Now that Nick’s been home for more than a week, we’ve been trying to arrange schedules with everyone so we can see each other.  It’s been working out well and my sister and her husband visited from Kentucky. He’ll be home for Thanksgiving and he’s now arranging it so he will come home for a few days at Christmas. During his time here, he’s been wanting to eat out as often as possible and I guess he misses that. And there are lots of nights where he’s gone. He has a hard time understand curfew, but I told him we all have jobs and school and he can’t be staying out all night. Midnight on the week days. He’s still 18 and he still must abide by house rules, soldier or no soldier. He’s listening, but he doesn’t like it. Too bad.

We now know that  Nick’s permanent unit will be back at Fort Leonard Wood,  MO, where he just spent his last few weeks for AIT. It’s good. He’s already familiar with the base and some of the people, so that should work out well. Besides, if Kathy and I want to visit, it’s about a 10-hour drive, which we can easily do in one day. We don’t like to fly.  It’s been nice having Nick around again. He hasn’t changed a bit. He still has the same goofy personality and I am relieved that he didn’t become cynical. He’s scheduled to ship out Dec. 9, but that could change. He might leave early to save a few days for a return trip at Christmas. He can jump in a plane for a couple hundred bucks and be home within two hours. So far, so good.

After hearing that orders typically aren’t given during the weekend, I was fairly certain that Nick wouldn’t fly home until Monday. But around 10 p.m. Friday we got a call from Nick who said he got his orders and already was in St. Louis. His flight departed at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and arrived at 9:10 a.m. in Detroit. He’s here now. He’s staying until Dec. 9. He looks good and is doing well. It’s good to see him. His mother’s doing a lot of his laundry.

Well, we have finally been subjected to the frustrations associated with the Army. Nick was supposed to come home today (Friday) but he has not received his orders, for whatever reason. Almost all the other soldiers received their orders and left Fort Leonard Wood for home. But Nick and a few others have been placed in a holding tank with all their gear while they sit and wait for their orders to arrive. In the meantime, my wife and I don’t do anything in case he calls. There is no way to tell how long this will take. It could be hours or days. And even when he finally does get those orders, he still must travel to St. Louis and find a flight that will take him to Detroit. So now we wait….

We’re still waiting to hear about Nick’s orders and where he will end up with his permanent unit.  He thinks it will be Georgia, but that’s only a guess at this stage.   We speak to him regularly and  he’s real eager  to come home for his two-week leave. He’s expected to fly in to Detroit Metro on Friday, but we don’t have any details.  On Thursday my buddies are heading up north for deer camp so I’ll miss hunting for the first time in 22 years. That’s the way it goes. I look forward to seeing him and catching up. He’s already said he can’t wait for his country fried steak at his favorite restaurant.

My wife and I attended a local American Legion meeting recently and we were presented with a Blue Star Banner. It was an informal, but very nice presentation. Since we’re new military parents we were not aware of the banner, which is a smaller, nylon banner with a blue star in the middle. It signifies an immdiate family member is serving his country and typically is hung in a window of the home. We also bought an American flag that is now hung in the front of the house off the deck. We’ve always wanted one, but never got around to it. Nick joining the Army  accelerated the purchase. We like it a lot. It’s hung above our landscape lights, so we consider that nighttime illumination.