Military Monday

Memorial: A Different Kind of Hero

Today's story is about Keve, a military working dog that recently died during a routine surgery. Keve is a two-time Iraq war veteran that carried out 32 missions in support of the Marine Corps. She found countless weapons caches and improvised explosive devices and saved many lives.

Military working dogs can detect narcotics or explosives, help during patrols and vehicle inspections, and support the United States secret service with presidential missions.

These animals help keep the morale of the Marines high and usually work for an average of 10 years. “She did her job very proficiently and kept the moral of the Marines high,” said Cpl. Richard Bock, a military working dog handler with security battalion.

Please read Keve's full story here.

RIP Keve. Thank you for your service. Semper Fi.

Band of Sisters

I follow many milspouse blogs out there and I found this story inspiring and interesting. I was watching the news last night and I happened to see a story about the American Widow Project.

Widows Taryn Davis and Nicole Hart whose husbands were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are traveling around the country in a RV to military towns to offer love and support to what they call an "ever-growing band of sisters."

Davis and Hart are traveling in a black RV custom-painted with the names of more than 4,000 of the fallen from Iraq and Afghanistan, including their husbands, Cpl. Michael Davis of San Marcos, Texas, and Sgt. David Hart of Lake View Terrace, Calif.

They believe if they can lessen the pain of just one widow then they will be accomplishing their mission of supporting other widows and widowers. You can read the full story and watch the news video here.

I also went to the website American Widow Project and it included several interesting areas such as "their belongings" where the widows can take everything from their husbands t-shirts to dog tags and turn them into mementos and keepsakes. They can also share their own stories and their are many tips and support offered to help other widows cope. There is even a 75 minute DVD which tells the story of 6 widows and offers hope and advice. It can be requested free of charge by any widow or widower. I can't imagine what it is like to loose your husband to war but once again I am proud to live in a country that contains so many people that even in their own pain and personal loss stand up for other Americans.

Please if you know a widow or widower pass this along.

Post-It Note - The King of Rock & Roll

Elvis was inducted into the US Army on March 24, 1958.

Hooah Mr. Presley. Thank you for your service!

Military Monday

I have decided to start a new weekly addition to my blog. Military Monday. I hope to highlight some event each week on Monday.

But I am going to start this with the focus on my son, LCpl Honda. You see he is in an intense month-long training away from his base. He called me this weekend and I'm sure some of you know that he is supposed to deploy on a ship in Sept and sail around the ocean for a few months.

Side note: This changes on a weekly basis.

So now he is pretty sure the deployment will involve either Iraq of Afghanistan. This does not surprise me. The caveat is he confided in me that he is scared. I am sure this is normal but it is hard when your 29 year son tells you he is afraid. I just continue to be strong and tell him to buck up buddy! He reads this blog sometimes so maybe some of you can pray for him and think about him.

Changes

My Internet time has become severely limited. I am sure you know what I mean. I really want to spend more time posting and I have some ideas for what direction I want to take this blog but my time is limited now.

Not to mention I have two other websites I am posting to: Parent's Zone I am ProudMom3 there.

Also I am writing for Helium.com and making a little money doing it.

So I am pretty busy. But I plan to revamp my blog including new graphics which I intend to try and make myself and include some regular features. One of which I will call Post-It Notes. This will just be a small observation of the day.

So bear with me and if anyone has any advice for me say on making my own graphics or suggestions for permanent topics I would love to hear from you. I have a degree in Graphic Design but have been away from it for a few years and I am not sure about designing for blogs. So I am open to any advice.

My Daughter, My Soldier

When my daughter Cinderella came to me shortly after graduating high school and said she was going to join the Army I was only a little surprised. A few years prior as we sat in a high school gym watching her brother LCpl Honda compete in wrestling she turned to me and said, "I am going to do that next year mom." I thought, well ok. Needless to say she made good on her comment and even went on to pin a few boys during her wrestling career.

The day came and she left for boot camp and never looked back. Her reasons for joining were she did not really want to attend college right away because she was concerned about finances and knew she would probably be able to attain a better education after serving with her GI Bill.

Her goals were to do the best job for her country. Now this was pre 9/11 when people were not receiving the accolades for joining and serving that they do today. Not that we were not proud, but I for one was naive thinking the world would remain calm and war was not a possibility in the near future. Boy was I wrong.

