This is me in my best super hero pose.  Another absolutely gorgeous day.  85 degrees, sunny, slight breeze, with no chance of rain.  Carrying my Glock 27 in a Crossbreed Super Tuck Deluxe.

These shorts as with, all of my clothes right now, are a bit big, so the back-end sags more than is typical for me.  Even when my pants fit right, with my Glock it is imperative that I wear a good quality thick belt to keep my pants from sagging to much. Before I carried a gun, I never, ever wore a belt, now I do, almost daily.

Since it was such a beautiful day and I knew I was going to be inside a great deal, where I am always cold, I didn’t mind wearing a cover garment, so I chose the bigger gun.

I have 3 vest in 3 different colors that I wear a lot in the summer as cover garments. This is my first summer carrying, but we had a very hot spring, so I have actually worn these quite a lot. My daughter-in-law says I always look like I am heading out on Safari. Perhaps not the most attractive look ever, but it is the best solution I have come up with so far.

I think if you look extremely close to the pictures, you can see that there is something on my left side. When I first started carrying I was paranoid about not printing(showing the outline of the gun through clothes) at all. Now, as long as no one can easily tell that it is a gun, I don’t mind if people can see “something”. Again, I do not think anyone is looking at me and thinking gun.

My day was full.  I took the kids to swim team where the gun went into the car safe.  My kids are deaf which requires me to interpret for them and I have had to jump into the pool before, so I leave the gun in the car.

After swim team, I went to Tar*et, Wal-M*rt, Low*s, and the grocery store.  Then I came home to change my clothes and head to the gym.  My son needed my car, so he dropped me off at the gym. I can’t wear my gun while working out, of course, I am not leaving it in a gym locker and my car was not going to be in the parking lot, so I left my gun at home in the safe.  After the gym, we came home.  My husband was here and both he and my son had guns on, so I did not immediately retrieve mine.  I took a shower and got ready and then got my gun from the safe. I did not put it on, but did bring it downstairs to our handy dandy hiding spot, where it remained until bedtime.

About midnight my son called to tell me he and his wife were headed to the hospital and he would call me if she was in labor.  We had made this trip several times before, but the doctors always sent her home.  At 3am, he called to say this was indeed it and to get up there.  I changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, pulled my hair back and left.  I did not take my gun.

Leading up to this night, I wrestled a lot with the idea of taking my gun.  I knew it was a possibility that my daughter-in-law could go into labor in the middle of the night, so I thought about what I would do if she did.

Our hospital has signs everywhere that clearly state, NO Weapons of any kind with a picture of a gun and a big red slash through it, so I knew bringing it into the hospital was out, but I thought about leaving it in the car.

We have had some car jacking incidents here and recently several places have been held up at night.  I wasn’t planning on stopping anywhere, but at 3am, I just prefer to have my gun. I don’t mind leaving my gun in the car if I can see my car, but I am uncomfortable with leaving my gun for long periods of time unattended.  Even though it is in a safe wrapped around a steel pole with a heavy duty cord in a locked car, still, it doesn’t feel right for me, so I left my Glock at home.  My son met me at the car and walked me into the hospital. Not the ideal situation, but it worked out fine.

With few exceptions, for the next 2 days, I did not have my gun with me.

I did have the Ruger on here.

When I was 20, I married the boy of my dreams. When I was 22 I had his baby.

We were young and idealistic and well, stupid.  We had all kinds of ideas of how life would be and who our child would become.

I dreamed he would be kind of nerdy like me.  He would love to read and he would hate violence and guns.  I prayed he would be kind and loving and relentlessly compassionate.

My son, was born sweet and absolutely loved.  He grew up not loving to read so much, but crazy about guns.  I have no idea how he ended up to be so different from me.

My husband says, it is my fault.  I consciously raised him to be his own person and I willfully, made the choice to stand back and let him discover his own passions and dreams, encouraged it even.

He and I are so vastly opposite in almost every way, except that he, like me, has a spirit that is unquenchable and a love for life and family that is never ending.  He is indeed kind and compassionate and he is fiercely protective and fiercely passionate about country, God, and those he loves.

On July 1st, my baby had his first baby, my granddaughter. 

In so many ways our son is exactly the child we hoped him to be and in so many ways, he is more than we ever dreamed.

