Fabulous Army Life

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.

Four fun friends together again. We were thrilled when some good friends called to let us know that they would be in town this weekend.  We met this family in 2005 when our oldest children were starting Kindergarten.  My Trey and their Madi became friends right away and soon established the kind of fun, easy friendship that lasts a lifetime.  They remained in the same classroom for the next three years and continued to be fast friends, even when the teasing started about a boy-girl relationship.  They simply ignored the teasing and continued on in their steady bond of friendship. Our youngest two children also became friends, entering their Kindergarten class together at Grace Lutheran School.  My Joshua and their Ali have similar personalities and get along beautifully together.  We were very sad to learn that the family was moving in 2008.  Trey, especially, took the announcement hard as he and Madi spent much of their time together and he would...

 Christy and me with adorable Matthew  We were thrilled when we found out some great friends were in town, visiting from their current home of London, England.  Rich and Christy have been friends of ours since 2005, a friendship solidified during our shared 2006 deployment.  Nate and Rich worked together on the 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division staff while Christy and I got to know each other back at home. They recently adopted a beautiful little boy, Matthew.  They are wonderful friends and amazing parents and we were thrilled to be able to catch up with them -- and meet their precious son -- on their Christmas trip-across-Texas. Nate and Rich enjoy catching up.  Matthew enjoys lunch with Mom. Matthew meets Leo, who is not concerned at all about his face being baby-smashed.  Trey enjoys reading with a new friend! Matthew wrestles his dad for the camera.

I was so excited when my cousin called this week and we worked out a time for her to come visit! We are a year-and-a-half apart in age and have been friends since childhood. We joke that we are "cousins and friends" because 'cousins' doesn't explain our relationship well enough. We live in different places and both lead busy lives so we don't always get to talk as much as we'd like. Fortunately, we have the kind of friendship that always feels like we just talked and are continuing an ongoing conversation. My favorite thing about her is how we laugh when we're together. We're totally silly and laugh continuously when we're together. We have tons of those kind of 'inside jokes' that nobody finds funny but completely crack us up.  So ... when she came to visit, we made the most of it!  She'd never been on an Army post so we had to show her around.  My hubby was a great guide for us, explaining all the equipment and pointing out ...