The hard goodbyes and wonderful hellos of the military life...
A comment made by a friend on Facebook, a career Naval officer currently serving a (recently extended) remote duty tour on Diego Garcia. It just really struck me and resonated for me. So true. The goodbyes are so hard but the trade off is all the wonderful hellos that you never would've had otherwise. A hard life in many ways and yet a blessed way of life too. I am grateful to have had so many wonderful experiences and seen so many places thanks in part to the nomadic military life I have lived, first as a dependent, then as an active service member, and now as a dependent once again.
Showing posts with label Free Advice and Observations on Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Advice and Observations on Life. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Show Down at the Scout Corral
Ah, my poor neglected blog... nothing has been blog-worthy of late it seems.
This may not be either but my email connection is having issues at the moment and I haven't worked up the energy to hit the shower yet so I'll go ahead anyway.
Cub Scouts vs. Brownies
Ah the differences are many, as has been brought to my attention several times the last couple of weeks. Let's review...
*Cub Scouts- the program is spelled out with little variation. To earn X rank badge, you must earn X requirements. And make sure you are done by February or else.
*Brownies - a book with MANY pages. Within the many pages, many try-it badges covering a wide range of subjects. Choose whichever ones you want. Do as many or as few as you wish.
*Cub Scouts - one boy is set as the denner for a meeting and is in charge
*Brownies - have a kaper chart set up with each girl taking a turn completing each of the various jobs that need to be done in any given meeting - teamwork!
*Cub Scout camping - very loosey goosey affair. Cubs can't even go without their families. And the dens can't even go without the rest of the pack. So that means each camping event involves approximately 200 people and 50 tents and 50 cars. Oh and one port-a-potty. And yes, it ends up as gross as it sounds by the end of the weekend.
*Brownies - each troop may go camping whenever it wishes. And girls are not required to be accompanied by an adult. It is up to the leaders to decide what works best for the group. And they have things like safety circles around the fire and hand-washing stations. And the girls actually participate in the cooking as opposed to emerging from the woods in time to stuff their faces then run off again as soon as they are done.
************************
So we survived the Cub Scout Family Campout last night... were warm enough while we were sleeping but froze our tails off once we emerged this morning. We all got to go fishing yesterday afternoon. We didn't catch anything (not surprising!) but a great first time fishing for all of us (the kids and I). I even baited the hook with a worm! Did you know worms bleed when cut?! I didn't. Of course I never really thought about it before either. Ryan got to shoot at archery this morning and got one arrow into the yellow (near the center). He didn't get breakfast (was doing archery and then ran off into the woods with his friends and then it was too late) but we stopped at McD's on the way home.
And now the car is unloaded and we are all thawing out nicely. Next time we'll pack gloves and hats!
This may not be either but my email connection is having issues at the moment and I haven't worked up the energy to hit the shower yet so I'll go ahead anyway.
Cub Scouts vs. Brownies
Ah the differences are many, as has been brought to my attention several times the last couple of weeks. Let's review...
*Cub Scouts- the program is spelled out with little variation. To earn X rank badge, you must earn X requirements. And make sure you are done by February or else.
*Brownies - a book with MANY pages. Within the many pages, many try-it badges covering a wide range of subjects. Choose whichever ones you want. Do as many or as few as you wish.
*Cub Scouts - one boy is set as the denner for a meeting and is in charge
*Brownies - have a kaper chart set up with each girl taking a turn completing each of the various jobs that need to be done in any given meeting - teamwork!
*Cub Scout camping - very loosey goosey affair. Cubs can't even go without their families. And the dens can't even go without the rest of the pack. So that means each camping event involves approximately 200 people and 50 tents and 50 cars. Oh and one port-a-potty. And yes, it ends up as gross as it sounds by the end of the weekend.
*Brownies - each troop may go camping whenever it wishes. And girls are not required to be accompanied by an adult. It is up to the leaders to decide what works best for the group. And they have things like safety circles around the fire and hand-washing stations. And the girls actually participate in the cooking as opposed to emerging from the woods in time to stuff their faces then run off again as soon as they are done.
