There's worse things than coming home to snow.

This is just hitting too close to home.



My heart aches tonight for his family, his friends and particularly his fellow officers.



Tomorrow this fine public servant will be memorialized and on Tuesday he will be rightfully given a hero's funeral.

Paul Harvey's Tribute to our Fine Officers

Hey.... Over Here----->>>>>>>>>

Check out this guy at Rumbles from the Vent

He's the one I wrote about here

Warning: I bear no responsibilities for his antics either today or when we were kids.

The Grateful

Yesterday, I was shown a picture on an Iphone taken late last summer.

The old woman was severely hunched over her walker as she made the difficult journey up a very steep hill. She was not to be deterred from her mission. She spoke only six English words, but that was all she needed to say.

She was 6 years old in April 1945.

When going through his father's belongings, he found eight canisters filled with undeveloped film. He, like most of us, had never asked his father much about his military experience before it was too late. In going through the belongings, he found all of his military paperwork detailing his unit.

After hours and hours of research he found those aging soldiers who had served in the same unit as his father. He could follow the trail the unit had made. While America was planning the invasion of Normandy, there were thousands of soldiers also advancing from the south. His father's unit was among them.

He traced out the path those soldiers took and discovered that every year there was now a dwindling group that would tour the bloody path of war those soldiers trekked, through France and into Germany.

Sixty years later, those battles were resurrected from the eight canisters of film being developed between someone's recent trip to Disney World.

The pictures of the young weary soldiers were also joined by pictures of the atrocities of mankind.

In April 1945, his father's unit helped liberate Dachau. The Americans found 32,000 prisoners alive, 1,600 housed in each of the 20 bunkers designed to hold 250. The Germans had fled to avoid the advancing American troops.

Imagine finding images of the concentration camp along with hundreds, maybe thousands of bodies discarded along the ditches.

Bringing with him the pictures that now had been released from the canisters, he joined the small group that followed the path of the soldiers. Sadly there was now only three of them that remained healthy enough to make the trip.

The young Dachau tour guide was busy explaining to the group the standard memorized words when he was handed a picture of one of the buildings from 1945. He stopped and stared at the picture for a long time in amazement. Suddenly the young man could see the concentration camp as it appeared when the Americans arrived. He took the soldier's son to the building which was still standing, placed him in the precise location where his father had stood and the son took the exact picture his father had taken 65 years ago.

As the small group toured the rest of the camp, the aging bent woman finally made her way to them. She found one of the aging soldiers that arrived there on April 29, 1945.

She lowered herself from the walker and kneeled in front of the old man. She slowly took his hand, kissed it and uttered the only English words she understood.

She said in her extremely broken English, "Thank you for liberating my village."

Who I am and why I blog

After starting this blog nearly two years ago, I doubt that anything I've written answers any of those questions.    With my little Ordinary Life, I can't believe I have even one reader outside of my immediate family who are forced to read occasionally.

Anyway, since there are a handful of people who have happened upon my blog since I first started ( and the fact that I'm too lazy to write something interesting tonight), I'm reposting my very first post that explains just how ordinary a life I have thoroughly enjoyed. 


Dateline February 27, 2009:

I have an ordinary life. I can't say that I have tried to save the world or even one person. I have never made an impact on my country, my state, my town, not even my school when I was a kid.

Last year I attended a Women's Retreat in Indianapolis at a church. I will not say most of the things that happened there, because the beauty of the retreat was not knowing what to expect and when. But it made me look at my life a little differently.

My closest friend and I email several times a week, sometimes several times a day our thoughts, our lives, our funny stories, our sad times, our fears, things we would never tell anyone else because someone who doesn't know us as well might think we're boasting, whining, silly, etc.

In preparation for this weekend retreat I was emailing my friend about how little I had done with my life. I had not spent alot of time helping others. I wanted to, but it seems I'm always too busy. I was comparing myself to a lady that I've met who started a girls rescue house (Rapha House) in Cambodia. Stephanie Freed is an ordinary housewife who believed she could make a difference on the other side of the world and she is, one rescued girl at a time. You will see the blog link on my list of those I follow.

What have I done? Who have I helped? Without ever having kids of my own, how could I ever feel like I will be leaving a legacy?

As I told my friend, in a half joking email. My life has been rather.......pointless.

Of course she took exception to that and it wasn't until later that I realized that what I had just said to her was an insult.

She began working for me when she was 20 years old. She's now about to turn 38. I left that company 12 years ago and we continue to be as close as family. She needed the closeness of a mother and I needed the closeness of a daughter. We have seen each other through good times and bad times, never wavering from our friendship. If she had told me her life was pointless, even jokingly , I would have ripped her a new one for ignoring her importance in my life.

While I was really kidding about my life being pointless, I realized later that the word carries a certain connotation about the other people in my life. She, among many others is very important in my life and I know that I am very important in other people's lives. So then, how can my life be pointless? In fact, those words are an insult to virtually everyone I know and love.

I may not ever get to change things in the world, my state or even my block, but I have to be honest with myself and believe that I mean something to people like my friend. I've been blessed with a very close, tight-knit family that would be there for me, no questions asked. Again, saying my life is pointless is an insult to them and our relationship.

Nearly two years ago I ended up with some two separate fairly serious health issues that landed me in St. Francis Critical Care for 4 days and then, unrelated major surgery 6 weeks later at Community North (having compared to the two, I would advise NEVER go to Community). My 5 year-old grandson came to see me at both hospitals.

