Sunday, November 18, 2012

Petraeus scandal puts four-star general lifestyle under scrutiny from the Washington Post



“There is something about a sense of entitlement and of having great power that skews people’s judgment,” Gates said last week.

“I love the man. I am his biggest supporter. But I strongly disagree,” said retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as Gates’s senior military assistant. “I find it concerning that he and others are not focusing on the effect on our guys of fighting wars for 11 years. No one was at it longer than Petraeus.”

The above quotes come from an article in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/petraeus-scandal-puts-four-star-general-lifestyle-under-scrutiny/2012/11/17/33a14f48-3043-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html

Ok, this is one Army wife's opinion, I am going with Gates on this. Yes, fighting in a long war can have an effect. But don't tell me that Petraeus didn't get home to DC enough to satisfy anything he needed from his wife, Holly. Power is intoxicating. Being 60 and having a 40 year old beauty chasing him was the effect, not the war. Let's lay the blame where it needs to be squarely on the those who stumble.

As Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Thanksgiving week

I am getting very excited. My man, JTB, gets to come  home from Ft. Hood from Thursday to Monday afternoon. He is getting ready to go on a deployment. We are having family pictures done on Friday with a friend of a friend. Well while in Target yesterday, I got me a dress and shoes. Both so out of character for me. Yet, I wanted them and in some sense needed them. We all want to feel and look our best. So even though I know I need to lose more weight etc... I loved this dress since I saw it and I love the shoes, even though I may break something wearing them! LOL

I will be wearing it to church today, so I may post a picture later. LOL I have to keep telling myself, it is okay to look sexy if I am trying to look sexy for my man!! Which in all honesty, I am not just doing it for him. I am doing it for me. And as long as I am okay with it, he is okay with it, and God is okay with it, then I have decided that is all that matters!!
A preview of the shoes!! (Target $29.99)

Friday, November 16, 2012

Things gone by

I am 43, most of Princess Pie's friends mothers are 5-10 years younger than me and still having babies. In fact one of my dearest friends is finding out the sex of their long awaited blessing today.

I truly don't want any more children, I believe the five God has given me is plenty. Yet, I still struggle when holding a baby at dance etc... It isn't so much about wanting another as it is knowing I am 43 and not having any more. It isn't that we can't we have just chosen not to.

Do any of you feel that way?

Below are our blessings!



Thursday, November 15, 2012

Moral failings

We all have them, those little nagging thoughts that what we are doing isn't right. I wonder if  David Petraeus had those little nagging thoughts before he betrayed his wife, Holly. Now I am not saying Holly Petraeus is a saint. She is a military wife who has spent too much time alone and if like me can't get away with going to the bathroom by myself, let alone have time for an affair.

Yet her husband of 38 years has done just that. He hasn't just failed his country, he has betrayed his wife and his children. When there is a moral failing, especially of a sexual nature, it kills the person who is betrayed. Both sexes do it, which does not make it right. Men seem, to especially, not get what it does to the self-esteem of their wives. Mr. Petraeus is not an exceptionally looking man, and Holly is a middle age woman though still pretty, she is not Paula Broadwell. So how does Holly deal with this. I know I would be crushed, the devastation is not something I think I could get over. In this season of their lives, clinging to each other may be the only thing that would get them through it, but how do you do that? How do you rebuild your life with the man you thought you knew. I mean 38 years that is a very long time.

Sometimes you just wonder....