Surprise Tuesday Post

In honor of Veterans Day, I thought I would do a special post, thanking all the men and women who have served, and are still serving, in the military. Those of you who have followed my blog for some time, may recall that I have mentioned before that on my father's side of the family, men served in every war and conflict since the Spanish American war. Many of them are buried in the cemetery that my great, great, great grandfather donated to the small Methodist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia. What a thrill it was to see all the headstones some years ago when I visited.

Mt. Zion UMC cemetery

Patriotism and service to the country is very important to me, and I always want to stand up and salute on days like today. So hang on just a moment while I do that.

Okay, I'm back. And now I want to personally thank members of my more immediate family for their service: My brother, Michael, for his years in Vietnam; my son, David, for his part in Desert Storm, and my daughter, Dany, for her years in the army. She was the lucky one who never saw combat, but she was a good soldier, making the rank of captain before discharge.

Now I'd like to let you know about a Veterans Day special that Marney K. Makridakis is offering for her new book.  

Simply order Hop, Skip, Jump TODAY, November 11, and get an instant $15 Artella eGift Certificate for each copy purchased, which is even more than the price of the book. Go to http://www.artellaland.com/play.html to order your copy and take a fun quiz to find out if you Hop, Skip, or Jump! :-) 

So today is the best day to order multiple copies of this fun book as holiday presents, and get $15 back for each one. The eGift certificates can even be transferred to others as holiday gifts, too. What a terrific deal on a book that helps us have more fun.

In the spirit of fun, I am going to make time to play ball with my dog today and hug a cat. What will you do for fun? 

Monday Morning Musings

What a beautiful morning here in East Texas, which is a good thing since my heater went out in the middle of the night. Don't you just love it when a loud noise wakes you from a great dream and you get up to find some major disaster?

The noise I heard was a loud whirring/humming and I wondered if my refrigerator was getting ready for lift-off. I got up to investigate and the noise was definitely coming from the area around the refrigerator, but all things seemed to be working well there. So I opened the back door to check the compressor for the heat and air conditioning, and it was getting ready for lift-off. Since it was one o'clock in the morning, I just shut the heat off, got an extra blanket and went back to bed.

I woke up early to a bit of a chill in the house, but not too bad. It was 64 degrees in the house and a balmy 45 degrees outside. When I looked out my front window, I was glad I got up early enough to get this picture of my horse silhouetted against the morning fog. I took it through the window with my iPad, as I knew the moment would not wait for me to get dressed to go outside, so the quality of the picture is not great. But I do think the beauty of the scene is great.

Since I have to call a heating repair person, as well as do several other things today while my friend is still visiting, I will wrap this up with an acknowledgement of Veterans Day. Here is a link to the history of Veterans Day for anyone who would like a little information about that. Grammar Girl has an interesting blog about why Veterans Day doesn't have a apostrophe.

I want to recognize the veterans in my family: My brother Michael who served in the Army during Vietnam. My son David, a Marine, who served in Desert Storm. And my daughter, Dany who was a captain in the Army, but was lucky enough not to see combat. My thanks to them and to all who have served with honor and dignity.

Are there special veterans in your family you are honoring today? Am I the only one who wishes that this holiday, and so many others, was not always tied to retail marketing and sales? Do you take advantage of sales like this? Do I just need to get over it?