Where's the love?

Dear Michelle Obama,

Here's the thing...I've been a registered Democrat since I was 17 years old. I love politics and consider myself a patriotic person. Yes, it's true; initially, I was not an Obama fan. In the preliminaries, I was supporting my girl, Hillary. However, when he got the nod, I took the time to listen to what he had to say in comparison with McCain and made the decision to support your husband. So, I got behind him, I supported him, I campaigned for him and had heated political debates with those who didn't. I went to bat for your man in....southern...rural....Missouri! If that's not support, I don't know what is.

Now, today, when my husband's deployment orders just got extended for a THIRD time, I'm frustrated and mad as hell and I'm looking for MY support. You decided to make Military Families your signature cause and I thought we would finally have an advocate in the White House; someone who would take the time to understand what we go through, what our sacrifices are and how our children have a childhood that most of their friends can't relate to. Who's going to break it to my daughters that Daddy won't be here for Christmas like they thought? The impending look of heartbreak and sadness on their faces brings out the Mama Bear in me and makes me want to smack somebody's teeth straight....So why don't you jump on Marine One and drag your happy ass down here and YOU tell them?

All I've been seeing lately is how you want to make American kids healthy.....I'm all about making our kids exercise and eat healthy but what about military kids? Let me see you start supporting military kids and I'll help you out with your cause too....I will personally buy every fat kid I see a Jenny Craig dinner and a jump rope! Seriously, though, military kids make such a sacrifice that they didn't sign up for and have no control over...give them some love too, not just the fat ones.

What's more, your husband recommended the lowest pay raise in 38 years for our service members. How the hell is that supporting our military families when a good portion of our enlisted families qualify for Food Stamps and Welfare? I see you rubbing elbows with high-up officers' wives...but what about us enlisted families? What about the wives of the men on the front line? Are you taking the time to get to know them and brown nose them even though their husband's aren't Generals or Admirals?

Now, don't get it twisted...I am fully aware that your husband did not start this shit and he inherited a lot of crap to deal with. I've already drafted my letter to G. Dub. However, your husband promised to end it....So it's about time we wrap this shit up. Put your man on his plane to Afghanistan and have him tell all our troops that "they ain't gotta go home but they gotta get the hell up outta here! This party's over!" I'm just sayin'

The job's not done you say? Stop playing nice...they're not. So, here's my proposal... Plan A: Send a group of hardcore Rez girls over there, they'll have that business handled, real quick....Plan B: two words....CHUCK NORRIS.

All joking aside, as a military family that is stationed only 30 miles south of DC, I'm not feeling the love.

So, Michelle, tell your husband....Hand Over the Coffee....and the support.

Sincerely,
A Military Wife

Fly Ninja Strikes Again

I may be slightly apprehensive to blog about my OCD tendencies but I figure most of you will at least get a giggle out of my insanity...

Ok, so most people who know me know that I have 2 pet peeve/OCD issues. The first is loud eaters...Seriously, when you're smacking your food so that the people on the other end of the room can hear you, I want to smack the taste out ya mouth. Second is Bugs in My House! Bugs are awesome if they're outside...Have a nice day, Mr. Beetle....Oh, excuse me, Mr. Ant, you had the right of way.

However, once they step in my house...IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!

My girls call me the Fly Ninja. I can tell even if there's one fly in the house. I have a nearly 3000 sq ft house and I can hear a fly no matter where I am. I can swat & kill a fly in mid-air. My girls will run and toss me the fly swatter like they're arming a knight with a sword!

"Mommy, over here! FLY!" Swatter in hand...My inner Xena, Warrior Princess emerges..... With my shrill battle cry, let the killing begin.

SWAT! BAM! CRASH! WWWAAAPPP! ....got him... It's one of my many superpowers.

When I was 9 months pregnant with my youngest daughter, my 2nd daughter had snuck a popsicle into her room and left the wrapper under her bed. I had no idea until I went to change her sheets and there was a line of ants marching down her bed frame from the window. Let me tell you..."freaked out" does not even begin to describe it. At 9 months pregnant, I lifted her mattress and threw it across the room like I was lifting a car off my hurt child and proceeded to scrub her entire bed frame with bleach. I washed everything on her bed, including stuffed animals and pillows. I vacuumed the entire room and made Greg re-caulk the entire window, after I sprayed it inside and out with Raid! When all was said and done, I felt better and didn't feel like things were crawling all over my skin.

When we adopted our dog from the local shelter and brought him home, the poor thing was COVERED in ticks and fleas but he sure as hell wasn't coming in my fully-carpeted house like that. After a flea bath that used about half the bottle, I sat on the front porch with him for 3 hours with a flea comb and tweezers picking every flea and tick off him. He was such a good boy for his new neurotic owner, probably thinking "Well this is at least better than the Puppy Mill!"

When I know there is a bug in the house, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I constantly feel like something is crawling on me...I become obsessed.

So, needless to say, when I opened my cabinet at lunch time today to find a couple happy little ants crawling in there.....Fly Ninja had to engage in a little insect warfare!

I had to wash every dish in that cabinet and the one next to it. I bleached the counters and wiped everything down, including all my spices in the cabinet next to it. Sprayed a little Raid and caulked the ENTIRE kitchen.

I still feel a little skeeved and creepy crawly but I had to send a message to the bug world of my new neighborhood...Stay outside and we're cool....Inside? Homey don't play dat!

Excessive? Most definitely. But does it help me sleep at night? Yes.

So...Hand Over the Coffee.....and the bleach!

Screwing my Kids up?

Why is it that your children push and push and push your buttons until you completely snap and then when you do you feel like the worst mother in the world? My girls have been fighting, not listening, refusing to do chores and making bigger messes in the meantime. Trying to get them to school on time is frustrating to say the least.

They want and want and want until I don't think I have anything more to give. And then I lose it. Am I the only parent this happens to? I know things are harder now with Greg gone and I was never this emotional before he left. But I feel like things are just piling up and the walls are closing in on me. I get more and more irritable every day and I hate it.

So, this morning, after I flipped my lid on the 2 middle girls, I came home and was nearly in tears, emotionally beating myself up because the look in their eyes when I yelled broke my heart. I felt horrible. Maybe it's because I'm getting less sleep, I'm stressed out with the weight of the world on my shoulders, my husband will be entering a war zone shortly and I don't know when I'll see him again. I'm in a new duty station where I haven't met anyone; I've been told the PTA moms are extremely cliquey and exclusive. Whatever it is, I need to get a handle on it.

My mission this deployment is to learn how to balance it all...the house, school, soccer practice, the kids, supportive wife, a good friend, aspiring teacher...etc etc etc...and throughout all of it try to raise my daughters so that they won't be sitting in a therapist's office in 20 years telling them how much their mother screwed them up.

So, Hand Over the Coffee....I've got shit to do!

Hand Over the Coffee...

So, I've been told on numerous occasions that I should start a blog. At this point in my life, I figured I could really use a venue to express myself and vent, other than Facebook. Writing for pleasure has always been an outlet for me and with as much as I write for school, I don't have enough time to write for myself. This is my attempt to make that time for myself. I don't know how often it'll be used or if I'll write anything worth reading.

But here we go....Hand Over the Coffee...and no one gets hurt.