Thank You, Vets!

No, not the vets who take care of my critters - I'm talking about the vets who enable me to do crazy things like cast my fate to the wind and take off for the wilds of Central New York. That's my youngest, AJ, holding the flag for his basic training group at Fort Benning, Georgia. As I've written before many times in this journal, I am the mother of two veterans, one of whom is still serving. The other is serving too, in another form of military, the Boy Scouts of America. Eric is truly a lifer in the BSA, a living role model of responsible American citizenship. He gives too much time to that organization and has made countless millions of dollars for it to further their programs. That's why they sent him to Las Vegas - to get the big donors! (And to run their camps in the mountains...) On December 12 AJ is taking the test for the Army Chaplaincy, that is, if he passes the rigorous Army PT test. He's lost a lot of weight and is working out regularly. The Army has strict standards for body/mass index, etc. He has already earned the status of a veteran of a foreign war with his deployment to Cuba three years ago. The move to be close to Eric and his family saved him from another deployment to Iraq, as his NJ National Guard unit was sent there after AJ moved west. Mia is doing another kind of public service with her nursing career. I count my three responsible, hard working American children among my greatest blessings. May they live and prosper, and may America thrive despite any president's misleadership.