The best parts of life

The best parts of life always remind me of my Grandparents.

I was in my backyard earlier this evening after a dinner made almost entirely out of yellow squash. Everything was wet because the boys were playing in the sprinkler. The cicadas, frogs and crickets were loud as hell and the air was sticky with humidity. I was slicing watermelon to dole out to the little guys, River was particularly excited. I looked around to see where James was and for a second i was a little girl again. Sitting on the back porch of my Mimi and Papa's house, after the rain having watermelon with my family in the sticky humid air, listening to the bugs..
I used to think those were the best days of my entire life.. and they were, until now.

A Few Random Things..

When i was on my way to drop off James at the hangar (I was driving down Blue Angel Parkway) and The Blue Angels flew right over us in the diamond formation.. I looked over at my husband (who was in his Blue Angel uniform) and i couldn't help but say out loud "Goddamn i love my life!"..

I stayed up late making pulled pork sandwiches and got up early to have them at the hangar for our guys (and gals) to eat before they left.. They probably weren't great because i made them last night and they sat in the fridge till 5 this morning when they got set out but didn't get eaten until 10.. But hey, sometimes taking even the smallest steps to being an active part of your spouses career can make being a military wife that much easier... and who doesn't like a barbecued sandwich??

Presley has decided that his swing set is actually a battleship and its the coolest thing ever.. Imaginative play (pretend play) doesn't come naturally to Pres and its been great seeing him sail the seas and get the bad guys for the last week.. Also out of the blue about 3 weeks ago, he started eating again.. and eating ALOT!

I have successfully grown pink eyed purple hulled peas in my garden, hopefully they will produce all summer. Ive got about 20 pods worth drying in my pantry right now and they are going to be delicious!

Was going to have James' windshield replaced but (after calling and cancelling yesterday) the guy brought the wrong windshield!! I'm like WTF.. how many different windshields could there possibly be for an 07 trailblazer?? So putting off driving to Hattiesburg for another day.. But its gotta get done because Maggie and The J-Hoff are driving that truck to New Orleans in a couple of weeks and for some reason (okay well i know the reason but don't feel like explaining it all) it doesn't dry very quickly and you cant see out of for almost an hour after it gets wet at all!!

This morning before we took James to work (I always drive him there when he goes on trips so his truck is at the house and not sitting at his work for however long) James stuck his head in Presley's room and said "alright buddy, time to get going" and Presley said "DAD I was trying to get the baby out of my tummy before you interrupted me!!".. I think by being pregnant his entire life i have warped my oldest child and here i thought i was helping him by giving him siblings!!

I discovered Etsy and Im hooked...



Okay thats enough for now..

My Dad

Jack Webster Broome Jr. .. or wait, don't you become The Second when the Senior dies? I'm not sure.. Either way, in our house he goes by Grandpa Jack most of the time now that Ive made him a Grandpa.
Okay maybe Nick made him a Grandpa first but I've always heard that its different when your daughter becomes a mother as apposed to your son becoming a father.. Either way it goes, its still weird that my Dad is a grandfather..
I have so many things in my life that make up who i am that i can thank my Dad for, so many i don't even know where to start.
I've always been a Daddies girl and i guess i can thank my Mom for that. When i was little my Dad worked off shore so when he would come home it was kind of a big deal. We would have to get the house clean and buy groceries and get everything perfect for Daddy to come home. I remember going to the terminal to wait for his plane to get in, sitting in the orange vinyl chairs, eating m&m's out of the quarter machine and getting a canned soda out of the old school coke machine. Most of the fleeting memories i have of early childhood involve my Father. I remember that he could sit me on one shoulder and my little sister (Maggie) on the other shoulder and walk around with us, i felt 10 feet tall and i KNEW that my Dad must have been the strongest man in the world because he could carry us both. My Dad knew everything when i was kid (not in the sarcastic way that most young people think of their parents but in the smart way), he still is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He had read every book i had ever heard of and been to every place i could think of. Those thoughts on my Father have influenced my life greatly. My Dad loves to read and has taught me to love reading and enjoy learning, he has taught me that its important to see things, to travel. These are things that I'm trying to give to my children.
My Dad showed me how to shoot a gun, how to change a tire, how important handwriting is. He preached to me the importance of first impressions and punctuality.. Most importantly he taught me that if i don't like something, change it. There is not a man, woman or child on this Earth that can MAKE me do anything, I have to want to do things myself..
The morning i found out i was pregnant with Presley was not exactly the best day of my life (that's for another blog). First i told James, it didn't exactly go well (also another blog) then i told my Mom and didn't get the response that i needed.. So i went to work almost in a blind panic because i knew that my Dad was going to come by at some point to stop in and see me, i knew i had to tell him.. If you've ever met my Dad you know hes not the kind of man you want to tell that his twenty year old unmarried daughter is pregnant.. But i did and amazingly enough, it was one of the best moments of my entire life. He put his arm around me and said "are you happy?" I said yes.. I think i am, not real sure how I'm going to do this but theres no point in being unhappy.. He looked at me and said "Well, if your happy, then I'm happy. Congratulations".. That was the very first congratulations i got on my pregnancy that eventually turned into the flaxen haired green eyed boy coloring at the dining table right now..

