Yesterday and today I attended the OSC Women's Conference here on Fort Drum. I can not say enough good things about it. It was really wonderful and I enjoyed everything about it.
We had many choices of things to go to and these are the ones I choose over the two days.
Think Spring with Flowers (my creation in the basket)
Wine 101 - A local Winery taught us the basics of wine making in the North Country
Thousand Islands Winery
Spring into Decorative painting (my flower pot I painted)
Pottery for the Soul...a guy showed us how to make a bowl on a pottery wheel. Something I would definitely would like to try.
Fitness made Simple - How to get started exercising and tips for doing it at home.
Stamping Make & Take - see the adorable cards I made.
Jump start the Metabolism - Detox and what foods help the metabolic process.

My parents got to enjoy some Upstate NY weather today. They have had blowing snow all day. Wish they had a digital camera so they could snap a few pictures and send them to me....

They have electricity but my older brother and his wife don't. I certainly feel for them, it isn't any fun.

Of course they might hit 50 degrees tomorrow, I don't think that snow will last long there.

Dylan had a boyscout camp out at one of the leaders backyards last night..Yesterday when we were gathering stuff he started looking for one of Dad's old Army backpacks, he went downstairs to the basement to look thru some of Dad's stuff. He came back upstairs and said "I can't find one, but I found a box of his stuff and it smells like Daddy" I of course got excited and said "really, it smells like him" and he said yes, come down and smell it. So off we went downstairs to the basement for me to smell Daddy's stuff and yes it did smell like Daddy.

Some people might not understand the pure joy of smelling the scent of your deployed loved one. And I am beyond thrilled that Dylan recognized it and told me, my kids continue to amaze me with their strength and resilience.

The good news is that we have made it thru 3 months, only about 9 more to go.

Another joy of living in Upstate NY, is when all that snow does melt...the ground is muddy, wet and very nasty. We live on a farm, there is no way to avoid it, I have to walk thru it to get to my car.

DB also can't avoid it, not that he would if he could. So now every time he comes back in the house we have to wipe his feet off, I took this picture this morning when we were having quite a downpour and his feet were dirty.

Nothing like a wet dog with muddy feet.

This is their full Battle Rattle uniform...make them look pretty tough huh! Of course that smirk on his face kind of ruins the tough guy look...

As soon as I type this we will get a lake effect snow and get another foot...I was looking at the 15 day forecast, the lowest we are suppose to get for the daily high is somewhere in the 30's with the majority of days being over 40. I am sure we still have plenty of nasty weather...rain, sleet, and so forth...but I am thrilled that just maybe we won't see another big snow this season.

The main reason I don't want another big snow is that it has to melt...and I have been blessed by God during this warm up period that alot of snow has melted and my basement hasn't flooded yet. It is melting just slow and steady enough to not saturate the ground just yet, and really I just have a couple of huge piles of snow around the house that would be a problem right now. The area around me is still 80% covered by snow, Fort Drum and Watertown have very little snow left. I guess we haven't gotten as warm, or haven't gotten as much of the rain that they have.

I have taken on two more little activities, I am going to be the treasurer for the Afghanistan project that 3 BCT is heading up. It is called Operation Education for Afghanistan. We will be collecting school supplies to send over to the schools in Afghanistan. If I can ever figure out how to put the flyer on my blog I will, otherwise I will email it out. It is a great project for Churches and Schools to undertake because it will directly benefit the Afghanistan people. And to be honest...the most effective way to participate will be to collect money and send us (the organization) a check so that we can buy the supplies (without shipping) and send them to the unit to distribute. We have a very specific list of supplies we are collecting so don't just send anything...again I will work at getting the flyer on by blog or email it out.

I am also going to keep the books for the gift shop where I currently Volunteer. We are a non profit business and all our profits go to the 10th Mountain Association. Most of the people that work at the shop do it on a volunteer basis.

Terry is staying busy, I haven't heard from him much in the past few days due to a big brief that they are preparing for. A friend once said we are trying to win the war on terror one slide at a time... You would not believe the time and effort that goes into preparing for a brief of a General. Many many hours are spent preparing slides, and usually they have to be redone many many times.

