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.

Trip to New England: Day One Albany

Party in the ALB! Getting ready to go Saturday morning. Jena really liked the hotel, in fact since we've been back her favorite game has been "Hotel" where she sets up a hotel room for us to stay in on vacation.

Thanks again to Budget for hooking us up with a great rental. We had reserved a small SUV and this was the smallest they had. :) It was a beast! It was nice to try out because we realized it was way to big for us for everyday. But it was great for the trip.


It came with Maine plates, for the weekend we were from Maine.

The highlight of sight seeing in Albany was the Rural Albany Cemetery, final resting place to President Chester Arthur.


We also found a Geocache (well, Roger and Jena did.) The prize was this eye patch.



Both girls were very tired and got good naps before the wedding.

Dr and Mrs Buenaventura

We flew up to upstate New York this weekend to see our very good friend Jason (BV) Buenaventura get married. Jason worked with Roger for two years here at Bragg and while he was here he met Sara, a fellow Northeasterner.

We were very happy we got to be with them on their special day. We had a great time, thanks to everyone for such a great party!

Jena even made friends with Jason's nephew, Mathew.

Congratulations, Jason and Sara. And Sara, Welcome to the Army!

Mr Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!

Roger and I are children of the cold war. We were born the year President Nixon withdrew the US troops from Vietnam. And the icon of that war was the Berlin Wall. Built when our parents were teenagers, the wall was something that was part of life. So, 20 years ago when it fell life changed. The early 90s were spent dealing with the fall out of the "fall of the wall" and the fall of communism. We debated in college what caused the fall, the arms race or the new open market. But even then we were also learning and debating a new topic. The middle east and the rise of international terrorism. A new enemy to replace communism. So, happy anniversary Germany.

In memory of those who died

Fort Hood releases names of casualties

Nov 7, 2009

By III Corps & Fort Hood Public Affairs Office

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Fort Hood announced today the death of twelve (12) Soldiers and one (1) civilian employee.

The following Soldiers and a civilian employee died Nov. 5 on Fort Hood of wounds suffered from small arms fire.

Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, 55, of Havre De Grace, Md. She was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.

Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Detachment, Madison, Wis.

Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 54, of San Diego, Calif. He was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.

Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.

Staff Sgt. Justin Decrow, 32, of Plymouth, Ind. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, Fort Hood, Texas.

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis. She was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.

Spc. Jason Hunt, 22, of Tillman, Okla. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pfc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolinbrook, Ill. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, Ill. She was assigned to the 15th Combat Support Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.

Chief Warrant Officer, retired, Michael Cahill of Cameron, Texas. He was a civilian employee on Fort Hood.

Sad Week

It has been a sad week here. First a local family was killed. This family was well know and well liked and were from here in Fayetteville as well as their families. Everywhere we go it seems someone knew them and has been effected by this. Then today we learned of a shooting at Ft Hood. Roger was stationed at Ft Hood when we were first married and we lived in Killeen for a year. The building the shooting happened in was the NCO club when we lived there, we used to go for free pizza on Wednesday. It was around the corner from where Roger worked. Seeing it on TV was unreal. It all hit close to home. As the story unraveled, it got closer. At first all we knew was it was Ft Hood, speculation was rampant. Then we knew it was a military member, and we felt the pain even more. And then the shocking news that he was a psychiatrist. Who trained at Walter Reed. It seemed to touch everywhere in our lives.

On Facebook, our friends are shocked. Army friends "calling" out to Ft Hood residents to make sure they were ok. My friend Chelle was busy posting links that would be helpful to her friends there and to remind people to help in this crisis. Our friends at Walter Reed in shock. No one wants to believe one of our own could do this.

Both situations make me wonder how this could happen. No matter how desperate one can feel, what could make someone kill someone else?

She's Walking!

Lily has been reluctant to walk, more content on the ground. But yesterday she took 6 steps in a row, twice! She still does a mixture of walking and crawling, but this definitely a step in the right direction. I haven't got it on video yet, but when I do I will post it here for everyone.