Meet Jayne

This is my new truck. It is used, but it is new to me. We sold my mini-van, Rita and bought something that fits my life style now. I needed a big truck cuz we are a big family.

My husband searched and searched to find me what I wanted. I drove every kind of truck out there and liked most of them, but nothing really knocked my socks off until this one. I had made up my mind, but we kept looking for a few days. No matter what I saw or drove, I just continued to go back to the lot to look at this Ford 250. Eventually, I could not take it anymore and said, “Babe, lets go get it.”

And so we did. I would like to say that if you are in the market for a vehicle, you should take my hubby along, he is a smartie.

I know you all will be surprised, but I bonded with the manger of the used sales department over…yes, you guessed it guns.

The deal was done, the ink was dry, but we stayed about another hour or so chit chatting. It was well after 11pm by the time we left the dealership. Love this man, his boys are magazine cover cute and I am looking forward to having them come to FPF Training in the near future (hopefully).

I named her Jayne. I like meaning and the meaning of this name is from the show Firefly, Calamity Jane and our very good friend’s new daughter. The name has badassery, female awesomeness, and delicate, sweet femininity.

I will skip the whole I am sorry I have been a bad blogger and the long, long list of all that has kept me busy, but I will say I miss chit chatting with all of you. I truly think about everyone and wonder what is going on in your lives. I am very hopeful that Monday will bring a little down time for me to both read and post on blogs.

Have a very happy Saturday…I will be in my truck!

Lesson To Be Learned

I read an article today(Society For The Preservation Of Military History) written by Brandon Webb to his friend Glen Doherty. I am sure everyone reading this blog is aware of who those two men are, but just in case you aren’t. Brandon is a former Seal as was Mr. Doherty. Glen lost his life in Libya fighting quite a valiant fight.

I guess it isn’t an article so much as a letter Brandon wrote to his best friend. The whole thing is worth your time. I encourage you to read it.

When I read Brandon’s words, I felt a huge sadness. I felt a sadness for a life lost and a friend in pain. I felt sadness for what this country’s leadership is costing us…the lives of good men. I felt a sadness for all that Brandon is feeling and when I read these words I couldn’t help but reflect on my own life a little.

“Greg delivered one of the best talks I’ve ever heard under the most difficult of situations. What an amazing brother; I hope to get to know him better. His speech made me reflect on my own life choices and how important our relationship with friends and family are. I’m going to work harder at embracing my friends and family the way you always did”.

It seems to be the universal theme of regret. Most everyone no matter how rich, or successful, or average or well adjusted or hurting, or on and on. Still everyone wants more time with the ones they love. No amount of time is ever enough, of course. It is never easy to say good bye, but there are things we can do to ease the pain. The most obvious is not to neglect those we care for.

I try very hard to let those I care about know that I care. Not everyone likes it so much (not everyone like hugs from A Girl), but still I know what it is like to lose someone unexpectedly and regret is not a fun thing to live with. I do not want anyone I care about or love to ever doubt that I cared or loved them.

There seems to be hardly anything beyond love that really matters. Even though this is not news to anyone, still so many hide behind pain, pride, fear and a whole host of things that keep them from the people and relationships they actually want and value.

I did not know Glen Doherty, but from what I read he was a fine example of living his life to the fullest without fear or regret while loving on those he loved. It appears everyone who knew him knew they were cherished by Glen. What a wonderful legacy.

I hope that one of the lessons we learn from all this insanity that is happening in our world and from the loss of life is not only a resolve to fight those that are destroying what we value, but also a dedication to love those we love while we can. It probably is the kindest, most important thing you can do for another person.

 

 

 

 

Friday, Friday…

This weekend I was invited to go shooting for a good cause with some great folks (too many to list, but it’s the usual suspects) and invited to go with a friend to a conference on adoption and was invited by one of the ladies that attended the Cornered Cat training to go watch the Shooting Diva’s pull a plane I think  plus it’s my son’s 21st birthday. All good stuff, but I am not doing any of them because I am lucky enough to be working at FPF Training. Who else has that many good things to choose from?

