Military Retirement Cuts?

As hubby gets closer to retirement we are a little wary at how much we will actually get after 20+ years of service.
Morning Joe had a good conversation on this topic.

Veteran's Day video

This was a really cool video sent to Hubby.

Casualty Notification

Hubby got a call this morning and was asked to go make a casualty notification. We are the closest active duty to the family. He's only done this once before and that time it was by accident. He was asked to o to the airport to pick up a family member of an airman who had passed away. He didn't know this brother hadn't been told why he was coming out, and had to explain to the brother in the middle of the airport. Hubby was a little upset no one had told him that the brother didn't know. 

Anyway... He came home today to change into his dress blues. It's a sad thing to do. But hubby has had to meet with individuals before in his church service as a bishop so he's a little prepared. There's no active duty chaplain on campus here- just a guard chaplain. So he and a Capt. from the office are going together. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to this family.

Some of you remember how amazingly quick Hubby was able to leave AFG to get to see his Dad- who had congestive heart disease but was recently diagnosed with cancer. It's still up and down and he's going through another round of chemo after finding newer and more aggressive tumors. The AF has been so good to us- to send us to an assignment close to Hubby's dad so he can help with chemo appts and just spend time with him. Every moment has been so very special to our family and especially to Hubby. As congestive heart disease patient lives moment to moment and surgeries to explore tumors and other biopsies are scary because you have to come off all medications. I thought this was a great video and reaffirmed our decision to ask to be close to family at this time. It's definitely not a place we would have ever asked to go, but we're making it work and trying to find the good things about our new place.

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Memorial Day BBQ recipes

This Memorial Day will be spent with my parents and kids. Hubby cant get back, needs to save leave for our move.  So it'll be quiet- no entertaining, but we'll probably keep a lot of our recipe traditions anyway.  We'll still play in the pool, set up the camp chairs, turn on the palm trees, and fire up the grill.

Here's my post from last year.

We had a great time and everyone pitched in to make some sides while our family took care of the meats and drinks. We had BBQ chicken- thighs and drumsticks, steak tips, and natural casing hot dogs and bratwursts.
In the summer months we try to grill as much as possible to help cut down on the heat that comes from the oven making the AC work harder.  If you do have to cook, do it in the morning or in a crock pot.

BBQ chicken is so easy to make!  I learned a few tricks to making the chicken really moist and fabulous tasting.

Week 33 from Afghanistan

Hope this find you well. 

Things are fine here.  Another descent week.  We got a new boss in as the J2 (Director for Intelligence) and he comes from a similar background as the community I come from.  We brought him around to see some of our units, and he pointed out a lot of the issues I have been talking about since I got here.  Looks like I will now have the political top cover to get some things fixed.  It may be a bit late in coming, but we have to set up for the enduring presence, and frankly, any doctrinal gains we make now will only help us in the next conflict we find ourselves. 

I continue to look forward to vacation in a few weeks and a move a few months after that.  I can appreciate what it was that was said in Ether about faith that giveth us a hope for a better world and maketh an anchor to the souls of men.  Of course he was also talking about the difficulty of hanging onto that which is just and true in the face of war and political machinations of his day.  Like the starving people who are so preoccupied with survival that the Gospel seems ethereal ("will that bible buy me any bread")--those who spend weeks upon weeks in situations they cannot control, and whose fate is determined by others (to include many whom do not have altruistic motives), can be challenged in feeling after spiritual things.  The immediate stressors and challenges can overcome our spiritual natures.  But with hope for a better world, we can hang on.  Fortunately for me, it is not much longer.  I can appreciate the difficulties of others who are stuck in situation for which they see no end to, which will last far longer, and whose hope is for the eternities--but even there, by clinging to faith and hope, we can separate ourselves out from the silliness around us. 

I am thankful for the quiet assurance of the spirit that I can feel, that assures me all is well.  When struggling I remember the fate of Joseph.  When he was being carted off by Arabian traders as a slave--things couldn't have looked very good.  Promises must have appeared dashed.  When fleeing from the wife of Potiphar and thrown into jail--things could not have looked any better.  Yet with all that, the way was provided not only for his escape, but the salvation of the family of Israel.  Like Joseph, we cling on to the hope of promised blessings, put our head down and trudge on--but we can move forward with assurance of the spirit that all promised blessings will be provided.  We may not be able to see it.  It may look pretty dark. But we will feel it.  Like Joseph, in the end, all things will turn to our good.

