LOVE

The in-laws have been in town visiting since Friday and it's been great having them visit. I'll try to re-cap their visit sometime in the next day or so but it's been action-packed and very "seasonal" (the weather has been very Fall-ish this weekend!).

Fall always makes me reflective and introspective so this is what's on my mind today:

1 year ago, on a bright, beautiful, cloudless Fall day at the Outdoor Chapel on Fort Riley, I was the recipient of a heartfelt question and became engaged to the most wonderful man.

Pretty happy kids that day!

6 months ago, I had just moved from Memphis, Tenn and was just getting settled in my new home and new life here in Kansas.

When I think about these events, I'm reminded of the saying, "I had cast my lot with a Soldier and where he was was home to me" ~ Martha Summerhayes

And what a wild, unexpected and fulfilling journey it's been since!

Oh yawn!

Morning, hi, hey:)

It's 2:30am on Saturday morning and we're back at the Barracks on Post. Barracks are like college dormitories for the single (non-married) Soldiers. They can be loud and rowdy sometimes which is really awful for the "good Soldiers" - can you imagine what it would be like if you were a serious professional-minded Soldier & you had to contend with all manner of juvenile ridiculousness on the weekends? Would you think twice about your chosen profession? Would you question why you were in the Army to begin with? Would you consider getting out?

That's why we're here.

There's always a Soldier "on duty" (like a dorm monitor) at a desk on the first floor but, let's be honest: s/he can't be everywhere at once. Sometimes it really takes someone else roaming the hallways (in uniform) to remind the residents that they're being watched. This is not a full on raid of the Barracks (that's an entirely different experience), but just a walk-through to show that someone cares and is watching.

It's a 4-day weekend, so it seems pretty quiet (I'd assume most folks are traveling or out of town). We went to bed around 9:45pm and got up around 1am so we could be here by 2am. I'm already looking forward to burrowing back underneath the covers when we get back home (it's chilly in the upper 30s here....brrrrrr!). We'll get to sleep in a bit in the morning, so that's nice.

G'nite!!!!:)

Visit from our Group Commander

Tuesday was an amazing day. We learned last week that our new-ish Group Commander would be visiting us....exciting!

If you'll recall, we attended the Change of Command Ceremony at Fort Carson in July when he took command....and we also attended the formal Dining Out/Formal Ball where he and his family were the guests of honor.

You can imagine the excitement level as both the Soldiers and the Family members busily prepared for his very first visit to the 84th EOD Battalion.

We had a special time set aside and our Battalion FRSA ("FRSA" is best explained here) and I conducted a briefing on the state, strengths and challenges of each of our Family Readiness Groups ("FRG" best described here). Since we have 7 FRGs across 3 different states, (4 at Fort Riley, 2 at Bliss, and 1 at Fort Leonard Wood) we have some very unique/special challenges. Our presentation was scheduled to last 30 minutes....nearly one hour later we were ready for lunch! Our Commander was very interested in the work we're doing...and he took lots of notes. We were pleased as punch when he confessed that he could offer no suggestions on improvement but asked if he could take some of our ideas back to the Group for implementation!! Wow! (If anyone is interested in seeing our presentation, it can be found online here - after clicking the link, you'll use the navigation buttons in the bottom right hand corner of the presentation screen!)

We then had a "working lunch" and each of the on-site FRG Leaders were invited - we filled the conference room with vivacious chatter and laughter. What a great time.

Our amazing group

He took the time to honor one of our most outstanding volunteers - he presented her with a special award in recognition of her outstanding efforts for the most recent quarter. She's pretty much amazing and we were all proud for her!

Congrats Pam!!

Debbie receives special recognition from our Group Commander!!

Later that night we hosted him for a cozy dinner. After dinner, all the FRG Leaders and their spouses came over to enjoy some dessert and coffee and social time. WHAT AN AMAZING NIGHT. We stayed up late (on a school night, oh my!) telling stories and laughing like old friends. The atmosphere and ambiance was simply the best. We even managed to snap a group photo with the FRG Leaders & our Commander (we're all laughing b/c our spouses were snapping photos with a million camera phones!). Life does not get any better than Tuesday night. We rolled into bed, very late, very satisfied and still giggling about certain parts of the night's conversation. So wonderful. Sigh. :)   

Love the faces in this photo! We've worked so hard side-by-side over the past months!

Gen. Dempsey visits Fort Riley

Monday was a pretty exciting day here on Fort Riley; we received a very special visit from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff! Five days ago, I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't even know who this man was!

Do you know who he is? According to Wikipedia, "As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dempsey is currently the highest-ranking military officer in all of the United States Armed Forces." Wowzers, right?!

Let me pause for a moment to think about how a girl growing up in a small-ish town in Arkansas would ever get a chance to someday meet the "highest ranking military man in all the land." Commence to freak out.

On Monday, there was a private forum held - by invitation only - to spend an hour with General Dempsey. The attendance was about 90% Soldier and about 10% civilian (mostly DOD employees who work on Post) - I saw only a small handful of other civilian spouses. It was amazing to actually SEE him and, yes, I confess to being very starstruck. When it came time for Q&A (it was a Town Hall style forum) I quickly raised my hand. :) Many folks in the room asked some good, touch questions (since the "buck" stops with him, in every way, operationally). Questions about the future of family programs, questions about our own "red line" with a nuclear Iran, questions about "Green on Blue" also known as "Insider Attacks," questions about the massive looming military budget cuts...all great questions. I'm still processing my own thoughts about his talk, remarks and answers to the tough questions, but I'm just so proud to have had a front-row-seat to "history in the making." The military lifestyle isn't for everyone...but I am so grateful for some of the wonderful opportunities to see and participate and interact with our culture (past, present and future) some of our finest national heroes, and things/people who are shaping our world today. Completely overwhelming for me to think about right now.