I actually am going to celebrate with my son. John is a great boss, so he is letting me leave a tad bit early to take my baby out to dinner and buy him his very first glass of alcohol..cough, cough.

I have heard time and time again that EMT is easy peasy, but I beg to differ. I am doing well, passing the test and practicals. I contribute in class, I follow along, and I am understanding what is being taught, but I am studying my backside off. There is an awful lot of terms and concepts to learn. I spend most of my day reading and rereading as well as taking the online quizzes, doing the crosswords and listening to the audio version of the lecture on my ipad while doing errands. I am loving every single second of it, but easy is not the word that comes to mind. I guess I am just slower than the rest of you all.

If your wallet is heavy and you are looking for a way to lighten it, do not forget about the KTKC Fundraiser and the Second Amendment Foundation’s ASSAULTED film that could really use some funds. Ray sent me, along with most every other blogger a little note asking for support and I , like everyone else am happy to support this important endeavour.

The world is getting to be a very ugly place. I am not sure what the future holds, but I don’t think it is looking too good. Please do not forget about those who having been fighting and dying for our country’s values and freedoms.

Enjoy your weekend!! Have some fun and BE SAFE!!!!

 

Take Care Be Aware

If you follow Active Response Training(and if not, DO IT NOW) then you know most weeks Greg links to a few books that are offered either free or at a very low cost. Usually these books are through Amazon.com, but a while back he linked to a book by Alain Burrese. It was a free web book called “Take Care Be Aware”

It is a pretty basic guide on mind set, awareness and the like. It’s good and I wish I had something like it when I first started down this road.

Of course, I have zero computer skills and I didn’t want to bother Barron again, so when I tried to download it and then couldn’t find it on my ipad, I contacted Mr. Burrese, who answered me in about 10 minutes. He resent the link, no questions asked and I was off.

I enjoyed the book which made me curious about what else Alain had to say, so I bought “How To Protect Yourself By Developing A Fighter’s Mindset” If you sign up by email to get the free copy of Take Care Be Aware, then a few weeks later a coupon will arrive via email for 35% off The Fighter’s Mindset book, but I couldn’t wait.

Very good book. Again, I think the information is basic. By basic I don’t mean simple or unimportant, I mean critical to building such a mindset. He is cocky, but in a good way. He shares stories of his adventures and how he developed his own mindset and how he has grown and refined it since.

I think it is one of those books, like The Cornered Cat’s that I will be handing out as gifts on a regular basis. Good, solid, very useful, information presented in a humorous and  to easy understand way.

I subscribe to his newsletters, which do not come too often, but are full of good hints and insights. At the bottom of each, he makes a statement about wanting to help in our journey and that if there are any questions or concerns to contact him and he will respond. I am not sure how many times you have seen that, but I have seen it often and almost never does the person respond. I think Mr. Burrese is different.

When my coupon arrived I contacted Mr. Burrese again and told him thank you, but I already had purchased the book and enjoyed it very much. He emailed back within the hour and offered me a 25% off coupon for one of his DVD’s. The customer service in phenomenal.

He said this in his latest newsletter that focused on courage…

COURAGE

When we are aware, we know our vulnerability to injury and death.
And from this awareness springs fear.  It is natural, and we all
feel it at times.  And this is good, because without fear, we
could not be courageous.  Courage should not be thought of as the
absence of fear, but rather as doing the right thing in the face
of fear.

One fear many have is the fear of failure, which is a threat to
self-esteem.  Some will even refuse to attempt something they may
fail at, or when the task becomes difficult, there is a tendency in
some to reinterpret the task as something not really that important
and therefore give themselves an excuse to stop.

Martial artists are acquainted with this form of fear, and
sometimes the temptation to skip training, or find an excuse to stop
all together, gets the best of some and they never realize the
benefits of their pursuit and never achieve the accomplishment of
becoming proficient in their art through hard work, sweat and blood.
Sometimes it takes courage to push through the pain and continue to
train.

