Fabulous Army Life

Easter basket for Joshua Easter basket for Trey Kids at Easter Lunch Joshua coloring eggs Trey giving me the 'enough photos already' look Peter Georgia Aunt Linda helps divvy up the loot. Easter egg hunters Bob and Nate Amy, Todd, Dawn, and Elizabeth Dinner conversation with lots of laughs

My boys opted for a basketball camp over this Spring Break and had a great time at Mark Vincent's camp in Springfield.  They both feel like they learned a lot and improved their game.  The camp was a nice balance of fun drills, competition, and play.  The highlight for them seemed to be the high school players who came to run drills and demonstrations for them.  They were especially excited to meet Ishmail Wainwright who, after receiving 35 Division I offers for scholarships, chose BAYLOR as his university.  We all look forward to seeing him play with the Baylor Men next season.

Happy Spring Break, Northern Virginia! We woke up to 3-4" of snow on the first day of Spring Break, delaying the first day of basketball camp by an hour. The boys took advantage of the delay with a good, old-fashioned snowball fight. Although Joshua declared that snow days are not nearly as much fun when it's not a school day they're missing, they still had a great time.

I am so proud of my teenager today. I love him with my whole heart but, like most teen boys, his organizational skills can, at times, be somewhat ... lacking. So when we were at the grocery store earlier this week and he asked me if he could please get a few ingredients so he could complete a Science project, I was more than happy to oblige. He didn't ask on the morning it was due or at midnight after spending the evening at the store ... he asked WHILE WE WERE IN THE STORE. But wait! It gets even better. This child of mine read the instructions on how to make cookies from the chocolate chip bag he purchased, gathered all the ingredients, correctly measured all items, followed all the directions, and made a really perfect 13 x 9" pan cookie. He even cleaned up afterwards! This was magnificent! He then gathered extraneous icing packets, cereals, and snacks, and created the plant cell then neatly wrote all the titles of the parts of the cell on cardstock, taped it to ...

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my teenage leprechaun!

We were very excited to hear that some friends from Fort Hood would be visiting the Washington DC area this weekend. And even more excited when we were able to work out a time to see them!  We ended up meeting them at the Pentagon where we enjoyed a personalized tour by Nate. All the men in the group deployed together in 2010 and the ladies supported their Soldiers -- and each other -- from home. These two ladies are so very special to me, having served as FRG Leaders in our last battalion and surviving that stressful time right along with me. We fundraised and met and planned and decorated and welcomed home and did all we could to make the deployment as positive as possible for all the Soldiers and Families in the unit.  They are amazing women and I was very excited to see them again.

Tonight, we were super proud to view art on display created by our boys at their respective schools.  Trey loved his Art class with Ms. Physioc and Joshua always looks forward to Fridays with Mr. Woodard.  Great work, my boys!

The boys and I spent the afternoon scouring local thrift stores for 1940s era props for Trey's upcoming performance of "Guys and Dolls."  We scored some great items at a little place called "The Clock Tower Thrift Shop" in Annandale.  We ended up with four 40s style handbags, a large aged book, a walking cane, a silver tray, and a vintage Neiman Marcus hat box. The boys were very good sports ... and I only had to say no to about 45 different 'finds' that they insisted they needed, including a 5-foot tall stuffed orangutan.  :)