The Keys to Our Christmases

Hey there Lovelies!!! I just wanted to pop in and say hello and Merry Christmas!

Every Christmas that Mr. Superman and I have been together have differed quite a lot from one another and it got me thinking the other night, about the little things that make each holiday season 'work' for us. Yes, there are the feelings of good cheer, happiness, sharing love all around, the gift of giving and all that but what is it really, dynamically, that works for us?

We haven't always been in the same state or even country and continent for that matter. We have never been in the same house for two consecutive Christmases and they are always spent with different people. It got me thinking more about what little traditions we have that we are able to take with us wherever we may be that help us to have a little bit of our home life with us during the holidays.

For the 2011 MilSpouse Holiday Blog Swap, I made a vlog where I shared some of our traditions and things we have been able to instill in our little family that help us make memories every year.

This year, we are spending Christmas in Utah with Mr. Superman's family and even though it may seem like a small thing, we brought along our own stockings to have a little piece of home with us. We also have traditions with Mr. Superman's family that we are able to actually participate in this year.

I think for us, no matter where we are or what we may be doing, the little traditions and things we can take with us and the memories in our hearts are a big part of what makes each Christmas so special.

The Reason For The Season

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

You Should Practice Swallowing Your Words or Maybe Not Talking At All

Oh word vomit what a bittersweet relationship we have. On the one hand, I don't have much of a filter and severely lack the ability to bite my tongue, so I can appreciate when other people are brutally honest or don't sugar coat things. On the other hand, most people abuse you. Word vomit isn't supposed to be obscenely foolish or full of incompetence and yet so many humans don't grasp that their word vomit is just that. I guess once they vocabularily puke on someone who isn't able to suppress the innate desire to kick their teeth in, they'll start to catch on. 

But I won't hold my breath. 

We're used to people around us, most of the people we know/talk to, being (sometimes unintentionally) insensitive and just all around clueless about a lot of the things we have going on in our lives. We realize that multiple lost pregnancies, infertility, military life, and my rape are all kind of heavy things people will treat like landmines. Trust me, we grasp that fully.

Some people's excuse is that they just don't know what to say or do or how to act. 

Answer: NORMAL.  
Duh.  

To us, its just routine life, the life we've had for 5 years. There is no need for our conversations with you to be centered around the crappy things we've had happen. The last thing we ever wanna do is make people feel uncomfortable or be constantly rehashing the sometimes harshness of our past/present reality. We don't expect anyone to be fully educated or sound insanely cultivated on any of those subjects but most of the word vomit that abounds defies the normalcy of common sense. More often than not Mr. Superman and I will exchange glances that expressly involve the single thought of, "REALLY?!" and the more people tip toe around us and try to make conversations with us 'normal' the more dumb stuff falls out of their brains and off of their tongues. Its like the harder you try to be perfect at something, the more you'll find yourself making little mistakes but the minute you let yourself chill out and be the regular you, things will start to flow.

Unless you're a special brand of dim-wittedness a la Jessica Simpson or just flat out mean spirited, the conversations that seem to have been recycled for the last 5 years regardless of who we're talking to, need to stop.

EXAMPLES:

I get FB messages, emails, texts, and people telling me all the time about how sharing my story about being raped is disrespectful to my husband and I shouldn't be talking about it. 

We get told ALL the time that if we just relax, pregnancy and viable birth will just happen when the time is right.  

We are incessantly and without fail asked by friends and family when we plan on becoming parents. 

WTF? Again, REALLY?!

The first one I never even dignify with a response because that is just flat out, pure ignorance.

The second one is full of stupidity because trust me, if relaxing is all it would take for us to have a baby, I'd be more zen that Buddha. A) I no longer have the body parts and organs required to get pregnant on our own and all the relaxation in the world won't make those things grow back. B) Shut up unless you wanna get slapped. 

Lastly, the hardships and facts about our issues with having children are far from secret. In fact, people I've never even met know all the nitty gritty because its been all over this blog for years. Oh, and Facebook. And every time you ask us, we give the same answer. We'll have kids when we either win the lottery, someone dies and leaves us a fortune,  someone decides to donate the insane amount of mula our situation will require, or someone's 16 year old sister/daughter/niece/friend/cousin gets knocked up and gives us their kid. The one option I haven't tried is dedicating my life to becoming the best gosh-darn coke head street walker I can possibly be. Word is those lucky yatches get knocked up about as often as Charlie Sheen says, "WINNING!"


