A Warrior Walk..... to remember.

** Clicking on some of the photos will enlarge them for better viewing.

This past weekend, I made a trip up to Savannah / Hinesville, Georgia

to Fort Stewart Army base...

Thing 2 had called me to tell me he was shipping out Wednesday and that

he needed his Army dress greens. I could have mailed them out

but what kind of mother mails something out when she could make the

4 hour trip (for any excuse) to see one of her Things? By the way, Thing 2

always the forgetful Thing, left his dress greens at the Mama's house last year

stating, "I probably won't need these for awhile, so I'm leaving them here"

He actually meant to say, "I'm not carrying these around an airport... you keep them."

Thing 4 and I headed out Saturday to spend the next couple of days with the elder Thing. We had a great weekend, the three of us, hanging out like old times. I think they were happy that the female things (1 and 3) weren't with us, they could do without the hormones for a change. As I was dropping Thing 2 off at base Sunday afternoon, I noticed several rows of trees that I hadn't noticed the 3 or 4 other times I visited Fort Stewart. I asked my son what they were and he said it was a Warrior Walk in remembrance of the Fallen Soldiers from Ft. Stewart. I remember saying something about how long the walk (sidewalk) was and my son responded with "there are more... it continues on the other side of that field.." pointing to several other rows of trees. My heart sank as we drove by slowly. I wanted to visit them. I want to see these trees.. I wanted to walk this Warrior Walk and thank them. I told the boys that I wanted to park and get out... there was no argument, no whining as they both quietly said "ok". The three of us got out of the car and walked towards the never-ending row of trees and memoriams..

Each tree represents one fallen soldier. These soldiers were stationed at Ft. Stewart and have died as a direct result of Operation Iraqi Freedom. or.. The War in Iraq.

My heart sank deeper with each passing tree.. I read the plaques.. viewed the items placed at the base of the trees by family, friends and fellow soldiers.

A view from the beginning of the 'walk' ... trees are perfectly aligned on both sides of the sidewalk with a circular base to provide personal items, memorabilia and a flag or plaque representing the troops' battalion or brigade. My son belongs to the 3rd Infantry's 4th brigade. I couldn't help but notice how many flags had the number 4 .....

After the long walk down the first Warrior Walk sidewalk... you pass a ceremonial field that leads you to more sidewalks.. more trees.. more fallen soldiers...

Please take a moment... and view some of the Fallen Soldier's trees that I had the proud opportunity of viewing. Several trees were packed with items, some had photos of the Fallen Soldier, some included photos of family members and children. Several of the trees had personal items from the soldier, including a few beer and whiskey bottles, perhaps as their last "here's to you..." .. some had coloring book pages colored neatly from their children, and some were signed with, "I love you and miss you Daddy" a few children requested "Please come home Daddy", not fully understanding where their Dad was. I chose not to take photos of the trees with pictures and letters of and from their children.. out of respect of the sanctity of the family. I did take some photos of several others that I wanted to share with you.

Please take a moment.... scroll through the photos and remember what these Soldiers stood for. Thank them... and say a prayer for their families.

Although each tree sank my heart... this next photo / scene sank it even more... a newly built sidewalk only meant there were more soldiers to come.... more to be remembered..

I don't want anymore sidewalks to be built... I want our troops home. But as long as they are still over there I will continue to support them. I do not support President Bush... I do not support this war... but I will always support our troops.

Please send a message to the troops... let them know you are thinking about them.

In Remembrance .... our fallen soldiers. View tributes to our soldiers.. a list of all fallen soldiers and a search section if you're looking for someone.

3 weeks ago...

... I went to Lido Beach (near Sarasota) and I think I forgot to tell you.
Oh well. It was a somewhat relaxing day, even if an elderly man in a speedo walked through
my tranquil zone...

just peace out with me for now... tomorrow I have a sad post. (Tuesday)

And I'm off....

I'm road-tripping to this destination for the weekend with TWO.. not just one. TWO males.

Before you get your dirty little minds roaming.... I'm going with Thing2 and Thing4.

Ps. Since I'm not able to comment on my own blog, I'll update stuff below.

