This past week has been extremely hard for me. I lost my Great Grandpa, who I was very very close to. I can honestly say that he was THE best grandpa I’ve ever had. I am so thankful for the last 5 years of being able to grow closer to him, of course, it wasn’t as long as I wanted, but I am very glad I had them. It was wonderful! It was wonderful to grow as close to him as I did.

Over the past 5 years, he really opened up to me about his WWII experiences which he hadn’t shared them at all before. When I presented him the Armed Service album I made for him at his 65th anniversary, he was moved to tears. I knew that all the efforts and the sleepless night I spent on it was so worth it! Getting to know him was truly a blessing to me. I pray it was to him also. Since I did that for him and grew closer to him through it, I have a very important place in my heart for the armed service men. When we took him to the cemetery, they gave him a beautiful Final Military Salute with the playing of Taps and a 21 Gun Salute. I bawled through the whole thing. Knowing that his service was important to him, and that was so very important to me because of him. It was very hard to sit through for me.
Sitting in his funeral service remembering all the times we had together, the tears just flowed. We would color when I was younger and as I grew up, we would sit on his front porch and play cards. He taught me to play rummy, war, slap jack, and more. One of the last times he played cards he was 87 and got down on the floor with the Littles to play go fish with them. It wasn’t easy for him to crawl on the floor but he showed his love to his family by doing it. He truly was a family man. That was all he was worried about: his family. He made it known that his family was all that was important to him.

I truly miss him. I miss his hugs. I miss his smile. I miss his playing cards. I miss praying for him. I now found myself crying when I pray because he is no longer on my list and it reminds me he is gone. I just miss him! But he lived a full and meaningful life. A life devoted to his family. I praise God that Grandpa knew our Savior and that I have the hope to once again see him on Resurrection Day. It hurts and its hard to have to wait for that day, but I know that the day is drawing close. OH, what a glorious day that will be!

Isaiah 25:8
He will swallow up death forever. Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For ADONAI has spoken.

Revelation 21
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.”

Love you, Grandpa!

Please continue to pray for us and also my Great Grandma who is by herself now, and also for my Uncle Keith. It’s been hard for them too.

©AmandaDixon2009

Tags: 21 Gun Salute, Armed Services, coloring, cry, family, Final Military Salute, funeral, grandpa, Great Grandma Walters, Great Grandpa Walters, He will swallow up death forever. Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from every face and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For ADONAI has spoken., He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death and there will no longer be any mourning crying or pain because the old order has passed away.", hurts, important, Isaiah 25:8, military salute, pain, playing cards, Resurrection Day, Revelation 21, sad, Savior, scrapbooking, Taps, WWII

World War II is a passion I have. That passion started when I first read Anne Frank’s Diary when I was 12. When I entered high school, we did a whole year on the study of WWII. I have read numerous books, watched numerous movies, and studied the time about WWII.
Another reason I have a passion for it is because I had the opportunity to make a Service album for my great grandfather a couple years ago. It was so neat to see his experiences and learn about WWII from him.

World War II and the Holocaust happened. It is something that needs to be taught and remembered and shared to all the generations now and in the future! That is my real passion: to share the lost stories of WWII and the Holocaust! So many of the men that served our country during that time are old and dying. We must get their stories and preserve them for the future generations. They need to know what happened in the past that is influencing the time they are living in.

August 14th is the day we have named and remember as National Navajo Code Talker Day. If you don’t know what a Navajo Code Talker is, then come with me as we remember and learn.
At the beginning of WWII, Philip Johnston proposed the use of the Navajos to the US Marine Corps. The idea was accepted and the Navajo language was developed into code, and modeled on the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet that uses agreed upon English words to represent letters. Since it was easier to say words than letters–while in combat–some terms, concepts, tactics, and instruments of modern warfare ere given uniquely formal descriptions in Navajo. They used the word “potato” in reference to a hand grenade, and the word “tortoise” for tank. The Navajo Codetalkers were born.

Code talker is a term that is used to describe people who talk using coded language… kinda easy, right? Well the Navajo Codetalkers job was anything but easy.
The Codetalkers had the job of transmitting secret tactical messages. The Codetalkers sent these messages over military telephones and radio communications using formal or informal codes that were built using their native language. This was very valuable since codes and ciphers can be broken, but languages must be studied for a long time before being understood.
The name Codetalkers is the Navajos that were recruited during WWII by the Marines, but other Native American codetalkers were used in the US Army in WWI and WWII. After first, the Marines didn’t think the Navajo code would work. But the Japanese had broken every other code that the Marines had used.
The Navajo Codetalkers were the Marines secret weapon. The enemy could not decipher their code because it was a language. It sounded like they were talking underwater. The Navajo Codetalkers could do in 2min what used to take an 2 hours to do because it was simply based on their language.
The Navajo were not welcomed by some in the Marines because of prejudice. Some of the soldiers were mean and cruel to them because they were Indians. But when the Marines saw what the Navajo did and how many lives were saved because of them, they had respect for them.

