Coming home

At home at last.

Despite delays caused by regime overthrow in Manas, a volcanic eruption in Iceland, a refueler strike in the Azores and delays caused by aircraft maintenance…. After 60 hours of sleeping in chairs – I am home at last! Warmest thanks to my wife Liisa’s former teaching assistant Sarah Wilson for this homecoming video. (If you are looking for information about the “School Supplies for Afghan Children” project, please click on the tab at the top of this page.)

What keeps me (the wife) going ….

From Liisa, SMSgt Temple’s wife: Rex is out today and asked me to “keep the blog warm” while he’s away.

Rhapsody crew during ballroom scene

I am often asked what keeps me going while Rex is away on deployment and the obvious answer is of course that I love my husband more than anything and I support him unconditionally on his mission. We promised “for better and for worse” – so this is my “worse.” I’ve gotten used to my “new normal” where every time he leaves for a mission and I hear him say “I love you” it could be the last time I hear his voice. But like so many other military wives I try to ignore that daily fear and go on with my life alone waiting for my husband’s safe return from each mission and eventually from the deployment itself.

But I am also blessed with amazing students who are an important lifeline and source of support or me. I teach college level print and broadcast journalism as well as video production.  Even though my students are relatively young adults they handle my husband’s deployment with such care and dedication that it times it brings tears to my eyes (and I wish some of my more “grown-up” adult friends could follow the students’ example).  And today is definitely one of those days when all the long hours grading papers,  putting up with the budget cuts, enduring fighting team members during “Edit Weekend” and other stuff that drive a college instructor crazy melt away and being a teacher is pure bliss.

Sarah Wilson - Writer, Director and Producer of "Rhapsody" and first one to say she had an awesome crew

My extremely wonderful and talented students Sarah Wilson, Sean Brown, Sealii King and Dan Nguyen & Co. from University of South Florida have won “Best Picture” for their short film “Rhapsody” at Campus MovieFest international finals in Hollywood. This is an amazing accomplishment by a crew of young filmmakers from a university that doesn’t even have an official film program. I truly hope some of you will take the time to watch their film (just 5 minutes long)! It’s truly amazing – they beat out 5,000 other teams to get this honor.

Click on this link to watch the movie:

Rhapsody by Sarah Wilson & Company

Here is a “behind the scenes” video about “Rhapsody” Rhapsody – Behind the Scenes

And here are photos from the sets Rhapsody sets in photos

I am truly blessed that Rex puts up with my insane teaching hours, the e-mails and texts the students send 24/7 and even cooks for the best bunch at the end of the semester for the “wrap party.” And my “kids” as I call my students are time and time again the ones who help me every day when Rex is gone – they are amazing and inspiring young writers and storytellers with hearts of gold. And to “Team Rhapsody” – I am so proud of you!

Team Rhapsody on red carpet for the finale