Monday's Missives

• When my baby son saw some of the skin peeling from my sunburn on my leg last summer and pulled it off it sounded like packing tape being stripped back. Then he tried to shake it off as it stuck to his finger. The big kids said," Ewwww, dad- that's gross!"



• A girl wrote on here and said she saw my,"Ta-Tas."



• I can honestly- say no one has ever said that about me before.



• Made me laugh- so funny.



• Lot of miles from that miserable episode of my life.



• I've mentioned this before but, the above pic made me think of an odd, random thing I heard from two different friends in two different states that still trips me out when it crosses my mind- they each thought I'd marry a dancer (not the pole type). Still can't wait to see what goes through my mind when I meet someone and they say,"Oh, I'm a ballerina..."



• A flashback: when I came home for leave from Iraq I brought everything back with me they wouldn't let me mail and I wouldn't need for the rest of the tour to save me from carrying back so much at the end of the tour and I also intended to leave a bunch at home for the return to Iraq from leave. As many of my plans go, this one went awry with the realization a whole bunch of children's clothes were going to Goodwill and there were a whole bunch of poor kids near my base without decent clothing. Needless to say I humped more stuff back to Iraq than I brought over. Way more. When I handed the clothes out two things really stick in my memory still- one was when I pulled out a pair of girls patent leather dress shoes still stuck together by the little stretch cord and two girls ripping them apart and staring at their reflections in the shoe they each had walking away ignoring my efforts to get them together to one child- they would fit. And another- I didn't see any of the other clothes for months until we patrolled that area in about 50 degree temperature when I saw a 2-3 year old boy wearing a pair of my daughters flowery embroidered jeans that were high watered on him and nothing else.



• Still makes me want to cry.



• I almost stayed home a few extra days for leave and even told people that was my intention. I mean really what were they going to do? Send me to a war? Prison? Stamp my meal card, No Dessert (my favorite response).



• In the end I wanted to get back to (and for) my soldiers so bad I would have left days early to return if the opportunity presented.


• You may have read about the soldiers and contractors being electrocuted by KBR electrical work in Iraq- I knew one of them.