I wonder what his daughter will be become. 

First let me say thank you to all of you who have been reading this blog.  It was never my intention to try to be a blog that lots of people read, but I am really enjoying getting the feedback and seeing the numbers grow.

Secondly, let me say how gosh darn excited I am by the emails I have received on my Seven Day Carry idea.  I love that you all want to see it and that you don’t want me to wait until Monday to start.  The reason I picked Monday to start is that my 4th of July weekend is nuts.  I will probably take pics and record my activities, but I don’t think I will have the time or energy to post.  I normally write my posts at night after my kiddos are asleep and then I post later, usually in the morning before I head off for my day, but this weekend does not allow much down time.

Thirdly, I want to let you know that, That Texas Lady is having a holster give away on her blog and another give away on her FaceBook Page. So, go like her page and check out her blog.

Lastly, I want to encourage all of you who might be new to the gun world to find places in your area that you can network and grow with people who know what the heck they are doing.  The NRA is a good place to start, but I also look locally.  I belong to a regional shooting club for woman(I have not been to any actual events, but I have benefited from the conversation and socializing online with the woman). I also joined a state organization that advocates, strongly, for the gun rights of the fine folks of this state and keeps it’s members abreast of all the issues that impact gun owners. Find one in your state and get involved.   Also, if you are brand spakin’ new like me, get some training and then more training.  I am hoping to go to an advanced course in July. 

Again, thanks for stopping by.  You have given me a great joy!

Decided to carry at the swim meet. In a neighborhood I don’t know and my husband is not coming until later. Lots of little kids, so I am wearing a black cover vest. 102 degrees with no shade! Toasty.

Starting next Monday I am going to post for 7 days what I wore that day. I will also include what the temperature was that day, what holster I used, gun I carried and what I did that day.

Here is a preview…

This is me in that ever popular black shirt getting ready to head out for my day.  It is a beautiful day here. Sunny, 81 degrees with only 61% humidity.  No chance of rain!

I am carrying my Ruger LCP in a Crossbreed Micro Clip.  Personally, I am not a huge fan of this holster.  It only has one clip, which at first I thought I would love, but on me, it doesn’t work that well..  Having only one clip makes it more concealable, but it also slips down my pants sometimes.  These particular shorts are too big for me, especially in the rear.  You will see that in the next pic.

As you can see, my pants are a little saggy because I have upped my summer workout routine and it is working, so my hips have shrunk a bit.  You can also see a tiny bulge and the clip sticking out.  I re-shot the picture so the clip didn’t show, but then I realized that isn’t very realistic.  Unless I am standing perfectly still for a photo shoot, the shirt moves and without a cover garment, this is most likely how I look while concealing this gun in this holster with these clothes.

I left the house with the gun loaded and chambered inside the holster inside my car safe.  The safe was open on my seat next to me.  I drove to my kids swim team practice, locked the safe and put it with the gun inside my glove compartment and locked that.

After practice, I put the holster and gun on and went to Ta*get for supplies.  I did not wear a cover garment and was not overly conscious about “hiding” the gun.  I kept it covered up, but I did a lot of bending and lifting, so chances are most of the time it looked like the above picture.

I came home, put away groceries made lunch and am still wearing my gun.

Tonight I will head with my man and 2 of my children to their swim meet and have not decided yet what our carry configuration will be.

More to come…

I know this is suppose to be “Whatcha Wanna Know Wednesday”, but the post I am working on isn’t quite ready, so I decided to post a few pictures.

If I am able to get the the other post done, I will put it up later today otherwise, I will save it for next week.

My friend posted some pictures of her boys with their guns on her FaceBook.  I made a comment that I loved the picture, but wanted to see” Her Girl  and Her Gun”.  This is the picture she took for me.  LOVE IT!!

Last night our oldest son came over for dinner and we discussed the early events of my day to include when my husband broke back it our house.  He thought it would help my mind set if he gave me a “tattoo”, so he drew this on my chest.  I don’t want you all to think that this black shirt is the only one that I own, which is why I am not going to tell you that I am also wearing it as I type.

This is our daughter’s birthday present.  She turns 8 next month and wants a pink gun.  It is a Thompson.  It doesn’t have the bolt action which I wanted, but it is a nice little gun and I think she is going to have a blast with it.

