Homecomings

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privilege of helping welcome home a company of soldiers, where I took photos of one of my Heather friends. I didn't even know any of the soldiers coming home, but I was excited and nervous for everyone.

Homecomings are the best!

Promotion and Baptism, in pictures

close-up

Allen and Joy

Allen with other guys who were promoted the same day

During the baptism
With Chaplain Godshall
Posed picture afterward

And, the comparison shots of Ashlyn after her baptism (the biggest difference I see is that I have a much better camera now. Oh, and my children look nothing alike.)

Unpacking and LT Dan

Our stuff is here. We have too much stuff! It is very difficult to move into a smaller house. I am not close to having everything unpacked, and in most rooms I have already had to pack stuff back into boxes, where it will hopefully fit in the already overstuffed basement or attic. Ashlyn's room is HUGE, though. It is at least twice the size of her last bedroom, and the closet is actually only a little bit smaller than her old one. We never kept toys in her last bedroom. Right now, almost all of her toys are in her bedroom. There is still plenty of room, but nowhere to put them. As in put them away. Right now they are just piled on the floor. We had baskets in different rooms in Alaska, but it looks weird when there are so many baskets just piled together. (Not that it looked great before, either.) Shelves are needed, in several rooms. I am surely not cut out for this military life, though. I am already dreading the next move. I'm going to have to unpack AGAIN. The transportation guy came on Tuesday and was saying that we have a small house (thanks, we already knew that.) Allen told him we could certainly move into a larger one. NO WAY am I moving again in the next few months. I painted every room in this house, and I'm now unpacking everything. NO WAY. So, if Allen stays in the military until retirement, that is 11 more years. At least 4 more moves. Ugh. But, enough negativity. We are making progress. I can see semblances of what our rooms will look like. And, I am going to like it here. And, Ashlyn has been so excited to have her things back. Like her chair at the table. And, her little table and chairs. Honestly, a lot of the things that I couldn't put away in our kitchen, we don't use anyway. We already have 3 boxes of things to take to the thrift store.

Our kitchen as it was being unpacked. At this point, every shelf and drawer are already full of stuff that is in the wrong place. As the guy started unpacking more boxes, I told him to stop.

Oh, the LT Dan Band performed in Hohenfels on Tuesday night. (So that you know this is Gary Sinise's band, aka. LT Dan from Forrest Gump. They raise money and perform for troops. )We were all planning on going, but Ashlyn had been in day care all day, and it would be late. It just seemed like a bad idea. Allen went though and had a good time.

LT Dan

Ok, Ashlyn is asleep and I need to use this time for more unpacking.

Horses and Household Goods

The German-American Volksfest has been on post this past week. It's basically a carnival, with more beer. We went last Sunday. They had tanks sitting out for people to see and some to go inside. So, Ashlyn learned a new word. Every toddler should know tank, though.

Ashlyn really enjoyed looking at the horses. When the big ones walked by, she would step back toward Allen, but wave at the small ponies. We thought it would be a good idea to let her ride one. Um, no. Watching the horses was great, but getting on the back of one, even a pony as tiny as this one, was apparently super scary. So, we gave her ticket to a mom standing near us. We decided not to attempt any other rides, either.

We found out today that our household goods are here. A month early! I was so excited, and we started talking about what day next week would be best to have our stuff delivered. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get the entire house painted by Tuesday and all that. Then, Allen calls and says they will bring it next Friday. Then he calls back later and said it will be a week from Tuesday. Though we will still have everything long before the NLT May 31st date, I'm still a little disappointed. Everything is here, but we can't have it. Of course, now I don't have to spend all waking moments (and many when I should probably be sleeping) for the next few days painting. I just want to be settled and feel like we are home.

15 Months

(Disclaimer: this is my understanding of events, I am not a journalist or expert)

For those of you who weren't aware, the Secretary of Defense announced last night that all active duty army units would have their deployments extended to no more than 15 months, with 12 months at home. Even though Allen is not in a unit that will deploy, I still sat there, listening to the announcement with a sense of dread, and imagined all of those military families out there who were finding out that their soldiers were not coming home at the time expected. Apparently, this announcement wasn't previously passed on to the soldiers first. Just as when Allen's unit was extended, the families read it first from the news, rather than their units. Sadly, for some units, this was good news. This meant their deployment would be no more than 15 months, rather than the 16 that some units have endured. This also means that the units will be home for at least a year, since many of them have not been. I don't pretend to know what the solution in Iraq should be, but I am so saddened to think of all these families who have 3 additional months to worry about their soldiers' safety.

Change of Command

Allen changed command on Monday, the 26th. Here are a few photos from the event.

