I recently experienced a life-and-death experience having surgery with some complications and this experience got me to focus on my own mortality and on the people and things I appreciate in my life - my family, friends, good job, comfortable home etc.

I think too often we fail to recognize how quickly our lives could end and do not acknowledge often enough what we have in our lives to be grateful for so I decided to create a contest that would focus our thoughts on what we have in our lives that makes them worth living.

So here goes - I am going to give away several action figures (not sure yet how many) but I'm going to pick 6 winners at random and will guarantee at least 3 complete figures per winner. The figures will include army builders such as Cobra Infantry, Vipers, Crimson Guards, BATS, other Joes, Star Wars, World War II Germans, Indiana Jones etc.

Here are the rules:

1. Only registered members are eligible to enter, one entry per member.

2. To enter post a reply in this thread telling us what you appreciate or are grateful for in your life.

3. The contest will end next Sunday, May 31st at 6:00pm (MST) - which is coincidentally my brother's birthday.

4. In addition to the 6 randomly selected winners I will also select a winner who posted what I consider to be the most thoughtful reply and send that member a special gift.


So here's your chance to acknowledge what's important in your life and possibly win some cool stuff. Good luck.

Keith
Cobra Emperor

My goddaughter Ashley. She graduates high school on June 5th and told me that she was accepted at West Mich U where she will study to be in CSI. She's never been in real trouble and whenever she gets close to it, she doesn't hesitate to talk to me about it and ask my advice. Nobody asks my advice. I couldn't ask for more. Very proud of her.

First I want to say that it's VERY cool that you are doing this contest, but I believe prizes are not necessary.

But I believe one of the things I am most grateful for is the ability to think for myself and understand that others have their own thoughts that many times are very different from mine. That includes opinions. The simple ability to choose what I want to do rather than what I am forced to do is one of the most awesome things to me. To give one very simplistic example relates to Joes. I had the ability to choose which toys I wanted to play with as a child and how I wanted to interact with those toys. G.I.JOE was a really neat way to branch out my thought process and learn new things about myself and others. I have my "favorite" things about Joes (characters, vehicles, etc) but when I met and still meet other Joe fans/collectors/kids (back in the day) I really started to understand individuality due to their varied collections and likes/dislikes. This really helped me become my own person because my thought process quickly understood that everyone has their own thoughts and I can't make others have the same thoughts as me, nor did I want to have the same thoughts as others. A simple concept such as sharing is a VERY powerful thing.

I know I just went all weirdo-psychological on everyone, but having the ability to think for myself is one thing I really am grateful for. I tell the Big Guy every night thanks for many things, and this is included often.

Good thread. Even just for the discussion. Thanks!

First off good to hear that you pulled through surgery. Second, what I'm thankful most of is my wife and teenage daughter, who is turning 16 in August:eek: ; without them in my life there wouldn't be any true reason to even worry about getting up to go to work and strive to be the best husband/dad I can be. I also thankful for the chance to be able to get to know my dad, my parents were divorced when I was two and never had a relationship with him till a few years back. I'm also thankful to have a job in these troubled times and being able to go back to school to hopefully get a less physical job and be able tospend more time with my family. Well those are the main things I'm thankful for getting pass the material things in life, but my Joe collecting has brought me to sites like this and meeting people that I would never had if it wasn't for collecting and that has brought some new friendships even just through emails because of distance.

I can understand where you are coming from. A few years ago I had both of my lungs collapse and I spent two months in the hospital on a breathing machine. Every day after school my five kids and wife would come visit me in the hospital. When I got home my family helped take care of me for the month or so that it took to recover so I could get back to work. This happened right before Christmas so we just skipped the holiday as we no longer had any income. Luckily the local church got together and helped pay our bills for the time I was out and my job was still waiting for me when I got better. I'm grateful for alot of things in life but mostly for my family.

I believe there are so many things in life that one could be grateful for. For me it's my family and my friends. I lost my father at age 9 and I was so fortunate that my Grandfather stepped in and took me under his wing so to speak and be that father I didn't have, he is my hero and I am grateful that he is still with me today.
I am grateful for my mother, wow sacificed so much so that my brother and I could live a normal life, we never had much money and we never complained about what we did or didn't have, she sacrificed her health and personal wants to work for a company that treated women like trash and did the work of 2 men, now she has very bad knees, but her spirit was never broken and her heart is as big as anyone you would meet.
I'm grateful for my younger brother, who is more like a friend than a brother, yes we fight, but at the end of the day we laugh and get along like nothing happened.
If I don't win anything that is ok, I have alot already with such a great family. I am glad that you pulled thru your surgery, all the best in the future.

I am glad to hear that you made it through your surgery, I cannot even begin to imagine what that would have been like to go through.

