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Packing Up

Dale — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:19:25 +0000

Mugs has been reminding me lately to start getting organized for my upcoming redeployment. I, of course, have been procrastinating. While I enjoy moving every couple of years, I detest preparing to move. When I left Virginia for the start of this deployment, I had one duffel bag a little more than half filled. At Fort Benning, Georgia, I was issued almost 3 duffel bags of gear, such as body armor, additional uniforms, sleeping bag, etc. I haven’t been too excited about returning with 4 duffel bags again. This afternoon, I went to the PX and bought a footlocker to mail some things home.

Empty Footlocker

The first items into the locker were 3 pairs of boots I was issued at Fort Benning. I’ve worn my original pair of boots for the past year and haven’t needed to use the new pairs. I don’t have to turn them in at Fort Benning when I redeploy, so I definitely don’t want to lug them around in a duffel bag.

Boots in Footlocker

After that, I added combat uniforms, PT uniforms, PT sweat suit, socks, T-Shirts, and other miscellaneous items. The footlocker filled up very quickly. I might even mail another box of additional items.

Full Footlocker

This is the last time I want to move!

Pet Food

Mugs — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:01:48 +0000

Five years ago, when we headed overseas to live in Hawaii, our pets did not travel with us. At the time, the quarantine was long. Our Siberian Husky, Czar was 12 1/2 and Hawaii would have been a torture for him, so he was given to a friend and ridiculously spoiled for the last year of his life. Our Ragdoll cat, Magnolia also decided she loved the good life lavished on her by a dear friend. So, for close to 5 years, we have had no pets. When you must live as a renter, it is very difficult to keep pets. It severely limits your choice of places to live. So, we told the kids that when we returned to the States and owned our home, we would once again get pets. Dale’s deployment delayed the fulfillment of the promise, but now that I’ve started, there’s no stopping. Dale went with the children to choose fish. They happily named them which I discovered was probably not a good idea after some fish died and had to be replaced. I had somehow missed the time worn advice of “Never Name Fish!” However, fish were not enough. On Saturday, we will be bringing home a Golden Retriever puppy. I have spent the last several months reading dog breed, dog training, dog care, and dog cleanup books. The kids and I watched multiple episodes of the Dog Whisperer and on Saturday, we wandered lost through the aisles of the pet store choosing brushes, dishes, toys, leashes, etc. Before Dale brought home Czar, our first dog, there was no preparation, no research, and no plan. Reading all these books and watching all these shows, I have concluded that we did everything wrong with him. Czar was never completely housebroken, he chewed up everything, and ran away every chance he got. We loved him dearly, but here’s hoping I can do it right this time. For the last month, I have felt like I am preparing for a baby. Instead of nursing/formula, crib, and diaper brand decisions; I must now decide which dog food, kennel, and brushes are the best. Dog food is very complicated now. There is endless research on dog food nutritional value and endless personal reviews that alternate between “this food is excellent” and “this is rubbish, it made my dog sick”. For now, I am going to feed him the food the breeder uses as well as a dog vitamin. Yes, a dog vitamin. In the midst of debating how much I’m willing to pay to ensure my dog has the proper nutrition, I’m feeding my children waffles with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and syrup for dinner. And no, I didn’t give them a vitamin.

Red Punch

Mugs — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:18:22 +0000

Last week was filled with art and music events at the school. On Wednesday, Josiah and Abby played for their middle school band concert. Josiah plays the baritone and Abby plays the flute. They both started band 4 months ago and have improved greatly since. Dale was able to hear the band play at chapel when he was home for R&R. In fact the blog picture shows them wearing their band uniforms of white shirts and blue ties. The band played Turkish March, March Militaire, Rock Island Express, and Jump Street Boogie. For Jump Street Boogie, they donned gold satin vests, black shiny hats, and sunglasses. I found it quite amusing. I am now going to have them play Rock Island Express for halftime of Bears games to fire up the crowd. The crowd, of course, is Zeke and I and the “Defense Defense” chant. On Friday, I attended the Art Show with Abby and Gabe. Gabe won a third place ribbon for 2nd grade with his colored paper flower pot and Abby won Honorable Mention for 6th grade with her drawing of an abandoned building. The High School hosted the Art Show and the work of all the winners K-12 was displayed. They had live music in each room. A boy played piano in the main room and two girls played violin in the hallways. Everyone was dressed up. Gabe was happy to wear his tie. Josiah, however, opted to stay home and watch Zeke rather than subject himself to another mandatory tie event. The level of artwork was impressive. One student’s scratch off artwork was phenomenal in the detail, some of the paintings were lovely, and the robot created out of junk was clever. They served hors d’oeuvres and a lovely red punch. Gabe in his crisp, clean white shirt wanted very much to have a glass of that tasty punch, but he was denied by his unfeeling Mother.

