Not Much

I don't know about all of you, but as summer approaches my life is becoming more and more crazy.  Good crazy, but it is a challenge to keep up with all the fun things on my plate. 

My weekend didn't have any shooting plans or any plans at all involving guns.  We planned the normal thing:, work in the yard, do laundry, take the kids shopping for shorts, BBQ, that kind of thing.

Saturday evening we headed to friends' house for a birthday party.  We had such a lovely evening with our friends and their family.  Our kids all get along so well and the food and wine are always delic.  The night was winding  down and all the guest had left except for us.  We were getting ready to say good bye when the husband asked me a question.  I can't remember exactly what he asked, but that led to a discussion on parking lot safety and my friend, the wife, told us a story about a man who had approached her.  Nothing happened and if fact he apologized for scaring her and said he should have known better, still she told him, no, you can't talk to me.  She is smart like that.  My friends know about my mugging and asked a few questions and for the first time, ever, I told the story from start to finish of exactly what happened.  I have never written all the details and I have never spoke of them.  Pieces, bits here and there, but never details.  That night I did.  I got teary eyed as did they, but I did not break down.  Later that night, I wondered why it took me so long.  I had tried before, but I just could not say the words. The husband knows a lot about guns and such and we had a nice talk about things and he gave me a couple of gifts.  It doesn't matter what they were, but they are connected to self defense and I was in awe.  The items themselves are wonderful and are useful, but his heart in giving them to me, was deeply touching. 

E is getting stronger too.  She has not had a nightmare in a while.  She is back to sleeping in her own bed sometimes without the nightlight.  She does not ask endless questions about the bad guy or how to stop him.  The more tools we give her the stronger she becomes and I am seeing that strength show up in all areas of her life.  She is actually more willing to take risks in others area like school.  She has always been a good student, well after we got her caught up from not having any education at all, but she is type A and she gets as stressed about a spelling test and she does a bad guy.  However, the past 2 weeks she has been so much more relaxed both about studying for the test and taking it.  Our daughter-in-law offered to help E study for her words last week, but E said, "no, my mom gives me tips and helps me know what to do, I would like to wait for her."  The distance that had been between us has all but disappeared.  That's the biggest thing that I lost.  That is the biggest thing he tried to take from me, but there was no way in hell, I was going to let that happen. 

A quick note about the Give-A-Way. It is a week away and I have updated the prize list.  Mr. & Mrs. Groundhog have generously offered to donate a 100 rounds of ammo to each winner.  I was contacted by 2 others for prizes, but they have yet to confirm exactly the prize and details, so I don't want to list anything that can not be guaranteed. I do want to stress though, that an opportunity to get yourself trained is extremely valuable and is the main point of the Give-A-Way. I applaud all of you who have entered!!