The Good and the Bad of My Day

In some ways today was just an absolute great day. I went to one of our favorite beaches, Gab Gab, with several friends. The kids had a blast! I snorkeled a little, but the waves were up and crashing where I normally go.

I didn't want to smashed up against the rocks...that would have taken all the fun out of it.

But for others in my military family, today was not a good day. Some good friends, Paul and Lenore, left here last April for school at an Army base - Fort Hood. Many of us on this base on this side of the world were thinking and praying for them today as we heard of the horrible events that happened there today so far away from us. As of right now none of us have heard from them.

Even if they are okay, I'm sure they know of some one who is not. And it just makes me sad to think of what they went through today.

Since the base was on lock-down, so were the schools on base. I know the children of Paul and Lenore go to a base school. When a school is on lock-down, no one leaves or enters. The shootings happened around 1. The lock-down was in place for over five hours.

That's five hours teachers had to entertained students while trying to keep them calm. This five hours went into supper time - I'm sure the students were hungry and tired. I can just imagine the melt-downs the teachers had to endure. How many movies can a class watch happily??? What did the teachers tell the students? How did they explain why they weren't allowed to go home today? How did the students react? How many tears fell?

And I can just imagine the chaos of parents rushing into the school as soon as the lock-down was lifted. I sure it took well over an hour to deliver every child to a parent - and to make sure a bus rider was still a bus rider and a walker had some one to walk them home today. Total chaos, I'm sure. If you have ever worked in a school office, can you imagine the phone calls? While all the parents knew their children were safe at the school, I can still imagine the joy of them being able to finally see their child.

But I can also imagine the pain of a child when they realize their parent was not okay. 13 people have died. While it's possible some of those had children at one of the lock-down-schools, all 13 have families....families receiving the incredible horrifying news of a death.

And the saddest part of all of this? It's a base on American soil.

We military families think - live - that we are the safest on a military base on American soil. How tragic that the enemy was one of our own.