1. Yes I'm alive

2. No more Botox lips, swelling went down completely.

3. The parking garage was a dream, people.

4. Blogger still SUCKS.

5. Thing3 is full of hormones and meangirl'ness.. someone take her please.

Parking garages, laptops and big lips

I pulled into the parking garage yesterday morning after what seemed like an eternity getting there. My car wasn't moving very fast.. probably because there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. Was everyone in that much of a hurry to get to work on a Tuesday morning? Two or three cars ahead of me finally found a parking spot, so I wasn't right on their tail, yet I continued to drive slowly. Was I not in a hurry to get to work, or was it because someone was behind me flashing their lights and swerving to the left and right as if to tell me to hurry up? I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a gold car (who drives cold cars anymore?) and what appeared to be a laptop bag on top of the car. Ha ha you idiot, you were in such a hurry to get to work you left your laptop on top of the car. I continued to drive very slowly.. but not on purpose. My car just wasn't moving very fast. I finally made it to the 4th level where no other cars were and broke out in a whopping speed of 20 mph. The car behind me decided to follow my lead as if we were fighting over the last parking spot to catch a helicopter to take us out of Vietmam. Suddenly another car appeared out of nowhere, backing out of a spot. I had to slam on my breaks, which caused the idiot behind me to swerve and slam on her breaks. (here's a clue, don't follow me so close). Her laptop bag went flying off the top of her car and I grinned as I watched it roll a few times until it came to a final stop against the wall. I finally parked near the elevators on the 4th floor. I grabbed my work badge, lunch and cell phone and proceeded to walk the 40 ft to the elevator. Before I was able to reach the elevators, someone from administration popped out of nowhwere and handed me a bill for $671. I asked her what this was for and she said I received a citation because the lady behind me complained that I took too long driving through the parking garage and damage to the laptop. She included that they could take it out by payroll deduction if I want. I insisted that this was insane and refused to pay. She said "well, you're lucky, we could have fined you more because the lady behind me ended up clocking in late for work" and something about emotional duress. I ripped it up... slowly.

Today I was abruptly woken up by Thing 3 as she stormed through my bedroom on her way to the master bathroom. "What are you doing?" I asked. She responded, "I have to use your bathroom, Thing 4 left his clothes on our bathroom floor and I'm not getting ready in there".

"Well you don't have to barrel through the door and scare me... tell Thing 4 to pick up his clothes.." , I demanded.

I drifted off back to sleep.. 26 - 27 minutes had passed. When I awoke, Thing 3 was finished with my bathroom but left the lights blaring, so they shined right on me. I glanced at the clock and noted that it was 6:10 am. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I laid my head back down and brushed the hair off my face... when I did that, I couldn't feel the left side of my face. I jolted up and sat on the edge of the bed... holy cow! My entire left cheek was numb... it felt like I was touching someone else's cheek. I got up and went to the bathroom and popped the light on. The left side of my mouth was drooping a little... I tried to smile and it was crooked.

I panicked (after what happened last year.. the whole brain thing and all). My heart started beating very fast and I convinced myself that somehow I was having a stroke. I know I'm way too young for these things, but they do happen. The facial numbness dissipated over 30 minutes but then my upper lip started to swell...

throughout the day it continued to swell and then the bottom lip started to swell close to 8 hours later.

I have no explanation for this whatsoever.... but now I look like I spent the day shooting up with Botox...

Damn Blogger.com!

Just a reminder to myself to start blogging more.

But speaking about blogging.... BLOGGER SUCKS lately... I can't comment

half the time (most of the time) I read your blogs... really I do.

But when I go to comment on them, a box pops up... and then it pops up again..

and again.. and again.... until I want to punch my screen.

So then I give up.

8/22/07 Because I can't comment on my OWN blog.. I'll make make a couple comments here. Aaron, I'm not sure about that, even though I do know the last person I dated probably did put a spyware on my computer (he's done it in the past to others and read their emails, etc) But Cindy has problems commenting on blogger too (at times) and apparently Lisa had some issues as well.... but yeah, he's definitely done things in the past to make me suspect him.

Oh yes it's ladies night.....

so the girls decided to get together for ladies night on Wednesday. We collectively decided to go here for dinner and then here for drinks. They're in the same location.... which made it easy to stumble out of one and into the other...


This is the Mall at Millenia... front entrance left... you'll find Brio Tuscan Grille .. yum yum.

