Porch parties are a way of life on my street here in the Hood.  Typically if you walk the loop on a Friday or Saturday night, you will find a few people gathered on a porch somewhere sippin' cocktails and watching our kids play in the street. Yes, you read that correctly. We let our kids play in the street.  Army wives- go figure.  Most of the time these porch parties are low key, and most people are welcoming if you are walking the streets (wow - that sounds bad) in search of a porch to crash.  The Friday night after hubby left I have a rather large gathering on my porch.  No I wasn't celebrating Hubby departing; instead I was sipping my sorrows away with a few of my friends that totally get it.  You see at any giving time half of the men on the men on our street are deployed or are getting ready to deploy. We have a saying in the military - "you know you are a military wife if your friends have never met your husband!"  We are constantly joking about how if Lifetime wants to see real Army wives in action then they should hang out on our loop and follow us around for a week - Lifetime would never be the same.  ;o)

When I found out Gary Sinise & the LT Dan Band was going to be here on Fort Hood I was excited to go see them!  Not only because they put on a fun show, but because they are the some of the most partriotic, military loving people out there. Gary Sinise has been called the "Bob Hope" of this generation and although I never saw Bob Hope live and in person, I do think Gary Sinise could give him a run for his money!   

A couple of weekends ago we had an Easter / Farewell party for the battalion.  There were over 300 people were in attendance and 4,000 eggs were hidden on the grounds of the 1st Cav Museum lawn ~ OK, not really HIDDEN, but come on, how can you hide 4,000?  All in all it was a perfect day.  Here are a few pictures from our day ~

The casing of the colors is an Army tradition that symbolizes the movement of the division to a new theater of operation.
What that means for civilian folk - rolling up the flags (colors) packing them away and taking them to be unpacked and unrolled once the soldiers in theater - aka Afghanistan for this deployment.  What that means to me - pride, reality, heartbreak and more pride. What I didn't realize about this day was that I hadn't explained was going on to my children.  At one point Boy 2 started getting very upset and that is when Hubby realized that Boy 2 thought this meant Daddy was leaving RIGHT after the ceremony.  Thankfully we were able to put that fire out for a little bit longer.

Yesterday The HHBn (Headquarter and Headquarters Battalion) honored that Army tradition on Copper Field at Fort Hood, Texas. It was a beautiful but windy day here at Fort Hood yesterday - at one point I thought some of the flags might snap right off and take out the front row opposite of me - I was thankful to be sitting on the left, not the right! My other fear was that with the winds as strong as they were we might just see a soldier taking flight!  I was feeling super bad for the soldiers holding those flags, as they had to stand at attention for over 45 minutes before they got any relief!  They were all amazing and stood CAV strong the entire time, even though I'm sure they all have some very sore muscles today!

To see the pictures larger and to see the text that goes along with them just double click on the first one, then just arrow through.

Sorry I have been MIA for 3 weeks.  Since arriving home from California I hit the ground running!  Deployment season is upon Hubby's battalion.  To date we have said good-bye to about 200 soldiers from the HHBn with another 700ish to go.  I go to each and every flight for several reasons, first because I feel it is my duty as an American, second because I almost feel as these soldiers leaving are my ‘children’ (and many of them are young enough to be), but the main reason I go is because I WANT to go.  Not because I am the BC’s wife, but because I WANT to be there.  I want to shake the hand of each soldier heading off to war and to tell them "thank you and I appreciate you".  I do appreciate them, more than they will ever know. It takes a special type of person to SIGN UP for the job they have signed up for.  I know I couldn't do it.  I WANT to shake their hands, I WANT to hug that spouse that is trying so hard to hold it together as she/he prepares to say goodbye to the love of her/his  life for an ENTIRE YEAR. I WANT to wipe away the tears of the little boy crying in the corner,  I WANT to take pictures of each family/soldier/friend that has come to see the soldiers off (but only if they want the picture).  And I really WANT to wrap my arms around each and every person and tell them this year is going to be OK, and that they are going to make it and that we are going to get through this as an Army family.

Here is a glimpse of the goodbyes just for you, my friends, family and strangers that have come to this site to peek in on life of this military family….now hold on tight and get your tissues ready!

Mavericks, be safe and come home soon.  We love you.

On day 5 we hung out with our friend Captain Bill at the fire station. I've been on many fire station tours, but this one took the cake!  Captain Bill showed us and taught us everything from how the firemen live in the firehouse, to who cooks, who cleans, where they sleep, work out, play games, how they train, where they have meetings to what they do when they get a call. He talked to us about how they lay lines; break into homes on fire, how to save people from fires, wreckage and more!  I left that fire house wanting one of my kids to grow up to be a firefighter one day!   Oh, AND something I found a little shocking  - Hubby had NEVER been on a firehouse tour!  How is that even possible?!

We had an amazing day at the fire station.  A special thanks to Captain Bill and to all the other Firefighters out there that help keep us safe!  (Just on a side note, Boy 3 is now not sure he wants to be a teacher when he grows up, he is now thinking of becoming a firefighter in 13+ years.)  Thank you Captain Bill for the AWESOME tour!