Goodbye Engineer School

Today Jack and a few of his co workers got farewell-ed. All of these guys standing with Jack are headed off to either Leavenworth for CGSC or the Air Force equivalent.

LTC Kramer trading jokes with Jack

Receiving his award

And then there was a receiving line. As soon as the formal portion was over, Will wanted out of the stroller and ran immediately up to Jack. I guess he wanted to say Bye to everyone as well. It was pretty cute!

The girls taking a load off!

And then there was a lunch at Colton's Steakhouse where he received another goodbye gift of a photo of MANSCEN. It had been a while since I'd been to a hail and farewell. Not too sure I have really missed them much.

Now it's off to the next stage in our Army career - Fort Leavenworth!

Major Daddy

 The day has finally come!!! After waiting almost a year (Feb 12) from when we found out Jack made the promotion list, it's finally promotion day and I/we couldn't be happier! Both sets of parents made the trek to see this grand occasion. Ok, maybe not "grand" but exciting none the less.

Rewind a bit:
Back in the day....ohhhh let's just say about 8 years and some change ago Jack and I started dating. He was just a newly promoted 1LT when we first met. Not long after meeting, I knew I wasn't going to let him get away so I started learning about the "Army" and with that came figuring out the ranks. I remember meeting Field Grade Officers (MAJ, LTC, COL) and their families and thinking "Those folks are old AND they have kids too." At this point, Jack was telling me that he was just going to do 8 years and then he'd be getting out of the Army. That sounded ok with me and that meant we'd never be those old folks. Well, obviously y'all know that the story he had to "rope" me in wasn't true and here we are almost 10 years marked off, almost 1/2 way to retirement. And yes, I did say "we" because this is a team effort darn it!! :)

So here we go, 1 FEB 1100 has finally arrived! It's promotion time! We have been telling Katelyn all week long what is about to happen and that Daddy is getting promoted. Jack wanted her to pin him so he has been talking quite a bit about it. Jack told her that he wouldn't be a Captain anymore but would now be a Major. So she took to calling him "Major Daddy." I thought it was pretty cute!

This is the foyer of the building where Jack works and under the flags was where the promotion occurred. Those are Engineer flags for those that are wondering.

Last time to see those "Railroad Tracks."

Before the promotion; she's just taking it all in.

Grandparents are great to have around. There is always someone who is willing to hold the little guy.

 

 The promotion ceremony. LTC Huszar speaking some great words about Jack before putting on the gold oak leaf.

LTC Huszar holding Katelyn so she could pin Jack. She was pretty shy when he picked her up. They tried together to pull off the Captain rank but it wasn't coming and even Huszar had trouble getting it off. Then Katelyn put the new piece of velcro on and tradition is that you punch that person over the new rank. LTC Huszar was trying to convince Katelyn to punch Daddy in the chest but she wasn't having it. She just shook her head when he told her to do it, so instead,  she just gave him a big hug. It was pretty cute and I'm glad that he had her participate.  

 

 AND then, Jack pulled a fast one of me! He had been in touch with one of our past Battalion Commander's wife and had me awarded the Essayons Award. Apparently Jack wanted to get me this award when we were at Ft. Stewart but there wasn't the right person to sign off on it. An Engineer Colonel has to sign off and there were none of those at our post. So he's been waiting. Since moving here, he was able to have the right person sign off on it and decided to wait until the promotion to have it presented to me. I knew nothing about this, so it was a huge surprise when LTC Huszar said that they weren't quite done after pinning Jack and that there was something Jack had for me.

The Essayons Award is "to honor spouses who have voluntarily made significant contributions to the morale, welfare, and spirit of engineer units and organizations." In order to receive the award you have to meet a few different criteria (1) The nominee should be a spouse who has voluntarily provided significant contributions and support to the Engineer Corps, engineer units, engineer families, and/or multiple communities. (2) Most importantly, the spouse must possess qualities that set the individual apart from other Engineer Corps spouses or their peers.

It is quite an honor that the Army Engineer branch thinks I've meet the above criteria and am worthy of this award.

 

Receiving the medal

 

While Jack was saying a few words, LTC Huszar took Will and was showing him a few things.

The receiving line. Lots of congratulations and such.

LTC Huszar and Will

 And after the promotion we went lunch.

 
And Will was quite the fan of dill pickles. Boy was I surprised!

And now.... we are THAT old family with kids! I'm so glad that he roped me in and we've been able to spend the last 8 years (6.5 in the Army's eyes) doing the Army thing. There have been many times that I've wished he would have stuck to his story of 8 and out but now there's no turning back.  

We've definitely been through a lot as a family: 2 deployments  (+ 1 before I came along), 3 out of state moves, more nights apart than any married couple would ever want and now we're dragging 2 beautiful kids on this wild ride. Through all of this, I can't say I'd have it any other way! I'm so glad I "Signed" up for this wild ride and glad that it is with the love of my life! I am so proud of you Babe and am glad that we are that OLD family.....one Old, Happy, Major family :) 

Here's just a peek of the last 3 promotions.....someone has a few more gray hairs now :)

So now, we do Major "ly" things for the next several years until the next big day arrives and then that means we're ANCIENT!

