Why? Why? Whywhywhywhywhy?

Look people, quit whining about the Presidential race, quit whinging about the economy and puhleeeease stop ranting about global warming and war. There are serious matters at hand and you are turning a blind eye to all of it.

There is a Twilight fiend living in Norfolk and for some stinking reason, Summit Entertainment didn't find it important enough to take the movie to military bases! Do you have any idea the horror this causes?!
Do you realize that from November 21st through December 19th I won't be able to talk to you or go by your blogs?
I can't possibly keep up with you if you're talking about the movie.

Didn't Summit take into consideration that it's November, National Blog Posting Month?!

Billboard photo brought to you by Twilighters anonymous.com

It's terrible.
Do your duty,
write your congressman.
Write your new President.
Write Stephanie Meyers! she probably has no idea of the injustice
Stop the madness!

Gettin' Fawksey Wit It

In 1605 Guido Fawkes, a revolutionist, attempted to carry out what is today known as the Gunpowder Plot.
Guy Fawkes was unsuccessful in blowing Parliament to pieces.

You can't have more bad breaks than this guy... seriously, next time you're whinging about the bad day you're having, think of this. Everything that could go wrong with this plot did, including two suspensions the meeting of Parliament which led to a hasty application of the plan and resulted in his conviction of treason.

What did he have to show for his time and trouble?

A whole nation annually celebrates his getting caught and makes wax images of him to scoff at and stuffed effigies to burn.

.

November 5th is the official date, but anytime the week of marks the beginning of the celebrations.
Some areas have the lighting of a huge barrel of tar that will travel through the cheering crowds like rock star.

I personally don't understand why no one thinks this is a strangely dangerous activity. "Hey mom, look! The barrel of burning tar is coming right for us...oh, poor man he trippedaaaaaaaaaghhh my skin!"



Here in Norfolk there's no tar, just a nice cozy bonfire to burn the effigy of Guy Fawkes (sick, I know), with music, fireworks, chips and burgers and plenty of cheaply made glowing toys for the kids to break.

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot!

A stick or a stake for King James' sake

Will you please to give us a fagot

If you can't give us one, we'll take two;

The better for us and the worse for you!

Or:

Guy, guy, guy

Poke him in the eye,

Put him on the bonfire,

And there let him die.

Yeah, I told you it was sick.

As we drove to the event we'd be attending this year at RAF Marham, I stupidly excitedly looked forward to watching this spectacle from a large field blanketed in fog. I love fog.


I didn't think far enough ahead to realize that we wouldn't be able to see the fireworks...
so we ooh'd and Ahhhh'd at all the right moments and laughed hysterically at ourselves for subjecting our children to the cold and damp on a school night.

We laughed until we realized the hot ash from the fireworks and bonfire was raining down on us like an eruption from Mt. Vesuvius.
Well, we still laughed, but with our mouths closed.
Hubby said the ash tasted terrible.

We LOVE living here!

A Flea has Infiltrated Our Home

Remember when I mentioned blogging has filled my life with people I hope never to lose contact with?

One of those people just sent Miss Ky a package...


My long-lost separated-at-birth sister can sew! She can smock! Which makes me wonder if we should have our dna tested since I absolutely can do neither, and she's generous.
Flea (the lady behind Fred and Bessie) felt bad that my poor daughter is being reared in a home where she would never have a handcrafted dress and made this just for her.

I have a very happy little girl.

See this bag of pears?
She decided she wanted one, so I told her she has to take the dress off (it's intended for her as a size three, she was only trying it on for a picture), but she refused saying, "No.... pretty".

I think she likes it Flea! Thank you!

Sunday's Refections of the Week

Our holiday to the Midlands began early despite having to shoe-horn four kids and luggage (packed the same morning since I was stricken with a severe allergy attack from some older lady's perfume at church the day before) into our car.



With my trusty English Heritage Sites book in hand,
I detoured us off our path to see this, The Rushton Triangular Lodge (this link will open a second window to tell you about the building). Constructed between 1593 and 1597, it was strong enough to withstand my family.

The greatest thing about seeing these sites is that nothing is roped off. You can drag your hands along stone that was carved hundreds of years ago. You can walk on tiled floors laid before King Henry VIII began destroying all things beautiful.

At this site, my kids sat in the windows, put their faces up to old stonework and crawled into crevices that seemed to be custom made for their little bodies.
J2 peeking in.



Beautiful place. My kids left laughing. Not having the parents shout, "Don't touch!" "Get off!" "Keep your hands to yourself" every two seconds will do wonders for a child's willingness to learn history.

Google, Rescue Me!

It's officially the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), are you an inny or an outy?

It also marks my blogiversary.

One night when I thought I couldn't handle anymore that life wanted to spew at me, I got on the internet and did a couple of searches.
One was something in the way of, "I hate being a wife" and the other was "Why are my kids pooping their pants?" Believe it or not, I got hits for both.

With the second search, I discovered that what was currently happening to my boys was stress related (Dad was deployed to the desert) and could affect them for years after the fact.
So I'm here to tell you now, if out of the blue your normally potty trained, no-issues kid begins leaving deposits in his underwear resulting in your hands becoming cracked and your motivation to get up in the morning less than positive, don't freak out. It can begin with a constipation problem and result in the inability to recognize when those muscles are working. Ours began when I was too stressed to take on another thing, so I started buying cheaper underpants and threw the highly offensive ones out. One less thing for my hands to deal with.

The first search found me a few blogs. Mostly women who were in unrewarding relationships (that's an understatement), and since my relationship was fine other than the fact I was essentially a single mom, I refined my search to "military wife" and found Jen from Get in The Car! I laughed out loud for the first time in months. Clicking through her place took me to NaBloPoMo.

It was after the first week of November, so I knew I couldn't technically post every day for the month, but I thought I'd try to do as many as I could. I knew NOTHING about making my own blog, but met nice people along the way willing to teach me everything from linking to meme etiquette. I still see those people commenting on other blogs, they're still out here.

That's my beginning, and it's been a wild ride since. I have made connections that I hope I never lose. I know more about some of you than I know about my own family members and believe it or not, I'd much rather meet up one day with some of you than some of my family members (Disney World 2009 anyone?).
Again, I am coming up on the same stress that sent me out here and I approach it with dread (because I remember too clearly how close I came to that proverbial edge). But-- I have a different support system now (as opposed to NONE), and as Painted Maypole pointed out, "...but YOU... you have a BLOG. bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Yes. Yes I do. We'll be o.k.

So my nosy questions for you today are (feel free to answer any one or all-- notice how you weren't given the option of "none" hah!):

Why did you start blogging? Were you technology challenged, or was this like breathing to you? Do you remember the first blog that really hooked you?