Randall and Connie's Space: August 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Army Wives

One of the greatest things about Fort Hood so far is the group of amazing Army wives I met through Kate, my first Army wife friend. One of her college friends from A&M has been here about 6 months and me these ladies through other college connections and through her husband's unit. There are about a dozen girls who get together for Army Wives and girly time every Sunday night. It's always so much fun, and comforting to have such as great support system with deployment nearing.

One of the girls found this poem, and with Randy about to leave for yet another training exercise, I guess I'm feeling more patriotic than usual.

~Warrior~

I never wore the uniform,
no medals on my chest.
The band it doesn't play for me,
I am not among, "the best."
I do not march in cadence,
I do not rate salute,
I stand among the silent ranks,
Our devotion absolute.

If you've not worn my shoes,
You do not know my story.
I live a life of sacrifice,
My reward a private glory.
I've wept many silent nights away,
And I've kept the home fires burning.
I've worried and I've waited,
As world events were churning.

I've moved more times than you could fathom,
Left more people than you've known.
I've planted gardens 'round the world.
Very few that I've seen grown.
I've grieved with new-made widows,
And had my share of scares-
When a ship or a plane or man was down,
And all I had were prayers.

I'm not asking for your sympathy,
(although appreciation would be nice)
I did it quite on purpose though-
I chose to sacrifice.
I'll tell you a secret now,
One you'd never guess.
About the one glory that is mine,
It's just enough -no more, no less.

When you and I stand together
As our national anthem plays,
I'll fill with reminiscences of how I spent those days.
I'll know the pain and joys again,
I'll know that freedom isn't free,
I'll know I've helped to pay the price...

and know that anthem plays for me.

~Elizabet Soutter Schwarzer

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Our Townhouse

We're all settled in, and talking about moving again. But for now here is our little house. There is also a half bath downtairs which I forgot to take a picture of, but it's nothing special. It looks like a mini version of the big bathroom upstairs but it's just one room.

Pros of the townhouse: huge upstairs bathroom, close to Fort Hood, quick to clean because it is very tiny, our stuff fits just fine even if there isn't a lot of room left over, our tiny TV doesn't look so tiny in the small living room, there are 2 large windows at the perfect height for Penny to gaze outside for hours, we've made some friends who take their kids to the playground in the apartment courtyard, it is relatively inexpensive!

Cons of the townhouse: the stretch of highway between Copperas Cove (where we are) and post is very well traveled so there is a lot of traffic which makes for a long commute, the management company that owns this apartment complex is not very nice, we've aready had quite a very maintenance issues including a leaking air conditioner (I don't mean a little leak I mean like water all over the downstairs living room) and me getting locked out of the apartment while Penny is inside by the sliding glass door just staring at me, I don't feel super safe going out at night alone unless it's just to my car, we would like just a little more space, and Penny NEEDS A

BACKYARD!

Downstairs is all hard wood type flooring and the upstairs is carpeted except for the bathroom. We park just behind our "backyard" and enter our house through the kitchen. There is a huge grassy courtyard through the front door, which Penny is very happy about!