This morning I realized this: I started this blog April 21, 2010, and today is April 21, 2012.  Happy two years, blog!  

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe I just want to see something that just isn't, but at least it's something.

I got an interesting email from my Dad yesterday.  The content of the email was mostly pro-gun rights images that I've seen before, but the fact that my dad forwarded it to me was something of a pleasant surprise.  I grew up in a Catholic, conservative family.  I was always taught that guns were bad, and held that belief into my adult years.  I assumed that those teachings were the influence of my parent's beliefs.  I'm beginning to realize that people's beliefs can indeed change over time.
For me, my fear of guns was brought to light by a training seminar held at the dojo.  My instructors wanted to share their knowledge of self-defense and gun disarming with their students.  I signed up, knowing that it would be invaluable training experience.  Boy was I right!  During the seminar, my fears were causing me to rush through the techniques, creating an unsafe training environment for me and my partner.  I knew I had to face my fear to overcome it, and I began learning what I could.  Thankfully, I had good friends who were knowledgeable and had access to many different firearms, and I learned how to shoot, and bought myself a .38 special revolver to practice with.  Now, not only do I still have my revolver, but I have two 9 mm handguns (a Springfield XDM and a Kahr CM9), and my concealed carry license.  (And that doesn't even include the guns my husband has, which I also shoot.)
I thought my parents would not be accepting of my new-found hobby.  I consider training with my weapon very important, and try to do it as often as time and finances will allow.  (Ammo is expensive!) I never talked about it very much with them, but as time goes on, it does come up every now and then in conversation.  I just sort of figured it'd be another "it's fine if you do it, but not in my house" sort of thing with them, and so far, that has proved to be true.  However, if my Dad's email to me was any indication, they might actually be starting to take a real interest in what I do, and that would be so very incredible.    

Pictures from Spring.  I love the way the air smells of flowers.  

Sofie.  Such a sweet face!

 My brat cat, Tacky (short for Tacticus), being adorable.

Rukia, however, is queen of adorableness.

 My mother-in-law breeds and shows Shelties. Here she is showing Sirius Trek Raven Pride N Joy. 

 

T-Rex has his birthday in April.  This is the bacon cake my mom and I made for him.  It was standard butter yellow cake, with homemade buttercream frosting, with bacon lettering.  

Mmmmbacon.Om nom nom!

This has been an interesting spring, for sure.  We skipped winter, it seems, with very little snow this year, and relatively mild temperatures in February and March.   It's given way to many fierce storms, however.  Whole communities have been impacted with the severe weather.  We found a picture that we think was blown over from somewhere in Indiana that was affected.  If you recognize it, please let me know, I'd like to get it back to it's owner.     

The rest of my time has been spent working, and when I'm not working, T-Rex and I have been hanging out.  He's still looking for a job, luckily some temporary work has come his way, so that's good.  Still searching for something more permanent and full-time so we can get to our own place.  We have been kind of bad though, buying ourselves some new toys.  I'm all about getting them now before the political arena says we can't get them anymore.  I got a Kahr CM9 for concealed carry, and T-Rex got a Mossberg 500 pump action shotgun.  We also got a few new holsters, one of which was made by http://www.2ndamendmentstuff.com

T-Rex uses the "Tuck-It" model for his 1911, and loves it.  I think our official review says that it's a great holster, for inside or outside the waistband carry, but the sweat guard could be a little bigger...the gun's beaver tail will occasionally pinch.  It's made with great quality, and comes with a 2 week trial as well as a lifetime warranty.  We'd highly recommend it.  

It's been a while since I posted.  Life has been interesting, to say the least.  I'm working at Earth Fare, a healthy grocery chain, and that has been fine.  After the excitement of Christmas and New Years, the T-Rex and I began seriously looking at houses to buy our first home.  We found one we liked, and on January 8th we met with a realtor to submit our bid.  Unfortunately, when my husband arrived at work on the 10th, he'd been informed that he was no longer employed.  We withdrew our bid on the house, and began an earnest search for a new job.  Things weren't looking in our favor yet.  Our lease to the apartment expired February 17th, and it cost way too much for us to afford to renew for another year.  I don't make enough on part-time hours to be of any value but keep the debt collectors at bay.   Thankfully my brother-in-law and his wife were gracious enough to share their home with us, so we're not out cold on the street, but it's still not been easy.  I know it's particularly difficult for my husband...no one seems to be hiring his line of work, or looking for someone with more experience.  I've been hoping and praying something comes along soon.  Unfortunately the cut in our expenses means no time at the range.  We have to scrimp and save and cut corners where we can, and sadly, that had to go.   We treated ourselves to a dinner date out tonight, because we needed it.  Poor T-Rex hadn't been away from the house for three days.  A person can go crazy like that.  

A friend of mine had been volunteering at one of the resource centers, working with families on welfare just after the reform, explaining the changes to the system. My friend had a very frustrating job, as she saw a lot of apathy and lack of motivation. She asked her mentor what she could do to get people to be proactive, to be responsible. Her mentor replied: "The one thing, the greatest thing you can do for them to encourage them to be more responsible is to give them responsibility." 

The problem is, people rebel against responsibility. It's so much easier to have someone do the work for us, to be handed everything we want. So when it comes time to actually have to work, we are psychologically unable to. We live in a very spoiled world. Coming from just being spoiled with many nice gifts at Christmas, I want to make sure I stay focused on what's important. I like to think of myself as responsible; I understand the value of a job, no matter how difficult or laborious, a job is work, and the result of my hard work is money with which I can buy food, provide shelter, and clothing. I didn't need a Kindle, or a fancy new camera, or a few dozen ice cube trays. These are things I wanted, of course, and I am very grateful to have them, but my survival does not depend on whether I have these items or not. I want to go to Disney World again, but no one is going to just hand me the thousand dollars that is required to go. I need to work, to earn money, to save for the things I want. I'm not going to apply for welfare, I'm going to apply for jobs. I don't have all the answers; I only know that I observe more and more people expecting someone else to do all the work for them, relying on handouts from the government, becoming apathetic, unmotivated to work. That is very dangerous, spreading dependency rather than responsibility.

Merry Christmas!  We had a very good Christmas in our household.  I posted earlier that T-Rex and I had given each other guns for Christmas, which we bought in November.  The gifts didn't end there!  I also gave T-Rex an Asian-inspired gong wind chime and some reloading accessories.  He bought me a Bissell Little Green carpet cleaner and a metal S&W sign.  We were spoiled by extended families too, with a new Leatherman skeletool, a new wallet, and digital meat thermometer for T-Rex.  I received ice cube trays (I collect them), a pastry cloth, and gift cards.  My parents also gave us shelves for storage (since our apartment is lacking in pantry space).  From my in-laws we each received a Kindle Fire, I got a new camera, and T-Rex got his Lee reloading kit. That long list doesn't even cover the stocking stuffers we both received.  We are very very spoiled.
Today we're both home, so T-Rex is busy setting up his reloading press, eager to make ammo, while I clean up and put things away.  It's nice to have a quiet day at home before heading back into the work week.