Jen's Distinctive Idea

My best friend....

This is my best friend.....Smoke. We are going to the Dr today. He has a bad looking spot on his leg. I am hoping for good news, because he is my support everyday, my buddy!! I love him.

I know I need to do some scrapping, I just have had a real problem getting "into" it lately. But, I am excited because I have a new Canon EOS T3I camera. So I actually have been tinkering with that a bit , too! =) So I will eventually get back to it, I promise!

War Dogs (MWD= Military War Dog)

Well I was awoken @ 5AM because my kids' school delayed, however I was glad the phone woke me up this time. It seems, for the 4th time, that someone hacked my DEactivated facebook acct. Now why would someone do this? AGHHH, so I spent a bit of time redoing all of that, so stressful.

But yesterday I discovered "War Dogs". OMG talk about the spectrum of emotions you WILL go through when you read all of the stories. From stories of glory and pure boldness, to touching stories of sacrifice, bravery, and the ultimate sacrifice, of sometimes both lives.

There is a story of one young man who encountered an IED, and as he lay dying, his dog climbed atop him, would not let anyone near him. He snapped at the Marines who came to help, even biting one. He must protect his man, his person, his friend. This Marine died, and 3 hours later so did this MWD, this animal who had no wounds, somehow he succomed to the injuries suffered by His Marine. How? What caused this? After the autopsy of the dog, the only thing anyone could come up with is:

that this MWD, this Marines Best Friend, Protector of his Handler, died from................a broken heart.    OMG, did I cry, and goodness I am crying again! Animals that SOME will throw out like trash, may possibly be able to die of a broken heart, that their love of us is THAT stong? UHH amazing!  And shame on you that do to them unspeakable things! BAD BAD person you are!

I highly encourage you to read about them, knowing that OUR country will send them over to trashcanistan, Iraq, BUT they do NOT pay to bring them home, OMG do I ask? Are you kidding me? We leave them there? Are we THAT brutal? I am not sure, there are conflicting stories. You see I have a real problem. I become very vocal for those I feel that do not have a voice, or may not be heard. Such as the elderly, the bullied, the disabled, and yes, animals.  I get very angry, I can not keep my nose out of it. God did not make me that way! =)

But PLEASE I encourage you to go read about the War Dogs, and their handlers, their stories. You WILL go through All of the emotions available to us humans! I promise you that. But it will open your eyes to many things, it is very refreshing!

Bullies, why do you exsist?

I know the bad effects that bullies can have, I suffered thru one most of my school life until I snapped. Violence is NEVER the answer, but why is it, that adults only respond to that?  When I attacked, No I didn't even get a detention, everyone seen it coming. Why in the heck did it get to that point? WOW, to look back, c'mon.

So I have two boys, and I preach to them to NEVER bully, or tolerate it. Well did I get what I asked for. I get a call one day at work. The principal says " Mom, Elijah and I have a problem. He beat a kid up." He was suspended for 3 days, out of school.  Well when he got home, he was grounded for life, he was extremely angry, and attempted to explain, but his anger was thru the roof, and he could not form intelligable speech. You see Elijah is Bipolar, and takes medication for ragefull anger. Yes, it gets bad, very bad. I did get the "I did what you told me" tho. So I was interested to find out what his take on the matter was. However, his anger shut him down.

Elijah, other than the anger he cannot control, is a perfect kid in some aspects. You see, Elijah will not lie. LOL, even if he won't get caught, he will not lie to you. I love that about him, sometimes. I mean there are times, that his honesty is harsh, but it is pure honesty.

Well that night my father, who was meaner than a possum in a trap, called me. The man that would ground me for 2 months for not eating my sausage (gag), called me to tell me that he talked to his brother, who's granddaughter is in Elijahs class. He told me that if I grounded Elijah that he would write me out of the will LOLOLOL! I said excuse me? Elijah IS my child. He said "shut up, I know what happened" So he preceeded to tell me about it. He said that "It appears Elijah beat up the school bully, and if you don't go talk to that principal, I'm gonna go in there and make him see it the right kinda way!" OMGosh, follow violence with violence. No, I don't think so. But I did call the principal and make an appointment to see him.

Elijah and I were able to talk, finally. He said that this kid was picking on everyone at breakfast, pushing all of these other kids, pushed a kid over the table, taking other kids' food. "So mom, I did what you told me to do, I told him to knock it off. Then He pushed me. So I pushed him back. he flew into the table. " Elijah is as strong as a man, even tho he is a kid. "He came at me, I did a football tackle, he tried to punch me, so I hit him right in the face. He puched me in the arm because he missed my face, and I punched him again and his lip started bleeding, and so was his nose." I don't think he will bully us anymore. He made my friends cry, and THAT is NOT going to happen anymore." WOW..........my child took it into hos own hands to try and stop a bully. Oh yea time to talk to a principal. So I asked him "Elijah , did anyone ever tell the adults about this kid?" He said " Yes mom, everyone knew, they even seen him doing it. They would say, 'knock it off' but not much more."

So I go to meet with the principal, as this kid got 1 day OSS and my kid got 3. And wouldn't you know, right outside the door is a 0 tolerance bully sign. Now that was laughable. So after some professional education of the principal, I knew that I was getting No where. What is wrong with the educators these days? You know my son has needs, has difficulties, and you tout that you can provide all these wonderful programs, and that there will be no bullying. And here it is, right infront of you, FOR ALL TO SEE. Trust me all of the parents heard about it, and were left with mouths agape. Do you not understand that this type of thing makes us worry.