Then you go inside and order Italian stuff like this... yum yum

Then after your tummy is mostly full... you leave.

And go to the Blue Martini. Which is in the same place, just a few hundred steps away.
Just follow the olives....

This is another view of the Blue Martini... except if you leave Brio.. you have to climb a grassy knoll in order to get there... 'course you're probably wearing heels so the best way to get there is to get back in your car and park a couple hundred feet from where you were originally.

Once in the doors.. you order one of these, because afterall, it is their specialty.

But if you're not into Martinis... you order Margaritas... :-)

Then you proceed to the dance floor.. and shake it up with your friends.

Then you see this hot guy and you're like... hey I know you.

He's like.. I know you too.

Probably because we work together and I've known him for a year'ish.

So you dance some mo'

Then this girl appears out of nowhere, but you know her because she's elbowed you and your friends on the dance floor, plus she fell a couple times like an idiot.

So then she decides to one-up you and gets up on this platform and proceeds to dance like she's a pole girl. The drinks in her make her forget she's not at her part time stripper club gig.

Then you notice THIS hanging out of her butt...

Seriously... she had one of these literally hanging out of her panties under the miniskirt that she's now showing the world. During the 'pole' dance, she glances at hot guy and winks.

So the friends and I are like....

Yes... we told her friends to tell her.

We saw them approach her and hopefully tell her that she has a wad of maxi hanging out...

but she continued to dance.

Dinner at Brio: $45

Drinks at Blue Martini: Ladies night half price: $24 (4 drinks)

Chick trying to get Hot guy's attention with a maxi hanging from her butt: Priceless.

Addendum: I can't even comment on my own blog!! What is wrong with you Blogger?! I can post, but I can't comment. Hmmph. Anyway, Lisa, give me a call. We're running around doing last minute school shopping and we have meet the teacher this afternoon. On a SATURDAY,... meet the teacher! What the? Do they NOT want people to attend?! And about hot guy (pediatrician), he had zero interest in maxi pad girl. All that "effort", for nothing!!! Ella, it wasn't a 'string', like from a tampon... this was a full size maxipad.

*shiver*

Are you a man or a woman....

in the shower?

Congratulations

...are in order for my girl, Cindy. Please drop over by her place and wish the happy couple well... even if you are bitter and would rather go to a funeral than hear about a wedding because relationships SUCK. Kidding of course. Seriously though, congratulations are in order, so march over there and leave a KIND message.



I think this pic below is funny... but never had the blogging opportunity to use it. Cindy's ring is NOT Zirconia... but it's still funny.
Go over to HER blog to see the ring!!

HEADS UP! It's that time....of year again folks.

11th Anniversary Susan G. KomenCentral Florida Race For The Cure®Sunday, September 9, 2007at Disney's Wide World of Sports® Complex

Actually it's nearing that time of year again. Unlike last year, I want to get a headstart to the event. I will be participating in the annual Disney (central FL affiliate) 5k Race for the Cure for the Susan G. Komen foundation for breastcancer research and funding. I'm also considering another Race for the Cure event in either Jacksonville or St. Pete Beach. I know I walk way more than 3 miles a day, but to run it in one setting is a little different. It's worth it of course, and someday I'll be up to the 10k's.

Here are a few of my latest PINK purchases.... I'm such a PINK cure fanatic. It helps that I love the color as well. (I've always been more of a pastel pink kind of girl.... not the hot pink spank me color) Boring, I know!

And one more thing... I will be posting a challenge very soon and I would really love and appreciate everyone of you to be a part of it... It won't cost you much.. $5 to be exact... and it involves these:

You'll love it.. it'll be fun, blogworthy, good cause AND... it'll make me happy.

Coming soon!! Stay tuned

Ps. I will be going totally pink for the months of Sept/Oct. Put your pink shades on!

From last year:

One more thing. Last year I wore New Balance... they weren't THAT great.. but they worked. Any suggestions for this year? Maybe New Balance is ok. I bought a half size bigger than I am because they didn't have my size. I'm a 5 and bought a 5 1/2.. or maybe they're a 6??!!

Oh.. and this year... NO backpacks. Or giftpacks, whatever they were from the Ford Motor Company... it kept bumping my butt when I walked / ran.