New baby pics:) and random ramblings

Just had to share 'em:) The little guy is finally starting to feel better...so of course now Emma is finally coming down with it! (and he ain't so 'little',lol, he's up to TEN POUNDS!!)

I stopped by there on Thurs morning on my way home from work,because Emma had been taking him back by the hospital Weds night as his temp was going up again and he was vomiting again. And no one had ever called me at work that night to say what happened!!

So Ben answers the door,and I say 'what's up?" Ben is running around getting ready to leave for work, and he tells me the doc said to give him only Pedia Lite overnight, and call their pediatrician for an appt on Thursday morning. I can hear Aiden crying thru the baby moniter,and Ben says 'that's him right now." (rofl. did he think I wouldn't recognize the sound?:)

I go back to their room and Emma is lying in bed looking like she is exhausted, so I get Aiden from the bassinet and say "I can give him Pedia Lite" and go fix him a bottle. I sat down on the couch to give it to him, and I was rolling laughing, he has this look on his face......'who is this holding me?what the heck is in this bottle? who cares,I'm hungry...but I'm going to keep my eye on this situation!"   And it was a sweet,sweet moment...Mom, bet YOU know what I'm talking about:) Holding this little guy who's gulping the stuff down and making happy,hungry baby noises. Life doesn't get any better than this....this grandmothering stuff ROCKS!

So while Aiden and I are in this quiet,happy moment....Ben is racing around saying "Emma,where is your purse,my keys are in it" and Emma is calling out from the back "it's in the living room" and Ben  is flinging things all over and saying "I can't find it!" Emma comes down the hall saying "I thought I set it down right when we came in..."

and Ben stops still and looks over at me and says"Wait a minute...I found it.........it's under my Mom's a#*!...  NOT a place I would've thought to look!!!"I am shifting sideways and saying "Gee, I WONDERED what I was sitting on?!" and that's just another Hallmark moment in our chaotic,dorky lives that I know y'all were just waiting for me to share:)

Thursday evening, April and I went over to Ken and Lynn's (my aunt and uncle's) to pick up her bag...they had nicely let her stay there overnight Weds while I was at work, when Emma had to go to the hospital with Aiden at the last minute. (Kyle was working nights, and April had been going over to stay at Ben and Emma's.)

While we were there, I said to Lynn, "I have been meaning to ask you for quite awhile.....I do all this troop support stuff, and when that Vietnam vet emailed me awhile back, in talking to him I asked him what unit he had served with, and it ocurred to me later...I don't have any idea what unit YOU served with."

Which led to a really cool 45 minute discussion, and I was really glad April was there. I grew up knowing Lynn had served as nurse in the Army in Vietnam,but I don't think April had ever really heard that much about it. She was really interested, and kept asking Lynn questions, and that's probably one of the longer conversations I've had with her about her service in my life.

She was 22 when she deployed, and a Captain in the Army Nurse Corps. She was 'over there' in 1967-68,and turned 23 shortly after she got there. She was with the 91rst Evac, at a little hospital base near a place called Tuy Hoa (pronounced 'Two Whee') and she said the little place where they were based was called Phu Hip 3 (no one knows the spelling,lol)

April asked her what an evac was? and Lynn explained that it was where the guys who weren't injured enough to get evac'd out of country could recuperate.Innocent April says "like a broken finger or something?" and Lynn started laughing and said 'no,for a broken finger they could go right back out. More serious injuries, but not serious enough to get sent to Japan or Hawaii."

She went on to share quite a lot of memories that I had never heard, like her R & R trip to Japan, and her other week where she met Uncle Ken in Hawaii...and the tale of trying to fly back 'in-country' after R & R, the Army at the time made no provisions to get them in or out for R & R,but they'd get court martialed if they didn't turn back up on time! and she refused to get on the return flight to Cam Rahn Bay,because they were bombing there at the time and had no provision for quarters for nurses....said she got threatened with court martial! but she said "I am NOT flying into where they are bombing, with no place to stay when I get there!!" And so one of the other nurses with her managed to find a pilot who was making a flight in to somewhere else in Nam, and agreed to take them.

I was just astounded to hear this,lol..."by the book" Lynn risking court martial?? But it was a rare privilege to hear all these memories of hers. She is one of my inspirations for supporting the troops today. And I still don't think women like her were ever honored as they should have been (and still should be) for their service to our country.

And I'm so grateful my daughter got to hear about this part of her life, that she'd never really known about before. (wish I could get Lynn to write it all down! This is a living part of our family history that shouldn't be lost.)

And I guess that's enough rambling. I am up so late(or early) because my sleep schedule is just ruined...I stayed up too long after getting home from work yesterday, because I didn't have to work last night...and then when I crashed, FINALLY slept for longer than 4 hours:) but woke up just as everyone else was going to bed!!