Our American Hero

I know I just recently had a post about my Army brother, Cody, and our experience on CMT, but I came across something our youngest brother, Colin, wrote for a school assignment about his American hero. (Colin, don't kill me for putting this on the blog!)

If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I thought my brothers or I would be writing nice things about each other, I would have said NO WAY! We used to argue and bicker all the time! But what siblings didn't?? (And you'll see that Colin says the same thing below!) I'll just say that I'm SO glad we've all grown up to get along and truly appreciate one another. It sure does make things so much more enjoyable!

The photo below are my two LITTLE brothers. ( I always have to emphasize little to them because they've both grown taller than me and I'm still their BIG sis!) With one in college and one in high school, I must say that I am so proud of them both. They're pretty great if I do say so myself!

“My American Hero”

There are many American heroes in today’s society, but there is just one that is very special to me, Private 1st Class Cody Magness. He is my older brother, who joined the Army after graduating from high school. He is the person I have learned from and looked up to ever since I was a little boy, wanting to be just like him. To have a relative who will put their life up and will do anything to make sure the citizens of the United States are free really means a lot to me.

As kids, my brother and I didn't always get along, but what siblings always get along? We had high and low moments in our brotherly relationship. However, I always looked up to him and always will. He has taught me so much with so many things in life, be it while we are hunting in the woods or just everyday things. As we get older, we get along better and better and get to hang out and do more things together.

When my brother joined the Army, I was scared of the fact of him possibly getting deployed to war and losing a brother overseas for a year or so.  I soon began to get over it to see that my brother loves every second of it. Like I said earlier, to have a brother who is an American Soldier, is awesome. I love to know that I will always have somebody to look up to and a great guy who will always give me advice in life. 

I hope to one day maybe follow in my brother’s footsteps and join the service and have the courage and heart for people that he does. You won’t meet anybody else who wants anything more than to protect this country like he does. When the day comes that my brother gets deployed to protect the freedom of our country, I won’t be ready for him to go, but I know he is doing what he loves and will do great and come back. That is why my brother, Private 1st Class Cody Magness, is my American Hero.

And with that, I think I'll just have to say DITTO to everything Colin said!

Cody and his dog, Montana, being reunited at the airport after Basic Training

Cody and our parents

We're Famous (+ a video)

So, in case you didn't know, we're famous. I mean, who wouldn't be after being in the background on "Big Food" for 3 seconds? Since I'm sure you're so eager to go check this out for yourself, I'll give you the link righhhht here.

See us? 

source


You might not care or you might be asking, "Gee, Courtney, why were you on TV?" Well, thank you for asking. I'll fill you in. It starts with a back story first.
One year ago yesterday, my middle brother left for Basic training with the Army. (Woohoo! Go Cody!) Ok, now fast forward 5 months and we're at his graduation at Fort Benning. (Although, I don't think there was anything fast about it for Cody.)
While we waited for the graduation to start, we look over and see this massive truck pulling this massive tank. Only it wasn't a real tank, it was a life-size tank made of cake. Yes, delicious strawberry shortcake. There was a camera crew there (see below) that was filming for this new show called "Big Food" on CMT. And that's that. The story of how we became famous. Exciting, huh?

Here are the masses flocking to the giant cake.

Cody is the taller one in the front row behind the flag guy. (in the right line) Oh and the guy who yells at the end always makes me laugh.

Yep, I enjoyed that cake.

So, all in all, I write this post to say I am so proud of both of my brothers!

Military Man

I'm sure that most of you who are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter have seen all about what we did this past weekend. If not, I'll brag some more on my brother, Cody, on here! Last Wednesday night the whole family left for Fort Benning, Georgia. It was such a long drive there. We got to the cabin we were staying in around 2:30am and had to leave for graduation at 8am that morning. Needless to say, we were all a little tired and may have been sleep-walking, but that didn't last long once we got to see Cody graduate. He graduated from Apache Company, 1-81, 4th Platoon on May 10, 2012 as an Army Tanker!

Me and Cody after his graduation

Will & I

We left to drive home on Friday morning. Cody flew home and we got to pick him up from the airport that night. The reunion of him and his dog, Montana, was priceless. It was so sweet to see Tana that excited to see Cody!

Family at the airport

We had a Homecoming Party for Cody on Saturday afternoon. Cody really enjoyed having family and friends come by to see him. It was a great turn out!

A great cake made by Ginger Clark. She made our wedding cakes too

Army Armor insignia

The party invitations I made

We ended a great weekend by celebrating great Mothers! After church on Sunday, Will & I went to his parents' house and had a DELICIOUS lunch. Steak, green beans, corn on the cob, fried potatoes, and shrimp! Doesn't that just make your mouth water?! We spent some time with them and then ran by my parents' to give my mom and Nana their Mother's Day gifts. Will & I have both been so blessed with godly mothers and grandmothers. I have had amazing examples of how a mother should be and I can only hope that I will be half as good as they have been someday!

Happy Monday!