Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

It has definitely been a banner year for me, well, me, Chris and Andrea. We came off of 2011 with the loss of our beloved Aussie, Draco in November to foster a soldier's dog in January. Angel was not allowed to go home to Korea (where she was born) with her family who was being relocated there because she lacked a blood titer. We fostered her for two and a half months, getting her the necessary titer and shots; getting the proper sized kennel and finally getting the necessary passage and escort to get home. We could not have done it without the help of many friends and their friends and of course, United Airlines who waived the normal fees to get her home to her soldier and family. My many thanks to Sandra, Janet, Christopher, the Air Race family, James Bear Branch Animal Hospital and Home Again for getting her back to her family. I am sure that there were so many, many more who were in the background that helped with this endeavor, God knows who you are and I'm sure that He ...

So, here it is day four of being here helping out Beth with the kids after her surgery. For those of you who didn't know, she had to have a small gravel pit taken out, more commonly known as her gall bladder. Since this is a surgery, outpatient yes, but surgery nonetheless, she is not allowed to lift more than ten pounds.....both of the babies are over ten pounds. Plus for Grandma, minus for Mama. Anyway, what she didn't tell me on the phone is that I was going to experience my first Super Typhoon. I have to say, right now, after having experienced first Katrina and then Ike, I'm not impressed. For the moment there's just a lot of wind and rain, but I understand that in less than two hours the main nastiness of the typhoon will be hitting our corner of the Island. I have been watching this storm, which is at this point seven hundred miles wide and a category 4 storm, on the satellite. Its a slow moving storm that seems to have stayed steady the entire time its been mo...

I promise, I will never scoff at folks complaining about jet lag again. As I am typing, it is now quarter to one in the morning and I'm wide-stinking-awake. Go figure. So, to recap yesterday. I got practically zero sleep the night before because now I have this weird thing that if I have an alarm set for myself, I won't sleep right. I haven't figured it out yet, maybe its something deep in the memory banks that hates alarms and knows that it is my deepest desire to take a sledge hammer to any alarm clock that is meant to wake me from my peaceful slumber. I don't know. The funky thing is, if the alarm is set for someone else, I could care less and will sleep like a baby. Hmm, I can't figure this one out. Anyway, so no sleep from the night before equals mass quantities of deeply strong coffee to stay coherent enough to make it onto the planes to bring me home, so we stop at Starbucks on the way to the airport in Okinawa. Their idea of venti is roughly the size of ...

Well, this is my last full day on the island of Okinawa and I just wanted to share with you some of my observations. First, in cas e you missed it , if a button or lever is in a language that you don't understand, don't push it ! Not only will it irritate the Okinawans, but you may not survive the experience if you are touring with family. I barely made it out of the Aquarium with my life after my button pushing experience! Just kidding! Seriously, unless you know what you're pushing, don't push i t. On another no te, a trip to th e   Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium  is a must see. Not only do you get to see a dolphin show with real and bottle-nosed dolphins, but they have a massive 7500 gallon tank made of 27 inch plexiglass that houses not one, not two, but three whale sharks, stingrays and manta rays, tuna and bonita, as well as a host of other fish. There is also a tank of sharks that houses tiger, bull shark and a couple of other species of shark that at the moment I c...

You've got to love it when the forecast says "73 with light rain" and its raining buckets of cats and dogs! Visibility right now is less than a half a mile and the wind is making the rain look worse. Add into the fact that moods tend to match the weather and there you have it! Lol! Actually, most everyone is good, Little Monkey is having issues. Let me expound on this. Last night there was this hideous sounding motorcycle that sounded like it was on its last bit of rubber that sputtered its way by Beth's apartment. I was sleeping really very light last night for some reason, but I was totally twisted up in the blanket that was on me. When that whiny thing went by, I was jolted from sleep and so was Monkey. By the time I untangled myself, mama was already there to the rescue. A couple of hours later, the wind and rain were pounding so hard I thought we might lose the roof. Again, Monkey woke up; again I was twisted up in my blanket, but this time I was trying to unw...

