Update on the fires.

Unfortunately two co-workers at my job lost their homes. Work is taking up a collection for the two to help them. My heart goes out to them. Especially to one of them, the last fire that went through that area forced her to evacuate, but we were relieved to know that her house survived. Not this time. Another house that my husband and I used to look at burned to the ground. The only remains is the fireplace. It was odd, the house was up for sale two years ago, but we couldn't afford it, loved it though, thought it was beautiful. Now there's nothing left.

The smell of burnt wood and smoke fills the air around here. Sad feeling in the air.

Yikes! Fires

So I'm on my way to the airport to fly out to Tennessee and the freeway had a lot of stopped traffic. So I tell my husband lets take this route (a different one) and so we did. I could not miss my flight, it's a business trip. As we started down the new route the police have that blocked, so we double back and hit the freeway. What we didn't know is that taking this route put us in front of the road block and off we went. Apparently, the police forgot to block that part as well. This is our journey. I do apologize for the blurred pictures but I didn't have my normal camera and these were taken with a camera phone.


A first we were wow and how beautiful.









Shortly we realized we were about to drive right through the fire. The fire had jumped the freeway and we were surrounded. It was breathtaking. Then the burning embers were flying right past the windshield and we could feel the heat from the fire on the windshield. There was only a couple of other cars on the road with us and hazzard lights were turned on and we slowed to a 20 mph crawl. We couldn't see much more than 2 feet in front of us. You could smell the smoke and I became a little nervous. You could see new fires burning on the side of the freeway and I was hoping we weren't going to get stuck. The freeway was block from every route that could lead into this freeway.

We made it but wow. When I made it to Chicago, I watched the news and the fires are still out of control. I called my husband to see if he made it back home, he did but it took him 4.5 hours to get home, it would normally only take 1 hour. But all is well with him.

Things that make you smile...

When you give birth to a child you wonder what will become of this child. It's almost impossible to picture them many years later as an adult. As we all know when raising a child there is no manual, it's a cross your fingers and hope for the best.

I feel sorry for the mothers of serial killers or molestors etc because no matter how horrific the crimes are they are still someone's son or daughter. I would feel horrible knowing the child I raised did something like that, but do you stop loving that child? I couldn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning the actions, I just don't think I could stop loving my child.

Having said all of that, I thank God for giving me the child that I have. Is he perfect? No, but neither am I nor anyone I know...well there's one person I know, he used to be a carpenter but that's another story. Anyway, my son has made his mistakes and sometimes I did want to smack him into the next universe but isn't that what most teens make us want to do? I used to tell my husband, the reason why teens are allowed to live is because we mothers remember them as sweet, angelic little beings when they were younger. Now I look at my son and I think to myself, I did something right, he can be a knucklehead at times but he has a heart of gold. I personally wouldn't trade him for anything and would raise him all over again if I had to. The Army has been good for him, he's become a man, with a sense of duty, honor, respect, loyalty and responsibility where it matters the most. HOOAH!

Army Mom Out

The reality of it all

I got a call from my son today. He wanted to let me know of his plans to travel to Texas. He should be there this weekend. He's going to visit the family of one of the fallen soldiers in his unit. He was close to JD and since he was unable to attend the funeral he wanted to pay his respects now that he is stateside. I wish I could be there for him as I know he'll need the support, but Emard's mom is a good woman and those two will need some time to grieve together. God willing, perhaps they will find some comfort and heal some. I know it's been hard on the whole unit, mothers of the unit, and to be expected particularly hard on the soldiers. I pray for Emard's family to help his mom find some comfort, she has to some extent by helping others but let us never forget the sacrifice she has made and her son. RIP JD.

Preparations...

...in preparing for my son to come home I realize how much work needs to be done. When he left, a friend of my husband (and now my friend) moved in. We are not asking him to move out but I now need to make room for our son. Since I'm in a lazy mood, as well as nursing a hurt toe, (I tore my toenail the other day, ouch, below the cuticle line) and a bum knee things are not going as quickly as I would like.

Then I found out recently that I must fly to Tennessee mid-November for 4 days. I mentioned it to my son and his reply was, "can you come visit me?", drats how I wish I had the money to do this. However, my trip is business related and I won't be able to deviate from the itinerary. What I also learned is the flight from NY to TN is not exactly a quick trip. I'm horrible with geography but for some reason I thought it was closer.

So my husband and I are looking at a throw away party, which should be interesting to see who's stuff gets thrown away or who throws more stuff away. Just a lot of work but I can't wait until he's home.