Passing the guidon

What Ashlyn did during the ceremony

Family Picture

Ranger dog and Ashlyn the bully

Poor Ranger dog. On Sunday he started limping. He would not put any weight on his right back leg. After he howled at Ashlyn when she crawled over him, we decided that he definitely needed to go to the vet on Monday. There we discover that he has torn the doggie equivalent of his ACL. So, he is having surgery this Monday. I'm feeling really bad for him, but I also can't help but think that he has terrible timing.

First of all, in July '05, he tore the ACL in his left back leg. I let the limping go for a couple of weeks before we took him to the vet in August. Now think back to August '05. Yep, that was when Allen deployed. As a matter of fact, Ranger had surgery TWO days after Allen left. So, I was left with a pitiful dog that had to be leash walked, an 8 week old baby, and I hadn't yet recovered from giving birth. Obviously, that worked out fine, in part because my parents showed up the next week, and my dad took over leash walking duties. He's holding up that back leg. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture.

Now, he is having surgery on Monday. Starting Tuesday, as in the day that he will come home, we will have movers for the rest of the week. On Thursday, we will be in a hotel, and, of course, just about a week and a half after his surgery, we are all flying out of here. Another thing about this surgery, it is NOT CHEAP. But, of course, he is part of our family, and we will take care of him. This just adds to our list of ONE MILLION things to do before we leave. So, I sit here blogging. As usual, Ashlyn shows Armand the love.

As to Ashlyn, she is now tall enough to reach the cat's food. And, apparently, she thinks it is quite tasty. She started out just eating a piece or two. Yesterday, she grabbed a handful and shoved it in her mouth. Yum.

Allen has been worried that Ashlyn is timid around other kids. He is not worried any more, since it seems Ashlyn can be quite a bully as well. Of course, he didn't see her Saturday, when she was yelling at Paige to "Clean up! NOOOO! CLEAN UP!" Then, Bo and Becca came over for lunch and play time. Part of this was my fault that lunch was a little slow. But, Ashlyn was just a big bully to these two younger kids. She would take toys away from them and then throw them on the floor. She had Becca in tears, and I've never heard Becca cry loudly before. Apparently, my mean child will do that to her. Bo didn't seem to care one bit that Ashlyn was taking toys away from him. Oh, and Ashlyn would hold out toys to Becca, as if she was going to share. She would then pull them away and throw them on the floor. As soon as they had food in their mouths, things settled down a bit. But, those first 45 minutes or so. Very not fun.

Ashlyn is apparently going to follow in her mother's footsteps, as she is already reading up on Educational Research. She seriously "read" this book for ten minutes on her own, and cried when I didn't want to read it to her. So, I read to her about the oh, so interesting stories about types of quantitative and qualitative research.

Ashlyn, with her beer glass. I swear there was just water in it!

One Month

So, the countdown for leaving here goes. We will be flying outta here in one month! I can hardly believe it. So much to do. That also means we will be in Germany in two months (a little less actually.) Man, lots to do, like learn more German than random sentences such as "Eine Katze ist schwartz." We're working on it, though.

Allen got a few of his items from the conex (sp??) or stuff that was shipped back from Iraq. He has two more rugs (so far.) The two he brought home were ones he brought planning to keep and a couple of others that he couldn't get to yet are for family (I believe.) The guy bought A LOT of rugs. He also bought several coffee/tea sets. Um. One of them is really pretty. The others, not so much. I think he just did his own version of retail therapy in Iraq and the shopping was pretty limited. Anyway, Ashlyn was really excited about the rugs or the garage or something and was dancing on the rugs while we had them rolled out. So, I took a few pictures, because she is funny and to see one of the rugs.

Travel worries

We finally have airline reservations. Allen spent a long time calling each airline to make separate reservations for our dog and cat. After talking to Allen and reading each airlines information on their websites, I am freaking out a little bit about taking the animals. Not that we would leave them here, but, Oh, this is not going to be fun. As if traveling with a toddler in a transcontinental flight, followed less than a month later by a transatlantic flight, was not bad enough, we are taking two animals with us. Two spoiled animals, who were not trained in a crate. Two animals who both seem to have abandonment issues and freaked out enough during the first transcontinental move (and, to some extent, the state to state move before that.) So, last night, I lay awake worrying about how this was all going to work out. As usual we are getting different information. One airline is telling us that the cat will have to come into the cabin with us, for which we will need a different type crate than the one needed for all other flights. Does this mean we want to have him with us the whole time? Or, should we just change airlines, so we don't have to go through all of this? To some extent, I think Armand would be better off in the cabin with us. At the same time, I have been on a flight where a cat cried the entire time. Unlike a child, that you could try to soothe, you have to just leave your cat in the carrier, to cry pitifully. Do we really want to be THOSE people? Since, we will probably already be THOSE OTHER people who have a child crying all night, so that no other man, woman, child, or cat on the plane can sleep (except for that one guy who brought ear plugs and snores?) Will our animals have heart attacks on the flight? Or, will they be so traumatized that they become vicious pets upon arrival in Germany?

