Jesus, the holiday season and Christmas

I am constantly reminded of the fact that we have a holiday season to celebrate [in the first place] because of the greatest gift this world ever received. The baby Jesus in the manger... what unfolded from that birth foward cannot be undone, ignored or forgotten.. ever.
My beloved has reminded me recently that we [father and mother] must fight to ensure that our children know and remember always why we celebrate Christmas, Easter and all that happened inbetween those two milestones AND how very important it is to not let a day go by without reinforcing that message, dedication, mercy and love.
It is perhaps this season every year when I begin to realize that while I may start to feel 'comfortable' in my life or walk [ that is selfishness], I am always wondering if I can be more for Christ and my wife, children, and country [MUST be in that order... another very difficult thing to do]. My true position is to NEVER get comfortable, but to always search, re-evaluate and grow. Without growing, I become complacent and complacency leads to nothing but trouble.
As TacCom... in my line of work... I know the same holds true. I cannot afford to get complacent or let my fellow workers do the same and I have given blood, sweat and tears to live up to that throughout my career.

My walk and my devotion to HIM needs to be the same, because he did it ALL for me.

True Love....

I am in a dream!!!

Well, here I am in my dream hotel. You can go HERE to see this beautiful place! How we came to be here is another story:

We left home this morning at around 8:45am. We traveled north and came to a town nearby. TacCom decided that it would be funny to trick me. He told me we were staying at a semi-nice hotel/resort. We even drove up the driveway to see if we could check in early. (it was about 12:00pm by now) He left the car and went in to the lobby to "talk to the desk clerk". I was in total innocence at this point. To be completely truthful, I was a bit disappointed by his supposed choice of lodging. I mean, it isn't the nicest place and I was REALLY hoping to stay in the above mentioned dream hotel. But I was trying to be nice and accept his choice. After all, it isn't the hotel, but the person you're with that matters, right?
Well, TacCom came out of the hotel and told me that our room wasn't quite ready and we should go have some lunch and come back around 1:oopm. I was agreeable. (as far as he knew!)
So, off to the Ninety-nine for a mediocre lunch. Then we went to check out a few stores. It was getting toward 1:oopm and he suggested we go back to see if the room was ready. I wasn't overly anxious. I said, "How about one more store?" He agreed.
As we were parking in the store's lot, TacCom paused in getting out of the car, turned to me and said, " You know Honey, we aren't actually staying in that hotel....I was just kidding you!"
JUST KIDDING ME?!?! How much longer must I endure the untold secret? I was going crazy and now I wasn't too happy with my husband of 20 years! (Let's just say I gave him the cold shoulder for about a half hour...!!)
He realized, by now, that I had just about had it with the secrets. So, we got back in the car and headed further north. HOORAY!!! He kept pulling out a map he had printed out from mapquest and making sure he was going the right way...and then, miracle of miracles, we pulled in to the most wonderful place I could imagine! Here are a few pictures of our room, and our new pet, Norman:

This evening, we had a very special five course dinner in the dining room of this 100 year old hotel/resort. It was spectacular, to say the least! We dressed up in our best and "wowed" the other guests in the hotel! So much fun! We were seated at a lovely table near the majestic fireplace. It was unforgettable. (and very romantic!) I wore a very special necklace that he gave me just before dinner. It was the perfect piece to go with my little black dress.

That's all for now. Tomorrow is the first day in the next twenty years of our magical marriage....and I can't wait to see what it brings!

p.s. just kidding about the cow...he just posed for a picture of mine....isn't he cute, though?

Today is the BIG day!

Hello all! It is 6:00am and I can't sleep! We are going away today to a mystery destination....I will be posting later to let you all know where our journey ended. This is usually TacCom's blog, but I will be posting on it too, for the duration of our trip. This is the place to see pictures and movies of our adventure.
Enjoy!

p.s. Happy 20th anniversary, TacCom!

