Man of the Month - February

Yes, I realize that February is half over. But, better late than never...especially for this one!

February's Man of the Month is.....GEORGE STRAIT.


I've been a STR8FAN since we lived in Tucson. Tucson is country music. That was really the first time I started listening to country music...aside from the stuff my parents listened to that my ears could not avoid. (Although, to my dad's credit, I do enjoy Willie Nelson.) I digress. About that same time, the movie Pure Country came out - starring George Strait. I can still quote most every line from that movie. I'm surprised I didn't actually wear out that VHS tape! He looks better now than he did back then. A pair of Wranglers and a starched long sleeve shirt never looked so good!



Just recently George received a Grammy award for Best Country Album for his latest release, Troubadour. I own every GS CD. I like the old stuff and the new stuff. GS is classic in every way.


I'll say it again...A pair of Wranglers and a starched long sleeve shirt NEVER looked so good!!

8 Year Old Boys and Money

I apologize in advance, but I'm changing the "code names" for my boys again. This time should be the last. The oldest (12) shall be known as "Walker" and the youngest (8) shall be known as "Texas Ranger" or "TR". Those of you familiar with the movie "Talladega Nights" will understand the reference.

This morning, Texas Ranger popped the following question:

"Do I have enough money for an Xbox 360?"

Some background on the situation...TR is in Cub Scouts. They sell popcorn to raise money for the program. TR happened to sell the most popcorn in his pack and was greatly rewarded with a $75 gift card. (Note: The gift card was to Bass Pro Shops - a very appropriate place for young scouts to go pick up some goodies they'll want and need for their scouting career. However, there was no way TR was going to spend that much money at BPS, so I told him I would trade him the gift card for cash.) TR also filled up an order form and earned a $10 Wal-mart gift card for that. (Enter another gift card for cash trade here.) In addition, the amount of popcorn he sold earned him a $22 Wal-mart gift card as his prize directly from the popcorn company. (You know the drill.) Add to this the $30 he got from family for Christmas and the boy has a whopping $137 burning a hole in little Levi's!

Now, let me also explain the video game situation in our house...One of TR's best friends, who happens to live directly across the street, has an Xbox 360 and they spend a lot of time playing Halo on the weekends. (Neither myself or friend's mom allows them to play video games during the school week.) Let me also mention the fact that we own a Playstation 3...along with plenty of games, Call of Duty 5, Metal Gear Solid 4, every Lego video game ever made and a few other duds. Oh, and let's not forget the Nintendo Game Cube. We ended up buying that the year before the Wii came out. Oh well. Now that the PS3 is hooked up to the "big" tv, the Game Cube has been relegated to its storage bag. There are occasions when the boys unload it all and hook it up, but they are rare. Of course, each boy also has his own Nintendo DS Lite and, I'm guessing, probably 300+ games for that.

So, I answered TR's question with "No, not quite. Why do you think you need an Xbox 360?! You have a gajillion other games and systems to play."

TR: "But then I could play Halo."

Me: "You really think it would be worth $450 just so you can play Halo?"

TR: "I bet I would have enough if I got all my money from my piggy bank."

Me: "No, I don't think you would. And, I don't think you need an Xbox 360 anyway."

TR: "LOUD AUDIBLE SIGH"

TR donned his jacket and backpack and headed off to school...And everyone lived happily ever after. The End. (hopefully)

Junior High Boyfriends

Ok, so a friend tagged me on Facebook to post a list of 25 "random" or "weird" things about myself on my profile...so I did. Little did I know the uproar I would cause regarding a certain boyfriend I had in junior high.

Let me just start by saying that our hometown has a population of about 6000 (maybe 7000 by now). There were 86 of us in my high school graduating class. (We had 86 in '86 - catchy, huh?!) Multiply that by 4 grades and you have about 400 students in the high school. Junior high was 7th and 8th grade...so, let's figure no more than 200 students. Of course, everyone knows everyone else. You can't get away with much because somebody's parents will find out and yours will in turn.

So, anyway, back to the Facebook post...

#10 on my list of 25 things was: "I still wonder why my junior high boyfriend broke up with me."

WOW! I think I probably got more questions about that single statement than a celebrity in a Barbara Walters interview.

"Who was it?"

I tried to just quietly email the first friend who asked with the answer and a few extraneous notes about the situation. Then another friend asked...I emailed her too. More and more people wanted to know. At that point, I succumbed to the fact that it was just easier to post my little secret on the note.

There it was. The name of the 14 year old who broke my heart, out in the open for everyone to see.

He's not on Facebook, as far as I know. (Of course I've put his name in the Facebook search bar!) He moved up to 9th grade, which was at the high school; I moved up to 8th. 7th grade had a whole new crop of boys to pick from!! There were 2 that year that earned "boyfriend" status. They are both on Facebook and are my "Facebook friends." We've never chatted about those junior high days...I'll venture to say we never will. I enjoy the fact that I have those memories and we'll leave it at that.

Oh, did I forget to mention that my oldest son is in the 7th grade?! Yes, I am afraid!

