Veteran's Day Parade

What a privilege to be surrounded by a civilian community that supports our troops and by an Army community that participates in its' hometown! Our Division Commanding General is always invited to be the Grand Marshal for the local Veteran's Day Parade.
There was a flyover by our Combat Aviation Brigade, lots of troops, marching bands (including our Division Band), school groups, Veteran's groups, and numerous flags flying!

Gator's school marched (his first time marching!) and sang "Grand Ole Flag" about 1000 times. Bull had a great time watching from the sidelines. (We decided to just watch. I figured that Braxton Hicks contractions for the remainder of the day was not my idea of fun!) It was really a fun day!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Some pictures of my veteran through the years...
On the Bridge (2002):


In the Torpedo Room (2002):

Change of Command (2003) with Gator:

Navy Birthday Ball (2004):

Airborne Graduation with Gator (2008):

CH-BOLC Graduation (2009):

Air Assault Graduation with Bull (2009)

We are so fortunate as a family to be surrounded by veterans all the time. My boys have a very real understanding of the day-to-day sacrifices necessary to ensure our freedom. But they also understand that this military life has lots of great things too - including the privilege of living with our very own, real-life hero! Happy Veteran's Day, Hubs!

Thank you to all the veterans who have sacrificed for our freedom!

Here are some ideas for supporting military families that I posted a couple of years ago!

Hubs' doings...

11/7/2009
Hubs met with a local Imam today (Hubs is on the left in the first picture, on the right in the second picture)...


visited the site of the shooting...

talked with the press a couple of times, quickly referring them to the Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel that he was with...
and is now watching the Florida - Vanderbilt game in his hotel room.
A very full and sobering day.

11/8/2009
Today, Hubs coordinated the Chaplain resources directly supporting the surge of Stress Response Teams at the Behavioral Health Operations Center. He was "in the zone," doing what he does best - admininstration. He said that he felt like he was the Duty Officer back on the submarine today - phone calls, spread sheets, and coordination.

11/9/2009
Hubs was assigned to the Spiritual Resiliency Center on Fort Hood today. He had the privilege of counseling and praying with a number of Soldiers, including some of the first responders at the scene of the shooting. We are thrilled that the Soldiers are seeking out the services available to them! The Families of those killed on Thursday will be arriving at some point today in advance of the Memorial Service taking place tomorrow. One of their stops will be the Center.
Hubs was also interviewed by our endorsing agent's news outlet.

Heartbroken

over the situation at Fort Hood. Hubs is on his way there for about two weeks to assist the Chaplains there. Please join me in praying for all those affected.

Boys and their toys...

Here are some of the presents the boys got for their birthdays. Gator had a marathon day of putting Legos/Bionicles together.

Lots of fun! He did most of them on his own. Bull has reaped the benefits of his brother's hard work (especially when Gator is at school).

I'm having to keep a close eye on him so that he doesn't break them.

Gator, like most older siblings, would be very mad if his kid brother messed them up!

Pillows!

My gorgeous pillows arrived (that I've talked about here, here, and here)! Karen from Elsie Eleanor Designs did a great job.

Here they are on the bed:

The orange ones are reversible:

I also found one pillow that I already had that I might add to the mix:

Yippee for cute, FREE pillows!

More Colors of the Season

I thought that I had missed all of the sunflowers. But! The other day on our walk/bike ride, I found these still blooming! Aren't they beautiful?! And the sky was really that blue.

I love where our house sits. We back up to a valley. So every night I get a front seat to these gorgeous Kansas sunsets. This night was particularly beautiful, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside to catch it. This picture really doesn't do it justice. But it was so pretty!

I'm joining in Tuesdays Unwrapped at Emily's blog. What is your gift today?