I told the housing lady I would leave her alone till April....do you think I can? I am still holding out hope that they might get some of the houses done early....we are having awfully good weather.

I am going quite regularly to a yoga class on post...we'll see if I reap any benefits.

Yesterday at some point Dylan asked if I had gone to the gym because I was still in my workout clothes so I pretended to be kickboxing and threw some punches at him and kicked at him. So he says let's see how high you can kick. I still have shoes on (in one second you will see why this is important) and so i do my kick and it is pretty high. Tyler does his, and then it is Dylan's turn. He is only wearing socks...He does his kick and when he comes down his sock slips on the tile and down he goes right on his back. I tried really hard for the first second not to laugh, but it was just so funny. He was fine, just really embarrassed. I honestly could not stop laughing telling him was going to put it on my blog, and then he reminded me of another story he wanted me to put on my blog.

As you can imagine the lunch room at Dylan's school has pretty strict rules...there are times when you can and cannot talk. It comes to no surprise to me that Dylan often doesn't do well with that rule. So he tells me the other day that he has an assigned seat for a while since he got caught talking when he wasn't suppose to. He then tells me how mean the lunch ladies are. And apparently when you are getting in trouble you become either genius or sunshine. So when one person is getting in trouble his buddy might giggle and then he gets this "so you think that is funny sunshine how about you come over here and get an assigned seat yourself". It really is funny to hear Dylan tell it...but imagine some North Country woman calling the kids Sunshine and Genius...in my mind she probably has a cigarette hanging out of one side of her mouth.

More pictures of construction....

After several friends told me they drove thru the new construction area...I braved it and went in this morning.

This first house is a 5 bedroom I think...two of my friends are on the 5 bedroom list and none of us knew what the 5 bedroom ones looked like. We think this extra room on the back of this house is another bedroom. The front is also a little different. The mud room door is set back, on the 3 and 4 bedroom houses the door and window are even.



Finally a picture of the front of the red house.

The boys and I had some fun and took some pictures tonight... I think they are cute..

Housing sent out this invite to an Open house for all FGO...(Field Grade officers). So several us agreed to go together. Their basic message was that starting in May they would have 5 - 10 new houses to offer each month. We all agree that they are being conservative in their time line due to past mistakes of telling people when houses would be done. They met with people individually to talk about where they were on the wait list. Again I guess if you are 10 or 40 on the list maybe that would help you. Me not so much. All they told me was that I was in a good place and that I should start cleaning our closets. I was hoping to hear that they expected some of the houses to be ready in April. My parents are coming for Tyler's 1st communion in May and I was hoping to be moved..it would be so much easier.

Having said all that I drove by the housing today after dropping Dylan off at a boyscout event and I can tell that they are putting up dry wall in the red house that is already sided...

When do you think I will move?

Jason's tooth was about as loose as it could be, so Dylan offered to pull it. Jason agreed and that is that...

Dylan had him lay down...got the leatherman...got the pliers ready...couldn't get a good hold, I showed him how to get a better hold...us working together he got a good grip made two little pulls and on the third one...out came the tooth. Jason never made a sound. I just love how they both have dirty faces...

I am not afraid to say it...I am addicted to Facebook. We all get on there post what we are doing that minute and then read the funny comments that all our friends post about what we are doing. It is real time, you can let 200 people know what your new duty station is in about 5 seconds...not that 200 need to know or even care where I live.

The great thing about it is I have reconnected with Friends from all of our last duty stations...some of these people I wasn't close to but it was great to see where they had ended up...if they were still in the Army and how many kids they have. My current friends here in Drum us it as an invitation tool...want to get together for a drink...put it on facebook.

So when thinking about Lent this year I was leaning towards my usually no alcohol for the 40 days which i have done successfully for the past two years. I then thought about what was the one thing I was really into..that I could spend alot of time on...FACEBOOK..so I gave it up. I have posted a picture from my camera onto FB but I didn't have to log in to do that...I also posted this article from Fox news there today. Again i didn't look or read anything (I promise).

Thou Shalt Not Text Until Easter, Italians Told

Jason has caught something else and had to stay home with me today. He has a fever and a little bit of a runny nose and a slight cough. But when that fever gets going the boy feels like crap. Thank goodness Tylenol and Motrin do wonders for him.

