Movie reviews.

This particular post is reserved for movie reviews. There are some I've seen, some I haven't. I usually have to wait longer than usual to see most movies, seeing as we live in Europe. Alright. Let's get this ball a-rollin'!

- Thor: Fantastic! My husband didn't enjoy it much, he thought there were too many 'special effects'. I, however, really dug it.

- Green Lantern: (Haven't seen it yet, I'll come back and edit when I have.)

- Monsters: I was just NOT feeling this movie. It didn't even get me on suspense. Meh. I can use one sentence to describe this one: Two octopuses have sex. Yep.

- Battle Los Angeles: I, also, was not feeling this movie much. I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with the fact that alien-take-over has been done to DEATH. It was like I was watching nothing but two hours of explosions. Eh.

- Captain America: (Looks awesome, but I haven't seen it yet, either.)

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1: AMAZING! Of course, I am biased because I have all of the books, have read them a billion times and I'm a HUGE HUGE fan. I do, however, think they could have included more information. They left so many things out, that would have explained certain things. Needless to say, I had to explain everything to my husband after we watched the movie.. and he was all.. "Ohhhhhhhhh!".. haha

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2: (Only a few more days!!!!!!! LOL)

- Batman/The Dark Knight Rises: (This. Movie. Will. Rock.)

- Iron Man/ Iron Man 2: Really dug these movies! I thought they were nicely done, and Mr. Downey does a great job.

- Sherlock Holmes: Again, Mr. Downey was perfect for this part, imo. LOVED this movie and I absolutely cannot wait for the second one.


For now, that's about it. As I said before, I'll come back and list more movies, with reviews. Stay tuned!

Big heart.

I'd love to take away all of the pain, in all of the world, and it kills me that I can't.


Child abuse/neglect.
This war on women and children.
War.
Sexual trafficking/slavery.
Animal abuse/neglect.
Homeless adults/children/families.
World hunger.

I could list things for days.I try to donate at least something to each cause (small amounts of money, time, etc.) but is anything ever enough? There are still children being abused. There are still millions of children being neglected and abandoned. There is still this global war on women. Everything I despise still happens no matter how much we all try. It makes me feel pretty helpless. I can't be the only one who has such a big heart, that I feel the need to change the world. Seeing all of the hate for our fellow man just makes it worse. We see a family getting kicked out of their home and we think.."They must deserve it." I am almost ashamed to call myself human these days. We need a wake-up call. Unite and find peace. Through peace we can finally start to make differences in these horrendous issues. We need a revolution.

There will be sighs.

WARNING: This WILL most certainly contain a beautiful tapestry of profanity, or at least, a small amount.


*SIGH*

The beginnings of 'The Pissing Contest 2011' got it's start the other day. During a conversation I was having on children. First of all, let me explain what a 'pissing contest' is for those of you who may not know. It's basically the same as dudes comparing penises and saying.."HEY! MINE'S BIGGER! -other dude - "NU-UH, MINE IS!".. except 'pissing contest' is a more general term. In this particular situation, it's a pissing contest between women, and who has a more challenging life: civilians or military.

