I've joined the Dark side!

I have been converted to the dark side....of guns that is. After my last post on our increasing arsenal I had a very interesting experience at lunch one day. I had an absolutely dead morning at work. I had a four hour case scheduled that cancelled at the last minute leaving me with absolutely nothing to do except check hygiene and hope I could find a filling to do. I know you're thinking I'm a crazy dentist but I really hate just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. The hygienists were crazy slow that morning as well. I guess no one wanted to come to the dentist. Anyway, I left the practice at 10:15, ran some errands and went home for lunch. We had been out of town the weekend before so I had some extra time to try to get my house in order. I had the stereo on and was cleaning downstairs and then went upstairs after eating. I was finishing some stuff up in the master bedroom, opened our shutters and found a car parked in my driveway with no one in it! My dogs bark at anything that moves and I hadn't heard a peep out of them. I thought maybe someone was walking to the door but still found it odd since anyone I really know doesn't expect me to be home in the middle of the day. I waited a few minutes for the door and nothing. I walked around the upstairs and checked windows to see if I could see anyone on our property and still nothing. At this point I am slightly alarmed and a little annoyed. I had 15 minutes to get back to work and the car was parked in the driveway behind mine (yes, the garage door was closed). I called Eric and tried call my office to see if anyone could pick me up. I opened my garage and ventured outside with garden tool in my hand and ran to the neighbors to see if on the off chance one of their visitors had parked at my house by mistake. No one knew anything about the car. I got the description and the license and went in to try my office again. While I was on the phone, I heard a car door slam and saw a big man getting into the car. I have no idea where he came from! He pulled out of the driveway and left the neighborhood.

So, after that I decided I really needed to know how to use some of the arsenal that has made it's way into my home. Eric has gotten his concealed handgun license so his pistol is never here. This weekend we went to the gun range for Eric to show me how to shoot his pistol. It was too cold to go to the outside ranges for the rifle and shotgun. I went with grim determination and was not at all excited. For the past several weeks Eric and my dad have been trying to talk me into a pistol of my own and a concealed license. I have been trying to keep my mind open so we took a couple pistols and a revolver to the range for me to try. I am truly amazed to say this next statement. I LIKED IT! I didn't think I would ever feel that way about shooting a firearm but I really had a good time and I did pretty well. I could hit the bulls eye consistently at 6 and 12 feet. I guess all those years of dart playing really paid off. Of course since I actually enjoyed myself, Eric insisted that I find a handgun for myself. So....I am now the owner of a Walther 9mm pistol and will try to take the concealed class in the next month or two. Who woulda thunk?!?!?

In other goings on...all of Joshua's medical tests came back normal and he has been symptom free since we went in for the last blood draw! Potty training is in progress but going very slowly. My son is incredibly stubborn! I have to put him in big kid underwear and take away his pants for him to go number 1 in the potty. We haven't even ventured to Number 2 territory. I am hoping he'll start to get the hang of it. He really doesn't like not wearing pants so they are my big bargaining chip! Well, that and a couple M&M's when he makes a successful trip. All of our spring flowers in the yard have started to bloom so I'll leave with a couple of shots I got over the past few weekends

Back Patio Joshua in the Bluebonnets

Sylvester in front of the Columbines

Welcome to the gun show?

Lately my house has acquired an arsenal and I'm not really sure how this all happened. I am not a big fan of guns. In fact I have never shot any sort of gun. Not even a BB gun. I am slightly afraid of the things if I am being perfectly honest. Somewhere, I have lost control and find myself in a household with not one but four guns. These four guns have all come on the scene since November. My lovable, wonderful husband tends to be rather obsessive in his hobbies. When we bought our house three years ago, looking up how to care for a single rose bush evolved into a massive organic gardening mayhem complete with compost bin and collector in my kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against organic gardening. I tend to have a rather black thumb and admire people who can coerce things to grow and produce healthy, yummy food. It was the staggering amount of information and stuff that went with the whole thing. I think Eric owns just about every organic gardening manual out there.

