What's Cookin?: Memorial Day has a brand new meaning.

This is our first Memorial Day where I really understand and truly appreciate this holiday. David has been in the military for over a year now, and we have been living on Fort Bragg for 10 months. We really are a military family now and it really kind of hit me this weekend. Memorial Day used to be a day we spent at the lake every year as a kid celebrating the beginning of Summer, the heat, the water, the grilling, the fun. But this year as I sat surrounded by new friends, being far from home and family, the commitment that my husband has made to our country hit me. Many people don't stop to think that freedom is not free, that some people gave up everything for that freedom. There are so many sacrifices made for us to have freedom. Not just the sacrifice of life, but there are many other sacrifices that military members and their families make every day. My girlfriend Jess said good bye on Friday to her husband Charlie for the next year. They have a 4 year old Jayden, a 10 month old Lily, and she is pregnant again due in October. They are sacrificing their family for our freedom. My friend Carrie has been without her husband Dan for the last year, they have 2 kids Claire and Grant who have missed their daddy every night for the last year. There is Brooke, whose husband is Matt, they have Nate, Tatem, and Caleb. My friend Laura will say goodbye to her husband John next month and their children Brooke, Mickenzie, and Gavin will also be without their dad for the next year. All of these strong women that I am surrounded by are facing my biggest fear right now, with amazing strength and resilience. I am lucky enough to say at this point that I do not know anyone that has given his/ her life for our freedom but when David joined the military last year my chances for that went up dramatically. I pray that God keeps my family and friends safe, and that His will be done in our country and military. I celebrate this day and appreciate the sacrifice of our men and women with a humbled heart and a new understanding of what this day means.

Our week was pretty normal, David had a jump on Tuesday night and didn't make it home until 6am. Both girls (and dogs) slept with me of course and kicked me out of the bed all night! Thursday he had a softball game and we had fun watching him and hanging out with the Tric's. We decided that it would be a "Farklin' Memorial Day Weekend." For those of you who have never played Farkle, let me explain... Farkle is a dice throwing game you play until 10,000. It's lots of fun, but we decided that we would play a 3 day long game up to 100,000 and each of the couples would take a night hosting game night. We took Friday, The Hermann's took Saturday, and the Tric's took Sunday. We didn't actually make it to 100,000, we finally called the game at 80,000 and Hermann won. Sunday before we finished up our farkle game the girls spent the afternoon on the Tric's neighbor's waterslide. They had a blast!

Fajitas at fiesta farkle night.