This is a sign I bought for the Veteran’s Day lunch I chair at the girl’s school and I have decided to display it in our yard every military/patriotic holiday…Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, 4th Of July etc

This is my man and our soon to be 8 year old daughter at the Veteran’s Day luncheon.

Our Family at The White House.  I was not carrying:)  It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep my identity hidden and I do not have the time or energy to keep it up. The main reason I wanted to keep my name and pic on the down low was because of fear.  That ever present word in my life.  As I try to combat that being that lives inside of me, I take baby steps forward to confront the things that keep me awake at night or the things that keep me from doing what it is that I want or the things that in some way control my life or take away from it.  Some fear is good.  It is a warning and should not be ignored, but some fear, most fear, is limiting and exhausting, it is this demon I chose to try to eliminate.  So, there I am for all 300 of you to see.

And I am FAILING.

This morning my husband left the house with our 13 year old daughter as he always does.  I locked the door behind him and turned our alarm on to “No Entry” as I always do.  I grabbed my gun, rounded up the 3 little ones and headed upstairs.

I put the kiddos on our bed, turned on some Pink Panther to keep them occupied while I got ready for the day and went into the a joining bathroom.

When I am home alone with the kids I like to take a bath as opposed to a shower because that way I can see them and be sure they are in fact doing what I told them to do.  Honestly my kids are very well behaved and do what I say, but they are kids and why risk it.

Also, when I am home alone I like my gun to be loaded and on me.  Can’t really do that when I am in the shower and I don’t want 3 young kids steps away from a loaded gun while I am behind a stream piece of glass. This way I can have my gun in the condition I like it right next to me and still not be accessible to my little ones. Safety, safety, safety.

My routine is pretty much the same every weekday morning.  I run the bath water, brush my teeth, bathe.

This morning I had just finished my teeth and was getting ready to get inot the bath when I head a voice that sounded like my husband’s.

I didn’t panic because I knew he was gone and the alarm hadn’t gone off.  I assumed it was just the television, but I decided to go out into the hall to check it out just to be sure.

When I did, I heard what was indeed my husband calling me from down stairs.

He had forgotten his phone, so he came back to get it.  When he entered our home, the alarm went off, soooo not wanting to get shot by me, he stayed down stairs and called for me to identify himself.

Problem number one is that apparently from my bathroom with running water, I can not hear the alarm.  I will be contacting the alarm company today to rectify that.

Problem number two is that I suspected there might be an issue, but did not grab my gun or a towel.  In short, I went into my hall way to assess the situation in the buff without a weapon.

You know how they say, you will never know how you will react until you are in the situation?

Well, evidently, I react like I am in a B-rated horror movie.  All that was missing was a pair of heels, some blood curdling screams and eerie music.

Yeah, I am failing.

If you are new to guns or have been around guns for a long time I think you will love the articles on Guns.com. 

What I love about the site is that it has all the regular kind of things you would expect a gun site to have like reviews of different models of weapons and updates on the latest gun laws, but it also has articles about the history of guns and gun fighters as well as a forum section to ask questions or to just chit chat with people about all things guns.

Here are a few articles that piqued my interest:

Ithaca Model 37 ladies Stock

The Walther PPK Carried By Bond and Hitler

The Greatest Gun Fights You Never Heard

Oh and they have giveaways, This one only has a few days left, there is still time.

Go check it out.

If you have been reading my blog then you are aware that very early on in my gun life, I went to a local gun show and while there, I met a guy who specializes in Glocks.  You also know that I ripped him off and from there, we began a very special friendship.

This past Saturday he and his lovely bride came to our house for dinner.  We had a great time.  We talked about family, food, careers, our shared dreams of moving to the same state and, of course, guns.

I pride myself on my cooking skills and on my ability to spoil folks and make them feel special.  I love to plan and try to make food that the people coming over will truly love.  I was extremely excited because My Glock Guy said that he and his bride were kind of foodies.  I love that!!

I wanted to make one of my original creations to wow them, but since I was also volunteering at the gun that morning and afternoon, I decided to put pride aside and make something less extravagant.

My choice…to start, homemade guacamole and salsa.  Cooper cheese, a nice salami, assorted crackers,and bacon wrapped shrimp.  The main course: smoked bbq pork and beef ribs with my world famous homemade bbq sauce, fresh local sweet corn, my world famous salad with homemade dressing and some yummy Kiren beer, which is famous, but not homemade.

