Deployed soldier threatened over landscaping

Thanks to CNN for picking up the following story. By now, you all know that one of my pet peeves is that most of America doesn't want to hear about Iraq or Afghanistan. Those topics, I have been told by media folks are bad for ratings. Gee I wonder how the families of those heroes resting in Section 60 would feel about that. I wonder how the familes of the wounded and injured would feel.

This soldier is deployed in Southwest Asia and his homeowener's association threatened legal action because he didn't finish landscaping his yard before he left. Honestly, it makes me want to fly to Washington State find the HOA pres and slap him silly.

The story also warms my heart: When it hit the local paper, dozens of people showed up to help his family. Hero's - each and every one of you. Thank you!

I know the economy is bad and everyone has three extra mortgages they can't afford but young men and women are dying and being mamed in your names. Stand up for them and remember them in your prayers every day.

There and back again

I am not a geek!!

I lie...

There's a little bit of geek in all of us - mine just pops out more often than yours. Hence the frequent and shameless Scarlett Jo and Jello plugs. I can't help it, I'm drawn to it (Both SJ and the Jello - preferably together).

Now, the reason for my geekdom spiel and today's title: Like Frodo, Bilbo and the rest of the Hobbits I feel like I've been there and back again - over and over. I blog, I vent, I write, I sputter out and die for awhile. Life after Iraq is a roller coaster. This blog ebbs and flows because there comes a time when I just want to stop and scream. I can't write another word. Two months later, all melancholy and whiny, I realize that I haven't written and I'm sucked back in.

and so here I am - again!

My BBG is doing OK. She's struggling to deal with all of the things she's lost and quilting to keep her mind off of it. She has started a charity Quilt Fiber Fundraisers to raise money for Veterans to attend the wheelchair games and to provide quilts for Quilts of Valor. She has gotten hundreds of quilters from around Colorado to get together at the Colorado History Museum to make quilt tops for Quilts of Valor and a ton of long arm quilters to volunteer their machines and time to actually quilt them. They've raised over 5k so far. In March, they will be auctioning the quilts off at an event in Denver. The finished Quilts will then be signed by the person who purchased it and sent to Quilts of valor. Quilts of Valor gives one to every wounded and injured service member who comes through LRMC in Germany. We have the one they gave to her on the wall of our living room. Like everything else post-Iraq, it stands for everything good and horrible about these wars.

I'm amazed at her tenacity. Despite the pain, the drugs and everything else we're going through she's decided that doing this will somehow make it all better. I love her for it but I wish she would just rest for a couple hundred hours. The kids are delinquent (not really), the house is a disaster (really), and I think the pile of laundry in my son's room made a move at me last night (If only I'd had nods I could have put it down). She's physically shot and emotionally a train wreck this month but she will drug up and work on this fundraiser until there's nothing left.

Then we spend ten days trying to put the pieces of her back together. So here I am, some fresh whine to go with the cheese - back to blogging.

Sometimes I wish it would all just go away.

Anyway, I promise to post more regularly until I'm burned out again then I'll crawl under my rock for awhile.

TIA