Today I was fortunate that our local newspaper kept us updated on the events that took place at my daughter’s high school.

My daughter got off the bus and I met her mid stride in the middle of the street. I hugged her and she said, “Mom, I am fine.” I did not let go. I literally hugged her all the way to our house…like four feet, but still. Eventually she made me let go. My other 3 children are at a totally different school but for some reason I could not settle myself until they were home. I had zero desire to cry, but once everyone of my family members were home I had to fight back tears. I was successful as I didn’t want to freak my kids out, but it took effort.

Our beautiful, precious M has a field hockey game tonight, so off she went with my husband. I could not attend as the other 3 have homework etc. and I didn’t want her to leave. I made dinner for the little ones and then as a distraction I popped back on to our local paper’s site and saw this comment…

I am angered at the lack of planning on the school boards end; the went into lock down before lunches started and then evacuated the building hours later, so there was no meals provided for children! They finally brought water out, but what about getting OTHER SCHOOLS involved to make sandwiches, or get apples,etc out to those kids! I have a call into the school board…let’s see what they have to say.

This is what I have to say…If there is choice between focusing on trying to keep my kid from being blown up and say, giving her food, I am going to go with choice A.

I am brand new to this survival thing, but I am pretty sure most all of us can survive 3 1/2 hours in 85 degree weather with just water.

It took every bit of self control I had to NOT head on down to that school with my handy dandy 9mm and save the day, but I kind of thought with the police dogs and experts I might be a bit of a distraction. So sandwiches never really came into play for me.

I in no way relinquish my responsibility or my desire as a parent to keep my family safe to anyone let alone my local school or police department, but at no time during this god awful sucky day did I wonder if my kid had a sandwich. I mostly wondered if her she was scared, if she was safe, if she wished her mom was there.

No one and I mean NO ONE can or even should be burdened with the responsibility of 100% guaranteeing anyone’s safety. It is a huge step in faith for me to turn over my kid, but even I  with my gun, extra mag, 2 knives, pepper spray, warrior mindset and ninja fighting skills can  promise she will be safe(I hate this fact by the way), but I can and will expect an effort by those who are charged with that duty. A concerted, well informed, trained effort to do everything one can humanly do. For some reason giving her a sandwich never once occurred to me.

I am not much for vigilante justice, but what this person did was cruel. It was irresponsible and it was mean. Here is the thing, sometimes evil just gets the first shot. Please for the love of god if you have to pick between stopping a bomb threat and giving my kid a sandwich, please, please, please address issue number one. After they are all home safe I will make every single one of them a sandwich, but lets get them home safe first.

Honestly, THANK YOU GOD FOR LETTING MY KID COME HOME SAFE AND WHOLE. You have no idea how much I value that blessing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

For some reason the county I live in has a higher than average number of morons. The kind that think it is funny to call in bomb threats.

Today I got a phone call, computer generated voicemail and email telling me my daughter’s high school was on lockdown due to a “credible” bomb threat. I don’t know how they deem it credible or not, but anyway.

You all know that because we had a number of these incidents last year, although not at my kids actual schools, my husband and I have been doing a lot of research into bomb threats, active shooters and how our district deals with them. Mostly we have not had a lot of cooperation, but today I got to find our first hand how they deal.

First I will say all is fine and the threat is over. Children are on their way home now. I was not scared when I got the message because in my research  from many sources to include Greg Ellifritz I have learned that people who intend to bomb a school don’t call it in first. I was 99.9% sure it was a hoax, but when your kid is not with you and there is even the slightest chance they are in danger and the last time your kid was in danger you didn’t do the right thing, it adds a certain amount of uncomfortableness. The last 3 hours have not been pleasant for me, but I was calm.

