Homecoming Emotions & Memories

As I was sitting this morning writing in my journal, I started to replay yesterday.  It was a great day for the most part but I admit I had a few hours where I felt completely overwhelmed with emotion over something that could be considered silly.  I went to a dear friend's homecoming to take pictures and then got home and was so excited to go through them and get them uploaded for her when I opened my camera and saw that there was no SD card.  I was DEVASTATED, to say the least.  I cried, I was so heartbroken.  Thankfully Kevin had been with me and took some great video and I was still able to put together a video but I was still so upset. 

Later I finally sent a text to my friend to let her know what had happened and how sorry I was.  She was so forgiving (as I expected her to be even though I still felt horrible).

I started to analyze what made me so upset about this that it brought me to laying in my bed in tears.  It comes down to all the emotions tied into this lifestyle.  I wanted to capture a precious moment for them and didn't.  But as I reflected some more I thought back to yesterday morning as I arrived at the gym where the homecoming was held and remembered the flood of memories that hit me as I walked in the door.  I have pictures from the last few homecomings for our family but what I fail to remember is the memories that are etched forever in my heart.  They are still as clear as if yesterday was my own homecoming.  I remember the smiles, the tears, the feelings.  I remember it all and while it has been a blessing to come across a picture every now and again, I can pull up those memories whenever I want.  I hope the same can be true for my sweet friends.

And if not, at least we were able to get this short video for them.  I love you Lopez Family, thank you for allowing me to share in your special moments.

362 Days DONE

 Take that Korea Tour!  We are DONE!  I thought this day would NEVER come.  Seriously, this separation was hard in so many ways but we survived!  The boys and I were excited to head to the airport to pick up our Soldier.  I think we were all a little nervous, excited, overwhelmed...you know all those emotions that flutter through your body at the same time.  One thing for certain though, we were READY to be reunited and not have to look over our shoulders constantly waiting to send him back.

We barely got to the airport on time because he told us his plane was arriving almost 40 minutes later than it actually did.  We took advantage of driving to the "big" city to get the boys some school shoes and were only in the mall for about 20 minutes but had we lingered even a few minutes longer we would have missed Kevin walking down the security ramp.

The boys were all about making signs but then got a bit self-conscious when we got to the airport and they realized that it was slightly different than standing with hundreds of other families on a field or in a gym on post.  Michael didn't care and once they saw their dad, the other boys didn't care either.  Kevin started crying as soon as he saw us which made people watching us start to cry.  I guess they were confused until they read the signs the boys had because Kevin wasn't in uniform. 

It felt so good to be together again.  Now I just have to remember that homecoming is an event and reintegration is a process!  Happy Days for now...The Albrecht Squad is reunited!!!

Freedom Friday: Welcome Home!

Last night was our son's final concert of the year with the high school band.  Like always the band did a magnificent job.  As much as I want to say the highlight of the evening was the music (trust me it was good, really good!), what got to all of us in the audience was when the seniors were being honored and one girl was skipped over.  I'm sure she was wondering if the band director knew his alphabet when he skipped over the T's and went on to the W's.  She was the last girl standing when he said he hadn't forgotten her, announced her name and then mentioned that someone had come a long way to see her.  You can see what happened next HERE.

I probably should have told you to grab a tissue beforehand!  I tell you, this Military lifestyle is something special, especially when you get to witness moments like this!

Welcome Home SSG Taylor!

Wonderful Homecoming!

Today I got to attend a wonderful homecoming for one of my favorite families. I may have mentioned before that I am a homecoming crasher...I seriously LOVE Military Homecoming ceremonies! I teach about such events in a Protocol class and my students probably think I'm NUTS when I get all excited just talking about it. I admit I invited myself along to this one, I wanted to make sure that memories were captured by camera for this sweet family. I know how much I appreciated the photos I had from our homecomings and consider it a blessing.

I really can't describe the emotions you feel when you attend a homecoming, even when it's not your own. I may have cried more than some of the families in attendance, I'm seriously an emotional sap. But anyway, I love homecomings, have I mentioned that?

I loved the excitement of the kids...especially the 5 year old who must have asked over a dozen times when his dad was going to be there! That time when 10 minutes feels like ETERNITY is so frustrating! I loved watching their faces as the anticipation was filling up all their little bodies...oh it was such a joy to be there.

Although I have tried, words really cannot express the emotions and joy one feels at a Military Homecoming, however, I did try to capture it in a video I made for the family. Welcome Home Mr. K...and God Bless your amazing family!

Heartwarming Homecomings

Share your homecoming stories! Link up with Heartwarming Homecomings!



I wandered over to my friend Hellcat Betty's blog where I saw her linked to the heart I have posted above and thought it would be fun to post too.

Kevin has been home over a year (consecutively...I know, I know..I can hardly believe it!) but I can still remember the day and the emotions.

You can read about our last homecoming Here and you can see a video I made here and then if you have time, click the heart above and go read other MilSpouses stories..just make sure you have your tissues handy....

Welcome Home My Love Video

Welcome Home My Love!

We are a family together again and we are so happy. We are so blessed with many great people in our life who have made this past year just a bit easier. We had a few of those great people at our homecoming last night and I couldn't have asked for better people to share such an event with. After attending 10 homecomings it was finally our turn! I was a bit anxious and giddy and nervous! Even though I was waiting for him, I could not comprehend in my head that it really was happening, my Soldier was home. It wasn't until I made eye contact with him that it truly hit me. I completely anticipated the command of Charge and took off before anyone else, LOL. But what do I care...I had to get to my Soldier!!! We are so blessed to have our Soldier home, we know that. There is not a day that I don't think about the many who never got to have this kind of homecoming. I promise to keep their legacy in my heart and do what I can to not let them ever be forgotten. God Bless Our Fallen Heroes and their families!Our great friends!