The joke is on me.... last day

Morning came and I had a strange feeling about this day. There was something important about it, but I could not put my finger on it. Then I heard several more vehicles driving into the area; women and children laughing and whispering. The male voices seemed serious though.

Then I heard the unmistakeable sound of rifles being loaded. They stood me up and asked if I had any last requests. I told them I would not give them the satisfaction.... then only one male voice spoke... counting down from five.... four... three ... two ..... one !!!! A pause, some squelched laughter, then the blindfold came off !!!

There were my closest friends and family standing around yelling 'SURPRISE' and Happy Birthday !!! OHHHH, that is what was important about this day !

The whole story was a flashback. The doctor told me I would have recounts of old memories. Now I found myself in the mountains of Neareastchia on a surprise camping trip for my birthday.

Even the Prince of Baggai was there !!! And guess what was on the menu ?? all my favorite varieties !!! Allll together now.... HOT POCKETS [SUNG]....

Ahhh, isn't life a dream...

TacCom OUT.

Six days out....the situation does not improve

The van door opened and I could barely see sunlight through the cracks around the blindfold. I heard ELF and several other male voices, some in a foregin language. Then I was pushed forward and fell into a horse. The captors tossed me up onto the horse and we began a journey that seemed to last for hours.
As we moved I could hear water rushing and felt the cool mountain breeze; it was coming from the north. With my hands bound it was hard to stay on the saddle through the dips and swerves.

I estimated we had traveled for about three hours before stopping. Voices cracked the silence with yells and I could hear what sounded like a radio whine. Then I heard ELF talking to one of his co-horts; 'we have several hours before sundown, we need to get the message to the Nearreasteria and US governments, but they mustn't know I am involved'. The radio crackled, and the voice on the other end stated that if the deal did not go well, the body could be left in the mass grave.

Sunlight turned to darkness, I could smell smoke from a camp fire. No food or water for 18 hours. This may not seem like a long time, but once you go without a 'hot pocket' [sang], you feel especially empty inside.

Oh, what I would do for a corner store and a microwave.......

Tick, Tick, Tick......

The Longest Seven Days in History !!!!

While enroute to the safehouse we were suddenly ambushed. Blindman, TacX and 008 managed to get away, but I was not so fortunate. ELF had found out the location of the safehouse, mapped out the route and set a trap for us. I was taken hostage, blindfolded and moved to an undisclosed location in the Neareasteria mountains. ELF planned on using me as a negotiating chip to stop the peace accord. What he did not realize is that the government had already written me off once, what made him think they would care about me now...

This meant I hadn't much time. ELF and his associates would figure this out soon and then my life would not be worth much. I would need to act soon.... since I could not rely on the others to find me in time [no, the chip was removed from my mouth].

tick, tick, tick.....

Reunited... on the run.

Once on the main road, we continued to the rendevous point. We chose a public place to avoid being ambushed or overtly watched. The Jefferson Memorial served this purpose. The majesty of once again being in the heart of DC made me remember the old days as I waited for my rescuers to arrive. Blindman and I had a few moments to rethink our plans.
At the steps facing the water, we watched as two figures approached. One I knew by the gait, TacX and the other had a familiar look, but I could not place the face... middle-eastern ? We exchanged pleasantries, I gave TacX a bear hug and the second figure's Identity was revealed...
Al Jambu Who.. or code name: 008. He was a third generation Baggai Royal Guardsman and TacX told me he was the Prince's personal bodyguard, sent to assist.
Well, the story unfolded as we sat and listened. TacX explained how ELF, working as double agent for the insurgency, was prompting the overthrow of the royal prince. ELF was there when the rescue mission was launched,but managed to escape and returned to Washington... waiting for his chance to capture me and Blindman, plant a conspiracy theory on me and use Blindman to forward his treasonous plot.
TacX had done his homework. Prior to the rescue, he had assembled a safehouse on the outskirts of DC. There he had compiled as much information about ELF and any co-conspirators as he could; remembering that he had already been disavowed. TacX had uncovered more of the plot, that pointed to an attempt on derailing the peace accord that was going to be signed between the US and Nearreastchia [a province of mother Russia, separated after the Soviet breakdown]. This peace accord was in both the interests of Baggai and the US, but certain terror groups and state sponsored terrorists did not want the accord to go forward. Nearreastia held a secret cache of nuclear weapons, long thought to be buried destroyed and buried in the Ecky Mountains. ELF and his mercenary associates had made a deal in the tens of billions to the terror groups to retrieve and sell the nuclear weapons.
ELF knew that if the US signed the peace accord with Nearreastchia, he would never be able to retrieve the weapons out of that country.
TacX and 008 knew that ELF was planning a high profile assassination, but the target was not known. It appeared that was our mission: to stay out of the hands of the CIA, discover the target and stop ELFs plan before it was too late.

