Fabulous Army Life

Today is National Sibling Day and I must confess that I have some truly fabulous siblings. I grew up with three sisters and a baby brother and could not be more thankful for their presence in my life. Kristin is my one-and-only full, true blood sibling. Our parents divorced when she was 2 and I was 6 so, of all our siblings, she and I are the ones who spent our entire childhoods together. We fought like crazy all the way through early life, ending only when I left for college. It's funny to look back at it, though, because she is one of my very best friends in the world now. Kristin is an amazing woman, strong, beautiful, and caring. She is loyal and will do absolutely anything for those she loves. She is the most selfless person I know and I admire her so much. She is smart, feisty, fun, and fabulous. Krissa is my step-sister. We met when were still young and, although we are only 6 months apart in age, never experienced that fierce sibling rivalry. Krissa had this ...

My sisters planned a fun night for me as I turned 40.  We started with a delicious dinner at Cantina Laredo, a cake with sparklers, and a full mariachi band, plus visiting with some great friends.  From there, we moved over to Pete's Dualing Piano Bar.  It was a really fun place with two pianos playing a wide variety of songs that we all joined in to sing.  What my sisters (whom I clearly really, really love) did not tell me is that the folks at Pete's thrive on embarrassing anyone who is celebrating a special occasion.  My name was the first one called of the evening and I quickly realized that resistance was futile.  I spent a humiliating four songs on stage dancing to silly songs and trying to not blush the same color as my tomato-red dress. After my performance on stage, I really had a good time.  It was fun to watch others on stage and sing along with lots of familiar songs.  All in all, it was a great night and I love my Kristin for...

My sisters and Me After a stressful day at the hospital, all four sisters decided to have some dinner. We ended up at West End in Dallas, just down the road from the Methodist Medical Center. It was close to closing time for all the restaurants there and we ended up at a yummy little Tex-Mex place for a little nourishment.  A good end to a loooooong day.

Yesterday I attended a farewell brunch for one of my dearest Army girlfriends. We've been in the same location for the past four years and survived two deployments together. She's been a wonderful listener, our kids enjoy each other, and we have similar views on Army life ... realistic with a large dose of humor. As I was thinking about the move she is about to make (across the ocean with three kids into a foreign land), I was again amazed at the resilience of the Army wife. [Note: For all you PC folks out there, I have a great appreciation for Army husbands, but this one is for the wives ... so I won't always use the more politically correct "spouse."] For most folks, picking up the family and moving into a foreign country would be a long, drawn-out, soul-searching decision-making process utilizing months of research, planning, and analysis. For my friend and her Family, it's a matter of getting orders to go. Almost in auto-pilot, they put their house ...