The Navajo were a big part in the battles in the Pacific, especially in capturing the island of Saipan. They were able to radio the Navy and Flyboys to target specific Japanese hideouts that were shelling the Marines on the ground.
The Navajo Code and Codetalkers were vital in the victory at Saipan and every major battle in the Pacific. The Code was never broken. It was then used in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, in addition to WWI and WWII.
On July 26, 2001, President George W. Bush presented the Navajo Codetalkers golden medal to honor the Navajo Codetalkers of World War II. In a separate ceremony that fall, each Navajo who trained and qualified as a Codetalker, or a surviving family member, have been presented a silver medal.

The Navajo helped us win against Japan and we should be grateful to them! Honor was their Code!

©AmandaDixon2009

Tags: Anne Frank, Anne Frank's Diary, Armed Services, army, August 14, code, codetalkers, Flyboys, high school, holocaust, Indians, Japanese, language, medal of honor, National Navajo Code Talker Day, Navajo Indians, Navy, Pacific, passion, Phonetic Alphabet, Saipan, secret weapon, service album, US Marine Corps, Windtalkers, World War II, WWII

My heart is heavy. My dear 90yo great grandpa fell multiple times last month with the last fall putting him in the hospital and then a nursing home. He also has cancer and other health problems.
We went up to see him yesterday and when we got to his room I was sure we were at the wrong room because I did not recognize him and when I saw his name tag on the door, my heart sank! He has changed so much since I saw him last and I’m just so sad. He is on medication that has done this to him… not only has it changed him physically, but the meds make him hallucinate and he has said some pretty horrible things that he thinks has happened! We didn’t end up getting to see him because he was out cold sleeping, but it might  have been for the better right now.

It just breaks my heart because my Grandpa has such a special place in my heart. After I completed his armed service album for him, and we talked about his harrowing experiences, he and I became very close. I am glad to know tho that he knows Jesus but its just so hard to see him the way he is and I really am so heartbroken by what is happening.

Please pray for us as we go through this difficult time and also for clear direction on being able to help them. Since Grandpa is in the nursing home, Grandma is at home all my herself. She doesn’t want to bring him home because she cannot take care of him if something happens and she doesn’t want to feel helpless. So if he stays at a nursing home, she will be alone. We don’t want him to stay in the nursing home on all those drugs that aren’t helping. We already lost a Great Grandma from mistreatment at a nursing home and we don’t want that to happen again.
We are trying to figure out how we can help them whether its having them come to our house or having one of us girls stay with Grandma.
We all are just so sad by this and could really use your prayers.

©AmandaDixon2009

Tags: Armed Services, cancer, fell, Grandma, grandpa, grandparents, Great Grandparents, hallucinations, hospital, medication, nursing home, old age, older, Prayers, Savior, sick

June 6th was the 65th Anniversary of what most Americans know as D-Day. D-Day is actually the unnamed day on which an operation commences or is due to commence. D-Day is a term that the military often uses to denote a day on which a combat attack or operation is to be held on.
Contrary to popular belief, the “D” does not stand for any specific word – the most popular being disembark. The initial D in D-Day has had different meanings in the past, but more recently it has obtained the connotation of “Day” itself, so that it is creating the phrase “Day-Day”, or “Day of Days”.

The most famous D-Day and the one everyone remembers is the invasion of Normandy on June 6th, 1944. This particular D-Day is also known as Operation Overlord. D-Day commenced the Western Allied efforts to liberate Nazi occupied mainland Europe in World War II.

Operation Overlord, aka D-Day, was among the largest amphibious assaults ever conducted with nearly three million troops that crossed over the English Channel. 160,000 Allied Troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion and with that the Allies gained a foothold in Normandy.
Some of the countries who had forces in Operation Overlord are:

United Kingdom
United States
Free French
Poland
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Greece
Netherlands
Norway

The D-Day cost was high with more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers killed or wounded. More than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower said of the operation “a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

D-Day was very important in winning WWII. Operation Overlord not only liberate Paris, France on August 25th, 1944, but it also showed Nazi Germany that the world will not tolerate oppression.

