"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." Dr. Seuss
On this day of remembrance, please be thoughtful of all of our veterans who bravely served so that we can live in the greatest country in the world, with all the freedoms that enjoy.
Please also keep in mind those who are still serving and are away from their families, and say a prayer that they all come home safely, soon.
I would like to give a shout out to my father and Uncle Raymond who served in the Air Force, and of course my son, Nikolaus, who is in the Army Reserves now, and spent a year in Afghanistan. I am so proud of you and thank you for your service and am so blessed that you all came home safely to our family.
Uncle Ray in Korea
Nikolaus in Afghanistan
God bless all of you who serve and have served to protect us and our country, and God bless America.
On June 14, 1777, The Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act stating, "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." In 1949, President Harry S Truman officially named June 14th Flag Day in commemoration of this event.
So today... show your colors proud, either on our home or on yourself. OR, like we do - on both.
Also, please keep in mind the men and women who serve to keep our flag flying free!
** This is week #91 of Monday's Music Moves Me... don't forget our Grand Gala Giveaway begins with week #95 - and you must be a participant for at least 5 weeks to play! **
Welcome to Monday's Music Moves Me!!! We want to make our
meme fantastic but, we cannot do that without all of you... so come on share
your music with us and get your friends to share with
us, too. Our fearless leader is none other that the sweetest and
most wonderful Marie of XmasDolly. Helping her keep this train running
are ME, my dear friend Stacy of StacyUncorked, the lovely Callie of JamericanSpice and the newest member of our
crew... the wonderful and talented Cathy of Cathy Kennedy's Blog. We will also have some
helpers along the way when we need to because life is.... well, life! For
the month of May (starting today) our dear friend Denise of RunDMT, who is a faithful supporter of
Monday's Music Moves Me, will be helping out due to lots of "life" that is going
on with several of us. Thank you SO much Denise - you are
AWESOME!!
Here is what you need to do to
play along....
First step: Head on over to
You Tube, or anywhere you get your music videos and post them on your blog!
Upcoming themes are to you LOWER RIGHT of XmasDolly's blog.
Second Step: Grab our "Monday's
Music Moves Me" Button, mine is on my right sidebar, or off of any of the hosts'
sites.
Third step: SIGN THE LINKY -
Follow your hosts (we will all follow you and try to comment each week), grab
their buttons too when you visit (mine is on my right sidebar above the 4M
button) and show them some love by leaving a comment.
Final step: Go visit the other
Rockers on our Linky and PLEASE show them some love by leaving them a comment,
you know you like comments, they do too!
This week's theme is FREEBIE! Since this is Memorial Day, I decided to post songs that honor our troops, the true heroes of our country.
Won't Be Coming Home
If I Don't Make it Back ~ Tracy Lawrence
Letters from Home ~ John Michael Montgomery
This one always gives me goosebumps.....
Riding with Private Malone ~ David Ball
.....and one final song for all those who have paid the final sacrifice for our freedom.
The History of Taps ~ As told by John Wayne
I really hope you enjoyed
my songs - now it's your turn! So now pick your songs, write a post and don't
forget to add it to one of the linky's - there is one on each of the hosts'
blog. And bring along a friend,
will you - the more the
merrier, we say! We can't
wait to hear your songs, plus you might be chosen as our Spotlight Dancer and be
in the #1 or 2 linky spot, like this weeks spotlight winners.
Don't forget to grab the Spotlight Dancer
button from XmasDolly's blog and proudly display it on
your blog showing everyone that you were picked!
Now, go on and post your
songs... get your friends to post their favorite songs and link
up so we all can hear them... and have a musical
Monday.
ROCK ON,
MY FRIENDS!!
As you celebrate Memorial Day today, surrounded by your family and friends, please keep in mind our troops who volunteer to keep us safe and protect our freedoms every day of the year.
I'm very sorry to say there are some people not playing along just using our linky to get traffic for their blogs! Unfortunately, these bloggers will be marked and ignored, you will not get any benefit from our linky, so don't bother. All we ask is that you leave a comment, grab our button, ad/or follow us. If you don't want to post a video, you can post a link to a video, or post some lyrics, but please - at least attempt to make it music related.
*** Just one more
thing...
