Memorial Day doesn't mean BBQ and Beer to us

Growing up, we never celebrated Memorial Day, but we didn't celebrate anything. Not even Christmas. My Mom was Native American and Irish, with veteran relatives going back to the Revolutionary War. My Dad's Father was a highly decorated WWII Veteran, he did 2 tours and earned multiple Purple Hearts in the process. I never go to meet him, he died before I was born. My Dad's brother was in the Army in Vietnam. It changed him. He was "shell shocked" which is modern day PTSD. Long story short, our service members sacrifice everything up to and including their lives.

My Fiance and I have been together for almost 6 years. When we met, he had just got home from a year in Iraq. He is an Army Reservist and has been in for 10 years. In March of 2009 he left again, this time for 400 days. I was left here to keep the homefires burning. And that I did, but I also learned what it truly means to be a military family. These deployments are the hardest thing I can imagine ever going through (and I have had my share of tragedies)

We had to fight to save our life we had created. We succeeded but it changed EVERYTHING.

I am lucky that my Hawk was able to come home from the War twice. I know that there are countless men and women that never made it back. Many more will not. We don't cookout and drink on holidays like this one. We remember the fallen and are grateful that we did not lose everything. It's easy to look at those pictures of flag draped caskets and imagine my soldier in their place. When I say grateful, I mean shaking, crying, grateful. My soldier is my life, I can't imagine a future without him. Those that we have lost, and the families they left behind, we are honoring them today. Happy Memorial Day

Landscaping is my new hobby

Spent most of the past 3 days landscaping my yard. It is in pretty awful shape, but beginning to look a whole lot better. I'm going to take some pics tomorrow and compare them with old "before" pics. I have been renovating the inside for the past year, and now that Hawk is home, I have finally been able to get started on the outside. I've taken to stopping at garden centers just about everyday to pick up some thing or another. I am finally beginning to like being a home owner.

Sunshine Award!!

Well, thanks to Manda at My Explosive life...as an EOD Tech's Wife I have received my first blog award! It definitely made my day, so now I am going to pass it along. Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
3. Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blog.
4. Share the love and link the person who gave you the award

So here are my chosen bloggers!

1. Mrs. Jetplane at
Leaving and Loving on a Jetplane

2. Rachael at Senorita Rachael

3. Ms. Bumpkin at Bumpkin on a Swing

4. Chris at A deliberate life

5. Neysa at Dissertation to Dirt

6. Nicole at Mrs. Muffins

7. Lucy at Lucy's Life

8. Aubrey at All About Aubrey

9. Secret Blogger at My Big Fat Super Super Obese Blog

10. The Mrs. at Trying Our Best

11. ABW at Army Blogger Wife

12. Sarah at Dance Shoes and Combat Boots

I love these dozen fantastic bloggers and they definitely are the Sunshine in my Google Reader :)

Well,

So, I have had a TON of things going on in the past 2 months. My Hawk is HOME and we have been doing great. I've got one more final and then my semester is over and I will have a lot more time to be online! I also have some projects underway that I hope to document on here. Home improvements and gardening etc. . . We pretty much live at Home Depot (now that they offer a year round military discount like Lowes HA) so hopefully posts will be more regular shortly!