************************
So we survived the Cub Scout Family Campout last night... were warm enough while we were sleeping but froze our tails off once we emerged this morning. We all got to go fishing yesterday afternoon. We didn't catch anything (not surprising!) but a great first time fishing for all of us (the kids and I). I even baited the hook with a worm! Did you know worms bleed when cut?! I didn't. Of course I never really thought about it before either. Ryan got to shoot at archery this morning and got one arrow into the yellow (near the center). He didn't get breakfast (was doing archery and then ran off into the woods with his friends and then it was too late) but we stopped at McD's on the way home.
And now the car is unloaded and we are all thawing out nicely. Next time we'll pack gloves and hats!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Ryan Tidbits
A new diet plan... recommended for scaredy-cats... The Chicken Diet.
How it works? Imagine everyone is a monster, scream and run away, A LOT, which burns lots of calories. Apparently he got it from a Scooby book. Of course. Scooby, monsters, running away...
At first I thought he meant scaredy cats should eat a lot of chicken but then he explained it to me. Maybe I should try the chicken diet.
Darn... there was another really good one and now I can't remember what it was. Maybe it will come to me later.
Wait - I remember now!
Felisa is the #3 leader of the house. Don't mess with her. Seriously. Daddy is the #1 leader, Mommy is the #2 leader, and Felisa is the #3 leader.
Almost a direct quote. I don't even remember now what we were talking about at the time but I thought it was hilarious the way he said this.
How it works? Imagine everyone is a monster, scream and run away, A LOT, which burns lots of calories. Apparently he got it from a Scooby book. Of course. Scooby, monsters, running away...
At first I thought he meant scaredy cats should eat a lot of chicken but then he explained it to me. Maybe I should try the chicken diet.
**************
Darn... there was another really good one and now I can't remember what it was. Maybe it will come to me later.
Wait - I remember now!
Felisa is the #3 leader of the house. Don't mess with her. Seriously. Daddy is the #1 leader, Mommy is the #2 leader, and Felisa is the #3 leader.
Almost a direct quote. I don't even remember now what we were talking about at the time but I thought it was hilarious the way he said this.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Wisdom for Father's Day
Since Fathers are supposed to be wise I will go ahead and share a little of my own wisdom in honor of the occasion... (it's not as good as fatherly wisdom but oh well!)
Lessons I Have Learned Today:
1. You cannot make whipped cream out of half-n-half. No matter how long you stand with the mixer mixing. You can make very bubbly half-n-half though.
2. Butter cannot be unmade. Remember in science class when you learn about the 3 states of matter (liquid, gas, solid) and you turn water from ice to water to steam and back again? Well, that doesn't work with butter. Have you figured out the connection between the first and second lesson yet? Half-n-half doesn't have enough cream in it. So why not add butter - that's made out of cream right? We didn't try melted butter so maybe it would've worked that way but we do know that softened butter just turns into milk covered not-as-soft-as-it-started butter.
3. Crepes are a lot more work than pancakes (and make more dirty dishes - see #4 below) but they certainly are tasty!
4. You will never get caught up on your dishes if you cook a feast for EVERY meal. Especially if you start out a full dishwasher load behind.
5a. Father's Day and Mother's Day are not the same.
5b. Life is not fair.
5c. Once married, a husband will never send another card of any type, except a birthday card for his wife. So my apologies to all the fathers that didn't receive their cards on time... :)
6. First graders do not make Father's Day gifts or cards in school.
Lessons I Have Learned Today:
1. You cannot make whipped cream out of half-n-half. No matter how long you stand with the mixer mixing. You can make very bubbly half-n-half though.
2. Butter cannot be unmade. Remember in science class when you learn about the 3 states of matter (liquid, gas, solid) and you turn water from ice to water to steam and back again? Well, that doesn't work with butter. Have you figured out the connection between the first and second lesson yet? Half-n-half doesn't have enough cream in it. So why not add butter - that's made out of cream right? We didn't try melted butter so maybe it would've worked that way but we do know that softened butter just turns into milk covered not-as-soft-as-it-started butter.
3. Crepes are a lot more work than pancakes (and make more dirty dishes - see #4 below) but they certainly are tasty!
4. You will never get caught up on your dishes if you cook a feast for EVERY meal. Especially if you start out a full dishwasher load behind.
5a. Father's Day and Mother's Day are not the same.
5b. Life is not fair.
5c. Once married, a husband will never send another card of any type, except a birthday card for his wife. So my apologies to all the fathers that didn't receive their cards on time... :)
6. First graders do not make Father's Day gifts or cards in school.
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