Now you have to understand, our grandson is ALL about his Papaw. I had always been an afterthought when Papaw would get busy doing something else. In Community Hospital (another 4 days) after my surgery, Papaw found he did not want to spend another weekend by himself so he asked to pick up our grandson for Saturday night. On the way home, they came to see me in the hospital.

Sunday morning my husband called me and said that our grandson had said he wanted to come see me again before he went back home. There wasn't time, but my husband said he could call me. Normally my grandson would only have one or two words to say to me on a phone call, but he talked to me for 20 minutes. It dawned on me that the previous night had been the first time he had stayed at our house without me being there. He was used to always counting on me listening to him if Papaw got too sidetracked.

A couple months later we were in the car taking him to our house to play. He blurted out of the blue, "Mamaw, I sure hope you don't have to go back to the hospital again." I was shocked by his words, I had made sure I didn't bring up my temporary health issues around him and the last hospital stay was two months prior. We had noticed that since then he would stick close to me, sitting on my lap (which hurt after surgery, but I wasn't going to complain), following me around, asking me how I was feeling, letting me snuggle him more often.

So after his comment about the hospital, it dawned on me that he had continued to question me about how I was ever since he visited me the last hospital stay. I realized then that I needed to calm his fears. He was obviously concerned and quite frankly, I was shocked by that. Neither of my hospital stays were related to each other, however both were fairly serious at the time, but nothing permanent. His continued questioning made me realize that, even at 5, he was concerned that I was really sick.

I explained to him that I was fine and I wouldn't have to go back into the hospital. Then he wanted to know why I had surgery. I thought it best not to explain a complete hysterectomy to a 5 year old, so I told him I had an "extra part" they needed to remove. He wanted to know if it would grow back. I smiled and assured him it would not.

Then he asked, "What would have happened if you hadn't had the surgery." At that time, I realized that I needed to come straight to the point.

I turned around and looked him straight in the eye and said, "I would NOT have died." And that was it. He never asked me again about the hospitals or the surgery. I think he just wanted reassurance that I was ok and he wasn't going to lose me.

Now someone explain to me how I could have said my life was pointless, even if I was half-joking?

So I have an ordinary life. I'm good with that. While I can continue to hope that I will help to make the world better, it reality there are alot of family and friends that would be upset at me for saying that my life is pointless.

No one's is.

And that very statement selfishly ignores those of us around us who loves us and counts on us.

I'm sorry I ever said it. Ordinary isn't pointless.

For a Little Laughter

It's damnyouautocorrect.com.  This is particularly relevant if you have an IPhone.  It's amazing what text you send the exact minute you hit the SEND button.

I am not responsible for any obscene language.

But this site makes me laugh nearly every day.

I want to live where there is no winter.

Are you kidding me?

Forty-nine states currently have snow.  Take a look.

The past two days we've had nasty blowing snow.    Only Florida does not have snow. 

Guess where I "ain't".

I wanna start my whining now.

I hate Indiana.  Except for the month of May.

Let's see, how many more days is it until May?   

Finally. A voice of reason

Although I didn't appreciate the cheers and shouting out from the young crowd filling the auditorium at the university, I finally found that President Obama delivered a comforting and healing speech to all this madness that has overtaken our great nation since Saturday.

His final words were delivered well.

"I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here – they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.
Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001, one of 50 babies born that day to be pictured in a book called “Faces of Hope.” On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child’s life. “I hope you help those in need,” read one. “I hope you know all of the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles.”

If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.

May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America."

An update to my last post

For the Love of God.....STOP IT!  STOP IT!   STOP IT!!!!!!!

What is wrong with you people?   They are still running horrible stories about how political discourse caused this tragedy.

The sheriff in that town needs to be fired TODAY.  He'd rather spout his horrible politcal hate than do his job. 

His office was warned of the death threats ACCORDING TO HIM. 

If anyone has blood on their hands, that man better look in the mirror.

STOP THE POLITICIZING OF THESE HORRIBLE KILLINGS!

This madman had been planning this since 2007 because the government was controlling grammar and he didn't like the Congresswoman's grammar.  How in the name of God, does this relate to the TEA party, Sarah Palin or anyone else?  He even said he planned ahead, but even that hasn't stopped this prostitute we call the media.

I'm going to have to turn off my TV or watch a movie until all of the media scumbag find a new outlet or another tragedy to exploit.

They should hang their heads in shame.

I'm not talking about this guy.

Or this man.

Or this kid.

They each had an extreme hatred for the government but no one can deny that each one of them were sincerely absolutely mad men.  Insane mad men whose madness drove them to murder innocent lives.

I don't believe delirious mad men possess shame, only madness.

BUT.

The people that should be hanging their head in shame are the ones that are lighting up the headlines, blogs, TV and every single media outlet by blaming their "real enemy", the other political party.

It's sickening.  Absolutely appalling.  No amount of political discourse has caused any of these three men to murder innocent men, women and children.

These men are/were sick.

Every single media whore who wants to make a political statement to blame the opposition party for yesterday's tragedy are soulless bastards.  May God have mercy on their souls.

When anyone feels they want to find some blame, please remember this child.

Christina Green

9/11/01 - 1/8/11

That's right.  She was born on the day the rest of America was mourning.  Today we mourn with her parents.  This should not be a political stunt, this is an incredibly sad tragedy.

Let's get our priorities straight.

Since I've been such a downer lately.....

Hope you enjoy the video.

Kevin

This is the fine young man I've referred to in previous posts. As you can see, he's come so far.

Wonderful kid, funny personality and best of all a great outlook on all that his young life has dealt him.

(Please wait a minute or so, the video takes a while to appear, but it's definitely worth seeing.)