Happy Valentine's Day???

As was expected, this little Princess was all alone on Valentine's Day.  DH took a jet to Ellsworth AFB, where we lived for 4 and half years, and they had too many meetings to make the flight back.  Does this surprise me?  If you are a milspouse...particularly an aviator's wife...you are probably laughing right now.  Being alone on a holiday or going stag to a function aren't new to us. We roll with it...we share a finely honed talent for making the best out of a less than ideal situation.


I found a certain humour in the fact that he was alone on Ellsworth during a holiday, as I have spent so many there myself.  Thinking of Ellsworth and my first holidays alone will always remind me of 9/11.  He was at Nellis that morning and I was alone...we were in our first house.  I don't really feel like stirring up all those emotions...not for myself or for anyone else.  It just jumped in my head when I realized that this time, DH was there alone on a holiday.


I asked him to go and take a picture of our first real home...
This is what he sent:

I do not like change.

XOXO
~CAT 

Hood Philanthropist

Quick...when was the last time you volunteered?

Pop quiz...do you donate to charity for a reason other than a tax write-off? 

This year, more than ever, charities are making it easier to donate.  You can now text a donation straight to many charities!  To name but a few:
American Red Cross
Big Brothers/Big Sisters
The Humane Society 
UNICEF
The 9/11 Museum and Memorial

Here are some links to lists of several others:

Mobile Commons 

Mobile Giving Foundation 

JustGive.org 

With charitable donations this easy and accepted in such small denominations, now is a perfect time to release your inner philanthropist!!! 

Lest you get concerned that I've been knocked in the head and am going to be straight up "preachy," all I can say is, "Have you not been paying attention?!"  As most of you know, I have a secret shame...an addiction to trash TV judge shows!!!  Enjoy the following "philanthropist," one of my personal favs!!!

Hood Philanthropist on Judge Karen 

When you're through laughing, consider a text donation...every penny counts...

XOXO

~CAT

 

What Happens Next?

Wow...just Wow!

I started a blog on the wedding and couldn't quite put all my thoughts into words...it didn't seem right to go on about the fact that I MY wedding 12 and half years ago already had:

White on white fashion
   Lovely bride's maids in ivory simple ivory satin columns 
   Portrait collar to a deep V on my long sleeved gown
A groom in uniform
A wild ginger best man
A flyover
   We were on an Air Force Base, but the planes flying overhead still count

It's not that I mind...but she could have asked...LOL.  It reminded me so much of my wedding and how long ago it was and how many marriages end in divorce...and made me so happy for me, and so in a rush for Husband to get home from work, and so sad for so many others...and then...soooo wrapped up in the irony and I couldn't stop wondering must have been going thru Kate's head and I tried to put myself in her shoes.  It went something like this:


"Ok, so I really love him, and I get to be Royal and a Queen someday and that's all really awesome...but...well, check out this church...it's really quite pretty isn't...oh dear, this church...nonononono...wait, Kate...think about this...quickly now...he's going to be King....this church...it's the Church of England...a King started it...so he could get divorced...and then he beheaded another one anyway...oh dear...what to do...fairytale crumbling...keep smiling...look happy..."  What happens next?


Still, it was a lovely wedding and a much needed break for a lot of us from all of the devastating news surrounding the tornadoes.  I still get chills thinking about the time we spent unable to locate me SIL and nephew in Tuscaloosa...still thanking God that they and their home were spared, when those two blocks away weren't nearly so lucky!  Such destruction in that storms wake...more wild fires in Texas...Japan's earthquake and Tsunami not so long ago...hurricane season approaching fast...what happens next?


And then of course, there was last night's news...Osama bin Laden is dead!  Hooray...right?  Sort of...yes?  I think so.  Certainly there's something to be said for that little bit of closure that we all get, especially the 9/11 families, by having that figurehead, that one man we all hold accountable, PAY.  But that's just it...he's a figurehead...he's one man.  And closure is nice, but what has it changed?  We feel warm and fuzzy for a few minutes and maybe some of us felt a little safer when our heads hit the pillow last night, but then we woke up this morning...and now what?  Maybe they'll want to retaliate for his death...maybe not.  Maybe someone else will want to step forward as a leader.  What happens next?


It all happened in less than a week and suddenly things seem so very different and I just can't help but keep asking myself...what happens next?  For better or worse, the world seems so full of possibilities...what happens next?