Wanted to share my Husband's Retirement Biography

THE BIOGRAPHY OF MASTER SERGEANT AL FRANCIS
MSG Al Francis retires after 27 year, 1 month, and 27 days of dedicated and faithful service to country.  A graduate of OHS Class of 86; a member of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church (Pastor Rev. Gerald Toussaint) ; a son to the late Elvina & Freddie Francis; a grandson to the late Helen & Florida C. Hunt, Sr. ; a husband to Jennifer M Francis; a father to triplet girls Alyssa, Alayna, Alvina – twins boys Alsaiah & Alijah, eldest daughter Shelby, and a grandfather to Landon.

MSG Al Francis enlisted into the U.S. Army August 12, 1986. He attended Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Benning, GA and graduated as an 11B Infantryman.  In a span of 27 years he’s been assigned to Germany three different times, FT Hood TX, FT Stewart GA, Houston TX as Army Recruiter, Houston TX as the Senior Military Science Instructor University of Houston (ROTC), Human Resource Command (Infantry Branch) Alexandria Virginia, and the Pentagon in Washington DC as the Sergeant Major for the Rapid Equipping Force.  

MSG AL Francis’ accomplishments include: graduating from United States Sergeant Major Academy with all “Superior” ratings in every graded area; completion of every Noncommissioned course in the professional development of a Noncommissioned Officer - some with top 20% of class honors; Noncommissioned Honor Graduate of Airborne School; Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Houston Recruiter Command, a graduate of Bradley Master Gunner School and the Master Fitness Trainer course.  He has consecutively scored above the 300 max points on the Army Physical Fitness Tests, and has been a MVP on Army post Flag Football Championship, and civilian Pro Flag Division in the Mid-Atlantic Flag Football League, in Summer National Championship tournament in Virginia Beach Virginia.    

MSG Al Francis awards, decorations and accomplishments include: 2 Bronze stars, 3 Meritorious Service Medals, 4 Army Commendation Medals, 5 Army Achievement Medals, Good conduct medal 3 silver knots, National defense with Bronze Star, South West Asian medal 3 bronze stars, Kosovo campaign 2 stars, Afghanistan and Iraq campaign, Global war on terrorism expeditionary, Global war on terrorism service, NCO Professional development with number 4, Army service award, overseas ribbon with number 3, Nato medal, Kosovo, Kuwait Liberation Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Liberation, Army Valorous Unit award, Army Superior Unit Award, Airborne, Expert Infantryman Badge, Combat Infantryman Badge, Combat Action Badge, Gold Recruiter Badge 2 sapphires, and Pentagon Staff badge. He has contributed to the winning of three flag football championships while assigned to the Pentagon; a post championship while assigned to Baumholder, Germany; and 4 championships under the Mid Atlantic Flag Football League, Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area. He is a lifetime member of the National Infantryman Association, and was awarded the Order of Saint Maurice (Patriot Saint of the Infantry – Centurion level).   MSG Francis has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Human Resource Management as well as a Master’s Certificate from Villanova University, in Human Resource Management. He is a member of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, York Rite, Scottish Rite, Shriner.

Proud as a Peacock...OUR Army Retirement Ceremony

After 27 years of Honorable Service to our Country, My husband retires.  He loved every second of it, and I know he will miss it.
I want you to know, Honey, I’m retiring from the Army, too. Today, I want you to recognize the accomplishments, the friendship, the humor we had that made your career, our marriage, and our life possible.

We dedicated ourselves to the Army and to our family. We socialized with the best, the average, and the worst of people.

We adjusted to deployments and homecomings. We raised our children to be responsible, loving, and caring individuals who are very uniquely different but very much the same.

We struggled, prospered, and educated ourselves to provide a stable environment for our family.

We adjusted to the military life. We moved, traveled, and started over, many times.

 

 

There were no mountains high enough to stop us from climbing.

 

 

 

The kids & I watched you grow, advance, and share knowledge with those around you. There were reviews, midnight calls, & unexpected deployments. We watched you develop and then develop others.

We instilled values, morals and ethics in our children. We created traditions, experienced vacations, and we loved and cherished one another.

We did not go through life, we lived it, and we grew from it, and experienced it. The military made many things possible. The Army taught us unity. We embraced it and had FUN doing it.

 

 

 

Going forward, I want you to cherish all of those memories.

Remember the good times; do not focus on the negative. Remember what the military instilled in you, the respect you give others, the work ethics embedded, and give credit where credit is due. Take that with you in whatever you do.

It’s not what you GO through, It’s what you GROW through.

I know you will achieve whatever you put your mind to. Know that I am proud of you. Know that I want the best for you. Just like you, the Army, our life together, our family, is all I know. Change is good. Embrace it.

On your day, my day, & our children’s day, I want you to remember.

Remember we stood together as a family, as one. We stuck together through good & bad times. We supported one another & were happy. It was your passion, drive, and dedication encompassed with the support of your family that made your career a success.

Today, your retirement is about US. We together accomplished this as a family. Recognize it, own it, and give credit to the ones who loved, supported, and stood by you while you provided the very freedom we have today.

