In Memory Of Grandpa

I was going through and cleaning out some of the old documents saved in our hard drive from my college days and ran across a class where I had to write a journal. One of the journals I opened described my conversation via email with my Grandpa Ladnier ( my mom's dad, who passed away a year ago March). This took place in February 2000. I thought most of you would appreciate what my grandpa had to say regarding his experiences with war. The following is an account from my journal:

I wrote my grandpa and told him I was taking this class. I asked him a few questions and he responded with delight that I am interested and said that he had always wondered why I had never taken interest before. I thought about that and came to the conclusion that I was not confronted and was not aware of war or the effects of it. I never thought to ask. He mentioned how when his uncles returned from wars he “as a youngster, ‘hung onto’ every word they said”. He went on to say that what you learn about in history books is just not all the facts. Here is what he wrote to me:

Thinking of Vietnam I can't help but recall a statement that
General S.L.A. Marshall made during a luncheon. General Marshall, of
W.W.II fame; I introduced him as a guest speaker and afterwards we had
lunch - he was 86 years old then! He said, "...we will lose our next
war because we have become too civilized". I learned from my tours in
Vietnam what he meant - - the Vietcong beat us because "we were too
civilized". They didn't play by our rules - - i.e., they routinely used
children and women as weapons against up. Try to imagine seeing a young
girl, like Marie, walking toward a dozen of your friends and you KNOW that she
has a bomb and if she reaches your friends they are all dead - - but, if you
shoot her, you save your friends! We as Americans, could not handle
this! We would go into villages and rebuild them - - set up schools
and give them everything so they could have the advantage and freedom that we
all knew. When we left, the Vietcong would come in and select the mayor of
the village, hang him by his feet, slit his stomach and force his family,
children, wife and all the villagers to watch as the pigs eat his hanging
intestines - - we could not compete with this cruelty! Yet, we saw more
and more of the American public, the News Media, Hollywood stars, like Jane
Fonda, supporting the Vietcong. We became the enemies and not the
Vietcong! It was more painful for me to travel to and from Vietnam in the
US than actually being in Vietnam. I clearly remember my uncles returning
from W.W.II and their reception. The people understood the sacrifices they made
to insure that they and their families forever would enjoy the freedom that we
enjoy in this nation. When Vietnam veterans returned they were only met
with hatred! Waiting in a California airport, in Green Beret uniform, I
was approached by this nice looking young lady. She said, "I just want to
show you how much I appreciate what you are doing for our country by treating
you to the best breakfast you have ever had". Since I had time
before my flight home I agreed and we went into the nicest restaurants there and
she ordered for both a dream breakfast - - steak, eggs with all the trimmings.
She finished eating before I did and grabbing the bill said she had to rush
for her flight. When I finished and starting walking out the cashier
stopped me said that the young lady had not only not paid the bill, but had got
a considerable amount of gum/candy saying to add it to the bill and I would pay
on my way out! That was her way of expressing how she felt about
Vietnam Veterans!
I was in RVN twice as a Special Forces,
Green Beret, operator. The first time in the mid 50s, in civilian clothes,
after the French had been defeated. I suspect history will
show that our mistake was not supporting them against the Vietcong (Vietnamese
Communist). Their last stand was heroic and deserves to be
remembered. I met, worked with and partied with many of the French
Legionnaires who were there and survived. My home base was Saigon and I
lived in an upscale hotel -- then a beautiful city.

Returning in the 70s, this time in Green Beret uniform, we were involved in
establishing and operating intelligence networks and in recruiting locals,
training, equipping and leading them in battle against the Vietcong. It
was an economy of force operation - - a 12 man A detachment would recruit and
lead a local Army of up to 5,000 soldiers. We were convinced that it was
our duty to help the Vietnam people know and enjoy the freedom that we had known
all our lives. I was following a long family tradition of going to War and
believe that one has never lived until they have almost died - - the comradeship
and trust that you develop for your fellow soldier is close to
love.
There is a community of Vietnamese here in Gulfport
that was forced to leave their country when we left. They are good
citizens and becoming productive members of our nations. The
irony is that they were provided more US government help, money, training, etc.,
to get resettled that Vietnam Veterans were given!

The real heroes of Vietnam were the wives that stayed home and took care of the
children. Alice did wonders. Even our children made sacrifices - -
your Mom did - - but when I came home and Karen would put her arms around me and
say, "I love you Dad!" that made it all worth while.

Our nation will continue to be challenged by
aggressors throughout the world and there will always be a need for someone to
sacrifice to insure that we all can keep this great freedom we
have.

Water Water Water

If only we did have a lot of water via rain this summer my grass would not have practically died nor my other plants struggle to survive. With the cooling temperature we have finally been able to get out and get wet.


