How’s your Sunday? Pretty good around here. Lisa and Karen both have been by to see me today. Good sisters!

Greg is out digging my hole next to Aaron’s tree in the front. On this Friday, the 29th, I will bury a bunch of certificates, cards, dried flowers, stuff like that which has accumulated over the nearly four years. I guess it sounds a little crazy to bury it, but that way, Aaron and his stuff will always be a part of this house. I’ve kept the flowers semi-clean for just about as long as I can. These are mostly flowers that were sent to me at the time Aaron was killed. I dried them and have saved them in a large red, white and blue basket. When I received more flowers, I’d later dry them and place them on top of the others. It’s been impossible to throw anything away. I’ve tried—and I just can’t let it go out of my hand, even if it’s just his name or a copy of a copy of a copy of a photo…. So, Greg’s digging and Friday I’ll lay it in there and cover it up. No ceremony. Just me and the dirt and probably Cady. The boys will watch from the back, which is where they’ll all be buried. Yes, I have all this thought out. And you’re thinking: It sucks to be you??? LOL!

I know.

But this is my last first. Leap day of leap year was the last time his foot was on American soil—this is my first leap year without him. There was a time I’d never thought I’d have to last this long without him. And then something like the image I have displayed comes in the mail and I realize that I may have a very long time to go and had better buck up.

Our troops. How do they feel? I'll tell you, Semper Fi Mom's son was great to talk to and I am so happy for how things are in Fallujah right now. We've been doing this sort of thing for a long time, folks. Let's keep on keeping on, huh?

We live in a fantastic country. I love America. I love America. I love her troops, her liberty, her land.

Oddly enough, I feel good. Of course, I’m not the one digging the hole!

Mom still doesn’t have her computer and Lisa still doesn’t have her picture. What good are they?

Talk at you later!
De’on

Just thinkin'....

Hello everybody!

My hubby is on vacation this week, so I’m going to vacation with him some.

Check back after the 20th of February for further posts from myself or Virgie Bell. Meanwhile, others may or may not post, but anyway, don’t forget to have a wonderful
Sweetheart’s Day and be sure to ply your Valentine with tons of lovely baubles and dark chocolates!

Semper Fi,
De’on

Late Night Losers

uuummmhhh

mmmhhh........

Please tell me there's not anyone at Berkeley we really want for the CORPS, is there?

Let CODE PINK keep them and their little parking spot.

Click on the pink above if you feel the need for stomach cramps.

This just in and no doubt, NOW AIRING!

Mom, tune-in and sing along with Jenn! :0 She's singing Christmas carols for us as we speak it seems. -dm

Friends,

Sorry it's late notice, but we are live at 7:00 PM Eastern! Jenn's going to sing Chritsmas Carols tonight for 90 minutes! Tune in here, you do not want to miss it! 1-347-996-5948 -- David Odeen, My Point Radio Co-host

http://www.mypointradio.net

What's this about? LOL!

On the Homefront

Greg, my hubby, is pictured on the top left-hand corner of the 2nd page. He is receiving his 5 year award (which turns out to be a beautiful ring for TLW--yes, I helped him pick out his award!). I've been wanting to share this with you as I really do have the best husband in the whole wide world. He's even better than Gary, my brother, who was just awarded his jacket for One Million Safe Miles (from a different company) and better than Mom's hubby, Jerry, who was awarded his 2nd jacket for One Million Safe Miles. WAY TO GO TRUCKERS OF THE LIQUID GOLD PRODUCT!! KEEP ON TRUCKING (and since it's Christmas you all may want to consider hauling that extra load!! :).

Goodnight Troops...

...Thank you for watching over us.

Announcement from Dave at 'My Point Radio'

Friends,

Jenn and I proudly announce a true American Patriot on My Point Radio, Wednesday November 21st at 8:00 PM Eastern. Jim Gilchrist founder and hero of Minutemen Project, and the current immigration debate joins us for a exclusive Blog Talk Radio interview.

Please tell anyone you know, interested in this debate to listen before the Thanksgiving Holiday. Call 1 347 996-5948.

This will be a 90 minute special edition of My Point Radio And remember David will be on the dork cam giving you the biz!
--
David Odeen, My Point Radio Co-Host

http://www.mypointradio.net

TGIF or in Ray's case, Saturday

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
WEAR RED ON FRIDAY~~

Dave and Jenn report a power outage, so....

My Point Radio will re air on Thursday November 15th at 10:30 AM Eastern. Please listen then! Thanks!!

A New Link: Project Healing Waters

I will be adding this link http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/ to our blog. Check it out. What a wonderfully specific way to give back to our wounded warriors.



