Animal kind not human. Fort Drum has an abundance of Turkey and Deer. I have seen two fawns, one on post and one off. Very cute. Just the other day, the kids and I passed by some Turkeys and I said "I wonder if there are any babies". Today we passed by one Turkey and she had babies. I had to stop and turn around so that everyone could get a good look. As I stopped they flew off in every which way. Hope Momma turkey can round them all up. Dylan assured me she could. They were pretty big, would love to see some tiny ones. Here are some photos of the Drum turkeys back in April.

A friend of my brother reads my blog faithfully. Since my brother isn't quite so good Bill updates him on my life. I guess they got a good laugh out of my story about finding the records in a box. Bill said "Does that mean they went to Germany". Well yes Bill I am sure they did. In fact I assume that I took them with me when we first got married 17 years ago, so that puts them in;

Columbus, GA
Austin, TX
Albuquerque, NM
Lawton, OK
Colorado Springs, CO
Quantico, VA
Baumholder, Germany
Monterey, CA
Fort Leavenworth, KS and
Carthage, NY

And to be honest, I can't say they have ever been out of the box until I found them a few weeks ago. My brother says I have to let some stuff go... Do ya think so? I might need it someday....

We certainly had some good times living on Fort Leavenworth. Sure wish we were all in the same neighborhood or at least all on post so we could have some more of those bring your food out and lets have some beer parties.

Jason had a preschool graduation. It was very cute and well done. Wish I could have shared it with Terry.

It has been a quiet week. Dylan finished 6th grade with a trip to a water park on Friday. It was a little cold but I think they had a good time. Tyler still has a few days of school left. Jason has a little preschool graduation tomorrow.

Today Dylan and I went for a walk in Remington park a recreation area on Fort Drum. It has several fitness trails and a lake/pond to fish and swim in. Dylan wanted to rent a paddle boat and then discovered they had rafts, I opted for the paddle boat.
As soon as we left the dock my camera fell out of my pocket into the lake. It took me a second to figure out what had happened and by that time the camera was at the bottom. I couldn't see it and neither Dylan nor I wanted to take a dive to try and find it. So... it is still there. Darn it, I loved that camera...

I was torn on which picture to post this month for Kirk. The first one is him and his Dad (my oldest brother). My brother is leasing my parents ranch and someday Kirk would have ran it all. He new more about the ranch than the rest of us put together. He knew acreage like it was simple math, I still don't really know how big an acre is. He knew horses and cows. He was a great cowboy.

The second is a picture from his 18th birthday. This was when Terry was in Iraq the first time and I was in NM to have Jason. Kirk was so good with kids, I know I say that, but you should have seen him with these kids. He couldn't leave them alone. He would have been an incredible father.

Take a moment in your busy day to remember all the kids and Fathers that are separated on this very special day. Please say a prayer for all the children whose Fathers have fallen and won't be around for another Fathers Day.

Terry, we love you and we miss you. Jason even says DB loves you. Please know that not a day goes by that we don't think of you and wish you were here with us.

I haven't read his books and to tell you the truth I never watch TV Sunday morning. I knew who he was and have watched him on the debates and other places. Friday when the news came out about his death I was very sad. The more I watched and listened to people talk about him the sadder I felt. Here was somebody doing what he loved at the prime of his life, had a wonderful relationship with his family and his life is gone without warning. From what everyone has said he was a generous person who gave to many charities including many military ones. My heart and prayers go out to his wife, son, father and the rest of his family. May we all live our lives like Tim Russert did to the fullest.