Cinderalla says like any other job there are pros and cons. She cites job security, guaranteed paycheck, free health and dental insurance as pros for joining the military. For Cinderella the honor of serving her country was by far the biggest pro. She didn't cite two many cons but did say that nobody likes their job all the time and there were times she had rough days. She said it was tough working long hours on four hours of sleep but understood the job requirements.

Cinderella left the military because she had a young daughter at the time and thought it best to be a full-time mother to her. Would she join again? "In a minute!" she said. But Cinderella has chosen motherhood first. I have to agree with that decision.

Although she would still like to serve she has taken away a lifetime of experiences that a lot of people can't say they have. Cinderella spent three and a half years active duty as an MP attaining the rank of specialist in the US Army and one year as a specialist in the Army National Guard.

Thank you for your service Spec. Cinderella. We are proud of you!

This is my second post at Parent's Zone and was a special request. I was glad to oblige.

May I Have This Dance?

When I married my husband thirty years ago he would not dance with me. It wasn't because he did not like dancing. It was because when he was a baby he contracted polio and it left him with a leg that he could not walk on until a series of surgeries made it possible for him to walk, but with a limp. So he could physically could dance but not exactly the way everyone else dances.

I knew that he was embarrassed to dance in front of people for fear they would make fun of him. As a child he had endured kids making fun of him for the way he walked so he was not about to set himself up for that torture again.

So when I got married I was resolved to the fact that it would be a danceless marriage. For some I am sure that is not really a big deal but I LOVE to dance. I dance by myself. I danced with my children when they were little. I have been dancing with my granddaughter, Butterfly since she was a baby. I danced with my grandson for the first time this past weekend. I danced with my youngest son Hippie Guy at his wedding. Whenever I am feeling down, I put on music and dance. My husband plays guitar and harmonica and I dance. I love watching 'Dancing with the Stars'. I have dreamed of taking ballroom dancing lessons. In high school I had a PE class that was just disco dancing. Did I say it enough? I just love to dance.

So a few weeks ago we were listening to some music and of course I was dancing. One of our favorite songs came on and he came over and took my hand and started dancing with me! We danced for a long time with him teaching me a dance his mother had taught him as a child and me trying to teach him to waltz. We have been dancing almost every weekend now. All by ourselves in our new house.

So today on my anniversary I will probably get the usual bouquet of flowers and a card. Corvette is pretty predictable with the gifts and I don't expect our 30th anniversary to be any different. But you see it already is. He already gave me the best gift ever. He danced with me.

We didn't dance for 30 years but I think we just might for the next 30.

Yes honey, you may have this dance...

A Trip to the Zoo Zippty Doo

We met my daughter Cinderella and the kids at a halfway point between our cities. We took the kids into Wendy's along with Cinderella and attempted to distract Lolly. Well there was no fooling him. His little eagle eye did not leave mommy once. She finally saw her break but of course Lolly caught on real fast and broke into a constant chorus of "Mommieeee!, MommiEEEE!!, MomMIEEEE!!!, MOMMIEEEEE!!!". Well after plenty of stares from the other restaurant patrons I decided to take him outside while Corvette and Butterfly packed up the food. He settled down and thank goodness for a couple of kids walking their dog. As we waited for his Sissy and Corvette, Lolly was happy to watch the dog and say, "Doggie, Doggie, Doggie."

The trip home was calm with Corvette entertaining the kids while singing, Who Let the Dogs Out, Ohh Ohh Ohh Ohh. I know, but the kids love it. Drives me a little nutty after about the 15th time but oh well. We also had a lesson on compound words and a little math thrown in for good measure. After we got home we finished eating (at least they did, I finished after they fell asleep). I then gave the kids a bath and they sat down and watched the movie Enemy Mine. Much to my surprise Lolly was transfixed on the movie and especially the Drac character. My 20 month old kids never watched movies.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast. Lolly was still a little standoffish with me sooo I handed the diaper to Corvette and was met with an icy stare. "What?" I said. "He likes you more, remember?" Well all I can say is the operation did not exactly go off without a hitch. I had to step in and show Corvette how to peel back the tabs. I guess it has been a little too long for him.

