In Grateful Appreciation for our Veterans

God love you all. You are our best, and we owe it all to you. Thank you for your service.

11/12/10 Update: I didn't realize it when I posted this directly from UTube yesterday, but And So It Goes In Shreveport has the same clip up. Good pick, Pat! :-)

A Fitting Happy Birthday to The Few, The Proud, The USMC!

From The Warrior Song Project:



From the Great State of Texas:




I stand in awe of my Marine.

Sgt Ethan Duncan Arguello

In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

Happy Columbus Day! This is the day we celebrate the opening of the Americas to on-going settlement and trade during the Age of Discovery with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Thanks to angel investor Queen Isabella of Spain, the venture was funded and the world changed forever. Columbus' discovery brought knowledge of the New World into the modern age 500 years ago.

Did you know that Queen Isabella was the first identified woman featured on a US Postage stamp? In 1893, she was given equal billing with Columbus for the success of the mission on the first commemorative US stamps ever issued for the Columbian Exposition in 1893, and is shown hearing the plan, pledging her jewels to fund the first voyage, meeting Native American Indian Ambassadors who visited her court... there were 16 stamps in the series and she is on 7 of them.

This series of postage stamps is a short course in American exploration history in vivid imagery.




Coming less than 50 years after stamps were first invented (Queen Victoria was on the "Penny Black" for decades), the Columbian stamps were the first to deviate from the habit of treating stamps like other kinds of paper money and coins which depicted only monarchs, presidents and national ideals. Commemorative coins honoring Isabella and Columbus were also minted for the Exposition. (the history of US Commemorative coins, dates of issuance and persons honored is also very interesting.)

The 1893 series also pictured a Native American Indian family of husband, wife, and baby, Native American Ambassadors meeting Queen Isabella in Spain, the Catholic priest credited with celebrating the first Mass and building the first Church in the New World (although if you recall, Leif Erikson was a recently converted Christian when he arrived, so such firsts may be qualified), many different cultures represented at the Spanish Court, Columbus' own brother, and historical persons who were a part of the crew or the events pictured.

There are some great resources over at Stamps.org for history buffs and beginning collectors.

Some recent accounts, encyclopedia entries, and condensed articles on other topics may overlook, downplay, or word-play the presence on US Postage stamps of various persons pictured as early as 1893, but our forebearers were welcoming, even if we don't often hear about it. The "melting pot" has always embraced the full contingent of people from such different backgrounds for the part they played in making America.

Happy Leif Erikson Day!

In 1825, a ship carrying Norwegian colonists arrived in the United States, marking the beginning of modern immigration to America from Norway. This was celebrated with the Norse-American Centennial in 1925, and President "Silent Cal" Calvin Coolidge reminded in his speech of the earlier Scandinavian settlements led by Leif Erikson of Greenland. Learn more here.


The great (and literate) Scandinavian seafarers traveled all around the northern hemisphere during the Viking heyday, colonizing Iceland and Greenland, governing in Russia, and settling (as well as pillaging) the British Isles and Ireland. Their visits to Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales exposed them to Christianity, which they embraced with recognition that it fulfilled the old religions and made real the hope of Heaven foreshadowed in the old stories.

During a voyage west of Greenland, Bjarni Herjolfsson had seen a new land, but had not stopped to explore. This created legends for young men to dream of exporing, and our hero Leif Erikson
did just that about 10 years later, buying Barney's boat, and setting off to see for himself.

The rest, as they say, is history. Leif created settlements at several locations on the Northeastern coast of North America before returning to Greenland to evangelize there.

Much of the original story, translated from the Sagas into English, can be found here to read for yourself: http://www.bartleby.com/43/1.html

Leif Erikson Day was adopted nationwide in 1963 and is celebrated on the anniversary of the arrival of the ship Restauration bringing the first modern-day Norwegians to their new life in the US "melting pot": October 9th. The Leif Erikson International Foundation website has excellent information if you'd like to learn more: http://www.leiferikson.org/index.htm

September 11th 2001

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On September 11th, 2001, an enemy came to us, unprovoked, and attacked - not for the first time - our way of life and our heritage of Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Speech, and of personal liberty under the rule of long-established law whose meaning does not change with the fashion and that applies to all equally and consistently. By whatever name anyone uses to speak of this enemy or whatever it may call itself, it is not new. The enemies of freedom and liberty show their true colors in each generation, and have for the two thousand years since Jesus' resurrection freed all mankind forever.

They wear different faces in different eras, but God is not mocked.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
by Julia Ward Howe 1862

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

May God bless the souls of those who died, and all those who loved them. May God continue to bless America as He has for hundreds of years. May God open the ears of Christ's enemies to hear, may He open their eyes to see, may He lead them and us into truth and salvation.

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Blue Shoes....


...and Happyness.

The Wedding of the Year!

Introducing Mr and Mrs Nicolas Arguello, and their dream come true



It was a beautiful wedding, for a beautiful couple, with every reason in Heaven and earth to look forward to a beautiful life together.



More photos to come in future posts... these are just a few snapshots from Sunday night's wedding and reception. The happy couple are now on their honeymoon, and happy families on all sides rejoicing!