
*fairly often
19. What's the one thing on your mind?
*these days, what today's date is and how many days it is until Oct. 3rd.
20. Do you always wear your seat belt?
*no, but I should. Dave yells at me for it.
21. What talent do you wish you had?
*I wish I could dance
22. Do you like Sushi?
*no, where I'm from we call that bait
23. What do you wear to bed?
*if Dave is home, nothing. He's adament about sleeping in the buff. If he's not, a t-shirt and yoga pants.
24. Do you truly dislike anyone?
*yup
25. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be?
*no one, I don't go into the celebrity thing. They are people just like us.
26. Do you know anyone in jail?
*Not that I know of
27. What food do you find disgusting?
*the list is too long...I'm the pickiest eater ever: eggs, cucumbers, all fish, coconut....seriously, those are just my top four
28. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?
*yes, honestly I have, when I was younger.
29. Have you ever been punched in the face?
*yes, and I have the bridgework to prove it.
30. Do you believe in angels and demons?
*yes

A Layout About Me....the best kind!

I do love things about me! LOL!

Inspired from an Elise Flannigan layout in the Autumn Leaves idea book "The Me Book".

Home Sweet Home?

A friend of mine posed the question "If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?"

This is a subject that is a bit of a sore spot for me. For coming up on 18 years now, I haven't had a choice of where I wanted to live. The Marine Corp says "go to California", "go to North Carolina", "go to Okinawa, Japan" and we pack our boxes and off we go.

Except for three sweet years when Dave was stationed at Naval Air Station Dallas, working with the reservist station there, we have lived at least 24 hours driving distance from our families. We've missed little brothers growing up and becoming men and our young nephews becoming teen-agers. We've missed Christmas, Thanksgiving, anniversaries, birthdays, and in some cases, we've missed weddings and funerals.

Now that the end of Dave's Marine Corp career is in sight, just two to five years away, we're starting to look forward to moving to a place of our choosing.

Of course we haven't quite made that choice yet.

Dave's parents own a Napa Auto Parts store in their small, small town in Kansas. They have expressed a desire to have us come back to their neck of the woods and help the family business.

But Dave and I have always considered ourselves Texans, so we feel a strong desire to move there as well. And the fact that Texas has no state income tax is a motivating factor there.

With all my family in Texas and all of his in Kansas, Oklahoma would be, from the outside, a logical choice. The problem there being that there is long standing rivalry between Texans and Oklahomans. There is NO WAY on God's green Earth that this Texas girl is going to live in Oklahoma! (I know lots of dirty Oklahoma jokes, if anyone is interested)

One big concern we have is this: for the last 18 years, it has been just me and Dave. Just the two of us against the world. I'm worried that our families will be so excited that we are back in the area that they will suffocate us. We're going to have to have a long talk with both sides and make sure they understand that they are all going to have to give us our space sometimes and understand what a big adjustment this is going to be for us.

So to answer Susie's question; I don't know the exact location that we're going to live when we finally get to make our own decision on the matter, but I do know it's going to be a Red state!!

What a Difference 8 Months Can Make

I don't know if it's the growing the hair out or the loss of 12 pounds, but damn, I just look so much younger!

Creation vs. Evolution

I've posted this cartoon before, but after watching an episode of Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" yesterday, I felt the need to expound upon it.

I like "30 Days". It places people that have a strong view on a subject in the lives of someone who believes the exact opposite for 30 Days. The show is completely unbiased. It lets the people present their views and never casts any editorial content on it. (Unlike Michael Moore who has to put "his" spin on everything)

In an episode I watched yesterday, an atheist lives with a family of Christians for a month and they both learn from each other. It was well done and each participant walked away with a better understanding of the other's views and stance. What struck me in the show was the debate about teaching evolution versus creation in America's schools.

It showed that in a National History Museum somewhere in America (I forget where) a Christian group conducts "BC Tours", Biblically Correct versus Politcally Correct. They deny the scientific facts that man and dinosaurs never existed on this planet at the same time. They say that since God created the Earth in 7 days, man and dinosaurs must have existed on this planet at the same time.

Frankly I think both the Evolutionists and the stanch Creationist are pigheaded.

I believe that God created evolution.

