My days are numbered....

Well, with Jadin anyway.

As some of you may know, my daughter is a single mom in the Air Force. Since her son was born 6 years ago, she has been deployed to the Middle East four times. Twice to Iraq, last year was Afghanistan, this year she has been in Qatar since February.

You may be thinking this is an awful lot of deployments for the Air Force and you'd be correct. Normally, the active duty Air Force doesn't deploy as often or for as long, but Renee is in a specialized unit called RED HORSE.


RED HORSE stands for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers.

RED HORSE is a highly mobile civil engineering response force that supports contingency and special operations worldwide. They are self sufficient, mobile squadrons capable of rapid response and independent operations in remote, high-threat environments worldwide. They possess weapons, vehicles/equipment and vehicle maintenance, food service, supply and medical equipment.


Their major wartime responsibilities are to provide a highly mobile, rapidly deployable, civil engineering response force that is self-sufficient to perform heavy damage repair required for recovery of critical Air Force facilities and utility systems, and aircraft launch and recovery.

Basically, they are self-contained and are able to build bare bases form the ground up. They can provide their own equipment, personnel and security to go into a volatile area and build a new base or repair a damaged one.

Each RED HORSE unit possess special capabilities, such as water-well drilling, explosive demolition, quarry operations, concrete mobile operations, material testing, expedient facility erection, and concrete and asphalt paving.


So there's your little lesson on RED HORSE. More info can be found at the following links if you're interested.
RED HORSE
RED HORSE 823rd

Anyway, Jadin has been very accommodating with all the changes and adjusts extremely well with each deployment. He will be starting first grade in a couple weeks and has many friends both here in Vermont and in Florida.

The past couple years he has even gotten to the point of saying to his mom, "Isn't it time for me to go to Nina's." He's got wanderlust at six years old.


The time has come for him to go back to Florida. My mother is taking him back next week so he can start school there, and Renee will be home the end of September. It's always a bag of mixed emotion. Both when we pick up Jadin and take him home. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was bring him home with us and leave Renee there alone.



The same goes when Jadin has to leave. It's hard to be sad though, when I know he's getting his mommy back, and he'll be the first to tell you he loves us, but not as much as he loves his mommy.

So, Jadin has to go back to Florida, but is Renee is coming home soon. And really? That’s the best news of all.



Debbie

Just the Boys? ... I Think Not!

Roughing It.…

-----I’m married and have three young boys – 3, 5 & 8. Yeah…I’m the only chick in the house. *sigh* So all the frills and pastels get trampled by muddy sneakers. Woe is me.

-----Nail polish? Nope. That’s used to paint model train engines. Makeup? Dumped in the toilet and flushed. Stockings? Filled with rocks and used as some medieval weapon for a skirmish in the backyard. Skirts and heels? Who has time (or inclination) when you’re chasing after three little imps to get that other earring back? LOL

A Different View….

-----Sounds rough, huh? Sometimes it is. But on the days when I get to sit for a moment (which is rare…), I think about all the other things I get to do that a lot of women don’t even consider. Like what? Wellll….moutain biking, kayaking, and camping for starters. Not that I’m the most outdoorsy type of gal, but these activities have afforded me the opportunity to see some amazing sights. The beauty of nature, if you will.

-----What about flying? Yeah…up in the air. Airplanes, helicopters. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life is learned to fly a helicopter. I swear, it’s like learning how to paint with your hands and feet and the same time. What you see down here is really different when you’re 700+ feet up. Winding rivers, fields, towns, highways. It’s all one gorgeous jigsaw puzzle.

-----Weapons? Heck yeah! Assault rifles, shotguns, handguns, compound bows, recurve bows, throwing knives, blowguns – any of it! ALL of it! Love it! Okay, so I’ll admit. That’s a huge plus for living in a household of all-guys.

-----But there’s other stuff, too. The latest? My husband is building me a model rocket. Yes, a four-foot tall, “let’s light this candle”, bona fide rocket. For starters, hubby knows I love things that go BOOM! Just always have. So, I guess I can see the leap of logic here. LOL

BK – Before Kids…
AK – After Kids…

-----Hubby and I have always done everything together, and now that we have three little guys…well, they’re gonna want to do guy things, right? His thinking since the moment we learned our first born would be a boy all the way thru to the third little guy (and I sooo love him for this) was that he doesn’t want to just run off with the boys and leave me sitting at home alone. He doesn’t want me left behind. Soooo…since they all have rockets, well…Mom needs one, too.

-----To entice me further, said hubby’s designing the entire thing from scratch so there won’t be another one like it and is going to paint it black, white, and pink. He’s even found a Star Wars Clone Tropper cat and paw print sheet of stickers for me to decorate with and a huge pink and black parachute, so the whole ensemble will come back down to Earth unscathed.

-----And hubby’s already named it! Yep. KRZ-KTY = Krazy Kitty. Course, now I’m wondering if the moniker is any reflection on me…hmmm.

3…2…1…BLAST OFF!

-----In a month or so, we get to launch this puppy…or, er, I get to launch this puppy. LOL Until then, I’ve even told hubby I want to help build. Yeah, get into the paint, epoxy, launch lugs, nosecone, wadding, and engine size (biiigggg with lots of purdy fire & smoke!). My boys need to see their mom out there workin’-it with all those NASA engineers and rocket scientists on the launch field. Hopefully in a month or two, I can blog about Krazy Kitty’s maiden flight. Perhaps post a picture or two…

-----Am I looking forward to it? Heck yeah! Girly colors, cats, and fiery projectiles…how could I not?


And speaking of rocketing off into outerspace... Here's a blurb for my latest sci-fi romance, MechMan...

----Raven is on a suicide mission. Jex is a biomech on a mission to save humanity. They discover their mutual passion to destroy the enemy isn’t their only desire.

----A war against the Darch has raged for years, and humanity is on the verge of extinction. Scientists have created biomechs to supplement as warriors, but it’s just a temporary fix on what appears an insurmountable problem. One desperate scientist injects JXS241, a biomech warrior, with what he hopes is the solution for mankind’s survival. But the biomech is captured by the enemy.
----Raven Nirvanni survives on the fringes of a shattered culture. While on a self-imposed suicide mission to annihilate an enemy destroyer, she encounters the imprisoned biomech. Deciding the fate of humanity far outweighs the destruction of a single ship, she recues him and decides to ensure he reaches his destination.
----With the enemy anticipating their every move, Raven is completely taken aback when she realizes she’s falling for JXS241. But can she really love a machine? And if so, can he reciprocate?

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/MechMan-ebook/dp/B004OC06W2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311625132&sr=8-2
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/MechMan-L-J-Garland/dp/1603182586/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1311625132&sr=8-2