Jeb’s “Special” Toys

Jeb’s latest favorite “toy” or security item is Achilles’ old doggy bed. It’s been torn up and eaten like an elephant (get it?) but he still loves it.

He has to have it in the room with him at all times. And during the day, he prefers to nap with it.

Even if he’s on the couch.

Yeah, I probably should let him bring it on the couch (and I don’t, really) but when it’s just a little corner like that….how can you say “no” to that face?

Jeb also has a pet rock. Well, “pet” may be a little loose. But it’s his rock.

He sleeps with it. He carries it around the house. If I throw it outside, 30 minutes later it’s magically reappeared in the living room.

It’s Jeb’s rock.

And sometimes he likes to play with it.

He is a good independent player (unlike his brother) and so it’s not at all unusual to see him dragging his toy bed as he runs through the house trying to flip it over his head, or bouncing a ball on his own just so he can chase it (not catch it, he doesn’t catch).

He also likes to “play” with his rock, trying to bounce it like a ball.

You wouldn’t think it would work out too well….

But I guess it’s good enough for him.

Needless to say, we haven’t purchase real toys for them in months.

“We need to reawaken our memories.”

Gerald R. Molen is an Oscar-winning film producer whose credits include "Rain Man," "Minority Report," "Twister," "Schindler's List" and "Jurassic Park."

He is also one of the most eloquent writers I have ever read.

Yesterday, he shared this:

My fellow patriots,

As we sit in our comfort-laden abodes, sipping our lattes or pink lemonades and either wishing the snow would be gone for another year or baseball season would start so there was something interesting to do, the world continues to move forward. But as we seek other interests, we are not listening to the sounds emanating from the world around us. If you would listen carefully you would recognize the woeful sounds of America gasping for its very breath of life and its inner soul.

Yes, the sounds are there. We just don't listen. We only hear (or see) what we want. As the country gasps for clarity of purpose, we the people figure someone or something else will come along and fix the problems for us. I don't think so. The warning signs have been there for a long time. A very long time. It is my humble opinion that, during these turbulent times, we find ourselves in the dilemma of our lifetimes. As a country we have been either asleep or just too comfortable in our own cocoons to realize the depth of our plight……

We need to reawaken our memories. Give them a jolt. Then each of us should care enough to get off our butts and do something about the crisis we find ourselves in. When we do not, we condemn our progeny to a lifetime of debt and potential servitude to the miseries of progressive lifestyles and socialist living conditions. The era of personal responsibility will be gone forever and the future we leave to the next generations will fall on our inability to shoulder the reasoning of our forefathers and the burdens of freedom. Yes, there is a price to pay for the greatness of America. Are we and will we stand up to the task and be willing to carry our portion of that burden? It is my fervent and continued prayer that we will find the resolve, the strength, the willingness and the love of country enough to make a difference.

Read the full piece here. It’s much better than anything I could pull out of my hat today.

Wordless Wednesday: Puppy Fights

Book Review: Intro to Army Life

Recently I was offered the opportunity to review a brand-new book especially for Army spouses:
Intro to Army Life, by Allison Mewes.

Intro to Army Life is not a personal memoir of Mewes own “intro to Army life” so much as it is a handbook, or a quick-reference guide. A quick scan through the Table of Contents shows brief 2-3 page “chapters” on subjects like the Soldier’s Creed, how to read a Uniform, Tricare, and USO services. Almost anything a new spouse (or soldier) would want to know about the Army can be found in this book.

All of the information Intro to Army Life contains can be found online, of course, and many of the chapters are simply a brief definition of a term and a referral to an online resource with more detail, such as the entry on R&R. But it’s nice to have a complete index at hand.

When SoldierMan joined the Army, I got probably 90% of my info from Google searching or following many of your blogs and asking questions. I would have loved having such a resource at the time, and it’s much more user-friendly than the Military Spouse Handbook the government has released (in my opinion, but then I don’t generally find government documents were written with user-friendliness in mind.)

Intro to Army Life is definitely geared toward people newly entering the Army lifestyle, but I can certainly see how I will find this book handy in the future. At the very least, I can see using it with the newer spouses in my FRG. Which may be the only quibble I have with the book. The portion about FRGs does include the expectation of top-down rankism, and to her credit, Mewes encourages readers not to pay much attention to such things. But rankism is a two-way street, as I’ve recently, personally discovered. Whether it’s top-down or bottom-up, it’s inappropriate, and if it is going to be addressed it at all, it should be addressed honestly, from both sides.

If you’d like more information, Mewes has both a website and a facebook page. Intro to Army Life is available on Amazon.

I was provided a free copy for review. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.