And the award goes to....

For one of my classes I had to make an acceptance speech for Wife of the Year. Nathan came up with a very original trophy to be presented to me.


One ball and chain from the bachelor party section of Party City $3.99

One extra large chain from Halloween store $1.99

One can of gold spray paint $2.99


Creating the perfect illustration for your commitment to one another....


Priceless.

Gravity Won!

Just back from Airborne School. I now know why the Air Force perceives Army personnel to be rather primitive. Instead of just landing in the plane like any ordinary human, we insist on getting out and walking. Ultimately, I jumped out of 5 perfectly good airplanes traveling at a speed of 130 knots at 1250 feet above the ground. Obviously, gravity always squeaked out the victory, but I put up a good fight. There are a couple of Nathan-shaped craters at Ft Benning due to my artistic interpretation of a Parachute Landing Fall. More self-portraits-in-dirt will probably appear on Ft Bragg in the near future.




Hello everyone, it's Katy here..


Here are some videos and photos from the graduation ceremony. There were over 400 soldiers in his class but Dad knew just where to sit to get the best view of Nathan. For those of you who don't know my father flew in to pin Nathan's Airborne wings onto his uniform during the graduation ceremony. Also present was my father's brother who is also a West Point grad. I was so proud to be walking through the crowd with them, both had their Ranger tabs on as well as their Airborne wings. It was a short ceremony and at the end they invited those family members present down to the platoons to pin the wings on their loved ones themselves. I felt bad for those soldiers with no one present to pin on their wings but themselves.




Here is Nathan's platoon arriving at the ceremony, he is behind the marine in the middle (the third row from the left, second man down).







Dad pins Nathan wings on with the ceremonial smack that our husbands have all become familiar with. John, his brother places the backing on the pin to finish the job.




Nathan poses with Dad and John briefly as he is supposed to be standing at parade rest with his eyes forward.

That is our front door. Yesterday I actually saw someone jump back in horror when I opened the front door to great them.

"You weren't kidding. You really have not unpacked!"




Nope.



We really haven't.

We are still living with what we carried over here in our suitcases two months ago.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Our landlord has made it safely back from his tour in Afghanistan and is currently down in Tampa, Florida for the next few days looking for a new house. He will be staying here until he has to report to McDill Airforce Base in a few weeks. Keep this in mind when you call the house, we have a roommate, or HE has roommates, whatever. By the end of October I will be decorating a home again.

Airborne School

Here is a video I took after I dropped him off, Dad you probably know this cadence..



Airborne school is going great so far. This week I am told he will be learning the swing landing. He has already starting jumping off the big towers pictured below. He says it is an "unnatural" feeling to jump off a platform that high off the ground. Graduation will be in two more weeks and hopefully I will be able to make it down in time to get some pictures.





I came back home after dropping Nathan off so it has been very lonely around the house. The tropical storm "Hanna" came through here Friday night. It rained heavily for hours but the sandy soil has soaked it all up already. The winds were quite bad and wreaked havoc on my potted plants on the porch. It ripped my potted hibiscus right out of the pot, I replanted it the next morning and it seems fine. One of our trees snapped somehow in the wind but thankfully it fell away from the house.





Their were some other smaller trees that snapped but we have plenty of trees to spare in the backyard so no big loss there. Hopefully Ike and Josephine will not effect any of you or Nathan at school. Nathan's folks were hit pretty bad with Gustav although the media seemed to only cover New Orleans and neglected to mention the battered Baton Rouge parishes. Their house was damaged, some of the fencing destroyed and they are still without power or city water. Thankfully they have a well and a fully furnished pool house to reside in until a new roof is put on the main house. They also have a large generator they purchased when Katrina came through and extra pasture for the cows and horses while they repair the fence. Hopefully Hurricane season will quickly come to an end.