A few minutes ago I received a text from my daughter that said she is fine and on her way home and I got this from the county…

Dear Parents/Guardians:

This communication is being sent as a follow up to the phone/email message you received earlier today.  At approximately 11:30 a.m., a  student received a text message from an individual off school grounds that indicated a bomb was at the school.  Upon notification by the student, Administration immediately contacted the Sheriff’s Office who advised that the school go into lockdown.  The Sheriff’s Office called in bomb dogs to search the grounds.  Once the outside was deemed safe by the Sheriff’s Office, students were evacuated to the football stadium and an extensive search of the school building was conducted by the Sheriff’s Office with the assistance of bomb dogs.  During the entire situation, the priority of Administration was to ensure the safety of our students.  While the students were outside, water was provided to the students.  Students were provided an opportunity to have something to eat and drink before getting on the bus or leaving.

Nothing was discovered by the Sheriff’s Office and the all-clear was given to Administration for staff and students to return to the building.  Please plan to report to school tomorrow as scheduled.

Our counselor is available to support students as needed. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at

Here is what I like: I was first notified about 15 minutes after the lockdown went into effect and then again about an hour later with an update. The student reported the threat right away to the right people, those people took immediate action. It appears they secured all the children and then checked the outside area of the school. I like that a lot because Greg posted this…

There has never been a bomb threat in an American school that preceded an explosion. Every single threat in the history of American education has been a false alarm. If the person making the threat really wanted to harm the kids, he wouldn’t call before detonating the device.

That’s why I worry about mandatory evacuation policies. It’s easier to place a real bomb in the evacuation area outside than it is to hide in a school. Mandatory evacuation during bomb threats actually does nothing to protect the children, it only makes them easier to be shot or blown up outside. Many schools don’t understand the issue and in the quest to keep students “safe” actually expose them to more danger.

Once they deemed the area safe they then had the children taken to that cleared spot and continued to care for them. They took their time and did a thorough investigation of the school. Even after the all clear the students did not go back to school they were sent home.

I think this town might actually have a handle on this.

What I didn’t like: Feeling totally helpless and scared while my daughter was not in my care. Now that I know she is fine I am a bit shaky and teary eyed and I really can not wait to get my hands on her.

**Edit** Forgot to link Greg Ellifritz and since others have asked I will also include other resources we used to prepare ourselves and children for life away from us. these are also the resources we gave to the administration folks for our county schools.

A Parent’s Guide To Surviving A School Shooting

How To Survive A School Shooting

Innocent Targets

The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises

We read a ton more and also spoke with teachers, principals, the police, kids, and other parents to try to get an understanding of what was being done here and what if anything did the others in our community know about what the plan was/is for our kids and their schools are.

My spectacular weekend of fun and learning while basking in the glow of gun smoke was not to be. The sexy Marine(Ret) and I headed out early Friday morning and made it all the way to Pennsylvania before we received a phone call and a matter that needed our attention. I was more than a little frustrated, but whatcha gonna do?

Instead of shooting, shanking and hopefully punching more than I go punched, I made cheesy eggs for my kids, did some last minute school shopping, did some field hockey activities, and had a lazy lunch with that same sexy Marine(Ret).

Today I sent all my kids off to school. M is now in high school and I spent this morning as I do every first day back to school…sick to my stomach. I like my kids a lot and I miss them when they are gone. A little run to clear my head was helpful though.

Tomorrow night is my interview for the EMT course. The class is oversubscribed, so I might not make it in…fingers crossed. If for some reason I do not get selected I have a plan B, so no worries.

I have also agreed to testify at a hearing in DC. Hopefully, I will get an opportunity to share and maybe have a positive impact on helping to change the laws in DC. Fingers and toes crossed on that one.

Other than that it’s the same ol’ same ol’. Training, working, studying, doing the mommy thing. You know…living the life!

A few weeks ago Rabid Alien sent me an email and offered to read every single post I have ever written and then organize those that tell “The Story” of how I got here. I was beyond touched that he would take time out of his busy life, so that people who come here and are interested in understanding a little more about me can do so in one place.

Today he sent me his completed list of posts and Barron set up page dedicated to those posts. The page can be found at the top and it is titled, appropriately, The Story.