Much thanks to Joanne for sending it our way and thank you to the members of this project!

TGIF/WROF

TGIF!

GOT YOUR RED ON TODAY?!

Please Vote!

Vote For SSG Christian Bagge!!!

Finalist in the Energizer "Keep Going" Hall of Fame
http://www.energizerkeepgoinghalloffame.com/

Click the link, click on 'Vote Today', choose Christian's picture and follow the directions.Vote through August 1, 2007.

You can vote once EACH DAY!

To read Christian's story, click here

This post has been honestly lifted from Flag Gazer! Vote!

From the VFW

De'on,

Stand up for America’s troops and veterans.
Sign the VFW's Independence Day Petition.

Our nation’s defenders have earned the very freedoms we celebrate each July 4th. Now is the time to remind our leaders to keep their promises to care for our troops and veterans on the battlefield and when they return.

Stand up for America’s troops and veterans!
Sign the 2007 Independence Day Petition.
Add your name now!
Help us reach 20,000 signatures by June 20th!
Add your name to the Veterans of Foreign Wars' (VFW's) Independence Day Petition

to demand what our heroes deserve

• fully-funded veterans’ healthcare;
• improved military quality of life;
• support for our men and women on the front line;
• a fully funded GI Education Bill for the 21st Century;
• and quality and timely decisions on veteran's disability claims.
  
  We need all signatures by June 20th so we can deliver this bold statement to our leaders by July 4th.

The more signatures that we have, the more powerful this petition will be. So please pass this petition on.

As the Global War on Terrorism continues, our nation must stand proudly for our heroes. Will you join us?

Sign the VFW's Independence Day Petition today.

Thank you for supporting our troops and veterans!

Hey everybody,

Hope your Sunday has been great. I've been asleep most of the day and then took Cady outside to wander around for her first time. She loved it.

VB has in a couple of posts and I'll see what I can get into. Let me get some coffee down me and I'll be back.

West Texas--how about that rain? We got just a little of it, but I was up to enjoy it. Nothing like a nice rain on a metal roof!

Back later....

To Joy and Amherst, from Mom to you all.

Gunz Up: Virgie Bell's View#links (this link will take you to our old blog so that you can read Friday Night Lights which is also posted in our sidebar.)

Amherst Heroes can be found by clinking on the linked title, which is here on this blog.

Hello, Amherst, Texas!

Cool Cash $ite

Semper Fi Mom had a post up at Lubbock Marine Parents that passed on a valuable link. This link is a website where members of the military can sign up to do civilian jobs by the day in their off time. You can locate their base on the website and see what jobs are available in that area. It's easy to remember and always wise to hire patriots.

Help Fight Cancer, Join the Army of Bloggers

The rules for membership are simple:

Add the code to your blogroll. Just follow the link provided in this post or our cancer sucks link can be found in the sidebar above Blogroll.

Make a post on your blog supporting research to cure cancer and to announce your membership in this worthy fight.

Make a comment on this post giving the cancer research or charity you will support annually. The amount of your gift is entirely up to you, but the more you can afford, the better it will be.

Non bloggers can participate too by making a comment and listing the cancer research facility/organization or charity you will support annually.

Here are some suggested research organizations and charities: National Cancer Institute, The Lung Cancer Alliance, The Cancer Research Institute, The American Cancer Society, Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation of America/Cancer Research Foundation of America. Or, your favorite what ever it is.

Click here for An Army of Bloggers

Here is my post, copied from aunt karen’s comment today. It is to the relay she annually walks for that I will donate, Terry County Relay for Life sponsored through the American Cancer Society.


aunt karen said...