Really though...

When someone talks to us like they know how it feels to be more barren than the Sahara while holding 3 babies on their hips, I want nothing more than to stop them and ask them how stupid they're capable of sounding because I do indeed have a limit of how much I can tolerate before I just turn and walk away.

When someone complains about how annoying their kid is or how lucky we are to be childless and then drones on about how 'doing the whole mommy thing' is the hardest thing anyone could ever do I want to correct them and say the hardest thing anyone could ever do is not strangle you while you're rambling on like a world class dumbnut.

Now I'm not going to say this isn't directed at anyone personally (because I don't LIE) and because it is. I have to chuckle whenever I read someones blog or FB rant where they go off on something but then say, "Now no one take offense because its not directed at anyone." Why do I let out a jolly old "Ha Ha!"? 

Because its a fib and everyone knows its a fib. 

The person who reads that and believes you is probably the person you are dedicating that slice of vent heaven to. You're writing it for a reason and its directed at someone. 

I will say that this isn't directed at just one person. Its a whole slew of these word vomit users and abusers that this goes out to. If you have to think in your pretty little head if you've ever made me wanna flick you in the nose and walk away, you probably have but hey, we're all human and it happens. I know I bug the beejeebeez out of some people and that is just dandy because I have the peace of mind that I don't toss my verbal cookies in someones face over sensitive issues and I know I'm not mean, I'm honest. I can't give offense, you can only take it and that too sweetcheeks, is your prerogative.

MilSpouse Holiday Blog Swap 2011

(NOTE: The Swap doesn't go live until Midnight EST but my computer was too excited to wait)

Hey there Lovelies!! Merry Christmas! I am so excited to be participating in this year's

I jumped on that wagon as fast as I could! Be sure to head over to Riding the Roller Coaster's wonderful blog (or just click that adorable little button) to check out all of this year's participants and even if its just a few, go visit and leave them some comment love! 

Don't be a blog comment Scrooge otherwise you'll get some ghoulishly haunting visits from the Ghosts of Blog Comments Pas, Present, and Future. 

As for me, today my post for the Blog Swap can be found over at Faith & Deployments and lucky you, its a video blog! Go listen to me jabber on and on about our holiday traditions.

Now to the main event. I have the beautiful and wonderfully talented JG here sharing with us a little insight into her family's Christmas! 

One of my favorite things  about Christmas was always going over to my Grandma and Grandpa's  house. I have something like 60 cousins on that side of the family,  counting all of my cousins' kids. Not everyone gets to make it every  year, but it's the best day of the year, getting to see everyone who has  moved away and only gets to come back once or twice a year. Now, we're  one of them. We  don't do presents, really. The little kids get presents, 12 and under.  But before anyone can open any presents, we sing Christmas carols. Yes, we do.

this particular year was during an Oklahoma-style  blizzard, so it's a smaller crowd than  usual

Every year, we sit around my Grandparents' TV and pop in the old Mickey's  Christmas Sing-A-Long VHS in the VCR and sing along with the bouncing  Mickey head. It is by far my favorite 10 minutes of the whole season.  Everyone sings, the little kids and the parents and the grandparents.  And we've got a lot of talented people in my family, so it's actually a  quite enjoyable experience, with harmonies and embellishments. It's a  blast.

Then the video goes off and the kids say, "Let's open presents!" And my dad says,  "How about we sing the video one more time???" And they all yell, "NO!"  Every. Single. Year.

My Grandpa died a few years ago. My Grandma died in September. Christmas  won't be the same without my grandparents.

This year, we aren't meeting at their house. We're all still getting  together. We're going to do the sing-along. We're going to enjoy our  family. And we're probably going to talk about them a lot. I'm not  really sure what to expect, but I know we'll all miss them. And I know  it'll make them happy to know we're all together.

Sounds like a good time to me. Now get going on making the rounds! 

Merry Christmas Lovelies & Happy Holidays!

Ours

I love Taylor Swift.
She's adorable.
She speaks her mind.
She doesn't care what anyone thinks.
She loves wildly and without regret.

I just watched her newest music video for her song 'Ours' and had to share it. It was a hidden track on a bonus disc in a deluxe set of one of her albums. All of her fans who discovered it, loved the song, requested the heck out of it, and clamored for a music video.

So she listened. 

I love what she said in response to how it all unfolded.

'I love my fans because they let the best song win.'

