Tag: army spouse

Guns and You – it’s not red and blue!

America, this is reality calling, please wake up!

Seriously. You are heading for civil war. There is no black and white in all things up for debate right now, only grey.

My daughter went to school on March 14, 2018 and went outside for 17 minutes of silence, to remember the 17 victims of last month’s massacre in Florida, when she returned to her classes, some of her friends were extremely rude to her, thinking she had walked out protesting gun laws. Now don’t get me wrong, she will be doing this (of her own accord) on March 24th at the Marching for Our Lives Protest, she will also be walking out of school on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Her school has actually communicated with both parents and students in regards to this walkout and they have offered students a safe area (on school grounds) where they can peacefully protest, they have also offered students the choice on the protesting and said to them that it is completely of their own decision making. Students who remain in class will have time to read or do something of their own selection. Whilst those outside (teachers included) are able to safely protest current gun laws. No parents are allowed to be involved (unfortunately for me, but I completely understand why because of the safety aspect).

I digress, back to March 14; the school had asked if any students wanted to protest and were given a solid answer of April 20th being their day, obviously there was mention of some sort of remembrance ceremony though. My daughter joined many others that walked out of their classroom and stood outside in a circle around 17 pairs of shoes and silently remembered those 17 unknown students who had died just one month before, some of them whilst buying roses in their cafeteria for the one they admired; celebrating Valentine’s Day.

When she sat down with her supposed friends at lunch, two of them belittled her for walking out. They called her names and told her she was a coward for doing so. They started lecturing her on the fact that everyone has a right to own guns, who was she to say no one could have guns! She tried to tell them firstly that it wasn’t a protest and secondly that she wasn’t trying to take guns away from people, but it was all to no avail, she couldn’t get a word in. Her ‘friends’ wouldn’t or couldn’t listen to any other opinion. They had already been judge, jury and executioner. They are all 13 years old.

Here we are, a group of people trying to remember the kids/young adults who were all murdered just over a month ago by a psycho who had spent some time planning his attack on kids at school, whilst kids at school are so worried about losing their 2nd amendment rights (do they even have them yet or is this pure parent talk) that they are judging others because they thought they were outside protesting said rights! How can any of this make sense to anyone?

My world inadvertently involves guns. My husband is in the military. We have lived on base/post throughout various times in our many years of military life. We have plenty of friends that love their guns. My husband owns a gun. He is also extremely well-trained in guns. He doesn’t have a temper. He is very sound of mind and full of common sense; the complete opposite of me, lol! He is one of the people who could own a gun and society wouldn’t have to worry that he is going to go all nut jobs on everyone! He also doesn’t believe that assault rifles belong in the hands of society members. He understands the need for common sense gun laws. When he got his gun and the background check took 15 minutes, both he and I were in shock! 15 minutes to check someone’s background to make sure they were of the mental capacity fit to own a gun. He bought a second one in the time it took for his background check to complete. How can that be ok? And you can buy bullets at the same time!!! What! So someone has really pissed you off and in a crazy temper you walk into a gun store, get your gun and bullets within 15 minutes and go and take care of the person/people who have pissed you off? All whilst still in your temper! You may have cooled down had you been given a few days to chew over what it was they did to you (you may not too but that’s where psychological tests come into play). Surely to god every upstanding citizen out there doesn’t want innocent lives taken? Surely.

I’m Australian, I was living in Australia and very well remember the day the massacre occurred in Tasmania (28 April, 1996), the day everything changed in Australia, the day Martin Bryant murdered 35 people and injured 23 others, the day that shocked Australia so much that we knew it must never happen again! That was the day radical gun reform began in Australia. The government immediately enacted strict gun laws and issued a buyback program. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) summed it up well:

The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation. Among other things, the law also required licensees to demonstrate a “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course.

Now at this point in time, a National buyback program wouldn’t work here in the United States a: because very few people would voluntarily give up their guns and b: because it would cost an absolute fortune to compensate for said guns. As of 2017 in the USA, “there were no federal laws banning semiautomatic assault weapons, military-style .50 caliber rifles, handguns, or large-capacity magazines. There was a federal prohibition on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines between 1994 and 2004, but Congress allowed these restrictions to expire”. (CFR) After every mass shooting, particularly the one in Las Vegas, in October, 2017 and after the Parkland school shooting, “some lawmakers expressed provisional support for a federal prohibition of so-called bump fire stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic guns to fire at a rate approaching that of automatic weapons”. (CFR).

