Camping

Recently Case and I had the pleasure of camping at a large base campout. I was a little nervous going in, but was reassured knowing I can strike my tent in under 5 minutes. Worse case scenario I have to pack it up by headlamp and drive home 20 minutes in the middle of the night. But things could not have turned out better. There was a movie projected on a big inflatable screen that Case had not seen before but still tolerated with enough pizza. He like peek-a-booing me and my geographically single mom friends from the tent as we kicked around in camp chairs and talked very late into the night. And eventually he slept well, even though he took up more than his fare share of our little tent.

Breakfast included donuts-another score!

Our friends brought fishing gear, and the boys kindly shared with Case. He actually caught something! Helen was casting it out and letting him reel it in, and he pulled in the line with a tiny crappie hanging on to his hot dog bait (but not the hook) with his teeth. It let go, but not before Case got to see.

Since then we've been in the area of FamCamp and Case asked about the tent, so we'll start planning our next outdoor adventure soon.

Ball pit

There is a ball pit in Case's special needs class. It is a great place to help support some of the kids with very poor muscle tone, and the autism kids find it soothing.
When we leave his mainstream class in the morning Case frequently dives in to relax a bit and soothe before he starts speech. This makes me incredibly jealous. I could use a few minutes in the ball pit after I've spent the morning as Case's assistant/tutor. More than once I've come home from school debating ordering a couple thousand balls and a giant bin.

Mardi Gras

Case and I went to the Millbrook Mardi Gras parade just to see the firetrucks, and we were not disappointed.
I think all the local trucks were there to open the parade, sirens screaming. Case was delighted. They threw candy out the open back door of ambulances. Good thing nothing caught on fire Saturday.This was my favorite part of the whole parade.There were some surprise bonuses that Case loved too. We saw some horses, which seemed good natured considering the noise and crowds.

Tubas! (Really, Case was ecstatic to see the tubas.)

And of course no Mardi Gras parade is complete without big creepy paper mache heads. These small local celebrations seem to me 100 times more fun than a big crowded parade in a city (but that's me). I think we even had more fun at this one that we did with the Navarre Krewe. Let the good times roll!

Afghanistan Bananastan

With Marc being deployed I have received a lot of questions about what the heck a lawyer is doing in the rockpile. I will do my best to answer them, and as well as any others you can think of and ask in the comments section. I'll correct them too, if I get anything to egregiously incorrect.

Q: What is he doing in Afghanistan?
I wish I knew that too. Lots of what he does is classified so he can't talk about it. He says lots of it is boring, but to me that just says some of it is really kick ass.

His job as an officer is to support wartime efforts. JAGs help determine whether a target is lawful (a VERY important detail in combat zones.) They deal with the contracts for local providers of services. They advise commanders on the Law of Armed Conflict, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and interpret foreign policy and international law. They also offer basic legal services to deployed members.

So what do lawyers do in a war zone? Way more than you think.

Q: Where is he anyway? It's a big country.

Can't tell you (more than the country) on the internet! Operational Security means everyone. If you want to know more, give me a call and I can tell you. If you do happen to know please do not twitter about it on your facebook, or whatever it is you kids do these days.

Q: He's going to be gone how long? I thought Air Force only deployed for 4/6 months!
I guess some of us are just special. It does come with some perks.

Q: Why can't he just telecommute?
Communication with a country with very little infrastructure is not like calling your mom. The time difference also makes that very difficult: Afghanistan is 10 1/2 hours ahead of Central time so he would be working the graveyard shift. Also, he is in the office for 12+ hours a day every day (he does get two mornings a week off). In an emergency he can be called in at any time. You can not interview a witness over the telephone, or be involved in the investigation of a downed aircraft over skype.
In the end, there is just nothing like being there. So there he is.

Q: Do you get to call/Skype/use semaphore?
There is rarely enough bandwidth available to skype. We do get to email every day, which makes me feel very lucky--many troops don't have that ability.

Q: Can he come home for my birthday party?
Nope, sorry.

Q: But we're having ice cream cake and not one but two clowns!
Wow, that sounds really cool! But no.

Q: Does he get mid-deployment leave?
Yes! But I don't know when it is, besides sometime in the next year. And know that you (insert name) are very important to me and I love you like a (brother, sister, daughter, extra super best friend) but I will drop you like a hot rock if I find out he's coming home.

Q: You're moving back home, right?
I think my definition is different from yours. There is no one place where our family resides, no "home" to go to. My immediate family is sprinkled across the west in 4 separate states. His family is in another 3. Also, I love the South. When we began this adventure almost 8 years ago we decided we could be happy wherever we were sent, and that home was wherever we were. While my situation could change at any point which would send me packing for parts unknown, Case is doing very well at this school and I feel no need to change that up for now.
So, um, yes? I am staying home, right here in Dixie.

Q: You're so strong! I could never do that! Wahhhh!
Oh please don't cry. Seriously. Every once in a while someone will get all verklempt when they find out my best friend is far away. I appreciate that you feel sympathy for me but I do not have the emotional energy to talk you off the ledge. As a wise Milspouse once said, "Please do not pity me, I am not pitiful."
Also, stop selling yourself so short. You'd be surprised what you can do when you have to. If you do spend a little time thinking about it and determine that no way could you do this (plenty of people do) then be thankful that there are a small group of people who are willing to do what they are told by their country to protect your freedom.

Reading

Case and I recorded a short video of him reading tonight to send to Marc. It seems it is too big a file for gmail though, so the rest of you are going to have to suffer through it :)

Here's a transcription, for those who can not follow along with our one word per 5 seconds rate:

"Mom, we had a ball game on the moon with Moon Man," says Slam.

"What fun!" Slam's mom says.

Maybe not Pulitzer prize materials, but it sure sounds like poetry to me.

Aquarium

I keep thinking that I will get the pictures up from Case and my trip to the aquarium last weekend up any day, but upon reflection it was two weeks ago now. I am experiencing some weird time disorder, where I never can tell what day it is and I never stop. Funny, I thought that having Marc 7600 miles away would free up a little time. Not so.
But two weeks ago the weekend stretched before us, empty. So Saturday morning we packed spare tshirts, meds, and our letterboxing gear and drove to Atlanta.
We stayed at the aquarium for hours. Case played peek a boo with this little fish.
We watched as a diver swam over to the glass to say hi to Case (and maybe her husband who was sitting next to us against the glass). This was the best thing ever in Case's opinion, as he is really into scuba divers right now. The Manta Rays like to swim over the divers, turning flips in their bubbles.
When we were eventually tired and hungry we had dinner at Ikea then crashed at a hotel. It was so much fun we did it again the next day, still leaving plenty of time to get home Sunday night.

February already?

Records show that this is the only time I've been quiet for an entire month on this blog. That is mostly because things have been so busy here, and when I wasn't running at full speed I didn't really feel like writing. The very biggest part of this is that a month ago Marc left for San Antonio, for training before going to Afghanistan. We had very little notice before he left, so we were quite busy until he left. We were very blessed that Marc had a 4 day weekend in between training in San Antonio and the rotater leaving for the Rock Pile, so Case and I flew out to meet him and spent a few quiet days together. We'll sum up the trip photo montage style.
(San Antonio, by the way? So pretty. I bet it is just beautiful in the spring.)

So, more catching up with this extremely busy month in the next week or so, when I'm not chasing my own tail.