I should have known I was in trouble when he started spending lots of time with a taxidermist friend talking about hunting. Eric has never really been the hunting type. He's gone out twice that I know of and didn't bring anything back with him. Both experiences have been over 10 years ago. Out of the blue (to me anyway) in November he started talking about how it would be fun to go turkey hunting this spring. I tried to be the supportive wife..."sure honey, if you really want to go" and thought it would blow over. Boy was I wrong! Shortly after the election the gun fever really kicked in. I started hearing eloquent speeches on how gun laws were going to change and we really "needed" a semi-automatic rifle for protection.....WHAT?!?!?!?!? I'm still not sure what we are being protected from, perhaps little green men? This all strikes me as very odd. Didn't you have 8 whole years to yearn for and purchase such a gun? We start on the discussion of guns and how much I don't like them. You always see the horribly sad story of how some kid got a hold of dad's gun and shot a friend, family member or himself in the process. I bring up these points and insist if there is EVER going to be a gun in the house there must be a safe. I didn't think the topic of discussion was over but three days later a shotgun shows up in my house. I am still totally confused on how this happened so quickly and think I must have been bamboozled. The point that really rankles is I wasn't told about the expensive purchase until after it occurred.....GGGRRRR!

So for Christmas, said gun safe entered the house along with an inherited rifle that materialized from my in-laws house. I had never heard of said rifle before but so it goes. I thought, ok he has a hunting gun surely the madness is over. WRONG AGAIN! After Christmas the semi-automatic discussion came up again. He went with the shot gun before because it was so much cheaper. Now he has found a way to assemble the semi-automatic from used parts. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone else? Over the next several weeks gun parts were continually delivered to my doorstep. In fact one day the mail consisted of gun parts and a prescription drug order....I have a problem with this! I am also feeling like we are under surveillance of some sort at this point. Long story short, the gun has been assembled, it works without blowing anyone up and the count in our gun safe is up to 3.

Eric's birthday was yesterday and what did he want for his birthday? You guessed it...a gun. We now add a 40 caliber pistol to our arsenal and a concealed handgun license. This I can sort of see the practicality of. In his profession, Eric comes across some crazy people. Now the big topic of discussion is teaching me to use it and getting me a license and gun of my own. Where did I lose control?

Spring in Texas

If you ask my friends, they will tell you that I don't care for the climate in Texas. I have lived in Texas longer than I have lived anywhere else but I still miss the changing of the seasons that we used to get in Colorado. I absolutely love the crisp mornings and changing leaves of autumn. I miss the days of sledding and snow man building in winter with fires in the fireplace and hot chocolate with marshmallows. That's being said...I love it when all the spring flowers start to show up here. Bluebonnets are one thing Colorado didn't have. We don't have bluebonnets yet but I have caught glimpses of color in the flower beds as tulips, daffodils, iris and crocus are peeping through the mulch. I also love the redbud trees that are in bloom in many of the neighborhoods near my office.

Our normal Sunday routine includes community group (Sunday school at most churches) and a worship service. I really love the church we go to but lately it seems like the service goes longer and longer. By the time we get home, get Joshua fed and down for a nap and start chores it's almost two o'clock and the day has gotten away from me. I know many of my friends relish the time because they can get away from their kids for a few hours and enjoy nothing but adult conversation. The kids are usually happy in Sunday school so it works well for everyone. For Eric and I it seems like it has become 4 hours away from Joshua and the quality family time we so cherish on the weekend. It didn't bother me when he was little. He would stay with us the entire time when I was still nursing him. As he got older we would take him the the nursery during community group and have him with us in the service where he would fall asleep on my shoulder and nap. Now he has to go for both sessions since he's just not old enough to sit through a service quietly. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he enjoyed going to Sunday school. I never have a problem taking him to preschool but he does not want to go to Sunday school. He cries each week and beseechingly says "please don't go, mommy." It breaks my heart. We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here so we decided to play hooky from church this morning and check out the flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. Their bloom festival is still a week or two away but there were lots of pretty flowers to see already. Joshua had a great time as always. Anytime he's outside he's happy.