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 ...

Apparently, I've been slacking. So sue me. =o) Seriously, its been a busy month around here. Since my last post, I suppose that I've been a little shocked and dismayed at the events of November 6, but I'm over it now. I did manage to go into a two and a half week flare up, complete with flu symptoms that lasted a good four days, but, again, I'm over that as well. Hopefully, this post finds all of y'all happy, healthy and full of stuffing, the bread kind. Personally I had two kinds, bread and corn bread and I must say that they were purely yummy. Chris, Andrea and I went to El Paso for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with his recently widowed mom. This was the first real holiday without PopPop...I know that his presence was missed. It was strange not having him there, but it felt even more odd to not have my Punky and her family there, even if she hasn't been home for at least two years for the holidays. I mean, everyone else was there, for her to not be the...

Travelling makes for an interesting day. There has never been a time that I haven’t had an eyebrow raised or a smile on my face while I am people watching in an airport. Airports, I find, have a plethora of individuals to watch, obviously, and I dare say that even Sigmund Freud would have a field day with the many phobias, isms, and the like to write many, many papers and books. Take for example this couple that was waiting to board the flight I was on. He was wheelchair bound and rather big, in both height and girth, and she was petite, couldn’t have weighed more than 105 soaking wet, and yet here she was pushing her beloved towards the boarding gate until the gate agent stopped her. The agent then called for assistance for this couple so that the little old lady and her not so little old man could get on board safely. The determination in her face to make sure that her husband was taken care of was obvious and the love that he had for her was even more obvious, although it seemed ...

Yeah, I know...really dorky, but it is. I'm actually having a "fibro fog" day. The worst part of it is that it didn't hit me that's what it was until just a few minutes ago. I've heard folks talk about it, and I know that I must have experienced it more than once since this has started in earnest, but I guess I just never put two and two together. Today, as my dad was waiting for my mom to return from taking my cousin around the corner, we were having a conversation. All I really remember from the conversation is something about a dog and cars. Most of the time I was having a hard time relating the two in the conversation, so a good portion of what he said was pretty much lost. Normally I would chalk that up to zoning out on him, which I do well I might add, but this wasn't the case. Today started out with aches and pains, but I really didn't think I was going to have memory problems today as well. Another thing that really bothered me is that I co...