Charging to our Soldier!

I Love Homecomings

I think I've been to six homecomings now this go round....people keep asking me how I can keep going knowing that my husband still has a couple weeks before it's "our" homecoming. I love homecomings, I love supporting my friends and overall I love supporting our Soldiers. Yes, sometimes it's hard walking back to my truck without my Soldier but he is coming home and our time will come. I enjoy meeting the different families. I love watching the emotions from everyone. No one cries alone at homecomings as long as I'm there, lol.

Even though the routine is the same, I snap pictures and I love it. I love the anticipation of what is going to happen next. I have the whole process down pat and love watching the families get excited. I always say that I won't go back for another one until it is my time, yet I still go back. Why? Why not? Every Soldier deserves to be welcomed home properly. I have a lot of friends coming home and I love watching them reunite with their families. I just love it...take a look at the pics below...a small glimpse of homecoming and tell me...wouldn't you want to be a part of the emotion? It just doesn't get much better!!!

Welcome Home Long Knife Advon

Yesterday we went to welcome home our first large group of Soldiers. It was bittersweet since Kevin will pretty much be the last Soldier in his unit to come home. I go to support our Soldiers and my husband but it's so dang hard. I always tell myself I'm going to keep it together but then I fail miserably. I truly am happy to see these Soldiers reunite with their families but it makes me miss my own Soldier that much more. Only 5 more trash days and then I will have my moment! Here's a small glimpse for those who have never had the honor of attending a Welcome Home ceremony. Soldiers saying a prayer (notice the flowers they were given to hand to their wives)This scene made me cry...the little boy wasn't sure if that was his daddy. I just love this pic...look at these young Warriors!

17 seconds of pure pride...check it out!

What a Week!

This has been a very long week. It's been a good week, but a long week. I spent rainy Monday hanging out chilling because I knew I had a rather busy week coming up. Tuesday started with Army Family Team Building. We had an Instructor Course and that can be stressful just because we have few instructors who are qualified to teach so we are always on standby to fill in. We had 10 students this go round which is HUGE, we were very excited all week about that fact.

Oh back to Monday real quick...I was chatting with one of Kev's friends online (gotta love facebook) and he was kind enough to share with me a pic of Kevin from high school. I have never seen him with this much hair!

Tuesday also marked 3 years since we lost our friends Bryant and Jose. It was a very emotional day for many reasons but this was certainly one of the top reasons. Their legacy continues on because we will not forget.


Tuesday night, I attended the Volunteer of the Year Ceremony. It was a great event. I was nominated by Army Community Services. There were 39 nominees. I took the boys as my guests and we had a great time. The kids loved the name cards and loved being my "guests".
They also quite enjoyed the food. In the pic below are 15 plates but they polished off 17 total, lol. They had a lot of fun. Daniel was funny because he told me his cupcake smelled weird but it didn't stop him from eating it up.After we ate, all the nominees were called up and given their awards. We got a framed certificate and a really nice watch. After that there was a performance of "One Moment in Time", the song got me emotional thinking about missing Kevin, thinking about Nita and Bryant and Jose's family. Then I let myself look at my boys and they were just so handsome. I was sad thinking about how fast they were growing up. I was getting pretty worked up inside. So after the song when they did the announcement of three top winners, I wasn't really paying attention. I knew one of them and was so happy for her. When they called my name, I couldn't even really hear my name and certainly didn't believe it. I was a bit emotional, it was a shock. The boys joined me on stage to accept my award for Installation Volunteer of the Year and the Yellow Rose of Texas Award. The only thing that could have made that night better was if Kevin had been there. The story they wrote made me sound like a crybaby and had a dramatic flair to it but it was a decent article (you can read it HERE), I did leave active duty 10 years ago but did Reserve time after so I didn't don my uniform for the last time 10 years ago, wanted to clarify that, lol.
Here is a pic of us with CSM Ciotola, he is just the most awesome person...Here's a pic of me with all the stuff I brought home. The basket had a lot of great stuff in it, the boys had a good time checking out the loot.The rest of the week was just busy. On Wednesday, I had more AFTB Instructor Course and then we had our ACS Volunteer Appreciation luncheon where I received ACS Volunteer of the Year and a yummy lunch.

Thursday we graduated 10 new instructors for AFTB, woohoo!!! Thursday night, Nita and I went to the Sugarland concert. It was a FUN concert. I wish I had pics but we never know when they are going to let us take pics or not so we always leave the cameras in the car and when we do, we realize we could have taken them! But it was a great concert minus the bubble happy girl in front of us. They gave out bubbles to blow when their bubble machines went off but the girl liked to just do hers (and someone jacked ours!). But we did get our bubbles and I blew them later when we were on the top level of the parking garage trying to take pics of the capitol.

Friday was a PTA kind of day where we headed to Sam's to get some stuff, sadly we couldn't get the hand sanitizer we needed for one of our Teacher Appreciation week because everyone is freaking out over the swine flu and have bought out the hand sanitizer. We had to change it up but I think it will turn out okay in the end. I'm pretty random and different things strike me funny. It's been a long and tiring year with PTA so when we came across these bags, I chuckled and made some comment about the PTA driving us to using these bags...
Friday night the boys went camping with a friend of ours from church. His wife and I took the opportunity to go to dinner and movie for a girls night out. We had a good time and so did they!

Today, we hit the barracks to make the beds for our Single Soldiers who start returning home in the coming week. Woohoo!


So a busy week indeed but a great week too!