A day to honor and to remember those who have served/ are serving our country ...I thank all of my family and friends in the Air Force and Army who are in Iraq and surrounding countries and pray for their safe return and a stop to this war soon. The toll that war takes on our soldiers and their families is tremendous and doesn't stop once the soldier returns home; trust me, their memories and the after effects stay with them FOREVER.

President Barack Obama avoided a racial controversy on his first Memorial Day in office by sending wreaths to separate memorials for Confederate soldiers and for blacks who fought against them during the Civil War. Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, a customary presidential undertaking on Memorial Day. He also had one sent to the Confederate Memorial there, a traditional practice but not well publicized. Obama also took the unprecedented step of sending a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington's historically black U Street neighborhood.

Wreaths also were left Monday at memorials to the USS Maine and the Spanish American War.

In brief but solemn remarks after he laid the wreath and observed a moment of silence, President Obama saluted the men and women of America's fighting forces, both living and dead, as "the best of America." *********Can I just say, this President is amazing***that's all I can say! He's raising the bar for the rest that will follow that's for sure-previous presidents have been allowed to get away with mediocrity and I'm glad we are FINALLY seeing CHANGE & HOPE.

On the regular home front, it was just an easy breezy day; no special plans; swimming at the Y in the morning and it was raining hard in the afternoon & evening so no BBQ but we did have some really sweet corn...here are my "sous chefs" (Brandon & Mack the zebra) shucking the corn for me. For some reason, they were inseparable today so I grabbed my camera...Mack was the supervisor :)