God's cake

It seems that my life is filled with more trouble than blessings lately. It's often hard to pray with hope or a grateful heart when you are watching your life fall apart or a lot more burdens than you feel you can carry on your own. I know the felling.

Sometimes it feels as if no matter what you do, how hard you try, how much faith you have, it all turns to crap anyway. You may feel as if everyone is out to get you. There are times I'm sure I did something really wrong in a past life or something along those lines, forgetting how much I do really have to be grateful for. When I read the following, it made me look at things in a different way.

God's cake...
This is about the best thing I've ever read as an explanation.


Sometimes we wonder, 'What did I do to deserve this?' or 'Why did God have to do this to me?' Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.'
'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers.
'Yuck' says her daughter.
'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!'
'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?'
'Mom, those are all yucky!'
To which the mother replies: 'Yes , all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! '
God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.
If you like this, send this on to the people you care about.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!

If things are going wrong in your life, I hope this helped you too.

Record suicide rates highest with jobless, middle-aged

Record suicide rates highest with jobless, middle-aged
By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 19, 2010 @ 12:00 AM
Over the last year a "record breaking" number of people, including more middle-aged men and women, called the Samaritans suicide prevention hot line, a trend site director Eileen Davis attributes to the current recession.

She said the Framingham and Boston centers of Samaritans Inc. fielded 132,000 calls between July 2009 and June 2010, up from 119,000 calls over the same period the prior year. Davis said the "biggest age group of callers" was men and women from 45 to 54 years old.

"Sadly, we're seeing definite increases in all age groups. But we believe we're getting more calls from people in their 40s and 50s who've been most affected by the downturn in jobs, housing and medical coverage," she said.

Davis' observation echoes a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that men and women between 45 and 54 years old have the highest suicide rates in the country among nine different age groups.

Titled " U.S.A. Suicide: 2007 Official Final Data," the CDC report documents a steady increase in suicides for 45- to 54-year-old men and women over a 10-year-period. In 2007, the last year in which national data was available, 17.7 people out of 100,000 in that age group committed suicide.
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Record suicide rates highest with jobless middle aged

Marine suspected of drunk driving in fatal accident

Marine suspected of drunk driving crashes in Reseda, killing woman and seriously injuring her grandson, 5
July 18, 2010 12:39 pm
A 51-year-old woman was killed early Sunday in Reseda and her 5-year-old grandson was in serious condition after a 23-year-old Marine suspected of drunk driving crashed his SUV into their car, police said.

Chandrika De Silva, her husband and their grandson were inside a black Toyota Prius that pulled up to a residence on Strathern Street, just west of Wilbur Avenue about 2 a.m., Los Angeles Police Officer Mary Brady said. De Silva’s husband, the driver, went to unlock the gated driveway of a residence while De Silva got out of the car to tend to her grandson.
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Marine suspected of drunk driving crashes in Reseda

Off-duty Chicago police officer shot outside his home

Off-duty Chicago police officer shot outside his home
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 18, 2010 5:27 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A decorated Chicago police veteran was shot and killed Sunday morning
The officer had just finished his shift and was at his home
Police have no suspects in custody
(CNN) -- A Chicago, Illinois, police officer was shot and killed Sunday morning after finishing his shift, police said.

Officer Michael Bailey, a decorated 20-year veteran of the department, had returned to his home on the south side of Chicago. He was shot outside his personal vehicle about 6 a.m. (7 a.m. ET), police said.
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Off duty Chicago police officer shot outside his home

Hundreds of the motorcycle riders filled the street in tribute to the fallen soldier

Mourners salute fallen soldier
By Leia Mendoza
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


Underwood Avenue was awash in red, white and blue.

Hundreds of people, young and old, friend and stranger, stood along more than three blocks, carrying American flags for Pfc. Edwin Wood.

The Patriot Guard was there, too. Hundreds of the motorcycle riders filled the street in tribute to the fallen soldier.

People who had never met the 18-year-old Omahan came to join his family Saturday in saying goodbye.
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Mourners salute fallen soldier

Two Bronze Stars with V awarded to Camp Pendleton Marines

Two Bronze Stars with V awarded

By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : Friday Jul 16, 2010 17:25:17 EDT

A platoon sergeant and a squad leader at Camp Pendleton, Calif., are each receiving the Bronze Star with “V” device for decisive actions while under fire in Afghanistan last year.

Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Biello and Sgt. Timothy G. Eannarino were scheduled to receive the medals today during a July 16 ceremony at the Camp San Mateo headquarters of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. Biello, a platoon sergeant with 1/5’s Charlie Company, and Eannarino, first squad leader with Bravo Company’s second platoon, deployed last year as part of Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan.
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Two Bronze Stars with V awarded

Warrant officer gets Silver Star down range

Warrant officer gets Silver Star down range

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jul 18, 2010 10:07:39 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A Marine warrant officer received the Silver Star on July 15 during a short ceremony in Afghanistan, attended by the top Marine Corps leaders in the region, including Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, commander of Regional Command-Southwest, and Brig. Gen. Charles Hudson, commander of 1st Marine Logistics Group.

On Feb. 26, 2008, then-Staff Sgt. John W. Hermann, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, accompanied a team with Company B, 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, on a combat reconnaissance patrol through Dahaneh, a village in southern Afghanistan held by Taliban forces.

While on the patrol, the team came under a barrage of fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, machine guns and small-arms fire. Hermann, according to the award citation, jumped out of his vehicle with another Marine and ran toward a group of entrenched fighters.

When the other Marine was hit in the leg by automatic fire, Hermann continued moving over open terrain and into the enemy trench line.

“He single-handedly destroyed the enemy assailants and then crossed back through the machine gun fire of another enemy position in order to treat his fallen comrade,” his citation states.

Hermann was hit in the leg by some shrapnel from an RPG, ignored the injury, and instead put a tourniquet on the wounded Marine’s leg. Then Hermann “moved forward and silenced the remaining enemy machine gun,” the citation states.
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Warrant officer gets Silver Star down range

Lost Korean War battalion awaits MIA decision

Lost Korean War battalion awaits MIA decision

By Charles J. Hanley - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 18, 2010 9:59:41 EDT

SEOUL, South Korea — Trapped by two Chinese divisions, troops of the 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment were left to die in far northern Korea, abandoned by the U.S. command in a Korean War episode viewed as one of the most troubling in American military history.

Sixty years later those fallen soldiers, the lost battalion of Unsan, are stranded anew.

North Korea is offering fresh clues to their remains. American teams are ready to re-enter the North to dig for them. But for five years the U.S. government has refused to work with North Korea to recover the men of Unsan and others among more than 8,000 U.S. missing in action from the 1950 to 1953 war.

Now, under pressure from MIA family groups, the Obama administration is said to be moving slowly to reverse the Bush administration’s suspension of the joint recovery program, a step taken in 2005 as the North Korean nuclear crisis dragged on.
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Lost Korean War battalion awaits MIA decision

$1.2B medical complex will replace Landstuhl

$1.2B medical complex will replace Landstuhl

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jul 18, 2010 10:27:46 EDT

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — A $1.2 billion hospital complex is being planned near here to replace the aging Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which is a 30-minute drive from where the C-17s and KC-15s carrying wounded combat troops land.

Since 2003, Air Force aeromedical evacuation teams have flown more than 65,000 wounded Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen from Afghanistan and Iraq to Germany for medical care.

The hospital, scheduled to be complete by 2018, will be at the U.S.-controlled Rhine Ordnance Barracks, adjacent to Ramstein. It will replace the base clinic as well as Landstuhl.

Putting a hospital closer to the flight line will make it easier on the troops and those caring for them, said Lt. Col. Bonnie Goodale, administrator for the 86th Contingency Air Staging Facility.

“It’s still in the planning phase, but we hope cutting down the time for that drive will make it easier on the troops that come through here,” Goodale said as she walked through the contingency aeromedical staging facility, an old education and training building near the flight line where the less seriously injured get basic medical care and a little attention before getting on a plane for home.
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Medical complex will replace Landstuhl

Medal of Honor, Nick Bacon, passed away after cancer battle at age 64

Nick Bacon, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, dies at 64
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
By BNO News
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS (BNO NEWS) -- Medal of Honor recipient and former Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs Director Nick Bacon died on Saturday morning, the department said. He was 64.

The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs said the retired U.S. Army First Sergeant died after a long fought battle with cancer at the age of 64.


Bacon served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1984 and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon for his actions during an August 26, 1968 battle near Tam Ky in Vietnam.

"Bacon distinguished himself while serving as a squad leader with the 1st Platoon, Company B, during an operation west of Tam Ky," the citation with the Medal read. "When Company B came under fire from an enemy bunker line to the front, S/Sgt. Bacon quickly organized his men and led them forward in an assault."
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Nick Bacon Congressional Medal of Honor