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We had a lovely morning in DC. I only made a few wrong turns. The trees were in peak bloom and stunning. We parked on Hains Point and walked up to the Tidal Basin. We arrived at 0930 and thankfully, the crowds had not yet descended. The festival officially kicks off tomorrow, so today wasn’t absolute madness. I am really glad we went. It is stunningly beautiful. I took 60 pictures and am hoping that there is at least one good one in the lot. Yes, my camera has film in it. It is not digital. I’m like my father and his polaroid. We visited the Jefferson memorial where the security guard lectured me for being two feet away from my stroller. My favorite bit of that memorial is the quote etched at the top about taking an oath on the altar of God. We then walked around the Tidal Basin, stopping every few inches so I could take another picture and make the kids pose under, next to, or behind some tree. We then came upon the FDR memorial which I had never seen before. I liked the waterfalls and the kids liked the bronze statues of his dog and the men in the soup line. It was unique and well done and I liked it. We then continued on toward Lincoln and passed a photo shoot where the mothers had brought a white table and chairs set up as a tea party under the cherry trees and dressed their toddlers in coordinating pastels. I commented to the kids that I wasn’t that bad. To which Abby pointed out that I had made them all dress alike in white shirts and jeans and, “At least those kids got cupcakes.” She had a point. I was only able to get away with it because Dale wasn’t there to defy me. I appear to be on a “all pictures in DC must be color coordinated” kick. The 4th of July photo is evidence. We arrived at Lincoln and as I walked up those marble steps to see him, I was reminded once again why he is my favorite monument in DC. When my 2 year old nephew Jadon went to see Lincoln, he told his Dad that he was bringing him a present. Howie asked him what kind of present and he replied, “a blue one.” When he arrived at Lincoln, he held out his hand and gave Lincoln his imaginary blue present. Jadon and I are both very fond of Lincoln. After Lincoln, we looked out over the reflecting pool, the mall, the Washington monument and I declared, “Look! There’s the Capitol!” After that, we did the most difficult walk in DC. The kids and I walked along the Vietnam Veterans memorial. That black wall of names never fails to fill me with overwhelming grief at the loss of life brought about by war. We then had lunch and started the walk back. During the ride home, Josiah read us the entire Declaration of Independence from the copy scroll he had bought in DC. It was a lovely day, but I must admit that the cherry blossoms I am most fond of are blooming in my front yard.

We attended the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt today. Spring is taking off with the forsythia, quince, pear trees, and magnolias in bloom. It felt like Easter should be arriving soon. In Australia, I had to constantly tell myself that the holidays were still in the same month. Because the seasons are opposite, the holidays never felt like they were at the correct time. When you live 39 years in the Northern hemisphere having Easter in Autumn, the 4th of July in winter, and Christmas in summer is difficult to get used to. Easter Egg hunts were a major part of Dale’s childhood memories. His Mama was a children’s pastor for years and they would hard boil and dye countless eggs for the church’s Easter Egg hunt. Dale will have to comment with the number of eggs they dyed each year. He told me the number once, but all I can remember thinking is…”how can you possibly boil that many eggs?” I love hard boiled eggs, but am hopeless at cooking them. I know it is supposed to be a simple cooking task, but for some reason I only occasionally do it correctly. The Manrys would have a massive egg hunt at the church and eat hard boiled eggs for a week. I, however, grew up with the tradition of hunting for my Easter Basket. My Mom would hide our baskets throughout the house and we would wake up Easter morning and search for them. We would attend sunrise service and then the church would host a pancake breakfast that the men would cook. When we returned home, we would continue searching for our baskets. One year, my Mom hid mine in an old cigar box that was piled up with a bunch of junk stacked next to the steps. That one took a long time to find. I know I am getting old because instead of always wanting to celebrate holidays differently, I am now quite nostalgic for traditions of my past. I want to wave palm branches on Palm Sunday, I want to attend Good Friday Service and contemplate Christ’s death on the cross, I want to wake up for Easter Sunrise Service and stand outside singing the praises of the resurrection. I want to hear the same passages read on those days year after year because they are the most significant reminders of why we follow Christ. I admit that Easter Egg and basket hunts are not as important as the other celebrations of Easter, but I find them fun none the less. In a combination of traditions, our kids usually attend both an Egg hunt and an Easter morning basket hunt. The egg hunt for years was provided courtesy of Army mandatory fun. Some units still hold Egg hunts and Christmas parties. In Australia, we attended the egg hunt on the grounds of the American Embassy. The challenge during that hunt was avoiding the magpies that would swoop down, crack the plastic egg, steal the lolly and fly away. Being Australian magpies, they thought of it as a lolly not a candy. Todays Easter Egg Hunt had separate areas for different age children, a large decorated white chair with an Easter Bunny sitting in it for pictures, and a table of cupcakes that someone cleverly made look like baskets using a piece of red licorice. I considered it fairly self explanatory, but it did not stop a kindly woman from attempting to inform the crowd about what to do. She of course could not be heard over the wind and the children, but she was not deterred. Zeke ran about jumping over various eggs and picking up others at random. Josiah was trying to determine why Zeke was jumping over the eggs. I told him that it was impossible to figure out the thought process of a 3 year old in the midst of an egg hunt.