To be honest I am most appreciative of my two daughters. Without them I do not think I would have attempted to accomplish as mush as I have. While they are still very young and do not know what sort of impact they have made I try to show them how precious they are to me. The best thing about them is that even when I have to discipline them (so they do not turn out to be a wreck like I was) they know I do it out of love. The second best thing about them is that they know not to touch my Joes (though the eldest calls the G Gi Joes). The third best thing about them is they know they have me wrapped around their little fingers and do not exploit that fact (well, not that much anyway).

I'm grateful for life itself, and my family. Life is precious, and I've lost many friends in my short lifetime. I've been to more funerals for people under the age of 25 than I care to admit. It's easy to realize how short and sweet life is, and how you must savor every moment. You could get in that car, and walk out that door, and never come back. I always make a point to tell my Family I love them on a daily basis. If a disagreement or fight happens, I try to get back to "I love you" as fast as I can so if indeed something happens, my last words will be positive. To go outside and breathe the fresh air on a nice day, and just feel the wind, and enjoy what the good green earth and what god has given us is breathtaking, and something we often forget; to stop and just enjoy life within our fast paced society.

Much of life to me is about family. Be it your kids, your parents, your sibilings whoever. THAT is the centerpiece of what we are. What you do in this world, unless your an "Einstien", is forgotten by man, but your family remembers you ,and your immortality comes from family. The world keeps spinning once your gone, and it's hard to fathom such thoughts at times. Your legacy lives on through your family be it bad or good.

Too many times do people have bad blood between them or have'nt spoken in years because of some stupid disagreement. Pick up the phone and call that person you love, or make contact. "we'll be frineds again one day" is not going to work if tommorrow never comes.

I just try to always remind myself wahts most important in life: love. The love of my Family, the love of my dogs, the love OF MY FELLOW MAN.

If I had a choice between, a bazillion dollars with no family, or a poor man with a loving family. I'll take choice B.;)



The theme here is 'Life is too short".That's what it's all about. Life is too short to hold grudges. Life is to short to "do that later". Life is to short for everything. Savor every minute of it, becase you never know what can happen.

You might just go and fall funky one day and break your neck, and that's it. Life is so fragile and finite, and people forget that everyday on a massive scale. I could write you a book, but I think you get the idea.

It's funny I find this thread today thiking about these things. I had a Metallica song in my head last night. NOt due to the coolness of the song, but the words stuck in my head and rang out, something not typical for a Metallica song:


"Will you remember me when I'm gone?"
"Do ya miss me while I'm here?"
"Just as soon as I've been wrong, then it's time I disappear"
It gave me chills typing that.....


In a nutshell: You must live life for today, because tomorrow may be the day that never comes. I dont mean that in the sense of "Live like there is no tommorow" as in an excuse to do stupid stuff.




@Cobra Emperor: I hope your recovery goes well, and that everything is okay. I'll say a prayer for ya man. I can identify bigtime.


~Corey McCaa

First off, thanks a lot for this giveaway contest; and thank God you made it through your surgery :)

I think we often look at what we don’t have instead of what we have, and we end up complaining instead of being grateful...I tell you, I'm very grateful for a lot things in my life, but especially for:

-My loved ones, I'm grateful that I still have my loved ones beside me...my parents, my relatives, my friends... there's so many people who don’t even know their father and mother. Others have lost their loved ones tragically... so, for that reason I thank God every day for having the people I love with me :)

Thanks again Keith, and God bless everyone in this forum.

Im greatful for my imagination, my mind, and life. My freedoms and expieriences and the family and friends ive met on the way. Theres so much to be thankful for in life i cant narrow it down. But thanks for this really cool contest and if i win ill randomly pick some one else to receive one of my figures!

glad to hear you pulled through okay.

as for being greatful... above all else, i'm greatful for my two little girls. one just turned 5 wednesday and the other was a year old in april. when i first heard about my wife (then girlfriend) being pregnant with our first one, i was a little upset. i came from a big family and didn't really want kids. i was also at a time in my life where i couldn't take care of myself, much less anyone else.
when she was born, life changed completely and i'm so glad it did. during the pregnancy, i quit drinking and got myself cleaned up. she was a blessing in disguise. i don't know where i'd be without my girls as i'm sure all of you guys with kids agree.
now she's getting into gi joe herself. we went to joelanta last month and she jumped right in with all the adults digging through the figure bins picking out her favorites. now she gets home from school instead of wanting to watch cartoons, i get "daddy can we play gi joe? please please please?".
so,yeah, i'd have to say my girls are the most precious thing and the thing i'm most greatful for.

When I was younger, I had a very life changing experiance. There are 3 things I to this day live life by. Loyalty to my country, Obedience to my Parents, and Honor friendship.

I am not going to go into a huge story, it is filled with pain and anguish but, Those who befriend me, I take to honor is cherrished. I lost my best friend when I was 16, he was 15. He never got a chance to taste life. it made me realize just how precious life is, and how it can be taken in a split second.

