A Real Letter from a Real Soldier

As the fiancée of a now retired soldier, when I read this email that was shared with me by one of my co-workers from her son who is a soldier stationed in Afghanistan to his girlfriend here in the States, I knew I had to ask permission to share it with all of you. This is the real thing, and I think it dramatically shows what our soldiers are fighting for more than any commercial on TV could do.

Here's the letter:

Fighting for us

Things have been very busy here. I work usually from 7 am to 9 pm most nights. Most of my work entails compiling information that we have gathered. Usually just names of the people around here. We are trying to get to know the people we work with on a daily basis. It is hard to keep relationships up when you can't remember someone's name that you worked with yesterday ya know. Sometimes we go on patrols to see the projects we have done, but we never really know when we are going because we do not want others to find out times, and leak that information to the Taliban. It is a challenge for sure, but as long as it keeps us safe it is a welcome one. We have made noticeable progress, but we have also had our setbacks as well. The Taliban are trying a pretty big murder and intimidation campaign against us, and have killed a couple of our workers. It was sad and unfortunate, but we have pressed on and continued to do more projects. The poppy harvest is right around the corner and the TB (Taliban) are starting to become active. They have a lot of money on the line right now with the poppy. With us providing a living for these the good Afghans the TB lose out on potential workers to tend to the fields.

I have not been sleeping too well on these cots. For some reason my left hip is really bothering me lately. It is just hard to get comfortable. As far as being lonely, of course I am lonely without you. It does not affect me too much during the day because everything is so busy, but late at night when everything has died down I think about you and home a lot. I also think about you when I look at the stars at night.  You're right they are super bright here. There is no light pollution at all.  You can even see the milky way very well.

To just be a child

I appreciate you thanking me for what I do L___, but you do not have to type it. I know by the support you give me in return. This by far one of the most interesting jobs I have done. I am not sure if I would like to do it for a career though. I do not know what to say about how I am able to accomplish this mission except again the support I receive from you and my family.  I know that sounds cheesy, but it's the truth. Also knowing that this is temporary is a big help. I just close my eyes and imagine myself home with you guys having a beer lol. That sounds like a plan huh? I chose to do this job though because I remember growing up in Charlevoix and how much I was able to just be a kid. Do you know what I mean? Just growing up and not having to worry about adult matters. I wanted to do something to pay it forward, by serving my country so that another American child could have the same experience I did. I hope that does not sound foolish, but that is why I do what I do. Also, if I don't who will?

Mentally I am fine, I have been slacking a bit in my bible readings, but hopefully that will change soon. I really don't want to become too busy for God, especially out here. Physically, I have lost some weight but I feel out of shape because of the late night and not eating well. Coffee is always a good thing though. I am sorry to hear that you feel in the dark, but I think our situation is very good. The only reason I say that is because there are plenty of Marines here that do not communicate with their families by choice or by lack of equipment. So I consider myself very fortunate. I do not think you are being too needy. I think you are being a good girlfriend. I know you just want to take care of me, and I appreciate it very much. I hope you are able to ease your mind knowing what you know now.

Marines

Reading it again as I typed it has just given me goosebumps again.  Makes you proud of our men and women over there. They each have their own reason for what they do, but I think there is a statement in there that's pretty important, "If I don't, who will?"

And to the soldier who wrote this letter... Nothing you wrote, your reasons, your feelings, not one thing sounds foolish. Your country is proud of you, your family loves you, and I think you for what you're doing and for allowing me to publish your letter on my blog. Be safe.

He agreed!

Okay... I don't like feeling sorry for myself, but I want to quickly explain why it has been almost a week since my last post, and then I'll get into what Jim agreed to.  For the last five days, I've been struggling with my Lupus. It decided to flare this week and has wiped my energy and put me in a fair amount of pain for the last couple of days.  All that aside, everything else is going brilliantly!

Monday was quite exciting. We had a bit of an accident at home. A minivan plowed into our chain-link fence on the south side of our house, mangling the fence, knocking down one of our neighbor's trees, and leaving car parts strewed all over the yard.  The police were called and the officer cleaned up the mess as evidence.  Surprisingly, one of our neighbors saw the minivan trying to dislodge itself from our fence, but he didn't call the police when he witnessed that. Does that strike anyone else strangely?  Anyway, Jim has removed the fence, and we've decided we like the look of the yard better without it. Also, are neighbor has removed the fallen tree, and you can't even tell one was ever there.

Having the fence plowed into did get Jim and I talking about doing some additional fencing. I think we're going to put up a picket fence with a lovely little gate on both sides of the house, which would effectively fence in our entire back yard. The cool thing about that is Tia, our Pomeranian, will no longer need to be tied to the dog run when she's outside!

Oak cabinets... to paint or not to paint. PAINT!

However, that is not what I was talking about when I said Jim agreed to something!  I finally convinced him to let me paint the kitchen cabinets!!!  Yes!  Okay...he didn't say I could paint all of them, but he agreed to a compromise of painting the upper cabinets a creamy white with an antiqued finish!!  Hurray!!  I can hardly wait to buy the paint and get started.  The other thing he kind of agreed to was rearranging the cabinets.  That will make it soooooo much nicer for fixing dinners and such!

So that's my news. I'll share the plans and the paint colors, counter top ideas, and such later!  I'm so excited!

Right now, a nap is calling me, so it's time to give in and give the body a chance to do some recuperating and healing.

