We B Shooters

So the H4G people are avid gun nuts. (Have you guessed that yet?) And this past week, we got to play with our guns in TWO different states. Cause we rock like that yo!

So let's compare Dave's gun club with mine...... Idaho verses Texas.

 His club is different from anything I've seen. On the outskirts of his work town, this club is built by the NRA and takes donations only (except just opened membership for $20 a year). It's pretty basic but really cool. We didn't have a rifle with us, so it was handguns only.

And boy do I love watching the man shoot handguns.

 They have steel targets set up that go "ping" and fall down when you hit them. Sweet, talk about instant gratification! I love it. While I miss the paper/cardboard people cut outs that give you ideas about your grouping, this was fun!

 Especially when you realize that your eyesight is getting so bad that you have to wear your glasses to shoot. Even better when you realize that after 34 years, you're left eye dominant (this explains the switch hitting success of my softball career). So Dave experimented. He taped up my sunglasses where I can only see out of my left eye. I shot left handed for the first time and hit everything I pointed the gun at. It was pretty insane. Not sure if I'll keep shooting left handed but def need to practice more. For defensive shooting though, I grab with my right so best not to mess with it too much.

Then here he is playing with his rifle at my gun club in Texas. Better physical set-up. Expensive as hell and you have to be approved and recommended by a board member to get in (which I did, cause I work with one) but the end result is the same.

Happy shooters!

Trip info and pics coming soon! I'm home and everyone has the stomach plague. Yuck

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What is this sleep thing?

So interesting thing about our trip, the little hot springs area Dave found for our getaway is right next to a set of train tracks. Trains run about every 30 minutes.

That sound brings a smile to my face everytime. It reminds me of growing up at my Nannys house, right next to the tracks. How every night growing up, I laid in my bef listening to the train go through my hometown.

It's a comforting sound, which has to explain how I slept like a rock for 10 hours last night. I never sleep like that. Ever. Trains plus Dave, well its the best sleep incentive on earth for me.

I woke up starving with NO bags under my eyes for the first time in forever. I'll take it!

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More from trip, part 1

So far, I've seen his place here and met his coworkers. Had a great evening in a fun built for six, found a cute little town to checkout. Now traveling thru a small valley to get to next mountain, crazy but they actually live in the mountains. Not just seeing them in the distance.

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Check in.... Idaho

Middle of no where but beautiful country and enjoying the company. We haven't even turned on the radio! Enjoying my time with Dave. I needed this.

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From the road......

This blog will be brought to you via the road for the next week: I is taking a road trip. So be prepared for some Griswald stories (which is the usual for any thing that has to do with me). Hopefully my mom and the girls will be taking pics and noting their own stories of the Mom-less week that they'll be having here too!

Stay tuned for adventures into hell.

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I'm Mommy

My kids haven't really lost anyone close to them since they were babies. The one death in the family of someone they knew was a beloved older great-uncle who was well on in his years and did not come as a surprise. This could be a blessing that they've yet to experience this or maybe not really, as it hasn't given them the ability to really process death.

Prin came home today with a story that just broke my heart. A girl from her league team lost her mom this past weekend. The girl was the one who found her, according to the teachers who must not have realized that their 7th graders have ears. The mom had taken the girl and a friend to the beach and wasn't feeling good so went to sit out in the car for a few. The girl found her mom dead. Everyone found out when the girls dad came in today to withdraw her from school and begin her mom to where he lives.

Prin seems fine and I watched her closely all night for any kind of reaction. It was the smallest little tells but they were there. She popped up to say hi when I was in the tub, she followed me outside in the dark when I was out there taking the trash out. She should have been asleep but 20 minutes ago she came in here to "get a drink of water" and see what I was doing.

So I took her and crawled up in her bed. We snuggled and I started telling (re-telling really) stories of how funny she was as a kid. My oldest, my first born. From the age of six months to a year, Dave was deployed and I had her all to myself for those huge milestones. Crawling, talking, teething, standing and walking. And in typical Prin style not one of those incidents came about normally. She was my constant companion and we were a tight pair but boy did that kid give me a run for my money. We both laughed until we cried. And when I held her hand while she prayed, she snuggled under my chin just like she did when she was small enough for me to rock to sleep each night.

She also broke my heart cause when I kissed her forehead and leaned over to click off her bedside light, she whispered "I'm okay Mommy, I just love you". She never calls me mommy. It's been YEARS since she's done that and it instantly cracked me. I just hugged her and reminded her that I was healthy and not going anywhere.

It's moments like this that remind me that those precious little babies that we were given to grow with and raise, are still there......... still buried inside those messy, constantly eating, laundry making tweens and pre-tweens that they are today.

And I'll always be mommy when they need me.

Just like my mom is to me.

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The couple that inks together......

So I finished my tattoo this weekend. The Dave Dave Guy I Crave was in town thanks to some AMA training and we got him every night and all weekend. I'm completely spoiled now. :) I got the cajun tie in I wanted and the girlie flourishes to finish it off. I'm totally in love with my wrist now! Yes please! And even better, my guy went with me. I think he got a kick out of seeing me in the chair staring at the ceiling like I was getting a pedicure instead of a tattoo. For someone who is a complete wimp when it comes to pain, I actually maintain very well when getting a tattoo. Would have never put money on that one.