On March 24, students and parents alike, will ‘March for our Lives’ in Washington D.C. and throughout the country. My daughter and I will march. How can we not? There has been plenty of talk about the “Walk Up not out” movement being a great way to walk up to those kids who are sitting by themselves or those students who are being bullied. Firstly, how about we practice being nice and including all those who are different every single day? Why is it ‘walk up’ on that day only? How can things change without some sort of dramatic uprising? The massacres are not stopping! The school shootings continue. Something has to dramatically change! Teach your children to be inclusive, teach them to love, teach them to treat others the way they would like to be treated, make that an every day occurrence. But, do not ask my daughter to walk up to the psychotic kid that has spent his whole life torturing animals, the one who has shown every sign of becoming the school shooter. Don’t expect her to show kindness to him when he has nothing but animosity for every living thing out there and is looking for someone to start with. Don’t tell the wife of a brutal husband that beats her whenever he feels like it, that she should ‘walk up’ and be nice to him, that will make everything better! Stop it! You are being naive. Sometimes, there is no other way than to ensure the person cannot have access to the tools (normally guns particularly when one is looking to cause as much carnage as possible) one craves to cause damage.

Yes, the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that people cause carnage with knives (the eight (8) men in China that killed 29 people and injured 130 more). Now imagine if those EIGHT men had guns; assault rifles even. How much more carnage would they have done?

Yes the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that you can cause carnage with cars (the vehicle attacks throughout the UK and Europe in 2017 are devastating, many were killed and injured) again though, I ask, imagine the greater casualties had those men had assault rifles? Many more would have died, there is no disputing that.

Yes the pro gun, anti gun legislation, people will argue that criminals can easily access guns on the black market; it’s not normally regular ‘criminals’ causing this mass carnage in the USA, it’s every day white males aged between 17 and 50. It’s not normally terrorists, it’s men who are psychotic in nature or who have flipped a switch and literally gone loco.

Basically, stop worrying about your 2nd amendment rights. If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about! I heard a great quote the other day, “the 2nd amendment has been bastardized”. The forefathers couldn’t have foreseen the carnage today’s weapons would cause and the number of innocent children taken far too early by them. They wouldn’t have agreed with that! They set these amendments in place to protect ‘Americans’, not so they could be used to kill the most innocent.

This fight isn’t black and white. This fight is full of grey. The one thing we all have to agree upon though is that too many children are dying in the USA at the hands of guns. It has to be time for change otherwise what sort of future do we have?

Challenge Accepted Day 5

I am smoked! Today’s workout has been a killer. Not one but two! Legs and cardio! Seriously! I’m not sure which one should be done first, today I did lower focus followed by cardio but when good old Shawn T asked me to do some outrageous squats in the cardio routine, my legs started screaming in pain! So next Friday, I shall switch it around and let you know how that goes. I even managed to do a mile run afterwards, there wasn’t much of a warm-up or cool-down for the run, but I was already pretty warm so I didn’t feel too badly. 😜

As for the regimen, well my neck is feeling great but I think I’ve pushed it too soon by using the Amp MP daily so quickly, I should have heeded the Doctor’s advice (Dr Katie Rodan & Dr Kathy Fields) and started out a little slower, so tonight I’m going to give the roller a miss and go back to it tomorrow night. I’m still not seeing any radical changes but I’ll do a photo on Monday side by side with my first photo and we can have a looksy, I really want to share this journey with you, so let’s see if we can find any difference already & if not, then that’s ok too, I’m not expecting anything radical just yet.

I did realize that I should have had my eyebrows done before I took my first ‘before’ photo but I’ve had such a hard time finding somewhere that does threading (something I fell in love with in the Middle East and have managed to find in Italy, Texas, Hawaii and Colorado Springs, but not here in South Korea (apparently there was a spa at the first hotel that we stayed in upon arrival in Seoul that did it, but I was jet-lagged, concerned about my animals, absolutely freezing – the temperature ranged from -28 to -32C when we first arrived here, that’s -18.4F to -25.6F! Aka: hell freezing over! So I didn’t do a whole lot). Anyway, I gave up yesterday after searching and ended up having my brows waxed at a little salon outside of Osan AFB. It was ok, my brows looked wonderful, but then again any grooming they had would have been marvelous and my mono brow – after 2 months of no grooming, was definitely asking to see a professional! My apologies for the shock brow photo, they will look a tad better upon Monday’s photo release, I promise.

