Somewhere between Ireland and Ft. Campbell <3

Paul is finally on the last leg of his trip home. He called me this afternoon to let me know that he was Ireland and that they would be getting on the plane within an hour to head back to Campbell. Since then, his time of arrival has changed from 12:40 a.m. (tomorrow) to 12:59 p.m. (tonight). Either way... he will be home tonight!!!!
YAY!!!

Goodbye Afghanistan!!

We have finally said goodbye to Afghanistan!! =) Paul left yesterday and has arrived at his next stop. He will be there for a little while longer before he moves closer to home! His flight time keeps changing, but hopefully he will be here by the end of the weekend. I will update the post as soon as I know more!
Please pray for a soon and safe arrival!! =)

Still waiting....

Paul is still in Afghanistan... I got really excited because I got a phone call from the FRG (Family Readiness Group) to let me know that Paul is due in by the end of this week. They gave me a 3 day time frame to expect him in. I will get another phone call a day or two before he should be here. However, Paul has not left Afghanistan because his group keeps getting bumped from their flights. I'm not quite sure why, but that's the Army for you. So... as of right now, he should be home by the end of this week if he ever gets to leave Afghanistan. I will keep everyone updated as I find out more.

Swimming in Afghanistan

It has been raining for the last week in Afghanistan, kinda like the weather in Delaware, and the weather is starting to take its toll on our Soldier. He is ready to get home and the weather is just adding to the frustrations. He has been moved to the tents in order for them to make room for the new soldiers coming in, and is sleeping on cots. Apparently the one tent he was living in yesterday flooded, so they had to pack up and move everything again. Soon he will be home and shouldn't have to worry about his home flooding! =)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and is safe travelling. I am in Delaware until Friday morning and then Im heading back out to Tennessee. There are a bunch of things that I need to take care of before Paul gets home so I want to make sure Im prepared and that I allow myself plenty of time!!

Working his way home...

Paul has begun moving his way towards home. He is still in Bagram, so he hasn't really started his journey, but he did get moved out of his room. He is living in a tent until he is scheduled to leave. His flight is scheduled for after Thanksgiving. He should arrive back in Ft. Campbell the following week. This is all I know for right now. I will keep the blog updated as I find more information out.

Nothing new...

Well.. not much has changed. Just the same old routine day in and day out. It has gotten me through the last couple of weeks so I can't really complain. I have been hanging out with Janelle and her family (our neighbors) a lot and we joined the local YMCA. I have been going to the gym everyday and cannot stand it when I don't get to go.

I painted an accent wall in our living room last week. It is a burnt orange and looks great. It was a bit much at first but its growing on me. And Paul loves it!!



I have been doing Christmas shopping the last couple of weeks, which includes buying Christmas decorations. I am soooo excited for Christmas this year... probably because Paul will actually be home!! I have a couple more things to finish up and get but I still have plenty of time. Paul is looking foward to helping me wrap all of the presents when he gets home. =)

I leave on Friday morning to head home for Thanksgiving. Most of our Christmas decorations are still at my parents' house, so I will have to bring all of those back with me. It will be a quick visit with everyone because, as of right now, I am planning on leaving Thanksgiving day to head back and get things ready before my soldier returns. His flight is still planned for the 29th, which is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. From the time he leaves Afghanistan, it should be 5-7 days before he arrives at Ft. Campbell. I will get a phone call with all of those details within the next couple of weeks. There's still a lot that needs to be done before I feel that Im prepared for him to come home, but he is more than welcome to come at any time!!

Paul is doing really good... their schedule at work has changed and he is now working every other day. He has most of his stuff packed up and is waiting for his flight home. I will update the blog as a I get more information.

Reintegration Update

I have been getting emails this week about Paul coming home. It seems like it is going to be an even bigger mess than when he left. I should know 8-10 days out when to "expect" him back at Ft. Campbell, however, that does not mean that he will be here at that time. Then 24-48 hours out, I will receive another email/phone call letting me know the details of when he should arrive. I will have to be there 2 hrs before the projected time because there is always a chance that he could arrive sooner. I am supposed to drive to hangar 6 or 7, and then catch a bus over to hangar 3. This is where the Welcome Home ceremony will take place. After everyone gets done talking, we get to meet our soldiers and spend some time with them (approximately 15-20 mins.) Then, they will be called back into a formation and will have to go turn in all of their sensitive items. I guess during this time, they will brief the families on signs that we need to keep an eye out for, and how we should not let our soldiers drive, and all the other stuff along those lines. After all of this, we have to get back on the bus and go back to hangar 6 to meet our soldiers again. At this point, I think I get to bring him home.
Starting the day after he gets home, he has to go to his Reintegration meetings. These classes are 7 straight days (even on the weekends) where they will do a medical check and basically counsel the soldiers. Apparently these meetings are only supposed to be half days.
According to these emails, Paul should not be back to Ft. Campbell until December 12th. This is likely to change a couple of times before then. Also, there is a chance that he will come in before the Army predicts. It is because of this that Paul will be getting his cell phone mailed out to him so he can call and keep me updated. I will be sure to keep this updated to let everyone know what is going on.

Paul has switched to days so has more to do at work. He has been keeping pretty busy, which I hope means that time is going by faster for him. He got his flu shot yesterday, which he does not react well with, and was starting to feel the effects when I talked to him last night. His day off is tomorrow, so he will get some time to recover from that. Other than that, he is just counting down the days until he gets to come home.

