Now what do we do with these plates?

First of all, we're all safe and sound. Jared was at lunch with some of his psychology friends from the base today. On his way back to the hospital, some Texas Good 'ol Boy in his mile-high monster truck ran a stop sign and clipped the back end of Jared's new Mustang. The Texas Ranger (not Walker, sorry) said that he thought the other driver was probably texting while driving. Jared and the others eventually made it back to the hospital, but they went to the emergency room instead of the mental health clinic (if you're injured on active duty, you have to get checked by a medic, even if there aren't any obvious injuries). Jared has some bruises on his hand, and his friend Button said he thought his neck hurt, but besides that they seemed fine. Jared's pretty sad that his new car is wrecked, especially since he just got his license plates, but never got a chance to put them on. Thankfully, Texas requires all drivers be insured, so we should get the car fixed soon.

Maybe they can clean the smoke smell out while they're at it?

Captain Cooper Goes to Washington

I [Jared] was TDY in Washington for the last two weeks ('TDY' is military jargon for 'business-trip') getting some specialized training on deployment-related psychological issues (e.g. PTSD, marital problems, amputee issues, etc.). Air Force, Army, Navy, and various guard units were represented, and it was interesting to see how different the approaches and mental health resources were between different branches of the military.

We toured a really fancy hospital that treated amputee veterans. One of the amenities was an indoor virtual shooting range where amputees could re-qualify on the M16 or M9. For better or worse, proficiency with weapons is a significant part of many soldiers' self-image, and regaining those skills (even with prosthetics) helps re-establish self-efficacy. In the picture below (top-center), you can see a C-shaped attachment which allows someone with a prosthetic-arm to hold an M16. On the weekend, I went to look at all the old buildings. I saw the Washington monument...

I saw a huge turd in front of the Washington Monument...

I saw the Great Emancipator. You have to get up early in the morning to get the cool Sun rays-on-the-Statue shot...

I saw the Vietnam War Memorial. For those who haven't been, it's an L-shaped wall which is widest at the angle, and narrows toward the ends. Notice how in the photo below, perspective and the increasing height combine to create an optical illusion of uniform height from end to middle.

Geeky, I know. Shut up.

I really liked the reflections and light in the pictures below, not bad for a camera phone!

There's no way to overstate the heavy, sober feeling at the wall. As you walk along its length, you see one name (on the shortest end of the wall) followed by five, then fifty, then hundreds, then thousands. The last few Americans had already been evacuated from Saigon by the time I was born, and it was still overwhelming. Notes and flowers from school children and surviving veterans line the bottom of the wall. I was particularly struck by the note pictured below, which reads "I see my name on this wall and my reflection and I imagine someone laying a flower in front of my name - Clark, 2009."

When the Vietnam War Memorial was first unveiled, many veterans thought it was too bleak and artsy, so a second Memorial was commissioned, depicting three soldiers marching near an American flag. The base of the flag represented the five branches of the military. The Marines keep their seal polished and clean. Ooh-rah!

On Sunday, I visited Arlington Cemetery. I broke away from the throngs of tourists, and found a nice hill with a tree and three memorials for Chaplains who were killed during World Wars I and II. I read a spiritual/patriotic talk, said a prayer, and reflected on the sacrifice of so many Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.

I was overwhelmed by the number of museums, so I concentrated on the coolest one: the National Air and Space Museum! I saw the X-1, the Spirit of St. Louis, and the Apollo 11. I touched a moon rock, saw a Space Shuttle urine transfer tube (display only), and shook hands with one of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen (in the red jackets below). I was so excited about the Apollo 11 that I actually developed a lazy-eye!

I wore my uniform on the plane back to Texas. On the first leg, someone in 1st class bought me a cocktail (I politely explained that I never drank while in uniform), and on the second leg they bumped me up to 1st class! I never got that kind of treatment when I wore my work-clothes before I was commissioned!

More Holly and More Cake

26 Mar 2009

I just can't get enough of Holly or cake. So here are some more pictures of both.

My friend Ashley and I made this cake for our ward's Relief Society Birthday Party. The theme was purses (I'm not totally sure why) so we thought this cake would be fitting. I actually baked the cake on Tuesday night, it took 5 cake mixes (only the two bottom layers are made of cake - the purse on top is styrofoam). We did the decorating yesterday. It took 7 hours - we had six kids running around. We got lots of compliments at the party. (Also, I don't know why the cupcakes look so weird in the picure - it looks like I added them later with photoshop.)

To make the cake rounds, I cut some cardboard out of a diaper box. Derek took the box and kept trying to get inside it and play with it. It looked pretty sad because it had big holes cut in it. I decided to take a break and make this fort for him. Except that he said that he didn't want a fort so it became a "transformer house".