Reporting for Duty!

Go Army!

Katelyn cheered hard for Army during the Army/Navy game but she didn't quite cheer hard enough. Guess there is always next year! That's what we always say!!

Daddy's Change of Command

Wow! How do I start this off? This has been a LONG almost 2 years of long days and late nights for Jack and plenty of FRG business and drama to keep me beyond busy. We were so excited when this day finally came. We'd been counting down for quite some time (Jack probably longer than me). I was beyond ready to have my husband back and Katelyn to have her Daddy back! It also meant that we were that much closer to moving back to the midwest and SOOO much closer to family!!

Our long awaited day finally arrived!! It was a chilly day but to make matters worse - it decided to start raining so we moved the ceremony into the motor pool building. It worked out fine but it was noisy and confined. Oh well - the ceremony still went on and CPT Young assumed responsibility of HHC 2-3 BSTB! That was all that mattered!

Katelyn before the ceremony! Even she is excited!

HHC in formation before the change of command (not the entire 250 man company though)

Change of Command Ceremony
(Jack is on the left and the Battalion Commander is on the right)

The tradition is to give the outgoing wife a bouquet of a dozen red opened roses and the incoming commanders wife a dozen of closed yellow roses.

Jack got Katelyn a rose of her own! After all, it is tough being the Commander's daughter haha

That night as we sat watching tv, Jack and I both looked at each other in disbelief. Did it really happen?!? Was the FRG no longer my responsibility? Was Jack no longer in Command?!! And the answer to all those questions - YES!!! This meant, no more late night phone calls about soldiers getting thrown in jail for any number of reasons and no more emails/calls from spouses regarding their soldier. How freeing this all felt! When Jack brought his cell phone into the bedroom that night, I had to remind him that he could leave it out in the kitchen. No one was going to call and wake us up in the middle of the night!

Jack - you did a great job in command and I was so proud to be your partner in crime throughout those past 2 years. There were some tough times but all in all it turned out well! I know many soldiers felt very lucky to have you as their commander and were sad to see you leave! You left a lasting impact on many young soldiers! I love you !

BN Christmas Party

Our Battalion (2-3 BSTB) had a "Holiday" Party on December 1 at Holbrook Pond Recreation Center on post. It was catered by Shane's Rib Shack - deliciousness! Katelyn had fun running around, playing on the playground and jumping in the bounce house.

She was pretty excited to see Santa for the 2nd time and had been talking about him since I told her that afternoon we were going to see him at the "Party." However, when she actually saw him and realized he didn't look like the Santa she saw in the Mall she was a bit skeptical of him. Reluctantly, she sat on his lap but she was not very talkative. I guess I would be skeptical of a Santa with a Kevlar helmet on too!!

There was a silent auction to raise money for the FRG. The only people that got nominated were the BN Commander and the BN S3. Unfortunately no one knew prior to the party that this was going to be going on so most people didn't have much extra cash on them so the Battalion Commander only brought in $8 and the BN S3 only raised $1! Pretty sad but still funny none the less! Katelyn seemed pretty confused during this whole thing as to what was going on!

I'm not sure that there are many other places that you can have an outdoor Christmas party on December 1, but the weather was perfect!

Battalion Trunk or Treat

Thursday night our Battalion had a Trunk or Treat. Katelyn was very excited to put her costume on and put candy in her pumpkin! She was so excited and couldn't wait for it to get started. Of course, she wanted to eat (or taste) everything in the pumpkin before we got home. She still talks about candy all the time. (She isn't a bit candy fan, but wants to open try stuff. Why can't dinner be the same way?!?!)

Katelyn and Esmee
(Katelyn is a Southern Belle - she wasn't a big fan of the hat and the wind kept blowing it off her head)

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat Daddy!
"Put some candy in MY pumpkin!"

Taste testing!

Holding down the fort!

Wheels Day

April is the Month of the Military Child and the Child Development Centers have lots of activities planned throughout the month. Today was "Wheels" Day at school. Katelyn didn't go to school today because Jack is off, but it was open to post so we went anyways. There were different pieces of military equipment, ambulance, police car, firetruck and several tractors. She was a little too small to be excited about the vehicles, but they had a train and some bounce houses that were a hit! She was excited about the train and kept saying "Choo Choo" while we were waiting in line, but the conductor tried to talk to her and she freaked out. So when we got on the train she wasn't too happy, but as soon as it started moving she was saying "weee." We had to ride the train 2 times. The bounce houses were nice because they were for the smaller kids AND one of them was Dora! There was also a Sesame Street one, but it was old and smelled like mildew! Needless to say, she didn't want to leave!

These red things are called "Bye Bye Buggy's" and the younger aged classes have several of these that they load all the kids in to take them out and about. I just think they are the coolest thing!