Love Your Family.

We are off to Florida early tomorrow morning. No. I am not packed yet, but I will be. The kids are excited as am I.  I have remained on track with food and exercise this week. Tonight I'm going to TKD class with the kids. I do not know whether I'll be blogging this week. It will be busy with Disney World and all the other associated stuff. I am planning to track all my food. I am taking some healthy snacks. I know we'll be doing tons of walking. I'm even planning to bring my polar so I can track my calories I burn.

This weekend we are remembering 9-11. Ten years. Hard to believe.  The kids placed flags in the ground at school today and wrote letters to firefighters and policeman to thank them for their service. It was really touching to see all the little kids and the huge field full of flags.  I suppose tonight we'll have to have a discussion about what 9-11 means. We all remember where we were that day. A horrible day. As someone who lost family in the OKC bombing, I know exactly how those families feel as they remember. My prayers and thoughts go out to them.  I am thankful, so thankful for everything those that keep us safe do for us.

I was sick that whole week of 9-11-01. We had just gotten back from San Francisco that Sunday before. I was running a high fever, like 104, and it was the only time in my life I threw up on a plane. I was so so sick. I had strep throat and it took all week to recover. My husband was in Boston on business that week so I was home alone with my then 3 year old son. Sick. My mom called and told me to put the news on. I immediately panicked because my husband was scheduled to fly home later that day, which of course didn't happen. It was terrifying. I remember being glued to the TV. All day, all night.

And then the memories of OKC coming back, nightmares, anxiety, panic attacks. Just being so thankful my husband had a late afternoon flight that was then canceled. Then paranoid about how he'd get home. The airports shut down. No way home. He ended up renting a car with a co-worker and driving home to Texas. 

My girls are too young to know much about that day. My son was too young back then so I kept him away from the TV. Now that he's older we've talked about it a lot. We watched a great program recently on the memorial they are building and the new building on Discovery channel.

War is a very hard thing to explain to children. Well....to anyone. It is just not something that is easy to understand. Why one human would do terrible things to another. But it is our responsibility to remember that day. What it means for our past and our future. To honor those lost and those that survived. To remember and do everything we can to be sure it never happens again.

Love your family. Tell them everyday what they mean to you. I have learned that you will never regret saying "I love you" and you will never regret spending time with those you love. I will be doing just that this next week. I'll check in to read and comment when I can. I will blog if I can and if not I'll see you when I return. Take care.