I think we hit 25 today...but still had a pretty good breeze bringing that temp down to where it wasn't pleasant to be outside. Jason decided he needed to go outside with DB this afternoon so I thought that would be a good time to get the pickup started...it has been a while since I have had it started. It won't start at all when the temp is in the single digits so today when I tried it the battery was gone. When I mentioned to a friend that I was going to have to jump it, she was very impressed that I could jump a car...and today I did just that...with no problems.

Tomorrow it will be in the high 30s and then i think we hit 40 or close to it for the next 5 or 6 days...oh my gosh....above freezing temperatures in March. Could life get any better?

Okay...it is March already...why do we need the daily high to be 10 degrees with a very negative wind chill?

Oh my gosh it was cold today..that bitter cold that once you are cold, it takes forever to warm up. My house also struggled to warm up today due to the nasty wind and not very air tight house.

My Tahoe threw me for a loop on Saturday when it wouldn't start. And of course that was one of those 5 degree mornings and the pickup wouldn't even think of starting either. So here I was on the Farm thinking I was going to be stuck here till I could get the Tahoe towed to a dealership to get fixed. Okay maybe that was a bit dramatic but it did occur to me. The Tahoe did end up starting after about 30 minutes. I took it to the dealership today and there was some electronic part that had to be replaced. All is well again.

I know I keep posting the picture of the red house...doesn't mean I will get that one. What I assume will happen and of course I may get all these answers Friday at the very important FGO Housing Open House...I am assuming the ones that are being sided first are the first ones they will finish...and will be offered as they are finished...so depending on the status of the one person ahead of me that does not have a hold of some sort on his name. And the two people ahead of me with holds on their names can come off any time they damn well please...so in all honesty I have no idea what house I will be offered.....

We are having a bit of a cold snap while people in NYC are getting a foot of snow or is that in Boston...oh well at least it isn't here. We haven't had any to speak of for a couple of weeks. But it is very cold the high today is in the teens...overnight below 0 and then a slow warm up and maybe hit the 40's by the weekend. I can't tell you how happy it makes me when it hits 40. I used to think people were exaggerating when they talked about getting out the BBQ when the temp gets above 40...it is so true, it actually feels warm when it is 40.

I have to send out a big Thanks to a few close friends that got me thru the week of the Anniversary of Kirk's accident. With their kind words and actions they made it much easier. I have been blessed with meeting people here that go above and beyond the call of duty to help out. And thanks to all the people not here that sent their thoughts to us. Trust me on this one you want to hear that people are thinking of you during a rough time, so don't be afraid to write a note that simply says "I am thinking about you". This small effort means the world.

Jason has his first loose tooth. The boy turned 5 at the end of November and already has a loose tooth. He is so excited. Tyler is also going to lose another one soon.

I am worried we might have a skunk near by. A couple of nights ago I let DB out and a few minutes later he was barking. I go out to check on him and smell skunk...I have him come in (he wasn't sprayed) but I don't know where the skunk was. Tyler says that when you start seeing ground hogs and smelling skunks that means it is Spring...and to think I thought Daffodils meant Spring was here. Also the maple sap is starting to move in our maple trees...there are maple icicles coming off of it.

What a great Sunny day to show the progress on the new homes. They have finished siding this one and have started on the next one. I did walk up to this one to get a picture of what is behind it. I don't see much progress inside but I am sure they are doing the electrical and plumbing. Housing is holding an Open House for all the Field Grade Officers (Majors and LT.Cols) on Friday. I am hoping they are going to have some dates on when these houses will be done...

This is the view this house will have from the back yard...not my favorite...lots of these houses have big trees behind them...wish this one did and it would almost be perfect.

I finally gave into the boys and we made a trip to the local ski resort DRY HILL. Too bad I decided to go after we had several days of warm weather and a big rain. The hill and tubing run were icy. Dylan made the best of it and seem to have a good time. Jason and Tyler made about three trips down the sledding hill and were done for the day. We have such great snow this winter and I am sad that I didn't take them sooner. Oh well.