I know, I know, I KNOW. I've done this blog before. Or, at least, it seems like I have. Actually, it seems more like I've tried to explain the challenges we military families must go through to have a semi-normal life, whereas, 'civilian' families have to work hard, too..BUT they don't have to worry about deployments, raising their children mostly alone or their spouses DYING. Now, don't get me wrong, please. I'm not discounting dangerous civilian jobs. There are plenty of them. Police Officers and Fire Fighters are just a couple of good examples. I relate so much to those families, because I know what it's like to wonder if you're husband will come home alive. But, if you're spouse has a relatively normal job, I'm wondering how you think it's justifiable that you and I have the same life. *SIGH* Say whaaa? I'm not going to go into what a soldier does, because I'm sure everyone already knows. Those of you who do not know, should be ashamed of yourself. Now, if we compare your spouse working say.. 12 hour days to my husband working say.. 72 hour days. I'm not math magician, but I'm thinking 72 is greater than 12. Also, my husband can get called away at ANY GIVEN MOMENT. He can be gone for days, weeks, months and/or years. Your spouse goes to work, comes home. He can sleep in his own bed at night, have three delicious hearty meals a day and chose to ignore you and his children when he gets home in the evening/night. A soldier will literally give his life for such small pleasures. When my husband and I found we were expecting our daughter (FINALLY), we were beyond happy. We were so beyond happy that happy couldn't even touch us. Blissful may be a more accurate description. Six months in, he got deployed. Since all of you 'civilian' ladies need reminding on what deployed means: he was sent to a WAR. Bombs, guns, bullets, death, bravery. You know, the whole nine. Not sure, and don't quote me, but I've never heard of your man having to shoot at people to stay alive. I digress. He got deployed and there was a chance he may not be able to get back in time for the birth of our child. Yes, that was a REAL issue. Fast forward to my due date... my husband did make it home. I gave birth to our amazing little girl, a whole day before he had to go back to 'the sandbox'. Yes, he had to walk away and leave me and our newborn daughter in the hospital.. not knowing how we were even going to get back to the post, to our apartment. Correct me if I'm wrong but, your man brought you and your child home from the hospital and actually got to stay. I was on my own, with a newborn, for almost four months. NOT by choice of my own or my husband's, keep that in mind. He considered going AWOL because he did not want to leave us, but I wouldn't let him do that. I knew I was strong enough to get through it. And I know women who have done what I have done, I greatly appreciate you ladies (military and non). Here's where I give yet another sigh. *SIGH* This lady had the ovaries to tell me she understood where I was coming from because she had to deal with her newborn alone, too. "But, your husband isn't in the military. He works a normal job. He was still home, right?", I said. "Yea. BUT, he was working 12 hours a day!! So I was all alone.", was her reply. Really? REALLY?!?!?! That's what you're going to come back at me with? My husband was stressed out so totally and completely in a WAR-ZONE, 10,000 miles way from us 24 hours a day for almost four months.. and you want to compare that with 12 hours a day?!?! COME. ON. I changed diapers, fed her every 2 hours, burped, rocked, bathed, took her to checkups, etc... ALL ALONE. ALONE. Do you get what ALONE means? I did all of this alone. Completely. No help, no friends ( I didn't know anyone, seeing as we had just moved here.), no support system because we are in a foreign country. I did it all alone. You had family, friends, your husband, etc. How is that considered alone? There were times I thought I would go insane from all of the stress. I had never had so much stress in my life, but I tried very hard to enjoy our daughter because she IS our miracle. Mostly, because I am a very strong woman, I enjoyed it. However, there were a couple of times all I could do was cry and feel overwhelmed. Which is exactly the normal response. I'm not saying any of this for a pat on the back, or a medal, or even any recognition. I just want YOU to get over yourself and understand that you do NOT understand my life. You do not understand the military world. You don't get it. You never will.

And finally, on to what this whole blog is for... I'd like to tell you that I will not have this pissing contest with you anymore. I refuse. I know how much more challenging my life is than yours. We chose this life and we take responsibility for that, however, I will not let you belittle my strength by saying you KNOW what I have to put up with. By comparing your easy life to my hard one. Actually, I don't really know if it's easy for you or not, but it fucking looks like it. In all honesty, my life is relatively easy. I have an amazing husband, a wonderful daughter, a nice apartment, nice vehicles, a nice bank account, I'm emotionally stable. I am blessed beyond words. I really am. I also have to deal with the military. My husband has to deal with the military, way more than I do. That's one of the many reasons why that man is my personal hero. He can make his job look easy when I know it's not. He has to deal with leaving us, just as much as we have to deal with him leaving. He takes the brunt force of all of this bullshit.. for us. For YOU. For your family. For the whole United States. So, how about instead of having a pissing contest, you just be nice? I get that I'm not always as nice as I should be, and I'm not even saying I get a pass because the military stresses me the fuck out, but when I'm wrong, I appologize. I'll appologize now for any bitchy moments I may have in the near future. It's a consequence of sacrificing, it makes people bitchy. True story.