Well my new computer is on line and working really good even more than I know how to operate it with windows 8.1.....So I thought I would state some of my appreciations, accomplishments, and the great advise my mother gave me growing up as her 18th child!!! I can't imagine any woman today having that many children with one husband!!!!

In my early age I was a good kid being raised up alone while my closest siblings to me were a set of twin girls six years ahead of me. So I only had my mom to listen to for advise in doing the right things as a young kid.... This all came to me the last couple days when a 16 year old with two knifes at high school attacked his class mates....

I finished high school as a very poor kid with two pair jeans, three shirts, and a pair of high top tennis shoes. There was no money to be had growing up very poor. I picked cotton to get my first and only bicycle at age 14 when school was out during the summers. My mother got a check from the government for 16 dollars a month. She never had a job outside the home. My father was 20 odd years older than my mom and she was 43 when I was born in 1941. He passed when I was 14 in 1955!!!

He basically were a farm worker with all his older kids (boys) until they grew up and left home. Many of them went to the service but I'm the only one that retired with 22 years of service in 1978 after returning from Baumholder Germany with a total of 14 years there on several tours. That tour gave me the opportunity to finish my college degree while I worked in personnel in my Army unit...

My daughter was born in Munich Germany in 1964. Then a son was born here at Fort Hood Texas in 1966... Had I not listen to my mom I may have ended up in jail or prison running with the wrong crowd of boys so I'm glad I listen to mom! She told me one day "If you end up in jail running with them boys and they mothers don't get you out, you will just be there, I will not spend a dime to get you out."

So the next week I went and joined the Army and all those boys are dead long time ago before I retired from the Army in 1978!!!! My mom told me don't have sex with the girl I married until I know I want her to be my wife. We got married in 1960 two years after I joined the Army!!!

After my Vietnam tour she was a different woman so we were divorced after I left the hospital in San Francisco and was able to walk again on my own. I got married again and orders for another tour in Germany where she left two years after being there!!! So as I stated earlier I retired and got married again for the third time in Houston, my hometown...

Now I'm in my fourth and final marriage which has been wonderful for the last 16 plus years! I wish this had been the first, she is a keeper for sure and this is the longest time I been married. I think she was God sent from New Orleans to Fort Hood Texas for me??? I'm a happy stroke survivor for the last ten years of my life... I really feel by listening to my mother my life has been pretty good overall!!

My life's appreciations and my accomplishments following mothers advise is golden. Retiring from the Army, the US Postal Service, and owning my own Bowling Pro Shop business for 10 years until the stroke I survived is something I say "Thank God" daily for when I see on TV all the young people getting in trouble and going to jail or prison for life!!!

When you see my picture on here you are looking at a man that has been through hell for the most part but now has a chance to enjoy the life I always wanted to have with the woman in my life I love so dearly with her love in return!!! I just woke up this morning with all this on my mind and had to put it into words and this Blog. So, no bragging just being thankful for life when I could have been dead three times already!!

Once in Vietnam, once with third wife who shot me, then the stroke 10 years ago I survived!!! I have a sense of humor and trust in the Lord daily for my understandings of life!!! I thank you in advance if you happen to read this blog for your comments!!! I take life as it comes with a positive attitude I try to relate to others along the way!!!

"You can make it if you try"