The Bible tells us:

Day 1: creation of light, and the separation of light from darkness

Day 2: creation of sky, and the separation of the waters above the sky and the waters below

Day 3: creation of earth, and the separation of earth from the waters below; creation of vegetation and the separation of different kinds of plants (each after its kind)

Day 4: creation of the sun, moon, and stars to separate day and night, and to order seasons

Day 5: creation of non-land animals and the separation of different kinds of animals; the command to be fruitful and multiply

Day 6: creation of land animals and the separation of different kinds of animals; creation of human beings, command to be fruitful and multiply, given dominion over the earth

Day 7: God rests and blesses the seventh day

What I have to ask the stanch Creationists is: are we so egotistical that we think that God, an infinite being, measures his days in our man made 24-hour time period? I think not.

In my opinion, God is infinite, so a day to him is like a million years to us. On God's first day in creating our planet, he made light. Then on His second day he created the sky and the waters. While this was only a day to Him, this could have been several MILLION years to us.

He then created the earth and then on His next day, the sun, moon and stars.

Science states that the first living creature was an amoebae that climbed out of the ocean and onto the land. I say God caused this to happen and over the course of His 5th and 6th days (which to mere mortals like ourselves, would be measured in BILLIONS of years) this evolved into all the animals and eventually He created Adam and then Eve choosing to give us the freedom of choice rather than making us blindly obedient to Him. They were tempted by sin, causing them to be cast out of Paradise.

For Evolutionists to declare that there was no intelligent design in our universe, so infinitely perfect....well the odd of that are trillions to one. Science tell us that if the Earth were even a mile closer or further away from the sun, it couldn't support life. How could this be an accident?

For Creationists to deny all the scientific facts is like sticking their heads in the sand. God created us as extremely intelligent beings, to deny information derived from this intelligence and to believe so literally words that have been translated by man over so many generations...well I don't have words for such egomanical thoughts.

So that's it. That's Wendy's Lessons on the Creation of our Universe. Take from it what you will.

Reality Show Junkie

I remember when I first heard about the reality show, Survivor, I thought it sounded completely asinine. But Dave and I were hanging some curtains one night when the second episode came on and we ended up watching it, and were completely hooked. I missed that very first episode, and believe it or not, that is the only episode I have missed in all 12 seasons.

When the second season came out, Dave and I would watch it every week, then go into the garage (we don't smoke in our house) and talk about what happened. Listening to us, you would think we knew these people personally.

I can tell you the names of the winners and the runners up of all 12 seasons, and can pretty much tell you all about them; what they do for a living where there from, etc. I live and breath for Thursday night any time there is a show running! My friends and family all know that you NEVER call me between 8pm and 9pm on a Thursday night!

If you want an excellent site on Survivor cast members, trivia, and scandal, this one is great!

I'm not completely addicted to any other reality show, like I am Survivor, but I do really enjoy The Amazing Race. While I love Survivor for the psychological wheelings and dealings, I like the Amazing Race because the winners are based on skill and physical performance. Often times in Survivor, the person that I thought truly deserved to win (like in seasons 1, 2, 4, 6, and 12) gets voted out, but in The Amazing Race, winning is based on the contestants actual performance.

Other reality shows I enjoy are Fear Factor and Celebrity Mole (the regular Mole show was BORING, but putting stars in made it fun.

Yeah, I know, Dave tells me all the time. I have issues. ROTFLMAO!

What I value...

My friend Tracey posted the topic of our blog challenge today and I really like it.

What do I value in life and how does that tie in with my morals/belief systems/values?

I think one of the things that I truly value in my life is my sense of responsibility, my confidence, and my independence.

It's so funny that Tracey posted this topic today, because just over a week ago, I was told that I "have an issue with weakness".

After five long months of this deployment, the third in four years, I was reaching a breaking point. In a little over a 10 days, three separate incidents pushed me closer and closer to feeling like I was just losing it. I hated how I felt, so out of control and so completely unlike me. I hated this weakness I was feeling in myself.

Since then, I've had some good, long talks with people that I trust; I had a good crying jag and got out some pent up emotions; and this week I am feeling much better, much more in control of myself and my life. Getting through this has just emphasized to me how much I value these character traits in myself and in others.

People who take no control over their lives irritate me. To allow your fate to be written by others, your life choices to be dictated to you by someone other than yourself...I find that unfathomable.

People who blame their bad fortune or their bad circumstances on fate or on the government or anyone but themselves make me crazy. To blame the fact that, as an adult, you shot your parents with a shotgun on the fact that they abused you as child; well that's ludicrous. We are in control of our own lives. We can chose to work hard and live well or we can chose to commit crimes and be a burden on society. People who don't take responsibility for their own actions and their own life irritate the living daylights out of me.

I also dislike weakness and timidity. I meet life head on, with my chin up and my shoulders back. I accept nothing less from myself and find it difficult to respect people who are scared of their own shadows.