De'on,
I haven't heard of the cancer sucks thing, you'll have to fill me in. Our event is called the "Terry County Relay for Life". The American Cancer Society gets people to plan and host these relays all over the country this time of year. The Relay Committee (also volunteers from your county) then go around and try to get everyone to get relay teams together, businesses and individuals, to raise money to go to the American Cancer Society. This money not only goes towards research, it also goes to patients and their families to help with getting them back and forth for treatments and any kind of support that they may need. The idea of the Relay is that we take one night out of our lives, 12 hours, to support cancer patients and survivors, because they and their families don't get a night or day off from their battle of this disease. Our team was called the Terry County Courthouse team. There were also about 10 other teams this year that participated, First Bank of Brownfield, Sundown State Bank, Church of Christ, Best Western Motel, plus some teams made up of just individuals. We also have a lot of Corporate Sponsors, businesses that donate money and services for the Relay. United Supermarket donated free water stations set up all over the track for our walkers, and at midnight, Pizza Hut comes out and donates free pizza for all of the walkers. Your team is not walking for just one individual, we walk for everyone going through cancer, patients, families and survivors. Your team is given a baton, and the idea is to keep someone from your team out on the track at all times, keeping your baton going all night. It helps to have a big team, so that you can switch out. We also plan events to go on all night to keep people there. This year the theme of our Relay was "Around the World in 12 Hours". Each of the teams picked a country to represent. Our team was Jamaica (USA was already taken, it was the first one picked, of course) so we decorated our camp site to reflect our country. We decorated our canopy to look like a grass tiki hut, we had 6 ft blow up palm trees and beach chairs, we had a poster board made of the Jamaican flag and we had bananas and coconuts everywhere! This is also a competition between teams because they judge your campsite and they also judge your baton. You are supposed to decorate your baton to reflect your country. Ours was made into a palm tree with colorful birds and bananas and coconuts, but team USA (First Bank of Brownfield) beat us, which is understandable, you can't hardly beat the USA! Due to the storm, the camp site judging didn't happen. Then, events are scheduled to go on all night to keep people there, like karaoke, line dancing, water balloon fights, tug of war between teams, noodle races and we have a luminary service where survivors and people who died of cancer are honored. Of course, this year, we didn't get to do all of these things that we had planned because of the weather. We did get to have a passport game, where your team posts a cancer fact question at your camp site. Your team is given a passport and someone from your team goes to all of the other camps and if you answer the question correctly, you got a stamp on your passport for that country. The team with the most stamps on their passport gets to be first in line for Pizza Madness at midnight when the free pizza comes. Martin and Julie's daughter Emmy and her friend Lexy were our teams passport players. They had a blast and got every one of the cancer fact questions right and had a stamp from all of the countries on their passport. I am so disappointed that we had to stop the relay so early, because of the dangerous weather, so there was no Pizza Madness. The 18,000.00 dollars that I spoke of was the total that all of the teams and corporate sponsors collected this year, so even though we didn't get to go all night, it was still worth it.

SFM, I'm glad to hear that ya'll are okay after the storm. Lots of little kids at the relay were scared too, when that wind came through.

Awesome! Sent by Diane....

If I were the regents or alumni of certain large universities in this county, I would be embarrassed to be producing students of such ignorance and naive notions. Like mindless sheep, they march with painted faces and trite sayings on signs, blissfully ignorant of the world they live in, and the system that protects them, hoping maybe to make the evening news. Perhaps if they had spent more time in class they would have learned that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. They might have learned that all it takes for evil to succeed in the world, is for good people to stand by and do nothing. If they had simply gone back in history as recently as the Viet Nam War, they would have learned that an enemy that knows it can never defeat us militarily, will persist as long as there is dissension and disruption in our land. Their ignorance can be understood, as their young empty minds have been filled with the re-written history tripe that tenured leftist professors can spew out with no fear of removal. But the unwitting aid they provide the enemy, in disrupting the national resolve, is unforgivable.

Let’s say THANKS to the SOLDIERS!
(and thanks XEROX, for giving
us the opportunity!)

CLICK HERE FOR POSTCARDS

This will remain at the top for a while.

Please scroll down for

current posts.

This comes to me from some Marine Brothers of Aaron's....

Cpl. Michael Fuller and

Sgt. Ron Johnson, Jr.

Please Help Defend The Defender!

Marine Saves Another Marine’s Life And Is Charged With Murder.


During an unprompted and unlawful attack on April 5, 2007, Michael Fuller was severely beaten in the head and face by numerous individuals. Ronald Johnson Jr. intervened and due to the circumstances and number of attackers, a knife was needed to defend Fuller and Johnson from the immediate threat of death and serious bodily injury. If it wasn't for Ronald's defense of him, Fuller would have certainly been killed in the attack. Unfortunately, one of the attackers died from the wounds received. Ronald was arrested and charged with murder for defending a fellow Marine against a life threatening beating.

Michael sustained serious damage to his face during the attack and has had surgery to repair fractured bones around his eye. There may also be permanent damage done to his vision.

Both Ronald and Michael served three tours of duty in the Middle East. During their service in the Marine Corps, Ronald was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received during combat operations. Both were honorably discharged from active duty after serving 4 years in the Marines and are now serving the remaining 4 years in the inactive reserves.

A fund has been set up to help with the legal and medical expenses. If you would like to make a donation to help defend a Marine who defended his Country with Honor and Pride, only to come home and have to defend his Marine brethren against an unlawful attack from assailants at a bar, they can be sent to the following address:

Johnson and Fuller Fund, Inc.
P.O. Box 343
Clifton, Tx 76634



Thank you!

Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated!