I posted this post the other day and somehow it ended up back on April 6th, not sure why but I am re posting it!

Today I have less than two month deadline till my feet touch the salty sands of AP beach and it hits me that I have like zero time left. This is my neurotic side kicking and trying to freak myself out. Well its working.
Some hard choices need to be made and made now as to avoid split decisions we will pay for for a long time. We have two dogs, two ferrets and one cat and we have to figure out what we are going to do with them all. Monty the cat is easy as my grandma can stop by at night and feed her but expecting or even asking my grandma to take care of Koda and Kenai again is not an option. Koda's future is uncertain and that weighs heavily on me, knowing that it will be I who makes the decision on whether we get him fixed and HOPE it works (even the vets aren't so sure this will curb his "attitude problem") or to put him down. Kenai on the other we are looking at finding her another home, one where she gets out in a yard more to run and her owners have more time for her.
The ferrets are joining us in our long trek up and we are excited for you all to meet them. Luna and Amy will soon go in for their shots and papers and they will be official! The vet visit for them should not be too bad as they count as one, we would have to pay extra for their shots. Still trying to figure out if I should stuff them both in one bag or should I go legit and go with two (75 vs 150 plus cost of extra kennel). I do not think the airlines is going to open it up and let them out to check but you never know.
I am also thinking of things like traveling for the first time with an infant. This has me a bit freaked out as I do not know how Shane will do since he is still breast fed and he LIKES his schedules. I am already accepting of the fact that I will be that parent with the whiny baby stuck on a plane for eight hours. I am not sure how we are going to work it out with the restrictions on what you can carry (formula and breast milk) so the airlines will be getting a weird call to have those questions answered.
I have already started to mentally pack and with the charges we will face at the ticket counter for our bags, I am thinking bare necessity. I am going to do the math tonight and see if it would be more cost effective to send things up with flat rate shipping or just pay the baggage fee.
If using the postal service is more cost effective you can look forward to seeing boxes marked for the moose den arriving soon!
Then after we leave I have to worry about my house. We are only leaving poor Monty and while she requires minimal attention but our house can not look like no one lives here. So now I am having to pay for yard service while I am gone which was supposed to be the land lord's job. I sure wish I had family I would trust to stay in my home while I was gone!
Rental car and hotel reservations, vet visits and long phone conversations with the airlines.
Bags for travel and kennels to be bought...
Appointments to be made...
House to be cleaned and secured so when I get back the end of July all I have to do is put on clean sheets...
All this and regular life going on, like a boy turning 9!
Really?
Is he really nine?
Wow, he is almost out of the single digits!
Well that has been my whiny unfocused post and now I will quit my complaining and start doing, as time is RUNNING out!
Just know that while I complain of the things to do I am SO looking forward to seeing the HITW recreation site and am looking forward to a glass of wine on my front porch!
Anyone care to join me?

Ragged Old Flag

I remember the ice cream. It was plain old Vanilla but it tasted so good and sweet on that hot day so good in fact I barely noticed the old man sit down next to me.
I sat there kicking my feet as fidgety kids often do and he smiled, a sad smile perhaps remembering a time long ago where he kicked his feet licking ice cream.
I looked at him sideways and started to investigate the old man next to me.
He must have been really old, his skin hung in folds and looked as though it was paper thin and if I touched it I was sure it would be feather soft. I looked at his hands they were in similar shape but were covered in brown spots and I imagined connecting those dots. His fingers were curled and gnarled and resembled more claws than fingers and in those "claws" I saw he was holding something.
At this point the old man looked over at me and smiled, noticing I was staring at him. He looked back out over the court square and even though I looked to see what he was looking at, I could see nothing.
The Nebraska wind blew and ruffled what ever he was holding and it drew my eyes back to his lap. His fingers uncurled even though it looked like it was painful he smoothed over the rough looking fabric with a proud look on his face. It was an old flag dirty, torn and frayed but still folded as neatly as possible.
He held that flag as gently as one would a baby as he sat on that bench and he looked back out into nothing remembering a time far off. I asked him where he got his flag and why was it so OLD looking. He looked at me and instead of being offended by my childish bluntness and naivety, he started to tell me a story. A story about how he had become to know the flag he now carried on his lap. I look back now and wish I could have that conversation again and I wish I could remember his story in it entirety but I have forgotten most of it. What I did not forget was that his story was sad, he had been through World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War and he watched many fall but he said "Our flag did not."
I am not sure if he told me where he got the flag but in my mind now I can imagine where each and every spot, rip and tear came form.

This was inspired by Johny Cash's "Ragged Old Flag"

Feeling a bit down? How about upside down?

This issue was brought to my attention today as I looked at a few sites I support.
Groups who are against our current administrations decisions and policies are choosing to add pictures to their profiles depicting the US flag flown upside down.
Without looking up the actual causes that excuses hanging our country's flag upside down, I would have said that it was if you were in distress.
I then went on to look up the rules and regulations as to the proper display techniques for our nation's flag.
I do not agree that we as a country are at the point of hanging our flag upside down and to do so shows disrespect for the ones who have fought for what that flag stands for.
Some will argue that it is their right to express their dismay and displeasure with our current government officials by hanging this flag in the distress status.
What are you thoughts?

Angry, yes Racists, NO!

I am an American citizen and I am angry.
I am a member of the Tea Party movement.
I am not ashamed of either facts.

Everyday I read, write, learn and act.
I read current and past events in an effort not only to keep up to date but also to relearn the things I missed in my education and youth.
I write blogs for our movement describing daily my journey of rediscovering America and my government.
I act by going to Tea Party meetings and supporting our local efforts when I can.

I do not however have "hostility towards diversity" as our current administration would have you believe.
I am not a part of a robe wearing group that discriminates against a gender, race or religion. Tea Party members have a common goal to bring America back to the people and put the power of the people back to work and we are not doing this by violent means but by using the rights given to us by our founding fathers many years ago.
I want the elected officials to speak for the people that voted them there not their special interests.
I need a government I can trust in that will not continue to run us so far in debt that we have a made in China sticker stamped on our butts.
The name calling and accusations only tell me they are getting worried.
They know that America is starting to wake up and it does nothing but confirm that we are making REAL change.


Good morning America, would you like some coffee or how about some TEA?