My grandpa passed away exactly one year and one month to the day after my daughter passed away on August 16, 2009. Since I can remember Grandpa told me stories about his time in the Navy in World War II. When he went to basic and his job school (which is the equivalent of AIT in the Army), everyone put down there preference of where they wanted to be stationed. They could either choose the East Coast or The Pacific in Hawaii. Since he was from the west coast he choose The Pacific and since … [Read more...]
Day 104: Writing Your Own Front Yard
Think about this for a moment. When we write or talk about things do we use our past experiences during those times or do we just guess and hope what we say make sense to others. Personally, I think the best comes from the things we have personally experienced. For example, how could someone write about loss and how it feels if they have never been through any kind of loss. There are different types of loss. Losing a job. Losing a pet. Losing a friend or even just the friendship itself. … [Read more...]
Day 85: Motivation
Motivation. What a word. It can mean so much to so many people, yet what motivates us is all so different. Just like our fingerprints are all different, so is the motivating power behind what we do. For me, what motivates me to keep writing on this website is my daughter. I can write about the good times and the bad. When I'm feeling lonely or have a need to write down the thoughts that swirl around in my brain like a tornado. To hear comments or replies to things I write will always have … [Read more...]
Reflecting Back on the A to Z Challenge in April
It’s hard to believe that the month of April is already over as well as the A to Z Challenge for 2013. I remember finding out about the challenge toward the end of March and thought it was a pretty kewl idea to take a letter from the alphabet for each day of the month. I knew right from the get go that I’d be doing it about my daughter. However, I had to come up with what each letter for would signify. Here were all the words I used this month: Amazing beautiful caring dare-devil energy … [Read more...]
Day 1: Switchbacks up the Mountain
Switchbacks up the mountain can mean so many things. I think life in general is a continue road we travel up and down mountain. Sometimes the mountain is more of an easy hill that we climb and where life seems to move forward at a nice pace. But then there are those times where the road going up the mountain is so narrow and steep we feel we might fall off the edge plummeting to the ground below. I know that first year after Mari died my life felt more like the later. It felt like at any time … [Read more...]
July Sucks!
You might be asking, "But why does July suck?" I mean, after all, July has so many good things about it right? Like the 4th of July and celebrating our nation's birthday. The fireworks you can either do together with family, friends and acquaintances or to go see one of those big fireworks shows that the cities or military installations put on for us. It's summertime. It's warm. People are going on vacations. Everyone seems to be having fun (or at least trying to ;;) ). There are places to go … [Read more...]
The Start of a New Day
Today is the start of a new day. It’s a day I have not had to do in many years (eight, almost nine, years to be precise). It’s a day I have not been ready for before now. In the past it would have been a day I dreaded but now I am really looking forward to it. It’s a day where I take the first step, of what I am sure are going to be many, in getting a job on post (Fort Knox). Before Mari died, as most of you know by now I was a stay at home mom taking caring of our one and only child. … [Read more...]
New features added you will enjoy
:x I love it when I can personalize my information. I have added a new feature that I hope all of my followers will enjoy. If you have already created a user account for our site, then you know you did not have the option of adding a profile picture. Personally, I hate the generic pictures that site like to put beside my name and I like to personalize it to make it more like me. In this case, that would be a picture of me so that you, my followers, actually know what I look like. o=> … [Read more...]
Julie and Sylvia
Sylvia, I want you to know how much of a dear friend you have become to me. I mean, don't get me wrong, you were such a help to Keith and I when we were still living in DeKalb. Every Sunday morning you enabled us to be able to attend church service while you were taking care of our beloved angel during children’s church. You enabled her to participate and be around other kids her own age. You have such a gift and you were a God send as you have the speech background that could ultimately … [Read more...]
Approaching 11 months…
We are now approaching eleven months that Mari's been gone. June 16 will be exactly eleven months. Whether we want it to or not, time just continues to carry on. I was going through this site a little while ago and realized that I'd not posted anything new since Mother's day. It's been hard this last month and I know as the day approaches the one year mark it'll continue to get harder. Then I was reading the comment that someone wrote anonymously. What the person said was basically that I … [Read more...]
