Fallen soldiers

Since our airport is so close to the Army Post here I see lots of "moments" in the lives of soldier and their families.  I am always so sad when the families come in and you know their soldier is going back from R&R, you can tell how hard it is for them to say goodbye and it always tugs at my heart strings to watch them in their final moments before they leave.  I try to let the soldiers go through security very last so they can have as long as possible with their loved ones and then per our company policy they are always invited to board the plane with our Premium passengers.  I love the days when soldiers come home for R&R and the waiting room is full of families with flowers, ballons, signs, and anxious wives, I cannot tell you how many times I have reassured a wife that she looks perfect and showed her where to stand so she will see her husband as soon as he gets off the plane, it is really such a heart warming experience to see them reunited and happy.

But then there have been two times in the last month that were so hard.  the first was when a soldier escourted in a very distraught women and told me that she was the wife of a fallen soldier, she was on her way to escort her husbands body home, I did not know this women, I did not know her husband but my heart just broke to see her.  Today another set of officers walked up to my counter to tell me our plane had the sister of a fallen soldier on it, they had the parents there with them and were waiting to meet her, they asked if we could get her off the plane first so she could get to her family without having to wait in the crowd, so of course I notified the captain of the plane who then notified the flight attendant and I was able to meet her at the plane and escourt her to her family, I cannot tell you how hard it was to see her hug her Mom and just break down.  I do not know this soldier, I am not even sure of his name, but all the same I feel for his family, it brought tears to my eyes to see them, I had to take a minute prior to finishing the flight.

With deployment looming over us, having a husband and a brother and now numerous friends in the military seeing first hand the families of fallen soldiers makes you realize how easily it could be me, and makes you appriciate all the more the sacrifices our military and their families makes everyday.

I know I will say and extra prayer tonight for these families and I know they will be in my thoughts for a very long time.

Ireland

We went to Ireland to visit my brother and his wife a couple weeks ago, we had a wonderful time seeing everything, our first day there we wandered downtown and saw Saint Patricks Cathedrial, it was gorgeous and the grounds and flower gardens were so wonderful, I wish my yard looked like they do.

Later that night we went to the Ocean wandered out to the lighthouse and then had dinner at the cutest little place. On our second day we went to the "casino" it is really a house that was built on an estate to entertain guests, we learned about the history of the house and the owner as well as the man who designed and built it, it was pretty interesting.

 
 

 

From there we headed out the malachi castle, both Ty and I agreed the inside of this castle reminded us a lot of the Valley House (our Great Grandparents house), we were able to go inside as well as wander around the grounds.Later we had lunch at a cute authentic Irish Pub.On our way back to Dublin we stopped and spent a couple hours wandering through an old cemetary, I love to do that, I think old cemetaries are so peaceful and interesting.

we spent a lot of time in downtown Dublin, this street had all the great shops and street preformers, they were fun to stop and watch.

We took a day and went to see the Guiness factory, of course Dublin is famous for Guiness beer, the factory actually takes up a whole block with several buildings including it's own church on the grounds.After that is was off to see the old jail, that was pretty interesting, this is the new part, and considering it was a prison it was really very nice compaired to the old part.This is one of the cells, in this part of the prison they tried to only have one person to a cell, but there were times when that did not work, I cannot imagine living in this small space by myself and to share it with someone would have been horrible.

This same day we went to the museum and saw a lot of interesting things, among them the bog men, they were really neat, I had heard of them but had never seen one, it is amazing that they could stay so well preserved for 100's of years in those bogs.We bought lunch at a little fish and chips vendor one afternoon and then ate it on the grass at Christs church, this is the other big cathedral in Dublin, Saint Patricks is cathlic and Christ Church is Prodestant, Ty told me the way to tell the differenece is the Catholic churchs have crosses on top and the Prodestant have roosters, still not sure why roosters but it was interesting.

We went to Dublin Castle, Beth had been here numerous times and since each tour guide tells you different things, she was able to fill in with extra facts she had learned, that made it really interesting and many of the people on the tour ended up staying with us so they could also hear her tell us extra things.The castle is built over actual Vicking ruins and we were able to go down and see some of them as well as some of the original parts of the castle from medevil times.This is an original stairwell that deliveries would have been made at.

