Memorial Day

We went to visit my brother and sister-in-law for Memorial Day weekend this year. What a great time we had. The boys went fishing on Sunday and the girls went to lunch and did some shopping! That is my kind of relaxing!

My brother was in the military so he took us to their local cemetery to see the Memorial Day celebration. There were flags everywhere! Each flag stands for a soldier who has passed away and has a small name plate on it. Talk about a powerful visual! I have been very interested in supporting the soldiers - especially since a boy that I watched grow up in our church went to Iraq a few years ago to drive tanks. I was blubbering on the back row of the church when the pastor prayed for him before he left for his mission. I was holding Josh who was quite small at the time and just kept thinking - "I couldn't do that - let my baby go off to fight in a war!" His mom was very well put together and she told me "If God is calling him over there, then who am I to say no?" WOW! What maturity she has shown me over the last few years.

So, needless to say, I saw all these flags and just couldn't help but think about the family members who were remembering those who fought for my freedom. I did get a bit teary eyed while walking through the cemetery. Boy, this sure does make it very clear that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!

Thank you to all who are willing to sacrifice time and life for our freedom! Our prayers are with you!

Here are the boys with their cousin Seth. He is 4 and did not want his "new friends" to leave.

Here is a pathway with the flags displayed along the sides.

In the center of the cemetery there was a pond with a couple of swans and some REALLY BIG fish - the boys wanted to get their fishing poles but we calmed them down and explained that you can't fish in a cemetery! They were not happy since they could see the HUGE bass just being lazy in the shallow pond but they did cooperate.

Here is a picture of the area for the service that they had set up on the other side of the pond (with the HUGE fish -did I mention that already?)

More flags on display.

More flags.....

My brother decided that he wanted flag with his name on it. Then I reminded him that he had to die before he could get one! I told him not to rush it.....we might just have to get him one for Christmas as a joke!

SPRING - not yet!

So, being that is February 25th and a few of my little flowers are poking through the ground, I was hoping that spring was JUST around the corner. Did the groundhog see his shadow this year? I never pay attention since God does have it all under control - shadow or not! BUT I was sure that spring and the warm summer sun rays were close in coming.

That is until today! We now have 3 inches of snow on the ground! This morning it rained HARD and I continued thinking "Yep! It's spring!" Then there were the few RANDOM snowflakes, THEN it started snowing instead of raining but it wasn't sticking....YET! I took a bit of a nap - I know, I know, I know.....but I am still recovering from a weekend with 48 middle schoolers at a church retreat! SO.....when I woke up around 5ish I could see NO grass! We shall see if this lasts or is gone in the morning! Here is what it looked like outside our back door! It was snowing so hard I couldn't even see the hill behind our house!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised (whoever invented Global Warming is crazy!) at the snow since last spring one of the boys soccer games was cancelled due to snow and then it SNOWED again on the make-up game! I am thinking it is more Global Cooling in this part of the country but I am no scientist - just an observer of actual happenings!

Gonna Be A Bear

In this life I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd like to come back as a bear. When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're mama bear, everyone knows y0u mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup, gonna be a bear!

Author Unknown