Spc. Jonnie L Stiles
38 years old from Highlands Ranch, Colorado
769th Engineer Battalion, Louisiana Army National Guard
November 13, 2008

Louisiana National Guard spokesman Maj. Michael Kazmierzak said Spc. Jonnie L. Stiles had been serving as a gunner on a Humvee doing route clearance when and IED detonated near his vehicle in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He said the job typically involves checking roads for bombs and insurgents.

Stiles’ wife, Launa, said that he was nearly killed last month when a suicide bomber blew up a military vehicle in front of his. She said he was still able to rescue three other soldiers and returned to duty before his 30-day recovery period was finished.

“He was strong and really cared for his men,” she said.

Stiles was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and graduated from Littleton High School in Colorado. He served in the military for 17 years, first joining the Marines and then switching to the Army in 1999. He served three years at Fort Carson, left the Army and then returned as a member of the Colorado Air National Guard in the Summer of 2007.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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I have found my new favorite place to shop online.  Why do you ask?  I just found the best deal ever on a Leapster 2 by using Shop.com.  Now, Leapster 2s on their own run around $79.99, so when I saw this one, I got super excited.  See, this one with a game is $79.99!  This gets even better too!  If you look closely at the Leapster, it is Star Wars!  Now, Madison is a Star Wars freak, so I can only imagine how excited she would be to see this under the Christmas tree from Santa!  I am excited, and this isn’t even for me.  Also, because it black, this can easily be passed down from Madison to Will.  I don’t have to worry about hearing that it’s a girl color!  (Yes, I am thinking that far ahead).

Now, Shop.com has over 2,000 stores, so you can definitely find something for everyone there.  You can type just about anything in the search engine on there, and it’ll pull it up.  You will see all the stores that carry that item plus how much each one wants for it.  I also love that purchases can be made using one universal “shopping cart” to buy everything at one time or by clicking over to participating merchants’ sites.  You can easily get all your Christmas shopping done at one site and know you are getting the best price!  I love that this takes some of the time and stress off me.  I love that I found her present, and I was just browsing through the toys! Shop.com also has expert advice, shopping tips, and articles.  My only complaint is that you can’t search through the toys by age (which is important when you have an 18 month old, since he still sticks everything in his mouth).

If you want a one stop shop for your Christmas shopping this year, Shop.com should be it.  See you there, because I am going to do some more shopping!

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Spc. Kenneth W. Haines
25 years old from Fulton, New York
2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division
December 3, 2006

Spc. Kenneth Haines joined the United States Army in September 2000 as a fire support specialist and had been assigned to his unit for just over three years. He deployed to Iraq in October of 2006.

During his time in service, he received several military awards and decorations, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and National Defense Service Medal.

Spc. Haines was killed by an IED that was detonated near his vehicle while on patrol in Abu Hishma, Iraq.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.

I wish I had some great Thanksgiving stories.  However, we normally end up going to somebody elses house for Thanksgiving, so I dont’ have to cook.  Ever.  Honestly, it is nice.  However, this year my parents are coming here for Thanksgiving, so I have to cook my own dinner (with some help from my mom I hope!  Though she won’t be coming up till Thanksgiving day itself, so I may not have as much help as I’d like! They are coming here so I have some company doing some Black Friday shopping (though my mom is refusing to go stand outside at Best Buy at 3 am.  Yes, I am that dedicated.  LOL)

I have a feeling this Thanksgiving I will have a ton of material to post about regarding my experience.  I don’t think Bill and I have ever made a real turkey by ourselves.  That is why its nice to know that Butterball has a Turkey Talk-Line.  You can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL  and talk to their meal preparation experts (writing that phone number down myself), or you can visit Butterball.com for Web chats with a few bloggers – Chris Jordan (Notes from the Trenches), Susan Wagner (Friday Playdate), and Roxanna (Miguelina) on November 11, 18 and 25 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. CST.  They will answer all your turkey related questions. Now, if any of you have any advice for me, I’ll gladly take it.  We just won’t tell anyone. 

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.

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When your phone number is one number off from the cab company, you get a lot of annoying calls (especially on New Years Eve).  I just got one now at 11:30 at night.  However, what annoys me more is the telemarketers that call.  It gets to the point that you pay for caller id just to get their number.  However, the annoying telemarketers have gotten smart, and a lot of the time it the number is the only thing that shows up.  You never know if you should answer the call or not!  That is why I like sites like AnnoyingCalls.com, because you can enter the number in and see if anyone is having a problem with that number.  You can also put the number on the site with your complaint about them.  If you have problems with telemarketers, you should definitely check this out.

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