With only 7 days until the signing of the treaty.... there was no time to waste.....

New Enemies and Old Friends....

The fire alarm sounded...... and the place burned to the ground.... THE END !!!!

Just kidding,

The cell went dark, the fire alarms were blaring, but somehow, within minutes I heard someone calling my name. There, coming through the dark was a light. What tipped me off that it may be a 'covert' was that the light was RED instead of your standard 'flashlight white' [SPEC OPS note: red lights are used in the dark instead of white lights because it saves your night vision and is harder for the enemy to see from a distance].
Blindman and I waited patiently for the voice to come closer. We heard a lot of loud yelling and orders back n' forth among the Virginia Farm Boys [CIA]. Then those voices lingered, moving on, thinking we were locked up and could not go anywhere. But the familiar voice got closer. Two figures appeared in the slightly lit background of the emergency exit lighting down the hall. Then a familiar friendly voice called out 'TacMan' ?? [My nickname from the 'good ole days']. The figures were clothed in firefighting gear that included the standard issue Scotts AV-4000 SCBA [Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus]. It appeared that the plastic shield of the mask was almost a two way mirror, hiding the identity of the wearers.

The voice gave one of them away. It was TacX [code name; due to the sensitivity of his prior missions, and his 'disavowment' with SPEC OPS, his real name cannot be revealed]. Advising Blindman that they were 'friendlies', he acknowledged and suddenly the 'cell' door was open.

The plan was that once we were free from the cell, the two 'friends' would continue with their cover mission [firefighters called to the Langley building for the 'smoke in the building'], and we would escape using Blindman's power, and meet at the pre-determined rally point. So far, so good.....

But as we made our way out, I passed a computer screen in the interrogation room. On the screen was an outline of orders on how to proceed with the interrogation on us. The reason of the interrogation was clear[co-conspirators against the US government directly from the office of counter intelligence], but of particular notice was the 'senders' code name: 'ELF'.

This name rang in my mind. I paused in disbelief. But continued moving to the exit. We made it to the outside, stole the nearest POV [Personal Off-duty Vehicle] and made our way to the rally point. Blindman could sense the tension in my silence... he asked what I saw and I simply stated 'We cannot trust anyone. The name on the order for our interrogation and detention is from ELF or Ex-Likeable Friend'.

I stayed silent for the entire ride, only pondering to myself why and how this old friend, turned enemy, turned Chief Counter Intelligence Officer, could still be alive.....

The game is afoot......

TacCom out....

The disavowed....

Well, things at Langley did not go as planned. The government believed I had given up information about the secret weapon... Blindman. After the debriefing I was placed in the same 'room' as Blindman [actually a cell] until they could figure out what to do with us.
We realized that things were not going our way and decided we needed to get out on our own and search for whoever was giving up the information to the enemy.
As fate would have it, the GPS in my tooth had not been removed yet. I managed to reconfigure the electronic transmitting module thing-a-ma-jiggy to send a message. I needed to contact someone who knows how to get in and out of Langely unnoticed, believed me, and had an ax to grind with the government.....
About two days later, at about 1100 hours, the fire alarm went off........