Another thing about the flight. We made our reservations to Munich, it being the closest large city. Somehow, every military member arriving in Germany must arrive through Frankfurt, which is much further away. So, we have to change some of the reservations, anyway. This further away part concerns me as well, since my cat will then have to be in some type of shuttle for longer after finally being reunited with us. AAHHH. I'll just go worry about this some more.

Video, Skiing and the Army

First of all, I have been VERY behind on sharing video with family. I'm not even sure when I last sent video. I think probably August, right after Allen's extension. You would think that I might keep up with that during his extension, but nope, I did not. I was even a slacker on videotaping at all really. However, I have a new plan for sharing. Rather than sending cds with months of video, I will now have links to short video clips. These are posted in the sidebar under video. So far, my new video list includes a video from the park, some dog teasing, slide, and a tantrum. I also have a few older videos that I think I already linked to the blog. I may put old video on there, but don't count on it, since I would have to reedit them for size.

Perhaps I was not meant to go skiing this week. I was going to ski again on Tuesday morning, but the water and septic guy was supposed to be here in the morning. He never showed, but I wasn't too concerned since I was pretty tired from Monday's trip. On Thursday, I had Ashlyn in hourly care for the morning, so I decided to go. Ranger was so excited when I started getting ready that I decided to take him with me. I haven't taken him before, in part because he isn't allowed on the groomed trails. So, I went to Chena Flood Plains with the dog. As I was starting down the hill from the truck, I thought to myself that this was such a good idea to take Ranger. He was just running full out. He doesn't ever get to go that. The snow in our yard is just too deep now, and when we walk he is on a leash. For some reason, I had a hard time getting my boot into the ski. As I was cursing the boot or ski or whatever the problem was, Ranger ran off. After dealing with the skis for about 10 minutes, I started calling Ranger and skiing. It didn't take long before I heard Ranger barking and realized that he was at the truck. I kept calling him and he just kept barking back at me. Wimp dog was too cold to go skiing apparently. He is such a southern dog! This did not stop me, though. I still skied. I just left Ranger in the 4-runner, with the auto start. When I got back, he was just curled up in the front seat.

So, remember what I wrote earlier about how the military had actually streamlined one of its processes? Scratch that. Of course they didn't make things easier, Angie, what were you thinking? Instead, things are a little more unorganized at FWA than Fort Benning (Big Surprise.) We were just not informed of everything that we needed to do. (There are probably still things that we don't know.) We do need to do medical crap. And, of course, there are no directions on how to do these things. Or any type of checklist for moving to another country. I called the clinic Friday morning to find out if I needed an appointment to have the EFMP paperwork filled out. She just tells me that I need my DA 57890 and my DA 257[q75. We were given one of these documents in a stapled pack (with no instructions), but not the other. So, I download the document and go (during Ashlyn's naptime) to the clinic. Once there I am told that I must also have some type of registration paperwork from an office downstairs, plus the S-1 has to verify that the information on the form is correct. The information on the form says that Allen is our sponsor. It also says that on my stupid military id and in their computer. So, stupid extra steps. Now, Allen will need to get this part of the paperwork filled out on Monday morning, so that I can take Ashlyn during her nap on Monday to get the rest of it verified. And, basically, the nurse is going to say that we do not have any special needs that would keep us from moving to Germany. Again, something that they could see just by looking at our medical records, without all the stupid forms. (I'm really saying stupid a lot in this ranting.)

Ok, enough ranting for the night. I'll add a few pictures, and then I am going to bed.

Ashlyn found her glasses in a drawer. I guess she had forgotten about them since this summer.

Crazy Week

So close to Christmas, this is a super busy time for everyone. Add the return of the Stryker Brigade, and all of the hoopla that goes along with it, and it becomes a bit crazy. I'm ready for things to slow down a bit. I'll start from the beginning of the week.

Prepping in the kitchen

We had nearly 20 people over from Allen's company Monday night. We were actually expecting more, though some didn't come, and they didn't bring their kids (sigh of relief, that would have been 13 more children.) These were the people from Allen's TAC (he may correct me on spelling and whatever.) Basically, these were the guys that patrolled with him, and, to some extent, kept him alive. We had a good time while they were here, but it was A LOT of work having that many people over. I spent the entire day preparing, while Allen kept Ashlyn entertained (again, loving the dual parenting thing.)

2-1 Infantry (Allen is almost directly behind the battalion commander)

On Tuesday was the Brigade Redeployment Ceremony. The entire brigade was honored, as were the fallen soldiers. Ashlyn decided to start yelling during Roll Call, so we spent most of the ceremony in the back, but, from what I could see, it was very touching, as well as exciting. (They're home! They're finally home.)

