Best Friends Forevah! or my BFF's

Tracy, Becky and Mary

Here we are, 17 years ago (I think) in Corpus Christi the week before Tracy's wedding to Charles. I've known these two girls for over 20 years now!
I met Becky freshman year in the dorms at University of Oklahoma and then we both met Tracy a year later when Tracy and I pledged Kappa Delta together. Tracy has always been with Charles as long as we've known her. Becky and I took a little more time to find our soul-mates!

And no matter how long it's been since we've last talked or seen each other, it's always just like old times. Whenever we are all in the same time zone, we try to get together. The last time was six years ago in Savannah, Georgia. Since I've been overseas it is harder to see each other. I will always cherish Tracy and Becky! Mostly because of all the things they know about me and they still love me! Plus, I know a few things about them, too! We did a few crazy things in our younger days!

Tracy, Mary and Becky

Here we are 17 years later in Virginia Beach in July. A little older, a little wiser, a little grayer (well, one of us anyway), seven kids between us and no divorces! Amen!

Hooah Army Moment from Matt

(photo courtesy of the US Army Joint Mulitnational Readiness Center)

These are the news releases of what I was doing the day before I left for the wedding. See the links below. If the links don't work when you click on them then just copy them into the URL window.
This is an annual event we conduct with a German reserve unit that we have a social relationship with. We do a lot of things with them and they are good Bavarians and very supportive of us. In the pictures... I am in the second aircraft of the formation and the camouflage one (we call them the HITS or HIND birds) in the close-up. For anyone who may be confused... No this is not my normal aircraft that I fly. It is the one that we use to tag along and observe the training units that come here to Hohenfels and will be replaced after I leave with the new EC 145 LUH around 2010. The old Huey is finally being put out to pasture. She's been a grand old lady and a signature of US Army Aviation.
Obviously the articles are cheesy but the pictures are alright.

http://www.army.mil/-slideshows/2008/06/27/10410-us---german-army-partnership-air-assault-training-joint-multinational-readiness-center/

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63018&archive=true

http://www.oberpfalznetz.de/zeitung/1430545-100-im_teppichklopfer_ueber_hohenfels,1,0.html

Visit to Our Nation's Capitol

We had the opportunity to visit our Nation's Capitol. Matt's cousin, Elizabeth works for Oklahoma Congressman John Sullivan and arranged a Capitol tour for us. Here we are with Elizabeth in Congressman Sullivan's office while he was in Oklahoma on recess. The coolest part was getting to go in the tunnel system that runs under all the Capitol buildings. Pretty neat. And we got to sit in the gallery of the room where the House of Representatives meet. You know, the one shown on CSPAN?

It is quite simple to tour the Capitol; go to your Congressman's website and request a Capitol tour. Very worth it.

Up Close to the Liberty Bell

After the wedding, we had an extra day in Pennsylvania before Matt flew back to Germany and MK and I went on to DC. We hopped a train to the historical center of Philadelphia and went to visit the Liberty Bell. Normally, to visit the Liberty Bell you have to pick up timed tickets at the Information Center and then wait for your turn with a few hundred other tourists. On this day, we walked right into the visitor center without a ticket and was able to get up close and personal with the Liberty Bell.
We also went to Independence Hall and saw the places where George Washington and John Adams were sworn in as Presidents; George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jeffeson's copy of the Constitution. This wasn't very interesting to MK but Matt and I could have stayed all day. We also took a ride on a horse carriage and realized that we could use another day to see all the historical sites of Philadelphia. Sadly, we didn't have the time but would love to go back again some day.
More posts coming later about mine and MK's trip to DC and Virginia Beach!

The Wedding

We just returned from our nephews wedding in Radnor, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. The entire Fitter clan came from various places to see Aaron marry Stephanie. Our MK was a flower girl. She has been waiting her entire life to be a flower girl and her wish finally came true! Above, she dances the night away with her daddy. Below is a picture of her $85 updo. I made an appointment at the hotel beauty salon to get her hair done for the wedding. I never asked how much an updo would cost, my mistake. However, she looked beautiful and felt like a princess.

A picture of us before the wedding. The location was the Radnor Country Club in Bryn Mawr, PA. Just want to say thank you to Aaron and Stephanie, the Wilson's and the Kaplan's for a wonderful weekend!

The Lemonade Stand

Remember when we were kids and you had the bright idea to set up a lemonade stand? And you were happy with the few bucks that you made? And then you had to split that few bucks with your siblings or your friends? And you were still happy?

We had a community yard sale this past Saturday and MK and the neighbor girl Delaney showed entrepreneurial skills and opened a lemonade stand. I donated some banana muffins and chocolate brownie muffins and Delaney's visiting grandmother donated chocolate chip cookies. The girls were up at 8am with lemonade and snacks ready to go for the hordes of customers that were going to come through!

Well, we didn't have hordes of customers and most of the families that were participating in the yard sale never broke $100 that day. But, MK and Delaney brought in $102!!!!! At a lemonade stand!!!! Of course, there were a lot of sucker neighbors who grabbed their lukewarm lemonades and tossed in a few bucks, too.

So, MK and Delaney split their $102 and then MK was most disappointed when she found out she had to pay some overhead expenses. All of $8.

Here she is making a sale to a sucker, I mean, customer!

Toulouse, France

I realized that I have never written about our day in Toulouse, France. If you read an earlier blog, you'll know that we were stuck in Toulouse for an entire day before we could fly out. We made the best of the day by storing our lugguge at the hotel, taking a free shuttle from our hotel to the airport and then catching a city center bus from the airport to the downtown area. Not many Americans visit Toulouse so the French assumed we were British. When they found out we were Americans, they were very surprised and delighted and then started asking lots of questions! So forget everything you've heard about those rude French! It is simply not true................

When you are an American travelling in France, there is only one place to eat lunch; McDonald's!
No really, this was the last day of our vacation and we were broke and looking for a cheap place to get something quick to eat.


I wish I could remember the names of all the places we visited. This is the first Cathedral we stopped by. It was closed for lunch so we had to come back later. Look at that tower; this was very typical for the towers we saw around Toulouse.



On our walk, we passed a small park with some play equipment. It must have been lunchtime for the Toulouse kids because it was packed with student groups. MK wanted to play on this merry go round and these French teenagers were happy to oblige as long as Matt kept spinning them around, too!

This stop was another old church and former monastery converted into an art museum. Here we take a break in the inner courtyard where monks used to take daily walks. The museum featured architectural items from the various churches in Toulouse from the different time periods. The statues and columns were mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. There was also a modern art gallery featuring impressionism and post-impressionism works and marble statues. What impressed me the most was all the school children groups. When you grow up in a city next to a world class art museum, you get to take daily field trips with your art teacher and practice drawing the art that you see.Every city in Europe has a city center, or markplatz, or town square. This is the Toulouse city center and the building is a former royal residence. The town hall is located directly across. Toulouse was a delightful little detour on our travelling home day. If you're ever in the area, stop on by!