charlatan psychic

I have to get something off my chest, and this won’t sit well with quite a few of my acquaintances and even some friends. However, it’s something I’ve thought long and hard about, and I think some of you will agree. I am not a mom.   Having pets does not make me a mom. I admit, I refer to myself as “mommy” and J as “daddy” when talking to my pets. I am willing to call myself a pet-parent, but I cannot equate that to being a mom of human children. So often these days, especially around Mother’s Day, you see everyone sending special well-wishes to pet-moms and saying, “You’re a mom, too, just with four-legged, furry kids!” They try to say that I’m just as much a mom as all those who’ve grown and birthed a human child, that I deserve to celebrate motherhood as well. Well, I disagree. I am not a mom. I did not go through pregnancy (the thought of which scares the shit out of me, honestly), I did not give birth. Yes, I adopted my pets from a shelter, but let’s be hones...

I'm a dork. I'm playing a little bit of catch-up here to get ready for a big news post. Before we left El Paso, I participated in the Bataan Memorial Death March, for the second time. I tackled the training much like my marathon training. I loaded up my small camel bak backpack and started walking. The first time I did the Bataan, I took forever and had horrid blisters. This time, I was wearing the same pair of shoes (broken in now) and had much better results. I came in at just under 8 hours, chip time (8.5 hours gun time). I only had a couple blisters, and the worst happened just in the last mile. I felt it, but could feel such fatigue in my legs that I didn't dare stop to bandage it. I am quite proud of myself this year. I felt much stronger and faster. I even ran a bit! Once you pass halfway, you start some downhill. It was easier on my legs to do a slow run on the downhill portions. Running and walking work the muscles differently, so running a bit made it easie...

Y’all have heard me talk about Misty. She’s my BFF. Like, if we were sexually attracted to each other, we’d be married. Instead, we each fell in love with someone else, but got matching tattoos to make our friendship permanent. Misty currently lives on the east coast. That’s hella far from El Paso. She also has a baby girl that just turned 1, Sophie, my niece and goddaughter. She’s an amazing little girl. Being so hella far apart, I don’t get to see them often. I did fly out and spend a couple weeks with them when Sophie was just 3 months old. Misty has a big family. She’s the youngest of 6 and has multiple stepsiblings.  She has more family than I could ever keep track of. However, her oldest sister, Krystal, is also my friend. Krystal’s 3 daughters call me Aunt. Well, Krystal had gone back to college and graduated just this May. Misty and Sophie were flying out for it. Krystal, by the way, lives in the same state as I currently do. Actually within a day’s...

She picked out that shirt herself. It says My Auntie is Awesome. Meet Sophie Rayne Moore. My goddaughter.  I'm currently in the beautiful state of Maryland visiting Misty and Tony. I get to watch the lovely Sophie while they are at work.  She is precious. Let me start by telling you that I was more excited about Misty just being pregnant than I would ever be about my own pregnancy. I wish I could have been closer for her pregnancy, and been here for the birth, but that wasn't going to happen. So I'm here now, playing daycare for a while. Misty is taking a few days off to spend time with us, of course, but I get alone time with the baby.  Alone time with a baby is slightly scary for someone who is not a mom. I mean, a couple hours is one thing, but all day? Yeah.  So far, we are doing OK. She's figuring out that I have to take time to warm up her milk, and I'm learning that she will calm down if I put her in her swing or bouncy chair.  ...

J got promoted! Yay! His folks flew out for it, and yes, Rembrandt was there as well. He's going to be just as popular with this unit as he is with our old unit. The promotion was nice and simple, relaxed, and we bought the first round of drinks (and dinner for us) at the German Club afterwards. Just one round, so that no one gets drunk on our tab. It actually saved us a little money. Speaking of money, now that we've been following our budget for 2 months, we're noticing some savings. So we're going to stick with it, just as it is (tweeks when necessary), through the deployment. Even with J's pay raise. The extra money from the pay raise will be filtered into some investment plans, and we'll up our payments on J's jeep. We need to work on building our savings back up to what it used to be. J's deployment is really starting to sink in now. Thinking of things that I will be doing alone instead of with him, like Christmas. But I'm looking forward ...

No, not me. Sorry, big sister. I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. I'm going to be a godmom! My BFF Misty is pregnant with her first kid. Holy Crap! Misty's gonna have the bebes! Sorry. Anyway, She is pregnant, and I am super excited. Seriously, this is more excited than I would be for my own kid. Probably because I am not interested in having one, but anyway. It's still the first trimester, so don't know gender. I need to ask if they are going to even find out! Oh my goodness. I will be making a baby quilt. They already have names picked out. I'm getting either a Damien or a Sophie. Part of what excites me about this, is I can buy the kind of baby things I always think are so cool and funny, but that others just wouldn't get. Like punk baby things, and rocker baby things, and goth baby things. And the parents will actually put it on the baby! I'm still somewhat in shock thinking about my best friend having a baby. I do wish I w...