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First the good news, the shrouded-in-mystery Jabba the Hutt that is Big Sarge’s branch manager has decided not to send us to Alaska in October. We will still be going (hooray!), but not until the end of the year. This means that Izzy will get at least one semester of kindergarten under her belt before moving, and I can get in another semester of college.
This ALSO means that we were able to take a short family vacation to visit my folks out in Nebraska. We will never be stationed near my family, so I take advantage of any opportunity I have to visit. Despite Delta changing our flight time by 12 hours, we made it to my parents’ place at 0215. That’s right- 2:15 in the morning. They live over 3 hours away from the airport. This is why we don’t arrive in Omaha at night, DELTA. Don’t change my flight time again. Seriously.
We have only been here for 2 days and already the girls are over the moon with how much there is to do. We picked tomatoes and cucumbers from Grandma’s garden, then took a walk and picked wild plums along the way. They helped Pop-pop feed the goats and the cows. Bullet will moo back at the cows and proudly declare, “They think I’m a real cow!” Today we are going to look for some newborn barn cats and help Grandma can some beans and pickles. Even Big Sarge is having fun. Hopefully. He is getting in his PT by running around the section (4 miles) and has been tasked with keeping the rabbits out of the garden, thus improving his marksmanship skills. Sorry, all you vegetarians out there.
My mom and I were talking last night and she apologized for making me work so much on my vacation. What? This isn’t work, this is FUN. I’ll be honest with you, when I was younger, of course I thought it was work. But when I don’t have a chance to do things like this anymore, I can truly appreciate the work ethic that my parents instilled in me, and how they are demonstrating that to my kids. Seriously, who makes their own pickles anymore?
For so many of us Army spouses, we don’t have a chance to visit our family as much as we would like. Sure, we have our Army family at every post we go to, but there is something special about going back to your parents’ house and helping them do the same things that they have been doing for years. If you don’t have an opportunity to do that often, like us, sit down with your kids and tell them stories about how life was like when you were their ages. Show them pictures. Make some memories. And if you feel ambitious….I could be persuaded to share my mom’s recipe for pickles…
P.S. Speaking of pictures-the reason that I don’t have a picture with my post is that I cannot understand my Mom’s Mac.