Memorial Day

I never really understood the importance of Memorial Day until my husband joined the Army. Now I see the implications of what it means to "fight for our freedom" all around me. We tried to teach this to our kids this year by discussing why we have Memorial Day and then by taking them to a memorial here on post. Sadly, they thought it was boring. We tried to explain to them that they would feel differently about it if we were visiting a brother or uncle or son or father's grave. We see and hear all the time about soldiers coming and going and sometimes never coming back all and too us it is even more real. We are very grateful for all those who have served and who are currently serving our country. We have MANY friends out there right now, putting their lives on the line for us. So Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Here are a few pictures from our day.

There was a couple waiting to visit the memorial after we were done and there was something about them that was really touching. I watched them a little as she lovingly placed and arranged the flowers at the base of the monument and then they both sat down very quietly staring at one particular name, it just brought tears to my eyes. I took this picture as a reminder of what memorial day is really about.

Next to the memorial is a part of the museum where they have airplanes and helicopters on display. The kids thought those were pretty cool.

Last Day of School Surprise

Today was the last day of school. I think the kids were more excited than the parents! This is the first place that I have lived where they didn't have any end of the year programs. No kindergarten graduations, no song programs, no goodbye videos, and no early release. It was kind of nice. It gave me some time to get their last day of school surprises together.

I have been wanting to get bikes for them for a long time, but there was always an excuse why we couldn't. In Texas they were all really young AND we got rid of almost everything to put our stuff in storage, then in Utah we were only there temporarily and everything we were taking with us had to fit in our minivan. Then in Georgia there were no sidewalks and an incredibly busy street behind our house, not to mention the fact that they didn't have any friends in the neighborhood with a bike, or any that I would allow them to go bike riding with anyway. Finally the excuse here was, "we won't be here very long", then it turns out that we will be here longer than we thought so it changed to, "we can't really afford it right now."

Now any of you that know me, know that I am pretty good at finding deals, so that excuse didn't last long. I was looking over my favorite website here (Fort Campbell Yard Sales) and I happen to see some bikes for sale. I see them from time to time, but my problem is I needed 3 bikes not one, and they had to be bigger not the little 12inch ones that come with training wheels. Luckily there was one post that got my hopes up, so I started looking and I was able to find 3 bikes the right size AND the right price. So to make a long story short, my kids are gonna have lots of fun this summer on their "new" bikes!
Now we just need to teach Karlee and Jordan how to ride a bike and they are set!
Lizzy, as you can see, had no problem at all!

For those of you wondering...

We are high and dry here in KY. Luckily we have escaped the flooding here. Unfortunately, a lot of people here have lost a lot if not everything when the Cumberland River just couldn't hold any more water and over flowed into downtown Clarksville. Ironically this happened about 24 hours after all the rain stopped, and even though we knew about the flooding in Nashville they weren't really expecting this to happen here.
Here is a look at downtown. There is a street underneath that river of water.

I've walked along this walkway at the River Walk. There is a really nice park somewhere under all that water.


This is the intersection that I pass through a couple times a week as I go to the library and other things in Clarksville. Crazy huh! This picture is taken pointing towards home...UPHILL!!!
For more pictures of the flood go here.

We did get a few puddles of water compared to this. I took these pictures from our upstairs window. None of the water you see is supposed to be there.The water in these two picture is one big lake that has formed in the backyard and in the farmers field just behind our neighborhood. If I get a chance to take a picture of our park where the water was up to the seats of the picnic tables I will, but the water has gone down a lot since Sunday, so it won't be nearly as cool.

Wow, I probably should have started with these pictures, because compared to downtown Clarksville this is nothing.