My husband and I had an eye doctor appointment last Saturday.  I\’m nearsighted and have worn glasses for many years.  Mark has never had glasses and is now camosighted and needs glasses.

Mark was examined first while I tried on glasses.  After rocking out a few pairs and praying no one had bugs that tried them on before me, I found a pair I liked.

While I was being examined, Mark had plenty of time to find an appropriate pair. By himself.  Without me.  And we know what problem that will cause.  Like the problem we have with wanting to wear camouflage on date night or hats that make him look like Elmer Fudd.

During my exam, I had the whole scenario played out in my head.  If I\’m nice about the situation and not tell Mark he looks like a bug, he might change his mind.  I will not cause a scene.  I will not cause a scene.  I will not cause a scene.

And then I walk out of the exam room to this …

Me:  Mark, are you sure you like those?

Mark:  Yes.

Me:  Are you sure you looked around?  There are plenty of nice glasses and I saw a few that might look good on you.

Mark:  I really like these.

He looks like a bug.

Me:  Umm don\’t you think they might look a little big?

Mark:  No they fit good.

Me:  You know you\’ll have those for a year or more so you need to be sure.

Mark:  These are the pair.

Jody:  Even when you\’re out hunting and turn your head a certain way?  You don\’t think they might get in the way?

Yes I pulled out all my ammunition.  Referencing hunting normally works.  But not this time.  He thought he was all that and about to star in a Four Eyes commercial.

I stopped talking until we got in the car.

You look like a bug.  A big eyed bug.  Those glasses are huge.  You are not going to be happy with them.  Maybe if you didn\’t have so much camo on you could see what they really look like.  That\’s it … that was the problem.  You\’re camosighted.  WTF They are as big as that Elmer Fudd camo hat you wear that I told you not to wear this morning.  No wonder you picked out big glasses wearing a hat like that. You look like Mr. Magoo.

Um Hi.  Table for 2 for me and Mr. Magoo dressed in camo.

Have a great day all …

I wouldn\’t be The Hunter\’s Wife without having more ammunition ..

Umm Mark – I found your glasses in the couch cushion and I sat on the damn things and now they\’re cracked.

See the original article at TheHuntersWife.net

Tags: ammunition, exam, mind, more-ammunition, night-or-hats, problem, situation, the hunters wife, wear-camouflage

My very own – could be a lifetime movie – true story …

I had just sold my townhouse and moved in with my hunter.  The house belonged to my husband\’s Grandfather and we decided we would stay there until we found a house together. Grandpa\’s house was an older home surrounded by very old large evergreen trees and bushes.  The house sat on a corner on a very busy street just down from the local high school.  I never felt unsafe there until one very dark cold fall morning.

Mark and I just got a new puppy.  Having a new puppy requires lots of training at all hours of the night and early morning hours in a very dark and scary backyard.  Mark had just left for work at about 4:00 a.m. and of course the dog wanted out.  I threw on a sweatshirt, turned the back porch light on and we headed out the back stairs. Mark and I stayed on the third floor that exited out 1 set of stairs to a landing and then as you turned left to another set of stairs that lead to the backyard.  After the first set of stairs, I turned on the landing to the second set of stairs and there he was.  Someone in the bushes about 20 feet ahead.  I stood frozen with my dog in my arms.  It felt like a lifetime before my brain caught up with what I saw and what I was suppose to do.

Finally, I quickly stomped up the stairs, slammed the door and called 911.

Except isn\’t wasn\’t 911.

Operator:  City and State please.

Panicked maniac:  Hammond, Indiana.

Operator:  Listing please.

Oh dear god.  I called 411.

By this time I was shaking and in a panic.  What if he ran up the stairs after me?  I finally reached 911 and then I called Mark at work.  There was an off duty police officer in the area that knew Mark and knew we were living there.  From the window, I watched the police officer search the grounds as Mark pulled up.  They both searched the neighborhood and saw nothing.

I was hysterical.  I kept replaying it in my mind.  How long I just stood there.  Frozen in time. Staring at him.  He was tall, wearing a dark sweatshirt and sweatpants.  His hood was up and his head was down hiding between two of the evergreens.  I will forever have that image etched in my brain.

Police officer:  Maybe it was just the paperboy.  Try to calm down.

Me:  It wasn\’t the paperboy.  He stood there with his head down. Hiding.  Right there.

Mark:  Maybe he was pissing in the bushes.

Me:  No words were necessary.  The look on my face said it all.

