The day we left my parents house to go to Albuquerque to fly back to NY they had a huge storm. Some hail and lots of wind. There were no reports of tornatoes, but they had a ton of damage.

I love reading blogs of people that really know how to write and express their thoughts clearly. I have been following this blogger for sometime, she is a friend of a friend and I love her thoughts on the DNC. Trying to Grok

What a crack up, the newspaper has them leaving in a little over 2 months and Terry's boss still doesn't have the official word of where they are going or when. He (Terry's boss) has decided he will get more info from the grapevine than what he has now. Terry still thinks it will be in Dec at the earliest....

These were taken at a Date Night we had last May (07) while in KS. What a blast that night was.

Last night we were driving home from Fort Drum and all the Dairy Cows were out of the barn grazing. Jason notices them and says "Mom can I be a Farmer, now while I am little?" Sure Jason. Jason " We could get some Roosters and put them in our barn" Okay Jason " And I could feed them." All the while I am thinking "yea that is what I need another animal for me to try to keep alive this winter"

Every since Terry found out he was joining 3rd BCT we knew there was a strong possibility that they might go to Afghanistan, and Terry had warned me that there was also a possibility of them deploying earlier than expected. Of course this is just a news paper article and there are no orders YET.

Click here to go to the article.

Guess who left for the field today???? Guess who will only be home on the weekends for the next 2 or 3 weeks???? Just our luck I guess. Gotta love the Army!!!!

Terry reported to 3d Brigade Combat Team this morning. Click on unit name to read more about them.

Here is a picture that was taken a year ago of Ashlee(19), Derek(23) and Kirk(22).

Friday was filled with fun, on our way to Albuquerque, we stopped by to see Terry's family. After a quick visit with his Dad and step mom we headed to the fair grounds where the local county fair was underway. Back in the old days when I was in school this was a big deal. I was a little surprised by how small it has become. While there Terry's brother and sister in law came by and we checked out the animals with them (that was quick) and then went to their house to enjoy some ice cream and let the kids play.
They have a beagle/basset cross dog named Rowdy. He is shedding and so they brought out the FURminator brush. A friend had told me about this tool here in NY, but I wasn't sold on a $50.00 brush. So while sitting on the porch I brushed Rowdy and fell in love with the FURminator. I then used it on one of their cats that lives outside and was in need of a grooming and it worked even better on him. So now I have to have one for my pets... Amazon seems to have them at a good price.

After a 4 hour drive we arrived in Albuquerque in time for the kids to get a swim in. We left Albuquerque at 6:20am Saturday and with a layover in Atlanta we were expecting to get to Hartford CT at a little before 4:00pm. Our good luck ran out in Atlanta as we were taxing out to the runway and the pilot came on the speaker and said there was a problem with the plane and we had to go back to a gate. This was at 1:15pm. They found the problem quickly but fixing it would take an hour. After an hour they told us they couldn't find the part to fix it. After another hour they told us they didn't have the part at all and they couldn't get another plane, 30 minutes later they had us getting our stuff off the plane and yes they did get another plane. After getting us boarded we all sat there for a while and the flight attendant came on saying they were waiting for catering and they didn't know what the holdup was. After several shouts from the passengers to forget catering we left. I think we left some time after 4:30pm or closer to 5:00pm. We arrived in CT at a little before 7 and by the time we got luggage and car it was close to 8:00pm. We still had a 5 hour drive in front of us. We found a Carrabas, ate and then headed out arriving to our house right at 1:00am.

Tomorrow we head to Albuquerque (4 hour drive) to spend the night so that we can get to the airport at 5:30am on Saturday to head back to NY. We have had a lovely time and I am sure the kids would love to stay longer. They love being here. They started a tree house, Dylan has worked a bit with my brother. Terry has played golf, painted corrals, and done many other little jobs. I got to shop a bit. The weather has been great, not to hot. We have seen part of Terry's family. Not bad for a 10 day vacation.

Tonight we decided to visit the place where Kirk had his accident. I guess it is about 5 miles from my brothers house, but all dirt road. It was a 90 degree turn. It reminded me of our trip to NM from Co in July 2007.
Terry came to a turn and was going way to fast and we were pulling the trailer and had we not had the extra towing stuff would have easily flipped over.
We think Kirk's accident happened in the middle of the night on the 16. I am sure he was driving way to fast and just didn't make the turn. The vehicle didn't roll, just went up on it's nose (due to the weight and shifting of the feed in the feeder) and then fell over on the drivers side. No one found him until mid morning on Monday the 18th. It was a tragic end no matter what happened or why. I firmly believe God takes us when it is our turn and nothing we do can change when that is going to happen. Our visits here will always be a little different without Kirk.

