18 Days with My Soldier

The 18 days we had with my soldier was amazing. Not only for the kids but for my husband and I too. I fell in love with him all over again. I cherished every second I had with him. I held his hand any chance I got. I hugged and kissed him all day everyday. It felt like we were in our own reality and now I am back to some life I don't recognize. Yes we go on with our lives but my life seems at a stand still with him gone. Like how do you keep going day to day when your life in is Iraq. You don't just keep going. You don't just suck it up and take it on chin. You don't. You hurt. You cry. You scream at how unfair deployments are. You ache. You struggle to cope with handling everything on your own. Even the simplest things sometimes seems so big. I am not depressed and well hell if I am then I will let that takes it course until I feel better. I realized a lot while my husband was home with us. I realized that the Army the way it is now is not for our family. War and deployments are not for us. I decided I want my soldier out of the Army and no re-enlist for Alaska. I decided having him home and safe is way more important than anything the Army can offer him. Iraq is not worth my husband dying for. The kids need their daddy and need him with them 365 days a year. No more deployments, fields, trianing, long hours working to prepare for Iraq. We are finished this tour. We will stay put where we are, which is here in Spokane where I grew up and love. The kids will not be uprooted and have to say goodbye to daddy again for another 15 months. We will be totally great without the Army and I will have my husband and the kids will have their daddy. Wow I was making this blog all about our adventures while daddy was here and it turned into something different. Babe if your reading this, NO RE-ENLISTING no matter how much money they offer you 20,000 or 30,000 say NO NO NO NO! Finish your damn 11 months and come home-FOR GOOD!

I picked up daddy from the airport and he said he wanted to surprise the kids. I dropped him off down by our mailboxes and I came into the house like I was just out shopping. The doorbell rang and my son answered the door. Daddy was there and my son was in shock. My sons face was priceless. The kids hugged and kissed daddy and my son said he was never letting go. lol and he meant it. He held unto my hubby's neck forever. The kids were so happy to see daddy. It was awesome seeing their little faces light up. So after a few days of just being family we had my sisters family over for a lasagna dinner. It just happen to also be their 18 year anniversary. Can you imagine 18 years together-AWESOME! After finishing up with dinner we all sat down for a fun game of mad gabs. It was boys against girls and I am happy to say that the girls won. Mad gabs is def a fun game to play when you have a big group of people together. And with an aussie and southerner listening to them say the sentences has us rolling on the floor laughing. I love playing that game. Here is a brief descraipiton of the game: It's the game that has everyone speaking a strange language called Mad Gab! Read a group of simple words aloud, like "Yore Luke Ink Hood". Did you "hear" the answer? Try saying them again. Sound familiar? Quick, the timer's ticking! Did you hear yourself say "You're Looking Good"? You and your teammates have two minutes to sound out three puzzles. The faster you guess, the more you score! Enjoy the new bonus score feature; guess all three puzzles, and earn bonus points, as indicated by the timer. Miss a card and the other team can steal the point!OK, the timer is set, the card flipper is loaded and everyone's ready for a laugh riot! Just remember: when it comes to scoring points, it's not what you say, it's what you hear! We had a blast with my sisters family over for dinner and game. I sure do miss those nights. 

So bright an early the next day we headed off to my mothers house. We rented a dogde caravan for a week and had it all loaded. Everyone woke up and piled into the van. Our first stop[[of course]] was Starbucks. Here is a picture of hubby's and I very first coffee together EVER! I was so excited. Instead of just ordering one coffee for me he ordered two of them.....it was music to my ears. I wasn't sure he was really drinking coffee yet but I was after seeing him down his caramel latte =) I don't know why this made me so happy. I guess because we are sharing something together. Anyway that is the picture of our very first coffee together, I even have it on our fridge. LOL. Babe I can't wait to have another coffee with you when you get home.

 

Along the way to my moms we made a few pit stops. Since we were driving the White Pass way this time we stopped off at a gorgeous view of the Columbia River[[AMAZING]] I am not sure what this pit stop was called but the views were breath taking and of course I snapped a ton of pictures. Here is one from almost the edge of the mountain. There were informational stones of how the water craved this and what it was used for. The kids loved it. It totally made me think that this is a very small version of what the Grand Canyon might look like. And makes me want to go to see the Grand Canyons even more now.-----Can you say ROAD TRIP! After pit stopping here we just sorta had a boring drive through dessert and Yakima. But once we got through Yakima we entered White Pass and OMG can you say amazing. This was not my first time driving through this because as kid we would drive from Spokane to Tacoma to see my grandparents. But I don't ever remember being awake to see White Pass before. So both my husband and I were like OMG this is gorgeous. And right than and there we decided road trips to grandma's house will be driven through White Pass only, even if it takes a few hours longer to get their. It is so worth it! Half of the river was still frozen and there was still a ton of snow in the pass. It was so breath taking. I has wished some of the view stops were open. Most of them were snowed in so we could not stop to take pictures. I took most of the pictures right from my seat in the van. My husbands camera takes the most amazing pictures.