PLEASE, we are
family friendly blogs
and while we really
don't want to censor anyone,
we do ask that you
keep your songs rated PG13 or less.
If you find that
you need to post songs of an explicit sexual nature or language,
please find a
different venue.
If your song does
contain a small amount of questionable language,
Alicia from More Than Words says she started Friday Photo Flashback because "I have so many
pictures from my PRE-digital camera days. I thought it would be fun to scan them
and share them here with you.. I'm having so much fun doing this, that I would
love for you to join me, too! So dig out the photo albums and put your scanner
to good use! Don't forget to link up so we can all visit and comment on each
others blogs!"
I have been so busy lately, that I haven't done one of these posts in several months, but I wanted to take this opportunity to showcase my Uncle Raymond (my dad's brother) in Korea when he was in the Air Force.
I also want to share a photo of my son when he was in Afghanistan serving in the Army. Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of one of his brothers-in-arms.
As you celebrate your holiday weekend, please remember those who have served to protect our country and their families. Pray for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice:
Share your flashback photo on your blog and link up with Alicia on her blog.
Wishing you all a fabulous holiday weekend with those you love. Be safe!
I received this email from a friend of mine, and I had to share it with all of you... It moved me to tears. Just remember what we can all accomplish when we work as a community.
Remember to keep in mind those men and women who keep us safe and secure and are far away from their families facing danger and the chance that they may never return.
To those of us who are Christian, today is a very special day in that we celebrate the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ. I am wishing all of you celebrating Easter, a very happy day with whomever you are with, and that you are all surrounded by love and joy.
For my Jewish friends, I want to wish you a joyous Passover... From my research and my own personal bible studies, I have learned the story of Passover as follows (taken from Chabad.org):
"After many decades of slavery to the Egyptian pharaohs, during which time the Israelites were subjected to backbreaking labor and unbearable horrors, God saw the people’s distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: “Send forth My people, so that they may serve Me.” But despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed God’s command. God then sent upon Egypt ten devastating plagues, afflicting them and destroying everything from their livestock to their crops. At the stroke of midnight of 15 Nissan in the year 1313 BCE, God visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, God spared the Children of Israel, “passing over” their homes—hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh’s resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked as provisions for the way did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt on that day, and began the trek to Mount Sinai and their birth as God’s chosen people."
I wish the same for my Jewish friends as I do for my Christian friends, love and joy as you celebrate with your family and friends.
I would like to ask everyone today to please remember those who are away from their loved ones protecting our country and our freedoms and say a prayer for their safe return as soon as possible.
I just got a message from my son, Nikolaus that during his Army Reserve weekend drill service that he has been promoted to Sargent!! WooHoo...
Nik in uniform with new Sargent stripes!
He is SUCH a good soldier and has been since his first days at basic training, where he graduated as soldier of the cycle (which is top of his class).
I am so proud of the man he has become and how hard he works at becoming a strong soldier to protect our country. Every day he does something that makes my heart swell with love and pride. Including his choice of companion, who has stood by him during his deployment in Afghanistan. I truly adore his girlfriend, Michelle, and hope she becomes part of our family some day soon.
Michell & Nik after his promotion.
Congratulations to my dear little boy... you make me so proud and I love you with all my heart!
Welcome to Wordless Wednesday..... I'm looking forward to seeing all of your photos, so if you leave a comment, please leave your email address so I can come on over and take a look.
For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head over to the WW Hub, leave your link, check out the other participants, and don't forget to leave a nice comment - you know you like comments, they do too!!
I received this via email from a friend of mine in Connecticut and wanted to share it with you all. I have to say, to me, this is the most touching, heart wrenching, meaningful photo I have seen.
Meet Landon.
His father, Marine LCPL Carpenter, gave his life defending our country in Afghanistan earlier this year, a month before his son was born.
Baby Landon's Mom wants his story to be known. Take a moment to share this photo with your friends and reflect on the price of freedom.
Never forget the price of freedom!
{Disclosure: I could find no reference to the authenticity or not of this photo, however I do know that this happens MUCH too often, so I wanted to share it with you anyway as the sentiment means so much to me.}
The home of Derek and Courtney Whitis in SouthWood, which has been drawing spectators to its colorful and musical light display for weeks, has won the Good Morning America Big Bright Holiday Lights showdown contest. The visual display is accompanied by a four-minute soundtrack that plays a portion of the song for each branch of the military.
