JAXON LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH

The guy in the middle is Jaxon, quite the character. He's all boy & a joy to be around. One of these days I will have to do a post to introduce all our family.

Sharon & I got a nice surprise last night. Our grand kids called, Jaxon had lost his first tooth, naturally, & wanted to tell Nana & Poppie. He has lost a tooth before, but that was from goofing around. We got to talk briefly with Annie & our daughter Jennifer. It was really great to hear from them.



I have received permission to reproduce the government pictures & video showing some of the good stuff our troops are doing in Afghanistan. Some of that will be posted real soon.

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Loves You.

BEST DRIVEWAY BASKETBALL EVER.

This is the way to play basketball. With our grandson Jaxon, Nana taking the video & doing the play by play. Then Annie decides to come out to join us. This was taken in Sept. 2006. Good times. Something I will never forget.

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Bless.

#78

We lost another soldier on Wed. in Afghanistan. Cpl. Étienne Gonthier was killed by an IED. Two others were slightly injured. All we can do is pray for him & his family, as they mourn the loss of their brave soldier.

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Bless.

A CHANGE OF PLANS

I started this blog with the intention of passing along some positive news about Canada's role in Afghanistan. I am not a reporter, or an investigative journalist, but I did do some digging, contacting the information dept. of the Armed Forces. I have to admit that I was very naive in regards to our mission in Afghanistan. I'm including the e-mail I received from The Armed Forces. In that e-mail there are some web sites that they suggested I might be able to get more information. I checked out those web sites & found out that other than combat troops there are a total of 37 military personal working, in different capacities, with the Afghan Government. I did find a very good web site where there are some postve stories from Afghanistan.http://canada-afghanistan.gc.ca/cip-pic/afghanistan/library/kprt_jan2008-en.asp

Our troops are there on a combat mission, mainly because other countries from NATO will not provide any or enough troops to help us out. I will continue to support our troops, no matter what their mission is. They are there because the Canadian Government sent them there, & they are simply doing their jobs as soldiers. If anything happens over there I will post it on this blog, other than that I will post other events, local & otherwise, along with some pictures & videos of my grand children. You'll have to excuse me as I am a proud grandfather or Poppie as the kids call me.

Below is the e-mail I received from our government.

Thank you for writing and visiting our Defence web site.
The Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan is obviously not a "peacekeeping" mission as there is no peace to keep. Neither is this a conventional "war" as is traditionally known.This is basically a battle against a group of organized individuals who support terrorism and advocates violence against any individuals who simply do not support their beliefs. Canada, like many other countries who are participating in this action in Afghanistan [27 countries/NATO members, sanctioned under the UN] believe they must make a stand at some point
to put a stop to this chaos.

However, CF members also participate in helping a country ravaged by conflict in rebuilding their community, through
Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC)
CIMIC contributed to Canada's national interests in security, governance, economic and humanitarian matters.

I can suggest several sites that would provide you with information regarding Canada's missions and its role within the UN's mandate.

The Department of National Defence has a site entitled "Operations" that provides an update on the current status of Canadian Forces operations around the world as well as historical information on past operations. The address is: http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/operations/current_ops_e.asp
Another site which may be of interest may be found at http://www.peacekeeper.ca/. This is a site created by a former peacekeeper which features stories about the adventures of current and former Canadian peacekeepers.

The Canadian Forces College's web site would also be an excellent source of information, their address is: http://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/(see their War, Peace and Security page)

The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, who's mission is to support the Canadian contribution to international peace, conducts research and provides advanced training and educational programmes in peacekeeping. Their web site may prove to be helpful. Their web site address is: http://www.peaceoperations.org/

The Canadian Government web page on Afghanistan can be reached through the following link: http://canada-afghanistan.gc.ca/menu-en.asp
We thank you again for your concern and for supporting our troops.

B.WEISS Inquiries Officer, ADM (Public Affairs)

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Bless.

A LITTLE MORE CHEERFUL

The following is a video I received for my birthday few years ago. My birthday is on Valentines Day. It's my grand daughter Annie singing, she was 2 & 1/2 years old at the time. Hope you enjoy it, half as much as I do.

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Bless

#77

Trooper Richard Renaud was killed during a routine patrol in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province.

Trooper Renaud was the 77th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan. He was killed when his vehicle hit an IED. It must be so frustrating for his fellow soldiers as when that happens there is nothing they can do. There is no one to shoot back at, no one to go after, & no one to even see. As an old soldier myself I can only imagine what that must feel like.

Please pray for Trooper Renaud & his family. Take a minute to pray for all the Men & Women of or Armed Forces, & thank them for what they do every day.

Live well, Laugh well Love well,

God Bless.

SOLDIER'S WIFE.

THE SOLDIER'S WIFE.

Live well, Laugh well, Love well,

God Bless.

AFGHANISTAN

It's taken me a long time to decide on the main content of this blog. I finally decided, it will be dedicated to our troops in Afghanistan. The thing is, there are tons of stories & pictures of the war, the fighting. It is so hard to find something positive in the media. I know there are a lot of great things our troops are doing over there. I've been told by some guys who recently returned from their tour there.

In order to report the positive I have to report the negative. I just pray that I can do it in a way to Honor our soldiers. So far there has been 76 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Just yesterday there were 4 injured by a roadside bomb.

Our troops are helping to rebuild the infrastructure of many villages. They've improved roads, improved ways of getting safe drinking water, built medical clinics, schools, I could go on & on. I just wish the Canadian media showed us folks back home some of that stuff, instead of all the bloodshed.

I am going to try & find some reports of positive things. Not sure of how I'll do, but I'll try.

Live well, laugh well, love well,

God Bless.