Thank you both so very much!!

Back to School w/ XXX Sheriff’s Office

On August 21, 2012, the first day of school in XXX County, the Sheriff’s Office Command Staff will be present at all Elementary Schools in the county to welcome students to the new school year.

The Command Staff will greet the children and assist with getting them to their classes if needed.  This will help the children learn that law enforcement officers are there to help them should they ever need help and to make them feel at ease approaching a deputy.

The XXX School System is excited about joining forces with the Sheriff’s Office to get the new academic year off to a great safe start.

That is the email I just received from my children’s principal. As some of you know my husband and I have been having an on going dialog with school officials and have been pushing the county pretty hard on doing more proactive things to keep the kids safer. I am not sure what I think of this yet, but I think it is interesting. I do like having an armed presence on campus, even if it is only for one day.

I will be off line for the next 4 days. Tomorrow morning my hubby and I are off on a road trip…final destination Ohio. Not exactly sure what we will be doing in Ohio as the sign ups for the courses are done on site. I don’t know how many people are attending or what classes we will actually get into, but it doesn’t much matter. I am positive we will learn and have fun.

As always have fun, be safe and try not to miss me too much:)

If you come to my house for dinner it is generally a pretty laid back experience. I mostly make whatever I see at the store that looks fresh or interesting. That is how I make most meals actually. We like having people over, so it’s not a stressful time for me, but this guest was different. I felt some pressure.

For one I don’t know him very well and plus I had unintentionally insulted him and humiliated him by my cat like quickness. Not to mention those couple of times that I intentionally insulted him and maybe once said something about his mother. Anyway, I was trying to make a good 4th impression. I decided to start by becoming an Auburn fan. A tribute to his beloved Alma Mater…

“M” made shirts.

I tried to get the kids on board, but they weren’t feeling it.

Step two on my plan to get into his good graces was food. I spent the day cooking.

He is not a military guy, but he showed up on time which is nice and he brought a present.

I have never had this wine before, but I did read some reviews this morning. All good.

My kids love when we have company. Even though we have a fair amount of folks over they still get excited every time. E, the question girl spent 6 hours grilling me…

E- Is it a boy or a girl?

Me- Boy

E– How do you know him?

Me- He is a friend of daddy’s.

E- Is he daddy’s boyfriend or just a boy?

I don’t really know what she meant by that, but…

Me- E, just a friend.

E- Is he a boy or a man?

Me- A man.

For the rest of the night my children referred to him as “The Man.” He has a nickname and an actual name which they know, but still they always called him The Man. Even right in front of him they would say. “Is The Man coming to sit down?” “Is The man hungry?” Still working on their social skills, however his previous nickname on the blog has been Tiger. A name I have never really liked, so from this moment on he will be known as The Man.

Truth be told I wasn’t really concerned about feeding him and humiliate might be an overstatement(didn’t happen) as well as my alleged catlike quickness, but the insulted him part is true. Its really more like light hearted banter though. Also, for the record, I never said anything about his mother. No nerves, but still wasn’t sure what to feed him.

I was told that I could make anything that did not include water chestnuts. On the one hand that is nice. Open slate, On the other hand it leaves a lot of options out there. I wasn’t sure how adventurous he was, but I did know he liked food because the the other night at the restaurant we both whipped out our cell phones and instead of sharing pictures of family we showed each other different foods we had made. He had a picture of stuffed portabella mushrooms.

I searched my recipes and decided on Braciole. Unfortunately, my butcher didn’t have the right cut of flank steak, so I improvised. I also wanted to somehow include mushrooms into the meal because The Man likes them. Braciole does not have mushrooms in it, but it’s my kitchen, so again I improvised. The final dish was more like a stuffed flank steak. I made a mixture of chopped mushrooms, parm cheese, fresh herbs and olive oil. Put a slab of flank steak down, put the mushroom mixture on top and placed another piece of flank steak on top of that and refrigerated it for a couple of hours. I then made a basic tomato sauce. I browned both sides of the flank steak, poured the sauce on top and baked for 2 hours. The last few minutes I topped off with a good aged provolone and finally a toss of fresh parsley.

