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.

I almost can not control myself!!

MY SON IS BACK ON U.S. SOIL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that he's back in the states now. He called me when he made it to Germany and then again once he touched US soil. I'd been watching for posts and found his name on the manifest and that started the excitement. He called me just before I left for work and for the first time I actually didn't mind going to work, and went with a smile and a bounce in my step. Then the official notification from the Army that he indeed is back on base.

I must run but I wanted to get this post in. More to come....Army Mom Out

More pics - I'm bored...

I think I've got water on the knee. My knee is swollen and feels tight. I'm off today and I'm bored but I can't really do anything because my knee hurts and I'm trying to stay off of it as much as possible. I'm hoping it'll get better over the weekend. I've already had the discussion with my husband that wives with leg problems are not the same as horses with leg problems...he says he wants to take me to the doctor tomorrow. I told him he can't put me down over a hurt knee, he says he just wants me to get it looked it. I've had my knee drained before so I'm not looking forward to this. So, since I'm bored, I'm posting more pics and two videos. I've always liked the take off on a plane so I shot video footage of that.

This is of my son and I looking at a tank on base. My son was showing my husband and I as this was our first time there.
This one, my son thought I should get a feel for how much "stuff" soldiers carry. My thought, if I lean over, I'm going over and I didn't even have all the "stuff" on.
Here's the take off.

Picture sharing that's all...

...double click on the pictures to enlarge them.
This I never thought much of and thus really didn't know. K-9 Soldiers. I've heard of them in other wars way back when but I guess I'd forgotten.


Am I seeing this correctly? Weed wackers? WTH!!!


You're wearing what...and it gets how hot there? Most people don't even realize how heavy the gear is that these soldiers wear.


Oops. Hmmm.


Yes, that's snow. It does snow in Iraq.