Happy Mother's Day!

Other than Dennis being gone, I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I feel very blessed to have been gifted with such a wonderful and loving family. Dennis got me a new phone, which I have really been wanting.

Summer made me a beautiful plate with her picture on it that I am going to use to store my ribbon scraps on my scrapbooking table. She also made me a tote bag that I proudly carried to church today. Paige made me some beautiful I.O.U flowers and picked the biggest most beautiful rose off our rose bush for me. She also wrote me a poem called Special Breeze. It was so wonderful that I had to take video of her reciting it so that I could share it with everyone.

After a nice relaxing morning, we enjoyed a great sermon on the great mothers of the bible. There is just something about the way that Rev. Walsh delivers a sermon that really holds my attention. As a special treat, the Children's Choir performed in honor of their moms. It was wonderful.

After church the girls took me to The Briar Patch, which is a yummy little tea room here in Poquoson. We spent the afternoon at the park and now we are watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition together as a family. What a blessed life I have!

I'm Melting!

I think I have 16 Surf n Turf's left. I do not have my number behind me right now because I am not at my desk.. I am on the road with the big guy. Food is the same.....not bad, but not great either. I hope this email finds everybody well today, and I hope the weather is great for you. Where I am currently it is getting up to 110 degrees with 100% humidity. Now that is what I would like to call HOT and it is only May. There is about a five degree difference when you hang out in the shade, but it still does not matter. Great news for all....my replacement has been named. One step closer to getting back to my three girls and good ole USA. I have to get going now but please enjoy a nice, COLD, beverage for me today that was made in AMERICA by an AMERICAN.

The Hampton Carousel

Today we went to the Hampton Farmer's Market with our good friends the Campbells. Come to find out, the farmer's market is in Carousel Square, thus named for the beautiful old carousel in its center. Here's the info.

Built in 1920, the Hampton Carousel is one of only 170 working antique wooden carousels in the United States. Hand crafted by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park, the merry-go-round's 48 horses and two chariots were hand carved by Russian, German and Italian immigrant artisans. When the Amusement Park closed, the horses were completely restored, given their own pavilion and are now a focal point of Hampton's downtown waterfront. Visitors can take a spin and enjoy an American tradition.

My Girl Stevy!

My cousin Stevy is interning at a magazine in Houston. This is her first time in print. YAY STEVY!

The Q-U Wedding

Every year at Poquoson Primary, the kindergarteners participate in the Q-U Wedding. Since the letter Q is rarely ever seen without the letter U, it only makes sense that they should make it official with a wedding! So very cute! (Q and U, by the way, are dogs!)

Saddam's Mutant Fish

Den just sent me this. This video was taken at the lake surrounding the Al Faw palace at Camp Victory. All I can say is holy crap, what ARE those things?




UPDATE: The fish in the video are "Saddam Bass", which are genetically engineered bass that Saddam commissioned for his palace lakes. They are enormous and apparently quite freaky to see in person.

17 To Go

Well guess what...only 17 more Surf n Turfs left. I could not bring myself to eating that steak and fried shrimp last night. Instead I had a Ham (hold the swine flu) and Turkey Panini with a Crab meat salad for my surf n turf night. It was not as good as it sounds trust me but still not bad either. I elected not to have my weekly dessert of Ice Cream because I have been a bit of a slack this week at the gym. Big guy and I were very busy this past week and this next week is even busier. I just have to schedule more "Stress Managment" time (Gym Time) into the schedule. I hope all is going great with everyone and hope that the H1N1 flu leaves everyone alone.

Time for a war story:
Somebody found an iron, don't ask why, and plugged it into the same power strip as the coffee pots. This overloaded the circuit causing the coffee making process at 0600 in the morning to be at a standstill. Not good. So I had to re-work a few things to include flipping circuit breakers and finding new outlets finally got the coffee brewing again. It was a close call. This place is wired in a scary way. There are actually screws in place of circuit breakers as jumpers and ALL of the wires are RED!

OK, I know this was not as exciting as my real war stories from Afghanistan but it will have to suffice. Please take care and say hello to a stranger and ask them how they are doing.

There is a chow hall here that has college flags and banners hanging all over it. TX State sent this one to add to the collection.

On a plane to Al Asad

Al Asad AB, Iraq

Promotion ceremony that I MC'd

Helping with the promotee's new rank