Magic Wheels Fundraiser

If you are a fan of this blog, you know that our family is a huge supporter of fundraisers, especially if they are for a great cause. When the Barkley Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) hosted a fundraiser at our local roller rink, Magic Wheels Fun Center, you could absolutely bet that we were going to show our support. I mean, who in their right mind is going to turn down old-school roller skating, supporting your daughters’ school, AND seeing tough Army coworkers fall flat on their face while trying to skate? Well, should be no one, because as always, we had a blast at this event while supporting an amazing cause.

Elaina is 100% convinced this was her teacher under the suit

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First Day of School on Fort Campbell

While the girls have been back at Fort Campbell for a while since I got back from deployment, Gabriella declined to have a birthday party, so starting school on post was the first big event since their return. And of course, this included all the fun activities that go hand-in-hand with the new school year, such as shopping for clothes and school supplies, prepping the house for the daily routine and homework, and triple checking to make sure that the battery on my car will not die on the big day. Here comes a short post on the girls’ first day of school at Barkey Elementary.

Obligatory “First Day of School” Picture. Nailed it.

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Back Together Again

About two months after completing my deployment to Romania, the girls were set to finish school and finally come back home. In the meantime, I visited them in Texas, moved houses during my reintegration leave, and took on additional responsibilities at my job. But like everything in the interim, it all just seemed like preparation for when they got back home. After a cross country car ride and two more weeks of leave, the girls and I are happily back together at Fort Campbell and ready to get back to being our awesome little family again.

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Homecoming and Expectation Management

Greetings from Kentucky! I arrived back in the States on April 9th, but have been extremely busy since then and have not gotten around to writing. Now that I have reintegrated with my family, friends, and coworkers, visited the girls in Texas, and finally have a little free time, I wanted to catch everyone up on what I expected for my return to Fort Campbell and what actually happened.

Cold, wet, and windy at the Transfer of Authority (TOA) Ceremony in Romania

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Welcome to Fort Campbell

Upon arriving at Fort Campbell, I expected to deploy immediately to Europe. As soon as I found out this was going to be delayed by two months, I communicated with the girls’ mother to have them visit the week before school started. Not only were they extremely happy to see their Dad again and setup their new rooms, but they were very excited to see the Fort Campbell area, where they would be living in a year’s time.

Gabriella did not want a giant cupcake… I will take her to the doctor to get checked out later…

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The Calkins Family vs. the AIM Marketplace

As stated in previous posts, the last two months have involved me working towards choosing and securing our next duty station, and it has been busy for me and little stressful on all of us. It involved me staying up late researching and writing emails, spending far too much time on the computer (which the girls did not like), and growing very concerned that we were not going to get an assignment that we wanted. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end, but we are all a little exhausted from the experience.

One of my Small Group Leaders has a Doctorate in Memes… so his work will be featured heavily here.

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