Honoring Fallen Soldiers

On Tuesday night, we had a Hail and Farewell. The longest one, ever. Since the brigade was changing colors on Thursday, they basically Farewelled everybody. Then, all of those people gave speeches. Towards the end of the evening, I was going to the bathroom or stabbing Allen with a fork, just to have something to do. I was obviously NOT paying attention to these people who were thanking every NCO they had worked with, (who weren't there.)

Thursday afternoon was the Brigade reflagging. Allen is no longer part of 2-1 Infantry in the 172nd Stryker Brigade. He is now in 1-24 Infantry in the 1-25 SBCT. Every battalion and company in the brigade changed, and I will not even try to learn all of them before we move. Every battalion and the brigade commander also changed command. (I did not take any pictures, but you can pretend that the picture of the battalion from above was from Thursday, because it pretty much looked the same.) Thank goodness they didn't all give speeches, because the general and the brigade commander talked long enough for them all. (Allen said that I would have really thought it was long if I had been standing out there, where they weren't even put at rest.) Ashlyn was great for the first hour, and then started crying during the general's speech. We were done and, again, went to the back so she could walk around. We hurried out of there, because I still had to get ready for the ball that night.

With Heather and Garland

So, Thursday night was the 2-1 Homecoming Ball. I was actually expecting the ball to be a bit of a snooze, since it sounded like we would be doing stuffy Army junk for the whole evening. I haven't had a great time at other balls, though I was looking forward to this one, probably because it was such a celebration of them all coming home. It was really fun! We had a great time and were able to just relax with the battalion. After the formal part of the evening was over, I became Allen's personal photographer, as he had his picture taken with a bunch of guys from his company, plus others in the battalion. We danced for a bit, and then went home. Fun! I'm now looking forward to our next ball, instead of slightly dreading it.

Speaking of the ball, have I mentioned how supportive this community has been? Businesses in the community adopted companies throughout the deployment. They helped out with different things throughout the year, including things like shoveling snow and fixing other stuff throughout the house. Basically, these partners paid for the ball, or asked other businesses to help. Either way, we paid for NOTHING. The food was delicious (halibut, yum!) There was dancing. There was alchohol. The place was decorated. There were door prizes (oh, yeah, we won an overnight stay at the Westmark.) Business partners even helped arrange for airfare for family members of the fallen soldiers to fly up for all of the activities for the week. Awesome welcome home!

Allen with some of the guys from his company

Allen and Jason

I have been waiting for just "one more thing" to send all of my Christmas packages. I decided on Friday that I was sending the packages, whether all of the gifts were in them or not. I waited in line for half an hour (which probably wasn't too bad, since the line was much longer when I left,) paid over $160 in shipping, and the last two things that I had ordered came on Saturday. So, I will be back at the post office on Monday. Oh, well.

Just a few more social functions coming up. Hopefully, we will have some down time, because I have a couple of presents still to make!

(I added a lot of photos to Flickr from the past month, so check them out)

Grandparents, Leaves, and Good News

Accessorizing our feet

Paw Paw and Grandma (Bob and Vicki) got here VERY early Sunday morning. They have been working hard on spoiling Ashlyn, and are doing a good job of that. Whenever Ashlyn falls down they are right there to hug her and make a big deal out of her "fake crying." (When she falls down in front of Mom, I just say, "you're ok, get back up," and she does.) So, within one day of them arriving, Ashlyn was falling down on purpose, just to watch their reaction and get more hugs. Ashlyn isn't the steadiest walker yet, so she was already falling a lot on accident. Now that she is falling on purpose, it gets a little ridiculous. She is definitely enjoying being the center of attention all day long. They also brought her a new purse, including new jewelry (bracelets and rings,) a cell phone, and keys. She has been enjoying putting the bracelets on her feet.

Yesterday, Ashlyn pointed at me and said "Momma." Then, she pointed at herself, and said "Ashlyn." I was so excited that she could say her name. Every new thing she can do is exciting. We raked leaves after dinner. Ashlyn had a great time playing in them.

Grandma enjoyed playing in the leaves, too.

Paw Paw tried to get Ashlyn to help rake.

For those of you who didn't know this, Allen was put into a new functional area in August. Basically, the Army was telling him that he was going to have to do a different job for the rest of his Army career. This not only meant that he would have to do a different job, but we had no idea where we were moving in just a few months. Naturally, he appealed their decision, and HE WON THE APPEAL! He gets to stay as an Infantry officer, and we get to keep our assignment in Hohenfels, Germany. YEAH! His report date is April 1st, so we will be moving in March.