Fourth of July 2012

Some pictures from our Fourth of July's Celebration in 2012

HAPPY FOURTH 

XOXO,

LINDSAY

~Happy Fourth~

"Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States"

(Wikipedia)

~Have a great Fourth of July~
Have a beautiful day with your family and friends.

Be thankful and pray for those who are fighting for your freedom, 
day and night!

"Freedom is never free"

~Author Unknown~

LAND OF THE FREE

HOME (because) OF THE BRAVE

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"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

GOD BLESS AMERICA




xoxo,
Lindsay

Bad Things..Bad Things..Go Away!?!

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Many times we only appreciate the good things and cursed the bad things because it is bad anyway and therefore we do not want anything to do with it.

It is true that nobody wants a bad news, experience or life, but the truth is the bad things that God allowed to happened in our lives are great tools for us to learn.

Many times, bad things happened because we chose a bad decision anyway, but there are many times as well when we tried our best to be a great person, do the right things and bad things still happened to us. Meanwhile, there are a lot of people that we personally know, and many strangers as well, who lives their lives "not as good" as we think what "good" is anyway, and they have all the "luck" in the world.

Why do bad things happened to good people, right?
But then again, what is and who is the good people?
What is our standard of goodness in a person's life?
What's good for us might be bad for others and what's bad for us might not be as bad as we thought for other people's standard.

At the end of the day,
It will always comes back to yourself,
as a person.

It is easier to point finger at others than to take a closer look at ourselves!

You know what..,
If God allowed bad things to happened in your life,
It simply means that you are a strong person, He knows you can handle it!

When I feel overwhelmed with life's struggles and problems,
I told God that I have learned my lesson and that I am not that strong, I need Him to help me and strengthened me because I cannot take it anymore.

Admitting that we have a problem is a first step,
Asking for help and actually doing something to change the "bad" circumstances is step number two,
Surrender to God, after doing your part and hope for the best to take place is the last thing that we could do as a human being.

There are things that is just beyond our control and understanding,
Sometimes we just need to let it go and stop over-analyzing them.

We all have our limit when it comes to strength and weaknesses.
We all have our own ways to cope with problems in life,
We all have our own escape.
Just make sure that the escape is not worst than the actual problem,
because if we picked the right escape route, then we will find freedom.
If we make a wrong escape route, we will add more problems to the existing ones,
we create more stressed in our life.

Sometimes what seemed to be the best escape plan is not the best after all, even though it offers you the quickest way to find a temporary way out.
You can have fun or "forget" your problems in a certain amount of time,
But when you wake up,
Your problems are still there and because you chose the wrong/temporary escape plan,
You ended up with more problems in your life.

Why do bad things happened in our life (my own version lol) :
- Our own choice that leads us there
- Other people's decision that affected us
- Sin and Temptation
- There is a great lesson that we will learn and will benefits our future and others
- To show God's greatness in the middle of our weakness
- To see/understand that we are stronger than we thought
-For us to appreciate the good things, even the little things in life, because we never know how good things are until bad things happened to us
- It's just part of life, good and bad exists

Solution:
- We live, experience, learn, move on!
- We live, experience, learn and help others who might benefits from our own experience
- We live and we survive
- Do not compare your struggles with other people's victory


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You are not the only one with problems,
You are not alone,
You will be fine,
You are stronger,
Keep your head up and keep on going!

Fight,
Defeat the enemy,
Victory is yours!
:)

Bad things will happen, whether we like it or not.
It's a part of life!
Don't ask for bad things to never happened in life because you will be disappointed,
Ask for wisdom, courage and strength to face it.
Don't ask for bad things to go away when you are the one who made it happened in the first place,
face it and solve it like a responsible human being.
Don't play the blame game, it will never solve anything.
Running away is an act of a coward, face it like a warrior, and you will  not get haunted with your own problems.
Just do you part,
always let God involved!

xoxo,
Lindsay

Single or Taken?

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Ouch!! 

:)

A dear friend of mine posted this image on her Facebook's page a while ago and I found it very true, funny and sad at the same time!

When we were little, girls loves to fantasize of her prince charming, the knight in shinning armor who would do anything for her, loves her and treat her like a princess everyday.

If you grew up with a father whom you considered as your "hero", then there is a huge possibility that you will find a man who reflected your father. Not in a gross way, come on!! LOL!!

I meant a man who in so many ways reminds you of your father as far as his character, his hard work, his dedication and how he treated you as a human being.

