Cool Pic

I haven't talked to my son yet to know how he got this picture, but it is pretty cool. He is posed in the cockpit.

Bringing them Home

Last night, my husband and I drove to Selfridge Air Force National Guard Base near Utica, MI. My son was coming home from his short deployment to Afghanistan. He left from the airport in Detroit, so we didn't know quite what to expect. We were directed to the dining hall at the base. It reminded me of a hotel conference room, not a dining hall. We found that there were over 300 airmen (and women), returning that night. All of them had some family there, there was an estimated 1000 people waiting in the dining area. We were impressed that there were refreshments for the families. Kudos to Dunkin Donuts, Frito-Lay, Hershey and Chex.

Many people were dressed patriotically and/or had signs, banners, and balloons in anticipation of their loved ones.

The 300 airmen arrived in sets of 5-7 after they went through customs and processing. It was fun to watch the many happy reunions.

Finally after a 2 hour wait, Thomas arrived 299 out of 300 to arrive! First thing he wanted was a Halo Burger (a local hamburger chain), we were happy to oblige.  We are glad to have him home!

My Kid!

Thomas looking happy playing with guns in Afghanistan.

Veteran's Day 2011

How fitting that my son Thomas, was deployed to Afghanistan on this day. My husband and I drove him to the Detroit airport yesterday for his trip.  He serves in the Airforce and does intelligence briefings for pilots. Thankfully his team will only be there a couple months.  We are proud!

Mother's Day 2010

I'm the baby with my mother, Charlene Nelson. She passed away at the young age of 51, in 1975. The little boy in the picture is my cousin, Gary.  I miss you Mom!

This is me with my paternal grandmother, Pauline Nelson. She also passed many years ago, the same week that JFK was assassinated. My maternal grandmother passed long before I was born.

This is me as a happy first time mom. My son Thomas was around 1.5 months old. Summer of 1987. He was born May 9. So today is a double celebration. I am meeting him for dinner later today. He is 23 years old and has grown into a fine young man.                  

Cassie and Thomas

I was excited to meet my son's girlfriend in from AZ. We had a nice dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Aren't they a cute couple!

Christmas 2009

   We had a great Christmas. Fuzzy had to work, so we got up and ate breakfast and opened our presents to each other. After he left for work my son came over for several hours. I made him breakfast and we opened presents and watched "Christmas Story"... he is home for two weeks before he gets deployed to AZ for a month for more of his intelligence training for the Air Force. He will be home in Feb. then sent to Idaho for another month in March. Here is a pic of him frolicking with our black lab Drizzy. I got a new camera for Christmas and haven't quite figured out all of the features, so the pic is a little dark..

We order a lot of books from the Hamilton Book Seller flyer, they are really good prices but at times they are not quite how they are described. This is a winner that I bought for myself for Christmas. The title intriqued me. It is an art book with paintings of women doing needlework...It is a fairly recent edition 2006 and the original price was $35, I paid $8...neat book..I may use some of the paintings as images in my crazy quilting. Many are from well known artists like Renoir, Van Gogh, Munch. Even two paintings from Frederick Frieseke, who is an impressionist artist from Owosso who went to study with Monet.

 

   Today Fuzzy and I are going to do a little shopping and we are having our Christmas "meal" today. We got some lobster tails and will have surf and turf. It is my first time making lobster tail at home, so I hope it turns out well!  Later we will go over to our friends and play some games.

Tech School Graduation

My son Thomas (middle) recently completed Air Force Tech School. He was in training to be an intelligence specialist. He returns home from Texas this week after being gone since April.  He will continue training at Selfridge base here in Michigan and start his regular Air National Guard schedule this summer.We are very proud of him!