Mom, I'm Hot

24 Mar 2009

Yesterday Tyler was playing Wii and for those of you who don't know, when Tyler plays Wii, he really plays Wii. Really. I mean that when he's playing Lego Star Wars he doesn't just move his thumbs around on the controller. When his character jumps, he jumps. When his character swings a light saber, he swings his arm like a light saber. When his character is deep in battle with the dark side, he is deep in battle with the dark side. So anyway, Tyler had been playing for half an hour when his timer rang and he turned it off. He came into the kitchen dripping in sweat and said, "Mom, I'm hot. Not hot like girls that are hot, hot like I'm really hot."

Here is a cute picture of Holly hugging her blanket. She did this all on her own - I didn't put the blanket in her arms.

What's a Diorama?

23 Mar 2009

Tyler had to make a desert diorama for school. He was hesitant to let me help him but after we got started he was really excited. We made salt dough for the ground, cacti and animals. Tyler did all the painting and sand gathering. After he was done painting the desert wolf he said, "This wolf doesn't look as good as it did in my mind." Oh man! I thought it looked okay. A friend of mine helped Tyler take his project into the school this morning. She told me that today when she asked him about the diorama he said, "Yeah, my dad usually helps me with these things, but he's in Washington D.C. right now so my mom had to help me. All I have is a phone dad."

Cook Out

23 Mar 2009

Jared's friends from work invited us to their apartment for a cookout (which was really nice because Jared is still in Washington DC until Saturday). The kids said that they didn't want to go swimming, but after they saw the pool they changed their minds.

Holly's Outfits

22 Mar 2009

Jared noticed that our blog only has pictures of Holly wearing her pink "cutie" sleeper. She really does have more clothes than that. Here are two of her cute outfits. Watch for more coming soon!

Happy Birthday Tyler

21 Mar 2009

Today was Tyler's birthday!!! Yay, the big #7. He's been wanting to go to Chuck E. Cheese's ever since they started playing Chuck E. Cheese commercials at every commercial break on Nickelodeon last summer. So I told him to invite 3 three friends and we would go. Unfortunately, two of his friends couldn't come so it was just us and Addison White, his friend from church. The upside is that Derek and I got to use the other kids' tokens. It's a little expensive if you have a lot of kids ($10.99 per) but Chuck E. Cheese's is a really great place for a birthday party. They do everything for the party plus give every kid 40 tokens (usually $.25 each). All I had to do was show up with a cake and a present. It was really nice for me. Here are our pictures.

This is the cake I made. I got the idea from a cake that I saw at the grocery store. It's a little woggley because it's all buttercream frosting...oh, yeah...and I made it at 2:00 in the morning.

Here are the kids eating pizza - well, mostly goofing off - but eating a little pizza.

This is a game where your friend points the camera at you and your body is superimposed into the video playing on the big screen. You can see Tyler in the TV on the top left. This was by far their favorite thing to do.

Here is Chuck giving Tyler the traditional birthday gold medal. Tyler loved it but I'm not so sure about Chuck. He didn't talk but his body language gave me the impression that he might really hate his job.

Tyler got lots of presents but to save time I put them all in one big box. I think he kind of liked seeing everything all together like that. He got a ninja weapon set, a new Wimpy Kid book, a light saber, bakugan (don't ask) and a Batman action figure.

Here Tyler is using the force to...um...do something awesome I'm sure. (What do I know about it, I'm just a girl.)

Tyler's first experience with air hockey - he loves it.

Derek couldn't find a Thomas train so he settled on the Barney train (which suspiciously looks A LOT like Thomas...hmmmm)

We Miss You Dad!!!

20 March 2009

Jared's been gone now for almost a week and we really miss him...

Holly misses him the most...

Derek misses his handyman skills (Derek "fixed" his broken rake with scotch tape)...

Dad misses Mom and sent these beautiful flowers...

Dad probably misses Tyler's birthday cupcakes (or "pupcakes" as Derek says)...

Dad probably doesn't miss the bird nest collection...

We love you Dad!!!

Hooray for Holly

13 Mar 2009

Nothing much happens to us anymore so I've resorted to just taking pictures of Holly. She's pretty cute though. We all lover her so much. I feed her and hold her. Jared feeds her and holds her. Tyler babysits her while I do dishes. Derek keeps her binkies away from Ralphie and is "soft" (that's his word for stroking - he is "soft" to Ralphie too.)

More Cake

8 Mar 2009

Here is my third cake. This time I tried coloring the fondant and making fondant decorations. It worked out really well! I also got a new buttercream recipe that makes more round shaped balls (as opposed to "kiss" shaped).

Holly really likes the cake so she is smiling her approval.