I've been told that I'm too black and white and that life is filled with grey areas. Perhaps for other people it is, but for me, it's not. There is right and there is wrong; there is true and there is false; there is living well and there is coasting through life.

Stating these views has caused some problems for me in the past. People dislike me for my hardnosed views on things and my unwillingness to bend my views to blend into our "blame it on someone else" society. But the strength of my convictions are another thing that make me who I am. Love me or hate me, but respect my honesty. I say what I think and I think what I say.

Pool Party

A fun day yesterday. I went over to my friend Cathy's house and helped her break in her new pool.

Helping her clean the filters, though, I learned that pool ownership is darn hard work.

But it's fun having a friend with a nice pool.

Prostitution

In my opinion, the fact that prostitution is illegal in this country (with the exception of Nevada) is idiotic.

Is prostitution immoral? Yes, but so are many things that aren't illegal.

If a woman is willing to give a service and a man is willing to pay for that service, who are they hurting? So many people give access to their bodies for money. Athletes use their bodies for money, so do models. We can sell our blood, our platelets, even our eggs or sperm. Why is sex the only avenue that exchanging our bodies for sex is against the law. I can kill an unborn human inside me in the name of my body, my right; but I can't trade sexual favors for money? Tell me how that makes sense?

Think about how much better everything would be if we legalized it. We could require prostitutes to undergo monthly health examinations to receive their work card. Anyone found working without a work card could be arrested. We could tax their income. They could form a union. There is only good that could be gained from legalizing this occupation.

Plus let's discuss the cost on our society as taxpayers. The following is an exerpt from an essay I found expounding on the reasons we should legalize prostitution:

Currently most everywhere in the United States, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems.

What are the end results? Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases, having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the streets in no time in a revolving door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring affect on prostitution.

Another good point:

It is estimated that 100,000 to 3 million teens are nearly invisibly prostituted per year in the United States (Walker, 2002). If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view and basically invisible to the law as it is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. When adult women decide to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice open to them under the philosophy of a free, democratic society. When troubled minors who do not yet have the social survival skills decide to prostitute, they are often manipulated by opportunists who exploit these teens, typically leading to horrific ends. Legalizing prostitution will help prevent these instances through regulation.

Even Ann Landers was in favor of legalizing prostitution

If you would like to read an excellent book on the subject, I highly recommend "The Mayflower Madam" by Sydney Biddle Barrows. It's a true story of a woman with a degree in business management, that lost her job in the fashion buying industry in New York City in the early 80's. To make ends meet, she took a job working the phones at a call girl outservice. When she realized how badly most call girl services were run, she opened her own business and applied all of the principles that she had learned in business school to this industry.

The book isn't titillating and doesn't focus on the sex aspect. It shows how the business of prostitution could be run like a business. She treated her employees decently and fairly. She treated her customers with respect. Everyone was happy.

Except, of course, the NYC Police Department, who for some reason chose to target this clean and well run organization rather than the dozen of sleazy ones who cheated their customers and their working girls.

An excellent read. Two thumbs up from Wendy. I guarantee it will make you look at prostitution in a whole new light.


::::stepping down off my soapbox for now::::

My Creative Space

When Dave and I moved into this three bedroom house, we considered whether we needed to turn one of the other bedrooms into a guest room. After thinking about it for a short while, we decided it would be a complete waste to have a bedroom reserved for the (maybe) three or four days a year when someone might need to stay over.

So we have our master bedroom, and each of us has a room to do with what we wanted. Dave turned his into an office with all his Marine Corp memorabilia and his awards and plaques on the wall.

I surprisingly enough, turned mine into the most kick ass scrapbook room ever conceived. I seriously love my room!!

Being married to a woodworking and construction HE-MAN is definitely was cool when you are designing a custom space:
Dave designed and built this desk for my room. The picture is a little old, taken right after he installed it. Notice how it has the indention where I sit so I can have 180 degrees of work space around me. My computer, printer, and scanner are on the right, and clear work space is on the left.
Notice the green plaid corkboard. Dave made that too, he had me find a material that I liked and then he cut and covered squares of cork to make a cool pin up board!
Also notice the pictures on the right wall. Those are my autographed "Charmed" pictures. Dave got those for me in 2004 because he knew that not only was that my favorite show, but that Paige was my favorite character.

Here's something else Dave made for me:
A pegboard so that all my most commonly used tools would be at my fingertips and a stamp pad holder. He actually made the stamp pad holder out of scraps of expensive cherry and mahogany wood that he was using making a retirement shadow box gift for his Commanding Officer.

