MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE

I cannot believe that it has been a month since I wrote. Even more unbelievable, the girls have not called and complained!

We had a tribute to all those who have served or are currently serving in the military. There are about 30 people in our congregation who were honored. I walked away feeling pretty good about the tribute; but then I read something that made me really stop and think about the time these people give. Our daughter, Jessica, wrote a note in her blog that I just had to share. It can bring tears to your eyes……..I pray that God gives him safe on his next Iraqi trip!

We signed into LRAFB November of 2002. In that time Brian has had 13 deployments/TDYs; including the current one in Alaska. His TDY days number 53 and his deployment days number 719. Since there are 365 days in a year, that puts him 11 days shy of having spent 2 full years in the desert. Let's break those 719 days down even further to put it into perspective. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes. That's equal to 11,504 soccer games. It takes about 10 minutes to read Houston a bedtime story. Brian has missed out on 7,190 minutes worth of story time. 719 days is the same as 17,256 hours, or 1,034,360 minutes, or 62,061,600 seconds that Brian has spent in a war zone.
Fred and I are actually spending lots of quality time together these days. The Alaska sun is finally staying up late and we are trying to match the hours. The longer days means the trees and shrubs are greening overnight; a sign of spring that still marvels us. We wake in the early morning hours to view the mountains across Cook Inlet from our balcony. I enjoy the warm morning coffee brew and Fred has his usual – the Coke. It seems such a shame to waste the day going to work.
The local nursery, AKA Lowes Hardware and Home Depot, have got our dollars these days. We have cleaned out the front yard, including all the dead bushes and leaning spruces. so far we have planted 12 spruce bush pines and still have another twelve to go! Fred has started the rock wall, more commonly known as Winsor red pavers, which will line the front of the house. It’s decorative, but really serves the purpose of diverting water to the drainage ditch, which will be constructed by the Engineering firm that put the septic system in last spring. The company should start in the next couple of weeks. We also got large blocks to make stair steps from the back of the RV parking area to the back yard. Right now it is a very steep incline. We are going to build a small shed for the snow blower, lawn mower, assorted gas cans, etc so that they are not in the garage. One of my co-workers also works for a construction company. The company is digging for a development in Eagle River. They have lots of fill dirt they want to get rid of and we want to level out our back yard. Best part of this deal – no charge; just have to hire the local kid to use his Bobcat to move it around.

As Jessica noted, Brian is spending 10 days in Alaska on a mission for the Army. He has worked the 1 PM to 1 AM shift, so we saw little of him for a week. However, since Friday evening we have had a great time. His birthday is coming up so we took him to Indiana Jones, the top of Alyeska, and Fred has taken him one two flights. Father Bluett will join us for steaks on the grill tonight. Brian has to report at 3 AM for departure.

I leave on Wednesday morning for Nebraska. So I had better pack…..