And by doing this, you help develop your overall character and
strengthen your virtue of courage.  This may help you be courageous
in actual defensive situations and may help you carry out admirable
acts in the face of opposition in other areas of your life too. When
you learn to tough one thing out and achieve the rewards that
determination, discipline and yes, courage, bring you, it will
transcend to other areas of your life.

Courage is one of many virtues the study of martial arts can bring
you. That is, if you are courageous enough to stick with it through
the difficult times.  If you’re reading this, I know you are,
and I know you will.

Yours in training – Alain

P.S. Have I mentioned lately how much I miss training with Arete?

It’s Getting Sporty

Challenges are being made, bribes are being offered, body parts are being ante upped.

So, here are these great guys doing a great thing for no other reason than they want to help others. I love what Jennifer says about handouts, the government and helping those in need.

I believe there are people who need help and I am a big, big proponent of helping, but I don’t think the government should tell me when and where and to whom I am forced should help. If you haven’t gotten it by now, I am not a fan of being forced into anything.

So, here is the deal, we not only have the opportunity to support our fellow bloggers, but in doing so, we are helping those in need(or at least contributing to finding a cure for such an awful disease) and also kind of telling the politicians we don’t need their stinking assistance. We can take care of each other just fine without you! That has to be worth a few bucks, right?

I honestly do not care who you donate through. Every single one of these guys is unbelievably awesome, but I like to root for the underdog and I like to see the unexpected happen and there are really cool prizes, so I am pushing for Michael. I would love to see him end this thing in at least third place, so if anyone from this blog donates through Evyl Robots page I will do a drawing for one of these really cool T-shirts(I am in love with this organization and I love the idea of helping while helping). The winner of the drawing will get the pick of a T-shirt/sweatshirt offered and I will foot the bill. It’s not much, but seriously who can pass up helping a wounded warrior?

Just leave a comment here or email me telling me you donated and I will add your name. You don’t need to tell me the amount. Any amount qualifies you and yes if you have already done so, you can still get in on the drawing.

Here is me in one of the shirts…

You Have Worth

For the past few weeks I have been receiving comments on my blog under the post “The Story” from a guy who is not only anti-gun, he is pro-criminal. I have largely ignored him because I haven’t had the time or energy to engage him, but last night he gave the full court press and he made comments that essentially said my daughter and I are worthless.

I still have no desire to address him or the likes of him, but I do want to address those of you who read my blog who might read comments like his and be deceived by them. I care too much about you to not at least try to keep that from happening.

Here is his latest comment addressed directly to me….

“AGirl, when you travel the road to my home you will not carry a gun, a knife, or even a sharpened stick. There is no need, no one will threaten you.

If you are carrying weapons, unarmed police officers will invite you to leave them safely in their care.

My children play and learn in a gun-free environment, where disputes are resolved by logic, consensus and the rule of law that is enacted and upheld by the huge majority of people.

Our senior citizens sleep securely a night, travel unhindered and happy through their autumn years.

I am so sorry that you have become a victim of violence and have chosen to use lethal weapons as a response. As i have argued, it is in my view, short-sighted, counter productive and only serves in the long run to hugely worsen a bad situation of a violent and dangerous society where fear carries more weight than respect.

Remember, if you carry a gun, people don’t respect you, they fear the gun.

Interestingly most of the comments opposing my views have been themselves harsh, personally abusive, violent in nature and empty of hard evidence supporting their cause. Emotional and knee-jerk reactions to any external view or opinion.

Other examples of this response can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremism

I will wish you well, along with the other commentators to this blog. I won’t comment further here as i doubt it would be welcomed – one final thought: to be truly free, first free your mind.”

I am not going to address each statement, but I will say a few things. One is that I did not “become a victim”. I was victimized. A bad guy did a bad thing and because of people like the commenter I allowed my mind to be conditioned in such a way that I did not defend what is rightfully defend-able. My life and that of my child’s. In addition, I am no longer in that place. I was victimized for that brief amount of time when the bad guy was doing a bad thing and I continued to victimize myself for a while as I came to grips with what had happened, but I did not become a victim and I will not allow anyone to victimize me again. I am not ruled by or griped by fear, revenge, anger, or malice. I am ruled by peace, calm and a determination to never again lay on my back and let someone do whatever they want with me. In fact, they can’t do what ever they want with me if I am standing up either. And of all things I can promise you, I can promise you this, no one at anytime, ever, under any circumstance will be allowed to harm my child again. One will literally have to kill me and that just isn’t going to happen.