If you grew up with a father who failed to do his job as a father, then there is a possibility that you ended up confused with men. You have no idea of what a great man is all about or how they should treat you and what is the man's position/roles in a marriage, because you never had one good male figure in your life.

On the other hand, even if you grew up with a bad father, it actually makes you very picky to chose your soul mate, because you do not want your life to ended up like your mother and you do not want you future kids to suffer what you went through as a child (to present time - yes parents, you left scars on your children's lives, it affected us in so many ways).

At the end of the day, we met some men, 

some of them are great, 

some of them are jerk, 

and WE ended up picked ONE that we thought qualified as our "Prince Charming".

Fast forward...

Once you entered a life called "marriage", your world changes!

Things that we did not see when we were dating is starting to appeared, 

things that we hate and love as well.

There are people who are really good at hiding the "true color" of their soul.

Some learned to be better and actually trying to be the best,

Others are too selfish to let go of their bad side.

Many became a bad (or good) one because something happened in their lives that changed their good behavior to be bad and their bad behavior to be good.

If your marriage is taking a down stroll, then you are one of the "Taken and not in love"s group?

Well, I think that there are some steps before we got into that phase in a relationship:

1. Love - Married/Dating - Lost the love

2. Not in love - Married/Dating - Fall in love

 3. Not in love - Married/Dating - Still not in love

4. Love - Married/Dating - Still in love

LOL, right?

So, which one are you at this point? Ideally, people would love to be number four, because it is the perfect kind of relationship, but sadly, not all of us could experience it. 

"Marriage doesn't create problems. It reveals them. You bring unresolved stuff into it."

Rick Warren 

Now, let's move on to the single ladies/men,

woot woot!!

I found it very true when people say they are single and happy, 

if that is really their honest feeling, 

because it is simply mean they are not ready to get involved in any relationship.

It is better to admit it, instead of rushing into any relationship based on a moment of passionate sex or a pressure from everyone else who wanted you to be in a relationship, when you, yourself, are not ready.

"You can't hurry love, right?"

;)

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Now, for those who are single and ready to be in a relationship but has not meet up with the right man/woman yet,

are you still single and happy or single and miserable?

This is for you to answer yourself.

But hey..,

I would rather wait for the right one, enjoy my single life without any drama and do things that will benefits myself in the future instead of rushing into a relationship, get all the drama that you don't need and then your life becomes worst than "The Real Housewives of Hell".

It's harder to fix the broken heart and clean up the mess it created than to be in a relationship with someone. I would rather check the "single" box in my Facebook account than to check the "Its complicated" one..

whew!! 

I just can't deal with anything that is complicated.

Even though, I can't speak up for any relationship that is complicated because when it comes to love, you get mixed feelings, emotions, logical thinking, and "sacred" moments.

Its harder to let go when you are in a relationship,

there is an emotional connection that is hard to break.

But, in a very bad situation,
always remember to save yourself
so you can save others!

What do I love the most of being married to my husband?

COMPANIONSHIP

and that is my final and honest answer!

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Singles and Doubles,

Taken or not,

In or out of love,

have a great Friday

T.G.I.F

;)

xoxo,

Lindsay

Operation Red Wings

I dedicated this blog especially for those who died with honor protecting my freedom seven years ago in "Operation Red Wings" June 28TH 2005.

We will NEVER FORGET!

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Michael P. Murphy

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 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥♥ ♥

OPERATION REDWING KIAs- On June 28, 2005, three of four SEALS on the ground (Murphy, Dietz, Axelson) were killed during combat operations in support of Operation Red Wing. ON the same say, a QRF of eight Navy SEALs and 8 Army Night Stalkers were also killed when the MH-47 helicopter that they were aboard was shot down by enemy fire in the vicinity of Asadabad, Afghanistan in Kumar Province. 

Navy SEALs

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Lt. (SEAL) Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y. 

Sonar Technician (Surface) 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew G. Axelson, 29, of Cupertino, Calif.

Machinist Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Eric S. Patton, 22, of Boulder City, Nev.

Senior Chief Information Systems Technician (SEAL) Daniel R. Healy, 36, of Exeter, N.H. 

Quartermaster 2nd Class (SEAL) James Suh, 28, of Deerfield Beach, Fla. 

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2, Virginia Beach, Va.

Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny P. Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo. 

SEAL Team 10, Virginia Beach, Va.

Chief Fire Controlman (SEAL) Jacques J. Fontan, 36, of New Orleans, La. 

Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Erik S. Kristensen, 33, of San Diego, Calif. 

Electronics Technician 1st Class (SEAL) Jeffery A. Lucas, 33, of Corbett, Ore. 