While the display will likely send the Whitis family’s electric bill sky high, Courtney Whitis says that the cost of the display is “nothing in comparison to what the troops do every day for our freedom.” She goes on to say, “We did this just to pay tribute to those who have served, are serving and will serve in the military protecting our freedom.”
Here is the winning home, I love it:
It is SO moving and a wonderful tribute to our troops. The Whitises seek to raise awareness and money for the Semper Fi Fund, which provides assistance for wounded soldiers in their recovery process. Those who would like to donate can visit semperfifund.org.
Let us continue to pray and support our troops and their families not only this time of the year, but all year long as they fight and sacrifice for our freedoms.
On this very unique Veteran's Day, I ask you all to take a moment during the day to remember all of those who serve our country, to thank them for all they sacrifice so that we have the freedoms we have.
Please take a special moment to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.
Also keep in mind their families today as they remember the loss of a brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter, etc. What an unselfish thing they have done for all of us. They must be hurting today with their memories. God bless them all.
As for my favorite soldier, I am grateful that you made it home safely from your tour in Afghanistan and I am so proud of the man you have become.
So to all of our troops serving now and who have served, thank you so much for all you have done. I am praying for all the active duty troops to come home safely soon. And a final prayer for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, God bless you and your families.
Hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July... wishing you time with the ones you love, have fun, be safe, and as always, please keep in mind those who have fought and died and are still serving our country so that we can have the freedoms we enjoy.
God bless America ~ The land of the free because of the brave!
In the United States, FlagDay is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. The June 14 date is also when Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.
FYI: The United States flag has not always had thirteen stripes. The first flag of the United States, adopted by Congress on June 14, 1777, had thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, each representing the thirteen original colonies. After Vermont became the fourteenth state in 1791 and Kentucky became the fifteenth became the fifteenth state in 1792, Congress added two more stars and two more stripes to the flag in 1795. When five more states joined the Union, Congress ruled that after July 4, 1818, the flag would revert permanently to thirteen stripes.
Please remember to fly your flag today and keep in mind those who are serving in the military now and who have served in the past so we have the freedom to do so and remember those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.
I originally posted this on 6/6/10, but felt it was important enough to repost it today. Please keep in mind those who fight every day for our freedoms and for the families who have lost loved ones in the continued battles all over the world. God bless our country and our troops!
Today is the anniversary of the Allies invasion of France on June 6, 1944 which was a triumph of intelligence, coordination, secrecy, and planning. The bold attack was also a tremendous risk, but ultimately it succeeded because of individual soldiers' bravery in combat. By nightfall, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded, but more than 100,000 had made it ashore, securing French coastal villages.
Please remember these men who risked their lives and those who gave up their lives so that we could have our freedom. God bless you all and God bless America.
Until next time..... Lorie
[By the way, if you have a chance, check out all the interesting information on D-Day at the pbs.org site, it is very informative, plus has copies of letters from deployed soldiers to their loved ones.]
Welcome to Wordless Wednesday.... I'm looking forward to to seeing all of your photos, so if you leave a comment, please leave your email address so I can come on over and take a look.
These photos are from Memorial Day. Bill got dressed first and went downstairs while I was in the shower. Then I got the doggies and myself ready for the day. When I got downstairs, I looked at what Bill was wearing and had to laugh.... I guess it is true what they say about people who are married for a while starting to look like each other; or is it just that great minds thinking alike?
Don't we look cute? Sorry the letters are backwards, I took the photos in the mirror (HaHa) - the shirts say, "Celebration, FL supports our troops" - I guess both of us figured they were appropriate for the holiday. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and were able to spend time with those you love, as you can see..... I did. =)
For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head over to the WW Hub, leave your link, check out the other participants, and don't forget to leave a nice comment - you know you like comments, they do too!!
And don't forget about our recipe sharing meme tomorrow: "Recipe Swap Meet Thursday" - have you got your recipe ready??? Don't forget to grab our button and play along...Happy cooking.
As we all celebrate Memorial Day today with our families, having picnics, swimming, laughing, playing and whatever else you may be doing, please remember to take the time to think about what today is really about.
