Frustration

I feel like the rope in a game of tug-o-war.

Love!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Let me begin with Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is an amazing thing to celebrate and I do not believe it should only be celebrated on one day a year, but it is a neat focus for a 24 hour period love.

Sometimes I think people grossly miss the point.

Every Valentine's Day, I see some of the people I know systematically rage against Valentine's Day because they just do not see the full point.

It is not about candy or flowers or wallowing in the fact that you may or may not have a significant other...

Its about celebrating Love.

Love from your spouse, your significant other, your family, your friends... LOVE.

SO this is a HAPPY post about how awesome love is.

We're blessed at the Wilson house to be so wonderfully loved by a huge and amazing family and some pretty awesome friends.

TO all the people we love,  Happy Valentine's Day!!  Hug someone you love today.

And before you type out an anti-valentine's day manifesto... just remember, be happy, someone loves you!

Oh well..

I wrote this long thoughtful blog in video games and how parents who let their kids buy games they are not old enough to play, plopping them in front of it all day instead of parenting are to blame for kids who like violence...not the video games.

But then I thought just writing that sentence was enough.

The New 3 AM

I remember when I was younger and the only concern I had was constant entertainment/stimulation... I would stay up all hours online, playing video games...doing nothing productive.  
Now I'm up at 3 AM again and its different.

3 AM is pretty fun with this kid around.  Now granted, when he starts fussing and I am still asleep I groan, get annoyed...mutter something inappropriate under my breath and then get up.  By the time I have the bottle in his mouth I am smiling at him and trying to make him laugh, which he now does and it is hilarious.  
We usually spend about an hour or two like this... he eats, changes, and then I spend about 30 minutes getting him back to sleep.  I usually do a bit of reading or like I am doing tonight... blogging... while he settles down.

He was laughing and cooing as I changed him and I tried... to get it on camera but he is a coy little one.  He is now cooing behind me, he laughed pretty loudly a second ago...watching his lambs go around in a circle.  That amazes him.  

So now I have a wake up break for about two hours in the middle of the night sometimes.  Aiden is a pretty awesome baby so he does not wake up like this every night and I am sure it will lessen over time and these little moments will be something I tell him about when he is older while I lament that my little one has grown up so fast.  They do grow pretty fast... he is already out of some of his newborn outfits.  ;)

Six weeks old and he already has his dad and I around his fingers... as it should be.

I'll be in the bed again in a few minutes, I still get up at 7ish every morning because of school work and grown up obligations, I was never the lackadaisical sleep 'til noon type anyway...  People lie when they say growing up sucks...

And Now For Something Completely Different...

I am well aware that at times my blog can be a bit heavy.  I am one of those passionate people who bleed what I believe and feel the need to share it with every person I meet... in a non-offensive way I hope...
Anyway, I do realize I have been a bit pressing on my political views as of late and decided to give that a bit of a rest and do something different today...

After a lovely weekend in Atlanta with my husband, I will write a bit about what we did, what we purchased and some reviews of beer and wine (something I am rather good at...please do not even make the obvious Irish=lush connection, I watch Downton Abbey thank you... I know its typical...(btw I totally support Home Rule, I think Bobby Sands was a martyr and that the horrible wench Margaret Thatcher only perpetuated a problem...politics over)

Wait...one more thing....

Ok... On to the trip....

We had a chance to make it up to Atlanta over the weekend to sort of get away.  I felt a bit stir crazy and it was nice to go out and just spend some time together.  First we went to Antico Pizza which is owned by an Italian family.
Here is their website, I urge to to visit if you are in Atlanta.

The Pizza was amazing...

This is a traditional pizza with basil, Mozzarella, and I added hot chili peppers... I cannot tell you how good it was, I can only say that usually I eat one slice of pizza when we go out...this time I ate 3 1/2.
When we were there I had Peroni, which is an Italian beer... 

It is probably Italy's version of bud, but I liked it and it was great with Pizza lunch.


The rest of the day we wandered around Atlanta and just purchased foods and alcohol... lol we are awesome I know...

We did stop at Octane Coffee, which has one of the best cups of Coffee I've had (sorry Octane, but the Italian run place in Manhattan has you beat...but just barely)

To be fair... I probably needed that after the Peroni and the 5 AM feeding of the formula beast we like to call Aiden.
After our coffee break, we went to a place called Hop City that sells a large selection of beers and wines... I stocked up there and bought some Magner's Irish Cider and a Newcastle called the Founder's edition... It is a bit lighter than traditional Newcastle but it has a smooth taste and its great if you love the Brown Ale but you want something different...

If you see it and you like traditional Newcastle, give it a chance... I liked it.

Now onto other things... We went to Trader Joe's I purchased a ton of wine... TODAY I am trying their 3 buck chuck Shiraz.  Yes, the bottle cost 3 dollars...

Trader Joe's 3 dollar wine.

The first thing I notice is it smells rather nice, you can get the dark notes but also the rich fruit smells, maybe cherry...