It was very tender and yummy. We also had a simple salad of romaine lettuce, baby red beans, garbanzo beans, diced jack and cheddar cheeses, fried tortilla strips and a home made balsamic Dijon vinaigretteA mix of cherry tomatoes and avocado with a home made ranch dressing. I like homemade ranch because it has a fresher lighter flavor. I do use whole milk buttermilk but the herbs I add are much better than the prepackaged stuff.

Oh and I did set out a tray of shrimp, crackers, white cheddar cheese and a roasted tomatilla sauce/dip.

“A” decided to OC.

I thought it a bit irresponsible for her not to use a holster, but since they were only lego guns, I let it slide.

Getting ready to eat.

It was a very low key night of beer, food, and chit chat. The man shared that he liked California, but would not live there due to their gun laws. Kind of have to like a man that chooses his state of residence based on the gun laws.

Hopefully he enjoyed himself and the food. I did get a hug and he left smiling, so those are good signs

P.S. E just walked by and said, “Hey, that’s a picture of you and The Man”.

The riveting post…

So we are sitting there waiting for the Monday night preseason football game to start when an older gentleman walks by. I see him out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t turn to look at him until the second time he walks by. The second time something catches my attention. That something was flames.

There are 2 guys and a gal sitting at the table next to ours. I hear one of the guys say, “ummmmmmmm”, so I turn and look at him. He continues, “Did that guy’s wallet just catch on fire?”

By the time I turn back around the man with the flames has moved on. He was wondering around the restaurant opening his wallet and displaying his affection for pyrotechnics. He was either very drunk or a tad bit crazy or maybe both.

An hour or so later he comes by again. This time he is standing fairly close to me on my right side, but he is talking to the guy at the other table. The guy at the table wasn’t sure how to take him because this dude starts opening and closing his wallet again and again, flames shooting out and he is rambling something about one dollar bills and twenties. Dude at table looks to me for help, so I make some comment about how neato that was. At this point it is fairly obvious the guy is more than a tad bit crazy. He is full on whack-a(that’s my kids word). He is harmless except for the flames near all the beer, but you know, basically harmless. The man at the table and I humor the old guy for a while with ideal chit chat and polite smiles. The man was mighty proud of his skills and his ability to keep his wife away from his money. He didn’t speak clearly due to the he was crazy thing, so I missed much of what he said, but he enjoyed the attention. It was worth the 60 seconds of my time. When he left the man at the other table looked at me smiled, I gave him a wink and that was that. The only real issue was I think if the old guy had taken one more step closer to me my husband would have tackled him to the ground. Maybe not tackled, but stood up and encouraged him to move along. For some reason my hubby doesn’t like crazy drunk guys with flames standing that close to me.

Now for my mouth watering Ham Croquettes. If you don’t know, a ham croquette is a ball of ooey gooey deliciousness. I looooooooove them, but they take time to make and are not healthy, so we rarely have them. You saw my nachos, so you know I am not committed to healthy eating 100% of the time, but I like to balance out my glutton with things that will hopefully slow down the effects of the other crap I put into my body. That means from time to time I take unhealthy things and  lighten them up.

My plan was to use lean sandwich type ham instead of hunks of fresh fatty ham, part skim milk mozzarella cheese, herbs and bake them instead of fry. My husband can’t eat anything with gluten in it, so I had to substitute the flour with something he could consume. Non wheat based flour mixtures are very fine and do not do much for holding things together, so I opted for corn meal. It is a little coarser and I hoped would had a nice flavor. I didn’t know how much corn meal it would take to bind everything, so I mixed all the other ingredients first and then little by little added the corn meal.

