Memorial Day

Remembering those who have fallen in defense of freedom.

My dad (on the left in the picture below) was a Vietnam War Vet. He was with the 45th Dust-Off - Medivac helicopters. He was proud to have served his country and to have helped his fellow soldiers in their time of need. He and all other Vietnam vets should've been treated better when they came home.

In the painting above are some of the real men of Band of Brothers. Left to right, Don Malarkey, Bill "Wild Bill" Guarnere, Babe Heffron and Earl McClung. The "ghost" kneeling is Skip Muck, who was killed in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. I'm not sure who the others are. All of these men fought with the 101st Airborne, 506th PIR, Easy Company, during WWII.

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII. My paternal grandfather was in the Navy. My maternal grandfather was in the Army and fought in North Africa. I also have ancestors who fought in WWI, the Civil War and the Revolutionary War.

Stupid Virus and Recommended Blogs

Whatever punishment there might be for those who create computer viruses, I'm not sure it's harsh enough. I've been working on removing a very annoying virus from my computer. It's driving me crazy. MajorGeeks.com is helping me, as they have in the past. I highly recommend them if you ever have computer issues (viruses or not) that you need help with.

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Charlie should hopefully be home by Wednesday or Thursday. What was expected to be just a week-long business trip to the Texas panhandle has turned into a month and has included driving to Kansas and back to TX twice. *sigh* He really wants to come home and more and more desires a job that doesn't send him out of state. Especially for so long.

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I recently "discovered" a few blogs that I'd like to share with y'all. :-)

Ragged Robin's Nature Notes. As the name implies, it is a nature blog. Beautiful photos. The author lives in England.

The Southport Times blog. A newspaper blog focused on my lovely hometown, Southport, North Carolina.

My Oak Island Adventure! Life in Oak Island, NC.

Sleep Talkin' Man. Hilarious!

In the Left Lane is not a recent discovery. I've been reading and following this blog for at least a year. The author doesn't have a lot of followers (40), but should in my opinion. Her and her husband moved back to the states (California) a few months ago from England and are expecting their first child. They traveled a lot to other countries when they lived in England, so be sure and check out past entries.

Hosanna

I can't get enough of this song lately (you'll have to scroll down to the bottom of my page and pause my music player first):

Sean's Teeth

I took Sean to the dentist yesterday. Surprisingly, he doesn't have any cavities. I say "surprisingly" because he doesn't brush his teeth as well as he should. The dentist said that as well - that Sean needs to do a better job brushing his teeth down to the gums.

So, that's good news that he doesn't have any cavities. But there's also bad news - he needs braces. (Though his teeth don't look crooked to me and the dentist said that they're spaced nicely.) Also, his permanent top left canine tooth is impacted and is pointing the wrong way (towards his two front teeth). The dentist wants me to take Sean to the orthodontist who will most likely pull the baby tooth (which isn't loose) and then do something (attach something?) to the permanent tooth to help it come down straight.

Sean isn't happy at all about having to have a tooth pulled or about getting braces. He said, "I'm not going to let them give me braces." I told him it's not his decision to make. Then he said, "It's my mouth." To which I replied, "That mouth belongs to me until you're 18 and I decide whether or not you get braces." Which, if the orthodontist says that Sean needs braces, I will definitely agree to it.

Sean (who is 15 now) wants a girlfriend (I don't think he has anyone specific in mind) and I told him that no girl wants to be with a guy who has bad teeth. And if he doesn't get that tooth taken care of it will push the other teeth over when it comes down and then his mouth really will be a mess. Then he'll wish he'd gotten braces before things got really bad.

His main worries are that he'll "look ugly" with braces and that it will hurt when they pull the tooth. I told him that he will not look ugly, that his teeth will be straight and pretty after the braces come off and that he'll be glad he got them once it's over with. As for the pain, I told him they'd give him something for the pain. Maybe even laughing gas. I joked and acted goofy, which got him smiling and laughing, and then he felt better about things.

He still doesn't want braces though and he said he'll be praying that God takes care of it so that he doesn't have to get them. lol He asked me to pray too and I told him I would, but that God may choose not to. I told him I'll go ahead and make the appointment and we'll see what the orthodontist has to say.

Anyway, (sorry if that was boring), after leaving the dentist's office, I took Sean to Brixx Pizza. It's never just me and him going out to eat (it's usually me and both my kids or the four of us or just me and Kelly because Sean likes to be with my mom when she's off), so it was nice to get to do that yesterday.

My mom had picked up Kelly from school and they spent some time together. (They went to Ruby Tuesday and Wal-Mart.) Which was nice for them since Kelly is always with me and her and my mom hardly ever (almost never) get to spend time together, just the two of them. Sean is always there too and Kelly is still really attached to me (though I'm trying to help her not to be) and usually prefers to be with me.

I took Sean to get a haircut after we ate and then we went home. Just a couple hours later, we headed out again. This time Sean and Kelly were both with me. The ladies at my church were having special prayer time, focused on our kids. Sean and Kelly played in the gym with a couple of the men and two little girls while us ladies prayed.

We got home at close to 9:00 and it felt good not to have go anywhere again. It seemed like such a long day.