Monday, May 26, 2014

Memorial Day Enjoyment and Remembrance

While today is bittersweet for so many families, I'm thankful that there are so many brave American men and women who have risked and sacrificed so much for so many.  The freedoms we enjoy in our country are more than what anyone else in the world gets to experience, and it's due to those that fight and die for our country.  My sincere thank you goes out to them all.

Today turned into a fun day for us, as we started out by celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday, her second 35.5 year birthday.  Melody and I ran out to the store and got a grab bag of items for her, including perfume, jewelry, coffee, and other fun things.  Then we treated her to lunch at Eggspectation, one of our favorite places to eat.  We love breakfast at any time of day, even if they have lunch and dinner on the menu.  It was a nice time with them.  Melody got her usual chocolate chip pancakes, and I got an omelet.  It was all very delicious.  After saying goodbye, we headed back home to reload.

The next stop of the day was Mom & Dad's.  We had a great time with them!  Dad cooked out and we had burgers, dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, and macaroni salad.  In addition, we watched Melody's band concert on video from a few weeks ago.  It was a nice visit.  After dessert, we came home, just before the sun went down.

Three day weekends are always great and enjoyable when we don't have to go anywhere.  Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day are three holidays that I don't like to go out of town or vacation on, if possible.  I spend so little time at home on most other holidays, so it's really nice to be able to stay home when so many others are traveling.  This was one of those occasions.  It truly was a restful weekend.

I was thinking about my family who have served.  There are so many, including my great grandfather, William Harvey Fulcher, who served in World War I; my grandfather, Chester Freed, in WWII; my uncle, John Davis, who also served in WWII (the Battle of the Bulge); my father, Bill Freed, who was in the Army Reserves; my father-in-law, James Shirlen, Jr., who served in the National Guard and "the Battle of Cambridge"; two more uncles, Paul and Ted, who were also in the reserves; cousin Jared, who was with the Army in Iraq, and cousin Matt, who was in Afghanistan with the Army, and is now serving in the Marines, based in Japan; cousin Wes, who has also been serving as a photographer in the Army in Afghanistan.  And then there's another of my great grandfathers, who died in Europe during WW1, the only member of my family (that I'm aware of) who lost his life in battle.  Thank you all for serving!  You're all heroes in my book.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Please remember those who make it possible for us to have a wonderful weekend.

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