As I get older, I realize that from my childhood, I have kept things to remind me of a simplier time, when I once thought the world was mine. I've come to cherrish the moments I have with the people who have come into my life, and to the people who brought me life. Those being my parents. I am grateful every day for them and if they were gone tomorrow, I'd be lost for a while. But I'd also have the courage to overcome it, accept and move on but never forget.

Cherrish the days you have with those you hold dear, from your blood relatives, to your closest of trusted friends. Don't spend time being angry in a traffic jam, or arguing over the last piece of pizza in a box. Those moments might not seem like much, but... you cannot get them back.


Laugh a little more, cry a little less.
God bless all of you, and may the best human.. or B.A.T. win.

And one huge heart felt battle cry with a raised hand holding a red, white, and blue flag! : YO JOE!!!!!!

I can understand where you are coming from. A few years ago I had both of my lungs collapse and I spent two months in the hospital on a breathing machine.


Oh boy what I went through is nothing compared to your experience I'm glad you pulled through that - especially with the love and support of your family, friends and neighbors.

Some really great posts so far. I figure if this thread causes us to maybe pick up the phone and call someone we haven't for too long, or give an extra hug, or apologize to someone or accept an apology for something minor, or just go out on the porch (especially at a difficult moment) take a deep breath and reflect on what's good in our lives I figure it's worth it.

And I love playing Santa. One day left to the big giveaway.

Nice contest, thanks for the chance.

What I'm most grateful for? Family and friends who put up with my crap... through thick and thin. I'm only glad that I can do what little I can for them in return. I

'm also grateful for their patience, after my dad died in 2001, I went a bit nuts, and pretty well wrecked my life, relationships, and my body(not to mention my car). I'm grateful that after that, I can walk (even wobbly) I'm grateful that, even something as crazy as that I could pull up my bootstraps and keep moving on to better things. I'm grateful that during this time while I was recovering that I was able to revisit my God given talent and started drawing a lot, and got so much better than I ever was. I'm thankful that this restart to my life led to a higher education, a better job and hopefully a better future. It may seem weird but I guess I had to go all the way to the bottom in order to really find my true path.

I'm grateful especially for my nieces who are wow... making me feel really old (my oldest just graduated from High School and actually knows what she wants to do with her life!) and they make me so proud by doing all they can to better themselves and my youngest niece does all that and wins softball state championships :D

Good luck to everyone in this thread, and in your lives.

Contest extended till 8:00pm (MST). 90 minutes left for any last minute replys. Good luck.

I don't know if I'm too late for this or not but I've enjoyed reading these.

-I'm grateful for my wife. She' everything to me. Don't get me wrong, I love my 3 kids to death, but I'd be absolutely lost without my wife.

-Also grtaful that I have really gotten to know my grandparents better over the last few years. I have learned so much from them

For me, I'm thankful for my children and my wife. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, my son, the pregnancy went perfectly until the last week. She developed pre-eclampsia, and ended up with an emergency C-section. My son was born four weeks premature and he wasn't getting enough oxygen, so he ended up being taken to the NICU and intubated. Meanwhile, my wife was still in the OR getting sewn back up. The hardest thing for me was deciding whether I should stay with our son as he was undergoing all of these emergency procedures, or going back to the room to wait for my wife, who I was sure would panic if she got back to the room and we weren't there. I stayed with my son as long as possible, but then went to break the news to my wife. That is probably the longest day of my life, going back and forth between the NICU and my wife's room. Luckily after 7 days in the NICU, my son went home with us.

When my daughter was born, the pregnancy was very difficult, hyperemesis (continuous morning sickness). Then, at the end the same thing happened, pre-eclampsia and an emergency C section. This time my daughter was fine, and went back to the room with me. About 24 hours later, the nurses started acting strange, I noticed they kept coming back and checking on my daughter. The on-call pediatrician than came and wanted our daughter admitted to the special care nursery because they were worried about her breathing - it looked like our worst nightmare was coming true. However, we hadn't seen any of the signs of breathing difficulty that our son exhibted, so we didn't fully believe what the nurses said they were seeing. After one night in the special care nursery with no problems observed on the monitors, they let our daughter return to our room.

After seeing how much suffering and pain a mother goes through to bring a child into this world, and how fragile we all are as children, I don't take my family for granted. That first night with my son, I promised myself that I would treasure any sound he made (because he couldn't cry with a tube down his throat). To this day, when I find myself getting upset when he throws a tantrum, I remind myself how lucky I am that he is able to throw a tantrum.

