Sunday, June 7, 2009

Weekend Update

I haven't been on here too much this week because I've been trying to get things done around the house. It has been going more slowly than I'd like, but at least I'm making some progress!


My planned Sit on My Tushy and Do Nothing Day on Monday didn't turn out exactly as I had planned. First of all, my younger son's IEP meeting was rescheduled for 8 AM that morning. So I had to get up as usual and be at his school by that time. When I got out of that meeting, I ran into some other 5th grade moms and chatted with them about the end of year events coming up. As I was talking with them, my hubs quickly scooted out the door to get to his "business" fishing trip. Since he had to leave before the bank opened, I had to go make a deposit for one of the travel baseball teams that he is the treasurer for. Oh, what sacrifices I make! (Actually, I can walk to the bank from where I live.)

When I got home, the dishes needed to be done, of course. Then I decided to do two loads of laundry and fold the huge mound of clothes that was just sitting in one of my baskets. After that, the dog and I went outside and watered our vegetable and herb gardens. (Well, I watered the gardens... he "watered" elsewhere in the yard.) I also hung out the load of towels that I had washed. I think I worked on cleaning up my dining room table that day too. I had gifts from my students sitting all over it. (I still need to do my thank yous!) I did get to read a little bit and watch my soap, but I did a lot more than I had planned to do! The truth is, I had a pretty relaxing weekend last week and didn't feel the need to "sit on my tushy" (not to mention that I felt too guilty to do so!).

On Friday, we kept our boys home from school and went to Reading for the World War II Weekend. It poured the entire day! We had to buy tickets to go to this event, and we had other things scheduled for yesterday and today, so we had to go on Friday. Due to the rain, they didn't do any of the reenactments, which was a bummer, but we still saw some pretty cool stuff. Both of our boys got to shoot a 30 caliber machine gun (with blanks). Man, that was loud! They had a lot of veterans doing talks and signing books. We got to meet several of the actual Band of Brothers veterans, and they signed a book for my husband! Here are the pictures.



This pic shows Clancy Lyall, Bradford Freeman and Don Malarkey.



Here are Malarkey and Buck Compton.


Here is my hubby in awe of the fact that he's speaking with Buck Compton!




And lastly, Ed Tipper.


Sorry ladies if you're not WWII buffs. Maybe your husbands will be impressed instead! There were tanks, jeeps, motorcycles and planes everywhere... some of them German. There were many encampments set up, and you could also see what life was like on the home front. We watched them do an old time radio show. It was neat to see them do all the sound effects! After the radio show, there was a typical public service announcement trying to get people to ration gasoline for the war effort. "Remember, if you ride alone, you ride with Hitler!"

We also listened to three of the Filthy 13 speak. They were really funny. Apparently, the movie The Dirty Dozen is based on their story. (I honestly thought that movie was a western!) Regarding serving in the war, one of the vets said, "We went in and did what we had to do. We don't apologize for it, and we don't brag about it." He also mentioned that 1200 WWII veterans die each day. So we're really losing this part of our history quickly.

Long post today, huh? Eric and the kids are fishing in Cape May today, so I'm home alone! However, I'll end this now. Have a beautiful Sunday!

5 comments:

Heart2Heart said...

I am a history buff and thoroughly enjoyed your sharing of your weekend. I would have loved to sit down with these fine gentlemen and capture the essence of their stories for future generations.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Kelly said...

I'll have to have my husband read your post. Surely he would be impressed. Glad you got lots done and hope you have a great week this week!

momstheword said...

My dad was a Pearl Harbor Survivor. He never talked about it much, not until many years later.

And yes, he is gone now, as are many of them.

Girl, I am going to get thru my laundry and then sit back and smile a happy smile, or maybe do a happy dance.....or both!

Sue J. said...

I loved Band of Brothers; we own it, actually. It was so well done! And that these guys provided the commentary in between was quite special....I understand why your hubby was in awe!

Glad you are getting a lot done. This is my last week to do the same. Just don't see it happening with teacher gifts to make, a long overdue haircut and the usual grocery shopping and laundry.

Guess we've had our fill of rain for now, too!

Andrea said...

Excited yet muddy trip. Sounds like an exciting day despite the rain.
Hope your guys have a wonderful time fishing.
Blessings, andrea