We arrived at the zoo later and it seemed that everyone in my town decided to go to the zoo. We drove around and could not find a close place to park. We could not bring Lolly's stroller because it wouldn't fit in my car. I have a VW Bug. Good on gas but not so spacious. We finally made it to the front gate and I was so praying for rentable strollers. The diaper bag was already making my shoulder hurt and there was no way I was going to carry Lolly! I was starting to worry as we walked in and all I saw were people with their own strollers. Just has me heart sank. Thank you sweet Lord, we found the rental strollers!

We had a nice day and Butterfly and Lolly enjoyed looking at the animals. Lolly tried to touch a peacock but I just had to nip that in the bud. After the zoo we went to the park and had a picnic. All was going well there until our neighbors put up a jumping castle. Lolly immediately stood up and kept trying to make his way to the castle. Lunch was officially now over for Lolly anyway.

The weather started turning bad with rain on the way so we decided to go home. Lolly fell asleep on the way home and Butterfly, Corvette and I just watched movies the rest of the day. The kids and I had our version of 'Dancing with the Stars' later that night and I did get one waltz out of Lolly. Butterfly always dances with me and she is really getting pretty good. I always danced with my kids and I am keeping up this little tradition.

The next day we visited Grandma M & Grandpa DingDon for awhile. The kids indugled on grapes and took quite a few runs around the Cul-de-sac before heading up the road to meet Mommie & Daddie. Both kids where happy to see them and after kisses and hugs we where on our way back home. Once home Corvette remarked, "It's really quiet." "Yes." I said. "I miss them." he said. "Yes." I said. "I'm really tired." he said. "Me too." I replied as I went to soak my aching back in the shower.

Here is a few pictures from our weekend.

There is nothing better than a marshmello bunny.

Butterfly kickin' back

Riding the elephant!

The cow is getting me wet!

Time out.

I think I had enough fun today!

Butterfly on a rock.

It's train riding time!

Ducks and more ducks!

It's Dancing With the Stars!

I taught her well!

Time to go home. Everybody in.

Huh?

Ok I hear the twilight zone music playing now. As soon as I posted that the followers where gone they magically appeared. dododododo

Where Did They Go!

I think blogger ate my followers! I can't see them. I went to the dashboard and they are still there so what gives. I only have two so please give them back blogger. I feel so alone.

Please join me in celebrating Women's History Month. It is to honor past and present women that served in the military. Since Cinderella is a veteran soldier I thought I would do my part to honor her and other military women. I am going to interview Cinderella on her experiences being in the Army so look for that soon.

While I was looking for more information on the subject I ran across the website for the The Women In Military Service For America Memorial. If you have ever been to Washington D.C. this is one memorial not to miss. We were able to see it when were in D.C. two years ago.


I also ran across this article about First Lady Michelle Obama visiting the memorial on March 3rd to help honor our women veterans. I am impressed by Mrs. Obama's dedication to all of our troops.


Excerpted from washingtonpost.com

As part of her continued campaign to focus on military families, first lady Michelle Obama visited the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery today, where she thanked women for their years of service in the U.S. military and said she was honored and "deeply moved" by her meetings with military families in recent years. Please read the rest of the article here.


I always try and thank our vets and active duty military. This month try and pay special attention to our women vets too.

Thanks again Cinderella. Your family is proud of you!

Writing Abound!

Well it seems my new found writing career so to speak is starting to go in new directions. I ran across this website Helium.com the other day and decided to sign up and give it a try. You can actually make money writing for Helium. You make money by people reading your articles and ad companies placing ads on your articles. There are also set rate articles that you can write and if your are lucky and get your article picked you get that rate. Some are as high as $133.00 per article. One retired school teacher has made $5,000 in just six months by writing an hour a day. I don't expect that to happen to me but any extra income will be welcome. There are many different categories and under each category are many titles. So you don't just make up your article you write under an all ready existing title. But you can submit title ideas and if the title is used you get a cut out of that too.

So wish me luck in this new endeavor.


LAW emailed my today and asked me to write an article for Parents Zone about my daughter and what it was like for her to be in the military. She let me know that this is Women in the Military Month. It just so happens that I wrote an essay about this when Cinderella was in the Army and I was in school. So hopefully I can find it and that will be on Parents Zone soon.

So much writing - so little time!

Congratulation to all of our women in the military and vets! Thank you!