Treasures

Below is a photo of the center of my bedroom dresser. The trunk holds the precious letters my son mailed me as a Recruit as well as in OIF 1 and OIF 2. The little ceramic angel (the tall one) was once a bell that Aaron gave me, but Weston pulled the little ribboned bell out, which is fine.

There is also Aaron's soapstone turtle that he'd had since Panama. It's very chipped. I wrote a piece called Cosas that this turtle prompted. I'm waiting to see if I can get it published, so the story is out right now.

Beside it is an angel jewel box. You see I have the angel lid off of it. Aaron gave me this as a gift also. Lisa has joked that Aaron always gave me religious gifts. Everything always had a Jesus, angel, crosses, something like that. It was cute. My house looks sort of like a Catholic church because of it though. :)

But inside this little jewel box is some of the sand from Fallujah that Steve brought me from the place that Aaron fought (and Steve ran, you big chicken! Couldn't you stay and do some karate kicks or something?)

Just joking. Steve was shot in Fallujah about the same place Aaron was. Steve's vest saved his life, but the impact busted a few ribs and then he was also shot in the hip or butt or leg ...geez, I know you all think I'm crazy on what I can't remember. And sometimes I wonder too.

Beside those items are gifts from Kayla. Inside the little round jeweled tray is a penny from Heaven and a rock from the rubble of the house Aaron was shot on the roof at in that horrible Fallujah. Man, I hate that place!

The cloth and ribbon are wrapped with a poem that is called the Prayer Rock that Joanne gave me (another good friend of mine that loves me!)It's supposed to lay on my pillow. It says I can even throw it if I want to, but so far, so good.

And amazingly I still have Aaron's recruiter's card. See it? It's right under the 'a' in the word card. It's supposed to be in the trunk beside it. I haven't been too tidy lately.

And then there's the ever present chapstick. Like my Kleenex and cigarettes, there's always one within reach.

Which all this leads me to the next missing photo that must have turned into another floor shot (I have a few). I take terrible pictures of everything I take. But anyway, the missing one is of the larger container of sand and rubble I have which sits on top of my bookcase. So I'll get another one sometime and maybe run it with one of Steve's posts about Iraq.