We hit the ground running when we return to NY. Terry reports to his new unit on Monday morning, we have soccer practice, doctor appointments, vet appointments and at some point we have to do some school shopping.

Yesterday would have been Kirk's 23rd birthday. We celebrated the day by going to Mass in Clayton and then out to eat with lots of family. It is tough being here knowing he isn't going to just show up and torture the kids, and not hearing his voice say "What's up Dawg" to my dad his Granddad.

Kirk was born the summer after I graduated from high school. I hadn't left for college yet. My parents went to Amarillo to be there for the birth. I stayed home with some relatives (Jimmy and Kathrine Watts) who were here visiting. We were in the house when we heard this awful noise outside on the porch. We look out the window to see a rattle snake coiled up on the porch and a kitten wondering around. I ran out and grab the kitten and since I didn't think i could kill it and the relatives were too old we called my then brother in law who lived about 10 miles away and he came and shot it on the porch with a shot gun. That is what I remember about the day.

Here are some photos of the gathering last night and of Kirk's headstone.

Just so you know we haven't fallen off the earth, we made a last minute decision to bid on airline tickets to NM on Monday the 4th. We had to bid out of Hartford CT. But got them at a decent price so Tuesday afternoon we drove to CT (5 hours) and stayed the night to catch a 6:00am flight out. We arrived in Albuquerque at 10:00am Mountain time and ran some errands, got Dylan a trim and drove the 3.5 hours to my parents Ranch on the Eastern side of NM.

It is nice and green here (for NM standards) and the kids are enjoying their visit very much. Yesterday we took them for a dip in the lake and on to Tucumcari to visit with Terry's side of the family. We had a lovely visit with them and found out some of them are avid readers of the blog. Thanks for reading!!!!!

I will post some pictures later today.

Terry made it back to Ft. Drum at about 5:00pm last night. It was a tough trip for him. He went to BIAP on July 31st and one plane broke and he finally got on a flight at 11:00pm that night arriving in Kuwait at 1:00am on the 1st of August. He had a formation at 7:00am Aug 2nd, after that they (all the people leaving Kuwait) were confined after all their stuff was searched for contraband. They boarded a flight at 11:00pm that same night and flew to Germany. They changed crew in Germany and then flew to Maine and then to Dix AFB, NJ. They arrived in NJ at around 8:30am on the 3rd of August. At that point they find out where everyone is going and either bus them to Philadelphia to catch a flight or in Terry's case he got on a duty van that was picking up some soldiers from Drum from another unit. It was about a 6 hour drive for them.

Kids never had a clue. I made up some excuses about why were going to Drum and then told them I had to meet somebody at Division Headquarters to pick up some paperwork. They were off playing when the Duty van drove up and as soon as he yelled at them they came running.

UPDATE: They are giving him Emergency leave and he can still use his R&R.



Hey it is a miracle I am not complaining about something that has to do with me!!! I have a friend going thru a difficult health scare, she felt a lump in her throat this summer and after seeing the doctor they decided to take it out with half her Thyroid. Thursday she saw the doctor again and he gave her the news that it is cancer and she has to have the rest of the Thyroid removed and take radiation pills to kill any remaining bad things....

Her husband is deployed with Terry with the 10th Mountain Division and they have 4 kids 7, 5, and 2 year old twins. He was due to take his R&R in September, but in light of what is going on he has requested to take it immediately. Thus lies my complaint. I don't think he should have to use his R&R time to come home for this. I think they should grant him some Emergency leave. What bothers me the most is that I know they let some guys stay back with wives that were expecting in early June. One was a first child!!! I can complain about this because I had a child without my husband during his first deployment. He left when I was about 6 weeks pregnant and came home on R&R when Jason was 2 months old.

My point is I think a mother with 4 kids dealing with cancer is a little more serious than having a baby and I don't think it is fair for them to let some guys stay behind for one reason and then expect the rest of us to deal with things as serious as this by our selves.

P.S. I do realize that most service members don't want to rock the boat and want to make things easy and not to burden their counter parts, but sometimes someone (a superior) needs to step up and say hey lets do it this way.