the highlight of my weekend: "unexpected visit" from my older brother.

when my older brother Marco was little, he loved "codopters." {that's how he pronounced helicopters at 5}

He was a Crew Chief in the Army and is one now for the National Guard. We found out awhile back that he was deploying to Iraq for the third time. Third time. And though we know it's his job and he understands that... I can't help but ask why him, my brother, again? another year? a whole year?

i hate watching my Momma worry about him (he is the biggest Momma's boy and admittedly so. lol) i hate hearing about a blackhawk crashing on the news. It's the worse when you hear it and your brother is over there. Your heart stops every time.

For training, we are lucky he is at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma. It's only a 45 minute drive to our Texas town.

As part of training, they have to do hours of fly time. Somehow, Marco must have talked his crew into making a "pit stop" ... because on Saturday they made one at Callfield to pick up (what he called) the goodies: Momma's fried rice and banana bread/little seester's brownies & oreo bon bons. The picture of him walking away with his goodie bag is my absolute fav. It was an unexpected visit, which somehow made it even more special.

it was literally 3 minutes we got to see him.
but it was 3 minutes i'm thankful for.

i have never seen a helicopter land or take off in person. It's pretty amazing. I saw my Pappa (retired Air Force) full of pride for his son. It was an AWESOME moment.

He even took us out for ice cream afterwards. It's times like these i still feel like a little girl.

Marco is truly my hero.
and watching him aboard his "codopter"... i realized i already missed him.

PS... A group of children from Church sent this to my parents. Adorable.