I have never had an inside dog, actually I was pretty opposed to it before we got DB and then I was thinking that when we got somewhere with a yard, he would spend most of his time outside. Which he does now.
He has decided I am his best friend in the world and follows me around the house. If I happen to take a shower and don't get the door close well enough he pushes it open and comes and plops down right in front of the shower. At night he sleeps as close to my side of the bed as he possible can (although now that is is so warm he likes to sleep in the hallway that is not carpeted). I didn't realize how serious he was about sleeping next to me until this morning. I had Tyler in my bed last night so I could hear him if he got sick, when I discovered Jason had gotten sick I decided to sleep in Tyler's bed so I could be near Jason. This morning when I woke up in Tyler's bed there was DB right on the floor next to Tyler's bed.
I am glad to have him now that T is gone. He barks at any noise and sounds pretty ferocious even though when he sees the person at the door he wags his tail.

We have avoided the stomach stuff that was going around until yesterday when the school called me to tell me Tyler was sick. He threw up all evening, but not during the night and then started again this morning. In the middle of the night I happened to go to Jason's room to check on him and stepped in something on the floor by his bed, you guessed it he threw up. He has only thrown up the one time but is still sleeping so I am not sure what will happen when he wakes up. Right now Dylan is okay, not sure how long that will last.

My parents use quicken for their personal bookkeeping and their business books. In the past year they have made changes to their business that has made everything a bit more complicated. when they have trouble with quicken they often call and we can talk about it and I can tell them what to fix. Just this week they were having problems and I just couldn't figure it out over the phone. I wanted to remotely access their computer like the real geeks do. A tech person suggested LOG ME IN. So yesterday we figured it out and I was able to access their computer. It was so cool. I was able to go into quicken and make changes. I was able to fix their problem myself from here. Is that cool or what!!!!

Okay you know that if something is going to happen it is going to happen to us and now especially when T is gone.

While I was taking my sweet time in the commissary, a huge storm moved in and when I got to the front of the store it was raining cats and dogs. I made a mad dash and pulled my vehicle to the front for the bagger person to load. On the way home I was hearing reports of tornadoes in towns I wasn't quite sure where they were, but one mentioned a town about 13 miles South of my house. As I drove into Carthage I discovered the electricity was out and lots of limbs on the ground. I live about 2 miles out of town and in that two miles there were two trees down across the road. One was a full tree, one was at least half of the tree, this one was at my neighbors house. I came home to find only one big limb down and the trampoline moved about 15 feet and the grill was blown around the front deck to the side deck.

We were out of electricity till almost 11:00pm. As I was preparing for dinner (canned soup and raviolis) the kids were jumping on the trampoline and the dog was barking at something. I heard Dylan call him and then he told me he was barking at a snake. GREAT!!!!

I run outside and grab a shovel and we go snake hunting in the tall grass by the garage and find him. He is crawling away and so I poke at him with the shovel, and instead of crawling away faster he strikes at the shovel. Now I have to kill him, since he decided to be mean. Dylan get his pellet gun, (I have no faith that he can actually hit the thing) and fires two shots and hits him. I decide to mow a little of the grass before I pick him up and dispose of him, so during the mowing he disappears, finally I find him injured just a little ways away. Here are some pictures of our friend.

I really love where I live. Right now it is so peaceful to walk outside and watch the bus stop in front of my house and pick up my kids for school. I have no fenced yard and since we now have DB trained not to go across the street it is wonderful, he can just run and run. I just wish it was closer to the people I knew, or that the neighbors were more outgoing. With T Deployed it is way to quiet on the weekends and nights, I miss walking out side and visiting with the neighbors. So we will just wait....

It cost me almost $95.00 to fill up my Tahoe today. Yes I am still driving the gas guzzling Tahoe, I am tempted to buy a little car, but then I will have two car payments and gas, which right now might be about equal. It $4.10/gallon on post, some places in town are $4.17. Wow, will it ever stop going up...

Big tree in front and big tree in back are both Maple, yes we live in the land of the fresh Maple syrup. That is a story for another day.

I wonder if men feel a sense of accomplishment when they mow. I know I sure do. I mowed again yesterday. Even though I didn't mow as much as I did last time (ran out of time) I still feel like I really did something. I will post pictures to show how much I mow so that you can really appreciate what I am talking about. So here is to all those single parent spouses that get out there and mow.