Still alive and still a slacker!

I'm on facebook now so the blog is neglected. I'm still working in Joshua Tree. Luke is on his second tour in Iraq. He's actually half way done. The kids are doing good. Lil'Luke is visiting Grandma and Papa in Lewiston, Id. for a week. Madie is doing good. She is learning a lot in preschool. Overall we are doing well. Here is some thoughts that Luke sent me about his 4th of July, ""yesturday's sandstorms where so bad that both breakfast and lunch were canceled. I realized that the fourth of July, one of my favorite holidays, was yet another thing ruined by this hell hole. I watched some movies and took a good nap. Then I woke up a little depressed knowing that the fourth went off without a bang. Pardon the pun. Then one of my buddies came into our tent and said his group of Marines were BBQing and they had plenty of food. So Nunez and I went over there and grabbed some chow. Some of it was stuff that the local people made and I was greatfull. I then started thinking about the fourth of July, and what it all meant. Most folks back home BBQed, shot fireworks, went swimming, and undoubtably most of America got hammered drunk in celebration of our country's independence. This year I celebrated the fourth eating sand filled hamburgers, and other sand filled items, but my celebration was more internal than anything I guess. I reflected on what it means to be free, and the price that was paid for us as Americans to enjoy that freedom. I have seen first hand that freedom is not everywhere in the world, and I have also seen what "New" freedom can do for a people. The bottom line is that sometimes the price of freedom may be high, but in the end it's all worth it. So after all that internal thought process, suddenly, the sandstorms that ruined our fourth of July party did not ruin it at all, but instead gave new meaning to what the fourth really means."

Cami