Jaesen phoned from Iraq

Well we have actually heard from him several times in short little calls to let us know that he is doing fine. The funniest thing he has told me is one day we were talking and he said he was drinking his 9th gallon of water. Now if you know Jaesen, you know that he doesn't drink water, coke, yes, coffee, gallons, sweet tea, definitely, but plain old ordinary water, never! He said that there were pallets and pallets around the base and the troops walk from pallet to pallet to get their gallon of water and walk off to the next pallet maybe a five minute walk and get another and they walk across base this way. Of course I guess you have to when it's 130 degrees and you are in full battle uniform. Their flight into Kuwait took them almost 24 hours I guess and they stopped in Bangor, Maine where the local USO members lined the halls as the Marines and Sailors unloaded from the plane for a couple hour pit stop. He said it was very moving to have all these folks out there to welcome them and then send them on their way. I am still waiting to hear that he is all the way safe and sound at his new home over there and will let everyone know when I do hear something. On a much lighter note: Savannah is trying so hard to crawl and doing a lot of rocking on her hands and one knee. Tristan is reading a lot of books now and loving school and Jack is creating wonderful stories for me about what he does at school during the day. School has started for me now too and there is a lot of reading, hopefully I can stay on top of it all and not go too insane here. Love to all!

First Days of School

Well the first day of school went okay for everyone. Although Jack did ask me why I was taking so long to pick him up. He seems to be having a good time, even though they make him take a nap everyday. Thank goodness for the rest of us!! Tristan is sitting at the same table as severaly kids from his Kindergarten class last year so he is having a good time. Poor Savannah is taking it the hardest being away from Mom for so long everyday. She cries everytime I pick her up. It makes it that much more fun to pick them all up though. On the up side, I have gotten more done in this week than I have in the past 2 months I think. We had our last talks with Jaesen while he was still stateside and are now awaiting word on his safe landing over in the land of heat and sand. The boys are taking it really hard and the misbehavior has been rather elevated the last week, but it is always this way during a deployment cycle, in another week all will have settled down into their routine of a Mom only run household. Please keep Jaesen in your thoughts and prayers and I will send updates as I receive them. Thanks!

Go Vikings!

Okay so maybe Savannah is too young to appreciate the Helga helmet, the official head gear of any true Minnesota fan, but someday she will be begging for me to pull it out for her! And until then I can look fondly at my pictures of her yanking it off her head in disgust. Ahhhhh summer is coming to a close and after the day we have had school can't come quick enough. We have loaded up on last minute activities though, we hit the beach with some friends, went to the base pool today which the kids had been begging to go to all summer long. It has a huge waterslide and although you have to take a swim test both boys passed with flying colors. Jack got a bit nervous at the top and had to walk down once but got up his nerve, and once he went down once we couldn't get him off the slide. It almost felt balmy here today at 91, but since we have had over 100 degree days almost constantly lately a drop of 5-10 degrees is bound to make a difference. Ja mata ne!

9th Anniversary

Well holy cow, who would have believed that Jaesen and I would hold out for 9 years without one of us killing the other? Just kidding, it's really hard to believe we have been together for 10 years. Where did the time all go? At any rate we haven't spent too many of these days together, but he still manages to send beautiful flowers from wherever he is. The kids and I are just going to hang out together a bit today and not do too much, just chilling out. Yesterday I decided to take all 3 of them to the Thomas the train saves the day on stage. Actually it turned out to be okay, especially since it was a day show so they could make some noise without disturbing others. And to be honest, they were some of the better behaved kids there. I must be doing something right! So thanks Ba for the flowers, I love you!

Well here it is Sunday night and I have nothing better to do than create a blog for our family. I am hoping this will keep people up to date with us a bit better. Jaesen was able to make it back for about a 36 hour visit this weekend. We had a great time, pretty much doing nothing, although we did manage to drink a bit!! We actually tried to celebrate our anniversary as it is the closest to our anniversary we have spent together in several years. We have 8 days until school starts for the munchkins and one week later it's my turn. Everyone take care.