There is a country song called, “My heroes have always been cowboys.” That phrase is running through my mind right now, except my heroes have always been my children or my heroes have always been soldiers is how it plays in my mind. 

Once upon a time pre-pregnancy I wanted to join the Army as Military Police, GOD had a different plan for me then and instead I was blessed with two wonderful daughters, and then we added a third to our family.  My kids have always been heroes to me, children have it tough in this world and I was fortunate to raise three children who are fine upstanding citizens and wonderful people each in their own right, productive contributing members of society. 

I married a man who served six years in the United States Army as (ironic as it is) Military Police.  Our youngest daughter joined the Army last year and is currently in the Korean language program studying at the Presidio and making what is the Army’s version of the Dean or President’s list.  My two wonderful nephews each joined the Navy, Andrew as a Master of Arms (ironically enough the Navy’s version of Military Police) and Kyle as a navigator.  Andrew deployed to Iraq in 2006 on a six month special mission and Kyle served on the USS Abraham Lincoln and deployed to the Middle East in 2008 for seven months.

Of course I know other soldiers who are also heroes to me.  Some I have met and some I still hope to meet, but they are still heroes none-the-less.  Esther who serves the Army National Guard, is a single mom, goes to school and still does her two weeks/12 weekends a year. There are the two beautiful women Daly (who I met through Andrew) and Lilliana  (who I met through Daly) Puerto Rican Army Nation Guard who both served in Iraq.   Wonderful women, beautiful on the inside and out.  Lilliana’s husband also serves in the Army National Guard and I was privileged to meet him as well.  Matt, my friend Mindy’s son who serves in U.S. Marine Corps and has just re-enlisted to do Embassy guard duty.  Amanda (niece of my heart) who is currently serving full-time in the Navy and raising a beautiful little girl with my nephew Kyle.

There are some I haven’t met, Jeremy who is starting what I believe is his third tour in Afghanistan and Christopher who just came back from his second or third tour of the sandbox. 

And then we cycle back to Andrew, who served his five years in the Navy and last year enlisted in the Army National Guard, knowing even then that the unit he was to be assigned to would be deployed to Afghanistan.  So here I sit with that song running through my mind, because today my Andrew left for Afghanistan and I cannot help but be proud and frightened all at the same time.  I pray to GOD who has blessed me so much that Andrew remain strong; in body, mind and spirit and bring him safely home to his family.  And yes, I do pray that every night, for every single one of the brave men and women who sacrifice day in and day out to protect our country, protect us and protect our freedoms. 

Go with GOD by boy, and please come home to us.

So for those who may not know, I am nuts about my dogs and my dogs are just nuts!  Both of my dogs have facebook pages Sampson and Delilah and I have written a book about Sampson that I am trying to get published.

Every Wednesday and Friday my dogs go to daycare, yes you read that right they go to doggie daycare.  Sampson has been going for at least six years and Delilah has been going since we got her (almost four years ago.)  There are more and more doggie daycares popping up and it’s an excellent opportunity for your dog to socialize with other dogs and get lots of exercise.  Basically they run and play most of the day.

Here in the northeast we have been pummelled with snow and so lately I have not been putting the dogs on their leashes to go to and from the building to the car and vice versa.  Today when I arrived at daycare to pick them up, the parking lot was pretty empty so I pulled up to the building, opened the car door and went inside to get the dogs.

Delilah goes right into the car, but Sampson usually wants to sniff around and take a quick pee before heading home, meanwhile Delilah waits in the car.  She probably has an ulterior motive like snooping through my bag for food, but that’s quite ok, because there usually isn’t any.

So Sampson did his usual sniff and I said let’s go, he comes up to the car and puts his front paws inside the car and looks at me.  He wants me to lift him into the car.  Not happening.  This dog weighs over 100 pounds and if I start lifting him, it will become a habit.  Not that bad when you are in your early 40’s but early 50’s?  I think not.  So I walk a little bit away and call him to me and tell him to “run it.”  Meaning running your chunky butt and jump in the car.  He doesn’t.  I try again and again, nothing.  So I decide to try a different tactic.

I get in the car and with the hatch still open I begin to drive ever so slowly away, thinking pack mentality, the dog will jump in the car.  So here I am driving and that silly dog still refuses to get into the car, instead I hear his little tags jingling as he runs along behind the car!  Now if we were on our street I probably would have continued driving and let him either finally jump in the car or run all the way home, BUT since we had to drive on some really busy roads I stopped the car and finally got him inside.  At which point he bowled Delilah over trying to get into the front seat, fell down between the front and back seats, finally got into the front and flopped down exhausted. 

Silly dog.

I write about my dogs for a number of reasons 1) I really love my dogs  2) my dogs are like my children and much like people like to brag and share stories of the cute things their children have done, I like to talk about my dogs 3) I found that writing about my dogs can make other people smile and bring a bright spot in an otherwise dark day.

Back in November of 2009 my dear friend Mindy (who was responsible for getting us Sampson) told me about her boyfriend’s granddaughter who at the age of 9 was battling bone cancer in her leg.  Through the hospital they connected with a website called Caring Bridge.  Kristy could post updates about how Alexa was doing with her treatment and people in turn could post messages to Alexa.   So I introduced myself and started sharing a little about myself.  Before I knew it, I was writing about the dogs and some of the funny things they did.  Finally in February of 2010 I got to meet Alexa at a fund-raiser in her honor and her grandmother thanked me for writing and said, at first I thought what the hell is this woman doing?  Then it dawned on me, you were taking our minds off what was going on and for that I thank you.  I hadn’t really thought about what I was doing, I was just thinking what can I say besides, hi how are you doing?  But I KNOW that my posts helped and I am happy to report that Alexa is currently in remission.  When I wrote to Alexa, I wrote almost daily and I really loved it; that is one of the reasons that I gave myself this 365 day challenge, because I really enjoy writing.

So if you are going to follow this blog, chances are you will be reading a lot about Sampson and Delilah and I will ask if you like reading my works, to please share it with others.

Catch you tomorrow!