Together WE will retire. I want you to relish this moment, to feel honorable, a sense of accomplishment, to reflect back and remember and then I want you to exhale.

I want you to enjoy your day, our day. Congratulations!!!! You deserve it, so do we.

I truly am so happy for you and I will always love you.



 

Remember this guy, who showed up at the Ceremony

 

I am Proud as a Peacock, of You!

 

How Alsaiah's 45 minute Inguinal Surgery turned into a 2 Day Hospital Admission

 Daddy taking the monitors off before we get to go home.

 In the waiting room! 

Meeting the Dr.

 Ok, touching base. What follows will be my worst nightmare. 

We took Alsaiah in at about 8AM, after doing all the prestuff and giving him giggle juice, they took him from me bout 10. They updated the waiting room screen about 1103 started Anesthesia. I was told it would be about 15-30 min surgery, it was 1233 and finally after no updates, they said anestesia was stopped on the screen.

The dr came in and told us Alsaiah was fine, that surgery went well, and he only had to repair the right side, the left was normal. What he said next is a blur. I think my heart stopped. 

He said when he started to wake up, and they began to remove his breathing tube, he had a bronchospasm and his airway constricted. The irritation made His lungs fill with mucus and blood. He stopped breathing. They had to do CPR to revive him. Guess it was sort of like asthma? So they removed the tube when he started breathing again and he spewed blood and mucus. 

They did a chest xray on him, but that came back normal. He was still breathing really loudly. He was all congested. So the dr wanted to keep him overnight to observe him in the PICU.

I was able to stay. He was so cranky and fussy, he wanted to get out of the crib and take the tubes and IV and wires off. So after a very restless night, most of which I spent on my feet at the side of his crib, we were able to leave around 2pm on Thursday.

Alsaiah is back to normal. The scar is pencil thin, its about an inch maybe a little longer. They dermabonded it, so its perfect. He is playful, still coughing a bit. And I am thankful he will never remember this.

I am more aware of how blessed I am. I am so grateful for friends and family. I am so appreciative of my children and their health. Which I often take for granted. He was in great hands. Clear Lake Regional has some awesome people, in every department we met over the 2 days. Medical personnel are pretty special people, especially those that work with kids. I knew he was in loving hands. There are some wonderful nurses, my favorite nurse was Trish in the Pedi-ICU. She totally took care of my boy, and I.

Thank you so much for caring about us, thank you for your prayers. God listened and gave my boy back to me.

Alsaiah was Not Playing with her! 

 My last hug before I gave him to the Nurses

 Giggle Juice, - Happy Gas

Daddy kissing Baby boy.  He was scared.

 His Med List for 2 days

Feeling a little better..

snoozing

 Daddy Dr.

My sweet Boy...

 A few wires for monitoring.

 This was our set up for over 55 hours.

The Beginning of a Journey Thru Blog

The Francis Family - 2013

Pearland Texas

This is the beginning of a venture for me, I am not really savvy at posting and writing and sharing.  But I want to capture memories and have some way of looking back in one location. 

 

We have 6 lovely children and our grandson is on his way October 3rd is his due date. 

 

 

Will come back soon and post some news.

Nabi 2 Disney Limited Edition Android Review - Triplets + Twins = 5 Tablets to buy!

Over the past few years I have had my hands on many different brands and types of hand held games and tablets geared for different ages – and also found what does and does not work for my family. My kids have seemed to get bored with the “kid-geared” tablet-like toys and the nabi 2 is definitely more a real tablet than a “kids tablet-like toy”.

 I was really impressed with how incredibly sturdy the 7″ tablet itself was. AND the fact that it came with an ADDITIONAL $200 of Disney content. Not kidding – there is plenty on the tablet to keep my boys busy – and it’s not just all games either! There are tons of reading books, music, sing alongs, and all sorts of other types of apps that my kids have been enjoying. The content included is worth the price of the tablet alone so it is very generous in apps! There is a good balance of Disney characters so it’s really gender neutral!

It arrived in a fancy sturdy and well padded box! It of course has a camera built in and also has a mini HDMI, Micro USB port, MicroSD  slot, microphone, audio jack, and DC Connector. It’s also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capable. AND it came with a drop safe bumper which again, is normally an extra expense!

A lot of care was taken in developing the packaging and protection for this tablet and it definitely shows.

The initial image is of course Disney characters and you have to swipe the screen to unlock it just like a regular tablet. You may recognize the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean platform too. It has 1GB RAM Memory and 8GB Storage with the option of expanding via MicroSD up to 32GB which is plenty! Plus it comes with 2GB free cloud storage too! So there is definitely room to grow with this tablet! There is no need to purchase a different tablet due to storage space.

 

 It includes 6 full length Disney episodes (Phineas & Ferb, Jake & the Never Land Pirates, etc.), 50 Disney music tracks, Radio Disney Live, Disney Channel TV apps, 6 Disney e-books and other popular Disney apps and games. And that’s just Disney material - a LOT of other apps and ebooks are included!

