Nutty reflections

I've been home for over a week and it's great! My reason for coming home, my new grandson made his grand entrance on August 6, 2012 weighing 8lbs. 6oz. (What a coincidence!) He is remarkable and already has a personality..he enjoys being up on my shoulder to check everything out and is so quiet, but sometimes it looks like he wants to talk- yep, he takes after me, so cute!

The first week at home, I stumbled around a bit. It was a culture shock. I flew on a plane (not American) during Ramadan and half the plane had children. My first thought was to run screaming in horror, then I thought how could I get a refund and just skip R&R. It was a 14 hour flight, good grief! So I did the next best thing and popped a couple of sleeping pills. My fears were unfounded. Those children were some of the best behaved kids that I've ever seen. In fact, I didn't hear them until breakfast time and then it was really only the babies.

The culture shock came at Dearborn's Homecoming. Some of the kids were rude, arrogant, loud and...what makes them think they can come to this country and carry on like that?WTH...parents standing by with their monsters out of control. I think maybe it's the rules of the country. They are so well behaved there. Bad children must be a capital offense.

My recent experience in Afghanistan has had the most amazing effect on my life. For example, the nut next door- or rather her nut tree droppings on my driveway doesn't faze me. They're just nuts after all. And even while she sweeps them on my yard everyday which use to drive me crazy...now I feel, who cares..they're just nuts and I clean them up. I'm fortunate to have a good healthy back and God on my side.

My good buddy that I encouraged to come to Afghanistan with me said it best, "I'd rather be poor at home than working in Afghanistan." Although I've loved my time there and I love the people and I love my job...minus all of the paperwork, I also love my family, especially the new little guy. I think he may be onto something...stay tuned.