Saturday Stuff

Everyone loves a PARADE..and I especially do when one of my loved one's is in it. Saturday morning we spent the morning at "Frontier's Day" in Edgerton watching the parade that Rodney and Carley were participating in. Rodney had the honor of being one of the three Grand Marshall's. Their parade theme was "Unsung Hero's" which was very fitting I thought-He actually served with Lt. Barrett in the 714th. Pete was one of the amazing people that were there that horrible day of the mortar attack. He in fact according to Rodney keep the chaos at a minimum and made sure everything and everyone got taken care of-Thanks Pete! Pete has been fighting his own battle with cancer and is cancer free and looking so well. His wife Christy is another amazing person who made the deployment and the time after Rodney was wounded bearable. It was so good to see them-we need to get together more often! SSG Adair and Rodney are from the same home unit. He served in Iraq in an earlier deployment.
All the them were well deserving of the honor!

Carley was also in the parade with the band in her first appearance as part of the color guard-She looked so cute! I was a proud Mama. The color guard team worked really hard over the last week to prepare for the parade-with over half of the team being new members.

The rest of Saturday was busy with visiting with friends at Frontier's Day and attending Connor's first 3 on 3 Summer Soccer game. He was rocking the field-and made 4 of the 8 goals for his team! It was a fun game. He then went with his friend Dakota to watch him race-not sure what kind of car-He is 11 also! I do know Dakota did very well and won one of the races. Connor had a blast and got to work as part of the crew :)
I spent the evening at home with Beau and Blaze-finishing my third book for the week, watching "Army Wives" and staying cool in the AC. Rodney had to work 2nd shift last night, Taylor worked a pool party until 10pm and Carley was still at her Dad's.(she comes home tommorow after work) She had a great time in Philly on her mission trip-she is a BUSY gal-she leaves on the 30th for camp where she will be a staff member. Lots going on..
Keep Imagining!
Tracy
PS we are still waiting on Rodney's extensive medical records and the VA results from his 3 days of physicals and such, so we still don't know his VA rating or if he will be medically retired. Praying we will know something soon-he has been off medhold for almost 3 months. I know it is a government process-so I don't know why I would expect anything other.

Thank You To ALL the Veterans!

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all the Veteran's out there-for their service to our country at any and all points in the history of the United States.
The History Channel is running amazing stories today all day to commemorate Veteran's Day which is officially today (but being observed tomorrow the 12th).
Veteran's Day is officially to be celebrated November 11th (11 month, 11th day on the 11th hour).

Happy Veteran's Day!!!
To my husband-Operation Iraqi Freedom (Army and Army National Guard)
To all the Soldiers of the 714th SECFOR Kansas Army National Guard
To my Dad-Navy (peacetime)
To my Grandfather Curtis-WWII-Navy (south pacific)
To my Grandpa Rousselo-WWII-Air Force-statesideThank You for sacrificing and allowing us to live in the land of the FREE!

Please Fly your American flags today and tomorrow and if you are a veteran you and your family can got to a "Golden Corral" restaurant tomorrow (Nov. 12th) for a free meal-check it out on the web.

God Bless all the servicemembers and their families!
Tracy

Rodney and Army buddies from the 714th SECFOR

Looking back-Friday Oct. 13, 2006

Still more from my little purple journal of knowledge :)

I was called by a Sgt. Major Rubio from the Kansas National Guard. It is my understanding that he is the person that will be serving as my liason from the state, keeping me informed of any changes or developments. He gave me the name of the Chaplin for the KS National Guard to contact.

Friday was pretty much a blur-making phone call,recieving phone calls, informing others, PRAYING, friends and family coming in and out. My friend Tina (and Connor's schools PTO President) brought by an amazing gift from the PTO (gift cards from almost all the resteraunts and the grocery store in town) as well as sandwiches, chips, pop etc..) Our friends the moll's brought by dinner. It feels so good and comforting to know so many care about our family.

I held together fairly well-a few crying spells. My mom was at the house contantly so I was able to take a nap in the afternoon-but I got up in a panic thinking about Rodney and wondering if he is in pain and scared. I know so little about his care and want to be with him so badly. My mom stayed the night-which was so great. No matter how old we get in times like these we need our mama's.:) We watched tv and talked-Connor spent the night with Rodney's parents and Carley went to a planned youth group weekend activity. Taylor was out with friends. Good for all of them to stay busy.

I still don't know anythiong about the incident. I do know that Rodney will most likely be in Germany for up to 3 days and it is about a 6 hour trip from Iraq by transport plane. Everything about this is so surreal-

10/15/2006-so as I look back I can remember still feeling confident that things would be handled smoothly, and I would know soon about the timetable for traveling to be with Rodney as well as what happened to him in Iraq. I am starting to get more agitated and confused as to why his commander went against protocol and did not contact me directly (his wife instead of his parents and sibling). More later...
T-

news article and video

Hi all-
I know it is late and what am I doing up-being the person who works until the job is done...here I am but I promise I am going to bed after this...really

I wanted to add this link-hopefully it works-it is of my husbands units homecoming in August and he was interviewed-pretty cool!

If the link doesn't work-go to Topeka kansas news stations channel 49 and search for national guard homecoming-the unit is the 714th and it was on Aug. 26, 2007.

give it a try...www.49abcnews.com/news/2007/aug/26/national_guardsmen_return_topeka_family

Ok off to bed-glad the kids don't have school tommorow---ZZZZZZ
T-