A Red Bird

It seems as though the birds are out and about again, scavenging for food and singing and enjoying the weather.  This little red one was on my back porch the other day.  He was so bright and bold, right up next to my door.  I don't think I have ever seen one this color before, at least up close like this.  I would love a nice bird feeder out in my yard, something with a couple different tiers and places for them to eat.  There are so many birds here I have never seen before,  I would love to see who I could get to come visit.

The Sickness

The sickness has hit our house.  It hit Ruby last night about 4 in the morning.  I can be so thankful that my two short ones have gotten big enough to know what is happening and they are able to make it to the bathroom or over a bucket before their stomachs betray them.  

It doesn't change the fact that this Mama Hen wishes she had her typical little chickadee running around and being her normal self.  

So we have poured the peppermint tea, set up shop on the couch and we are just hanging around waiting for the sickness to pass.

We are hoping the rest of us in this house don't get it.  This mama hen isn't sure what she would do with the Rooster on the other side of the world if she got sick too.   

Dance Party

For all those Battle Buddies out there who have made it a week!  

Only 38 weeks left!  

So get up out of those chairs it's time to Dance!

Get your THRIFT on
Sometimes Screaming doesn't always cut it, sometimes you need to SHOUT
Girls, GOSSIP spreads like wildfire, check your facts first!
Seriously, THIS one just has a good beat, give it a shot, even if we are old enough to be his mother :)
Come on Girls, give it a WHIRL
Have a GOOD FEELING?  Roll with it.
Who among us doesn't go a little LOCA every once in awhile?
Remember, the only one who CAN HOLD Us back is us.

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day.  

I am once again alone this year for Valentine's Day.

But only physically...

and my kids are here to share it with me <3

So we are sending Big Bear Hugs to Afganistan, Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas!

Casing of the Colors

So one of the things that happens when a Battalion deploys is they case their colors.  It is literally them putting a case on their flags that represent them as a unit.  These colors stay cased the whole time they are deployed, only to be brought out again once they have come home to us.  The 92nd Battalion had their casing of the colors about a week before they left.
Thought I would bring along my trusty iPhone to take some pictures for ya'll (I really need to make a strap for my camera, would be way more conducive to actually taking the camera with me to get some really good pictures.  A goal for when the 92nd gets back and uncases their colors huh?!)

The Rooster is second from the left...you see him? They all look alike if you don't know them!

526 is on the far right

There are 6 companies here in the 92nd.  All are deploying but 530th, they are directly to the left of the flag (they are still in ACUs while everyone else is in MulitCams)

Lowering them to be cased

The case is on and they are returning to their original postion.  I wish I would have been ready to record that whole confusingness, whoever came up with this I am thinking their brain works a little like West's!  There are 5 of them and they all do some crazy square thing and they end up facing the opposite direction having gone in like 4 different squares all at the same time while walking around each other... it's just something that needs to be seen to appreciate it.    (Oh, there are the ACUs I was talking about earlier, they are grey, not brownish/greenish)

The blue and white thing in the background is the 3rd Infantry Division's patch, that is the main Division here on Stewart.  All the flags lower and behind the soldiers represent the states and countries of the men and women who will be deploying.

It was something I have never been to before and I am glad I went.  It was fun to watch all the soldiers standing there in the cold wind trying not to move (good job by the way) HA! just kidding.  It was actually very neat and fun to watch.  Kind of sobering to know that in just a bit at that point they would be heading out for the other side of the world.
Neat to watch them all standing there representing those that would be heading out to do the jobs they all signed up for, no matter how hard it may be to do that job - for them as well as for the families they leave here in the states.  Neither job is easy but both jobs must and do get done by many.

• So here's to those men and women who signed up to do this job! 

• And here's to those who love and support them!

Verse of the Week

Don't tell your neighbor "Maybe some other time" or "Try me tomorrow" when the money's right there in your pocket.

Proverbs 3:28 (The Message)

Bowling for a Birthday

West turned seven this week.  It's a hard thing for me to imagine, not that it seems to be hard "on" me, it is just hard to believe.  On his birthday we went out for supper and came home for some chocolate cake and some presents, on Friday The Rooster and I took cupcakes up to the school so he could share some with his class, and today we went bowling.  He invited a few friends, we all loaded up in the car and headed down to the bowling alley here on post.  I was surprisingly pleased with it actually.  We were there for 2 hours which isn't exceedingly long and we got a HUGE pizza and a never-ending pitcher of soda.  There were 6 kids playing and they all did very well; it's hard to take a large ball (some bigger than your own head) and launch it down the alley, not so gracefully most of the time, and try to knock as many of those elusive pins over clear down at the other end.  West managed to win the first round and there was cheering all around.  In fact there was cheering by everyone on almost every turn.  They all got really into it and spent a lot of time watching to see how many pins had actually fallen over.  For the most part they all sat and waited for their turn and cheered when pins fell and oood and awwwd when they didn't.  West even got a strike on one of them!  Towards the end (after 2 pitchers of soda had been drank) they were starting to run around and get kind of crazy, I thought maybe we were going to have to take them across the street and run them around the track a couple of times before we took them home (ha).  We didn't though, we just piled back into the car and dropped kids off and came in for a sleep over with one little boy.  Ruby also got a friend to spend the night so fun was had by all into the wee hours of the morning...
Tomorrow I will have to ask West if he feels any older yet, after almost a week of celebrating he should!