“…they don’t respect you, they fear the gun” I want to be very clear, I do not carry a gun for respect or attention or power. I could careless what anyone thinks of me personally, but I also want to be clear, a gun is nothing more than a thing. I would not waste my time being afraid of an inanimate object, however, if you come to do me or my family harm, you ought to be afraid. Not of the weapon available to me, but of me. I will do whatever it takes to stop someone from being violent towards me or those I love.

This commenter tries to deceive us into thinking that he is kind and benevolent and that he wants peace for all people. That all people are equal and therefore all deserve the same treatment regardless of their behavior. Kumbaya and all that.

Here is what I want you to understand, he does not think all people are equal and deserve to live a peaceful life. He believes that bad guys have the right to kill and good guys have the right to die. He believes your life and mine are less valuable. He believes that in allowing yourself to be killed the bad guy now has the opportunity to due process(found in a separate comment on same post). In the end his entire argument is that no one has the right to be murdered, but if there is a choice between good and evil, evil should get his day in court.

Regardless of what kind of childhood or mental illness a murderer or rapist has, that reality does not make him more valuable, more worth saving, more worth defending.

As caring and compassionate people it is sometimes easy to be fooled by the idea that if the world was gun free we would all be safe and life would be full of unicorns and cookies, but it doesn’t require much effort to find circumstances where evil prevailed time and time again in no gun zones. Lets look at his example of the 2×4(found in a separate comment on same post). A 200 lb man with a 2×4 or a kitchen knife, or a brick, or a sledgehammer or a heavy lamp or rope or his bare hands would likely be a bit of a challenge for my 119 lb frame. I am not saying he will be successful in his desire to kill me, but I am saying my chances are a bit better with a tool that helps level the fighting field.

His entire argument to me is that my life has no value. That my daughter’s life has no value. That at the end of the day I should willingly give up my life and stand by and watch my daughter be murdered because in fighting back I am infringing upon the criminal’s right to Due Process. Compare that to the “Pro-Life Gun” folks who have told me day after day after day that I am valuable. That not only is it ok for me to fight back, but they showed me how to do it.

People who didn’t know me took the time to come here for over a year and say, “You matter.” For over a year, I was encouraged and supported. That is a long time. It would have been easy for folks to pop over here leave a nice word or two and be on their way, but they stayed and they helped me. I didn’t do anything for them, nothing and yet i was continually offered not only words, but actions. In their words and actions I found the strength to forgive myself, to help my daughter heal, to help other people find their own courage and to find resources and tools that, if ever needed again, I could use to defend a life worth defending. Mine.

Anyone can visit a blog and spew hurtful words, but when people call you up to offer a shoulder. When they offer to give you a place to stay for the night. When people take time from their families to take you to the range to teach you how to use a gun effectively and responsibly. When they come and find you and say, let me help you learn how to fight and kick and scratch and think outside the box. When they repeat more times than anyone should have to, you can do this. That’s when you know they care.

I don’t know about you, but when I am looking for advice from someone in any area of my life, I do not look to the one trying to do me harm for their own benefit or worse, for no benefit at all. Anti-gun, pro-criminal people have nothing positive or helpful to offer anyone except the bad guy. In following their suggestions, nothing is gained. The bad guys don’t stop being bad. The world doesn’t get more safe. The crime rate doesn’t go down. What they offer is not only unhelpful, it is dangerous. Understand, trying to take away our guns is not the most dangerous thing about their argument. The most dangerous thing about these people is that they want to affect our minds. They want to convince us that we do not matter. That we have no value. That if we were truly decent and caring people we would care more about the man trying to shove parts of his body into you or me by force than our right not to have that happen. Think about that…

You might want to think carefully about listening to and following the advice of someone whose sole argument is, you have no value, but the bad guy does.

