Sunday, December 12, 2010

the Taboo post - COMMENTS, PLEASE!

Certain things are simply Taboo.  And no, this is not going to be another 'TMI' post, I'm talking about a different kind of Taboo.

As a rule, I don't discuss politics or religion via social networks - both issues are simply too divisive.  I've broken my rule a couple times, and am about to break it again.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend who is Athiest, and learned two things:

1. As a practicing Catholic, I am nowhere near as 'tolerant' as I previously thought I was, and

2. Lack of religion is sort of a religion, as well.

You see, for me, religion fills several purposes.  It is a social structure that, among other things, links me to people with similar values.  It also gives me an identity to fall back on when I just don't KNOW who I am, or who I want to be.  But most of all, I think religion gives me a frame of reference that helps me make 'good choices'.  Makes sense, right?

So, back to my athiest friend - who also happens to be a milspouse.  It turns out that we have a lot more in common that just our husbands' jobs.  She also links socially to those who share her 'no God' views.  She lists this belief as a major part of her identity, and she uses her beliefs in making decisions about right and wrong.

Sounds a lot like my religious practice, right?

Not that I agree with her religious views, but I also can't condemn her for her beliefs.

And that thought got me wondering about other religions......

For instance, if her beliefs (so contrary to my own) are OK, then what about those jerks with the Westboro Baptist Church?  You know, the ones who picket military funerals to spread their message of HATE......if my friend's LACK of religion is a religion that I can recognize and on some level 'accept', then do I also have to recognize and accept HATE as a religion?

I guess, I kind of do accept that those hateful demonstrators have a right to their opinions and beliefs; my problem is really with their tasteless and hurtful way of trying to FORCE their views on the rest of us.  And at a FUNERAL, of all places!?!

Lest anyone read this and get upset about me comparing athiests to hatemongers, I am NOT comparing the two.  To me, athiesm falls on a scale about as opposite my own beliefs as I would have thought possible......but then hateful people like the members of the Westboro Baptist Church seem to go so far OFF that scale, I thought they deserved a mention, with my current train of thought. 

So, what do YOU think?  I normally delete anonymous comments, but if you choose to comment ANONYMOUSLY on this specific post, I will not delete it (provided you are contributing to the discussion/debate I am anticipating here).

Here are the questions I would love for your all to answer:

1) is HATE a religion?

2) should funeral demonstrations be banned, or should they remain protected under the Constitution?

3) do you have close friends who belong to a faith that is dramatically different than your own, and if so, do you feel that those friends RESPECT your own religious views?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Awesome giveaway, & 20 questions

My bloggy friend Laura is having a little contest, with some seriously adorable prizes!

Giveaway ends tomorrow night, so go check it out by clicking here

(if this link looks wierd, that's because I'm blogging on my iPad)

I love that she wants us to ask her questions, so I'm challenging you, my followers, to come up with 20 questions you would like me to answer. I feel like I don't get comments from you all anymore, so this seems like a less-than-pathetic way for me to BEG for some bloggy attention. So come on, show me some love! Leave a comment here with ANY question (or questions) that you want me to answer! Lets see uf we can get to 20, shall we?

No more 'fun mommy'

If you've read even ONE post from this blog, you know I am no Supermom. I fail far more than I succeed, and am not ashamed to say so. I'm only human, after all.

But the mommy-fail issues I'm actually embarrassed about are the ones that inspire my kids to tell me I'm cool.

For instance, during deployment I become their hero when I let them eat cereal all the time, sometimes even for dinner. And, since hubby has something against the idea of 'breakfast for dinner', we embrace that concept when he's not home. I can honestly say, out of the 20 or so times in this deployment that I actually COOKED dinner, at least ten times involved the waffle iron. Cool, huh? (mommy-fail)

Sadly, there is NO way hubby will stand for the half-assed (nutritionally deficit) menu we've been living on, so tomorrow I'm heading to Costco to stock up on healthy, un-processed food. Stuff I will have to actually COOK. Like, with real pans and everything! And as I sit here, making my shopping list, I am wracking my brain, trying to remember what kinds of meals hubby LIKES. Right now I can only think of 5 or 6 different meals to make, and that's gonna get old FAST.

Hubby normally thinks I am a pretty good cook - is he going to recognize this cereal-serving woman when he gets back?  Or maybe...MAYBE I will somehow get over my cooking-amnesia in time to serve him something yummy that will make him that much happier to be home.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Santa, Baby...

What's on your Christmas wish list this year?

I obviously already know that I'm getting the one thing I want most:


HUBBY WILL BE HOME SOON, definitely in time for Christmas.

But if my sexy Marine wants to make me even happier than 'santa' already has, he could always check out my amazon.com wish list, where he could choose from practical things like this set of mixing bowls:




or this iPad accessory that will allow me to load pictures directly to my iPad:



to fun things like this:




And of course there are sparkly things on my wish list:





But for this price, I think I would prefer this:




The one thing he could REALLY knock my socks off with is not on my Amazon wishlist...but hubby KNOWS how badly I want it:


This lovely ring has been on my wish list for a long time now....and I am pretty sure that is where it will stay, because even if we had a few thousand dollars just lying around, hubby is not the type to drop big bucks on something as useless as JEWELRY...no matter how stunning it may be.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

the TMI post

Disclaimer/warning/heads up....if you read through this entire post, you may just learn WAY more than you ever wanted to know about me and my 'intimate' life.

