A woman's hair

So, I am terrible about keeping up with my hair. Don't get me wrong I love the feeling of walking out of a beauty salon with a new cut, you feel brand new and invincible! But there is always the flip side, when you walk out with a sense of dread because you realize that someone has just cut your hair with a blind fold on while using a weedwhacker. I can't always blame the stylist for my disasters, I have been willing to try new things because my hair grows so stinking fast( although at times it has not been fast enough!)
So anyway, I finally got around to getting my hair done tonight and what a great experience. I will admit that I was a little nervous because I was scheduled with a male stylist and I have never gone to a man for this before but I can't wait to go back!! He was hilarious! He kept gushing about how much hair I had and at one point told me that I have the type of hair that should be done professionally every morning( I agreed to that but I don't see the manchild liking that bill). He did a great job and actually made me look forward to heading back one more time before we PCS. The first photo was the most recent I could find before the new do and then the after pics!

Dog bed

So, every time we PCS(permanent change of station or moving) we have made a habit out of throwing our old pillows out and buying new ones. Well as we are hearing up for our next move I was contemplating getting the dogs beds for their kennels and for their "spots" on the house and the thought occurred to me " why not use the old pillows and make my own bed rather than pay anywhere from 20-50 dollars for a store bought one. I vowed to make this as inexpensively as possible so I used fleece from old projects and a zipper I had in my craft supplies and bought absolutely nothing to do it. So I started by laying out the pillows side by side and measured them. I happened to have a piece of fleece that was wide enough and long enough that I could fold it in half and just see three sides. On one of the sides I put a zipper in so I could wash the cover without the pillows in it and viola! It came together in about 20 minutes and my older dog loves it!

Morning visitor

So after a very rough night, a whole nother blog about food poisoning and army family crisis, I ended up with a total of possibly 5 hours of sleep. Anyone who knows me well knows that sleep depravation is an ugly thing for me so my grumpiness this morning was a sure thing. So when my older dog started barking for no reason my ire was up and just to prove that he was just barking to make me mad I went stomping to the back door and pulled it open to show him there was nothing out there! That is when I just about had a heart attack as I almost walked right into the midsection of one our moose. She was standing on my back porch going after my old sunflower stalks. Neatless to say I let out a holler and some not nice words and slammed the door( she looked just as startled as I was). Of course this reaction indicated to my children that something cool was outside and they swamped the back windows. After a quick mental check of myself (to include if I needed to change my pants),  my immediate thought is "Where's the camera?" Of course this is followed by more cussing as I realize that it is in the jeep with the manchild at PT(NOOOOO!) So I did the best that I could with my phone, she was no more than 5 feet from me for most of the time and wasn't bothered by me in the least. This made my morning and will be one of the many things I miss about Alaska!!

I am sitting in my doorway, she is about 2 feet from me and was the coolest thing ever!!

Reenlistment

It's that time again. It was time for us to decide whether to stay a military family or move on to civilian pastures. To be honest, there wasn't much discussion. We love the military life and really don't see any greener pastures in the civilian fields. This reenlistment was a little different as for once the manchild was actually in Garrison(home) and the kids and I were able to get to go watch. The kids and I all dressed up in the same sweatshirts, Go CRTs! and I pulled them out of school to watch. When we got there the formation was already formed and the manchild had the kiddos head to the back to be out of the way but being good military children they formed right up at the back of the formation. Squad Cummins reporting for duty!

While the kiddos were forming up there was preparation being made as the manchild wasn't the only one reenlisting and contrary to what I believed it was decided that not only would we get to watch this reenlistment, we were going to participate as well. The manchild's choice of location was on top of a Stryker and can I just say that there are no elevators to the top of one of those, nor nice little steps. The manchild hoisted the younger children onto the vehicles and then turned to me. When I asked how the Soldiers got on top of the vehicles his reply was "We jump like this." and then preceeded to hop the distance to the top of the Stryker. AHAHAHAHAHAH, yea that ain't gonna happen, I am 5"3' on a good day(stop laughing manchild). So we went with Plan B and he and another Soldier gave me footholds to help elevate me. Once up there I about had a heart attack watching the Soldiers help my two oldest on top of the turret, I ended up not watching(the formation thought this was pretty funny :(  ) Then we were finally able to proceed with the ceremony. It was quite amazing to listen to the oath and what my husband was promising to do. In those few minutes he promised to defend the constitution from not only foreign enemies but from those that are within and to follow the orders from his superior officers and the President, and this oath is sealed  by a promise "So help me God" Don't get me wrong I know what my husband does for a living but listening to the oath helped reenforce why he does what he does!