Finally got to my mother's house. It was a very long day in the van with all the kids and our daughters boyfriend from Australia. But we settled into bed and woke up the next day to head out to Long Beach. Long Beach Peninsula is aptly named, for at 28 miles, it is the longest natural beach in the United States. 

Since Brett[[Miranda's boyfriend]] has not seen our wonderful beaches we thought Long beach would be the best one to show him. And it just happen to be an ok day to take him. We stopped off at the Light House Inn for lunch. Walked the boardwalk, which is a long stretch that follows the beach. Got into the town and did all the touristy things. Of course we had to buy SALT WATER TAFFY. That is always a must for our family. If at Long beach you have to buy taffy. It is so good! And for all of you that ever get stationed at Ft.Lewis this is a MUST see while living here. The beaches are amazing. After Long Beach we went to Cape Disappointment Light House. It was so beautiful. I took tons of pictures. Cape Disappointment is a large headland forming the northern portion of the mouth of the Columbia River, as it opens to the Pacific Ocean. Most members of the Corps of Discovery arrived in this area where they were first able to glimpse the ocean on November 15, 1805, and set up a base camp near Chinook Point.

 

Spent the next few days spending it with the grandparents. Grandma showed the kids how to crotchet, my son was getting frustrated because he could not get the hang of it but he refused to give up and kept trying until he got it. Grandma thought this would be a good outlet to help them stay relaxed and calm. Plus they could learn how to make a few things for themselves like hats and scarfs. Emmy tried but did not get the hang of it. But it is ok because we will be traveling over the mountain this summer quite a few times and the kids can practice with grandma. He was very determined to learn this. My mom a nice goodbye dinner for us. The night before we left grandma's she made a very nice dinner. And bright and early the next day before we left for our long drive home grandpa got up early and made the kids home made elephant ears. They were so yummy. It is something I am going to start doing every Sunday for the kids. Make them elephant ears. Thanks dad it is a new family tradition I am starting.

 

The trip was just as beautiful as the one there. I snapped a ton more pictures of the mountains and water. That way when daddy got back to Iraq he would have hundreds of pictures of Wa to look at and remember. All he has to look at in Iraq is SAND SAND SAND. All those pictures should help keep his spirits up till he makes it home. We took the kids bowling. We spent the entire day at River Front here in Spokane. It was one of the best family days ever. The kids had blast and mommy and daddy had a blast too. We rode the train. The merry go round. Watched an IMAX movie about the Alps. Rode some carnival rides. Ate lunch at the Olive Garden. Walked over and saw the water fall. It was so gorgeous. Spent time playing guitar hero with daddy. Even though he never did get the hang of using the guitar. He would use the controller. But never the less we had a blast playing it as a family. And daddy and I beat guitar hero3 on co-op. And babe I still have not beaten any of those songs solo. I need you here to help me. LOL. Before daddy left we bought the kids a wii. So of course we had fun playing bowling. We love to bowl and well swinging our arms on the wii was a BLAST. Babe I am getting better at it so watch out. When you get home I will out bowl you on the wii-woohoo!

 

So now daddy is gone. Has made it back to hell. Still has 11 months to go before he gets out. And babe you are getting OUT. Your life is the most important thing to me. So no more Army and no more DEPLOYMENTS. We love and miss you daddy so much. We can't wait for you to come home. We will be thinking about you always and we will be counting the days until you come home. Stay safe and keep your head down. Love always and forever plus one day.

Loves and Hugs-Bree

posted by Bree

My daughter Bree's talented scrapbooking

I wanted to show a bit of my daughter's beautiful scrapbooks. The photos are of two miniatures she made for me and 'Dad' as 'remembrances' when she and the kids joined her husband at his newly assigned duty base. (He is military, returning Iraq veteran and currently in Iraq again in his second deployment).

Thrifting Finds!