This is on the grounds of the castle, overlooking the Queens gardens and the stables.This shows the only remaining origianl tower of the castle (the castle burned down and was rebuilt many years ago) also this is the church on the castle grounds, this is also the church they use to film scenes in the series the Tudors.

We went out to Bray to the ocean and had wanted to hike to the top of this hill that looks over the whole town and ocean, but it was so cold and windy we only made it half way, it was still a very pretty view.

Richard and I wandered back down town our last day there and found Temple bar, several of his soldiers had told him about it, it is a pretty cool place, very old built sometime in the 1800, they had live music, great irish coffees and were just very nice, they let us behind the bar to have a picture taken, it was a really fun.

I should have all the rest of the pictures on our piccassa album by the end of the day if anyone wants to see the rest you can access that from here.

Some Updates

I have not bloged for such a long time, to much going on I guess, but had a few spare minutes today and thought I would do some updates.  Staci graduated 5th grade and will start middle school next year, we went to her awards ceremony, she made the honor roll again with all A's and she also recieved the Presidents Gold Award for citizenship and grades, we were pretty proud of her, not very many kids recieved this so it was pretty special.

Right before Richard and I went to Ireland, (those pictures will be in a later post) we flew to Dallas to get our passports renewed/name changed, while we were waiting we walked over to see all the JFK stuff, neither of us had seen it before so was pretty interesting. 

This is the book depository, it is a museum now.Richard stood on the grassy knoll, there are two x's in the road to show where both shots were, the whole area is much smaller than I expected, but very interesting to see, there are several memorial gardens in this area as well, we wandered through, they have gorgeous fountains and flowers, it was a pretty peacful place considering it is right off the freeway and in the middle of town.

Off to Dallas AGAIN

Richard and I are headed to Dallas this afternoon, we will spend the night and go in to see about our passports tomorrow.
A couple weeks ago just for fun I was looking at flights to Ireland (since my brother is living there until August) and realized with my new flight benefits we could fly there for almost nothing (less than 200 a piece first class less than that if we end up in coach) so we decided we would take a few days and go.
In the midst of making our plans we remembered that Richard's passport had just expired and since we had no immediate plans to leave the country we had not renewed it, so we found out you can go right into the office in Dallas and do it, he needs a new one and I need my married name put on mine.
We are hoping to see some sights while we are in Dallas as well, then I can at least say with all my trips there I have seen more than the airport and the hotel!
It has been quite the expereince getting him approved to leave the country, for me it was easy I just had to get my shifts covered, for him...he had to get approval not only on a company level but also battalion level, he had to take some classes on terrorists (as my sister says that is funny since they are sending him to Iraq soon, if he doesn't already know about terrorists he is in trouble!) and notify the state derpartment he will be there etc. it was a lot of paperwork, studying and signatures but he got it all done, we are very excited to go.
We are only staying 5 days it will be a quick trip but long enough to at least see Dublin.  Richard lived in Europe twice for several years so he has seen most of it, but never Ireland so it will be fun to go someplace he has never been (nor have I) and being able to stay with my brother makes it nice, since I have found the biggest expence when I have traveled overseas tends to be the hotel.
The kids were unhappy they can't go but I have not gotten their passports yet (except for Stevie) so I told them we would start getting them when I get home and maybe I can take them somewhere over there next year, with my job perks it makes travel affordable so they might as well get to enjoy it too.

Home again

I was just in Dallas again for three and a half days doing work training, I have to laugh because until last year when we went to visit Richard's brother and sister in San Antonio I had never stepped foot in Texas, now this month alone I have been to Dallas three times! the sad thing is I still have only seen the airport, the coorporate office and medical center and the training center and my hotel, no time to sight see, so I could not tell you much about the city other than I have become quite the expert on the airport (fairly easy to get around thank goodness, I know right where Starbucks the USO and the book stores are).  Richard and I will be heading back there for the day on Monday, we have an appointment with the passport place)long story I will save for a post tomorrow, so we hope to go see all the JFK stuff while we are there and maybe the Cowboys stadium if we have time since Richards Loves the Cowboys! 
I got back just in time to run off to the Company (Richard's) safety day at the park, that was nice, lunch some PT activities and just all the soldiers and their families spending some relazing time together.
Home now and of course have a million things to do, Levi had prom tomorrow, luckily "her" mom went shopping and found him an affordable suit so all I have to do is write the check, and take him to get her flowers tomorrow.