If you look very closely, you can see me in the photo below. ;)

OCSC Luncheon

Have I mentioned my involvement in OCSC (Our Community Spouse Club) lately?

I know I've mentioned OCSC but briefly, in passing, both HERE and HERE.

Fort Riley OCSC recently completed a pretty substantial change/shift in it's focus: "OCSC" previously stood for "Officers' & Civilian Spouses Club" and, as such, was exclusive in its membership requirements. If you were the spouse of a military Officer or a DOD Civilian employee, you could join. If your were the spouse of an enlisted servicemen, you would be allowed to join only the Enlisted Spouses Club (ESC). Around the first of the year, last year, the decision was made to try to merge the two Clubs.

I joined the Club (OCSC) in May shortly after I moved to Fort Riley...and became appointed to the Board as Publicity Chairperson (Woot!) and I became very aware of the challenges and advantages of combining the two Clubs. Nationally, the trend seems to be towards "combine" although the pendulum could swing several times before finally resting on the best solution that meets the needs of each Installation's unique community. Bottom line: time will tell.

In the meantime, we have a new charter, a new membership, a new name (OCSC now stands for "Our Community Spouse Club") and a new set of socials and activities planned.

Still...it's good to see some of the "familiar"...our monthly Luncheons...they are the source of a lot of fun for me. It was a completely crazy day last Thursday and THIS luncheon was the one place I felt I could really let my hair down. :) The theme of last week's Luncheon was "Fort Riley Trivia" our director of Museums, Dr. Smith, was our special guest speaker. He did a wonderful job bringing history to life and making it fun and interactive.

Here are some photos that I'm sure several of you have seen already on Facebook (and were probably wondering about CONTEXT) but my folks have not yet had a chance to see....

Guess what? Dress up time!

Yes, that is yours truly sporting my Army Soldier attire from days gone by!

The jacket fit me well (which means the menfolk must've been very petite!)

I'll be honest: this photo will probably end up in our Post Newspaper!

Thank you, Dr. Smith, for being our special guest today!

 Hope you enjoyed this visual "show-and-tell" from last week! :)

Fitness update

You may remember from the POST FROM LAST MONTH that I'm resolved to aggressively attack my "newlywed 9" (Note: it's not about the weight/numbers but the point was that I was happy about neither the way I looked nor the way I felt). Thus began the battle to regain my waistline!

I have some new progress to report.

On Friday, I received this email in my inbox:

April,

Congratulations on finishing the eight week challenge! Everyone who did the final measurement made an improvement. The winner will be announced on Monday. Your percentage of change was 12.38%. You went from 36.35 to 31.85. If you would like your beginning and ending sheets please come pick them up.

Great job! Keep it up!

That's right, my first 8-week challenged closed out on Friday. And, overall, I'm pretty pleased! I feel like I have more energy and I like the way I look in some of my recent photos. More importantly, when I grocery shop, I now find myself craving crisp veggies (instead of the heavier, less healthy meal options). That's how I know that a lifestyle change has occurred...and that's encouraging b/c that tells me the chance of falling back "off the wagon" is greatly reduced!

So here's what I credit for the successes:
Exercise - Spin, Zumba & walking
Diet - more fresh veggies, more frequent - but smaller - portions
Discipline - my fitness app (where I can log calories and physical exercise) holds me accountable!

What could I do better:
Make exercise regular and consistent
Research & plan healthy menus before going grocery shopping

Ooooo Spooky!!

How about a seasonally appropriate posting??!

About a month ago, while watching a movie on a late Saturday night, the husband & I heard some serious rustling in the space between the ceiling of our bottom story and the floor of our 2nd story. It.was.spooky. And so distracting that we just had to know what was causing all the commotion so we stopped our movie and went to investigate. In the area that ran from our dining room to our kitchen there was some kind of critter making the rounds...no, wait, make that TWO critters. Holy moly it was spooky. And I guessed it was a mouse...and promptly imagined all kinds of terrible scenarios (99% of them involved the critters somehow finding a way into our living space - eeek!).

A call the next day to our leasing office meant that reinforcements (of the human persuasion) would soon be on the way. Hooray!! I was home when they got there and I explained the problem. I did an outdoor "walk about" with them to try to determine the point-of-entry the creepy critters were using. It didn't take long to see the gaping hole - our dryer vent...about 10 feet off the ground. Were we sure this was the point of entry? Absolutely. The excessive amount of dryer lint scattered directly below the vent was enough to convince me that something had been moving in/out of the dryer tube. The maintenance men installed a basket-like cover over the hole (wide enough to let discarded lint freely pass through, but narrow enough to prevent animals from gaining access) and I secretly wondered, "How in the world....did mice manage to get in through a hole that was at least 10 feet above the ground?"

About 5 days later, I was up late watching a the end of a show (the husband had already gone upstairs for bed)...when I heard something slide down the metal tube attached to our dryer. Then the scratch, scratch, scratch of tiny little claws as it/they tried to climb back up the tube.

Commence the wailing and screeching.

The husband came down to investigate and then persuaded me to turn on the dryer. So that dryer ran for about an hour.

Next day - quiet.
Next day - quiet

Next week - a slightly stinky odor in our laundry room.

Since the laundry also happens to be the room where we have our big kitchen trash can, we convinced ourselves that it was the trash and not something dead. But, secretly, in my heart, I knew better....

Finally, yesterday, I begged the husband to disconnect the dryer tube.

And then we discovered we were BOTH wrong. There really was something dead, but it wasn't a mouse!!
  

Two BATS - fused together from the dryer heat - intricately extracted! Ewww!