thankful month: day 19

I am grateful for our Army friends -- amazing people who I probably wouldn't know if my husband hadn't joined the United States Army Reserve. I definitely would not have spent a Friday night hanging out in L.A. with about seven other women otherwise. (When we were indecisive, it was fun for me to be able to convince them to try the Brazilian restaurant. Our soldiers finally arrived about midnight . . .) We're not super close to the people/families in his unit -- well, I'm not -- but I appreciate these connections. I'm glad we can share things on an online social network. I know my husband misses spending a lot of time with these friends. Some day I want to meet the man he lived with for most of his time in Iraq. They were pretty different in some ways, but learned that a Latter-day Saint and a Catholic could be best buddies. I have enjoyed traveling to meet with soldiers and their family members from all over the country, and I look forward to doing it again!

I never did post this photo on my blog. It was Veterans Day 2009, during our husbands' second deployment. (It was like the first time for these girls, because they didn't meet their husbands until after their first deployment.) Chili's gave us a discount on our lunch. We went shopping for baby clothes afterward -- for our three babies born within about five months of each other.