This post is going to put me over 50,000 points which is way cool but our son getting back to the United States today is even cooler.
Our son has been stationed in Germany as an Intelligence Analyst with the Army for the past two years. One of those years was spent in Hit Iraq and the rest was in Friedberg Germany. He just flew back to the states today, Memorial Day and come June 11th will be reporting to Fort Hood. I can't tell you how thrilled we are to have him back in the states and in Texas at that. It is a double edged sword in that he could get in to a group heading straight back to Iraq. We won't know that until he reports to Fort Hood but should that happen he seems okay with it. More okay than I am but I'm trying to turn that one over to the Lord. I think it is the not knowing that drives me crazy. I'm sure once I know it will be easier to turn over. 
As I'm writing this he is in the United States but still in Dallas as they have had weather (I think Dallas always has weather) and his flight is delayed. He has been calling on his cell phone and when his picture shows up on my TREO I get so excited. He told me that he lost his IPOD a few days ago (probably it was stolen) and broke his MP3 player getting home but he is so excited to be back in the states that it didn't really seem to matter. That is just stuff any way. A few years ago that would have been traumatic stuff but not anymore. He will get back in Spring here later this evening.
The pictures are from when he was home in March of this year and the other one was when he was home for his two week leave the year he was in Iraq. You can see how excited our dog Abby was to see him.
Now I will get to my 50,000 points. My friend Mary Warren from Las Vegas turned me on to blogging at the first of this year. My first Blog was actually not with Active Rain but with Real Talk. I read an email on Real Talk about Active Rain and I can't even tell you who wrote it but whoever you were out there thank you. I decided to start a Blog on Active Rain also. I was actually moving my post from one Blog to another (mind you there weren't many of them and I now know that duplicating content is a NO, NO for Google) when several people commented on a post I wrote about. The post was "What to bring to your real estate closing". There were actually three comments from Chris Tesch, Danny Smith and Bob Sloop. I was amazed, oh my goodness someone was reading my post. Chris was the first one to comment so I looked her up and found out she had a whole boat load of points. I went to her website and found her email address. I was afraid to email through Active Rain; I guess I was afraid it might go out to the world also. I emailed Chris and asked her how she found my blog. She was so sweet she called me back on my cell phone. We are sailor's and were at a birthday fish fry at our yacht club (it sounds fancier than it is) so I even remember the date January 27th. Chris spent the longest time on the phone with me discussing what Active Rain was and how to go about getting points. I've always been a carrot grabber so that sounded fun to me. I had no idea what I had grabbed on to. Since that time I have got to know both Danny and Bob and many other people across the United States. Bob and I have shared having our sons in Iraq.
I just want to thank the Active Rain network for putting this together and I must say Localism totally rocks. I still like the points but since that time it has become the friendships, the knowledge, Localism and the points are just an added incentive.
I have had a lot of time on this Memorial Day for reflection. We are so fortunate to live in this great country that we live in and to have the freedom to pursue our dreams. I'm proud of our son and all the men and women in our military that defend our country so we can pursue our dreams. So I also want to thank all of you out there that are in the military or have spouses, sons or daughters in the military, you rock also!!
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Awesome posts Marchel! You truly do have a lot to be thankful for! I'm glad Taran got back to the states ok and I'm praying that he won't have to go back. Keep up the good work!