-
Fun on Veteran’s Day with my Grandson and His Class
What a great opportunity to tell the kindergarten class about veterans and share some experiences! Thank you so much for the Parent Teacher Organization at Pine Ridge Elementary School in Ada, Michigan for making this a special day for veterans! I had the chance to speak with my grandson’s class about what it meant to be a veteran, tell them where Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo ++ were located and had some great laughs. I learned that one child’s cat had died, one child’s dog had been sprayed by a skunk but for 15 minutes I held their attention! They were well behaved, sat and listened, raised their hands, made calls…
-
US Military Responds to the Earthquake in Chile – DoD Roundtable
The US military continues to respond to natural disasters with our medical, engineers, airlift and numerous other resources! We still have forces in Haiti and have responded to a request of Chile’s government for assistance there after their 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami at the end of February. Our world wide “first responders” are busy and creating goodwill in nations that need help is a critical mission! The DoD Bloggers Roundtable talked with Air Force Colonel Byron Mathewson, commander of U.S. military forces deployed to Chile in support of earthquake relief operations today for an update on their efforts. He specifically addressed USAF C-130 relief support, a Navy Port Assessment…
-
(nearly) Worldess Wednesday: Sites of the Season
I have enjoyed the Christmas Season from Panama to Iceland and States all over the country. Each with it’s own unique ‘nitch’ on the month of December. (After all I can’t wear a sundress on Christmas in New York yet very comfortably did it in Panama. Snow skiing in Florida is out of the question but the mountains of Colorado & New Mexico were quite enjoyable. And we won’t even talk about the very dark December that Iceland entailed.) These are images of my Christmas season last year. You know what is even better about this year’s Christmas Season? HUBS IS HOME! Ah life is good! I hope you are…
-
Mid Morning Healthy Fruit Snack
It is funny how I regard time. It is in sections. Sections of a lifetime: childhood, teenager, college student, newly wed, etc. Then there is the where we lived time: first year of marriage (3 installations), then Nevada (ISAFAF), Panama (Howard AFB) and so on. Smaller segments and daily time measurements can revolve around something good to eat! I do love a good snack. And since loosing a lot of weight, I recognize the importance of eating less… but more often. So, for Dale and I, the 10:00 snack and the 2:00 snack are gems of the day! We love fruit! It is the season for fresh items. Today we…
-
Fish for your Health
The Internet articles are praising the value of fish: brain food, heart healthy mainstay and a great Omega 3 source. I love it that fish is good for you, as I love fish. Have always loved it, and have a storehouse of recipes to flip through each month while I make up the monthly chart of ‘marvelous meals’. I started this monthly chart when the kids were little and they started arguing over who was going to pick what we had for dinner. Cut out that opportunity for a brawl as soon as I could! Their dinner inputs were always welcome and sought after as I wrote up the menu…
-
What Fun!
As a military family we found ourselves in many different parts of the world! Adapting to the environment we were in was always a challenge we took on with an almost eager glee! What can we do here that we couldn’t in the last place? We went “spranging” in Iceland, rode the transcontinental railroad in Panama and went to a secluded beach after a walk through the jungle, snow skied in New Mexico, hiked Mt Rainier in Washington, rode the surf in Florida, built an igloo in Illinois during a major blizzard and a host of other family events that were just fun and helped us enjoy the transitions in…
-
The Shah of Iran and A Family View of OPSEC
Sometimes OPSEC is just an acronym many folks do not know the definition of or if they do know it means Operations Security they are not sure how it affects them. In fact, military families may not understand that it may directly affect the safety of their loved ones and the members of the unit they belong to. I usually illustrate the point by telling the story from when I took part in a special mission involving the movement of “high value” passengers. There had been a revolution in Iran and the Shah and his family had left the country. We watched from our overseas location having no idea that…
-
Memories of a Wonderful Mom and Grandma
We have a daily flip calendar and we have written events on it as we traveled the world with new assignments, special trips, vacations, a flying mission to a far away place, change of commands, etc. It brings back so many memories of wonderful times and in some cases tough times too! This morning the calendar reminded us of the death of a dear mother and grandmother three years ago! You are sorely missed Mom! Everytime we plan a family get together, have a reminder of a previous fun event or add another baby to the family tree we wish you could be there to enjoy it! In the past…
-
A Winter Scene and the Weather in our Adventures
Or stories from a weather channel junkie Right now I am looking out the front sliding doors at beautiful trees covered with snow; cardinals, junkos, finches and blue jays quickly eating on the bird feeders; and wind whipping everything. It is a wonderful white scene but step outside those doors and it is awakening with a temperature of 0 degrees and a wind chill of -25! I sure appreciate the warmth and comfort of our house on a day like this one. I plowed the driveway with my small John Deere for a third time in 48 hours (the banks on the side are now higher than my plow) and…
