Easter kinda fizzled this year! (So far...)

This picture is from last year. This year we have been so distractingly busy that I FORGOT to have the kids use the Easter egg dyes! Not to mention that Owen is not even going to be home for most of Easter this year! He has to work a CQ shift.

For those of you who are not or have not been a military family, that means that he will spend the majority of his day sitting on his tushy waiting for someone to call with a problem that needs a solution, like "Hi this is Private Joe and I just got in a car accident and they took me to a non military hospital cause I was unconscious... but now I am released and I have no way to get back to the barracks cause my wallet was in my car, which was totalled, and so I have no money for a cab, and no car! Can someone come get me?" or things like " this is Mrs Joe, Private Joe is my son. I know that he was supposed to come back from leave today, but he slipped on our way to the airport and broke his tibia. He is currently in the local hospital in traction. So I don't think he will be back for a while. I didn't know who else to call so he didn't get into trouble. Can you please help me?" If any situation like those (or any other random reason someone might call the barracks to reach a soldier) happens, it will be his job to contact the right person who needs to know. Also, the non-phone related part of his job, it is his job to log when people who are confined to the barracks try to leave without permission, and stop soldiers from bringing "up" girls they picked up wherever. The barracks are not a hotel room, after all.

Now, I think it really sucks that of all the single people in Owen's unit, who are here and eligible to work a CQ shift, Owen will be the one working on Easter Sunday! What am I supposed to do though? I could have gone and talked to a chaplain, and asked for help. I could have gone straight to his first sergeant and made a fuss. But I didn't. Why, you ask? Cause Owen asked me not to make waves. They are very tolerant of all the time he has missed at work lately, due to my rough-ish pregnancy.

He did, however get the sergeant that will be working CQ with him to say it was cool with her if he came home and went to church with is family? (did I forget to mention that CQ is a 24 hour shift that goes from 8am one morning, till 8 am the next? But is only the full 24 hours on weekends, cause on weekdays the offices at the barracks are fully staffed with soldiers during the day and a person working the CQ desk would be redundant?) She is going to consider it as his lunch break. I decided that was good enough for me, since we cant get to church without Owen, cause I can't drive till after Liam gets here.

We will be celebrating Easter though! I have baskets for each of the kids, which I will share with you all later, I promise! And, since I will need things to keep the kids occupied while I am struggling to keep them cheerful while Daddy is missing yet another holiday, (I am not complaining to hard. He could be in a war zone, and not only missing a holiday, but also in danger!) I am going to have them dye the Easter eggs after we get home from church. Then, if Owen gets to come home and have dinner with us, we will do the Easter egg hunt while daddy is home. We aren't teaching the kids about the Easter bunny anyways!

Now, after all of that, as you may have noticed I read a lot of other peoples blogs. One such blog is The Panopticon. In 2006 he shared a story about an Easter from his childhood that made me laugh so hard that I almost wet myself. So in the spirit of cheering this post up (since I didn't intend for it to sound complain-y) please follow the link to his blog post and read it. It is a WRONG story about Easter. It is funny in much the same way that America's Funniest Home Videos is funny! You have been warned! ENJOY!

The Panopticon: Rotten Egg