In Training

On the down low this Christmas

Royal is here now (yay!) and to be perfectly honest I probably won't be posting much until the new year.  Not that y'all didn't already figure that one out!  We're out West with the Grandparents like always, and it's sunny and 65 degrees!  Couldn't imagine a better Christmas, but then again, I'm a desert rat.

The big thing for us this year is that we are sitting the grandparents down and recording their memoirs.  My Grandpa started in the horse cavalry, became a pilot, then went on to SAC Headquarters.  World War II, Korea, almost Vietnam.  An AMAZING career - and Grandma was there all the way.  I've been looking forward to this for months!

Y'all have a very Merry Christmas!

My angel pup

The last time you saw the little guy was in March as a tiny pup.  Well, kinda tiny. He celebrated his first birthday in November.  Since I have been drawing blanks on posts for the last few days, here are some adorable photos of my darling British souvenir.

At home in Britain


In the room we fondly called the 'mud room'


New home in Texas with big sister Poco (it's Pockets really, also mine, 6 years old)  Don't let them fool you, they are not so sweet and innocent.  Took about 15 takes to get that dang photo to send to Royal.

I mean honestly though, that is one handsome boy. 

The super fun post that we've all come to know and love: Kath gets to see Royal soon!

Within two weeks actually.  It's been three months since I last saw my baby and I gotta say I'm chompin' at the bit!  People ask me how it's been and it's interesting explaining it to them.  I think that for military girlfriends (not living with the boy) who then become wives - and then in my case marry into a completely different military - there are different levels of 'missing'.

There was the first kind of missing when we were dating each other from different continents.  That was tough, but only because we wanted to learn everything about each other and we couldn't being that far apart.  Then it just got more difficult!  We became engaged and we wanted so much to be together!  To plan things together, to plan our life.  So much to talk about!
Got married and moved in together (in Britain!).  Then, even though he'd been away training with little to no communication before we got married, he was deployed.  That was a new kind of missing because we had been together every day for 2 1/2 months and now nothing.  Again!  Not even an email or phone call every day.  I was in a completely new place, and so was he, both physically and emotionally. 
Then the latest separation.  He was being deployed again, but only after I came back 'home' to Texas.  There were lots of reasons for me to come home, but I don't think we were prepared for how hard it would be this time around!  Now he's back from being deployed - that part was pretty easy to handle - and he's in our house without me! He's sitting on that military issued eyesore-of-a couch we used to cuddle on, without me. It's hard knowing that I could be there, if only...  That's a completely different type of missing.

It all just makes this latest reunion that much sweeter.  We'll be celebrating our one year anniversary (what?!  already?!) in January -- and thankfully we'll be together for that!!  No matter that he's missed three straight years of my birthday - though I've been with him for two of his, missing the one right before we met - as long as we're together for the one year!  He'll leave not long after and right now there are no set plans to meet again.  It's crazy, I know, but that's our life! 

Just because it's fun:

Been with Royal for --> TWO years and NINE months

Been with - as in seen and touched - Royal --> About NINE 1/2 to TEN months

!!

Sponge sponge sponge. No really, we want you to.

This is what the British government says to everyone.  British citizen or illegal immigrant.  I'm not British, but I know a helluva lot of them and they would all agree.  I stumbled across this article: Pay for college by having a baby & claiming benefits, teen orphan told on the Hot Air site. 

A sixth-former whose parents died within months of each other said she was told to have a baby so she could afford to stay in school. Kirsty Oldfield, 17, is studying for her A-levels and hopes to study psychology at university. But although she works part-time at a restaurant, she does not have enough money to live on. She said that when she told benefits advisers she would have to leave school if her £30-a-week state support was not increased, they told her that her only option was to get pregnant.
....
If Kirsty were a teenage mother, she would be eligible for child benefit, child tax credits and housing benefit as well as income support.

I read it, was a little shocked and moved on.

A few days later I remembered and told my husband who I thought would be as shocked as I was.  Nope. Royal has a friend who has a little sister who got pregnant by her boyfriend at 17.  She was going to college and working a part-time job at the time.  When she applied for a council house she was turned down.  They asked about other benefits and the girl was told that she could only really get any money or benefits if she stopped working.  Altogether.  Just cease.  Cease and sponge. 

I can't even comprehend this stuff.  Neither can Royal really except that he's so used to hearing it.  I started working at 15 and Royal at 13, non-stop ever since! 
Obviously I could go on and on about the Nanny state, raising kids to be worthless members of society (like we need any more of those), why don't people stand up, the system change, why are we punishing the good hardworking people who are paying out pound after everloving pound to take care of spongers just so they can raise more spongers ..... 
But that pretty much says it all.