The Birthday OPORD

1. SITUATION - Momma's 36th Birthday.
a. Enemy Forces. Time and normal household ops.
b. Friendly Forces. Friends and Family.
(1) Higher unit. Dad intends for Mom to have a great day!
(2) Gifts have arrived from siblings and parents.
(3) Facebook friends are sending wishes.
c. Attachments and Detachments. Benefield organic unit.
2. MISSION
The four other Benefields in Northern Virginia are going to make 23 March a special day Cammie, the mommie, so she can enjoy her 36th birthday without stress or undue effort.
3. EXECUTION
Commander’s Intent. If momma is happy, we may all be happy, but if momma ain't happy, we all ain't happy.
a. Concept of the Operation. We will cook breakfast and present the mommie girl with gifts before she gains morning consciousness.
(1) Maneuver. This will be a two phase operation with an operational pause.
1st phase is breakfast.
OPERATIONAL Pause is in effect during school and work hours.
Second phase starts with dinner and ends at bedtime.
b. Tasks to Subordinate Elements. Breakfast will be a joint effort with the following assignments:
Coffee: Daddy
Biscuits: James
Eggs: Carlie
Sausage (or bacon): Jay Allen
Plates, silver, and condiments: Daddy and Carlie
c. Coordinating Instructions. Gifts, cards, and candy will be contributed to the birthday display and will await mommie in the kitchen. When she gains morning consciousness and comes down the steps, it will be waiting on her.
Priority intelligence requirements and reporting tasks.
If Mommie spots any of the gifts early, report to daddy immediately.
If anybody is awake before 0600, report yourself back to bed.
No disclosure of this OPORD is permitted.
Timeline:
0600 - First call for all (-mommie)
0605 - Start Breakfast and gift prep
0645 - Breakfast preparation complete
0655 - Gift and cards complete
0700 - Awaken the Mommie Girl for her 36th Birthday
0701 - sing Happy Birthday
0705 - Breakfast (with the in-bed option offered)
4. SERVICE SUPPORT. Grocery and gift inventory completed by daddy 221800Mar2010.
5. COMMAND AND SIGNAL
a. Command.
(1) Daddy has command (until Mommie wakes up).
(2) Family HQs will remain with mommie.
(3) Alternate command post located with daddy and passes to Carlie in case of emergency.
b. Signal.
(1) Normal phone numbers and signals in effect.
(2) Listening silence, if applicable (and possible).
(3) Code words - Happy Birthday!


ACKNOWLEDGE:
HOME DADDY
HOUSEHOLD COMMANDER

Spring Break for Josh's Car

A friend of mine had to take her son's car from him for a semester, so I offered to test drive it and make sure it was ok for her son to drive when he got it back.  I took Josh's car on spring break to so he would know it was having fun even without him. I sense that Josh might see this differently, so I wrote "STOLEN" on the car in his honor.

 
This stolen car helped me get to a missions event in Virginia Beach were I spoke to the group about World Vision.  Virginia Beach is nice, but it's more fun when it is warm and when Cammie can join me. Everything seemed a little off on this trip - I had to actually go in to work at Norfolk and then had the misfortune of failing to notice (until I left) that the Chinese Restaurant where I took my dinner was next door to an animal clinic- that just raises too many questions.  I even went to the wrong church and started sharing World Vision with the wrong group, but they helped get back on track and to the right church.  The kids I (finally) spoke to looked tired and I'm not sure I kept their interest, but I guess its possible all those text messages they were sending while I was speaking were just to tell their friends how awesome World Vision is.  I still feel bad about yelling at the little girl who yawned, but there was no more yawning after that, so I guess it worked. The kids joined in the fun with Josh's car, too.  They thought it was really neat that Josh's car got to go on spring break. 



I also got Josh's car a souvenir flip flop air freshener before we drove home. That was a good call because I needed some deep breaths after I saw a lady swerve across three lanes of Interstate traffic and smoke her tires coming to a stop. I pulled over to help her with whatever emergency caused her to almost wreck the northbound lane of I-95; I was even regretting that I didn't bring my trauma kit because I knew something bad must have happened.  I hope she felt silly when she told me that nothing was wrong - her poodle just had to pee. Good gravy!  I would like to apologize to the gentlemen with the Texas Longhorn bumper sticker, too. It was inappropriate of me to wave my Alabama Crimson Tide hat at you and roll down my window and yell, "ROLL TIDE! ROLL TIDE!" at you, but it was good stress relief after the poodle lady incident.

I got the car back safe, all cleaned up, and ready to go home.

It was a great weekend for Josh's car and me! Maybe we can do it again sometime!