TAPS

For those of you who know Derek at *ALL*, you’ll know he’s an avid fan of the
scifi show “Ghost Hunters.” In fact, his favorite Christmas gift this year was a
heavy coat with their logo on it. Their acronym is TAPS. (Meaning The Atlantic
Paranormal Society)

 Derek has become so awe inspired by this show, that he’s now thinking about
starting his own paranormal group. No, I don’t mean he wants to play with
dangerous Ouija boards or conjure anything sacreligious.  He just likes the idea of proving or disproving people’s irrational fears of the spirit world. (If you’ve ever seen the show, you’ll understand what I mean.)   Anyhow, we’ve just learned that the TAPS group is coming to our military base next week to show support for troops and will also be doing an investigation of one of the oldest buildings on base.  Derek was so excited, I thought he’d wet his pants. Even though it’s on his day off, he’s volunteered to be security for the TAPS group. (OH MY GAWD! Maybe he can like, touch one of them or something! *squeaaaaaaal!*) I’m really excited for him. I watch the show too, but not with the same enthusiasm Derek has. He’s too darn cute when he’s all giddy….

We’ve ordered the TAPS book so he’ll have something for them to autograph. (He’s such a funny fangirl…)

 Meanwhile, to all of you parents out there: Caity has begun potty training. (yeah, you know how fun that is.) We have the book Fox in Sox and we read through it every time  we sit on the potty. Then, when nothing happens, we get up off the potty, put back on our pants, and before she’s even down the hallway, she’s gone in her diaper. I’ve had plenty of training on the issue since I had my childcare license…. However, when it’s your own kid, there’s a lot more incentive to succeed. (ie, no more poop diapers!)
 

In case it isn’t terribly clear yet on our plans for Derek’s deployment, the kids and I will spend three months in Indiana and then scoot down to Texas for the remainder of the deployment.  What sucks about this whole thing is, I’m trying my damndest to spend every waking moment with him because I’m trying to make every memory I possibly can before he leaves. Every minute means so much more knowing that they’re in short supply. So why does it feel like I’m twisting his arms to be with me? I’ve realized he’s attempting to pretend everything is normal so he won’t be sad, therefore, he doesn’t want to overdo the mushy activities. I find it insensitive at times when he says I’m being too clingy. I don’t understand  the male mind… I just want to get in a few more hugs than normal and he makes me feel like a groping school girl. Maybe if I had TAPS tattooed on my arms, he’d spend more time in them? =)

Open Season
It’s time to start hunting again… for a presidential candidate. Don’t let yourself become distracted  by shiny spray on tans, glimmering white smiles, patriotic ties and american flag lapel pins. Take a look at the actual issues that mean the most to you in your daily life.
I, personally, am pro-life, I want to finish the war in Iraq and have high hopes for securing the US borders.  So here’s how the fifteen candidates hold up to my standards. (I got all my info from http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/#candidates )

Abortion:
Prolife: McCain(R), Hunter(R), Huckabee(R), Paul(R),Thompson(R)
Wafflers: Guiliani(R), Romney(R), Richardson(D)
Promurder: Clinton(D), Obama(D), Edwards(D), Gravel(D),Dodd(D), Kucinich(D), Biden(D)

Iraq:
Finish the job: Hunter, McCain, Huckabee, Thompson
Turn tail and run: Paul

Immigration: (This is a particularly tough issue since there’s more than one side to it.)
Secure the borders: Hunter, McCain, Huckabee, Thompson
Occasional waffling to suit the crowd he’s around: McCain
Flat out deportation: Hunter
(I personally like the idea “earned legalization” by allowing illegal immigrants to apply for legal status by registering with
authorities, paying a fine, getting guest worker permits, learning to speak
English, and paying taxes. Such applicants for legal status must not be allowed
to jump ahead of legal applicants.) I  really like/would vote for Hunter and really admire his work regarding the pro-life community, but hardly anyone’s heard of him and it would be a damn miracle if he pulled off a position  on the big ballot.
 McCain seems to be playing a game to twist his words to suit whatever crowd he’s in…
My top choices based on what we’ve heard so far:

1. Hunter(not gonna happen)
2. Huckabee
3. Thompson
4. McCain

What’s your view?

What would you do?

    What would you do if you were walking through a grocery store and as you turned down an aisle, you saw the man who sexually assaulted several of your underage family members? How would you feel?  Even though the crime happened more than ten years ago, could you forget the pain those poor children were caused or the years of counseling it took them to come to terms with themselves? How would you handle seeing a child rapist who got a lesser jail sentence due to a plea bargain and a crooked justice system?

  This happened to a friend of mine today. She saw the man who sexually assaulted several girls, all 13 and younger.  The breath was knocked out of my friend and she couldn’t proceed down the grocery store aisle because she didn’t know what to do. When I spoke to her a few hours later, she *still* didn’t know what to do.

    I am so very opinionated when it comes to sex crimes that I feel the need to share my indignity.  I do NOT believe that those accused of sex crimes should get the same sentence or  lesser than some drug junkie: a couple of years in prison. This man sexually assaulted at least five children (who knows how many  more) and caused them to feel insecure about themselves for the majority of their juvenile life and even now feel indescribable  pain just at the thought  of this person.  One of his victims is a good friend of mine who says even now, 12 years later, she has a hard time feeling intimate with her spouse. She can’t hug her children without the unnecessary fear creeping into the back of her mind, wondering  if she’s hugging them appropriately or not.

   His children live with the daily thought that some scientists believe this sickness can be passed along by genetics. To these victims, the crime wasn’t something that took place so long ago, it’s something that stays with them- constantly. And just as their fears and insecurities were becoming less, this man is now free  to come back to this small town and bump into them at every store they attempt to shop at.  In a perfect world, I feel it would only be fair for the justice system to relocate  the accused to another city. Perhaps in a large city you wouldn’t have this trouble, but in a town where there’s only two grocery stores and he works at both of them, what do you do? Internet order groceries?

    Something else I don’t agree with: “rehabilitation”.Sure, you can try, but I fully believe that a person’s sexual orientation cannot be changed by some counseling sessions, and certainly not with a few years in prison. A junkie will eventually have the drugs leave his system, an alcoholic can attend AA meetings,  a violent person can go to anger management. Sure, all of them will come against temptation. But how do you “cure” someone of their sexual urges? Especially when those urges involve children…..

   This man got a plea bargain deal. You see, he abused his own children as well as molested other children. Since he decided to plead guilty to a few of the charges, they dropped a few of the others. How does the justice system find that fair?

“Yes, everyone knows I’m a scumbag  and I’ve committed some horrible, life altering crimes. But if I agree to being half the schmuck I am, we’ll just pretend the other stuff never happened.”

  I know only Christ can judge you, and that an earthly sentence doesn’t hold a candle to what your savior commits you to… But I still don’t see why those poor victims still have to live with the ongoing pain. I hope they get a heavenly reward after death, because I think they’re going through hell now.

Off the subject: Derek’s training for deployment was moved to  the 19th so we have a few more weeks with him.

Anticipation

I got the wind knocked out of me last night as Derek and I were driving around. He told me that the training for his deployment is January 3rd. I had no idea that I’ve only got ten days left with my husband…. He’ll leave for two weeks, come back for three weeks and then be gone for 6 months.

 We’ve decided to move out of our military house while Derek’s on deployment, so I’ll be pretty  busy these next few weeks. We’ve been toying with different ideas on what I should do during the deployment. We had plans before for me to just spend the whole six months working in Texas, but now, due to reasons I won’t divulge here, I won’t spend the whole time down there. I’m thinking of spending a few months here in Indiana with my inlaws and then spending the remaining few months in Texas. I know I’m being  a little vague, but we’re weighing different pros and cons and asking a lot of questions in prayer.

 Unfortunately, when I’m bored/lonely/sad as I will be when Derek is gone, I reorganize, remodel and redecorate. I’m afraid my mom’s house is going to feel the brunt of this burden as it’s in need of a new coat of paint. (sorry in advance mom.) I’ve also been considering changing my career from the police department to working in real estate so I can start working on getting  my license while Derek’s away.

Here’s a video a friend passed on that made me laugh:

Merry Christ-mas!

 I wanted absolutely nothing this year.  I have a brand new baby boy, a beautiful daughter, a handsome husband and amazing family. I got to have  pre-Christ-mas with my parents and grandparents and then spent the actual Christ-mas holiday with my inlaw parents and grandparents.  Everyone was so sweet and although I asked for nothing, they still found thoughtful gifts to give to me. This was the first year in over ten years that I got to spend a pre-Christ-mas with my little sisters. They fawned over my kids and  instilled a little more sass in my children than they previously had. I was so blessed to have such thoughtful family members. So with all the family, the gift of spending the holidays with them and all the wonderful memories we’ve made this year, what else could I want? When you have all the happiness in the world, who could have a need for physical things? I know, I probably sound very Linus-like. (Charlie Brown reference.)

We had a phenomenal holiday. Derek and his brother were so excited to open gifts that we had to open a few for each night preceeding Christ-mas. My mother in law got  the kids a gag gift of large foam swords to which we spent the evening beating the crap out of each other. As I’ve discovered, a dog bed is the perfect shield-like companion to a foam sword. (See video for further explanation.)

  Meanwhile, I’ve not stuck to my exercise regimen at ALL for the holiday season. So I still have a little extra post Aidan baby-chub leftover, but I’m willing to overlook it until after the New Year. (I only say this because there’s a turkey and a cheesecake staring at me from the kitchen table as I type. I’m also being pressured from the rather large plate of chocolate cookies  that just came out of the oven.)

Caity ate Santa’s milk and cookies….

  While I knew there wasn’t anything I terribly *wanted* for Christ-mas, I got the CUTEST gifts. Mostly decorating things, all country/cowboy decor.  For what it’s worth, Tractor Supply Co. has  plenty of really cute home decor items.

We went to Midnight mass last night….. It always puts me in the holiday spirit. I smile the whole time and sing every carol just a little too loudly. It could be from lack of sleep from the lateness of the event, or the overly noxious incense fumes. Or because of the nose-sleeves. I’ll divulge:

 My brother in law attended with us and sat beside me. I watched him  rubbing his nose- then wiped it on his shoulder sleeve that faced me. I whispered to Derek that his brother was a nose-picker and explained what I had just seen. Derek began teasing me about sitting so close to the nose-sleeve and started bumping me. As I inched closer and closer  from each  consecutive bump, I giggled harder and harder. When I finally collided with the nose sleeve, I was laughing so loudly that people were turning to look at me. (Don’t worry Memaw, it was all before the service started.) At this point, my brother in law noticed the horseplay and raised an inquisitive eyebrow to which I began to laugh so hard, I could no longer breathe. (at least choking was quieter than my previous laughter.)    My  brother in law promptly explained that he had not wiped anything on his sleeve and joined in teasing me for the rest of the service.  Fortunately, my lack of breath helped me to contain my insatiable giggling.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday. Eat lots, feel happy and avoid the nose-sleeves.

As promised

As I stated earlier, I have an update, it was just a matter of finding the time to post.

Out of the blue, the Air Force decided Derek needed training in San Antonio, Tx. They offered to fly him by himself or we could go as a family if we chose to drive.  Derek, (being wonderful) decided to  drive so we could all go and we could swing by San Angelo. For all of my complaints of how much a pain in the butt my husband can be, most of the time, he’s quite thoughtful. I even kinda… like him… Kinda. So this past weekend, we swung by town for a VERY SHORT amount of time. (Thus why I didn’t call so many of you. Don’t be upset!)  As soon as Derek drove into town, we spent every single second visiting family and  having pre-Christmas.) Friday night was Christmas at Mom’s house.  (photos posted on photo bucket.)

(Some comments on the above picture:

1. It took five different shots to get one that looked half this good.

2. My son is cute but ALWAYS looks like a grouchy old man.

3. Posting pictures taken at my parents house is a sad admission of the ugly 70′s shag green carpet they have.)

Saturday, we got Aidan baptized, (I have pictures of that too, but they’re not online yet.) then had Christmas at my grandma’s house in the evening. Sunday we went to church and left. We *did* get a nice mexican food fix and managed to squeeze in two trips to Weinerschnitzel. (those of you who are from Angelo can properly appreciate the need for Weinerschnitzel and their chili covered crack-dogs.)

Seeing my family again was a tease. It was so unexpected that we got to make the trip in the first place so it was a wonderful blessing, but it was definitely too short. (isn’t a good time always too short?)

We also left minus one of our family members.  No, not Derek, Caity or Aidan.( although sometimes it’s tempting.) We left our dog Casey with my dear friend Wendeho. She’s a great dog, but vet bills were getting to be overwhelming and with all the traveling we’ve been doing and will be doing within the next year, it was time she found a steady home. The back seat was too empty without her. The cats are staying at Derek’s brother’s house and I know Derek’s trying to convince him to get rid of at least one of them while we’re gone…. (again, because of all the traveling)

Needless to say, Caitlyn and Aidan got properly spoiled and we almost had to enlist the help of U-haul to carry their gifts to San Antonio. That’s where we are now and will probably be leaving as early as tomorrow to drive up north again. It was a four day drive to get down here, we’re going to see if we can get back in two days. (weather permitting)

 Keep us in your prayers while we drive, those snow storms are vicious.

A REAL  update is coming soon, I promise…. We got sent to San Antonio at the last minute for Derek’s training and that’s where I am right now. We have two kids in a really tiny hotel room and we drove four days to get here. We should be able to leave  on Wednesday and Thursday and hopefully make it back in time for Christmas.

Caitlyn and Aidan are handling the driving very well. My computer says Dayton is 21 degrees right now, but San Antonio is sitting pretty at 60. NICE.

While I was here, I was able to buy I gigantic silver belt buckle (Texas style) and a Texas earring/necklace set. Am I a fan of my home state? Just a little.

More updates soon.

Love to all!

For kicks: http://www.bodytwo.com/blog/2007/12/10/lane-gets-breast-implants/

Good vs Caitlyn (a visual representation)

Good:

Caity put on her bunny ears and watched the Bunnytown show.

Pain in the butt:

The show ended and Caity swung them around, eventually throwing them on the ground and running to torture the Christmas tree ornaments.

Good:

Caity pounded/pet the dog.

Pain in the butt:

Caity pounded on the laptop while I’m working on it.

Good:

Angelic sleeping baby boy.

Pain in the butt:

Caity yanked off his hat, woke him up and ran away laughing while trying to put it on her own head. In her defense, she did end up throwing the hat back at him, which landed perfectly on top of his head.

Welcome to daily life in the Williams’ house. And people wonder why some animals eat their young.

Another Day

As you can see by our new picture, we got our tree up. Caitlyn has decided that the decorations are for her use only. She picks them off the tree and brings them to me at intervals throughout the day, then proceeds to hide them. I keep finding them in my pots and pans in the kitchen cabinet….. Caity is rapidly approaching the “terrible two’s” stage even though she’s only  a year and a half. She climbs into EVERYTHING, has to touch EVERYTHING and puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Time-out is a frequent occasion and she’s quickly learned that when she does something wrong, she’ll sit right down in the middle of the floor and mumble something that sounds similar to “time-out.” You can’t convince me that kids are stupid, she knows exactly what she’s doing. Then she waits till I’m not looking to do it all over again. It’s a damn good thing that we didn’t wait until now to get pregnant- a two year old’s attitude problem would *not* have been very convincing to  start making baby number two. Speaking of Aidan, he’s doing great. I really didn’t post about his health issues on this blog, but as of now, it’s no longer a concern. He’d had issues with his hearing, but now he’s passed his hearing tests. He’d lost a LOT of weight and was sleeping too often instead of eating but now he’s gained the weight back, etc etc.

Man, my blog is boring when everything is going well. I can’t complain…. =) There *will* be more pictures of Aidan soon, I’m just slowly adjusting to  life with a new kid. I had everything in a “groove” with Caity. We had a schedule we followed and I managed to find free time every now and then. But with Derek back at work, if I’m not dealing with Caity, I’m dealing with Aidan, sometimes I’m dealing with both while making dinner and pulling my hair out all at the same time. I’m thankful now that we didn’t have twins. ^_^

I’ve also discovered the world of Facebook.com. I realize I’m waaaay behind in the fad world, but I just signed on and found out there’s a million neat programs. I’m currently allowing my pet werewolf to bite all of my friends and adding them to my werewolf army.

Me = nerd

Happy “Still Eating Leftovers” Day

We spent Thanksgiving at Derek’s Grandma’s house and now we’re hanging out at the inlaws house in Indiana. I got SO stuffed… It’s really great to be with family on the holidays and I’m already dreading going home tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ll be going home to a brand new 37″ flat panel HDTV. Derek and I found a great price and decided to splurge. Video games and movies in HD look AWESOME. (no we did not wait  in line at 5 am on Black Friday. We  value our sleep more than that.) 

 I’ve been reading the Harry Potter books lately and I’m HOOKED. I had decided to read the first one based on the rumors of anti-christian messages and witchcraft/spells in the books. I know this sounds nerdy but I wanted to research the actual story lines before forming such a biased opinion.  After the first book, I didn’t really see anything  that relayed an anti-christian message, just a few latin words that related to whatever “spell” they were attempting to cast and that’s it. Nothing more than Wizard of Oz or Cinderella’s fairy godmother. 

Anyhow,  I have really enjoyed these books. I’m on number 4 now and didn’t imagine  I’d enjoy a book written for a 13 year old. I typically need an intelligent writer like  Michael Crichton (my fave)  or John Grisham to become hooked on  a book, not a kid’s novelist.  If any of you are also enjoying these books, feel free to NOT ruin the end of book 4 for me, but leave notes on the series so we can be nerdy together. I’ve amazingly discovered a load of adults who also enjoy the series.  I don’t feel quite so dorky now. =)

Pictures of the new boy in his cute little Thanksgiving  suit. (He’s so CUTIE!)

And one of the  girl: 

Kay, I’ve fulfilled my mommy duties and  I’m off to bed! Love to all!