After a few episodes and my cereal, I went back to bed where Shawn was anxious for me to snuggle in next to him. He was freezing... so I got back out of bed to adjust the furnace. Then we slept... and slept... and slept. I got up at 6 p.m. to let the dog out and start dinner. I finally got him out of bed about 45 minutes later.

We sat down to a taco dinner to watch One Hour Photo. Most the poeple I know hated the movie, so I went intro it expecting it to bomb. But it wasn't bad. A bit odd is all.

I talked to Cassie and Lisa today. Man do I miss them. My poor sister must be going through a lot with Chris being in Iraq. Poor thing. I know my niece is feeling the styrain of the war, she made sure to tell me she prays for her family and that we don't die... a 6 year old child. Oh my. My poor, poor baby girl. How do you respond to that?!

And my sister told me recently, that she recieved a letter from Chris, her fiancee who serves in the army and is in Iraq right now, that he is scared. And that he thinks he won't be coming home. My heart broke to hear that. I don;t know Chris. We've never met or spoken, and to be honest, he wants to marry my sister and move her and our babies a gazillion miles away which sends me into fits every time I think of it- BUT.. My heart broke into pieces. I wasn't for the war, I think we had other options to exhaust. But here we are, invading and there's no turning back. And I believe in what we're there to do. And most importantly, I believe in our troops. It kills me to think of the men and women over there braving the battle fields for soemthing they may or may not have wanted to fight for, and thinking, Oh my, I'm not going to make it home. And even sadder yet, is that some won't.

And then I think about Chris. I ahve no idea what will happen to him. Whether or not he will make ot home. I can only hope and pray that he will. He has a baby girl here at home that I know is waiting for him. My sister waits. We all wait, for our soldiers to come home safe. What it must be like to have a loved one overseas. To hang onto whatever nerves and sanity you have left, watching the news, reading the papers, feeding daily off of whatever info one can get. And it's moments like these that I thank God, that my brothers and Shawn are still home, still safe. And that I thank God also, for the brave men and women who are overseas doing what a person like me never had the balls to do.

War scares me. The thought of losing innocents scares me. The thought of Chris never coming home, scares me to death. I know my sister. She loves with her whole heart. And his little girl, how could you ever explain?

The troops, are my heros. They are our angels, out to give to innocent people, what they can't do for themselves. To right others wrongs, to protect our freedoms.

Heroes and Angels... please, come home safe.