Last December, while we were on vacation, I saw a simple design for storing acrylic paint bottles and asked Dave if he could make one for me. When we got home, he looked at it and turned it out in just a few short hours. However, he decided it was cheesy and not worthy of being hung in my room. Instead he created this:

It not only stores my paint, but the top of it is a shelf where I can put miscellaneous stamps, inks, UTEE, my rubber ducky and rubber froggy who talk to me when I need inspiration.


The next step in Dave, the King of all things Wood, was a bookshelf and workspace:

I use the top part as a work space to spread out on and do messy stuff like using acrylic paint, getting goopy with modgepodge, and walnut inks. Underneath are all my albums, scrapbook idea books, Stampin Up stamp sets, and my foam stamps. Of course it also holds very important things like my Happy Bunny slippers and my Dallas Cowboys Superbowl memorial.

Now I wouldn't want you to think that everything in my scrapbook room was designed by Dave. I came up with this uber-cool way to store all my favorite ribbon:

Yes, those are tequila bottles...Patron Silver to be exact, and no I didn't drink all that. Remember, I am a bartender. But if anyone was to come into my house right now and see how many empty Patron bottles I have, they might be curious.

All my paper storage is in this wire paper holder that I bought on-line. Dave offered to build something to replace it, but it's neat and functional and works, so I declined this one.


Other things in my room that I love:


So much, so much, what else could you possibly need? Well, we're actually not done. I did not take pictures or show you one area of my space, which I'm not happy with. Dave has promised that when he gets back, he is going to build me some drawer units to replace these mismatched, ugly, clear plastic drawer units that are currently holding miscellaneous tools and supplies. After that is done, then my room will be complete!

All Hail Big Daddy Dave, The Master and Commander of the Woodworking Universe!!

Blog Survey

Hugs and Kisses to the cutest Blog Mistress ever....Susie Q.

We were challenged to answer the following questions:

1. I WANT - Dave to come home for good.
2. I HAVE - Pride for what he is doing there.
3. I WISH - We would never be separated again.
4. I HATE - Sleeping alone.
5. I MISS - Being touched
6. I HEAR - Every mean word said to me.
7. I WONDER - How police officer's wives deal with this stress every day.
8. I REGRET - All the mean things I said to my sister when I was in High School.
9. I AM NOT - An angry person.
10. I DANCE - Any time I hear Mustang Sally.
11. I SING - Every chance I get.
12. I CRY - Way too often these days.
13. I AM NOT ALWAYS - Plagued with this emotional turmoil.
14. I MAKE WITH MY HANDS - A damn good mojito
15. I WRITE - With my heart in this blog.
16. I CONFUSE - People that don't like me.
17. I NEED - For it to be October 4th already.
18. I SHOULD - Be more concious of my health and not take it for granted.
19. I START - Each day with thoughts of Dave and his Marines
20. I FINISH - Each day with a prayer for them.

More Promotion Pictures

I got these from my friend Cathy. (Hey Chica!) Her husband got promoted on the same day as Dave, and he got a better photographer! LOL!
Here is a great shot of Dave and Jason getting sworn in:


And a nice picture of the Red Square Mafia, as they call themselves....


And I just loved this picture of the guys in the chow hall. Can you believe this room is in the middle of Iraq? I laughed at the pictures of the sailboats on the walls.

Also, showing how much I miss him, I kept zooming in and noticing every teeny tiny detail. I love that look on his face, it's the same one he makes whenever I point a camera at him...the bemused "I'm putting up with having my picture taken" look.
I also noticed that, being Dave, he has a can of Pepsi on his tray and another empty sitting beside it. If you zoom in good, you can see the Pepsi can isn't in English, it's written in an Arabic script.
I noticed the paper plates and plastic fork and knife and remember the last two times he's come back and how insistent he was to use real plates and silverware, even when we got take out.
I noticed he needs a hair cut. At some point he's completely shaved his head and it's growing in.
Zooming in closer, I noticed the back of his hand is all scratched up and scabby, that's pretty much par for the case for him. Even when he's here, his hands always look like that. He's a hands on kind of guy. He was probably working on a piece of gear and I bet he cussed pretty good when he did that.
If I really zoom in super close, I can see the pen in between his second and third button of his cammie blouse. He always keeps one there, any time he's in uniform, there's a pen stuck right there between those two buttons. He absolutely hates needing a pen and not having one. One of his cute idiosyncrasies

I wish I could zoom in closer and see more without the pixels blurring. I want to see his heart, I want to see how he's feeling. I want to zoom in so close and be with him, be next to him, to feel his heart beat next to mine.