Oh! and I get my ring back in five days!!!

It's Gone!

for now...

My ring

Today we went to the jeweler. When we picked out my ring, we ordered a half-carat diamond to replace the quarter carat center diamond. Then last Monday, I called and asked them to have the two-carat version of my ring there to look at. It doesn't hurt to have options, right?

So today was the day to check out the diamond and the larger ring. We got there, and of course, the two-carat diamond was gorgeous. Even Jim liked the look of it. We also looked at the loose diamond and compared it to my ring.

As an aside, my Lupus has flared, so I am completely stiff and not feeling well at all. And I'm sure the sales people there did not think I was excited about my ring at all. However, I was completely winded by the time we got to jewelry store, and my purse felt like a lead weight...

Anyway, I tried on the two-carat--loved it. Then we started looking at wedding bands. The two-carat ring over-powered every band we looked at. It was gorgeous, but unless the band looked good with it, I wasn't going to be happy with it. The wedding band and the engagement ring have to look right together, and I didn't want to go to a larger wedding band. It would have been too much for my small hands.

So, now my original ring is having a larger stone set in it, and it's being resized. It will be gone until April 20th!! and I miss it already!

Congratulations from a friend!

Where Glynis Lives

My friend and fellow blogger, Glynis, wished us congratulations on our engagement on her blog "New Scribbles from Glynis Smy"and linked back to my blog!  Isn't that sweet! I was so surprised.  Glynis and I have followed each other forever.  It's been so long, that I don't even remember how we met up online or when we started following each other. She's an absolutely lovely woman, with a fantastic sense of humour (spelled it wrong just for you Glynis!), which can sometimes be just a bit risque, but is always fun!!!

She grew up in the UK and lives in Cyprus--a place that I think she absolutely loves.

You really need to check her out and see the lovely congratulations post she posted for Jim and me.

Thank you, Glynis!  It's beautiful and I love you for it!!!

We're Engaged!

The Box

No lead in or build up to the climax...

Yesterday, Jim asked me to marry him, and I said yes! I'm so excited, and I've never been happier!  Actually, both of us are really happy!

The way it happened was soooo Jim.  He kept saying he didn't know what to get me for our anniversary, and I kept saying a ring would be nice. Then Friday, he said he didn't know my ring size, and of course I immediately offered to go with him so he'd be sure to get the right size.

As it turned out, Friday we were going to the last fish fry at the club, so Jim suggested we go in the morning. On the way home from the fish fry, we found out that all the power was out in our neighborhood, and the power company said it wouldn't be back on until 8 AM. Okay...we could deal with that. No problem.

9:30 AM, still no power. So it was off to Jim's sister's house to pick up Jim's generator. Darn that thing is heavy! It took the whole morning, because we went to breakfast first, and by the time we got home, the power was back on. Hurray! Except Jim said that he didn't think we had time to got to the jewelry store for my present and that I'd probably have to give him a chance to get it later.

The box from inside the box

He wasn't serious! Once we'd both showered, he said I should get ready to go. I asked if I should wear my new dress or if we'd be coming back, and he said "I think you should wear your dress."  I got the cutest linen Calvin Klein dress to wear, and I was so excited to wear it. I bought it especially for our anniversary to wear to dinner.

I put on my dress, did my make up and hair, and then off we went to the mall.

At the first jewelry store, I wasn't sure he was thinking about a ring, but just in case, I took him right over to the rings and had the clerk show us the ring design I knew I wanted... Okay, it was 3 carats total diamond weight, and $10,000. Way to large for my small hands and way to expensive. Although, I suspect that if I had been totally in love with it and had had my heart set on it that Jim would have bought it...that is after I picked him up off the floor!

Onto the next store... I had my heart set on an three stone ring set with emerald cut diamonds. Do you know how hard it is to find emerald cut diamonds... Princess cut, round, radiant, heart-shaped...but emerald cut--not a chance. However, every store said they could get them in. However, I wanted me ring then, not in a few days.

Okay, I take that back, all but one of the stores did have rings with emerald cut diamonds. They just didn't have any three stone rings with emerald cut diamond. And the rings they did have were just too fussy looking. I wanted something very clean and elegant looking.

Finally on my finger

Finally, we found my ring. It was exactly the same design as the original 3 carat TDW ring, but it was 1 carat TDW. I loved it! Except for one small little thing... I wanted a larger center stone. Jim didn't even flinch. He wanted me to have the ring I wanted. And I think he liked what I picked out also. So the jewelry store has ordered a new center stone for my ring, and I will have to give up my ring for about a week whilst they set the new stone.

My hand is a little swelled in the picture. It was taken first thing this morning when the sun was coming in the window. I definitely need to get a real camera! I can't get a picture of it that isn't blurry with my cell phone. Even so, I think it looks beautiful!

Here's the best thing about the whole thing...

I get to spend the rest of my life with Jim!!!!

I'll tell you about how he asked me and about the rest of the evening later!

April Food Day

You've heard of April Fool's Day, well some fellow bloggers have started April Food Day.  That's right! Meg Fairfax Fielding of Pigtown Design and Chris Cox of Easy & Elegant Life founded this annual drive to help those people who are hungry right here in the United States.

Like some of you, my first thought was that they would be asking that donations be made to their blog. Not at all! This is the best part, they are asking that people make donations to your local food banks, shelters or Feeding America.

This is going to be be an annual event, with this being the second annual April Food Day.

Check it out and help if you can!