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

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.

It is amazing that we are given this little gift of life without a handbook.  We try our best to keep them safe. However, there are some things as parents we should know.  I was lucky enough to be invited onto a phone call with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and learned a lot of information about keeping my kids safe.  My goal is let you know what I have learned, so your children don’t become a statistic.

Did you know that most abduction attempts occur after school?  It is usually between the hours of 2 pm – 7 pm.  Almost half of nonfamily abduction attempts happen when a child is walking to or from school (or some related school activity).

Did you know that the majority of children affected by abduction attempts are girls between 10 – 14?

Did you know that only 58% of parents have talked to their children about this?

This is scary information.  I remember when I was a kid, and I could go play outside myself.  Now, I would never let my kids outside by themselves!  I am so glad to see that Duracell and The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have teamed together to give us parents a handbook to start a conversation with our children.  Best of all, this is free of charge!  The Child Safety Handbook can be downloaded right from the linked site.

Now, we were able to ask questions and mine revolved around what to tell my 4 year old daughter.  I don’t want to scare her, but I also don’t want to not have this conversation with her.  The advice I was given for her age is that we really need to get away from “stranger danger”.  The problem with stranger danger is that it portrays strangers as these scary bad people, and that is not what strangers look like.  We need to talk about the situations that have been tried and are effective — like the puppy trick.  We need to teach our children that it is okay to say no to stranger and that if an adult needs help, they will ask another adult, not a child.  Our response cannot be fear based, and we must also reassure our children.

I highly recommend downloading that handbook.  You will find a ton of helpful information no matter how old your child is. The Power of Parents Child Safety Handbook provides safety tips from the experts at NCMEC for four age groups: infant to toddler, ages 4-6, ages 7-11, and ages 12-17. The handbook outlines age-appropriate tips and scenarios that parents need to be aware of, as well as some outside influences that may be impacting their child’s actions. If reading this handbook could potentially save your child, it is well worth taking the time to download and read it.

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.

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.

Did you November is National Novel Writing Month (hence, NaNoWrimo). NaNoWrimo is an interesting approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1 and end November 30. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word).  This requires you to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day which can be very daunting.  This is why using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for NaNoWrimo would take some of the pressure off. I know my sister would love to write a novel one day.  It is honestly her lifelong dream.  She went to college and majored in English, so she could do it.  However, she is super busy (and this is before she even has kids!).  When I learned about Dragon Naturally Speaking, I knew this would be a perfect fit for her.  This can definitely help her blogging (of course, she is a blogger too!).  However, I personally don’t think she thinks she has the time for something of this magnitude.

If you want to see how this would help you, you have to take the Dragon’s typing speed test! I tried it with Will (my 16 month old) hanging on me (so I really do type faster, but this is what my life is like normally. That is why blogging usually takes me all day. LOL  Here’s my test results:

Let me tell you, I couldn’t believe how fast the speaker was compared to my typing.  Granted, I could have typed faster without Will, but I still couldn’t have kept up with the speaker.  There is no way.  I think I know what I am buying my sister for Christmas.  She has some big changes coming her way and this would allow her to both continue blogging and to write her novel.

I may not be writing a novel, but man, I can see so many uses for myself with this software.  Since I have five blogs and two little kids, I could definitely get more work done with this versus me typing out my blog posts (see score up above – lol).  This would make it much easier to write posts for my travel blog when we are on the road, and I could write my posts for my cooking blog while I am cooking the recipe I am going to write about.  I could take the time I save and spend it with my family instead of working.  It would be nice to be able to go to bed before midnight.  Do you want to see how easy this is to use?

As you can see, anyone can use this software. It is that easy.  Don’t believe me?  Read some of these Dragon Reviews. I actually know people who have this and they absolutely love it.  I am still working on getting my hands on one of these, so I can save some of my precious time.

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.

If you don’t know, the Chicago Cubs clinched the National League Central Division at home here in Chicago. This is more exciting for us here than staying in some las vegas hotels.

Normally, my husband could care less what I put on my blog. However, he did ask that I pass along this video by Eddie Vedder. The song is called “All The Way”. Keep your fingers crossed, because Chicago will go nuts if the Chicago Cubs win the World Series!

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.