See those little black specks? Yeah, those are not fennel seeds…those are bugs. That was an almost brand new bag of corn meal and it was crawling with bugs. CRAP was my first thought. My second thought was and it was only for a split second, well,10 seconds, 30 tops…”Can I keep the bugs in and call it survivalist training?”

Since it was the last item added and I didn’t not think my family would appreciate the extra ingredient I tossed the whole thing down the drain. It was now 6:30pm, I had completely lost my appetite and was no longer interested in whipping up anything, so…

I made my husband brots.

My kids frozen fish sticks which are never ever in my house. And I had this.

Kids ate in their PJ’s. They didn’t seem to mind.

Yesterday when I alluded to this post it was pre-the-text from my husband telling me he had invited someone for dinner. That someone is coming tonight. I am hopeful he does not read this blog post, well ever, but at least until after he leaves my house.

The good news is this weekend starts my life back into guns, knives, and combatives. Plus, I get back to work at FPF Training, I start my EMT training and if there is a god, I will be training with Arete again soon. Which means I will have more things to talk about beside what I feed my family and how much I love them.

Bad news is that I am not sure when I will have time to tell you about any of it.

Friday we leave for Ohio. We return on Monday, our kids start school on Tuesday, Wednesday we have our EMT interview with the fire department folks, Thursday night I work, Saturday is the CPR training, and Sunday I have a swim team board meeting. Then Tuesday & Thursday nights our daughter has Field Hockey games. Monday & Wednesday nights we have EMT training and most every weekend I am either working or doing EMT practicals. Not to mention back to school night for the kids, helping them with homework, laundry, running, feed those pesky children, play dates with their friends, planning the Veteran’s Day Luncheon…Fortunately for me, I have a ton of energy, don’t require much sleep and everything I am doing I love, but blogging may take a back seat for a while. I think it will be a lot more of quick little blurbs on FB and maybe Twitter if I can figure it out, but don’t count on that.

In the meantime do you wanna hear about food, family, friends…yes! Ok, good.

Last night my hubby and I met the boys from his office again. It was, as you know, Monday and there was a preseason game on which is a good excuse for a get together. We did not return to the previous establishment as that place is having a wee-bit of legal trouble. As in they were raided a few nights ago. Cops in riot gear stormed the place, corralled the patrons and proceed to search for all manner of things. The guys thought it best not to return. I will say that when I was there, there was nothing and I mean nothing that screamed seedy joint about to have the long arm of the law rain down it’s authority upon it. There were a handful of folks there all quietly chit chatting and having a beer or two. Most people were in business attire and except for me falling over in my chair(had nothing to do with drinking. I scooted my chair back and the leg got caught on a piece of floor board and over I went) absolutely nothing exciting took place. Regardless, the whole avoid stupid people and places seemed to now apply to that establishment. The boys picked a different restaurant in a completely different part of town.

The place they picked is a national chain and I have been told numerous times it is not gun friendly. I have never been there, but a lot of people have told me there is a great big sign that says “NO WEAPONS.” Can’t be missed. In general I try not to spend my money in places that are not respectful of my rights, but I am not militant about it. If other people want to go there, I will go. I care are more about relationships than I do about giving $10 for some wings to some idiot. Having said that, I had 2 knives(not concealed), some mace and my gun(concealed).

In Virginia it is not against the law to carry your gun into a place, even one that is marked no weapons. The worst thing that could happen is if the management discovered I was carrying my gun and they decided they would like me to leave I would need to do so. If for some insane reason I refused the worst they could charge me with is trespassing which is not a weapons charge and would not affect my CCP in the least. I would never refuse to leave, so no issues.

Here is the deal though…Just out of curiosity I looked up there corporate policy and didn’t find anything specific from them about customers and guns in their place of business and at the place of business I was at, there wasn’t a sign, anywhere. And I looked and looked and looked. Nothing. That is not to say that the company isn’t anti-gun, just that I have not personally experienced it.