The best song wins indeed. I thought it was endearing and charming and SO honest. My heavens I had flashbacks from all of the horrible jobs where I had to sit in a cubicle and just counted the seconds until the end of the day. Then I saw the last 15 seconds and started bawling.

Thank you Taylor.
Its once again, an honest and spot on portrayal of real life.
Maybe not everyone's real life but mine and a whole lot of people I know.

Now watch it Lovelies.

Fact: Dwight Knows Best.

One last thing Lovelies. Fact: Bears eat beets. Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.

Here We Go. Again. Again.

There used to be a time here on my blog that I used to be gung-ho, in your face, constantly debating, ever-posting about politics. I don't do it much at all now but my opinions haven't changed. I read Samantha The Army Wife's post today though, and I could no longer hold back. My postings were all the way back before the current president became president and when the country seemed to be in meltdown. Now I look back and realize that wasn't meltdown. Not at all. Back then is NOTHING compared to NOW. I could talk until I'm BLUE in the face and we could go round and round in circles addressing THE ISSUES but that wouldn't do a single thing. Wanna know how I know? No, I'm not psychic. I just know because that's what our elected officials, the ones who hold 'the power' have been doing for longer than I care to think about. Well, in between their well deserved, badly needed, ever earned vacation time. Wanna know how much good its done?

ZIP. ZILCH. NADA. ZERO. BUTKISS.

Most everything that politicians think are important and spend all their time 'trying to figure out', makes me sick. I get angry and frustrated and upset but I try to just NOT think about it because its not worth the way it all makes me feel.

We all know of the scares earlier this year when Military pay was going to be frozen leaving most of the military and their families in major binds. Bills were still going to be due but none of us would have had the money. Well, that didn't happen and I think most everyone sighed a sigh of relief thinking it was all over and nothing more needed to be thought or worried about.

Not me.
Not my family.
Not most of the people I know who stay informed and up to date on what Congress does concerning our fates and futures.

I want you guys to watch this video.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - The 1%
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Its Stephen Colbert and yes he's funny but this has got to be the one and only video of his I have never laughed at.
It made me sick.
It made me want to grab and shake every politician and member of Congress and make them see how utterly preposterous, selfish, ludicrous, absurd, unethical, unfair, and inequitable their REASONING is.

With all of this 'Occupy Wallstreet', 'What you have earned and worked for, I deserve', 'I am the 99%' crap that's been going on and getting WAY too much attention, people's eyes have been turned to view the wealthy and privileged as awful, evil people. How dare they work and earn massive sums of money without giving it to MEEEEE!!! Do you want to know the REALITY? Anyone who feels so entitled to anything they themselves haven't slaved and worked for, regardless of what it is are truly the awful and evil people.

With all of the news coverage and articles about this current ludicrousness, eyes haven't been trained on Congress watching what they've been doing. Nobody has been pointing out the obvious yet easily ignored facts that what's wrong with this country ISN'T big corporations. It ISN'T capitalism. It ISN'T the people in suits who make their money from stocks and bonds and trading. Most people hear budget cuts and the different proposals that can never be agreed upon and their eyes glaze over so they don't want to look close enough to see that the REAL problem with this country is us. Its the people we've elected to run the country. What's wrong with our country is the flippancy that is directed towards the Armed Forces past, present, and future.

To think that the benefits of our Veteran's are the first things that come to the minds of our 'SUPER CONGRESS' when thinking of what needs to be cut...

That, THAT right there is what's wrong with this country.

Now let's look at the REAL 1% shall we?

If only the blindness of America and ignorance of Washington could be fixed by the simple snap of the fingers.

Um... So We Went On Vacation 4 Months Ago

And I'm finally going to share. Give me a break, I had tumahs all over.

Mr. Superman got home in the last days of March from deployment and we knew we wanted to take some time off from our lives here in GA not only to relax and see loved ones, but to FINALLY reconnect as a couple. Anyone who's gone through military separations (especially deployments) know how very vital this is. We decided we wanted to wait until Summertime so we could be gone longer and see more family since everyone would be out of school no matter what state they were in. He seriously had to submit his leave time shortly after getting to Afghanistan when it was still 10 months away. Its like pulling teeth to get leave with his shop and supervisors and get it approved by command... I digress.

After packing meticulously for a 3 week, 3 states, 3 different weather situations vacation, and then weighing said luggage a buttload of times to make sure we weren't over the weight limit, we were on our way!