Now, I know this meal is not original or all that creative, but we are kind of known for our ribs.  People often leave our house raving about how they do not really like ribs, but ours are so delic and my sauce is known and loved by folks in counties all around us.  I thought this was a safe bet. Food that was easy to make while I had other commitments, but also pretty darn tasty.

It turns out, I should have tried to rip off the rib guy at the gun show(there wasn’t a rib guy at the gun show), because my ribs were awful!

Our grill freaked out and flamed up like crazy.  We are not novice grillers and by we, I mean, my man.  He can seriously grill some amazing grub and, of course, he has had flare ups from time to time, but this grill went rouge and burnt the wholly molly out of these beautiful babies.  We thought we might be able to salvage them and finish them in the oven.  Not so much.

I do think that might have been possible, but we talked and talked and talked and by we, I mean, My Glock Guy and My man.

The ribs were pretty much jerky by dinner time and not even good jerky, which you all know I love. It was like carbon jerky, which is quite a feat in itself as most carbon, just kind of falls apart.  Not this stuff.  This bone of black could be chewed on for a good while.

Fortunately, I thought ahead and decided to make the shrimp more of a scampi side dish as opposed to an appetizer and that way people could just skip the ribs and enjoy the seafood…NOT!

My shrimp sat in a bowl with saran wrap over them to keep them to keep them warm.  Except that that an hour later they were not so much warm and freezing cold, which turned them into nice rubber chew toys.  My French Britney, Finn, would have found them to be quite a treat.

My Glock Guy is not only an amazing Glock Guy and very sweet, he and His Girl are also very gracious. Thankfully, they  brought Se Ju.

We had never had this particular libation before, but found it to be a lovely refreshment!  My man, who rarely drinks, particularly enjoyed it.

Other than very bad food and might tasty alcohol, I learned that my night sites are not right for my gun.

About 3 weeks after I had my gun I went into a large outdoor super store to buy a holster. While there, the very nice gentleman who offered to help me told me I should get some night sites.  He handed me some sites and me, without asking a single question, bought them.

It turns out that while he was indeed a very nice guy, he was not all that helpful.  This was not the only piece of erroneous gear he sold me.  The holster he suggested sits in my gear box, unused.  I wrote about this fine, over 60 gentleman in my post Guns, Holsters, Conceal Carry.  He is my “fifth” point.

I learned from my Glock Guy is that my sites are way too long for my rather small Glock.  It turns out that my grip might not be the only issue as to why my shooting has tanked as of late.

Let me say, I am not using my sites as an excuse for my substandard skills.  My man shot my gun with those sites and did just fine, but I am not there yet.  I can use all the help I can get and if different sites can help me compensate for my lack of skills until I am able to compensate myself for substandard equipment, then I am all for it.

What the night taught me…#1 I love my Glock Guy. #2 I love His Girl.  #3 My shooting is not the only thing that has tanked recently. #4 I need new sites. #5 A large outdoor super store might not be the best place for a novice shooter to get her “expert” advice. #6 I love guns. #7 Rib jerky stinks .#8 Rubber shrimp stinks.  To be fair, I already knew #6, #7, & #8. #9 My guy is even more smokin’ hot after a shot or two of Se Ju.

I went to the gun show yesterday running a tiny bit late because once I got inside the convention center, I wandered around trying to figure out where I was supposed to be.

Luckily for me one of the first people I saw was my Glock Guy and he took me to a very nice man who had the layout for the place and he directed me to the right spot.

I found my table and met the coordinator for the organization I was volunteering for.  He gave me the low down on my responsibilities which were pretty much to tell people about the organization.  A little while later, the gentleman I was volunteering with showed up and we went to work.

The show was pretty slow.  The first show I had been to was packed.  This was nothing like that show.  I asked the head guy why it was slow and he informed me that the reason the other show was so big is because it was in conjunction with an outdoor show.  Interestingly enough, even though that show was packed it did not produce much profit apparently.  I guess the outdoor boat folks are not all that serious about their guns…fools!

So, I signed up a few people for the email list, sold a few items, and had some very nice conversations with some neat folks.