OK so if you're still with me, you're a nosy perv like myself ;)

If you've read my blog before, you know that my hubby will be home SOON after being gone for over 7 months.  Sadly, he missed the mid-pregnancy hormone surge that boosted my already out-of-control libido, but on the flipside he also didn't have to be here for the torturous 6 week postpartum NO SEX waiting period.

So, am I excited about his return?

HELL-TO-THE-YEAH!

First of all, I attended a Passion Party early in this deployment, mostly to meet other Marine Wives.  It was hosted by a milspouse on the base closest to me (so it only took me like an hour and fifteen minutes to get there!) The consultant who ran the party is also a Marine Wife, currently going through a deployment - and she lives farther from the base than I do!  Anyway, she rocks, so if you're interested in buying any of the cool 'deployment survival tools' sold by Passion Parties, you can order from my friend Jamie HERE

So, at this Passion Party, not only did I meet some new friends, but I ordered a couple little things and decided I wanted to host a party of my own.  The main reason I wanted to host was this cool toy:



It's the "We-Vibe II" and is meant to be used TOGETHER.  Now, lets just say that hubby and I have never really needed ANY help in the bedroom (or kitchen, or living room, or wherever the mood might strike us).  We've been together for almost 14 years now, and seriously EVERY TIME is like fireworks, magic, and triple chocolate brownies, all rolled into one.  In fact, I still tease hubby because the first time we were 'intimate' I was literally BLOWN AWAY by how great he was, and I actually asked him where he learned to do all that great stuff....and his answer still makes me laugh: he used to read his sister's Cosmopolitan magazines when he was bored! Ha ha ha!

Anyway, even though our love life is more than satisfying (when he's HOME) this toy intrigues me, mostly for its PRICE. $130 big ones.   I mean, you get what you pay for, right?  I've never really enjoyed playing by myself with toys, but I think that's probably because I'm a total cheapskate, so the toys I've bought in the past were all pretty cheap....

....Until I bought this massager - the Hitachi Magic Wand - during our first deployment about five years ago:


Did you even know that you can buy all kinds of Adult toys on Amazon.com?  Check it out, look under 'health and personal care'.  Just sayin.

This baby is so powerful, it PLUGS INTO THE WALL.  None of that battery nonsense for me!  It was about $65, and I think I paid like $25 extra for the optional attachments, which turned out to be totally unnecessary. I have plenty of *ahem* relaxation with just external stimulation.  I think Passion Parties now sells a version of this for around the same price, and the PP one is more ergonomically designed, etc but back then, this was the best I could do.  And I still love it.

So, I hosted my Passion Party, had a blast even though (typical) more than half of my 'confirmed' guests did not show up.  I even got some outside orders from people who I only know through FB or this blog!  Cool, huh?  And yes, I earned my We-Vibe II.  So, now I am debating whether or not to try it out by myself, before hubby comes home?  I have it all charged up and cleaned, ready to go, but I almost feel like I should save that first time for him.  What do you think?

Oh, and as long as we are already this deep into the Too Much Information zone, I am kinda worried that the first time after he comes home could hurt a little....I mean, I had some tearing with the birth of Bobblehead less than 12 weeks ago, and had stitches down there.  As far as I can tell, everything has healed, but seriously, what if its still tender?  Or what if they stitched it back together wrong?  My sister had that happen and it was horribly painful, she had to go back when the baby was a few months old and have them CUT the skin and re-stitch it properly. *shudder*

Oh, and I think I need some serious yardwork done down there, too.  Weed whacker probably won't be enough...I am gonna need the full-blown john deere riding lawnmower!

Dang, and that's just my lady parts - what about shaving this FOREST off of my legs??? I know I shaved my legs before Bobblehead was born, only because I knew my sister-in-law and my Doula were probably going to have to help hold my legs back while I pushed.  But I am pretty sure I have not shaved them since!  I mean, it's pants weather, you know?  And with hubby gone, its not like anyone else is gonna know whether or not my legs could be mistaken for Muppet legs. 

But soon, I mean SOON, hubby will be here, and he darned well, BETTER notice my legs!  I fully expect to have his hands all over them, A LOT.  And not just my legs, either.  *WINK*

So, let the gardening commence!  And seriously, I do want to know what you think about whether I should give this We-Vibe a test run before he gets home - comment here, or send me a private email!

That's all for now, you stay classy San Diego.

Monday, December 6, 2010

SERIOUSLY!

I haven't really blogged in awhile - in fact my recent guest-blog post was written over a month ago and last week I managed to squeeze out a few minutes to schedule it as an actual post for the assigned day.  My Thanksgiving post was all written out in my head, but with no time to type it out for you all, that's where it's going to stay.

Honestly, right this minute, I am seriously thankful to even HAVE some time to blog!

