Monica Buckles

Today while reading a mile in my Birks blog I found out that I had been tagged for this meme which originated at Christy’s Coffee Break. So here it goes:

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When did I start Blogging?

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Well I started blogging about a year ago for work, and started my personal blog about 3 or 4 months ago. Blogging on my own personal blog is harder than I thought it would be. Trying to decided what is blog worthy or not, and trying to remember that I can say what I want and not have to worry about making a client mad.

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What is my best quality?

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Wow, these questions are always hard for me its not that I’m shamefully modest its just that my mind draws a blank. I can think of a whole list of qualities that I wish I had. I guess I would have to say that I am a positive person, very optimistic, and always try to see the good in others. (that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be)

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What is my worst quality?

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I don’t think I have enough room to type it all. I’m a girl so obviously there is a lot I would like to change. I think the biggest one would be I wish I was better at showing my appreciation for others, especially remembering to tell my kids and husband how great they are. I can be a bit of a task master.

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What makes my blog unique?

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Not much, I think that I use this more as “blog therapy” more than anything else. It’s a place where I can rant and rave my crazy A.D.D thoughts.

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Now I’m tagging Devenie (welcome to blogging), Lucky Red Hen, Caroline, and just for fun my hubby Ash (because he hates these girly things).

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I’m not a really political person, but I’m a little irritated and need to vent, so if you are offended easily by others opinions this post is not for you.

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I feel that if you haven’t been to Iraq/Afghanistan, or don’t have a close family member who has been or is currently there then you do not get to have an opinion about the war. Don’t get me wrong I understand that this is America, and everyone has the right to have an opinion, I just don’t think you should have the right to share it.

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I am sick and tired of hearing people spouting off opinions about what we should do in Iraq, and thinking they are an expert just because they heard some politician running there mouth on CNN. Politicians know the very least about what is truly going on in Iraq. If you want to know the truth ask a soldier.

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My husbands youngest brother has been living in the middle east and fighting for our country for the better part of 5 years. It is an insult to him and all the other brave men and women that are fighting to say that we are waisting our time there. Any way you want to spin it you can’t say that you support our troops, and say that you don’t support the war at the same time.

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I don’t think that we should be in Iraq forever, and I would love to see our troops come home, but not until the job is done, and our troops feel that they have been successful. I (unlike other loud mouths) will admit that I don’t have all the answers, no one does.

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This has always been “The land of the free, and home of the BRAVE” now is not the time to put our tail between our legs, and run. We as a nation have been to war with other countries, and continue to have a military presence in those countries and I don’t see activists out in the streets complaining about “occupying” those countries. We are not an occupying country we are a liberating country. Think of what would happen to all the innocent people in Iraq if they were left alone to defend themselves against those who are standing in line to truly occupy the country. It is morally wrong to tear apart a country through war and walk away without a stable government in place. Imagine what would have happened in Germany if we walked away and let them figure it out for themselves, we would still be dealing with the next tyrant who wanted to take advantage of a desperate people.

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Okay I’m done talking about this and will now get off my soap box.

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Now let me start off by saying I am an eternal optimist, and my husband is a pessimist or a realist I’m not sure which one fits better. His opinion is “why try and plan a vacation, It’s just going to get ruined anyway”. I wish that the universe would stop proving him right all the time. We have not had a good vacation in forever. Our last major trip to Seattle for my sisters wedding was not a pleasant experience, but this last trip topped them all.

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We left for California to go visit my mother-in-law who was just diagnosed with breast cancer (now this should have been my first clue that this vacation was going to suck). We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning on our way home from church I get a phone call from my mom that my bio-dad died. This came as quit a shock because I didn’t even know he was sick. Needless to say this totally ruined any idea of a vacation. I spent the next few days trying to salvage a few days of our trip for my kids sake, before my hubby drove me to Las Vegas to catch a flight to a funeral.

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The few days we did have in California the weather turned cold and the wind blew hard, so we were stuck with not much to do. The highlight of our trip was while in Vegas we took the kids to see Lance Burton the magician who was amazing.

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I got on a flight to Spokane WA and had the misfortune of sitting next to a guy that would not shut up. Even with my ipod on, and my laptop open watching a movie he didn’t catch a clue and leave me alone. Instead he felt it necessary to tell me his whole life story. In the process of telling me his life story he mentions that he is on his way to a funeral, and all I can think about is “Oh please don’t let it be the same one”. Lucky for me it wasn’t.

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At the funeral I walked into a room full of people who I didn’t know, but who obviously new exactly who I was. Every time I tried to introduce myself they would say to me “I know who you are”. It was a very surreal feeling. I found out from other family members that not only had my bio-dad died at the young age of 51, but his dad died in his 50’s, and his mother died at 43. So if history repeats itself I got about 15-20 good years left. I don’t really believe anything will truly happen, not just because I’m a total optimist, but because my life style is completely different from how they lived.

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On the radio today the DJ was talking about a 24 year old that was told he had 6 months to live, so he sold his house and cashed everything in and lived it up for 6 months. Now it is 2 years later, he is still alive and broke. This made me think, what would I do if I knew I only had 6 months to live. I think I would have to travel the world, and spend as much time with my kids and hubby as a can. Of course none of us knows how long we will live so we should take the time now to live big. Like the song says live like you were dieing.

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So my question is What would you do if you knew you only had 6 months to live?

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Happy May Day. Nobody celebrates May Day anymore. I wonder why that is.

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My kids and I made cute May Day baskets, and went and hung them on peoples door. My daughter could not believe that I told her to pick some flowers from a neighbors yard for our baskets. She was sure that it was stealing, but that’s what I remember doing as a kid.

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We gave one of the baskets to a lady in our neighborhood who just had a baby, and one to a mother of 3 who’s husband has been in Iraq for 2 years and has 6 months still to go.

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My husband is from Hawaii, and in Hawaii they call it lei day, and make lei’s and hang them on peoples door. That sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe one year we will try that.

Someone reminded me earlier of something my nine year old once said (he was 3 at the time) He was about to do something very naughty when I nicely reminded him to “choose the right” he turned and yelled back at me ” I don’t want to choose the right mommy, I want to choose the left”.

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Kids are so cute, sometimes even when they are being naughty. Today is his ninth birthday. Happy Birthday Dallin!

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MIA for a few days for spring break. Going to fun and sun in socal.

OK no not really, Twitter really is a pretty cool service, but my husbands phone goes off every 10 min. with texts from his group of friends. I don’t mind it sometimes, but during Easter dinner, come on. If he would turn it off in the evenings when we are trying to watch a movie it wouldn’t be so bad, and please don’t text and drive at the same time. Well enough of my ranting and raving.