The shiraz is not overly dry at all, but smooth and rather tasty... wow for 3 dollars... this is a reason to drive to trader Joe's in itself.  The Shiraz has this full body which I would not expect for 2.99... so good job Trader Joe!

Now after a day of riding about, eating, drinking, and being merry... we did get to come home to this...

So I will say the day was a complete success....

Women in Combat

Here is an article I read on CNN.com today:
Women are already in combat...

I am of course of the mind that there are plenty of women out there who are just as capable of handling themselves in combat and let us be aware that there are already countries that not only have women in combat positions but require service so it is going to be hard for me to entertain the argument that a woman cannot hack combat situations based off of gender restrictions, to me that is about as outdated as the women should not vote because they are too delicate for politics argument of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Also... I have had the special privilege of getting to know women who have served, experienced combat, and have the wounds to prove it.  These women are brave, tough, and lived up to the challenges presented to them.  They gave and they experienced the same things as their male counterparts and in my opinion to deny them that equal right demonstrates the lasting stigma that women are somehow lesser in our society.

We still make less, there are still pretty stringent gender stereotypes, and I think that we all need to move forward and not rely on a ban put in place in the 90s that never made sense to me as a woman.

So in essence, if a woman wants to serve in the military, even be it on the front lines, she should have the chance to prove she can.

Here is another example

This is Tammy Duckworth who now a US Representative for the Illinois 8th congressional district.  She is apparently the first disabled woman elected to the US House of Representatives and she became disabled during her service in the Iraq war where she lost a leg and sustained other injuries when her helicopter was hit.  This woman is able, intelligent, and proves to me that these women are not delicate or unable to meet the physical requirements of war and so I really think its time to put even the well meaning protection instinct of some aside and let women be who they wish to be, in any capacity.  

It should not matter what gender a person it, it should matter if they have the desire, the drive, and the ability to meet the challenges in front of them...

There are plenty of women I could use as examples, who faced carnage and suffering from times long forgotten and so its time to let them face those challenges if they so choose.
We are not delicate flowers.

Here are some more pretty gutsy and hardcore women:

Long long ago...

An American Military History

Women in WWII

More women in WWII

Let me add... that my grandmother Mary R. Slaughter proudly served in Europe during WWII.  She received two bronze stars for her service and told me stories of her adventures when I was young, one of the reasons I love history...

Hate

I cannot say I hate anyone. I posted a Martin Luther King Jr. quote on my Facebook Monday to that point...hate takes so much work. Now I can vehemently disagree with someone or even deeply dislike to the level of disgust a person's actions... But to hate a person... I just refuse to be that way and it is hard to understand hate for me... Talking last night, I thought about the pure hatred some people have for our president and it worries me. Granted, part of it bothers me because they accuse him if "socialism" and "communism" when I'm pretty sure they mean Fascism and they paint him as "hitler" while displaying an obvious lack of historical knowledge and a great deal of hubris about their painstakingly wrong assumptions... But underneath it all is hate, pure unbridled hate... Coming from a lot of people who by the open admittance of their dedication to belief and God, should not have hate in their hearts... That being said this is NOT a rant against faith and I politely ask no one use my blog as a platform for religion bashing because I know many devoted and faithful people who work tirelessly to spread acceptance and love... I'm just saying these people who tout hate need to embrace their faith. If our president was white and had a different name,... I don't think it would be as much of an issue and that is painful.

Monday!

Oh man time flies, he's already a month old!  We attended our monthly Dr. appointment today and he was none too pleased with being examined and prodded, but we survived and are back home a bit fussier than usual. lol.

8lbs. and 14 oz.  woot woot!


:D

Relevance

The Power of Non-Violence .

Smart Gun Control Does Not Oppose Liberty

There are a lot of articles surfacing on the internet, in the news, and in papers recently that resemble this one:  

Stephen Henderson: The right way to stop gun violence

In response, there are a lot of claims that any method of gun control infringes on a person's liberty and their right to own a gun...which is, let us just face it, wrong.

Just because you have an oddly worded right to own a firearm in a document written in the 18th century does not mean that our government cannot enforce laws that protect the lives and in turn liberty of other people from getting shot by illegally purchased guns in the wrong hands... which are at the core of gun violence in America.

I am not going to diminish the weapons like the AR-15 and high capacity clips that are military grade and have no business in the hands of those who are not in the military, but I am going to state that more people get killed from common handguns than those who are killed in mass shootings... so we need to look at both if we really want to curb violence (the trick is there are some who I don't think care... like the NRA, they care about money... not people).  

So look at this article and realize that enforcing laws that make sure guns are purchased legally whether in a store or between two people is IMPORTANT.

In addition, having stricter enforced laws on improper ownership and sales is crucial when addressing the real problem.  That does not infringe on a person's right to own a gun...that is common sense and safe....

So... we need to ask ourselves... why are the people in the NRA saying that they will not support such sensible legislation???

Because any gun sale is a good thing for an organization that gets a ton of money from weapons and ammo manufacturers.

I wish people would wake up.