If you get nothing else from this blog, please get this…YOU HAVE VALUE! Your life has value. All by itself your life has value. You have the right not to be mugged, raped, beaten or murdered, anywhere at anytime, by anyone and you most certainly have the right to do your best to stop someone who is trying to do any of those things to you. There isn’t a single moral, religious or statistical argument that carries more weight than YOU are valuable. YOU have worth. Not because you are a mother or a wife. Not because you volunteer at the local shelter. Not for any reason other than your life is a gift and as such no one has the right to forcibly take it from you and if they try then you have every right to say, No, not today. Not EVER!

Prepping

In my blog post about a fun night out, I mentioned meeting a woman who writes for a prepping blog. Unfortunately, I could not remember the name of the blog, but apparently she was talking about me at the same time I was talking about her and the blog host popped on over here.

Lucky for us, he left a link for me and you to check out. Here is the comment he left…

“Great story! I got to hear it from the guest who asked if you were preppers! She writes, under the pen name Momma bear, for my blog, [url=http://tracemypreps.com/] TraceMyPreps[/url]. She writes twice a month, one general topic and one that’s a summary of her families preps for the month. Here’s a link to her latest post”

Go visit Trace at TraceMyPreps and check out my new friend’s writing here.

What I enjoyed about that particular post by Momma Bear is that she writes about how she and her family have been actively preparing to be more prepared, but in the course of dealing with a mini weather crisis she found gaps in her preparedness. What a great learning tool and she used her experience to help others. Love that!

 

I Never Doubted it

As I have stated so many times people are actually sick of me bringing it up, but I don’t care…YOU GUYS AND GALS ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST!!!

In just a few short days all of you have helped push Evyl Robot into third place in the Kilted To Kick Cancer Fundraiser. In his own words…

Evyl Robot Michael on said:

“Just so you know, before you posted this I didn’t have any donations. Now, I’m in third place in the contest. Thank you A Girl, and thanks to all your wonderful reader!”

Great cause, great Robot, great gunnies and blog readers. If you haven’t joined the fun yet please pop on over and do so. You and I know that even $1 or $2 adds up quickly and can make a mighty big contribution in the end.

That Was Fun

Last night TSM, the kiddos and I went to a friends house to watch football. He is a big Michigan State fan. Anyway, he had several friends over, none of them were people we had met before. All of the men at the get-together are active duty Marines, so we are doing the normal do you know so and so and when we stationed there, etc. Very nice time.

About an hour later TSM and I are chit chatting with a woman and out of no where she whispers “Are you preppers?” Up until this point I had not mentioned guns, self defense, zombies…nothing. She said just the way I spoke made her wonder. Anyway she and her husband are and she writes for a small prepping blog. I forgot exactly which one or I would link it. During the course of that first conversation about guns, I mentioned working for John and she told me her friend is a firearms instructor and handed me her card. Turns out her friend is one of The Pistol Packing Ladies. The blog came up and she said, Oh, I have read that.

The whole rest of the night was spent discussing guns, fighting, knives, politics and self defense. She is not a women that is going to let anyone mess with her. She shared a couple of very cool stories. Her daughter is being raised to be a strong, confident, young lady, who knows her worth and is hundred percent willing to fight for herself.

Another lady there was a former police officer and she is looking to buy a gun. Lots of fun talk about that. She has actually had a bit of trouble where she lives and with a husband who travels, she is getting more serious about an improved home protection plan.

When we left the host said, well, I have never been to a party where the women spent the entire night talking about knife fighting.

The former police officer walked us to the door and said she rarely if ever gets to talk to another woman about her passion. She is a diehard Notre Dame fan and can not stand when people talk during a football game, but she said last night she could have cared less because she enjoyed the conversation so much.

I concur. They were some very neat folks and I enjoyed the evening tremendously.

Making Amends

My blog is pretty much boobless at this point and that seems to have left both Rabid Alien and MSgt B longing for a little something. As I aim to please…

I literally goggled the word “boobs” which lead me to AcidCow.com. I am off for a whole weekend of family time. You all enjoy the pics.