Veteran's Day

None of us would be here in this great country today without the people who fought for our freedom.  (15)

To all of the different branches of the military I say,

                            Thank you!  

You are so much braver than me!

To add a personal touch to Veteran's Day, I wanted to elaborate on the first sentence and 15th reason for my heart to sing with the fact that if not for one branch of the military, I absolutely would not be alive today.  That branch is the USCG or the Coast Guard.  (16)


                                                          

And now a love story. (17)  My Grandpa was an officer in the Coast Guard. (18)  He rode on ice breakers and has sailed to the North and South Poles many times!  Now that I state this it seems obvious, but I wanted to point out that this means that he's crossed the Equator.  Pretty cool stuff.

The information above made my mom and her three sisters "Coast Guard Brats".  So they lived pretty much everywhere with a coast.  Por ejemplo, my mom was born in Hawaii, which makes me like to think that I am part Hawaiian (hey, why not?)  They also lived in Portland, NY, Maine, and other places.  Their travels eventually took them to a little peninsula that I like to call Florida. (19)

In an entire other life, my dad grew up in Florida with his mom and aunt (a WWII Veteran - 20).  He played basketball and army men.  They lived on the beach and my dad was a really well dressed little baby with blonde hair and a nice tan.  Ironically, my dad didn't move anywhere until he graduated High School locally and signed up for the USCG.  (21)

You guessed it.  In the period of time that my Grandpa was stationed in Florida my dad was stationed right there with him!  Hence, the meeting of my parents! (Big 22)  If they hadn't had the Coast Guard I don't know how they would have met, and if they hadn't met, fallen in love, and gotten married, then they wouldn't have had me!

I realize that the US military is so much bigger than just the sake of me being born. (Thank goodness for that! 23) But now that I am born I realize that men and women devote and risk their lives everyday to protect born people just like you and me. (24)  I just wanted to wish those men and women a

                                               Happy Veteran's Day!