So, here I am at 26808 feet…. I cannot believe how excited I am to be stuck on a flying metal tube for 13 hours! I have been blessed to be seated in Business First and let me tell you! WOW! I have my own personal video screen to watch whatever I want on…I can watch cartoons if I so desire! Hmmm…..I wonder if they have Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner. Lol! Anyway, right now I have the flight map cycling on my screen so that I can see where I’m going and how I’m getting there. It looks as if we are going to be heading west over the Pacific into Narita. With any luck at all I will be able to get a few shots of Tokyo itself and my biggest hope is to get some amazing shots of Mt. Fuji . Having been born into, brought up in, worked in and now married to the airline industry I rarely am surprised by anything that they come up with on these aircraft. The sheer fact that I am able to use my laptop, even if it is without wi-fi, is amazing. I remember when all you had to entertain you wa...

OK, I couldn't come up with anything clever today for my title because everything that came to mind was sound effects! I am absolutely abuzz with anticipation right now, my foot won't stop moving and this is even before one cup of coffee has been even halfway drank. Praise God that I only have my carry-on to pack now because I would probably forget half of what I want to take with me. Part of the problem, though, happens to be a hole in the eaves of my roof. Apparently, I want to think cats and not coons, found their way into my attic last night/this morning and were fighting and running into stuff and making a terrible noise up there. It woke me out of a (finally) sound sleep and I didn't sleep worth a hoot afterwards. I was even in my backyard with a flashlight at 430 this morning looking on the roof hoping that they were there instead of inside. When I walked back into the house, all eight cats were wide-eyed and staring at the access to the attic. Go figure. Chris, of...

If you've been following, in three days I will be on a plane, by myself, to Japan and then Okinawa. It is there that I will see my Little, her husband and their two Littles! Its been a good six months since I saw my oldest Granddaughter, and since the littlest one was born on the 21st, then it will be my first visit with her! I am so stoked!!!  Of course, I'm sure you really can't tell that, now can you? I think I have everything done with the exception of packing the last minute things. I have all of the baby stuff in one of those vacuum bags and all of the air is sucked out of it. That hard piece of plastic is mighty heavy, let me tell you! Let's put it this way, when I come back, my suitcase is bound to be at least thirty pounds lighter. I'm not complaining, though, its worth it to see the looks on their faces when they see this stuff! I promise that I will have pictures of what it is once I get there, but because some of its a surprise, I'm going to have t...

So, I'm on the fast track for my trip to Japan. This is really not a leisure trip, but I do get to meet my brand spanking new granddaughter and my year old granddaughter, oh, and of course my daughter and her husband. They're just there to make sure that I don't abscond with the two itty-bitties. Lol! Anyway, I have been collecting a ton of stuff to take with me, but my problem right now is.... how the heck is this all going to fit??  Oh, and I have to have room for my clothes, too. I think I have the problem solved, I have a couple of those space bags, you know the ones that you take the sucker part of the vacuum hose to so that they shrink to a rock hard slab of plastic? Yeah, those. I have two of them and I'm afraid that I'm going to have to get more just to have room enough for my clothes. And  I have a big suitcase, too...one big enough to stuff me in. OK, no cracks here, if I fold myself in half and unzip the extension part, I'll fit. Happy? So, back to ...

As usual a snag, snare, snafu, issue or whatever you want to call it had to appear. Its just the way this has gone from day one! As you know, Angel is now home in Korea with her family, but while she was in Tokyo, a snag came up. Praise God that it wasn't something that would delay her travel, but snafu it was. Apparently one of the rules that I was not told was that the kennels that animals travel in from Tokyo have to have ventilation on all four sides of the kennel. The one I got Angel only had ventilation on three sides. Sheesh! Again, Praise God that it was taken care of as soon as it was made known. The agents in Tokyo supplied a kennel that was within regulations for her to continue on to Korea, but getting her out of her kennel that we had purchased apparently was another matter. Our Agent called to let us know that a few things were in the works, a couple of them I hope to show you in a couple of paragraphs (if I can get it to upload). The other was to tell me about the ...