That said--it is nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Week 32 from AFG

Hope this finds you well.  Lots of good milestones this week.  At 32 weeks I have right around 20 weeks to go, which sounds pretty good to me.  In 28 days I depart for R&R, arriving just before the kids' Spring Break.  So that is right around the corner.  With the President's announcement of a drawdown of 34K troops over the next year, we can finally start planning retrograde operations with better assumptions.  All that planning will keep us pretty busy throughout most of the rest of my time here.  Its busy work, moving things around and making sure we have adequate protection for our troops.  So it was a good week all around.

Today as I walked out of my room, I was met by a beautiful day.  Normally there is so much smog and dirt and filth in the air that you can't see very far, but this morning it was pretty clear, and there were great views of snow capped mountains. It struck me that those mountains stood as a witness of God and a promise of better things if people were willing to reach out and accept it.  The snow there, if captured, represents the promise of agriculture and plenty--no reason they need to live in the dust bowl they live in.  It seemed to suggest peace.  It was a warm day as well, and spring was in the air--my mind turned to the great symbols God has given us of death in Winter and rebirth in Spring.  New opportunities for life and hope.  Truly nature witnesses that there is a God in heaven.

I am not much of a photographer, but one of my favorite pictures is one I took at the Garden of Gethsemane.  Among the ancient olive trees, well dunged, sprang a single purple flower--as if to say that out of the greatness of the mother tree, and richness of its soil, a small but significant life arises.  All life is dependent on the light and atonement of our Savior.  I had that picture turned into a large print which I have hung in my office.  No one has ever asked me what it is, but I feel like it represents my testimony to any who would look upon it.

All of nature is a witness of truth.  I had a roommate in college that was a Geology major.  He was a fun guy to go hiking with, because he could point out all the various rock formations and explain the history behind them.  He was also a die hard atheist, as if there are any other kind.  We went on a backpacking trip once, and got to a glorious place--tall trees, a large cliff, a waterfall, on a low ridgeline, but high enough to see across a small valley.  We stopped and he told me about the cliff and we talked about how amazing that location was.  I asked him to stop for a moment and look around.  After a minute or so, I asked him if he could really believe among all the order he could see that this was all just an accident of nature.  He didn't have much to say about that, and so I took a chance to testify that I knew and that he could know from how he felt, that the things of nature testified there was a God.  We walked off, and he didn't say much, but I know that in that moment, he felt it was true as well. 

I hope that in some of the Afghan hearts today, and days like it, people will look up and see the glory of nature, and know not only that there is a God, but that he is a God of peace, who desires our happiness.  That such a vision might inspire peace, charity, order, stewardship and community is my hope and prayer.

Have a great week,

Flowers!

Week 31 from Afghanistan

Hope all is well.  I depart for R&R in 35 days! Pretty excited about that.

By the time I come back I will be under 90 days left. It is good to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We are getting pretty excited about the move. There are several properties in the area that have some acreage and outbuildings and I'd like to have a mini farm. Mrs. L and I will head out at the end of my leave to look at houses. We may find it easier to buy something in town where the university is, but if we can swing something nearby but with some land to have some animals and a good sized garden, that would be pretty great.

My grandmother had a small hobby farm when I was growing up. How many animals she had varied, and she gradually downsized to nothing so she could travel, but when I was younger she had pretty much a little of everything. Some chickens, rabbits, hogs, a goat, cows, sheep, horses. Her garden wasn't very big, but it was sufficient, and I remember going out to find something fresh for dinner. She never had very good luck with fruit trees, but there were wild berries all over the area and we'd go out for raspberries or blueberries. My parents kept up that tradition for many years, maintaining a large vegetable garden. It was fun to work and see where your food came from.

I look forward to being someplace where we can be part of a community for the long term, and especially a place so environmentally conscious. It will be great learn to be a steward over a small patch of earth and see how things can grow.

As Brigham Young said:

“Fields and mountains, trees and flowers, and all that fly, swim or move upon the ground are lessons for study in the great school of our Heavenly Father, . . . [in what] is open before us in good books and in the great laboratory of nature.”

Week 28 from Afghanistan

We are slogging through out here. We were hoping President Obama would announce some hard numbers of troop size, but absent that, we are muddling through the best we can, under the best assumptions we can. I have now seen the art of war at tactical, operational levels. While the politics of DC are disturbing, the confusion of coalition warfare is more so. I'm glad the folks at the tactical level don't worry about it too much and just get out and execute, or we'd be in a lot of trouble. Anyway, hopefully the can doesn't get kicked too far down the road.