One guy came up to the table and picked up a book we offer for sale on the laws concerning people who carry and travel through the different states.  He flipped through two pages, tossed it back on the table and told me the information was wrong.

I had a brief moment of panic because, of course, I do not know all the gun laws of all the states and I was not sure how to handle the situation, so I decided to ask him if he could show me where in the book he was looking and what information was incorrect.

I thought at the very least I would be able to show the people who know and they could either confirm that the info was wrong and needed to be corrected or tell me why the info was, in fact, correct.

As it turned out he was in the section of the book that was not explaining whether anything was legal or not, but simply explaining the terms that would be used in the book.  So, I was able to explain that to him, he seemed satisfied, signed up for the alerts and went about his day.

I am a huge hit with the over 60 crowd.  I don’t know why, but older people love me.  I had several very nice conversations with people in this age demographic and with the exception of just one, I either got them to sign up for the email list, a membership, or purchase at least a bumper sticker.

It was funny because the one guy who was not the least bit interested in getting another email from another organization was not carrying his gun based on information that was either outdated or just plain wrong. He was very excited to converse with me and learn about what had changed and even though that is the exact kind of information this organization provides on a weekly basis for our state, he would not give me his email.

I also had a gentleman that wanted to buy a hat, but he only had a credit card and I knew we took cedit cards, but I didn’t see any slips, the other volunteer had left for the day, so I decided to try to use the membership form with the bottom part containing a place for credit card info.  He was not satisfied with this, so I said why not just sign up for a membership and add the hat?  He decided I was a flake and walked off.  Not good.

I asked the man in charge when he returned about the credit cards purchases of things that are not memberships and it turns out, they do indeed just modify the membership paper.  I think next time I just have to be more confident instead of making it seem like it was some cleaver idea I just came up with.  Even though I did think it was a clever idea and I had just come up with it.

When I was done volunteering I went off in search of a pink youth gun for my 8 year old daughter’s birthday. I looked and looked, but no one had what I wanted.  Finally, my Glock Guy steered me to a certain dealer.

I went on over and saw everyone was busy, but then I saw this young kid working on a computer and I asked him if he could help me.  I told him what I was looking for and he giggled.

I said, “Hey, this is not for me.  I carry a black .40 Glock.  it’s for my daughter”.

I smiled. He smiled. We were good.

He wasn’t sure if they had the nifty pink piece of weaponry I desired, so he asked.

Yippeee, they had what I wanted.  As I filled out the paperwork for my find, the young kid and I had a very nice conversation and he confessed he didn’t know all that much about guns. We traded stories of shared neophyte-ness.

When I completed the paperwork, he told me it was taking about 15 minutes for the checks to come back, so I decided to walk around the gun show and call my husband.

While I was on the phone with him, I passed some wallets that looked pretty snazzy.  My man is forever complaining about his wallet, but for whatever reason he never buys one, so I asked him if he wanted me to pick one of these up for him.

He said sure and we discussed color and other specifics, I grabbed the one we agreed on and waited because the salesman was busy.

My man and I chit-chatted for a few minutes and then I started walking and walking and walking and walking and about 5 minutes later, I realized,

I

HAD

STOLEN

THE

WALLET.

I just walked off with it.

I do not know what it is about gun shows that turns me into a criminal, but I could not believe that I had once again ripped off someone at a gun show.

If you are new to my blog then you need to go back and read my first gun show experience to truly appreciate this post.

In a panic, I hang up with my husband, returned to the booth and confessed.

Me: “Umm, excuse me, I just stole this wallet”.

Everyone from about 10 tables around looks at little ol’ me.

Me:  “I don’t know what happened I was on the phone with my husband discussing color and style and then I just walked off with the wallet”.

Wallet guy and everyone else laughs.

Wallet guy: “No problem, but I am gonna have to charge you double”.

More laughter

I did purchase the wallet, but he did not charge me double.Instead, he gave me a $3 discount because I was a vendor.  I am not a vendor, but, you know, I was volunteering at the show.

So to wrap things up, I was a little late, someone nice helped me.  I volunteered and got to share my love of guns and advocacy with a few nice people. I bought a gun for my daughter and a very nice young kid helped me. I stole a wallet and a very nice guy gave me a discount.

See why I love the gun shows?

People are just so darn nice to me!