We should not forget the lives that were lost on the shores of Normandy, nor forget the men that made it out of the battle and lived knowing some of their best friends would never leave that place.

There are people in this world that do not have an appreciation nor a gratitude to all those men who have served in any area of the Armed Services. It is sad and wrong.

I recently heard of a story that brings tears to my eyes and breaks my heart. Out in the Mojave Desert there is a War Memorial Cross that was erected by WWI veterans in 1934. They were suffering from “shell shock” and the doctor told them they would best recover in a dry climate and prescribed they move out to the desert. While there to help heal their hearts and minds they put this monument up to honor their friends who had died in the war and also to honor anyone who would ever die in any wars. They put it up so that they would not forget the sacrifice of their comrades who didn’t come back with them.

Well a park ranger from Oregon heard about this cross and decided he might drive through the desert and he might be offended by it being there and he wants it torn down. Now the ACLU is fighting the veterans to have this memorial and all other public memorials like it torn down because its “religious”.

This is NOT a religious monument. It is a remembrance for those precious lives that have been lost or will be lost in service to one’s country. It breaks my heart that some people do not care about the lives that it represents or the meaningfulness to those who put it up.
It was covered in a huge paper bag, but people thought it was wrong to do and they tore the bag off. Right now the cross is covered in an OSB box.

If this breaks your heart too and you would like to do something about it, please go sign the petition and pray that the court decision will pass in the veterans favor. There is a lot more info on the website, so please take a look: Don’t Tear Me Down.

You can also find them on:

and you can grab this widget for your blog:

I believe this is wrong, and I pray that this monument will not be torn down! Will you join in the stand and show the veterans and those that are serving and will serve our country that you appreciate them? I am!

©AmandaDixon2009

Tags: 1944, 65th anniversary, a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than full victory, ACLU, Allied Soliders, Armed Services, army, attack, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, D-Day, Don't Tear Me Down, Dwight D. Eisenhower, English, Europe, Facebook, French, Germany, Greece, Hitler, June 6, Memorial, military, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert Memorial Cross, monument, Nazi, Netherlands, never forget, Normandy, Norway, Operation Overlord, Poland, religious, troops, Twitter, United Kingdom, United States, veterans, World War II, WWII, youtube

Tags: Armed Services, army, cards, close, fishing, friends, friendship, garden, God, Godly, Grandma, grandpa, grandparents, Great Grandparents, Indiana, Judi Starr, New Mexico, parents, phone calls, Proverbs 17:6, recipes, relationships, run errands, scrapbook, take a walk, Titus 2 Woman, World War II, write letters, WWII

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Can you BELIEVE its 2009?! I sure can’t! I am very happy for a new year because I can tell that God is going to be doing amazing things, but WOW! can you believe its another year!

Along with being a new year, its a new month and its a new issue of Growing In Grace Magazine. January’s issue is PACKED! There are so many articles in it, its going to take me all month to read them all! You can get to January’s by clicking the cover!
While I am not a woodsy type girl, I really like the way the site’s NEW design came out! very comfy and inviting in this cold winter!
You want your site to look comfy with these beautiful graphics? Head over to GGM and grab their codes!

We have a new Girl of Grace too: Miss Trish has a beautiful story to tell! I am looking forward to getting to know her!

There are so many great articles this month! We have a ton of featured, fun and columns for your reading pleasure! A lot of great things coming in January for you to know about!
I had a great time writing all my articles and I am pleased with the way they came out, go read them and tell me what you think!

Featured and Fun
Shh… It’s A Secret!

We Are Free!

I also have Spaghetti Day coming up! that is going to be fun because spaghetti is one of my fave dishes! There are so many great articles coming to the blog this month by all the GGM writers!
I would encourage you to take some time this New Year’s Day and read this month’s articles! There are many ministry minded articles that I am excited about! There are also some great giveaways for you to enter, so hurry over!

I am also compiling a list of all the 2008 happenings! I just can’t believe everything that has come this year! I look forward to sharing it with you!

Hope you have a WONDERFUL New Year’s!
Love, Prayers and Blessings,

Thanks for stopping by “Daily” at the “Planet”!!
©AmandaDixon2009

Tags: 2009, Armed Services, articles, bullying, C.I.A. articles, Cloak and Dagger articles, Coast Guard, columns, cozy, design, Freedom, friends, friendship, Fruit of the Spirit, giveaway, God, Homeschool, January, Jesus, life, New Year's Day, peace, Peace Like A River, published, Religious Freedom Day, secret pal, Semper Paratus, SuperSecretAngels, The Daily Newsroom articles, The Voice of the Martyrs, woods, writing