My Septemer 11 Post

This deserves a post all of its own.

I can still remember exactly what I was doing. My boys were only 1.5 and 3. The girls were not even a thought in my mind. My dad had called me early that morning to tell me that he was going to be dropping something off at our house. He needed me to meet him outside. I just happened to turn the tv on right after the first plane hit. I just remember sitting on my couch thinking oh my, that what was going on was just awful. Then I remember seeing that second plane hit the tower. Watching it slam into the side. Watching people jumping out of buildings. I sat on my couch and I cried. I didn't know how much that day would change our lives. I remember walking out to my dad's car to grab what he was bringing over and telling him that a second plane had just hit the other tower. That this wasn't an accident. This ISN'T a crime. This was an act of war. I had to be at work that day at 1. I was on the phone with my boss. She was running back and forth between our office and the electronics department, so that she could see what was going on tv. I was trying to see if I was going to be going into work that day. They told me to come in, but that the entire mall was going to be shutting down early. I got to work at 1, and the parking lot at the mall was eerily empty except for the few shoppers and the employees. Our phones didn't ring all day except for our families checking on us. I worked for a travel agency that was in a department store at that time. They decided to close our store at 6 PM that evening. Nobody was getting any work done. Everybody was still standing around the tvs in the electronics department. It was either a hush or whispers. Except for the one rude lady who came upstairs to the customer service department who was irate that the store was closing early. Thanks to our beloved store manager who told the woman to put back all of her stuff and get out of his store. That he cared more about his employees than he did her little bit of money. I remember going home and hugging my boys and Hubster a little tighter that night. I did have to go back to work the next day, but all we did was cancel trips and try and get people home. The stories that were told by our customers about the empty airports, and the woman who was at the Luxor who said that they sat in their room that day and watched the planes land one after another after another until the last one landed. The skies over Vegas were silent.

My husband had served in the Army for 3 years. The attacks were the catalyst that he needed to get back into the military. He signed up for the Navy Reserves on our anniversary, December 19, 2002. He struggled with the decision for a while. He was torn between Active Duty and Reserves. He had a wonderful reserve recruiter who actually called me to verify that I understood that it was never an if but a when would he be activated to serve our country. We went through our first deployment in 2005 and 2006. Now, we are working on our second, and already being told when the third is going to be.

I will never forget that day. Our family lives the reprecussions of that day everyday.