Best of luck to your son. Although I'm not a mother I maybe have a tiny inkling of what you're going through since my "baby brother" (Army, 82nd Airborne paratrooper and occasional sniper) spent over a year in Iraq in 2003, right when things were getting really "hot", and we didn't find out until afterwards that he was right in the Sunni Triangle where the worst of the fighting was at that time. His unit's job was called something like "leapfrogging" (can't remember the exact name) - they set up the bare-bones forward camps for other units to occupy, as soon as the other unit arrived off they went to another spot to set up another camp. They were never in the same place for more than a week or so. They were often ahead of such minor niceties like, oh, their food shipments, tents, cots, etc., but somehow the mail got through, including packages. My mom, sister and I rotated who sent a crammed-full package and who just sent letters, but between the three of us we sent enough stuff to keep his squad (he reached sergeant and squad leader in no time, and most of "his guys" didn't have anyone to send things except lots of "Dear John" letters) fed (yay for dehydrated hiking food and granola bars!) and warm/cool (black mylar blankets that folded up smaller than a pack of playing cards - oh, and wasn't THAT a coveted item, so we sent about 50 packs once and he used them as currency! - and evaporative-cooling neck-bands) as needed. I remember our dining room was the staging area for making up packages, crammed almost to the ceiling because we bought stuff by the case, and people were always confused by the weird range of items, from fly strips to caffeinated mints/gum (the guys would eat the instant coffee from the MREs while on night duty for the caffeine, but it made a lot of them barf). He didn't reenlist when the time came, since he knew that his unit's stateside time was going to be cut WAY short (like a couple of weeks, not months as is normal) and they were headed for waydahellout in Afghanistan, to do the same dang thing they did in Iraq. Thank heavens he didn't get caught in the whole stop-loss mess. Your son's unit may have an Internet mailing list or forum for family members. My brother's did, run by the wife of the CO (the only stateside civilian who had contact with the unit) and Mom and I joined in, and if yours does too, join up! We knew about casualties before they were announced to the public, we learned what "the boys" wanted/needed and what they didn't (like we learned that Gatorade mix - a frequent request in the summer - will wreck a Camelbak like nobody's business), we had ALL the scuttlebut. When we found out they were being sent into battle in inadequate body armor (don't GET ME STARTED, but I've heard things are better now) we ganged up, raised money, and bought a bunch of mil-spec vests to ship over. Eventually we knew the names of all the soldiers in the unit, and we'd find out who wasn't getting mail and send him something. And it was also a place where we could vent and cry and talk about how d@mned scared we were...