My Dad has given me alot of things over the years. Some great and some not so great but he had a hand in molding me into the opinionated, socially awkward, mildly stern woman i am today and i like who i am..

Thank you Dad, for everything. I love you..

"The" List..

Man i love making list..

Okay this isn't really a "bucket list", more like a life list. Things that i want to do, want to see, want to keep doing, things i want to happen before my 110 years is up..


5 kids, all boys if i can do it.

Have a very large (and successful) vegetable garden..

Be there when baby sister graduates from AF Boot camp.

Raise boys with table manners.

Raise boys with respect.

See the USS Arizona memorial..

Raise boys with confidence.

Raise boys without killing them.

Have grand kids one day, alot of them.

Teach James that yes, people do plan families.

Buy and RV and drive to Mount Rushmore

Get the boys closer to James' parents.

Keep moving, I think its healthy to know the world.

Teach the kids German.

Be there when baby sister has babies (she was there for me).

Live to be old, like real old.. Like a super centenarian..

Take the boys to county fairs and show them how to love it.

Take the boys to Washington D.C. and show them how to appreciate it.

Build a house with a gourmet kitchen.

Build a close relationship with my step-daughter and let her know i am there for her.

Show my kids the importance of seat belts and speed limits.

See my nieces no matter where they go in life and let them know i love them.

fix my brother.

Go camping with the boys at least once a month.

See all of our kids do at least 4 years in the service, i wish i had.

Build a house with a big wrap around porch.

Teach the boys to be proud of their heritage.

Show each one of my kids individually how amazing they are and try to never group them together.

Go on a "date" with each of my boys at least once a month..

Build a house with two hot water heaters.

have long silver pigtails..

quit smoking, for good.

master parallel parking, i can do it in a small car but the suburban is a different story.

Pass on to my kids the importance of making list..

get breast implants, big ones.

Learn to juggle.

Have and use a clothesline.

Get braces and finally fix my teeth, this has gone on too long..

rebuild an old car, preferably a 1959 Ford Galaxie 500.

Open my own artsy coffee shop.

Open my own family friendly restaurant.

Go back to No Name Colorado and take pictures, it was beautiful.

Convince my inlaws to move back to Elsbery.

Have sex with James in the woods, completely naked, in the daytime at least twice a year every year until i die, even when I'm a supercentenarian.

Be on a Jury.

Buy Hattiesburg High a bench or something with the inscription "Brandy B. dropped out of this school and can still afford this bench".

Take the kids to the statue of liberty in aforementioned RV.

Always be able to find and/or call A&J Furniture.. Theyre prices cant be beat.

Watch all 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the total eclipse of the sun that will be on August 21st 2017.

Get back in that RV and see all 50 states.. except Hawaii because we'd all drown trying to get there in the RV..

Fly to Hawaii.

Learn to say the alphabet backwards really, really fast.

Teach the boys that dreams don't mean anything until you follow them and money is worthless until you spend it.

Stay out of debt..

Pay for one of those operation smile kids..

See the Northern lights.

Learn to play the bagpipes.

Be able to let the boys go when its time for them to grow up..

Live as simply as i can. Pay the bills, buy the groceries and smile often.

Always remind people to wear their seat belts.

Take pictures and order prints. Its so much more fun to go through a box of old pictures than it is to email and attachment.

Bury a time capsule deep in the woods (somewhere like state forest, protected lands) no where near the roads and write down the gps coordinates. Put those in a safe deposit box and leave the key for my first great grandchild.

Learn to throw a boomerang and then teach the kids to do it.

Get a two hundred pound, ultra lazy dog. Name him Forrest.

Makes the kids bathe Forrest once a week.

Go to the Olympics!!

Learn to surf (also get over ridiculous fear of the ocean).

skydive barefoot.

Walk the Great Wall with all of our kids... (and maybe by then Grandkids)

Research my ancestry on my Dad's side.. Other than they're all dead, i don't know anything about them.

Catch up on laundry..

Take my kids to redbluff.

When i have that house of my dreams with its gourmet kitchen and wrap around porch. I want it to have an outside shower. Maybe on a deck off of my bedroom. Hot and cold water, with a drain so i can shower outside because showering outside is amazing..

Never, NEVER stop being proud of who and what i am because it may offend someone else. This is my life, not yours.. The world never stopped spinning for me..

