Cinderella’s Etsy Shop.

My daughter, Cinderella has opened her very own Etsy Shop. She is a most talented baker, crafter, and a great mom. She made some awesomely cute headbands, placemats, and fabric flower arrangements. She is also former army and created an American Flag placemat.

Please check out her wonderful creations and let me know what you plan to buy. Feel free to link to this post and help this stay-at-home mom get her personal business off the ground.

Please Help This Military Family!

This email was in my inbox this morning.

A Military Family Needs Our Help!

The Burr Family is fighting to support their Marine.

Their son Corey is deployed in Afghanistan, and they have displayed a sign in their yard to strongly show their support. But the HOA is suing the Burrs because they refuse to take down their sign.

The Burrs need our help.

We have sent free yard signs to the Burrs so they can raise awareness to their cause. Now here is what you can do:

1. Email the HOA and tell them to drop their suit against the Burrs.
2. Sign the petition here.
3. Give your opinion on what else we (or all of us) should do to help. Visit Facebook/BuildASignTroops

Corey defends our freedom. Now you can help defend his parents as they try so hard to show him their support.

Sincerely,

The BuildASign Family

I have personally worked with BuildASign. I have also used their services. They are a good business that support our troops. I say if this young man is willing to sacrifice for us then his family should be able to support him. And the HOA should F off!

The Difficulty of Dealing With Invisible Wounds.

This is a guest post from Timothy Elliot. Honoring and helping our nation’s service people and veterans is near and dear to my heart and is why I agreed to have Mr. Elliot post an article here and on Life’s Like a Box of Chocolates. I hope you enjoy both of Mr. Elliot’s articles and go here to read the his other post.

There’s no overstating how difficult it can be for families when a service member is deployed overseas, but increasingly military families have been facing an entirely different set of difficult circumstances. Not only are thousands of soldiers returning home wounded, an increasingly high number of those wounds are so-called ‘invisible wounds’. Invisible wounds, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and mesothelioma, can be particularly difficult for family members to cope with because at first they may not appear to be directly related to active duty. For example, the symptoms of PTSD include feeling numb and hyper arousal- both of which can be difficult to family members, especially children, to recognize as symptoms of a disease. Similarly the symptoms of mesothelioma and TBI are often difficult to recognize. However, allowing invisible wounds to go untreated is a grave mistake. Without treatment TBI can be deadly and cut off the needed oxygen flow to the brain, and the mesothelioma life expectancy is only between one and two years because it commonly goes untreated. It can be extremely difficult to have a service member return home after their tour only to see them distinctively changed by an invisible wound, but it’s important to remember that, just like any other injury, with the right resources these wounds can be treated. A soldier with a TBI can receive extensive rehabilitation that involves physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, a soldier with PTSD can receive counseling and group therapy, and with careful attention to the early mesothelioma symptoms it’s possible for the tumor to be surgically removed. And, of course, throughout any of these treatments any soldier will need the support of his community and family.

Timothy Elliot is a dedicated supporter of our troops and an avid advocate for veterans’ rights.

My Thoughts Today On Veterans Day.

I wrote about Veterans Day on my other blog. Life’s Like A Box Of Chocolates. Go there to read about it.

Happiness Project

My son, Cpl Honda is a US Marine. He just returned from a deployment in April. Needless to say this made me VERY happy! My best friend, Lady Red and I went to homecoming. We stayed in San Clemente, CA. I love this city. It is the perfect beach town. We had quite an adventure and you can read about homecoming part one, part two and the final installment. Overall, we had a great time exploring the city, eating in some great restuarants, shopping and spending time at the beach.

I got some amazing shots of succulants growing outside of the shops we visited.

But the best photos of all are my son finally home!

Excuse the wild hair. It was humid and I have curly, thick hair and we were out there waiting for several hours. You know, military, hurry up and wait.

Deployment Over!

Cpl Honda returned from a seven month deployment last Wednesday. He was deployed on a Navy ship and got to see a bit of the world. Some of it he liked,  some he did not.

I am posting about the whole homecoming experience on my other blog, Life is Like a Box of Chocolates and posting pictures on my Shutterfly page. Scroll all the way down for the pictures. I also blogged the whole deployment there.

Please go read about my adventure. Trust me it was quite a trip!

I Feeeeel Good!

I usually post the Cpl Hond stories on Life’s Like a Box of Chocolates, but today I feel like putting it here. Why? Because I feel feel Good!

I now have a firm date for homecoming! Well as firm a date as the military lets you have. He will be leaving his ship with his battalion on helicopters! How exciting is that! I was hoping to see the ship come in but hey Helicopters are not two shabby. That is if we are allowed to see that. I won’t get my hopes up just yet.

Cpl Honda and I have come up with a better plan to get his car back to him too. We decided that I would drive the car out there and since he gets a 96 after he gets back, he will take me home. We were going to tow it behind our truck and basically do an overnighter and then return home and I was not looking forward to it. We did that when he left and trust me it what not fun.

So, I only have a few weeks to go and my son will be back on land and I will know where he is and be able to talk to him any damn time I want. Oh, and deployment gremlins, don’t even try it!

Calendar for the Fallen

I found this  video Fox News this morning. Patricia Boyd, a two blue star mom came up with the idea to create a calendar that honors fallen service people from Minnesota.

This is a wonderful idea. Something every state should think about doing.

New Blog Post on Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

I have a new post on Life is Like a Box Of Chocolates:

5 Ways to Support the Troops During the Holidays

Please visit and tell me how you support the troops during the holidays.

The Targets

As parents, we all worry about out children. Worry is something that starts long before our children are born. Then we realize the worry will never end. As parents of military members, we share another fear. Fear, we dread hearing the words, “Mom, Dad. I will be deploying on….” Those words pull on our heart even more because we know they will intentionally be in harm’s way.

What we try not to fear is when they are stateside on a base or post is their safety. The murder of 12 soldiers and 1 police officer on Fort Hood came as such a shock. Were they not supposed to be safe?

When my son deployed this fall on a naval ship I knew in my mind that all would probably be well. However, to be honest watching that ship sink smaller into the horizon left me with a pit in my stomach. I wanted to jump in the ocean and bring him back. I think about him every night before I go to sleep. I wonder where he is. I wonder if he will be safe while in port. No, I am sure I do not have the same fear as a mother of a service member in Afghanistan or Iraq, but fear is still fear.

When my son came home from boot camp, he told me that he is not allowed to travel in uniform. Why? Because he is a target. A target? My Son?

Last week we found out just how much of a target our children are. It is shameful, but real. It is why I lay awake at night.