Casing Ceremony

WOO! It's been a week! And of course by "a week," I mean "more than your typical 7 days of calendared time."

The battalion cased their colors this week. Before a unit deploys, they hold a special ceremony and basically put their flags away in preparation for the trip overseas. Each company has their own flag, and the battalion has their own as well. "Case" means "put away, like in a little case," and "colors" refers to the flags. This has been your educational military moment of the week.

Because my husband is a leader in his unit, he gets to do important things like stand in the front, and roll up the flag. He makes me so proud.

Really though, it was a very nice ceremony, and I only cried a teeny bit one time. I went up high in the stadium to get a bird's eye shot of all the soldiers, and it was sobering to see them all standing there and think that some of them might not return. But you have to learn how to shut those thoughts off when they come, or they will consume you.

After the ceremony, the local minor league baseball team invited the whole brigade up for a BBQ and night at the game. While it wasn't exactly riveting baseball, we did have fun getting some autographs, eating some BBQ, and hanging out together. It looks like we were the only people there, but we were just the first ones in our seats. The stadium was actually full...eventually...

And of course, a SERIOUS highlight was when we got some screen time. BIG SCREEN time. We were basically famous for 18 seconds.

It's been an eventful week. My relationship with the Army is absolutely a love/hate one. I love the tradition, the strength, the pride, the purpose... but I hate how hard it is to support a soldier. This week, I'm thankful for the family time they have provided us. We have had some really special talks with all of our kids, and have felt peace and love in what should, by all means, be a time of stress and chaos. Finding the good...