4 Years Ago

Four years ago today, my son, age 20, marched across a desert for what he was not sure. There were no weapons found, some where found and tried, and yet we are still there.

My son did two tours of duty. He came home a different person. Less trusting, overly aggressive, so wary of all and only 24. He saw so many things, bad things and good things, although the bad things are the ones that have stuck. He had to do things that everyday he now struggles with - he understands he had to do what he had to do to protect himself and those in his group, but that does not lessen what he had to do.

I fully support the troops - but more than anything I want our troops to come home. So many lives have been lost forever. I mourn their loss. I too have lost because while I have my son back, he is not the same young man with great ideas that left four years ago today. I know I am not the only one with this issue, I have met several other parents who children are different since returning.

I wish and hope that they all come home soon. Pray for a soldier today... and pray for peace as well...

HEY

Hey party people - been away for awhile trying to get better. Getting there slowly but surely. Just wanted to drop in and give a big shout out to all my blogger friends.

Have a good day - be good to each other - I will be back soon!!!

PEACE!!!

Great People

There were some wonderful people who took care of me while I was in the hospital and after I got out and was home. While in the hospital I was fortunate to have some great nurses and PCA's. They would come in and be so nice and were never mean or rude - especially during the day when it is the most lonely. People work so hardly anyone visits during the day - you get to know the people taking care of you and I had some great ones.

After I got home for three weeks every Monday the team of people I work with (attorneys, secretaries, and other co-workers) would send me home via a co-worker that lives by me food for two to three days so that my husband would not have to worry about cooking and so that I would not have to be worried about and could just concentrate on getting better. They sent me cards and little things to remind me that they were thinking of me.

Care like this both at the hospital and at home was the best medicine in the world. My co-workers take care of me now that I am back at work too. I am lucky.

I am also lucky to have such great blogger friends. You make my life complete. Thank you for reading and for letting me read you. Have a great weekend!! Peace..

Feast One Hundred & Fourteen

Interesting:

Feast One Hundred & Fourteen

Appetizer: Name a song you know by heart.
Faithfully by Journey

Soup: What will you absolutely not do in front of another person?
Fart. I know so childish but I won't. I will run out of a room first.

Salad: How often do you use mouthwash and what kind do you like?
Everyday - Listrine - The Green One

Main Course Finish this sentence: I am embarrassed when...
I can't say a word correctly or when I stumble while reading aloud.

Dessert What was the last food you craved?
CHOCOLATE - ALL THE TIME

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I go back to work after a two month absence. I have been in and out of the hospital for a month of those two months. First they thought it was pneumonia then bronchitis. Turned out to be a pulmonary embolism and a blood clot in my lower right leg. I spent a week receiving blood thinners by IV and then a week after coming home I went right back because they made my blood too thin. They thicken it (plasma transfusions - 6 units) and then put a small filter in a vein in my right lung to catch any blood clots that might make it up there. I will go back on blood thinners sometime this month and be on them for the rest of my life. Turns out through several different blood tests (I looked like a human pin cushion for a while - bruises are still healing) that I have a genetic factor that makes me more prone to get blood thinners and since I was on a hormone pill - well there you go.. I am glad this ordeal is over and my life is getting back to normal (whatever that is). The nurses in the hospital were great - there were a couple who weren't but the good ones more than made up for it. The food was awful and the days and nights were long. It is a very lonely place to be in the hospital. It is just you in your little room - especially if on bed rest (which I was part of the time) - during the day not very many visitors because well people work - the only people I saw during the day were the nurses and a nun and priest who came by. In the evening you have a lot of visitors but they have to go home and because you are on bed rest the middle of the night is just as lonely as the middle of the day. When I was allowed to get out of bed and walk I would walk by other rooms and wave to people and say hi just to make some of them smile. Made me feel better too. There is a lot more and I will tell some of it over the next few entries. But I am glad to be back. I have missed my blog and missed reading others. Thanks and Peace!!

Be Back Soon

I have been away for a while now because I have been sick. Just wanted everyone to know that I am still out there and will return soon with full on details of my last few months. I am still not 100% which is why this post is so short. Let me just say I am getting better and stronger everyday. I miss all my blogging friends and can't wait to catch up with you all. Peace!!!

Fourth of July

Tomorrow will be the fourth of July. While our leaders try to push certain things under the table and try to get us to focus on what the right hand is doing so we don't see the left, we will be setting off firecrackers and eating hotdogs. There is nothing wrong with that, but remember while you do that your freedom came at a cost, because freedom well it is not free.

Whether you believe in the war or not (I do not!), you should support our soldiers. Whether or not they want to be there (most do not) they are just doing their job. Trying to do it the best they can. So if you see a soldier this week or know a soldier - tell him/her thank you for doing the job you do. It is not an easy job and comes with a lot of sacrifice and crap on their side. The pay sucks, the benefits while good, take a lot of red tape to get to, but they have their pride and should have the pride of their country behind them as well.

If you don't know a soldier, a picture of mine is a the top. One of the few downtimes he had in Iraq, they played cards in the barracks. No longer full time, still puts in his one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer and could just as easily be called back to full time duty at anytime. He said if he is, well he goes, it is part of the job. A job that protects the rights of this country to speak and be free. So whether you stand on your box and yell for all the injustices or stick you head in the sand and ignore it all, remember those whose job it is to give it to you.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your blog world. Enjoy your day tomorrow and thank a soldier the next time you see one!! Remember if they are trying hard to get you to look at their right hand - their left hand is sneaking around doing something it should not be doing.

Peace!!! And have a great one!!!

time

Time is just getting by me these days. It just seems like yesterday I wrote a post and it has been three weeks. So much going on. Let's see what: I celebrated 25 years of marriage on the 13th. We didn't do anything - we are taking a second honeymoon the end of July - nothing fancy just going to same place we went when we got married. I will look for a picture and post it one day. The camera is not my favorite thing. My daughter has gone back to school. The nine to five thing finally got to her and she realizes that she needs her education. She is taking summer classes here but will eventually leave to go back to her school for the spring 2007 semester.

The best news of all though is that my son got a job!! One that he likes as well. He is working for an oil company on a land based oil rig. It pays well and is actually a good job for him because it is at night. He spent so much time working at night while in Iraq that I think that was one of his bigger problems when he came back. He was not used to being out in the day and was not sure how to handle people during the day. Not that they are better in the day but when he patrolled at night he knew the people he dealt with were 9 times out of 10 up to no good. So it was an adjustment to come back here and deal with people in the daylight. This job is structured for him as well. He works three weeks on - 10 days off. He lives with one other person who works the shift opposite of him - kinda of like being back in the barracks and he works the night shift. So he has been working there for a week and the times he has called you can tell a difference in his voice. One of the best things of all though is he has a feeling of worth again.

You see when he came home everyone was so nice to have you back, thanks and so on but he could not find work anywhere. After a while rejection becomes a way of life. Walmart (I don't shop there anymore) has billboards up for their distribution center. He went through two interviews only to be told they didn't need him. A war vet - Walmart the we do everything for our country not hiring a war vet but still obviously hiring as new billboards just recently went up. After you apply and get turned down at so many places you start to think nobody wants you and how can that be after everything you just did for this country. So you get depressed (more so than when you first came home) and you get even more moody. Not good. So this job came along at just the right moment. It has given him of sense of someone needing him.

Other than this we have just been pluggin along with our lives. I read y'all out there everyday - I have to get to work so I will blog with y'all later. Peace and love!!!