We flew from Valdosta to Atlanta to Salt Lake City where his parents and sisters live. It had been over 18 months since any family had seen him except his parents and sister Katie. That first night some cousins, an aunt and uncle, and his nana came over to his parents to see him and hang out a bit. We had plans to go to dinner and a movie with The Annoyed Army Wife and OccDoc before taking off to Newport Beach, CA but that week was actually the beginning of my tumors and sickness getting really bad. I was bummed but they totally understood and we have tentative plans to get together at Christmas time!

We spent a couple days in Utah before heading to Newport Beach for a week at his grandparents timeshare. His parents and two sisters were in one car and they were kind enough to let us drive their Jeep as our vehicle while away from GA. Katie roadtripped with us and after getting through the horrendous traffic in Vegas, which actually ended up being bad all the way to California, we got to our villa, unloaded, and headed straight for the pool.

We absolutely LOVE California. We have all of our favorite food spots, beaches, and drives we always take. Its seriously our favorite place to vacation. A couple years ago, we were there with all of his mom's family at the timeshares and we stuck to our usual spots that we had always spent our time at in the past. We have always loved Huntington Beach and the main pier where we always go and dine at Ruby's, the ginormous mall directly across the street from Huntington Pier was always a must, and of course all of our favorite shops and snacks over at Balboa Island and The Fun Zone. We spent all of our beach time at Huntington where the crowds are INSANE but its what we liked. THIS trip though, revealed how much we've changed.

We hit up our normal spots but after traipsing through crowds, meandering our way through practically standing room only stores and shops, we were done. Well, after hitting up the pier and Ruby's. Katie joined us.

We ended up spending what turned out to be our relaxing free time, at state beaches, long drives on parts of the coast we hadn't seen, lots of time in downtown Laguna, and taking it easy at the resort. Mr. Superman also HAD to get his Panda Express fix after 2 years of living in a place that doesn't have it.

We loved hanging out at Crystal Cove State Beach and the incredible views. There was also a flock of Alfred Hitchcock'ish seagulls that didn't move. At all. No matter how close people got, they just stood, unmoving, staring straight out. For hours.

We went whale watching which we both have always wanted to do but in the past, I couldn't because I get so, so, SO seasick. Well, I got motion sickness patches from my doctor long before going out of town and that morning I did two patches and two Dramamine and was able to not puke. I still felt sick, but I was able to enjoy myself enough. Mr. Superman's family found out we had booked us for whale watching and decided to come along too.

We spent lots of time at Balboa Island window shopping boutiques, watching the surf, and eating. We HAD to get our favorite pizza from this tiny little, insanely cheap for insanely huge pizza slice shop and Mr. Superman wouldn't be the typical man without sneakily taking photos of me eating a chocolate covered banana. Dirty man.

We took Mr. Superman's sister Katie to Sea World in San Diego for her high school graduation gift and had a blast! We loved seeing Shamu (and all the other Shamu's?), the penguins, sharks, stuffing our faces, watching the dolphins, and illegally petting baby Nemo's. I am NOT ashamed.

Mr. Superman thoroughly enjoyed drooling over multimillion dollar yachts and me over classic muscle cars. I know, I know... Dream big.

We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and despite HATING midnight showings, really enjoyed it. Thanks Katie for making us go!

Our last night there before traveling to Arizona, Mr. Superman took me out to downtown Laguna Beach. We ate incredible food from this AMAZING restaurant called Asada. It was hands down, no bars hold, the BEST food I have ever eaten in my life. It was gourmet so a little more expensive but so so so worth it. Both of us could not stop saying how incredible everything tasted and even though our waiter was REALLY hard to understand, he was awesome. The menu is in Spanish but we know enough that we ordered no trouble. When we got our bill, I told our waiter how amazing it was and he said, "Kobe Bryant is here all the time. You ordered what he always orders, it is his favorite, that is why you liked it so much!" I assured him I have zero love for Kobe Bryant and he said, "Is because you are not from California!" No dude, that is not why I don't like him. Anyway, it was incredible and we seriously talk about it and crave it all the time. Afterwards we walked around, found some boutiques, a crazy candy store, listened to some great street musicians, stumbled upon a PHENOMENAL art gallery, and ended it all with ice cream.

Overall, California was the perfect escape from the real world we wanted and needed. We relaxed and enjoyed being unplugged, seeing and spending time with family, and to top it off, California was REALLY good to my curls.