Flashback Friday: September 2009

I will never, ever forget taking this picture.

It had been a very long weekend while Patric was away at National Guard on the other side of the state.

Let's just say, this may have been the only time there were any smiles that weekend because it had been a long one.

 

And then along came Sunday night at bedtime, daddy still not home, and there is a sudden outbreak of sweetness throughout the brood.

 

That.  That would melt away 47 crap hours in a heartbeat, and it still does.

Important Work

We paused after for a family photo.

 

But that day, the kids all helped pin rank on their dad.

 

It was serious business.

 

And complicated, all those bells and whistles.

 

And we reaffirm again that we all will serve, but the children were already eyeing the cakes by this point.

More From the Office Party

 

The Stubers ran the face painting booth at the Army office Party.  We may have taken a little time to just paint up ourselves during slow periods.

 

Well, and then Alida just took over completely and painted anyone that would let her.

 

 

 

Even her daddy, who wound up with a two-headed snake.

The Humvee Pull

This is the office party--Army style.

 

He didn't do too bad once the kids got behind and pushed...

Happy Labor Day

Why Alabama?
This guy of course.  Back in the Engineers after 13 years.  Now in charge of six battalions of engineers.  Yeah, sure--this makes complete Stuber sense.

Happy Labor Day!

Dress Blues in Different Hues

 Drug out from under cover a few weeks ago, and re-dressed with federal service awards, since it has been two years now in the Federal Reserves, which is different than the state National Guard, which doesn't mix I guess, although there are several federal service awards from his time in the National Guard.  This whole process still confuses me even sixteen years later.

 But, I will say, sixteen years later, it still fits handsomely. Even if this was taken at some awful early time in the morning, crammed into a hotel suite with four sleeping kids, and me wondering why everything military happens at the most unusual times of the day.

And Stuber family trips are taken around moments like this: the new DA photo, which you can't just get anywhere.

Interesting tidbits: The posture and pose of the hands are prescribed; there is a science to your decision to smile or not to smile (he claims there is an appropriately slight smile in there); the blue space between body and left arm is important. 

Questions from his wife:

"Why do they have such ugly pants?  They don't match.  Seriously, they're really wrong."

"I know Susan.  The Marines got the matching pants."

"Well, that sucks."

"What are all of the stripey things on the right arm?"

"Stripey things?" 

"Yeah, the stripey things."

"Those are overseas service stripes."

"What does that mean?"

"You have one of those for each six months of deployment to a combat zone."

"But you've been in crappy places far more than two years."

"But, I didn't get combat pay, only hazardous duty pay."

"Oh." (money talk registering with me, as he knows.)

"Why do you have two sets of airborne wings, and why is one fatter than the other?"

"What?  What are you talking about?"

(pointing)

"Um, because those aren't both airborne wings.  The top one is a Combat Action Badge." 

"Oh."

"See the knife in the CAB?"

"CAB?"
His eyes roll sometimes too.

"Hey, isn't that round, green thing with the rivers a Tennessee symbol?  That's National Guard."

"Yes, yes it is.  But I still wear it on this uniform.  The ribbons have to be federal."

"All of the colored thingies."

"Yes Susan, all of the colored thingies."

Him: "The red shoulder boards for the engineers are better than the old Cav ones though I think.  Don't you?"

Me: (lots of staring and blinking)  "You changed those?"

 Meanwhile, back at the suite....

We made a different spectacle of ourselves at breakfast.

For the Record

The kids can take pretty good pictures now.

Mostly, make-up and hair are still not done on Saturdays.

There is a pot of coffee always near-by.

We're still exhausted.

But we've loved having him around this past month. 

 And look forward to another month of it.

Daddy Back

 A frustrating long two weeks for him, and us.

Time enough for him to grow the deployment 'stash.  (sigh)

Afghanistan

Packing the morning of.

Two weeks, in and out.

We hope.

Back in the Saddle

Wondering why the posting has slowed?

Peaches here got himself mobilized the end of May through June, right after getting the kids on the swim team.

Morning practice, evening practice, Saturday morning 6 am wakeups are all mine for the month of June.

Love this man.

Him? Don't worry about him.  He mobilized to Fort Hood, so he didn't escape the state this time.

Beginning in July, he got himself mobilized for a year. 

This time I threw a bit of a fit, which turned out to work this once, since he wound up mobilized to Houston with intermittent tours to Fort Hood. 

Major Schmajor

 Grandpa Airplane was here for the promotion ceremony, but I think the kids were a little more interested in thumb wrestling,

 And bike riding,

 And pre-flight checking.

It's always too quick, but always a big time when they have Grandpa Airplane around.

Alida even popped out of vomiting pretty quickly so she could play.

Major Changes

Congratulations Major Stuber.

We're proud of you.

Veteran's Day 2011

 A few of us got together at the local elementary school today.

That is a Marine Helicopter Pilot who served in Vietnam sitting next to Patric's hat; his kids live in our neighborhood and their grandson was singing in the choir.

He and his wife were the most charming people.

Likewise, Patric and I were escorted to our seats by a very charming fifth-grader.

And the program this school put on was pretty darn impressive--from an honor guard to raise the flag, 2 minutes of silence for the fallen, history, music, and so many flags.

 But the boys had eyes on daddy right after the show.

And they were quick to find us in the throng.

 And then we were treated to lunch with the boys.

During which we had this bright observation from my eldest child:

Nicholas: "Mommy, what are you doing here?  You're not a Veteran."

I didn't go straight across the table at him, although the scene played out in my head.

 And after the boys were tucked back in their classrooms for the day, Patric and I got a chance to look at all of the posters from the families here honoring their loved-ones who have served.

But this may be the most sweet gift of all from the neighbor kids. 

Reserve Weekend

Replacing National Guard Weekend

It's still a mess.

However, this one included unpacking the last box and sifting through the last of the crazy.

We're moved.

It's official.

Randomness

We have been randomly randomless lately.

Probably because Benjamin's new favorite place is in front of the computer.

The girls are currently in LOVE with Hello Kitty.

I have really no clue how they were introduced to Hello Kitty.


Football season has returned.

By the time Alida finishes, she will have eaten all the ketchup, none of the eggs.

Generally, she'll dunk her fingers in and then wave her hand around looking like ET before it's over.

We found a new playground a few blocks away. Good for a change, but nothing beats being able to run back to the house to use the facilities without wrecking the whole party.

National Guard, which is now Federal Reserves, has begun again.
We've enjoyed the break.

Nicholas has been wearing the Cabbage Patch's headband around to "workout."

Come On In, The Water's Fine

The best part of their weekend last weekend was swimming.

Ladies jumping in together.

I lost track of the hours we spent in this pool last Saturday afternoon.

Fearless Jumping.

Smiling.

Nicholas not clinging to someone. On the drive up he asked if we could stay at the hotel with the pool. When I said we could, he announced that he would swim on his own. With no help mom.

Then this started.

And it didn't seem so daring until I looked at the picture.

The had a ball.

And then Alida took off her suit, climbed into bed, and took a two hour nap.

Not many kids get to climb freely on working tanks.

But it was with great glee that they all crawled around a last time last weekend.

I snuck off here while they were engaged to say good-bye to the cleanest woman's restroom with a urinal in the universe. I always appreciated coming to the armory because I had my own bathroom, maintained impecably by men in uniform.

And here we are before we saddled up to go swimming, which was all the brood wanted once the tanks were tucked away.

Learning from the inside,

out.