Happy New Year everyone! My wish & hope, peace and happiness. For myself, I just hope it goes quickly. This is going to be a really really long year, with my husband deployed. Since he was gone most of last year, and the year before, it's getting really really old. This is NOT how the year was supposed to go, we were supposed to be on an active duty tour, and in Europe, with the house sold and most of our stuff in storage. Instead, here I sit in the frozen tundra , and he goes back down South to train in 5 days. To say this sucks... would be a large understatement! Talk to you later.

And it's snowing.... and snowing..... and snowing... After the last few days of 30+ degree days, when all of our earlier snow melted and became "snirt" (snow+dirt=Snirt) waking up to new fluff was fun. But now, it's getting old. All morning, it has snowed. At one point, we couldn't see the road down our very long driveway (over 50 yards, so we get "A Guy" to plow it) The dog is enjoying it, for some reason digging a ball out of the drifts is more fun than just chasing it around. The cat is an indoor cat, who tries to go out sometimes. He stuck out a paw this morning, it came back cold and wet, he decided to curl up on the couch back instead. Never said he was dumb, did I?

Husband put together the Ikea night stands, with a modicum of muttering and sighs. Now we are going to take out the Christmas tree, which I spend the morning undressing. I know it's early, but the allergies have been driving me BATS! The tree was lovely, a fraser fir of noble proportions and heavenly scent, but the nose began to sneeze, the head to pound, right as I began to decorate it. So, we have enjoyed it, now it's time for it to become a home for critters until spring.

If I hear any more Christmas/Holiday music, someone may get hurt. Going shopping this last week, the stores haven't changed the music yet! and it is always too loud! I have walked out of The Limited and others because I simply cannot stand the decibel level and when I asked the manager, she told me the music is regulated by the corporate office and she can't change the volume. How ridiculous!

Talk to you later.

A whole week left! well, almost. It's been great having him home, although the dog and the cat are a bit confused... (like that's different, huh?) Just talked to the son and daughter in law. She's reached the stage of one month left until her due date, the time when you just don't sleep, can't get comfortable, feel like you've been pregnant for EVER!! Poor girl. We packed up the stuff for the baby shower and shipped it to her mom's address for the shower. I hope they like what we sent.

The political landscape has been making me crazy lately. I can't stand seeing what the Bushies have done to all of us, making us all as suspicious as we used to be during Nixon! This feels just like it did during Watergate. (yeah, I'm that old) We lived in DC during those months, it was a strange time, lots of suspicion and finger pointing.

Talk to you later!!

Seven hours late, they arrived. To the cheers of some very tired family members who had been at the airport all day, some of the 40 exhausted members of the returning group of National Guard soldiers finally came home on Christmas leave. Delta Airlines wouldn't even give them a drink voucher, as they spent all day sitting in Atlanta Airport. Thank goodness for the USO, who gave them a place to relax, drinks, food and the kind of warm welcome they provide so well. They are the kind of organization that really does what they say they do. Delta, on the other hand, gave us nothing but bad attitude and incorrect information. Every family member I talked to told the same story, waiting for answers and getting nothing but rudeness and wrong numbers from Delta.
Well, now we unpack the duffle, and get on with Christmas. Oh, gotta get the goose out of the freezer!

DELTA AIRLINES SUCKS! The SOB's just cancelled the flight from Atlanta to our home airport, and are claiming it's "maintenance" issues. Well, I hope they enjoy having a whole bunch of pissed off military members in uniform besieging their ticket counter. The flight was supposed to be in at 1:30. Now, it's going to be in at 8:30. Want to talk about peeved? To spend an entire day of leave sitting around an aiport and I was told they wouldn't get vouchers either is enough to make them really really cranky. I'd give anything to be there, when the entire group pounces on them. So, I sure won't be flying Delta ever again.

Time Out for a while: Even though I just started this blog, I will be taking some time off, because the Husband is coming home tomorrow on 2 weeks leave! So may I say Happy Holidays to all, peace in the New Year.

Happy Anniversary to me. And, of course, my husband is off doing whatever the Army has decided he needs to do... somewhere else. Let's see, if I tried to count the amount of anniversaries I have spent alone, I would use all fingers on both hands. And I know I'll be alone next anniversary also, because he'll be "in the Sand".

On all the blogs I have visited, two themes are prevalent. The illegal, unauthorized spying on US citizens, which has been approved by the Shrub, defended by the Shrub and all his handlers, especially Dickie Boy. But did anyone see Colin Powell today? General Powell, for whom I have always had great respect, although I hated to see him in Shrub's first administration, did a very fine job of tapdancing on a highwire.


The second, Happy Holidays v. Merry Christmas. Personally, I don't really care which one you use. Just enjoy yourself with your family or friends, eat a little more of the "forbidden" stuff (chocolate IS a food group, don't forget) lie in bed and read more, hug your kids, your parents and your spouse/significant other. If you go to church SING those carols, if you are like me (an agnostic who loves all those carols) SING them anyway. Tell Aunt Ilse that you just LOVE that whatchamacallit she gave you, put on that ridiculous sweater you got from her last year... and
make her day a happy one.

And to the men and women who aren't going to be home this week, who are in the Sand, or in Afghanistan, alone in the barracks in Germany, Italy, England, at sea, or anywhere but home, we are all thinking of you, and wish you were where you want to be. I know the turkey in the mess hall is probably a little dry, and the gravy... well, they TRY! Close your eyes, and remember your last holiday at home, give the folks a call, and remember we love you. If your First Sergeant has invited you to dinner, go ahead and go. you'll have a good time, just remember to help with the dishes!

LAW

Greetings: this is my first post, on my first blog! So, what do I say? If you got here, I assume you are looking for a Liberal Blog. or you were trying to find a complete oxymoron... and let me tell you, a liberal military wife is definitely one of those! I support my husband, his troops and everyone in the military (yes, even the Marines!!) to the last drop. BUT, and this is a big one, I do NOT support the present war. We were lied to in order to begin it, and the lies are continuing to this day. I am assuming that this blog will eventually also be read by portions of the Intelligence Community. If so, may I assure you that I have been loyal to this country since I was able to intelligently speak. I am a State Department Brat and have gone through the "you are your country's ambassador" speech from Athens to Benghazi (pre-Quaddafi), Sydney to Nassau, London to Frankfurt. Then I married into the Army and have been through it all, from Active Duty, through Reserves and National Guard. He is presently deployed, in the Deep South in training for Iraq. Our son was in Iraq for 15 months, as was his wife. So, there's me.