I love the chase of 'thrifting'. Those splendid finds at thrift stores, vintage anything, and those quality made items at affordable prices just not so easily found in today's department stores. Along my years of thrifting, I've picked up items that I still treasure. What was more a budget necessity back in the day when I was a young wife and mother, has now become less of necessity and more one of my all time favorite 'hobbies'. Today though, with recycling, refashioning, green living, sustainable living, meaningful living, or just plain stretching the budget, thrifting has become popular in it's own right.

My recent 'thrifting' finds:



Above - a version of the 'Northern Exposure' cannisters with my friend the Moose keeping watch. I have always liked that old tv show 'Northern Exposure'. For a short time there was a decor motif that included Northern Exposure type symbols, ie, the Moose (one of my favorites!), the Northern evergreen trees, bears, rustic cabin decor, canoes, and such like. Decor and motifs seem to change quite rapidly now and no sooner does one get on board with the latest colors, schemes, styles and motifs and it changes. Pretty good strategy to keep consumers consuming, don't you think?



above and below - My growing hat collection - an array of assorted hats. For all occasions, gardening, casual wear, and even for those times when my Sweetie is 'Driving Miss Daisy' in our ancient 1984 Cadillac the size of a boat with something like 400 horsepower - inherited from my mother - and it still is roadworthy, oh and doesn't use any more gas mph than our other vehicle. One day Sweetie drove me over the Megler Bridge to Astoria, and I was wearing a hat I'd bought in Hawaii when visiting daughter there for her graduation. I commented that I felt like I was being chaueffered in this big car - and said I feel like 'Driving Miss Daisy'. That became one of those jokes between us.



Another find which is not that hard to find is colorful scarves (for crafting and decor) -- photos below -





I picked up a load of placemats at the thrift store - mostly to use in my crafting projects, but this set with the vintage pattern cherries (not vintage placemat set) was just perfect for my kitchen table as it is arranged now. I change the arrangements on my tables, kitchen and dining frequently. Not as frequently as some, but once I get tired of a 'look' then it's time for something new on the table.

It's not your Grandmothers or even your Mother's crafting

It's been a time of retooling for me. Getting to that age for women that is the Big M word, and now that I'm in it, there, I'm startled by just how big a 'change' in life it really is. Wondering why more women don't talk about it, but that isn't quite the focus of this blog so I won't fill it up with all my thoughts and reflections - maybe that is another blog I might make. My attention is by necessity refocused then on some pro-active work towards making this change a bit more positive and upbeat while I continue to look in the mirror and no longer recognize who is looking back at me.

For weeks now, no more like several months, I've been fascinated by the amount of talent out there blogging about homemaking skills; crafting, needlework, sewing, beadwork, decorating and well the list goes on and on. But I'm particularly struck by how a new generation of young women have taken up the old arts and brought amazing new flair to their creations. I have long crocheted, but pretty basic kinds of afghans, baby blankets, hats, scarves. I have made a few afghans which is probably more king size bedspreads. It takes me 6 months working consistently to finish one. I put down the crochet hooks several years ago and now that I am picking them up again, I am fascinated to find how much the 'old crochet' has become the 'new crochet'.

There are amazing types of yarn out there now, and crochet projects have taken on a whole new life in the hands of the new generation. There is a yarn type for everything from elegant, to classic, to standard, to fun, to whimsical. New patterns being made, new ideas being tried and it's become an industry of it's own.

I remember how startled I was to watch the old fashioned scrapbooking become a new industry in the hands of the younger set. Quilting became it's own kind of industry with amazing fabrics. And now I am watching the transformation of another industry in needlecrafts, crocheting, knitting, felting, needlepoint. I'm wowed!

My daughter has become particularly talented in her scrapbooking. I think it kept her sane during her husband's first Iraq deployment and is keeping her sane now in his second Iraq deployment. I can well understand the need to be doing something with your hands to help calm the worries, and I was pleased she found a niche for that with scrapbooking. She has made some wonderous scrapbooks. I think I'll take a photo of one of the miniature scrapbooks she made for me and show it here.

My older daughter has made a transformation for her entire family in taking them vegan and learning to find the food products, cook them and develop a pantry and a whole new repetoire of recipes and approaches to eating healthy food. Over the years, I have attempted modifications, and have been proud of my efforts, but daughter has gone the full gamut and has become what I consider to be an expert in the art of vegan. It's more than just eating in a certain way, it's a way of life and living with food and products that are free of animals or animal products or animal testing or animal abuse.