Lt. (SEAL) Michael M. McGreevy Jr., 30, of Portville, N.Y. 

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SEAL) Jeffrey S. Taylor, 30, of Midway, W.Va. 

Army Night Stalkers

3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Hunter Army Air Field, Ga.

Staff Sgt. Shamus O. Goare, 29, of Danville, Ohio. 

Chief Warrant Officer Corey J. Goodnature, 35, of Clarks Grove, Minn. 

Sgt. Kip A. Jacoby, 21, of Pompano Beach, Fla. 

Sgt. 1st Class Marcus V. Muralles, 33, of Shelbyville, Ind. 

Maj. Stephen C. Reich, 34, of Washington Depot, Conn. 

Sgt. 1st Class Michael L. Russell, 31, of Stafford, Va. 

Chief Warrant Officer Chris J. Scherkenbach, 40, of Jacksonville, Fla. 

HQ Company, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Ky.

Master Sgt. James W. Ponder III, 36, of Franklin, Tenn.

(Source : http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/soa.html)

 ♥ ♥ 

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"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."
Joseph Campbell

We remember and we honor your sacrifices. 

Rest In God's Everlasting Arms, Heroes!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Magnificent Pictures

My obsession!

:)

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Arctic Shine

Photograph by Max Edin, Your Shot

Earth's most famous light formation hangs over a landscape saturated by the glow of a full moon in Longyearbyen, Norway. The photographer, who recently submitted this image to National Geographic's Your Shot, said it was the most beautiful northern lights display he had ever witnessed.

Referred to as the aurora borealis around the Arctic Circle, the light show also appears in southern polar latitudes, where it's known as the aurora australis. In addition, the naturally occurring phenomenon has been spied on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. (See "Auroras Seen on Uranus For First Time.")

Green light is the most common for Earthly auroras, but blue and red hues also appear from time to time. (Kastalia Medrano).

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Stardust

Photograph by Kwon O. Chul, TWAN

Far above Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, the band of the Milky Way cuts through a sky dusted with stars. This recently released photo, a single frame from a time lapse video, was taken near the town of Moshi on Kilimanjaro's lower southern slopes.

The smaller, almost opalescent blur on the left of the frame is the Small Magellanic Cloud-a dwarf galaxy far, far away that's home to hundreds of millions of stars.

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Dynamic Earth

Illustration courtesy SVS/NASA, U. Illinois, Thomas Lucas Productions, DMNS

Solar particles get bent as they sweep around Earth's magnetic field, as seen in a still from a new NASA planetarium show called Dynamic Earth: Exploring Earth's Climate Engine.

The image shows the full scale of a coronal mass ejection, an eruption of charged particles from the sun's upper atmosphere.

When the particles reach Earth, they can interact with our planet to produce the northern and southern lights. Under the right conditions, CMEs can trigger especially intense solar storms that can damage satellites or cause power outages.

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Stellar Nursery
Image courtesy VLT/ESO

Awash in gritty, pinkish light, this image is the best view to date of the lively stellar nursery known as NGC 6357. The newly released visible-light picture was made by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Swaths of color represent glowing dust and gas clouds, while dots of blue and white light show the hot young stars growing inside the nebula.

NGC 6357 is also called the War and Peace Nebula, due to the fantastical shapes of a skull and a dove that seem to appear in infrared images of the cosmic cloud. Located within the constellation Scorpius, the nebula lies about 8,000 light-years from Earth.

~Source: www.nationalgeographic.com~

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? 

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable."

(Isaiah 40:28)

XoXo,

Lindsay

Song Of The Day

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Indonesian Idol 2012

Regina and Judika

I gotta say, I love their version and duet.

Great voices, performance and song!

:)

xoxo,

Lindsay

Vacation, Anyone?

New Zealand's Otherworldly Landscapes 

by Håkan Ludwigson

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Adriatic Sea
Roca Vecchia, Italy

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Wind-Carved Cliffs of Corfu
Greece
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Rancho de Costa, La Paz, Mexico

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 Ladera ecolodge in St. Lucia

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Koh Samui, Thailand

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Delaire Graff Lodges and Spa, 
Stellenbosch, South Africa
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Barcelona

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Grand Resorts at Cap Cana

Dominican Republic

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Thank you Conde Nast Traveler for all these beautiful places you have posted in  your website.

"No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one."

  ~Elbert Hubbard~

Its never too late to start saving, packing and enjoying the reward for all the hard work you have done in life.

Until then...it is not a sin to lust for these beautiful places

;)

xoxo,

Lindsay