Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

We just walked a hundred miles...I'm sure of it! Just kidding, but my hips are screaming that they will have their revenge. I'm in Okinawa (again! Lol!), and we decided to hit the biggest tourist trap on the Island...Kokusai Street. This street is amazing. Not only are there nooks and crannies filled with artisans and little Mom and Pop stores, but there are vegetable stands, fruits stands, street actors, its definitely something worth seeing. While we were there, the local television studio was doing a spot on, well, I don't know, but they were doing a spot on something. There was a little play going on with the Power Rangers. We went by a street actor who caught Andrea's eye...she even went up to him and gave him a high five! I think we went down, oh, I don't know, fifty million side streets and stores in four hours time and didn't even scratch the surface of what's out there. I had the opportunity to wear a kimono for about five minutes, then ditche...

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 ...

...and since it's still not quite over, I don't doubt that there are still a few surprises waiting around the corner. I must admit, when we came into this year, all I was really expecting was my new baby granddaughter who was due in March, right around her sister's first birthday. Soooo, little Cutie Patootie made us wait an entire week for her arrival, which pretty much means that we have been suckered into being at her whim probably for the rest of our lives. All she has to do is bat those baby browns, turn up the side of her mouth ever so slightly and I'm giving away the farm. Sis has that ability, too, but she doesn't have it quite down pat as the Little One. I'm doomed to be a pauper. Of course, the first statement is just a bit misleading, because as some of you may know, we were also fostering a soldier's dog until we could get her home to Korea. With a lot of help from friends and United Airlines, Angel got home to her family in February. That wa...

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...