Not much else happened except that I am exposed to a lot more things when I hang out with boys than when I hang out with women. There is significantly more bathroom talk. I mostly just listen when that comes up. I learned that if you are a man you probably shouldn’t ask someone to watch the door for you when you go to use the bathroom because if you do the other guys will be brutal about making fun of you. And I discovered I know a more about the porn industry then I thought. I am not sure how I get myself into these conversations, but one of the guys, Tiger, said that Chad Johnson could not make as much money doing porn as he could in football. I disagreed. For some reason Tiger and I often find ourselves on the opposite side of most issues(and it should be noted right or wrong, Arete always takes Tigers side). So, Tiger said, Johnson had a 1 million dollars(just straight salary here) contract and there was not a single porn star that made that much even if you include the sale of other things beside just his/her movies. We had a lively discussion about that for a while and then Arete goggled it. Turns out at least one porn star is worth $30 million. Not Payton Manning money, but Chad Johnson ain’t no Manning and 30 million is not a bad chunk of change.

To summarize…even if a place looks respectable it might not be, so maybe have a plan. When other people even those you trust tell you something, maybe check it out for yourself. If you spend any time with a group of men be prepared to hear the phrase “take a shit” a lot and accept that there will at some point be a conversation about hookers and/ or porn. I really need to get back to work.

Stayed tuned for tomorrow’s riveting blog post on how I made a health version of ham croquettes for my brood to enjoy and my short, but captivating conversation with a man who lights his wallet on fire.

I have been insanely wonderfully busy. Nothing noteworthy to speak of really just getting the kids ready for school and my daughter ready for Field hockey. M did not make the volleyball team, but the Field Hockey coach saw M trying-out and begged her to come try out for her team. The coach was might impressed and offered her a spot. Naturally, I have been trying to learn as much as possible about the sport.

Plus, I have reading and studying to get ready for the EMT classes, playing with the kids, trying to get ready for our trip to Ohio, and sneaking in a little preseason football watching.

I have been doing a lot of cooking as well. A mix of very healthy fresh summer meals and some very unhealthy gluttonous ones. This is an arugula, watermelon and yellow cherry tomato, feta salad with an orange vinaigrette.

This is a healthy version of risotto. I made it with wild mushrooms, white & green asparagus and roasted chicken thighs.

100% unhealthy. I had some left over pork shoulder, so I made homemade tortilla chips and covered those with the pork shoulder and 2 kinds of cheese(mozzarella & jack), then sprinkled with purple onion, tomatoes, & avocado. The final touch was taco sauce(not salsa) and Honduran sour cream…seriously to die for. Not only was this not good for our bodies, but we ate them at midnight with beer.

It was a late night anniversary treat. Well it was one of our late night treats. As of today I have been married to the same man for 22 years 2 days. Lucky me. Most of you already know how I feel about him and if you followed my crazy journey for the past 16 months, then you know what a remarkable man he is, so I will skip all the mushy stuff and just say, I am blessed. Very, very blessed.

I am wayyyyy behind on my blog reading, but this morning I had a few minutes to catch up on my favs. Anyone who has had read Brigid’s posts knows they are always brilliant. I rarely comment because saying “This is brilliant” gets old, but I do link her a lot because, well, she is brilliant…

“Actually I’m not, a feminist that is. Not in the sense of the word usually associated with it. I’m not going to burn my bra (except for that one that makes me look like I’m expecting an assassination attempt) and I’m not going to walk dutifully 10 feet behind my husband with my head covered. I’m a contradiction in stereotypes, a modern woman who can shoot, hunt, manage a team of a couple dozen or so ex special forces types, fix most things and survive on my own. But I’m also someone who still wants a strong rugged man to kill that spider, and understand that sometimes I can’t do it all and am going to come home after slaying the dragon, go to my room and cry like a girl. I want someone who can  read that 130 page technical report I wrote, ask me about the thoughts that went into it, then bend me like Gumby and make me forget what day it is”.

Go read the whole thing.