All else is well. Looking forward to [Spring] and my R&R.

Healthy Care Packages

I've been watching to see how long our packages take to get to hubby in Afghanistan. If I use the APO Priority boxes they take on average less than 10 days. So we decided to experiment. Hubby is on a NATO base and the chef there is Dutch. He says the food is aweful. And made a resolution to eat better this year. We've been sending tuna packets and crackers, but this time we sent peanut butter and honey and a loaf of bread. It was the high fiber kind. It got there in 8 days and in great condition! I was afraid the delivery time would be too long and the bread would start to go bad. The weather probably helped along with the cold weather in cargo hold at high altitude.
Hubby just emailed:
"They made it! Bread looks great. I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich--it was awesome!"

So don't be afraid to try and send healthy foods in your packages (healthy breads, peanut butter & honey, nuts, protein mix, balance bars, tuna, etc.), along with the comfort foods of cookies and candies.

Week 26 from Afghanistan

Its great to write "Week 26"- halfway done and it is all downhill from here!  I appreciate the prayers and letters that help as I've moved through this journey.  I can now set my sites on my R&R, scheduled for spring--then, by the time I return from that, I'll only have a few months left.

It's been deathly slow here in Afghanistan.  With the holidays, even though we had some pressing business to attend to, it becomes challenging, because the folks at CENTCOM and in DC are all on vacation.  Hopefully we will be back in the swing of thing this week.  We are all hoping that the President's meeting with President Karzai this week will yield some decisions about our force posture here.  There is a lot in stand-by mode while we wait for a decision.  

Anyway, its been really quiet.  The gym tends to be the best thing about my day.

Hope all is well.  Warm regards

Week 25 from AFG

Slow week this week for us with the holidays. Pretty quiet--nothing significant to report. We watched It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve, and had a Star Wars marathon on Christmas Day.

Thanks for all who included us in their Christmas Newsletters.  It is fun to hear how everyone is doing and to see your beautiful families.   

I've gotten a few notes congratulating us on our move.  Yes, we are excited. It will be fun.

Wish you all a Happy New Year

Week 24 from Afghanistan

I hope you had a good day and were able to enjoy a nice Christmas program wherever you were today. Things have gotten really quiet here. There was a bombing down the street earlier, but overall attacks are way down as Taliban sit tight for the winter. The climate has been a bit milder, and hopefully that doesn't allow more attacks, but there is snow in the mountains, and that is what makes fighting the toughest for them.

We are all waiting in anticipation for President Obama to make a decision on force presence here. I saw an article in the Washington Post saying he was considering a more rapid withdrawal.

Happy Anniversary

I always get flowers for our wedding anniversary. This year, even though he's half a world away, was no different!

"We just got bombed, but don't worry."

I had a funny conversation with hubby today. It started out by him asking how my day was going and how the kids got off to school. Then he laughed and said, "We just had a RPG hit us but everything is ok now. We'll probably make the news."

I quickly searched nbcnews.com and saw nothing. I think he'll be a bit disappointed that the national news stations are covering the happenings in AFG much any more. Although his boss's boss is Gen. Allen so it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the scandal in the news the last couple of days.

Week 15 from Afghanistan

"I am writing a bit early--I have a trip this weekend and am not sure if I will have internet access where I am going.  That may give me some interesting things to write about as I'll have some good engagement with some Afghan leaders, but I wanted to write a quick note now."

And the rest is a personal note to me and the kids... :)

Week 13

I spent most of my week in Belgium.  My lovely wife was able to meet me out there, and it was great to be able to see a bit of that country with her at my side.  I returned to Afghanistan Saturday morning, and I am right back into the swing of things here.

Update Afghanistan Week 12

From hubby while we were in Belgium:

This a bit delayed as I traveled this weekend to Brussels to attend a conference at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE/NATO).  I'll write about that when I return, but I just wanted send a quick note out to say hi--most of my week was preparing our presentation for this conference--so it was long days but fairly boring staff work.

I did have a chance to write my oldest son this week.  He has been interested in attending a military academy for some time.  Apparently, some folks have been giving him a hard time about this when they have asked about his career goals, and he wrote me telling me about that.  It is a sad statement of our society that we have people that would discourage a young man from service--it is a fundamental responsibility of those in a free society, to be willing to serve when called upon. 

Brussels