Worthy Of A Blog Post

A year ago, I used to be an avid Blogger. Blogging weekly and sometimes daily about my life until a voluntary career change pulled me away from my "free time" and caused me to lose touch with the Blogging world. I rarely read the Blogs that I regularly followed and as you can see from the date of my last Blog post....I rarely post too.

But.....this is something that occured because of MY BLOG and is definitely worth of Blogging about. So here I go.....

On Memorial Day 2009, with the help of my brother Hank's Blog, I posted THIS POST about remembering those who fight and who have fought for our freedom. Nothing special, just a post from the heart about being thankful for our freedoms and remembering those, especially Lt. Tom Costen, who was a POW in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and ultimately killed. I didn't think anything of it....until a couple of weeks ago, when I opened up my email and found a notice that someone had posted a comment to my blog. This is what it said: "My name is Jan. I am in possession of an Operation Desert Storm bracelet with Lt. William T Costen's name engraved on it. (St. Louis U.S.N. POW 1991 age 27) I would like to return this bracelet to his family. My email is..."

At first I was a bit skeptical as I periodically got "SPAM" comments when I was actively blogging but they had stopped. But this one made me hesitate. Hesitate from deleting it and actually made me respond to the comment with some interest. Much to my surprise the person responded back to me and it lead into a week of emails back and forth, a real conversation with a complete and utter stranger. A stranger named Jan.

Jan's Father was in US Air Force, fought in WW II, Korea and Vietnam, her husband was a US Marine who fought in Vietnam and her son is now a US Marine. To say that her life has been all about the US Military is probably an understatement. She has lived and breathed it all of her life. In one of her emails to me, Jan explained that she didn't know where she came to obtain the bracelet that she had with Tommy's info on it, she thought it may have been from a fund raiser during Operation Desert Storm but that she felt very deeply about wanting his family to have it. Ultimately, our conversations ended with my offering to help her return it to Tommy's family knowing how to reach his Mother and/or Father's widow, and waiting to see if she would send it to me....a complete and utter stranger to her.

Yesterday, as I was hanging out at home with Tim and the boys, the door bell rang and there on the ground was a package addressed to me.....from Jan. I was shocked! She sent it! She really sent it! I started to open it as the boys asked "What is it Mommy? What is it?" I hadn't told Tim anything about my email exchanges with Jan for fear that he'd think I was nuts; so I started explaining the story to him. I read Jan's letter to him and then opened the gold foil box that accompanied and this is what I found.... This beautiful bracelet - with Tommy's information on it.







I had chills reading Jan's letter and still do today as I type my post. The power of the Internet amazes me. Once just a vast unknown, it is now a way of life for all of us. Facebook has grown from what I thought was a stupid and pointless website, to an amazing way connecting with friends and something that has brought me back in contact with those I had lost touch with a long time ago and a way of just "keeping in touch" with others.

The Internet is a tool for banking, for Blogging and to find things that we're searching for and that's exactly what Jan did! Into Google or whatever search engine she was using she typed in Lt. Tom Costen's name and there in the list of links that was returned to her was my blog post that contained his name. Had I not taken the info from my brother's Blog and posted it into mine, Jan and I would have never been connected. We would have never communicated, and never been able to return the bracelet to Tommy's family as she wished to do.

So......tomorrow I am going to help Jan do what she set out to do when she commented on my Blog; Return this beautiful bracelet to the family of Lt. Costen. A somewhat awkward phone call it will be to make. But one that I will be very proud and honored to make - because I will be doing it In Honor of someone who fought bravely for ME & for Jan. Two complete and utter stragers - connected by two things, the Internet and a bracelet.

We've Been On Vacation

We're Alive - Here's Proof!

Sorry to be such a negligent blogger. Life has just taken me on a different path right now and blogging is not top on my list of things to do! We're still alive. Boys are healthy and doing well. Tim and I are great! We're just busy.

Swimmingly

It's time to learn to swim. Jack and Mason are NOT fond of the water (at least swimming in it) and at the prodding of parents, we've enrolled them in a Swim America Swim Program. We forewarned the instructor that they might not even get in but to our surprise, the cute young girl, enticed them in and at the end they said that "it was fun!".

No we didn't get heads wet or put our faces in but it's a step - and now with a little enticing of my own, hopefully we'll see some progression in the next four weeks so that we have two children who like the water and will have fun this summer - keep your fingers crossed!

FOUR!

It's hard to believe that four whole years, a total of 1460 days have passed since this sweet precious little boy came into the world and made our family complete. Making Tim a Daddy again, me a Mommy again, and Jack a BIG BROTHER!

Yes, sometimes I wonder how we survived his first year with countless trips to the pediatrician, hospitalizations, pulling him out of daycare for a month to get him healthy and MANY MANY MANY sleepless nights just worrying about him. But we did it....and then some!

Now, he's full of life, of fire and of attitude. He's his own person. Strong willed, determined and loving are probably the three words that I can best describe him by. Three words to me that will always remind me of Mason. He will always be my baby! But today....he's FOUR!


Happy Birthday, Mason!
Mommy, Daddy & Jack Love You!

XOXOXO

A Painting PAW-ty!

How do you celebrate a 4th Birthday? Why...with a visit to The Painting Paw, in Chesterfield for some time to let your creative juices flow! Mason, along with Jack, Sophie & three of his friends from school spent some time on Sunday celebrating his birthday and had a BLAST!

Yes, he was partially influenced by Mommy for his venue selection, but how could we pass it up when Stacey Donnelly and her staff at The Painting Paw do it ALL for you when you throw a PAW-ty! The invites, the fun, the cake..... I didn't have to lift a finger! And....the best part.....a week later you pick up your pieces of artwork and have a souvenir to remember your special day by.

Thanks to everyone who joined us! We had a great time and were so glad that you could celebrate with us.

Easter Easter Easter

In The Blog House!

I was informed this evening by my sister (Thanks D!) that I am a sucky blogger now that I have a job that keeps me off of the internet during the day (which is perfectly fine by me). So I lack in updates but what is really sad is that we have no real ultra blogworthy updates anyway!

Weather has been normal, boys have been healthy, Tim & I have been healthy, the boys got new shoes (so what) and they are now official card carrying members of......................the St. Louis County Library! Yep, Library Cards! We took our first adventure a couple of weeks ago and came home with 15 books and 1 DVD! But you don't want to hear about that do you? No...

So........I have nothing to share except for these cute pictures of Easters past! Until next time! {Smooches}