The Day I took my Husband for Granted....**

Hey Ooogle Boogle,

Karmella's weather Report: It was so windy that my ears wouldn't stay down....and now its so wet, that when my master lets me outside I look at her like she has lost her DAMN mind!

Exchange Rate: 1 American Dollar = 1 Euro 43 Cents

These heroes are dead.  They died for liberty - they died for us.  They are at rest.  They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines.  They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest.  Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace.  In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.  I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead:  cheers for the living; tears for the dead.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll

When I woke up on Memorial Day, over my morning coffee I noticed that many, many, people had started to put famous quotes, videos, and songs on their facebook to remember and celebrate  America's warriors both alive and dead, in honor of Memorial Day.

I started to think....What does Memorial Day mean to me?  Certainly as a military wife, it has significance, but I do not necessarily have any rituals, or traditions that mark it as well as birthday's or Christmas...is that wrong of me? How do others remember or mark memorial day? 

Memorial Day is a United States Federal Holiday observed on the last Monday of May.  Formerly known as Decoration Day, which was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen (freed enslaved southern blacks) in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. The recognition of the fallen victims was then enacted under the name Memorial Day by an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic — to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Over time, it was extended after World War I to honor all Americans who have died in all wars. Now known as Memorial Day, it is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Military.

Memorial Day often marks the start of the summer vacation season, and Labor Day its end.

Begun as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the Civil War, by the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as ordinary people visited the graves of their deceased relatives, whether they had served in the military or not. It also became a long weekend increasingly devoted to shopping, family get-togethers, fireworks, trips to the beach, and national media events such as the Indianapolis 500 auto race, held since 1911 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

As we sat on the couch together drinking coffee, it suddenly hit me, we were in a foreign country, which does not recognize or understand exactly what this day meant to us......Had we been in the States surely we would have gone to a Memorial Service or Remembrance Ceremony of some sort, because that is what we have done in the past....but we weren't....so what should we do instead?

You want to know how I celebrated and remembered those who have paid the ultimate price?  For one day, for the entirety of Monday, May 30th, 2011, Memorial Day, I did something I NEVER DO.  Something I haven't been able to do since the moment I discovered he was a Marine for the United States Military 10 years ago.....I took my Husband for granted.  

Trust me....I am not ungrateful, or a horrible person, I of course remembered our friends that have died, but you have to consider I have been scared half to death of losing LEGS early for a decade.  That kind of worry wears on a person... 

It felt nice to sit next to him on the couch, drink coffee in our pajamas, surf the net, into the afternoon.....we had no where to be, no engagements.....we just RELAXED all day.....

After being lazy for most the day, I went out in the Garden, LEGS came and sat in the yard.  I looked at him from across the way studying his emergency procedures for the APACHE, and I pretended that he was something else, I pretended all day, that he will be home every single night, I pretended that he hasn't seen WAR, that he doesn't get up in a dangerous machine for his job, I pretended to take him for granted, I even pretended that we were bored and sick of each other......

And then....he went on a bike ride....and I even pretended a fight with him, another luxury that I am not always afforded.....

And when he came back, I went back to normal, I stopped taking him for granted, I remembered that he is a Soldier, I remembered that he is an Officer, I remembered that he is a Pilot who flies APACHE's, that he won't be home every night or even everyday, I remembered that he has seen WAR and it has changed him, I know that I am lucky to have this day with him, I am lucky to have every day with him......

So I started a new tradition....a tradition in which we look each other in the eye, have a conversation, practice intimacy, or even sit quietly, but in our vulnerability we appreciate each other...

I took a bath with MY COMBAT VET.  And we promised we would do this once a week.....while he IS home.....

No Random Thoughts

No Guilty Pleasures

No Mailbox 

Just an expression of my gratitude, a famous quote, for our friends and family members that made the ultimate sacrifice......

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.  - Lincoln

OVER & OUT

Just another day in the life of an unlikely military wife.....**