They were there for a good hour before Mark headed back to work and I headed to my mother-in-law\’s house just a few doors down.  My mother-in-law and brother-in-law tried convincing me of the same.  Or maybe it was a jogger. Everyone was making me crazy and they needed to stop talking.  I needed to call my Mom.  She will understand.  But it was the same sympathy.  No one wanted to scare me and agree there was someone in our bushes.

When I told my story to others;

A friend:  I\’d agree it was probably the paperboy.

The friends state trooper friend:  I\’d agree, it was probably the paperboy pissing in the bushes.

Me:  Or … Ummm …  Maybe it was the Tooth Fairy or Santa.

There was no paperboy in the neighborhood that morning.  There was no jogger.  The person in the bushes would have seen the light go on and heard me come down the first set of stairs.  Yet they never moved.

No one will ever convince me otherwise.  I know what I saw.  I know how I felt and I know what could have happened.

I also know this – you never know how you will react in situations until those situations happen.  I never thought I\’d just stand there frozen as long as I did before it hit me what I needed to do.

And for the love of working in an office for over 20 years – 411 can I help you? Oh dear god.

Have a good day all … I need to practice my 911 dialing skills like a 2 year old.  Even a dog has dialed 911.

See the original article at TheHuntersWife.net

Tags: humor, light, mind, neighborhood, paperboy, stairs, time

One of our readers recently sent the following story about a whitetail he shot at Hunts of Hopes and Dreams. What a monster whitetail! Congratulations Robby.

“I was hunting on a ranch in Central Missouri in late October of this year for a typical 200″ whitetail. It was a 50 degree rainy afternoon in the Ozark Mountains where I was hunting in a forest of Oak trees. The morning hunt in a deer blind had yielded nothing so at 3:30 we took off in a Kobota driving through 8″-10″ deep flowing streams which a four-day rain had caused. We drove down steep valleys and high terrain and we came upon a nice 190″ class typical which I passed up. Later we saw what I came to hunt which was a 200″ typical but my guide noticed that the big bucks were really moving that afternoon so suggested that I may want to be patient. I never thought I\’d pass on my “dream buck” but I did and even passed on a probable 210″ and a 220″ because it was still early and I was into only the first day of my hunt. My guide Doug told me that they had seen a very large non-typical early last year and since their was a lot of movement early, let\’s try to spot him for we can come back and find a 200″ later or even the next day. I was all game so I chambered my trusted .270, 9-power scope and kept the safety on.

About 5:00 p.m. we came over a ridge and saw him bedded down 140 yards downhill but all I had was a neck shot. I turned my Sony video camera on and handed it to Doug as he zoomed in. I put my bi-pod down on the hood of the Kobota and sunk down to my knees for stability. We watched for about 10 minutes and as he rose I tried to keep myself calm. Three thoughts went through my mind:

1. He is very big
2. He has lots of non-typical [points] and…
3. His antlers are white

We watched and waited as the rain fell for him to go broadside and he did. He took two steps left and I squeezed off a shot which entered the top of left backstrap and lodged in his right shoulder. He fell and lay motionless.

As we approached him all of the “HOLY CRAPS ” started for the Rancher had no idea he had 300+” class deer on his property. That evening the taxidermist came by and as the four of us field scored him we gasped as the 200″ mark passed for we knew we still had antlers to count. 109 6/8″ more. All in all he field scored 309 6/8″, had 38 points, went 28 1/2″ inside and weighed 265#. After the 60 day “drying period” he will be officially scored both B&C and SCI by a master scorer. From all that I have read in the record books for the past 4 weeks, he may qualify as the biggest non-typical ever taken by a firearm in the world.”

See our whitetail hunts

*There are two larger in the record books, a 328″ B&C and a 318 B&C but one was found dead by the side of a highway in 1981 and the other was hit by a train in 1940. Neither was felled by a hunters\’ bullet.
by Robby DeLeon of Corpus Christi, TX

See the original article at GotHunts.com

Tags: deer hunting, hunting, kept-the-safety, kobota, mind, rancher, record, sony, taxidermist, whitetail

I\’ve heard about Project Healing Waters which takes disabled veterans fly fishing to help with healing of the mind and soul.   I\’ve found that my time on and in the water casting a line does wash away my cares and problems, if even for the short term.  It is very restorative.   I found some of their stories as well as others on the Real American Stories website.  Read and watch these inpirational stories at Real American Stories – Project Healing Waters.

See the original article at SilverSageRealty.com

Tags: cares, fishing, idaho, inspiration, mind, project, project-healing, short, stories, stories-as-well, the-original, their-stories, time, veterans, waters