We are....

RETIRED!!!!
Yep you read that right.  Russ had his retirement ceremony Tuesday, July 3.  We were surrounded by family and military comrades.  And it was a beautifully done event.

Our Narrator, Lt. Stayton...

His commander, Lt Col Huisman, gave a brief rundown of Russ' 

accomplishments during his time of service....

The Meritorious Service Medal ...

Many awards...

His retirement pin...

Even a few awards for me...

And some gorgeous roses from the unit...

(Russ gave some to his mom too and they were equally beautiful!)

The kids received the Military Brat award ....

Grandson just chilled and watched the show...

A wonderfully done shadow box commemorating his time in both the Army and the Air Force...

A few last words...

And it was PARTY TIME!!

We were surrounded by both our local family and those from out of town for a wonderful evening of fellowship and good food.  

Our military career has been a good one.  It was a life we enjoyed for the most part.  The time has come though to move forward to new adventures and playing the part of home support team as the next generation steps up.  Lex and Jonathan and Matrim leave for their first duty station later this month!  

Tis bittersweet as we are so excited for them but will greatly miss having them close.

....but hey!  We're retired now....and we have a travel trailer.....I think I feel a road trip coming on!

May your lives be as richly blessed as ours!

More pics and our garden now

So here are more pictures that Russ' mom took before we left for the faire on Saturday.    I made the pants for the guys, Mykhal's tunic, my blouse, the outer dress on Kerrie, and the grey belts with pouches and cup straps around our waists.  Modifications have already been thought of for the next go round.  So of course there will be more pix in the future!

And here are a few pix of our garden now.

There's just one huge tomato plant there in the foreground.  Okra plants are the tall things in the back, and that's gobs of wonderful red leaf lettuce in between.  Right in front of the okra our leeks are getting big and hidden by the tomato plant are the onions that have really taken off.  Such a difference from last year.

Rosemary is the closest bush, then there's the basil, and cilantro, and you can hardly see the huge parsley bushes below all that!  I didn't get pix of the sweet potato slips around the corner but they are growing like crazy too.

This is mostly watermelon with a few weeds thrown in the mix.  I think we will be enjoying LOTS of watermelon this year!  YEA!!

Beside the watermelon are strawberry plants that are starting to produce and I neglected to get a picture of our fig tree too but it's still alive and well!  We will have a great bounty of garden fresh goodies this year!!

Weekend fun

We had an amazingly fun time this past weekend.  We took our trailer up to Russ' folks house and parked in their LONG driveway.  We spent Thursday playing around in Dallas, Friday was our 21st wedding Anniversary and we had a big family cookout.  Then Saturday and Sunday we went to  Scarborough Faire.  Saturday we went in costume, but Sunday found us in more modern clothing.  Both days were a blast!  I will have more pictures to post later and some of our growing garden, but for now here is a quick taste of our fun....