Car Wash - the kids helped Ben with washing his car the other day. They had a lot of fun. Of course Ben would get frustrated because they liked to keep washing the side that was already done or kept dumping out the water bucket with soap in it. Caleb pored almost the whole bottle of soap in and pretty much washed the driveway. But they all had fun!



Sunday the kids had fun playing in the pool. It was perfect weather!


Elijah's face is all healed up. He has a little scar on his cheek that I hope will eventually fade away.

Crazy

Things have been a little crazy around here. In the last 3 weeks I have started my new Bradley classes, seem to have every kid in the neighborhood over, of which I am either actually officially watching or just over to play. Last week I babysat a little 18 month old and kept extra kids. Some of those days I had more than 7 kids I was watching. One of those days I had to keep the house clean for my Bradley class that was starting that night. You ever try to keep a house clean when 7 kids are running around? Close to impossible! I am also Caleb's homeroom mom, so I have already had to do some work for that. So I have been busy and when something has to go, unfortunately it is things like my blog or laundry, which is piled to the garage roof right now.

Caleb still loves school and so does Loryn. She asks me everyday if she has school today. I think she wishes she could everyday. According to Caleb's teacher is doing great, is always helping others and is one of the most well behaved in the class.

Caleb read his first book by himself!!! Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss is Caleb's first real read. The other day he sat out back on our porch and just started reading it. He only needed help with a few words but mostly got it by himself. His teacher was so proud of him too that she let him sit in her rocking chair and read to the whole class. He was so excited and now he just loves to read. Ben and I had tears in our eyes when we listened to him, we are so proud of him!

Caleb started playing soccer. So far he has won 2 games and he is making lots of goals. He is definitely more confident than last year. Elijah wishes he could play. He goes with Ben to the practices (Ben is assistant coach), and dribbles the ball back and forth between the nets. We have had comments such as "can he teach the other kids to do that", and "he is going to be really good when he starts playing". That's our little athlete. We will probably let him play next year.

Well, that was an attempt to catch up. We are all doing well and starting to enjoy the cooler weather. I have never looked forward to fall and winter so much in my life! This summer was for the records, no rain and extreme temperatures - yuk!

Saturday Outing

We decided on Friday it was time to go out to Acworth and Kennesaw and visit the Fam. We started out at my dad's house in Acworth and hung out a little. Him and his wife got a cute little puppy Dautson (sp?), so we got to have the honors of giving her more reason to be scared. Just kidding. Actually the kids did really well with her and she seemed to warm up a bit by the time we left. Dad took us out to lunch for pizza, thanks dad! and then later we headed out to Kennesaw to visit Chris and Aimee. Aimee just had a birthday a few weeks ago, Happy Birthday Aimee, belated. We went to visit with them and had lots of fun. We played Wii, which Caleb kicked butt in bowling, scoring 188, but had to sing Sponge Bob song, a consequence to a bet, as he lost another game to Chris. After dinner time us big kids played Risk while the midgets wrecked havoc on the rest of the house. We got out late but not before we got a call from our neighbor, Wendy, asking if we were home because a co worker called her asking if her house was OK because there looked like a house was on fire near ours. Course, I only had about 100 heart attacks as I called our other neighbor to make sure none of our houses were on fire. Lucky for us it was not on our street but the street over, a house did catch fire. By the time we got home the fire trucks were just leaving and as we passed we could see that most of the house was burnt to the ground. So, keep that family in your prayers. It is soo devastating and scary to think that could happen to you.

Tomorrow Loryn starts her first full day of preschool. I will be taking Elijah to the doctors to get his face x-rayed, only as a precaution, I think he is feeling and doing great.

More car trouble...again my check engine light has come on. We have not been able to keep a car out of the shop for almost the last month. First it was my car, the idle motor sensor, then Ben's car, the high air sensor (?) I think, and now who know with mine, may have to do with the same thing as before. Hope the car can last through the week. I have Caleb to get to school as well as Loryn. Does life ever get any easier?

Ouch!

My heart hurts when I look at my little boy perhaps feeling too much the pain of what you would imagine he feels with his face so bruised like that. I left my Bradley classes early last night due to a call from Ben telling me of the accident that caused Elijah's little face to look so beaten up. He wasn't sure if we needed to bring him to the hospital or not. When I got home I wasn't sure either, fearing that he may have broken something in his cheek or jaw. After a little bit he started settling down and his eye didn't look as swollen. We asked our neighbor who is a nurse to come over to look at him and tell us what she thinks. She didn't think it was a must to bring him and that he would be fine over night. Ben brought him down to watch TV and he stopped crying and after a little bit began playing with us and laughing and giggling. We decided he was probably OK or at least that the doctors would not be able to do much more than we were doing. We kept him up a little while longer and gave him snacks which he ate just fine and he finally went to bed. He he doing great today. His face looks more bruised but he is playing fine and doesn't seem to notice. I am sure this is the first of many big accidents with the no fear attitude he seems to have.

