'cause its a cozy sunday night...

here is rob w/ our goddaugher eilidh. it's celtic and pronounced "ailie". no, we are not catholic and neither are the parents but godparents we were asked to be and we gladly accepted. she was born 11/21/08.

here are the kitties (who are much bigger now. when do they become cats?) in a basket that used to be in ryenn's room w/ them. aren't they cute?

ah...and here they are on another favorite spot, the top of the chair. they're wild and crazy and when sleepy quite cuddly. we love having them!

and this picture i just couldn't resist taking! look at them so cute on the couch. old dog sparky w/ his dad...it is true love between those two. :)

pot roast

attempting my first pot roast today. cooking it slowly in the crock pot. doing how hillary said so. i have discovered that, unlike rob and izsak, i do not prefer the smell of pot roast. ALL DAY LONG. therefore, i do believe that i shant be making it that often. i did, however, find out that hillary to has spent a week of experimenting with new recipes like rob and i. isn't it fun when weird things like that happen. its even more fun when your sister states she's attempting chicken pot pie and you'd just done that for the first time the night before. course the recipes never have enough seasonings and rob cooked the chicken in a teeny bit of liquid smoke and lots of sundried tomatoes in oil. yummm...i of course added more cream cheese than stated, but hey! it was fat free! and the salmon chowder we had last week was sooo good and only took two salmon patties. so here's slow cooked soups (the only way to make soup i've discovered) and weather to eat them in. bon appetit!

veteran's day

this is my vet. he served with the oregon national guard in kuwait/iraq in 2003-2004. dealing with the repercussions of combat has not been easy and is an on-going issue four years later. rob has been diagnosed with PTSD. and it is odd to actually honor a vet on veteran's day the last few years. before rob went overseas i had no interest or care about vets. my, how that has changed. i care greatly about vets now. i truly understand the sacrifices made by the vets themselves as well as their families and that is who i'd like to honor today.

please say thank you not only to the vet, but if the vet's spouse or children are with them, express gratitude to them as well. they too have sacrificed for this country. they are separated from the soldier for long periods of time. their families (especially for guard/reservists) have to maintain the household and sometimes a business as well as care for the children, if there are children to care for. they too experience periods of loneliness and difficulties.

it is when the soldier returns home that can be so hard. that soldier is not the same person that left to go to war. most soldiers have been profoundly effected by war. particularly disabled vets (mentally and physically). the role of spouses or parents caring for their disabled vet hasn't been addressed at length that i am aware of. there are a stories of a parent quitting their job and moving to the state that their soldier is being cared for in to help. they sacrifice an income and time. spouses must learn to re-adjust to a disabled vet. this is not easy, especially when the vet refuses to get help. or is struggling despite the help being given. for men, being disabled (particularly if its not a disability physically obvious) can be emasculating and relying on their wife is difficult and hard to accept. it can be overwhelming for spouses and parents alike who are thrust into the role of caregiver.

so i ask. please give consideration to the families directly involved in a disabled vets life. they quite possibly are feeling a lack of appreciation for the sacrifices they make as a result of war and what their country has asked them to do.

i do hope to honor those very people by assembling a collection of stories (past and present) of how families have managed or are managing life after a soldier's experience in war.

thank you.