Veteran's Day

I think a lot of people simply enjoy this day as a day out of work without a second thought to those who have fought and are still fighting for our country! I have a dad and mom who were both in the military (albeit for very short periods of time), extended family that served and an uncle who is still serving, as well as a little cousin who just enlisted in the marines! I also have numerous friends with husbands who are active military. Being a young woman living near Fort Lewis... I met my fair share of great young men who were serving our country.

One inparticular was this great guy named Donald McCune. In fact, Donnie and I went out a few times and 1 week before he was deployed to Iraq he decided that he should seal the deal and ask me to be his "girl friend" before he left. What girl would be crazy enough to turn that down? Communicating through email, IM and a phone call was hard. It down right sucked as a matter of fact.

On August 6th, 3 months after his deployment, I opened up an email from one Donald R McCune. The email went on to explain that Donnie had died the day before in Germany. Apparently his vehicle had hit an IED (improvised explosive device). Donnie was airlifted to a hospital in Germany. While his mother was in flight to see him Donnie passed away at the age of 20. I remember screaming while reading the email, it seemed to be the only things my body would allow me to do. I had kept hearing in the news about our soliders who had died but it never seemed very real until this moment.

No matter how "tough" you are, hearing a 21 gun salute and seeing those boots with a gun and helmet propped up will bring you to tears. I can't imagaine how many families have gone through this experience and I would never wish it on everyone.

That is my story about why Veteran's Day is important to me. I would like to thank all of our current and past military. They do a wonderful job at keeping our country safe. I also want to be sure to thank the family members of all military.... without you, they couldn't do what they do!

Pictures

We took our family pictures on the 26th of September. I expected them back ten days afterwards, well, that was yesterday. I am a little cranky because I want to see them SO bad!!!!! However, I totally understand that Taraka had to leave town for the day due to her sister having her baby. To make it up to me, she is giving me a couple free prints and even sent over her favorite photo from the shoot. I posted it on Facebook this morning without realizing that maybe I shouldn't have, seeing that it has yet to be edited (note the green spot in the photo). I feel now like I gave her some negative advertising. Well, I figured the best way to correct that was to post a blog about the situation and , of course, share the picture I have.

I'm Terrible

At keeping up my blogs!!!! Sorry guys :( I thought I would share how excited I am about school though! I start Monday and will be one step closer to being a medical assistant! WooHoo! I have been waiting and waiting for my financial aid to come. I have had plans with my left over money for awhile now. Getting our cat declawed, taking family photos, not to mention buying my books for school and paying Aidan's daycare. I was so stressed about whether or not it would come before school, guess that's all figured out now. YAY!

New Blog

Ya, I know, I'm terrible at keeping these ones up, why would I start another... well, go read my first post and find out!

www.50poundsfornow.blogspot.com

FREE?!?!?!

I am into bargain hunting... big time! Every once in awhile I find some good stuff I can actually use. Well, today my friend Kim has been putting stuff for FREE on kashless.org.... a pretty cool site! Anyways, not knowing it, I was responding to all of this neat stuff she had. Well, I quickly figured out it was her and gave her a call. Too bad I missed out on a few things but what a great friend for setting aside what I wanted! She's probably tired of me sending her emails today saying "oooohhh, I want that" but hey, I enjoy this bargain hunting way too much to not take first dibs on things from someone I actually know! Which means, I know where it's been, which is kind of nice! I can't wait to meet up and grab the stuff from her (and let our kids play of course). Now if only I could decide what to get rid of in my house to make room for more "junk" (as Anthony calls it). This way, I won't end up on his s*** list for bringing more "junk" into the house! HEHE!

"One mans trash is another mans treasure"