Remembrance Day

This is a photo that I am guessing my great-grandfather sent to his future wife at home. On the reverse of this photo, it says,"Heavy Marching Order. We have to carry this outfit on Route Marches. It only weighs 65 pounds. Nothing when you get used to it. Taken after 20 mile route march."

The kids' school is doing a slideshow today, we had to submit photos of family who had served. Because we live in a community that is home to a military airbase, many of the children at the school submitted photos of their parents who are currently serving, and many had photos of generations of family members who have served. Damon really wanted to participate and since he has a newfound fascination with the history of WW1 and WW2 he wanted to show his family's participation in both of those wars, so he among many old military photographs chose this photo of my great-grandfather from WW1, and another one of 3 of my great-uncles, brothers (another of their brothers served in the marines and can be seen in a separate photograph)from WW2. Luckily all of these men returned safely, while others did not.

Late last week, I made a small donation at a store and picked up some poppies for the kids coats. Now keeping them on their coats is another story.

This morning, we had another chaotic morning of trying to get 4 of them (Hanna doesn't go to school today) out of the door to meet the bus at the end of our driveway by 7:20. Kira was up and ready with plenty of time. She went out and waited by the road with her older brothers. Griffin and I closed the door relieved that they had all made it to the bus in time. I turned my mind to changing Griffin's diaper. Then Kira came running up the driveway and knocked on the door. She was in a panic, "My poppy came off, I need to find it. It's Remembrance Day and Mrs. M told us we needed to remember our poppies." She ran around looking for it, while I went and grabbed the poppy from my own coat to put on hers. As this was happening, the bus arrived. The boys got on and with Kira running down the driveway the bus pulled away. One of the cars stopped behind the bus started honking it's horn, but the bus driver didn't notice and continued on. Kira came into the house with tears streaming down her face.

"This is the worst day EVER. It's Remembrance Day and I missed the bus," she wailed.

"I told her, it is a great day. It's Remembrance Day and YOU remembered to wear your poppy. I can drive you to school," I told her.

I started walking down the hall to get Griffin, Hanna and myself dressed for the drive into town, when somebody knocked on my door. When I open the door, it's Kira's adorable teacher, Mrs. M. She was the one honking her horn for the bus driver's attention. She offered to drive Kira to school. Kira adores this teacher, so I knew that she would love driving in to school with her. I explained that Kira was ready for school on time but had run back in to get her poppy. She laughed and said, "I have poppies to give out to all of the kids."

Kira hopped into the backseat of her teacher's car just beaming. I realize that now Kira's teacher (who I should note is a tiny adorable thing dressed up in heels and stylish business attire, a perfect makeup job and her long blonde hair has been styled in loose curls) has just seen me in my pyjamas, my hair to my waist hasn't been brushed and I've got a poopy baby on my hip. *sigh*