Garden

I sent a ton of time and money at the old house to put in flowers, then of course we moved on Post, so last year I did not do anything, this year I decided I need to get my little flower spot ready and plant something, so Richard tilled it all up for me yesterday and today we went to the garden center and got started, you can see our before and after pictures, to include Richard hanging my POW flag (since he took the Army one to his office).  It is not all the way planted there are a few more things I want to put in, but it is looking a lot more like Spring!

Are you kidding me!!!

For the most part the switch over to American at work is going great, I love my new schedule, the new people we hired are working out great and the ones who stayed and transfered over are as awsome as ever, so that being said I enjoy going to work again, but it still has it moments from time to time.
We have a policy (company wide) that states you must check in at least 30min before your flight, we close the tkt counter at 30min before not only that but our computers quit allowing you to check people in then so even if we wanted to stay open longer it won't let you. (I can override it in certain cases but try to stick with the 30min policy).
We have an average of three to four people a day we have to move to a later flt because they missed the cut off time, some are great about it some not so much!
A couple days ago I got one who was "not so much" he was very irrate when I walked out to help people as the flt was closing, since the plane was still on the ground he felt he should be able to get on I keep trying to explain to him that he had missed the cut off time, security was closed and I would have to move him to a later flt, he keep yelling and telling me he was there on time, (they all say that) I informed him I had left the counter open an extra 7min and he was not there so the best I could do was move him to a later flt (this costs people a 50.00 change fee) he keep yelling and got inches from my face and called me some really ugly names I will not repeat and said you are -----------who would not do anything to help the military (yes he was a soldier in civilian clothes) I have been yelled at a lot over the years, I have had dozens of classes on dealing with irrate people it usually is not a big deal to me but his comment left me speachless. all I could say was my husband is in the military and you have no idea what I do every day for the military and I turned and walked away, I went to find security with the intention of having him removed from the property, but they had already left so I went back and told my employess that he WOULD NOT fly, they were not to move him and I told him he could leave or I would have him removed.
I have spent years donating time and money to the military and veterans, even before I met or was married to Richard.  I orginized letters to soldiers, sent care packages, I am the co leader of the FRG, I spend a good portion of my spare time in meetings or doing some sort of project for the unit and their families here, I still have a few Vets who call me to get advise or help dealing with their VA claims (and I have not worked at the VA for 3years now) I have given countless new soliers a ride to in processing on Post from the airport when they have flown in and did not want to wait for the van, I have bought food out of my own pocket and brought it in to feed the ones who have been on delayed flights and are stuck at the airport, I have even brought soldiers home who have not had anywhere to stay because of delayed or canceled flts and let them spend the night at our house then driven them back in for their flts (I only do this when Richard is home of course just to be safe) I deliver their delayed bags on my own time and so on. I do not need or want any special attention for the things I do, I do them because I feel it is the least that I can do for those who give so much everday to ensure we have a safe and free place to live and raise our families.  I recieved an award from the LT Col of the Battalion here a few weeks ago and I just heard I am getting another one from later this week from the next higher up level for volunteering time to the company, I appriciate that and find it to be a great  honor to recieve, but I do not do any of the things I do to get an award.  I was very hurt by this soldiers comments and needless to say when I told Richard he was furious he wanted his name, I cannot give it to him even if I wanted to since all our passengers are covered by the privacy act.
Anyhow the story ended ok, he came back to the counter about 20min after I told him to leave, apologized to me for his behavior and asked if I could help him, I waved the 50.00 fee and had one of my employees put him on a flt for the next day, that was yesterday and then when I walked out after sending that flt there he was late again, looking very upset but this time at himself not at me, he showed me a speeding tkt he had got on the way in and asked me very nicely if I could help him, I moved him again to today and strongly encouraged him to arrive an hour prior to the flt, we had a nice talk about the things that have been going on in his life that had caused him to have the stress level that made him behave the way he had and I even offered to let him sleep on our couch for the night when he was worried about having a place to stay (he declined and I suppose that is for the best since Richard is still upset I won't tell him the name) I hope he gets there on time today and I do wish him the best.