Fantastic Friday

I am so happy that the week-end is embarking upon us. I posted a slide show on here to share a few of the first time moments we have experienced in the last two weeks. These few moments seem to be different this time around. Most of the moments are Malia's. It is amazing to see our little girl and youngest of the family growing up.
I never dreamed I would have reptiles in my house so THAT is a first for all of us especially for me. We did decided that "Clypto" was to close to sounding like "Clepto" thus the name change to" Zena" for the girl dragon. If anyone knows about them you will notice that with the proper lighting that she now has she is getting her color and health back. The boy dragon is obnoxious in my oppinion, he ALWAYS wants to be held and on someones shoulder he scratches at the side of his habitat and rears up onto a good portion of his tail...he has to wait for the kids to get home, I am not a fan of holding either one of them but do prefer the girl over him. They are nice little critters and I find it amusing to see how even reptiles have personalities, if you can even fathom that one! Who knew??
Yesterday was Patriot Day in rememberance of those we lost on 9/11 We have done different things through the last 7 years to reflect on this particular day and this year we simply dressed in our red, white and blue attire and had a good ol' american meal for dinner. I have memories attached to this particular date that I really wish were not there. I tried to post a video on here yesterday from youtube and had no success..I am not a computer person so it takes me a while to learn this stuff, once I get it I am good to go however in the mean time....I will however say that I have one memory that pertains to 9/11 that I love to reflect upon. The day the 1 year anniversary rolled around I had taken the day off from going to work (Royce was a full time student then) and we kept the kids that were in school at the time, home. It was still a bit scary and a possiblity that we may get attacked again as a special little anniversary gesture. We traveled over to Alameda, Ca. to participate in a rememberence ceremony. Alameda has an old naval base with some good size landing strips and huge hangers for ships, airplanes etc. and is no longer being used for active duty purposes. There were outstanding speakers and the day was simply "Patriotic" We then took part in un furling this massive United States Flag, the largest in the world actually, it measures 3 football fields in length and is a bit wider than a football field, I wish I could remember the exact measurements but you get the idea..this flag is HUGE!! everyone lined up and grabbed onto the sides and away we walked down that landing strip. Everyone then held their arms above their heads keeping the flag off the ground. We had news choppers, and airplanes flying over us to get it on camera, we held it there as they played God Bless America and then the National Anthem, it was an emotional day, with the previous year all to fresh in our minds, hearts and memories. I often wonder what the pilots and passengers that flew out of Oakland that day and over us thought as they saw this display of remeberence taking place below them. It is a good memory and one I stil get teary eyed about as I recall the feelings of gratitude that our country had not been attacked further. I appreciate President Bush and all that he has done to keep "US" safe here on the homefront. I am grateful for his persistance in home land security. I know many disagree with him and do not care for him as our president but would you want his job? I appreciate that we have men and women willing to fight to keep us free, and they do this willingly. I appreciate and have the deepest of gratitude to my friends that I persoanlly know that have sacraficed a year and some of them 2 years to be shipped to Iraq to not only protect us and this great land that we live in, but also to help the people that were victims to the taliban and to Sudaum's horrible ways (he was a very evil man..another Hitler really) I love this country, I love our Freedom that we often take for granted. I love that I can share our families "first experiences" I LOVE that I am free to worship as I wish, and I love that we are still safe 7 years running. I am more grateful than I care to admit that this war that is going on is not here in our home, jepordizing our children, yours or my safety. I love that we have a president who is passionate about this issue and passionate about our country, he is a good president in that aspect. I wish we as a nation were much more unified and more supportive to those that defend our right to be who we are, a Free Nation and a Richly Blessed Country. God Bless the USA!!!
I hope that we each enjoy our privalages to do as we wish this week-end and enjoy life as we know it. It is not the same in any other country and I pray I never take for granted all that I am blessed with. Here's to a fun, safe week-end!