Alright enough of the mush!

So after the Soldier's portion was done, the Chief asked me to come forward and gave me an certificate of appreciation for dealing with my manchild everyday! JK, it was a certificate but not for dealing with the manchild(although some days I deserve one), this certificate was actually for supporting the manchild in his military mission whether that included deployments, training exercises, schools, long hours, multiple PCS(moves) or just dealing with the craziness that happens while they are in Garrison. To me, it's my life so I don't need a certificate for it but it was nice to hear that what I do is appreciated.

And finally the manchild was able to give his speech.

I hope that by seeing this ceremony the children will have a little bit more understanding why Daddy is gone all the time and that they understand not only how important he is but how important they are to this family's future.

February snow fun

February finally brought us some relief to the extreme cold temps and with warmer temps we tend to get out and enjoy ourselves. We love to go up into the hills and play into the snow and one of my favorite subjects to photograph is our younger dog Alaska. She LOVES the snow, the moment she is out she rolls in it and eats it and just has one long crack moment.

When we head up the hill and start playing she runs from person to person trying to keep up with all of us. Sassy tries to keep up with her but that isn't always possible.

She just loves to run!

Poor thing was running and trying to follow Daddy and found out that she can in fact swim in snow. In the above pic she is trying to work her way out of the snow.

She learned her lesson the last time and decided following the kids wasn't her idea of fun.

She is also our attention hog, the moment you indicate that you will love on her she will stop and take it in.  She is such a good dog.

I just love Sassy's monster hat, we call her Sully all the time and that irks her something fierce(that's what makes it fun, shh don't tell her)

A couple more shots of my crackhead in motion. She would run up the hill to Daddy and then come barreling down the hill to me. She crashed when we got home.

It wasn't superbly cold but cold enough to form a few ice crystals on my hat. So the end of our adventure comes when the hubs decides that the Jeep is now capable of taking on a snowmobile trail. It's not and he knows that now. This was after we had dug and pulled our way out of the mess. I think he had fun getting to use some of his H8 training. Men!

Tdy

Well today I set out for another TDY trip. It's been awhile since I have headed off on my own and living in Alaska creates interesting circumstances. For one, if you are going any further than Seattle then there are two options for you.
1. You can leave at a decent hour and plan on traveling for close to 24 hours with layovers because it takes over3 hours just to get to the lower 48.
Or 2. You can catch the 0130 red eye so that you can catch a decent flight to your next destination. I would rather spend less time traveling so generally I take the red eye. Although you end up sleep deprived, unless you are capable of getting sleep on a plane, you will get to your destination quicker.
So off I went at 0130 in the morning to the balmy destination of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for a two week leadership course. My first stop allowed me the opportunity to visit with my parents, who graciously got up at the butt-crack of dawn. It was such a wonderful way to breakup the trip. I finally touched down in Missouri at 430 in the afternoon( 12 hours after leaving) and got settled in to a history buff's dream, Fort Leavenworth is teeming with history. From its buildings, which are being kept in historical status, to its ties to both the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. To my delight my classes were being held in the old jail and they have kept the area as it was. Getting to explore this area has been a definite added perk to coming to this class. I will post pictures from the area as soon as I can.
(This was actually written from my phone but I forgot to post it, told you I was exhausted from the trip, lol.)

January TDY

In January I headed to the lower 48 for some TDY(temporary duty) at the tropical destination of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Although it wasn't my first choice of locations, it turned out to be very cool.

My first stop was to explore the Buffalo Soldier Memorial which was smack dab in the middle of Leavenworth on this very pretty pond that was filled to brim with Canadian geese. It was a very cool memorial and I can imagine that it is even more beautiful in the summer when it is running.

I was lucky enough to be joined by my sister for a weekend while I was down there and we explored a little bit of Kansas City. Our favorite stop was the National World War 1 Memorial in downtown. What you can see below was part of the original museum, they have since added to it, and the kicker is it is all underneath the Liberty tower. So you have to head underground to see all of it.

When you first enter the museum you have to cross a glass bridge which is crossing a valley of Poppy flowers. I didn't realize this but the poppy flower was the symbol of hope for WWI. It was the only thing that could grow between the trenches and thus gave hope that something could grow from the destruction.

The tower itself was amazing. It had angels facing in each direction. Each angel represented something: sacrifice, patriotism, courage and honor. You can take an elevator to the top of the tower and see the view from the top. My sister wasn't a fan but it was truly amazing. The whole museum was very well done. I imagine you could go back time and time again and learn something new.