I also have to tell you about another area I dilly dally in, and that is being a Bzz Agent. What is a Bzz Agent I hear you ask? Well, it’s this fantastic job where you get to test products for free or almost free and share your opinions online and in person. So I just got my first product, Covergirl Lashblast Volume mascara in very black. My first impression when opening the packaging was a little disappointing because they use a plastic bottle cap that is to be disposed of as soon as you open it, the environmentalist in me, doesn’t like such waste when the brush has worked just fine thus far for so many previous products. I do like the thickness of the mascara though as it goes on smoothly without clumping. And the color is a nice black, black, sounds weird I know, but it’s not a blue-black, or a brown-black, it’s exactly what it says it is. The brush is possibly not quite pointy enough for my liking, I have sort of squinty eyes and found when nearing the end of my eyes where they meet my nose, I ended up with a little dollop of mascara on my nose, so I had to be more careful on the other side. I really like the texture of the mascara though and all in all would have to say that it goes on nicely, doesn’t clump and makes my lashes look a little more voluminous.

Ok, funny thing for the day and once again it is my son who just cracked me up; his favourite movie is Pixels and the character Ludlow gets the girl, Lady Lisa, in the end. Hunter has just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and came over to me very seriously and said, “She’s a lovely girl, I want to be Ludlow so I get the girl!” Three and a half years old! There’s probably going to be a lot of Hunterisms throughout this blog as he cracks me up daily! You have to watch the movie to understand why that’s hilarious! 

So my afternoon has been interesting, my new neighbor came over and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her through the rice paddies (everyone has told me that it’s a great walk with the kids and dog) unfortunately, given my double work out earlier this morning, the last thing I could think about was doing more walking! As I was heading to the bus stop a couple of hours later though, I decided to call in there and see if she wanted to come over for a glass of wine and yay, she did. It was really nice to have some female conversation, she seems like my sort of person too, sadly, she’s leaving in May, but that’s ok, I’ll enjoy her company whilst I can and she has a lot of knowledge about local things so we’re going shopping next week to a local market where I can finally get some nice fresh fruit and vegetables, I was starting to wonder where the good, fresh produce was hiding, as it certainly isn’t at the commissary, or even Costco, or Emart. Anyway, to say I’m excited is a little bit of an understatement, we’re going to get lunch at a local Korean restaurant she knows and just enjoy getting out of the house. I don’t get to do that very often now given the one car situation, so it will be really nice! 

Alright, well it’s  Friday night here, the family have all started watching The Good Dinosaur – let me just digress a little about that movie; not what I was expecting at all! Hubby bought it when he went back to the States a couple of weeks ago thinking it was going to be this great feel good movie for us all (& there might be a spoiler alert here if you haven’t seen it) but wow! Not what I was expecting at all! I like the different take on the human, just wasn’t quite ready for it, but I wasn’t expecting so much sadness, nor the tripping out on whatever those berries were! Anyway, can’t wait to see Finding Dory, that one will definitely be worth it’s wait! 

Ok, I’m going to say sayonara. Have a great day or night depending on where you are and don’t forget to share your thoughts with me on my blog. I’ll give you details next week on my website if you’re looking to take the Rodan + Fields challenge with me, there is a 60 day money back guarantee, so spend your weekend giving it some serious thought, oh and my Aussie friends, I know a few of you loved Proactiv and these products were created by those same two doctors who created those amazing products, they just decided to move to an age group reflecting their own ages, ie, anyone over the age of 20! 😉 nonetheless, they are launching the Rodan and Fields line in Australia, so if you’re interested, it will soon be there.