So I was able to intro Dave to my tattoo guy, Joe. Joe is a piece of work and frankly after interviewing damn near every place in town, he's the only one I'd let touch me with a tattoo gun. He's funny as hell and very OCD about his work. I like it. In fact, we had to go eat and shop for an extra hour before we could get started because his tools were in the steralizer still. Sure, no prob! So this was me right after before he slathered it up and wrapped it. The idiot behind me was so out of it and I'm pretty sure it was due to his frequent trips to the restroom.

The highlight of the night was when we walked in. Joe knows me by name and everyone else looked down their nose at the "prissy" girl (snort) but when Dave walked in behind me, the place froze. In his polo shirt, clean cut self appearance... he really does look like a cop. And stands like a military guy and his poker face is awesomely hawt... I digress. Joe and Dave got on like a house on fire and when he changed shirts to get his tat, everyone sighed collectively, snicker. I take it that a sleeveless shirt that showed his other tat removes the smell of cop from him. Riiiiiiight.

 So Dave has been ready to get his Navy tat. He wanted to let time pass before he got it but it was always his plan. He told Joe what he wanted and boom. it was time. And I about wet my pants, that farker is MASSIVE. Joe's excuse was that Dave has massive arms hence the need for a massive tattoo on said arm but dayum baby. NASA (if there was still a real NASA, thanks OBAMA) could read that muther from outer space. It was a kick to watch him get it though cause I've never been present when he was inked.

But after giving ten years of his life to the Navy, well I guess one way to honor that is a MASSIVE FARKING TATTOO.

Now if we could stop touching each other's left arm/wrist where we have fresh ink, this would be better.

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The High Road

There are times when I struggle to take the high road! (Surprised much?) So when there are times/things when ten years ago I would have climbed somebody like a tree but now, I breathe and try really hard to wait until I get my anger under control before I act or speak. It's seriously the hardest thing I've ever done. I literally have to take my tongue out and wrap it around my head a couple times and stand on the tip. It can still be touch or go from there though.

But knowing that I'm the first and biggest example that my kids have and see on a daily basis, that reminds me to take the high road.

This week I took the high road and it wasn't easy.

The girls had a tournement this weekend. The first couple games were good but the last two were a diaster. Good Lord it was horrible. But we wrapped up the weekend with a fun family day and then Monday I got an email. The coaches sent an email via the team mom. A generic email to all the parents that as of that day the team was disbanded. No reasons were given and gossip was running rampid.

But regardless of the fact that they broke the hearts of a bunch of little girls and left the parents to break the news to them with no notice, my kids' first words about it when I sat her down after school that day was about the money "wasted" on all the gear and etc. That adorable kid of mine wasn't worried about her, but about taxing mom and dad. I adore this kid.

I was so angry. You do something like that to my kid and then nothing...... no explanation. They left my kid and the other kids thinking that what happen went something like this: you sucked the last day of the tournament, we had several big ole coaches meetings with the kids about how they needed to try something new training wise. Then went over each and every bad move, missed move and etc with each kid in a big ole circle. Then dissolved the team. So in my head, I'm thinking great you just told the kids that they played badly for two games and you're quitting them.

Not good form.

SO while alot of other players are looking at other teams and trying out for other teams, my kid wants to just play/practice till spring. Frankly, I think this is a great move. We'll practice with a local team that is above her age level so she can still challenge herself but we're off the tournements for awhile. We're all a little gun-shy around here now.

When sitting down and logically discussing this with her, getting her wants/wishes and thoughts on it all, she wanted to know WHY. Well since I couldn't tell her, I tried not to lie and what little I knew (not good for kiddos ears) I brushed over for my 12 year old. However, I was amazed to what this child mentally shake it off and tell me that it's cool mom, we'll take the high road.

:)

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VSU - Vaginal Support Unit

 This is my B! B is my partner in crime and she is pretty damn cool. When I moved to Texas, I realized that due to the nomadic lifestyle that my family lives, making true friends are a rare commodity. Thusly I embraced my true longdistance military girls I've kept throughout my moves. They are my rock, my happy place! So I've been more more guarded about letting people close to me.

But B busted her way right around that wall I've built proving to me that God brings you the most amazing things even when you have been beaten down. She doesn't replace those special friends of my heart, like my Purse-shoe-loving photographer girl, my lifeline Coach boot wearing Okie turned perpetual Cali perfectly coiled and dressed girl. Nope she is the final addition to the trifecta that is H4G Team of Masterminds For World Domination.

So when my girl wanted to go and get her first tattoo (the last of us trifecta to have one), B decided in true B fashion to go big or go home. So what do you do when your girl wants to go get that bad boy done.

Well you go with her. And then you do whatever is needed.......

 Like holding her hand

 Remind her that after the first five minutes, you'll hit the plateau where the pain merges together and becomes almost the new normal.

 Taking pictures with her phone so you can show her the progress.........

 Use her phone to take stupid pictures of yourself................

What you want see is the picture of is when they went on her side and I had her in a headlock with her legs pinned between mine. I was hunched over her, helping the tattoo-ist keep her side still and in place while she had a death grip on the back of my jeans prompting a perma wedgie. Ouch.

But she got'er done baby! And I was a good VSU damnit!

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