Our Little Angel

I'm a little behind in my posting. Jena was in the Christmas Program at church, she was an angel. I was worried she wouldn't want to go up front with out me, but she did great!

Happy Anniversary!

16 years ago two crazy kids ran off and got married. And now, here we are 16 years later a little older, a lot grayer, but still crazy. I mentioned to a friend the other day that today was our anniversary. She asked how long we had been married, I told her. Then she ask why we had gotten married so young (we were 19). I thought for a minute and then shrugged and said because we wanted to. No earth shattering reason other than we were two crazy kids in love who wanted to get married. And here we are 5 moves and 2 kids later. We have weathered the Army, College, Medical School and now the Army again. AND WE ARE STILL HERE! We don't know any great secrets to it all, just its a lot of hard work. But in the end its worth it because I get to spend everyday with the best friend I've ever had. So, Happy Anniversary, Honey! Here's to 60 more!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas for the Williams Fam! Hope Santa was nice to you!

A shout out...

We are getting ready to put out all the big stuff here. Santa will be here soon to fill the stockings and I am very grateful Roger is home this Christmas Eve to help me. Two years ago I stayed up it seems all night putting a play kitchen together, all by myself. Roger was on call and didn't get home until 9 am on Christmas Day. Try holding back an almost two year old from seeing what Santa left.

So, here is to all the military spouses doing this all alone this Christmas. Trying so hard to make up for what is missing. Trying to document everything so the parent who is not there will see what happened later. You are doing the hard stuff each and everyday, the things that go without a word of thanks. I salute you and your strength! Merry Christmas!

Disney tickets

I was very happy to receive this link today from Shades of Green:

http://www.shadesofgreen.org/4DAY.htm?utm_source=Dec09%2Bnewsletter&utm_medium=eblast&utm_campaign=12%2BMore%20Reasons

At least at Disney World they have extended their Salute to the Military deal on tickets. 4 days passed this time. Works great if we make it to Disney this spring as planned. I couldn't find anything about Disney Land, sorry West Coast, hopefully we will hear soon.

17 months

I'm a little behind because we are out of town visiting family. Lily turned 17 months on Sunday. As you can see she is very much on the move!

On Giving Back

There is a song from the 80s called The 12 pains of Christmas. I’ve put in on the playlist for the sight for those of you who want to hear it. It has to be one of my favorite Christmas songs, and some of the complaints are not relevant any more, but most are. I thought about the song this year because there is a kid in there that for the 8th day of Christmas says, “I WANNA TRANSFORMER FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!”; “DADDY, I WANT SOME CANDY!!!!”; “BUY ME SOMETHIN'!!!”; “DAD, I GOTTA GO TA BATHROOM!!”; “WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH!” This is sadly a lot like Jena this year, especially the “Buy me something.” In the context of the song, the 7th day is about all the charities at Christmas. In fact, one line goes:

The eighth thing at Christmas that such a pain to me:
I WANNA TRANSFORMER FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Charities….

Which gets me to the point of this post, giving back at Christmas and teaching me kids how to do it. This year during shopping, even before Christmas, Jena always says, “I want that!” When I tell her no she follows with, “But I REALLLLY Want it, PLEASE!” Keep in mind we have a room in our house JUST FOR THEIR TOYS! And then they have toys in their rooms.

So we have been working on teaching Jena that she is indeed a lucky little girl. How do you teach a 3 year old that? I’m open to suggestions. The girls really have it good, they have it better than Roger and I did growing up. And neither of us wants them to turn into those annoying kids we went to school with. You know who I’m talking about; the ones that had all the latest and greatest stuff and let you know it. Or the obnoxious kids whose parents gave them 100 bills to go shopping with when I was in college, working at the mall for minimum wage.

We have started early teaching them how to give back and saying no to their constant begging. Every year we get a child from the Angel Tree at church. We also made cookies for the soup kitchen this week and this year, I took the girls to Toys R Us and had Jena pick toys to give away. She was okay with that, until she asked for something for herself and I told her no. We managed okay for the rest of the trip and she even, Happily, put our purchases in the bin.

A woman got into line behind us at check out. She said, “I’ll be glad when Christmas is over.” I smile, recognizing a fellow mom and asked “How many kids do you have?” She told me she is a single mom with a son and he wanted a transformer and she got that one because it could be taken apart and the one at Wal-Mart couldn’t. I agreed that was important. She commented it was expensive and looked apprehensive. I told her I was sure her son would love it. So there you go, I was trying to teach my kids a lesson about life and got one myself.

Yo Ho, Sending Christmas Cards!

I love getting cards at Christmas. Every year since we have been married we have sent out cards to everyone. Each year the list gets longer. And it will continue to as we bum around the country with the Army. We sent out almost 100 this year and we love each and everyone we get. Some tell us it is old fashion in this day and age of email and Facebook, but I like it. Its a way to say hello and keep up with everyone, even those without a blog. And since the girls have come along I send the ones with pictures. I love those kind, each year seeing how people have changed. So thank you to everyone who sent us cards this year, we love them.

Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah begins tonight at sundown. Have a great 8 crazy nights!

Offering Support

Today the USO Community Strong is supporting the Fort Hood Community in wake of the shootings last month. I want to add my thoughts and thank the hospital and emergency staff at Darnell Army Medical Center located on Fort Hood. They handled the aftermath of the shootings with speed and efficiency. When the ER Chief was interviewed he said each one of them was trained to deal with this event, but they never expected to deal with in here at home. I've seen and heard a lot of negative comments about the Military Medical System in the wake of all this. And I just wanted to thank them for the difficult jobs they did that day and everyday.

Putting up the tree

Jena brought home this ornament from school and asked when we were putting up the tree. Since we have a toddler we had delayed putting up the tree again. Since last night was Roger's last night before FPIT, he decided we should put it up last night.

Ready helpers!
The tree. We usually leave off the bottom set because the tree is so wide. This year because of Lily we left off the bottom two rows.

Jena was very excited about helping unpack everything.

They loved doing this for some reason.

Lights and Garland.
Daddy and Jena, a finished tree!
Complete with Angel on Top! We love putting up the tree and remembering where all the ornaments came from. After 16 years we have a lot, but the best have been the ones we got over the last few years from the girls.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lily Walking

I finally got a video of Lily walking! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Home is where the Army sends you...

It is that time again. We once again are looking at where we will be moving this summer. Many of you have asked for an update, so I will do the best I can. Roger talked to the officer in charge of placement on Thursday. He only had two minutes on the phone for this preliminary talk and it left us with just as many questions as before.

A few months back they had talked to the residents about this and talked about places that should be available. Unfortunately, things change and there were some very frustrated residents on Friday. Someone told me out of a list of 10 place, they told her six were not probable. At least we are not alone in this frustration. So we adapt, and try to come up with 10 places off a very sparse list.

We hope to go west so we can be closer to my family. This is possible, the middle of the US has the most spots available, but not too many in the states we want to go. We are hoping for Kansas, but they say that may be hard to get. The east coast, our fall back, doesn't have much at all. And the west coast has only 5-7 slots for the whole region. It is a strange list indeed. And we find ourselves reevaluating our priorities.

We try to keep faith. We had not planned on coming here but now I can not imagine having gone anywhere else. We have made some great friends here. I can't imagine Jena without Piper and Quinn. And I can't imagine Roger without his office mates, Jason B and Lisa last year, Jason H and Justin this year. And I can't imagine life without Rebecca, Carol, Karen, Nicole, Jessica and Christi. So, as Roger reminds me, we plan and life happens. And we end up better off then we thought.

Welcome Home!

Our friend, Chris Krebs got back from Iraq last week after a year deployment. Since he deployed from Bragg, he returned to Bragg. So Karen and the girls came up from Georgia to get him. They were able to stop for a visit before they left. Jena had a great time playing with Natalie and Alex.

Also on a happy note, our friends the Gordons are expecting their dad back soon as well.

16 months!

And we took the Road Less Traveled...

When we were researching for our trip to Vermont, we found that Robert Frost lived in Shaftsbury on a farm and was buried behind the Old First Church. We both love the Poet Laureate and were very excited to be able to make this pilgrimage. I now give a story in poems.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.

We saw leaves go to glory,

Then almost migratory
Go part way down the lane,
And then to end the story
Get beaten down and pasted
In one wild day of rain.Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,


I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
I cannot shake the shimmer from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the water-trough,
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

His burial site in Bennington, VT.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay

New England Trip: Day 2 Vermont

All packed and ready to go! We were very excited to have time after the wedding to site see in Vermont. It was everything we imagined, making for a perfect fall drive.

Creepy New England cemetery. We saw several of these on the trip.

We stopped in Manchester at a Farmer's Market and got some lunch.

Here are the Green Mountains we came to see. They were truly beautiful.



We stopped to see the summer house of Robert Todd Lincoln, President Lincoln's oldest son. It is okay I guess for a summer place.

This was a farm we found while driving through the countryside.

Our next stop was Bennington, Vt. Between Manchester and Bennington is the area covered in the Battle of Bennington.


The is the Old First Church. Robert Frost is buried here, but I'll post more on that later. This church dates back to the beginning of Vermont and the Green Mountain Boys.

A marker showing where Ethan Allen, founder of Vermont, lived in Bennington before the Revolutionary War.


This was a school house that Grandma Moses attended. It houses the largest collection of her paintings.

This statue of was the source of much amusement for Roger. If you've seen Patch Adams you will get the next part. If not, rent the movie. Roger started making jokes about what the statue was pointing at. "Where did you leave the beer?" "Where is the poker game?" and a few other inappropriate jokes. Jena, proving to be as quick witted as her father, came up with "Where are your pirate friends?" I guess she thought he looked like a pirate.

General John Stark was pointing here. The quote is "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"


Monument to the Green Mountain Boys.

We ended the day with dinner at the local Friendly's. The warm food and ice cream was a perfect end to the day.