On my three trips outside the wire this week, I visited six different project sites. Before I deployed, I was advised by Woody, a friend from church, to watch out for the construction contractors. Each day brings a new twist. For one road project, the contractor submitted pictures of him beginning construction. The pictures didn’t look quite right. We eventually determined that they were of a different road in an entirely different province of Iraq. We’ve been keeping a close eye on that project since then!

One of the sites I visited this week was the Qayyara drinking water treatment plant. Qayyara is a town south of Mosul on the Tigris River. This project is another one of my problem children. As one of my Iraqi Engineers reported one time, this contractor is only good at “devising the excusing”. I think the contractor on this project is making it up as he goes along. Tiffany, the project engineer, has her work cut out for her. During our visit, some kids came out on the roof of the house next door to watch us.

I headed out about 0700 this morning with Mike and Glenn to visit one of our projects in the Aski Mosul region. This area is northwest of the city of Mosul, south of the reservoir formed by the Mosul Dam. The drive was uneventful, just like I prefer. After about 1.5 hours on the road (and off the road at times), our 4-vehicle convoy arrived at the Aski Mosul Drinking Water Treatment Plant (DWTP). The contractor had been awaiting the delivery of some new pumps so that he can complete this project over the next few weeks. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 4 new pumps on site with 1 of the 4 already installed. Here’s a view from the project site looking north.

There’s not much scenery in this area. Gee, from the office in Dahuk, sent me a few pictures from a recent site visit he conducted. The project site is only about 30 miles north of the Aski Mosul project, in the mountains north of Dahuk.

As a classic Far Side cartoon once said, “Same planet, different worlds”. Oh well, I don’t really like the snow anyway!

You may have noticed Mosul in the news more frequently lately. Most recent news stories I’ve seen describe the streets littered with burned out cars and debris from bombed out buildings as if these are signs of Mosul descending into chaos. The interesting thing is that as the initial reports of increasing terrorist activity in Mosul were being aired, most of the pictures accompanying the stories were from other locations. As the media has begun to focus on Mosul, everyone is shocked at the images. I was just as shocked by what I saw when I first arrived almost six months ago.

Chris’ unit, 1-8 Infantry, came to Mosul as an attachment to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment as part of the US move to assist the Iraqi forces in fighting al-Qaida in Mosul. As reported in most major news sources, the strategy is the same as was used successfully in Baghdad last year. This success comes at no small price. On Monday, 28 Jan 08, an armored vehicle from 1-8 Infantry was hit by an IED while on patrol in Mosul. Immediately after the explosion, the convoy started receiving small arms fire from insurgents in a nearby mosque. Five US soldiers in the vehicle hit by the IED were killed in this attack.

On Wednesday, 30 Jan 08, the US Department of Defense released the names of the 5 soldiers. They are:

Sgt. James E. Craig, 26, of Hollywood, California
Staff Sgt. Gary W. Jeffries, 37, of Roscoe, Texas
Spc. Evan A. Marshall, 21, of Athens, Georgia
Pfc. Brandon A. Meyer, 20, of Orange, California
Pvt. Joshua A. R. Young, 21, of Riddle, Oregon

Please pray for the families, friends, loved ones, and mates of these soldiers. Remember to pray for Chris as he continues to lead his unit.

Rest in Peace.