So for me, I'm most grateful for my wife Heidi, my son Jonathan, and my daughter Kensington.

edit (pictures added)

i think i might be late but oh well it gives me a chance to express my self.there are alot of things i am greatful for.

first.i shouldnt be here today on sevral occascions

3 specialist doctors said my mother was unable to have children-well here i am

when i was 2 me and my mother was in a horrible accident-i was the only survior with jus a scratch

5 years ago when i was in iraq,me and another guy flipped a coin on who would go on patrol.i won and he lost so he had to go.the next moring i found out he got hit by an IAD and was killed.i was torn cause he was a good friend of mine,the only positive thing i can think about that it could have be me

the other thing i am greatful is my family-me and my wife have been tring to have a child .the 1st one she miscarried at 5 months.it was the worst day of my life.i was so mentally torn that i had to so she a shrink.she got pregnant again and lost at 2 month.at that point we decided to give up ...it was not worth the new deaths and the pain.we saved up to have a surgary done to where she could not get pregnate any more.well we tried to be careful in the mean time,but she got pregnate and we was scared.at first we thought about aborting but we wanted a baby.we went to the obgyn.the doctor says she is 1 1/2 months along and she was ok.well i made her stayed in bed for the next 8 months and i did everything,i worked and had a couple of friends help her with food and what ever she need and i did everything else...well we had a healthy baby boy.i will never forget when he came into the world and was crying so much .i cut his cord and held him ,he stopped crying and he opened his bright beautful eyes,i was so proud of my wife,and at that moment ,i relized i was the happiest and luckyest man alive.
at the doctors request she was able to get her tubes burned for a very minor fee.

i realy wanted another one but its not worth the risk...i am lucky to have what i have now...you know i am glad i said all this.you dont relized how rich you can be even if you dont have a penny to your name.

life will always be a mystery

All good things must come to an end - so contest is closed. Winners to be announced.

Wow some really great discussion - thanks to all who replied. Ultimately if you have loving family, good friends and caring neighbors (not just the people next door) you are a winner regardless of income or occupation or anything else.

I wish all of you and your families the very best. And now to the contest.

And the six winners chosen at random are.....

CobraLALALALA
derby0187
Grunt
CobraViper72
Deadman2099
meyerc13

As to the winner of the most thoughtful reply - this was especially difficult with so many great replies - I had a hard time deciding so I chose two...

darthdrew13 - I enjoyed hearing about your philisophical outlook on life.

billythekidd_527 - I respect your willingness to both reflect on your faults and apply them to how you both overcame them through the love of your girlfriend/wife and ultimately your daughters.

So I congratulate the winners and everyone else who participated. The winners need to send me a PM with their names and addresses.

Some of the prizes are WWII Era German Soldiers and I don't want to offend anyone so if you have an objection to receiving these types of figures please LMK.

Thanks again to all who participated.

Keith
Cobra Emperor

Hey, I won!!!!!

Thanks man for a great contest.

Update - To all winners who PM'd me your addresses your packages are in the mail.

Still waiting to hear from one winner - darthdrew13 I need your name and address to send your package. PM me.

Again congrats to all the winners - gave away over 30 figures to what I'm sure will be very good homes. It's Christmas in June. Enjoy.

Keith
Cobra Emperor

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to the host of this great giveaway.

Keith...

Thanx a lot man. So awesome of you to do this.:)

Massive respect (beats chest)

Thank you again for the contest Cobra Emperor! :)



Congrats to all the winners and thanks to the host of this great giveaway.

WOAH!
How in the world are you doing? :) seems that you've not been around in a long while, good to see you're still around the boards.

Wow!!!!

I got my prize today and all I can say is THANK YOU KIETH.

It put a huge smile on my face on a day when I really needed it. I just wanted to say thanx again for being such a nice person with godd intentions and such.

I'll never forget that guy Kieth who hooked me up.

I love the figs and I was looking for these guys at the time they came out but never could grab 'em. Kinda forgot about 'em, and what a pleasent suprise:)

So awesome man. You truly are the Cobra Emperor. I submit therefore I'm just a lowly Croc Master:) RAWR:)

God Bless you dude and be safe, take care.

WOAH!
How in the world are you doing? :) seems that you've not been around in a long while, good to see you're still around the boards.[/quote]


Yeah I had no internet service for about a year.I'm back now and loving every minute of it.Its so good to see you too,I missed this forum and all of you guys too.

Congrats to all the lucky winners! :cool:



Yeah I had no internet service for about a year.I'm back now and loving every minute of it.Its so good to see you too,I missed this forum and all of you guys too.

wow good to see you back! i always wondered what happened to you...how's your baby? :)

My stuff arrived today. Thanks Cobra Emperor, it was very generous of you.

My stuff arrived today, thank you so much Keith, your a great person and I wish you all the well in the future, I love all you sent, thank you.

Thank you for the neat figures man! they arrived today (well while I was at work anyway) and they're now finding a place deployed on the shelves. :)