Today I am getting ready for my OAMC class I am teaching tonight at church and trying to get the house in better order. I look forward to do a little more managing and delegating choirs rather than having to do them all my self. I am sure it will happen way too fast and with it we also lose some of that precious behavior that makes this age so sweet.

Preschool for Loryn!

Sent one off to kindergarten yesterday and then one to preschool today. Well, actually today was just open house for Loryn to meet her new teacher and for us parents to sit in a boring lecture on rules and expectations etc etc. She had no problem going to class. Right when she walked in she spotted her best friend Emma who lives right next door to us. They both ran to each other and gave big hugs smiling and talking with each other. She got to stay there while Me, Caleb, and Elijah went to the chapel for our lecture. I missed half of it because Elijah decided that it was more fun to climb the stairs and run throughout the ailes. I had to keep taking him out on the account that he would scream if I stopped him from doing anything that he wanted to do. Don't you love the age 2!

Loryn's teacher seems nice and when we got home she kept asking me if she could go back to preschool. I told her she was going to get to go 2 times a week - huge open mouth smile erupts from her face as she fling her arms around me in the most genuine show of gratitude. My daughter has to be the most gratuitous individual alive! You should have seen her face when I added the cherry to the top, that her friend Emma and Leah would also be going and that she would be able to play with them in music and the playground - "playground!" she exclaims with excitement, as if you are describing heaven to her. I dread the day that this wonderful easily brought on show of appreciation in the things she is aloud to do, fades to a mere memory. Maybe we will get lucky and she will hold on to that attitude. We can only hope.

Caleb had a wonderful 1st day. He is only sad that he has to wait another week to go, and then mostly upset that it will not be until Friday that all his classmates are there at the same time. Caleb is very much the social bee (instead of butterfly - more appropriate for boy?). They read stories, played on the monkey bars (his favorite), made his name with beans. He saw his neighborhood friends Emily (our neighbor) and Bricen. He was disappointed that he could not ride on the bus with the argument that all the other kids got to ride the bus. I should count my blessings that he is accepting this change so well. I have friends that their new kindergartners are having a hard time. Maybe the trick is to get them real bored at home for months before school starts where they are eager to get out of the house (familiar feeling - have I felt that? - we won't go there).

Other than Ben's car being out of commission and depending on friends for rides all is going well. I will be teaching my tenth Bradley class tonight and have only 2 more to finish the series, Yeah! I already have one couple in line to start my next series and am hoping to find at least 2 more (keep me in your prayers). I have to prepare my lesson for enrichment on Once a Month Cooking for the other ward in our area. Somehow I have become known as the expert on OAMC which is not the case at all, I just seem to be the few who actually continuously do it. Anyway should go so I can prepare that and as always clean the house. Until next time - no promises when that will be!

Kindergarten - Here we come!!!

It has arrived. The day we, as parents, never think will happen. Our little baby starts school. Caleb has been so excited! Last week we went to registration and met his teacher and visited his classroom. She seemed very nice and Caleb really started looking forward to starting. I think he has been getting bored at home.

Today is his first full day. Well, actually his first full regular day with all of his classmates will be next Friday. Today is his first phase in day where him and 3 other children go for the whole day to get acquainted with the school and teacher and I believe they asses them to see where they are at. We also had to turn in our huge list of items like paper towel, wipes, notebooks, 4 things of glue, crayons, markers, erasers, etc, etc. I felt a little better about having to get so much when one of the moms had to hurry off because she had two other children to turn in their things. She had triplets, so you can imagine her list.

Caleb had to meet in the gym where they lined them up by class. There was a mix of older kids as well. Ben made a comment that it felt like prison. Poor Caleb, I was just telling him the night before about keeping his hands to himself because a friend told me about a 6 year old kid last year in a Chattanooga school was hauld away in hand cuffs for hitting a kid on the butt. Can you imagine how tramatizing. This no tolerence thing can get out of hand. A little scary too. Anyway, Caleb can be real sensitive and take things to heart sometime and I just told him about the kids and he was worried all morning. Maybe its best so he will remember to keep his hands to himself. He does have a tendancy to touch other kids (just in play).

I think he was just fine once the teacher came and we all walked to class and he got to hand up his backpack and sit down to play some playdoe. The teacher asked us to put the stuff we brought on the table and then said "Well, thanks, see you later". So we left. We pick him up today at 3:00pm.

Normally it would be a problem the whole dropping off and picking up but our cars decided to break down. Two weeks ago I had my car in the shop in hopes of getting it done in time for this week. It was but Monday morning Ben's car wouldn't start. Firgures! Well, we figured it all out thanks to Ben working around his schedual. Well I will let you know how Caleb's first day went. Tomorrow Loryn has her open house for her preschool. She has Mrs. Michelle as her preschool teacher and will be starting next Monday going Monday and Wednesday from 9am - 2pm. She is excited as well.

My babies are growing up!!!