So, yesterday brought an early start to Kennedy's & my day; we had to bring Brian to work at 6AM. I woke up with a stuffy nose, so we returned home until our normal day began at 9AM. I dropped off K at the sitter, went to the gym, back to get K, and then to the BX complex as normal. For some reason, we saw almost all of our PWOC, Bible study, friends there. It was such an uplifting, positive morning. The day took an abrupt change for the worse around 2PM. I was in the BX talking to a friend when her husband called...she had to go. Not 10 min. later Brian called and said, "did you hear about the black hawk crash?" Well, no I hadn't. I immediately knew that it was the other Army unit on base and wondered if Christian, a friend's husband, was ok. I was trying to not freak out, but when we got home and I had no information in my e-mail I started calling. Brian's work had no info., CNN.com was talking about 5 dead, my heart was pounding, and I was shaking. I finally called another friend; she says Christian was flying and PWOC is praying in our building. The emotions overcome me, I get visibly upset, Kenners is worried about me. It is so weird to have someone you know personally involved in such a tragedy. The whole way to base I was praying that he would be alive. When Jess and I arrived he was alive, but his life was soon taken. Christian was taken to be with the Lord after the doctors had tried to save his life. Gosh, what is Liz going to do? Lord, please be with her! It was the most overwhelming, helpless feeling...we all wanted to do something, but we could do nothing except pray. In a room full of crying women we all prayed for God to grant Liz peace and comfort. We soon learned that another one of our PWOC sisters had lost her husband in the crash...two wonderful Godly families torn apart in one short afternoon. We all know that the men who lost their lives are with God in a much better place, but we still mourn for them. All in all 6 men lost their lives.

It is so weird, but I feel that I'm being selfish now. Not only did we lose Christian, but I'm not sure what Liz will do. How long will she be here? What will PWOC be like without her? These are selfish questions, but all I can see is Liz's smiling face. Just Wednesday she was smiling talking about how Christian still made her heart pitter patter and how him surprising her on her birthday was just the best. It makes me realize how quickly our world can change. Oh, my thoughts have been on Liz and the other families all day. Eating and feelings of happiness have eluded me today. I think I've told Brian and Kennedy "I love you" a few too many times.

Lord, I just pray for you to bring your peace on the families.

After about a month of being in Aviano, you have to go somewhere. The community is so small that you just need a change of scenery and a chance to relax. The adventuresome people that we've become called our friend and booked a hotel on a Friday night. The next morning we loaded up the car for a 3 hour drive to Turracher Hohe, Austria. We knew that the hotel was in a ski town and it was off season, but what we didn't realize was that the town would pretty much be deserted. We were the only guests at our hotel; we got exclusive use of the saunas and the heated pool. Finding a place to eat dinner was an interesting experience. The first night we were thare we got to eat in town, but the second night we had to drive down the mountain to this resturant that was tiny. We had wonderful food both nights. It is wild game season in Austria, so we had a mixed platter the first night. We couldn't really tell you what we ate, but we know we had deer meat for sure. The weather was much cooler than we expected, so we didn't go enjoy the lake as planned. Going to the smaller, less touristy towns really helps you appreciate other countries....we had a great time! We plan on going back another time when things are more happening. Here are a few pics.