My son took himself on a serious regimen of transformation several years ago, dropping a lot of weight and becoming a tall, thin man, inclined towards athletic sports of basketball, soccer, skiing, snow boarding, and several other adventursome activities and sports.

I'm thrilled to see the directions my now grown children are taking their lives and believe me it's not quite the same world at all as the one of their mother, as the one of their grandmother. My two oldest granddaughters are now sixteen years old and are the newer generation. I love seeing the fresh new approaches the young and younger generation bring to the table.

Paper Art Greeting Cards I received

My step-daughter is amazing in keeping faith with acknowledging every occasion. She has a large family and never misses anyone's birthday, anniversary, congratulations, holiday or whatever else there is to celebrate. I don't know where she finds them, but over the last couple years she has sent me the most adorable greeting cards. I place them around places in my kitchen because the cards make me smile, make me feel happy.

Thought I'd show off her artsy taste. Here are three of the cards she has sent me.

Crochet Market Bag, one for baby too!

I made a wee little market type bag using baby yarn, a bit of a diaper type bag for extra diapers, bibs, a bottle, an extra outfit, maybe. Should tuck nicely into Mom's purse.








And then I made another adult size market bag but not for marketing, to hang on my bedpost as a place to tuck away my nightclothes.

16th Grandchild and another crocheted baby blanket

Another new grandchild and the family continues to grow. This is our 16th grandchild, and to welcome him, I got busy crocheting a baby blanket.






Close up view

Christmas in February - finally got my handcrafted gifts into the mail

I'm late (as usual) getting Christmas and Birthday gifts out to my kids and grandchildren. There is my son, who also has a birthday two days before Christmas; my two grandddaughters who were born in a set 2 months apart and turned Sweet 16 this year in November and in December; my two daughters and my two sets of two grandchildren in age sets of 7-8 yrs old and 2-3 yrs old.

Well, I did get the gifts to my husband, mother and step-daughter timely - before Christmas. But the delay in getting out the gifts to my kids and grandchildren took me into February. I really had wanted to do some homemade craft type gifts this year along with purchased gifts. It took me a bit to get all the handcrafts done and I finally got all the gifts wrapped, packaged up and into the mail by this week, Feb 10. My daughter's birthday Feb 13, and the packages for her family arrived today - just in time for her birthday. Woo Hoo.

Slideshow below of the completed crafted projects I made to include in their gift boxes this year.

Holiday Canister from plastic coffee containers

Click on photo link above to get to Folgers link for 'how to' and downloadable prints to decorate your holiday canister.

Survived the hurricane-force winds; Pacific Northwest storm, December 2007

Pacific Northwest Storm of the Decade, Dec 2007. Declared disaster area in Southwest Washington, Washington coast and Northern Oregon coast. We live in Bay Center, WA, Pacific County, and had hurricane strength winds for 2 days - 119 mph with gusts of 145 mph. Photo slideshow below.

Can read more at my account of our experience in Pacific County at Washblog story. Also at my blog 'Life in Bay Center on Willapa Bay' and the special page I made at the blog 'Storm of the Decade, Pacific Northwest, December 2007'



posted by Lietta Ruger

Survived hurricane-force winds of 119 mph, infrastructure collapse Pacific County, Washington coast, December 2007 Pacific Northwest storm

More on page on this website (see tabs above) dedicated to ‘Storm of the Decade, Pacific Northwest, December 2007′

Today is Friday, Dec 7, 2007 and we just got power back yesterday, Thursday, Dec 6, 2007, after being without power, communications, access in or out of the county since the storm hit last Sunday, Dec 2, 2007. It was what it was advertised by the Chinook Observer to be - the storm of the decade and it affected most all of Washington coastline with grave flooding inland and great parts of Oregon coastline. Most hard hit with massive flooding was Lewis County and Grays Harbor County, our neighboring counties. Pacific County was hit hard too, enough to collapse a seemingly fragile infrastructure; no power, no land phones, no cell phones, no 911, no access in or out of the county and even emergency communications out of county to notify status were limited and curtailed. It was an eerie feeling to be so completely cut off.

Later as the week wore on the reality of not being able to access our own bank account or get gas as gas pumps need electricity to work, and word of possible contamination of water in South Bend/Raymond, the fragility of the infrastructure not only in our own county but any county became evident to me. We must learn to rely on individual preparedness, and preparedness and help from among our community to see us through those early days of catastrophic weather events. And given what we experienced with this storm, I'm inclined to believe that with climate warming, we will see other such storms, perhaps not at that magnitude, but enough to cause breaks in the infrastructure here in Pacific County and in neighboring counties.