Escritoire

Mugs — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:14:11 +0000

On Saturday, Josiah participated in the ACSI National Spelling Bee. There was a reception the night prior for the students to meet and get to know each other. They were each given a list of statements (I live east of the Mississippi. I am the oldest in my family, etc) and they were supposed to find students who matched the criteria. I know it will surprise many of you to discover that Josiah was not wandering around asking questions of kids he didn’t know. However, he could not avoid those who came to ask him. And so, we met Jack, a 6th grader. He walked up to Josiah and said, “So, where are you on this list, son?” Josiah offered him a couple options and upon seeing Josiah’s name badge said, “You’re from Fredericksburg, Eh. You must know all about the battle of Fredericksburg then.” When Josiah replied that he did not, Jack spent the next several minutes explaining the battle to Josiah. Jack finished his military history lesson with “The bottom line, south won!” Then off he went to harangue the next unsuspecting speller. Later in the evening, each speller got up to introduce themselves. They had to say their name, grade, school, and claim to fame. Jack said, “I am mostly known for my shy and reserved demeanor.” Even though the students had only known each other for 30 minutes, plenty of people laughed. Josiah’s claim to fame was that he had lived in Australia for 2 years. He even said, “Good Day, Mate!” Another boy’s claim to fame was that he had memorized the Gettysburg address in 1st grade. Some students were mortified to speak and others relished the spotlight. I was greatly entertained by all their uniqueness. On Saturday morning, the spelling bee started and it was very obvious that most of the students had memorized the published words list. For the practice round, Josiah had to spell eventual. In the 1st round, he spelled lingcod. In the 2nd round, he spelled cavil. In the 3rd round, he spelled geriatrics. In the 4th round, he spelled toponymy. In the 5th round, the judge went to the unpublished list and Josiah had to spell, escritoire. When she said it, I knew he was done. Unlike some of the other parents in the room, I had not provided my son with a French tutor to prepare him for the Bee. He gave it a go and almost had it. He spelled it escritoir. He left off the last e, and he was out. If only my Grandfather had not taken the e off of the end of Meloche, Josiah may have thought it best to always throw an e on the end of a French word. He finished 25th out of 46 spellers. Of course, including all the students who participated in the Bees leading up to the Nationals, he finished 25th out of 7000. It sounds more impressive. I’m fairly sure, Jack will use a similar statistic throughout his life. Josiah was disappointed, but as the Bee went on and he began to realize the skill level of his competitors, he leaned over to me and said, “I could have never won”. By the 6th round, there were 12 students left. One girl asked every question she could before she spelled a word. “May I have a definition? Is the language of origin French? Is the root word …?, and on and on and on.” It took her 5 minutes to spell a word. The Gettysburg address boy was eliminated and his father protested twice to the arbitrator. His father had a laptop computer that he showed to the judge to try to prove that something unjust had occurred. I leaned over and told Josiah that he needed a better arbitrator. I didn’t even have a dictionary, let alone a computer, and I certainly didn’t have a French tutor. The boy’s father was denied twice. The Gettysburg address boy was officially eliminated. Jack was eliminated as well. There was one boy who upon receiving a word, would scan his eyes back and forth as if reading pages of the dictionary in his mind. He was eliminated by an Italian musical term. By round 13 there were 2 students left. The girl spelled without asking a question, The boy only occasionally asked for a definition. The boy spelled words I had never heard of. He would spell with double p’s, or l’s or oui’s and I would think, “There’s no way that word is spelled that way.” Yet, he was always correct. I thought for sure he was going to win and yet he got thrown off by a dog breed. He misspelled dachshund. The girl, who never paused, then spelled susurration and cetacean to win. When it was all over, I was happy to consider that the seemingly endless spelling hours were over. We picked up Zeke, and on the way home he started, “M-O-M, mom, D-A-D, dad, N-O, no, Y-E-S, yes. Apparently, it’s never going to end.

Tornadoes and Floods

Mugs — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:56:08 +0000

Last Thursday night, I put out the garbage and there was a thick humid feeling in the air that midwesterners know to fear. Soon, a storm came into Stafford. The thunder was pretty intense and the lightning quite bright. I know tornadoes are not common in Virginia, so I wasn’t all that concerned. However, at 2300, I decided that the storm sounded bad enough to warrant me checking the National Weather Service online. Actually, being a Meloch, I can make up any excuse to check the weather. So, I logged onto the National Weather Service, entered my town of Stafford, Va and read the following, “A tornado warning has been issued for Stafford, VA. A tornado has been spotted, seek shelter immediately.” Ignoring the urge to scream, I immediately ran upstairs, woke the kids and took them down into the basement. The power flickered once , the rain poured down, and I prayed. We all slept in the basement that night. Abby slept on Dale’s recliner and being a true Manry said it was a very comfortable place to sleep. Josiah slept on a pile of beanbags. Gabe inflated air mattresses for himself, Zeke and I. As I was laying on the air mattress, all I could think was, “I am so glad we are not moving this summer and I won’t have to sleep on this for 3 months.” The next morning, we discovered that the tornado struck approximately 15 miles away. We saw some of the damage of snapped trees and missing windows. However, last night we realized that spring was not done with us yet. Another storm came through that dumped 3 – 4 inches of rain on Stafford County. My clean gutters decided they preferred to be clogged and rain poured off them and soaked the ground which overwhelmed my basement walls. From 2100 – 0100 last night, I attempted to stop the water. Gabe, who goes on duty during storms, and Josiah hauled all the toys and rugs upstairs and got everything off the floor. Josiah didn’t complain with his Wii and DVR under threat. I had placed a large rolling garbage can next to the porch under the largest stream of water coming off the gutter and would periodically walk out into the pouring rain and haul it to the curb to dump it. I was quite the sight at 0030. I would then return to the basement and lay down multiple towels and wring them out into a large pail and then dump the water from the pail into the utility sink. That was exhausting work. I thought of all the people I had seen on the news over the years filling sandbags to stop a flood. How they keep going is beyond me. I was so tired, it was difficult not to give up and admit defeat. Throughout this process, I was thinking of the Army’s favorite motto of “Work Smarter, Not Harder!”, but in moments of crisis, more efficient actions always escape me. At 0100, I was too exhausted to stand and went to bed praying that the water would not flood the entire basement. This morning, Gabe woke up and performed the damage assessment. The boy is destined to be an Engineer. After dropping the kids off at school, I drove to the home improvement store and purchased Dale’s Father’s Day gift: a 12 gallon wet/dry vac. I put it together and tested it out to make sure it worked. I’m sure he’ll love it.