I want so much more than this picture. 59 more days!

The Dead Cat Story

You know how over the years, stories become legends in a family? Well that is the deal with my family and the dead cat story. If you listen to my father's version of the story, it's WAAAY out there, completely different than my version. (which I still hold as the truth)

Warning, if you are a member of PETA, you may be upset by the story. Don't read any further or get over it.

So we lived way out in the country. Our neighbors down the street had some feral cats, one of which kept coming up on our property and getting in the trash, killing our baby ducks, and peeing everywhere. My Dad kept telling the man down the street that if he didn't do something about it, he was going to shoot the cat. The neighbor encouraged him to do so, since the cats weren't really theirs, they were just wild.

Now I love cats and I didn't want my Dad to shoot it, so any time I saw the cat on our property, I would try and scare it and chase it away so it wouldn't come back.

One morning, I was walking out to my car to go to school; I was a senior in high school. I saw the cat asleep under a tree near my car, so I thought to myself, "here is my opportunity to really scare the crap out of this cat and it'll stay away."

So I grabbed a stick. NOT a 2x4 as my father likes to tell the story. And I proceed to sneak up on the cat. Can you see me? Sneeeaaaking quietly up on the sleeping cat.

SO I POUNCED! I hit the cat a few times with my stick (small stick) before I realized it was already dead. Then I hear my Dad laughing...he had heard me leave and went to the window to tell me about the cat so I wouldn't be surprised and upset, only to see me sneaking up on a dead cat. He had caught the cat the night before killing the ducks, shot it, and had put it by the tree to bury the next morning.

My sisters told the story to my friends at school and for the rest of the year I had the nickname Cat Killer, or CK for short.

My Resume

Last week, I was talking with a co-worker about our first jobs.

My first real job (other than babysitting) was when I was 14 or so, during the Christmas rush I was a bagger at the Woolworths where my Mom worked the lunch counter. I don't think Woolworths even exists anymore and department stores sure don't have lunch counters any more!

That got me to thinking about all the other jobs I've had, and I think I can say, hands down, the best job I ever had was being a paid companion for a blind boy. He was only a few years younger than I was, and not a bad person to hang out with.

I basically got paid an hourly wage and a milage per diem to go pick him up, hang out with him, take him the Six Flags Over Texas and the movies, go out to eat, swim in his pool, and go to the shooting range. All of which, he paid for!

Yes, my blind friend liked to shoot. He was pretty good too. I could take a soda can and throw it out in front of us and he would hear the can hit the ground and hit his target more often than not.

I did that for two summers and it was by far, the most skate job I ever had!

Meet My MIL

Every time I hear one of my girlfriends complain about the terrible Mother-in-law, I just smile to myself. I am the luckiest girl in the world in this aspect. Rhonda is the coolest, most amazing woman that I've ever met and I admire her greatly.

She got married when she was 17 years old, and had all four of her sons by the time she was 23 years old. Soon after the youngest one was born, she found herself a single mother. She worked two full time jobs to support her family, and still managed to raise four of the most upstanding, honorable young men you would ever want to meet. She gave me a husband and three brothers (who I ADORE) who know how to treat a lady, who honor their word, who work hard, and who take responsibility for themselves and their place in this world.

On my wedding day, she took me aside and told me that she was glad that Dave and I were getting married. That meant a lot since so many people were telling us what a mistake it was to get married so young. She told me that he was mine now, and that she knew that I would love him and take care of him, and that she was very proud to have me in her family.

She's as much my friend as anything. She accepts me, for just who I am...even though she and I are as different as night and day. She listens to me, and is supportive of me and my efforts, and she loves me like a daughter. She makes me laugh, and she cries with me when times are hard.

She is my second Mom, my friend, and a woman I admire with all my heart.

It's Official

It's official. As of 17:30, Iraqi time, Dave is now a Chief Warrant Officer 3.

He says he doesn't feel any different. LOL! But I am very proud of him, he's worked very hard over the years to get to where he is now and I am very proud of all that he has accomplished!

Semper Fi, Marine!

August 1st

I'm participating in a blog challenge with some friends, we have vowed to blog every day for the month of August. I, however, am skipping today's assigned topic. In honor of America's finest...

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God. I'm still waiting." It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The Marine calmly replied, "God was too busy today protecting America's Marines and Soldiers who protect your right to say stupid shit and act like an asshole. So, He sent me."