Sorting out how to tell parts of the story, and rather than one big fat blog entry, I will want to break it down some. For the days without power and communications (phones, cell phones, 911, emergency access), I started a journal. Now that we have power back and I am seeing via internet news all the devastation around us in our own county and neighboring counties, I recognize we are among the very fortunate.

Providing the link to the Washblog interview Noemie did with me when she phoned me yesterday to check up on us where she gives an account of what I shared with her.

Report from Lietta Ruger: Storm Causes Complete Infrastructure Collapse in Pacific Co.

By noemie maxwell
Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 03:37:50 PM PST
Section: Pacific County Topic: Climate Change

I just spoke with Lietta Ruger, one of Washblog's editors, and she asked me to post a little summary of our conversation. She plans to post something more in-depth later.

She and Arthur Ruger live in the Willapa Bay community in Bay Center. There is no locally owned broadcast media in the area, and so they rely primarily on King 5 TV for their storm warnings. KIRO and KOMO generally don't provide coverage on their area. She said that no warnings came through mainstream media on the severe impacts that their community was expected to face from the impending storm last weekend. It was only because they happen to subscribe to what she describes as a tiny newspaper, a weekly called The Chinook Observer, that she learned her community was facing perhaps "the storm of the decade."

Having received this one warning, she and Arthur brought out their candles and blankets and cooked up the food in their refrigerator and battened down the hatches - just in case. The storm hit on Sunday and the three of them - including Lietta's mother - stayed indoors for two days as winds up to 119 miles an hour raged outside. There was no electricity, no phone service, no cellphone service. After the storm subsided, the roads were so impassible in every direction, and the power outage and the lack of emergency service so complete -- that as far as people in her community knew, they might have separated from the rest of the United States and floated off into the Pacific Ocean.

It wasn't until yesterday that a local store selling crank radios opened and she and Arthur were able to tune into coverage from Astoria, Oregon to find out the extent of the damage to the rest of Washington state.

Even then, most of the stores remained locked, the social services office, where emergency help is usually offered, remained closed and dark. The gas pumps, which run on electricity, don't work. People who have medical emergencies are out of luck. And at least one woman did die, when her house caught on fire from the candles she was using to provide light.

There was no safe way to travel by water, either, because the water was moving too fast and there were too many other dangers, low tree branches, objects, etc. Even the county's weather monitoring equipment failed. We know that winds reached 119 mph in Bay Center and 120 mph in Astoria, she said, because private citizens had equipment that withstood the wind, while the wind broke the county's equipment.

The problem wasn't with community members. People helped each other quite a bit. In fact, the owner of the Bay Center grocery store, a woman named Lori, drove from Long Beach through all the hazards to Bay Center and fired up the generator and stove and cooked soups and made sandwiches to serve the people in that community. And her husband and son did that in the other grocery stores owned by the family in other nearby communities. But now that the electricity has come back on, and she's learned that the rest of the world is still here -- though Grays Harbon and Lewis Counties appear to have suffered even more -- now she's feeling pretty upset.

This is a warning, she said, that we need to get our act together on emergency preparedness. We are experiencing the effects of climate change and we can expect more. This kind of storm is not on the usual scale. It's a clear signal, as well, that we need some major changes in how we do media. Pacific County needs its own broadcast media. We talked for awhile about testimony at the recent FCC hearing in Seattle that local communities are endangered by the centralization of broadcast media. That is absolutely correct, she said. Now that she has a little time to think, it's hitting her, the extent of this collapse of infrastructure: the lack of emergency preparedness and media coverage and the blackout on all services during the storm or for the 2 days afterwards. "This complete and utter failure, she said, "is unacceptable.

(read more at the Washblog story)

A few photos below taken by my mother of Bay Center in Pacific County, after the 2 days

of hurricane-force winds. Click on photos to see larger view.

Downed treee on Bay Center Road, Bay Center, WA in Pacific County, WA

Several downed trees at Bay Center residence, Bay Center, WA in Pacific County,WA

Tree down on power line Bay Center Road,Bay Center, WA in Pacific County,WA

Blow down trees in the county park at tip of Bay Center, WA in Pacific County,WA

More on page on this website (see tabs above) dedicated to 'Storm of the Decade, Pacific Northwest, December 2007'