The nabi 2 Tablet, however, is very different in that it has a pretty extensive parental control system (which I LOVE!). It’s like there are several “sides” to the tablet. There is the Disney side you can see above which is all of the fun pre-loaded Disney content, there is a regular app section where you can download all sorts of other android apps, the Fooz kids “page” and then there is the parental dashboard which is password protected where you can actually set limits to each app that the kids play, time limits, limits on what TYPE of apps they play (games vs educational), etc. You can also choose to reward them more points for educational apps as opposed to just “fun” apps.

Here you can see the time control settings – it’s a pretty extensive and customizable system. It works well too when you’re on the road to set a time limit for the kids so that the tablet automatically goes to sleep. Oh and if you refuse to buy more than one, and force your kids to share, the time controls will help remind them when it’s time to switch turns! We don't have such an easy time with sharing one tablet for 5 kids.

Here’s the ebook library I discovered on the nabi 2 tablet. It’s fully stocked!! I can of course add more but I REALLY appreciated the educational aspect to this tablet – and that I didn’t have to purchase all sorts of ebooks and apps to be functional out of the box.

 

You may also purchase some accessories including the KINABIs Letter Pack and the KINABIs Dessert Pack – both of which are a little pricey but good quality and built well. The back of the tablet as you can see above has a grid of raised squares which you can attach the rubber KINABIs onto to personalize it. It is a LOT of fun although I will caution you with the letter pack – there is only one of every letter so if your child has several of the same letter in his/her name they won’t be able to personalize it.

I also purchased the ZAGG InvisibleSHIELD for our nabi 2 Tablet which is scratch resistant and military grade – I HIGHLY recommend it! It’s a little tricky to install so if you want it to look perfect I recommend paying the extra $8ish in store to have them put it on for you.

SUMMARY:

Overall, this tablet is by far the most similar to an adult tablet for kids and by far the sturdiest. I NEVER worry about my kids dropping this – it doesn’t even cross my mind. In fact I love the cover on the front of the bumper box – it says it’s the “I only dropped it a little” solution! It’s a high quality built device with the option of extremely customizable parental controls. Everything from the design, to the packaging, to the little key ring and wallet card with nabi’s customer service contact information has made reviewing the nabi 2 tablet a pleasant experience. It includes the bumper guard and $200 worth of Disney apps which runs for retail price of  $199.99 at Best Buy  breaking down to a pretty generous package for the price. Having tried many different types of tablets and “kid” tablets if I could do it all over again I would have started with the nabi 2 because it grows with your kids. I think in the long run of technology with kids, although pricier up front, this is the cheapest option in the long run. Kids won’t “outgrow” their kiddie tablet as fast because this really can be used as an ereader and regular tablet even for your oldest kids, and it comes pre-loaded with SO many apps and options that your kids will be busy for quite some time before they are asking for new materials. 

Guys and gals, it's a big day for nabi 2 owners. The reason I chose the Nabi 2, was that you can get Google Play apps, and the days of rooting and flashing Google Play, or purchasing from Amazon apps will be long gone, because Fuhu officially rolled Google Services into the company's most popular tablet.

Since the nabi 2's release, the one sticking point has always been the lack of Google Play. This left users with Amazon's Appstore or Fuhu's App Zone (or worse, some third party "store" no one has ever heard of) for their application needs. Let's be honest here – there are many options when it comes to getting apps on Android devices, but all pale in comparison to Google's own offering.

All of Google Services – including the Play Store, Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, Hangouts, and the like – will be available on nabi 2 units after the update.

You have to open the Update button and check for the most current version, for me this was 2.0.0.  This instantly makes it a more valuable device, and an even better one for kids. It has long been my favorite tablet designed for children, so I'm glad to see its one caveat going the way of the dodo. Great timing!

 

Not only does it bring various Google's services, it also updates the tablet from Android 4.0 to 4.1 Jelly Bean.

In addition to Nabi's own curated App Zone, nabi 2 users now have access to over one million apps and games with Google Play Store, and over 20 million volumes with Google Play Books and Play Magazines. Kids and parents can also access millions of other digital content such as movies, videos and music. Google Mobile Services also brings an array of Google's most popular utility apps such as Google Maps, Google Messenger, Gmail and Google Calendar utilizing nabi 2 wi-fi capabilities.
Award winning nabi tablets are the first full-featured Android tablets for kids that deliver rich and engaging experiences in education and entertainment. It provides kids with a learning solution such as Wings Learning System™ (the first tablet-based Adaptive Learning(SM) system that tailors courseware based on a child's proficiency), and console-quality entertainment powered by NVIDIA® Tegra® processors. And super easy for me, all I had to do was Wi-Fi connect the tablet to our internet and download and update.  It comes with a charger and a USB. 

The nabi tablet is the #1 selling Android tablet for children, built with the most comprehensive set of parental controls, Drop-Safe® bumper, its exclusive nabi Coins™ and Treasure Box™, Spinlets® Plus TV and music stores, and world's first animated character based Time Controls™ that speaks to kids.

The kids will be so happy when they get home, they are fully charged and I even put 4-5 extra apps from Frozen, Despicable Me and more!