 Happy travels

Challenge Accepted Day 4

Well here we are, day 4 already and I’m yet to see any results! Too soon you think? I know, I know, it won’t happen overnight, but bloody hell, I’d really like it to! I’m a bit over Shawn T. “In and out,” “Feel it in your core, are you good?” No I’m not bloody good, my core is telling me to stop torturing it! And you and your fit sidekicks can all piss off! Ok, that only happens for about 24 minutes, the rest of the time I love it! 😜

I did notice this morning a big scratch on my neck that stung when I was doing my morning R+F Redefine routine, but it wasn’t from the products, obviously either my kids, or my dog, or myself during sleep, someone/something scratched me and man did it sting when I was cleaning my face. Anyway, I did put a little bit of the Soothe Sensitive Skin Treatment on the scrape so in the interests of keeping you guys informed, I just wanted you to know of any products I use. I’ll let you know how it feels tonight when I do my nightly Redefine routine, but I was once burned quite badly by a woman in Colorado Springs when I bought a Groupon for laser hair removal and unfortunately in this instance, cheaper isn’t always better, I honestly thought I was going to be scarred for life, my Dad told me to sue her, it was all crazy, anyway, my friend Sue suggested I use the Soothe Sensitive Skin Treatment for the burns so I did and that combined with vitamin E, completely got rid of my burn marks. 

  

  
 
These marks were immediately visible when I got home from having the laser hair removal, I wasn’t happy and it hurt like hell, but thank god, my skin healed after about 3 weeks. Here is a more recent photo of my yucky, white, hairy legs (please forgive my candidness) I wish they were tanned and lovely but I feel like my winter has been never ending with living in Colorado where it snowed up until June (with some nice days in between) then we went to Australia in July/August and had just a tad more winter, followed by Autumn (Fall) upon returning to Colorado, with Winter starting all over again in October (yay! – Oh how I wish sarcasm could come through in writing without having to point it out!) at least we had some nice days where light jackets were ok. To top it all off, we saved to go on a cruise before moving to South Korea and Texas decided to go from 80 odd degrees Fahrenheit the day before we got there to 40! Houston had the coldest, windiest, most overcast miserable day it had had, the day we boarded our ‘warm’ cruise! (Ok, maybe a little exaggerated) but you can see how rugged up we were! 

  
 
So back to today, my son & I went on our first adventure together here in South Korea, it was only over to the Airforce base at Osan to get our visas for our extended stay here, but we did park the car at the gate and wander through the market that is at the front of the AFB. We had some wonderful Thai food from an authentic Thai restaurant there and I got to practice my very little Thai with the lovely hostess/waitress named Juree. On top of that, I got to eat one of my most favorite meals in the entire world, Tom Kha Gai – the scrumptious Thai soup with lemongrass, coconut milk and chicken and it was made to perfection! I’ve attempted it many times and it just never tastes as good. 
We wandered around, ate Baskin Robbins ice cream (oops) and had a lovely time together. Then it was time to get back to our little village to get Madison from the bus. We’re also only allowed one car here unless we can prove we need another one (we can’t just yet ), so I had to be back for child pickup, hubby pickup, dinner prep, you name it! Unfortunately that didn’t end my day; we all (the kids and I) need to follow up on our Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination (JEV) so we went to the immunization clinic on post, thinking it couldn’t be too difficult (but knowing in my heart of hearts that nothing’s ever too easy either) only to be told that they don’t see dependents there! What? Why would you have dependents here and not vaccinate them? “Ok, so where do we go to get vaccinations?” “I think Osan takes dependents…” You think? Seriously, you’re not sure? Oh my. Oh well, luckily I haven’t dragged my three children to the immunization clinic, waited for 20 minutes only to be told after telling them the entire way there and parking the car etcetera, etcetera, that they were going to get another shot! Luckily, winter has ended and it’s a balmy 3C  (37.4F) outside, so the kiddos frolicked in the warm gusts blowing in the carpark….not! But, such is life.

I know, I know, this is an exercise/makeup regimen 60 day challenge, but my life is literally ‘always an adventure’ and as I’ve already said, there hasn’t been any changes yet so I’m not going to inundate you with pictures of my face or body, instead, I’m going to take you on my adventurous journey on a daily basis and throw in the challenges that I face daily! Hopefully you’ll stick with me as I’m thoroughly enjoying this side of it (the writing that is, not necessarily the exercise) & I can’t wait to see not only where the exercise and Rodan + Fields regimen take me, but where each day takes us! Sweet dreams! 

PS I didn’t run today! But I did say 5 days/week! 

PPS My abs are killing me!