My fears this week- conflict, pollen, and poo

It's gettin' scary 'round these parts.

First of all (the actually scary events), the crises in Japan and now Libya are quickly moving to the forefront of many minds. As civilians, we worry about all those people affected. As a military family, there's the added worry that our loved ones will be carted off to help out in each of these places with very different missions. I've noticed that many people in the blogging community are confused (myself included) on what is going on in Libya. To remedy that, I thought I'd add some simplified information that I've found so that we'll all better understand without all the conservative/liberal biases that plague the media and news these days.

*Where is Libya? Libya is a country located in North Africa.

*What the heck is going on anyway? It's the angry dictator scenario again. The Libyan people are fed up. Protests broke out mid February sending the fourth largest country in Africa into chaos. Protesters were mistreated, beaten, jailed, or even killed for their actions.

*The UN agreed a "no fly zone" was to be activated earlier in March, which in itself is seen as an act of war.

*Who is involved? Britain and France are the frontrunners but many other Allied countries are supportive, too. This includes the US of A, as you've likely already gathered.

*Who is this Qadhafi I keep hearing about? He's the said angry dictator and leader of Libya.

*What does this mean for U.S. troops? Our military men and women are NOT being sent into Libya, but they are currently occupying bordering countries and/or ships on the Mediterranean Sea.

For more detailed and up to date information, use google people! Those are the basics, though as I know them. If you're wondering how this might affect Captain J and me, I will say that I hope it doesn't affect us in the slightest. Of course, I never know when the big bad Army will take him away and for what reason, but I will say that this is NOT a worry of ours at the moment. As many of you know, Captain J is in the middle of a career course and isn't scheduled to leave me and this sweet lil baby in my tummy anytime soon. Fingers crossed.

That's my teeny tiny little military spouse knowledge of the day on the happenings in Libya. Take it or leave it!

Now, I'd like to adjust the focus an ounce to some things that are scary for me personally. For instance...

Spring has sprung in ole Georgia! I'm currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, so I thought I'd relax on the swing outside for a few while I enjoyed my book. A quick dusting off of the swing cushion to remove leaves left me with a lot more than a leaf-free place to sit! I removed my hand to find tons of icky yellow stuff all over it. Pollen galore.

Usually my allergies don't strike until April, but that was when I lived in TN. Let us not forget that I skipped allergies all together in that glorious time period when we resided in the fresh, cool Alaskan air. Ahh! Now, I'm all "ahh-choo" instead. Oh well.

It is quite warm here. We had a small get together the other night complete with new friends, a bonfire, grill food and guitars. It doesn't get much better than that, does it? It might just be too hot for this knocked up gal, though. 80 degrees still feels like the seventh layer of h-e- double hockey sticks to me sometimes. What happened to my southern roots? Alaska stays with me in more ways than one, I'm afraid.

Ok.

Are you ready for the scariest thing of all?

I don't know that you are.

I'm not. But here we go...

I've spent much of this morning researching this little company- Thirsties. It's a company (American-made!) that makes modern cloth diapers. You read that correctly- I'm entertaining the idea of using reusables. This, from the girl who almost blew chunks on her first nephew while attempting to change a very dirty diaper.

Poor kid. He adjusted just fine, though ;)

I'm hoping I have come or will have come a long way since those days once my own child arrives.

Don't worry. I'm not going all crunchy, hippie, granola on you or anything. I just think it's the smart thing to do financially. At this point, I'm only thinking about it- weighing the pros and cons. It wouldn't be a strictly cloth diapers kind of thing, but it would be nice to use them while the baby is home and/or at night sleeping. You all think I'm nuts right now, don't you?

I know I do.

Captain J will likely hate this idea, too.

But, maybe, just maybe I might try to do this. Perhaps I can say (on top of all my other responsibilities when the baby arrives), I'll also be saving the world one nasty cloth instead of plastic diaper at a time.

Or not. We'll see.