Happy New Year

And blink! 2007 is gone in the blink of an eye. It has been a nice and fairly quiet Christmas break, a nice holiday from the stress of nursing school and all of the kids activities. Our fun and excitement of the Christmas holiday started with the explosion of the Jax chemical plant an hour before we left for the airport to Omaha. The shock wave hit our house with such force it shook pictures, lamps and us. When I ran outside I was certain I would see a downed airplane, but instead a mushroom cloud was rising into the sky. I felt like Daffy Duck watching the Acme factory go up in a cloud, wondering what was coming next. We soon left for the airport and all was good to go, no weather or delays which cut down on my stress since we only had a 37 minute connection in Memphis. No worries and we soon were in Omaha and it was cold. Jack immediately walked his suitcase right through a snow bank, he just giggled with devilish glee. The whole time we were there, sleep seemed just out of my reach-Tristan had nightmares about Jack and Dad, Jack couldn't stop coughing and Savannah decided to bless us all with three new teeth, those buggers in the back that are oh so painful. Halfway through we shook up the sleeping arrangements and were actually able to piece together several hours at a time. The kids had a blast building snowmen, sledding, snowball fights. They tried to mess with Weezer who schooled them on don't mess with Grandma or you will end up with snow down your neck! They also had a great time with their cousins, Sheridan and Eamon and built Pops famous gingerbread house together. It was a fun trip, sad without Jaesen here for sure. But on positive notes, my tree never actually tipped over, the saltwater aquarium still has all of our fish-alive even, and the dogs were so excited to see us that Merlin actually pulled Tristan over into a dirt pile. And as I write this it's 8:25 here in Jax, but in Iraq it's actually already Jaesen's birthday, so happy birthday my love.