Farewell......**

Yesterday, December 7, 1941- a date which will live in infamy- The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan...As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken in our defense.  With Confidence in our armed forces-with the unbounded determination of our people- we will gain the inevitable triumph- so help us God."
President F.D. Roosevelt - 8th December 1941 **

Please take a moment and remember those soldiers and sailors that experienced and sacrificed this horrific incident in our history......

I was awake again last night.  Listening to LEGS breathe.  I was thinking that there was a time where I would have traded my soul to the devil just to have him breathing next to me and that time could be in my near future.....AGAIN.......sad thoughts......

Not sure why but LEGS will migrate over to my pillow in the middle of the night and crowd me in the bed....I told him that this doesn't help my little sleeping issue.....

ARMS: 'It never fails when I finally get in a comfortable position you will roll over and blow your hot stinky night time breath in my face...........'
LEGS: ' Well when you blow your hot stinky breath in my face at night, I suck it up because that is what married people do, so put that in your blog and smoke it...' :D Bawahahahaha!

I also give him a hard time about making a big mess when he eats on the kitchen table.  I say ' Look at where I eat, and look at where you eat'  Well tonight I was a very naughty girl and left a big mess......LEGS pointed it out and wanted to take a picture of the proof.......In my mind I am thinking there wouldn't be enough memory on the camera to snap pictures of all the messes he leaves around the house....SEESH....

We have started our rounds of saying goodbye to our good friends that we have made down here.  

The first was a farewell lunch to 'Wilma' she is Canadian, but met an American Soldier teaching English to Koreans over in Korea.  She is returning to Canada to update her work visa to return to Korea to teach.  I think that she is an amazing, brave and passionate woman who is literally flipping the bird to the North Koreans by returning to Korea to teach.  YOUR MY HERO WILMA!!!

Today at lunch we were discussing North Korea and its latest antics.  I asked Wilma what she thought.....she said that the North Korean people are starving, China won't help them because they make too much money off the United States, they have a million man army and nothing to lose.....We were even plotting her Escape Plan if things get really dicey over there........How is that for some flighty army wives and a big dose of reality???

Germany is on high terror alert.  An Al Qaeda type group has made threats of an attack over there.....LEGS has informed me the way we live will be different over there, 'precautions and discipline will be exercised'...At this point I don't know what THAT means, but for fear of never sleeping again I have not inquired either.  Also I have learned there is some tension between some of the locals and the military over there as well, in some places military personnel are not exactly welcomed with big open arms.  Another dose of reality......

Saying Good bye is very difficult for me.  I have never been very good at it, but in the past year it has become worse.  When I left AK, I had to say good bye to a dear, dear friend of mine named LEX.  I always thought that I would see him again, however, he passed away before I ever had the chance........just typing this blog makes my heart ache and sink, I often wonder when I say goodbye if I really will see the person again or not.....

When you live the military lifestyle, your friends ARE YOUR FAMILY.  Wilma said to me the other day " When I make new friends, I give it my all, I put everything I have to making that friendship, that bond, so when time has passed and we run into each other again in 10 years, we will be good friends still......"  Thank you Wilma for being my friend, and filling a void in my life......I do certainly hope to see you again.....Love on ya, ARMS**

This reminds me of the frightful, dark, snowy morning I left AK.  I left November 27th at 530 am, at least that is when I was scheduled to leave.  It had been clear skies and 20 below weeks before I left.  At 3 am that morning right after I said Goodbye to LEX, it started to snow like crazy.  I remember looking out the window of the plane and thinking I have lived in AK my entire life have seen it snow this hard ONLY a hand full of times.  


I had my laptop, a big heavy back pack, and my 17 lb. min pin Karmella.  I was wearing an ARMY PT t-shirt and baggy camouflage pants.  I was scared to death, I was leaving my family, my friends, my boxing Coach.  I was stressed out, and very sad.  Of course they had to de-ice the plane which took hours, which means that I was missing all my connecting flights, but I was so exhausted all I could do is cry myself to sleep.


Karmella would not calm down.  The VET had given me tranquilizers to help her travel better.  He told me to give the big dogs 1.5 pills, and give Karmella .5 pill.  She was panicking, so I started to panic.  I couldn't get her to calm down, so I ended up giving her more than the recommended dose.....I won't disclose how much, but let's just say at one point on the trip to Chicago I started to think I LITERALLY may have killed my dog.  But you know I wasn't gonna tell anybody, I mean what would I say? 'Hey excuse miss flight attendant I think we have a dead dog on board.....' Yeah right......


When we landed in Chicago, at the O'Hare airport- the WORST F' IN airport in the United States.....I had to walk back and forth between the Alaska Airlines Terminal and the American Airlines Terminal.  Which there is no moving walk ways, or assistance in getting around....so I was hoofing it with a gigantic back pack, a laptop and what seemed now like a 500 pound min pin....that may or may not be dead.  All in the name of getting another flight since I missed my connecting flight.


I was a HOT MESS.  No, I'm cereal.  I was sweating so bad I had the V shaped sweat stain down the front of my chest, and I had pit stains.....I kept randomly crying and bursting into hysterics.....because I had just left my whole life behind, killed my dog, missed my flight...and I was alone.....


I was finally able to book another flight, after paying another pet fee....I asked the gentlemen helping me if I could please use the bathroom while he finished booking me because by this time I had to pee so bad....oh yeah, and Karmella......turns out she was alive, because she urinated all over herself......to sum it all up I was the sweaty, crying, dog urine stinky girl that you DID NOT want to sit next to on the airplane....


I went into the airport bathroom, I got Karmella out of her carrier, I cleaned the carrier up as best I could, then I started to clean Karmella.  So I had all four of her legs in my hands and I was tilting her horizontally under the sink.....moving....jerking....and shaking her side to side and up and down to get the motion sensor water faucet on!!! Same with the soap, at this point she is not cooperating, I tried to kill her, I didn't let her out to pee, and now I was abusing and embarrassing her existence......All I could think was that I was going to punish the entire airplane with the deep pungent stench of dog urine......


By the time I got to Atlanta, I had never felt and looked so miserable in my entire life.  I was dead on my feet, hungry, utterly exhausted, emotionally empty.......and I missed the last flight into Dothan....which means I was going to have to camp out in the Atlanta airport until the next morning........


LEGS decided to drive 4 hours to Atlanta to pick me up at the airport in a heroic gesture.....however by this point I couldn't even muster a smile when we were reunited.....to top it all off I had no washer or dryer, my bags did not arrive in Alabama for 5 days, so I had to wear LEGS' clothes for 5 days.......


Next time I fly with Karmella she will be wearing a diaper......


Just another day in the life of an unlikely military wife....**