My ever expanding brood

So Wilson is almost a year old and our family is coming to a crossroads.
I'll explain.
When Presley turned a year old we got pregnant with River. When River turned a year old (plus a few months waiting for James to get off deployment) we had Wilson. Now Wilson is almost a year old and we're going back and forth.. Okay I'm going back and forth, James is okay with whatever, on whether or not to have another one or to just be done all together..
For some folks the timing or spacing of children may not be that important, to us it is.. We want them to be close together, for a lot of reasons..
The first and foremost being I want my kids to be close.. We're a military family and because of that every few years my children will be asked to pack up their lives. Say goodbye to everyone they know. Move somewhere new and start completely over. At the very least i can give them siblings who are close in age who are going through the same thing, someone they can relate to.
Secondly i don't want to do this forever. I don't want to always have cribs and highchairs and baby gates and elastic waist jeans. I want to have the baby making chapter finished and not bookmarked to come back to later. I don't want to have a 16 year old, a 14 year old, a 12 years old and a baby on the breast. If I'm doing this now I'm going to do it all the way.
Which brings my to my next point. Another one?
I know that some folks are intensely anti-big family. They want their 1.6 kids and that's all. Well that's not what James and I came from. Both of our Mothers are from ridiculous Catholic families with 3 dozen kids (okay maybe not 3 dozen but my grandparents had 9 and James' grandparents had 7). We both have huge extended families with lots of kids, grand kids and now great grand kids and being a part of a family like that is only something you can understand if its something you live. When i was younger i looked forward to family holidays all year long. Seeing all of my cousins, aunts, uncles and wiener dogs. Everybody eating together, hugging, laughing and crying. Ever body being close to celebrate the good times and everybody being close to get us through the hard times. A big family is a beautiful thing and the older James and I get the more we start to look toward the future. What do we want in our lives 10, 20 and 50 years from now. Is it a retirement community in Boca or is it rocking chairs and pipe tobacco on a big back porch while are grandchildren running in the yard.. Well i have a fondness for pipe tobacco and if i want more than 2 grand kids I'm going to need more than one child.. Besides 4 kids is not what I think of as a big family, its a medium family..
Now like I've said, I'm going back and forth on this but this seems to be a good time for it. We've got 2.5 years (at least) left here. I wont be going to school for another 3 years or so. I haven't packed up the highchairs, cribs, baby gates or elastic waist jeans (eh) and i know if i do put these things away, I'm likely to never pull them out again..
So that is where things stand... I am back on my vitamins and taking folic acid and I've got a Dr's appointment in two weeks to make sure I'm healthy and everything is still working the way it should.. Its a big step but its one I'm very comfortable with..
More to come on this subject later..

No Thanks on the Jesus Meat..

Okay so i posted a link to a story about a teacher who's been fired twice from public schools for leading prayer in the classroom and the comments led to some christians acting ver unchristianly..
Have fun explaining that one to your "god".. yea because your gonna meet him someday.
Remember folks that the same people that taught you about god also taught you about santa claus and the easter bunny.. Stop being sheep and learn to think for yourselves. You know, use those brain cells that you have and actually produce a rational thought..
Stop attacking non believers to feel better about yourself. Really who are you trying to convince of your faith, me or you?
I never said that its absurd that we even let christians vote and teach in public schools (even though thats how i feel because you people are clearly luney), i just posted a link..
So feel how you want, i dont care. Nothing you can say is going to change what i think or how i choose to raise my family. I dont have to be threatened by eternal damnation to be a good person. I make that choice on my own everyday..
Relegion (whether yours or something you find totally absurd) is relegion and all it boils down to is what people came up with to answer questions before we figured out science..
Now i like my life. I have three beautiful (and matching) children. I have an amazing husband who found me good enough to marry. I wake up everyday and fall in love with everything i have and i feel satisfied with my life, I DONT wake up everyday and feel the need to thank some cosmic jew zombie for everything that I have accomplished. Im a big girl and i can do things on my own..

Now i would say that im sorry for being offensive but really, Im not.. At All! Its that old christian double standard. Everything i think is just plain mean and Im supposed to feel bad about that but i have to grin and bare it everytime somebody says they will pray for me? Dont waste your breath, Im good. Ive already met my makers, their names are Jack and MartyAnn and they made me on the hood of a 74 Ford Galaxie..

really... its not that hard

Okay this blog is a bitch..

If your tired of people thinking your a slut, stop going to the bar and having sex with strangers.

If you want your kids to stop being terrible, stand up to them. Theyre children and they need to be disciplined.

Im sorry that your life is SOOOOO hard because your a single Mom. Well guess what, its not the victorian age anymore and pregnancy is avoidable. Use birth control and wear condoms..

Breaking the law is illegal.. Tough.

If your tired of being fat, stand up. No seriously, stand up and run in place for an hour.

If your tired of your kids being fat, turn off the goddamned TV.

If you find this offensive you need to grow up, put your big boy pants on and move out of your parents house...