I live in the Madison area. My husband and I have been to two of the six Parade neighborhoods so far. In one, the homes were around the $550k. In the other, I’d say they were around $300k-350k. I heard someone mention that the lesser priced houses were a welcome addition to the Parade of Homes this year; that in years past, it was only more expensive homes. We have a 1200sf ranch, and we are almost finished building our new screened in porch. The next big project is the kitchen… and finishing up our single bathroom remodel. We enjoy going to the Parade of Homes to get ideas. We each bring a tape measure, and we constantly measure aisle widths, island dimensions, countertops, etc. It’s a huge help while we work on our renovation plans. I tend to look at overall layout and function. Here are some of my comments: - 9 of 10 homes have a great room set up, with a kitchen/DR/LR open plan space. The living room is often super tall (2 or more stories), and frequently, the only place to put a TV is above the fireplace. I’m torn on the super tall ceiling in the LR – I’m not sure I like the scale, and it tends to make the rooms feel taller, rather than wide, which makes them feel smaller in footprint than they really are. Also, TV is important to me, but above the fireplace is just. Too. High. -Speaking of TV, there is often a second TV room in the basement, or on a landing on the second floor. It seems like there is no way to close off the ancillary TV spaces from the first floor great room, which may or may not have its own TV. (open stairways to the basement, open railings to the great room, etc.) Really??? Is that cool? -Several homes had the kitchen sink in plain sight of the front door. In new construction (i.e., when all of the options are available to you), I’m not sure I like that. - Lots of pocket doors. I Love them!!!! However, I don’t love the dinky little hardware you have to fiddle with to get the teensy little handle thingees to pop out. There has to be a better way! -We looked carefully at the detailing in the screened in porches. Ours is DIY, and nearly finished. I was generally not impressed with what I saw. In just one of the lesser priced houses, we quite liked the detailing and quality of the work. In most of the houses, the screened in porches and decks were generic, regardless of the style or price of the house. (I like ours best!) -All of the 10 homes I’ve seen have a master bedroom suite on the first floor. It’s not uncommon to be able to lay in bed, and look straight out into the kitchen. (even in the more expensive homes). This is something I’ve been thinking about, because this will most likely be the case in our ranch home after our kitchen remodel. -In the majority of MBR suites, the closet can ONLY be accessed through the master bathroom. I am not impressed. -First or second floor laundry is standard now, which is pretty cool. -Mud rooms were an area that were greatly expanded in more expensive houses. In the less expensive houses, they typically felt quite cramped. -Yards seem small to me, in ALL of the houses, and the houses are close together. Kitchen comments: -For me, a 42” aisle is perfect. (our house and kitchen are small, so this dimension is important to me.) -For me, 12” overhang for seating at a 36” high counter is plenty. One kitchen had a 9.75” overhang for seating, and it was bad. -some of the islands are just out of control – too big! Too deep, too many angles in the differing counter heights. The above pictures almost always cut off the high/bar height portions of the islands. -One house had a giant pantry/storage area between the mud room and the kitchen. It was AWESOME. -Only the pricier homes had kitchens with lower drawers instead of regular lower cabinets. -I MUST have a landing space for the fridge – either across an aisle, or to the right of the fridge as you look at it. I saw one fridge that was all by itself next to a pantry closet, with no landing space within 7 feet of it in all directions. -I only saw a few prep sinks, only in the pricier homes. I can’t say I’m sold. They seem like a bandaid for poorly designed kitchens, IMHO. I have a friend who has one; she never uses it. -one kitchen (in a pretty pricey home) had a 32” aisle in front of a French door fridge. It was too small. -I hate MW below the countertop. hate it. Hate it. Hate it. (I am a heavy MW user). -Undermount sinks tend to be deeper than I like. -Several of the more pricy kitchens had GLASS pantry doors at a 45 degree angle in the corner of the kitchen, with the word “pantry” etched in. Really? Does anyone really want to display their pantry contents??? -Many homes don’t seem to have a formal dining room at all. If they do, it often seemed small (to me), and were typically near the front door, around the corner from the kitchen, with double doors that faced the great room. They seemed better suited for offices. But, I’m not a fan of an office that opens up in to the main social space of the house. And if it’s a dining room, I’d like better access to the kitchen.

What a great day. And I notice shirt sleeves, no jackets. We had hail here about three times yesterday. Maybe one of these months DH will finally decide its time to retire and we'll have some days to do some of those things ;)

No, Elmer, let me clarify. I was not talking about distance buying. I was talking about availability. Toilet paper is on the shelf. If you need a new appliance you are going to find that a hit or miss experience. You may be told that there will a wait and uncertainty if it will ever be available at all. The components of most appliances, most clothing and many other things are all dependent on foreign industry and that dreaded supply chain where the raw materials to produce any one component may come from one place in the world and be manufactured in another , before ending up in the place where the finished item is assembled and then is has to be shipped out to where it will be used in the world. In other words, it is a complex and highly convoluted journey from a raw material to a finished product in the showroom or on the rack at the department store or the shelf at Amazon. THAT is the supply chain that has failed. On the retail end of it ,all that we see is but the very tip of the tail, the gleaming new stove, the unworn garment, the brand new bluetooth speaker. Everything in that item, no matter what it is, has had it's origins in obscure places and from obscure sources that one can hardly even imagine. It is not all about the dance between the retailer and the consumer. There is much fancy footwork gone on way before that.