I have managed to keep up pretty well with Facebook, since I can use my iPad to do that while nursing the baby (and I LOVE the "Friendly" app for iPad!)

I've even managed to start (and finish) several games on 'Words With Friends", the scrabble-esque game for iPad.  I'd love to play the actual Scrabble app, but it's $10, and WWF is free.  And yeah, I'm cheap like that.  But I still get to play against people all over the world, and am USUALLY pretty good at it.  Currently someone with the handle "LittleBigHead" is completely kicking my a$$....437 to 229, with only 1 letter remaining aside from the 7 we're each using for our next turn.  Pathetic?  yes.  Embarrasing?  sure.  Fun?  HELL YEAH!  :)  I'm not sure what it is about this game that so appeals to me, probably to play-when-you-have-a-minute format that lets me ignore it when LIFE gets in the way.

Speaking of LIFE....well, some updates are definitely in order here!

First of all, if you are a new follower, WELCOME!  You might want to check out this post to get to know my family a little bit.

Baby Bobblehead is doing fantastic!  Smiling, cooing, eating, pooping, all that good stuff. At 11 weeks old, he still does not sleep through the night, but we have our night-time routines down pretty well for now. He's happy and healthy, and still ridiculously adorable.  Here he is with his little cousin just the other day:

(Bobblehead is on the right)



Knucklehead has struggled in school throughout this deployment, but with Dad's return looming ever nearer, he is showing some improvement. I'm confident that he at least will not have to repeat the fifth grade! his current obsession with Beyblade (its a toy based on a cartoon) is pushing the Pokemon crap aside and I could not be more thrilled about that!  Well, I actually HATE Beyblade, but am so sick of Pokemon that I am embracing these little spinning tops with dumb names like "Storm Pegasus" and "Rock Leone". *sigh*

Bonehead is, well, still a Bonehead. I'm really worried about his pathological need to be right, as it really hinders his ability to function.  Have you ever seen a little kid, say, in a preschool classroom, walking along, and suddenly he trips over his own shoelace or something - and then turns viciously on the nearest (innocent) child, accusing him or her of PUSHING him down?  Most children do not do this - but the ones who do, do it ALL THE TIME.  That's my Bonehead.  He needs to blame someone, and pretty much always wants retribution for whatever perceived wrongs were done to him. When he was a preschooler, it was almost amusing; in gradeschool, it got annoying; and by middle school it was downright FRUSTRATING.  But now, in high school, when the world expects this 6-foot-tall 'young man' to be able to see reason, and to know that the kid sitting calmly ten feet away could not POSSIBLY have knocked his textbook down, well its actually terrifying. Something as simple as a book sliding off a sloped desk can set this boy off into a full-blown rage, and NO ONE is safe at that point, because Bonehead can't see that the book fell on its own, he can't see that no one has done anything to him, and whats worse, he can't see that it is wrong for him to take matters into his own hands to make his unfortunate classmate 'pay'.  Of course I am still praying that he gets into that military youth academy, but I'm beginning to think that if he goes, it will simply amount to a 5 month break for me, and a stronger, more frightening Bonehead returning home in June.

Yeah, I think I am finally turning into a cynic.

Oh and Airhead, whom I rarely even mention on here, is still not speaking to me - though she did take her brother Bonehead to Disneyland for his sixteenth birthday a couple weeks ago.  She hasn't even met Bobblehead yet, and that doesn't seem to bother her at all. *double sigh*

Now that the kid updates are out of the way, there's some SERIOUSLY exciting news: my Donut of Misery is more than 93% complete now, and Hubby (AKA 'Jarhead') is coming home VERY VERY SOON!

This means I now have a whole new list of things to do in the immediate future, like get the carpet cleaned, clean our closet up (AGAIN), move all the stuff from Hubby's side of the bed to, well, anywhere else - this one is a big deal, because I currently have my cell phone charger AND my iPad charger plugged in next to his side of the bed, and both devices 'live' on his pillow, where I can use them in the middle of the night if hubby calls me or emails me when I *should* be sleeping.  In addition, there is currently a mini diaper changing station set up on Hubby's side of the bed - so when Bobblehead wakes up for his 2AM feeding, I can change his diaper right there without ever getting out of bed, and then we both go back to sleep for a couple more hours.  Which brings me to another important 'to do' item, which I have already been working on for a couple weeks - Bobblehead needs to learn to sleep in his playpen (next to my bed) for most of the night, so there will actually be ROOM for Daddy when he comes home!

I'd love to tell you all more, but this list just keeps getting longer, and the time left 'til homecoming is getting shorter and shorter! Gotta get back to cleaning and straightening and more cleaning.

In case I don't manage to blog again for awhile, I just want to wish all my followers a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Make the best of whatever you've got, with whomever you're spending your holidays with, and then it's back to the grind, right?

HAPPY DECEMBER EVERYONE!  Seriously.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Holiday spirit

Today I am the featured GUEST BLOGGER over at Serendipitously Frog.  LaDonna asked me to write about my favorite holiday tradition, and though it is hard to choose just ONE, I did - and I think you're gonna like this one!

Check it out, and be sure to tell me what you think!
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