You see, there was a shooting with two young folks dying at the hands of another young person, that was bullied........it is so shameful. It does NOT need to happen. This cruelity, the meaness, it needs to stop at home, first. We need to ALWAYS build our children up. No I did not punish my Elijah for doing this, after hearing the whole story, as I continued to hear more from other kids that were there, and Elijah WAS defending himself and others! But after this I kept dropping little hints of education to Elijah, that maybe this kid bullies because his life needs to change, and Elijah, you could help him with that, You could be his friend and teach him the right ways to handle things, to NOT bully, to be nice. AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW, 4 months later they were friends. Elijah says, I told him, "I aint puttin up with your mouth, or your meanness, if your my friend, thats stoppin!" and he did mom!!!!!  SO Proud of him, my Elijah!!!!

I just encourage any parent out there to put the fire in your kids, the fire for something better! to NOT tolerate things, to want better, to drive, always have that hunger, to never stop reaching, to never settle, to absolutely LOVE their lives. Then you will have done your job, you will have raised the strongest, stablest child, that will be able to do anything. And THAT is what I hope for my children. I hope I leave them with that. TO champion themselves, and others.

Bo Bunny is here

I gotta a boat load of Bo Bunny sitting there.....taking up space! I gotta get to it and put it in the store, but I have no energy, pep to do it. So it shall wait! I have to get ME fixed! NO MORE! I have to get this for my two boys! Work on this for them. I feel so bad. Need a good Dr.

Now on to LIFE> No more computer.

my weekend emersed in "LIFE"

My body is telling me it is not happy. I had so much fun with my boys. We went camping with the doggy, in 22 degree weather. So much fun. Stayed in the stinky "huntin camper". I don't have to clean it so it is all good. However, it doesn't hold heat. So sleeping in 44 degree temps is a bit interesting, as one must remain dressed, LOL. Roll on out into 18 degree mornings, WOW. GOOOOOD mornin! Spent Sunday bird hunting, with Tut. He had a blast, my eyelids were froze to my forehead for 2 hours. Worth every minute. Then Monday we went fishing. Every bait store we stoppoed at said they didn't have any bait and asked "what the heck are you tryin to get?" I said "Listen, my kids have the day off, we are tryin for anything." I shoulda known. We froze to death for 2 hours, Nothing. So we came home and I pretty much died the rest of the day, and the kids relaxed. They had fun.

What honked me off the most............I took the camera everytime, BUT never took one single photo. GEEZ, I am so mad at myself. I still can't believe it. But that is classic me, I have no memory. SO it looks like it didn't happen.

If any one has suggestions, please, let me know.........THANK YOU! =)

To much testosterone

Mike has spent the last 24 hours readying his "hunting camper" for a one day camping trip. Granted it is only 1.5 miles away, but I have a feeling it will seem like 150 miles. You see this camper is a doosey. It was given to him. It has our kids' old bunk beds in the front where the couch used to be. There is a 'come as you are' rule, so if you have mud from stem to stern, you are fine, and do not have to remove anything. In the back bedroom, Mike and his friend have managed to force our king size mattress into it and THAT is now the entire bedroom. There is no way to walk into or around, so it basically is a bouncy room. FUN. In this back bedroom is a window. He enlightened me to the fact that it is just a duct tape window, meaning that there really is no window. The duct tape acts as the glass. The duct tape is so old and brittle that it is falling apart, it has no adhesive properties left. He assured me that he would fix this, as it going to be 22 degrees outside tonight, and you can actually see thru the tape, talk about your central air, no thank you. I need heat. Now for the smell, I don't even think I can go there, so I won't.

At least I am thankful that I can take my dog, and he doesnt have to worry about getting mud in my camper. I have a 5th wheel that has white/cream colored cabinets. It is beautiful. I keep it that way. So I guess this is Mike's camper and he is going to keep it the way he wants. Yes, I did make the comment along the lines of "now, can you imagine what the house would look like if you were left to your own devises?"

I have all boys, and I clean up after all boys, people, dog, cat, chicken, goat, dragon, hamster, bunny. I think I need some girls around this place.  Good day!

My poor doggie has been real sick. You know it is strange how animals show discomfort and/or pain. So sullen and quiet. He had pancreatitis. I felt so bad for him. It scared me, I thought my best friend was going to die. But he is back to his normal Cattle dog self. I love him, my "smoke" . Now we are going to live some life, go for some long woodsy walks, he likes those, and so do I. So away we go, oh yea, and he gets to stay in a camper, he gets pretty psyched for this kinda stuff.......=)

Discovery day!!!!

I have just figured out what a challenge is LOLLOLLOL. Yes, I am one of those people who do not read directions, instructions, or stories, paragraphs. I am very visual. I look at pictures, I do things based on the visual appeal. So I have worked and functioned as a scrapper, yes, not knowing what a challenge was. I do not have any friends that scrap, I have never been to a crop. I do not like to do things by myself but I do love this so I go it alone at home. I ask people to go with me, but no takers yet. So today is a bright day, a day of discovery. I guess I should read more, it is just that it takes so much time, time that I do not have, so onward we go, discovering! See you there! Oh and let me know if you think there is anything I could discover! I would very much enjoy it! =)

Valentine's parties, washing machine repair man, and trying to figure out my "number" that is the do lists today. My kids had the day off yesterday due to weather, so the parties are on today! My mom is convinced her washing machine does not work, even tho it is brand new. Then I need to figure out my "number" so that I may sleep at night. THis is short because I am tired of typing on this thing and I am trying to live my life outside of a computer. I need to get started somewhere, today is a good day. I shared my story yesterday, and for now that is way too much for me. So off I go. To find something exciting, LIFE!