Man of the Month

Having hit the big 4-0 last year, I've realized that I'm mature enough and comfortable enough to admit that there are certain men on this planet that...well...I don't think I really need to explain. I've decided that I will try to find a different man to "highlight" once a month. These will most likely be "celebrity" men who most people are familiar with. Granted, they will not all generate the same response from everyone....different strokes for different folks, but, I'm willing to accept the strange looks for what might be a strange choice.

However....

I couldn't start such a list without starting with the Man of 26 Years!! Nort and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary back in November.

(Note: "Celebrate" is a relative word. There was no dinner out - unless it was McDonald's or Hooters; there were no flowers - just as well, why waste money on something that's just going to die anyway; there was no surprise gifts - we spent that money on a new Sleep Number bed a few months prior; there were cards exchanged. We are both comfortable with this arrangement. Perhaps for the 20th anniversary this year we'll do something a little more "celebratory"!)

26 years...that's a really long time when you think about it. We started dating my freshman year of high school (he was a sophomore) at homecoming. The guy I was "going out with" assumed I was going to go to the dance with him so didn't actually bother to ASK me to the dance. Nort asked and I accepted. That was 15 Oct 1982.

I don't think parents or friends really count on anything lasting that starts when you're a freshman in high school. For some reason, we did. We've had lots of good times, and lots of stressful times (I won't call them "bad"). Every relationship does. We've made it through.

If someone asked what the key to a long relationship is, I wouldn't have a good answer. I guess I'd have to say that you have to just let some things go. Pick your battles. You can't stress over every little incident for more than a few hours. People say you shouldn't go to bed angry; I don't know if I agree with that. I DO think you shouldn't go bed angry 2 nights in a row. Get over yourself and press on.

I'm happy...I'm pretty sure Nort's happy.

He's my Man and he's my first "Man of the Month".

Age = Wisdom

I got the following in an email from my dad - a 68 year old guy who loves to fish...

A guy is 72years old and loves to fish.

He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a voice say, 'Pick me up.'

He looked around and couldn't see any one.

He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, 'Pick me up.'

He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.

The man said, 'Are you talking to me?'

The frog said, 'Yes, I'm talking to you. Pick me up then, kiss me and I'll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. I'll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride!'

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed it in his front pocket.

The frog said, 'What, are you nuts? Didn't you hear what I said? I said kiss me and I will be your beautiful bride.'

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said,
'Nah, at my age I'd rather have a talking frog.'

Thinking About Purging, and Assignments...

No, I have not developed an eating disorder...God forbid!

It's after Christmas, there's no more space for anything in either of the boys' rooms, and I'm in purge mode - not just purging their rooms of the mountains of crap they've amassed in the last 2.5 years, but purging every room in the house.

It must be time to move. (In AF speak, we call it a PCS - permanent change of station.)

I think if you surveyed many AF spouses, you'd get a majority to say that every 2-3 years they get that "itch". It's time to move on...to clean out the house, pack it up, leave friends, find a new house, and a new school for the kiddos, meet new neighbors, make new friends, learn a new city (unless you're "fortunate" enough to return to a base/location that you've lived previously), learn what your spouse's new job will be and how late he'll be at the office, set up the new house to be your home for 2-3 years and get ready to do it all over again. Yes, we long for this.

Since hubby (heretofor referred to as Nort) has been at "school" this year, we've known that there's a 99.9% chance that we'll be leaving here this summer. Odds are good that we'll end up in our nation's capital.



I'm not excited about it. I know lots of people have been assigned there and have survived. I'm just not a "big city" kinda girl. (You can take the girl out of Iowa, but you can't take Iowa out of the girl.) Granted, we'll have to live an hour away from the city to find affordable housing and a good school, but it's still "big city" as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it would be great for the boys. They're old enough to get something out of the assignment - to visit all the museums and monuments. I'm sure they would even manage to make friends in the neighborhood and do well in school. I'm just not excited about it.

We've lived in major cities before - Sacramento, Tucson, Little Rock, Montgomery - ok, maybe they're not that major, but they're bigger than our 6,000 population hometown. They were all great, and we were excited to go to all of them. Honestly, I think I can say we have been excited about every assignment - big city or rural - and I'm sure we will be again, once we find out where we're headed.

The good thing is, in my 19 years as an AF spouse, I've learned to expect the unexpected. Don't assume anything (especially an assignment) is a done deal or written in stone. I've also learned to not worry about it. There's nothing I can do about it, why stress about it. I'll deal with it when we find out...which should be February or March. In the meantime, I'll think about all the other options that could come down. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the powers-that-be take a good look at what assignments are best for Nort in the long run...shoot, I'd even take a deployment - at least it fills a square, actually more than one square!

Anyway, I'm going to eat breakfast and start purging...the house, people, the house!

Writer's Block

It's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything. That's mainly due to the fact that my husband and children have been home for 2 weeks! Don't get me wrong, it was great having all 4 of us with no sort of schedule for 2 weeks. But, I need some private time to write on the blog and that just wasn't going to happen with everyone home.

So now, everyone's back at it and I'm alone with the computer. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time coming up with something to write about. I have a topic I want to bring out soon, but it's just not flowing today. I'm hoping that just writing something will help me get started.