I started work this last week and I am enjoying it. I have very sweet kids and look forward to the time I will get to spend with them over the next 8 weeks. I have been working on organizing the house in my spare time and am starting to see a huge improvement. Im sure it will go back to chaos when Paul gets home, so I guess as long as the existing stuff is put away, we should be fine! =)

Wow.. it's been a while! =/

Ok.. So I feel terrible about not updating. I fuss at Paul for not updating his and then I don't do much better. At least it hasn't been 8 months! =)

Nothing much has changed here in Tennessee. They have been doing field artillery drills for the past week/week and a half and it sounds like the base is being bombed. It is just lovely! I have been busy with school work and training for my job. Im not quite sure about school.. I guess I will get in the habit of things at some point in time. The job seems like it is going to be a lot of fun! It is a bunch of emailing back and forth right now, but once I get to work with the kids, I think it will be worth it.

I have been walking with a neighbor down the street and it has been a lot of fun. It is something to keep me active and it gets me out of the house. It's nice having a friend two houses down! We signed up at the local rec center and go there on the crappy days to walk around in the gym. They have a weight room, but it all seems like it is from the 1980s so Im kinda afraid to use it. We are going there tonight, so maybe I will be brave!

Last weekend, we added a new member to our family! We found a free kitten and thought it would be something to keep Kahlua occupied. Her name is Reis (named after Reisling, the white wine).



Kahlua and her have soo much fun together. When I first brought her home, Kahlua was giving her kisses, so now Reis thinks Kahlua is her mommy. They are adorable!!



My friend, Amy, came to visit this past weekend, which was a lot of fun! It was nice to have someone else here. She helped me shop for some fall decorations, which was awesome!! I got a lot of cute, inexpensive decorations to make the house feel more like a home. However, the only thing I really wanted to buy was Christmas decorations. I am really excited for Christmas this year.. mainly because a certain someone will be home!!



Parry and Cindy (Paul's Dad and Stepmom) are coming out this weekend and then I will be riding back to Delaware with them. It will be nice for Cindy to actually see the place, and for Parry to see all of the decorating that has happened since he left. We will probably do some sightseeing around the area, and they are bringing some yummy scrapple to enjoy!!

Paul is doing great.. He is supposed to be reenlisting today. So more Army time for us!! We are pretty satisfied with this decision. He has found something that he truly enjoys and that means a lot when we are talking about Paul. He got to meet some celebrities this past week, which I am super jealous about. However, now I have a picture of my two loves... the love of my life and my celebrity crush, Major Frank Sherwood (from Army Wives)!



That's about it. I will try to be better about updating more frequently!! =)

Kiowa Pilot in need of prayers

I got word yesterday from Paul that one of the kiowa pilots that he worked with at Ft. Campbell, but more closely when they were stationed at Kandahar, received a bullet to his head last week while providing surveillance for ground troops. He is currently at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland in ICU. His family has started a blog to keep everyone up to date on his status and they are doing a great job with keeping everyone informed. It seems that he is getting better but he and his family still need all of the prayers they can get. Please keep the Stead family in your prayers and pray for a quick recovery. You can follow Adam's story at www.caringbridge.org/visit/adamstead

Got the job

I heard from the Ft. Campebell YMCA on Friday evening and found out that I got the job. The lady who is in charge of this mentoring position seemed very shocked that I asked her if the position was mine. She sent me all of the information that I need to get to the schools as attachments and explained that I will be in charge of accepting children. I get to place the students in the 3 different sessions that will take place during the school year. Training starts on September 28th and I begin working with the children on October 19th. I am extremely excited and have a lot to plan in order to be ready for the children in a little more than a month. It seems as if this will definitely keep me busy until Paul comes home.

The latest news with Paul is the same as it has been. He is working the 9 hour shifts now but still works during the night. However, the last couple of times that I have talked to him, he has talked about being busy at work. We are still waiting on a definite date to expect him home, which we have not received. We thought November 21st but then I heard that his troop isn't coming home until December 12th. We will just wait until we hear an actual time before we get excited and start counting down days. We did hit the 9 month mark, which means that there are only 3 months left until we hit the year mark. It has gone by quickly, but I would love to take it up a couple of notches on the fast forward button.

Lake front property...?

We had a huge rain storm this afternoon and I made sure that I was snapping pictures during and after. At settlement on Friday, we signed a contract holding the builder to fixing the side yard. We have discussed putting a ditch down the side of the house to carry the water from the street to the ditch that runs behind our house. I wanted to take pictures just to show people what the water does when it rains. And here they are...


**The water coming off of the street and flowing between the house next door and ours**


**The other end of the pathway.. A huge mess and a bunch of chaos**


**Our flooded backyard due to the water having no where to go**




As if that mess isn't bad enough, you haven't even seen what happens when the "ditch" in the backyard gets full of water!


**Notice how there isn't any water in the back ditch**


**Now, less than 5 minutes later, the water floods the ditch**


**The part of the ditch behind our house has eroded so much that we now get this everytime it rains!**


**And it continues on**


**Then, 2 yards down, it goes back into a ditch where it belongs**

After I took all of these pictures, I called the builder and changed my tone with him. I told him that when he came to fix the side ditch that he would also be digging out the back ditch. Before today, I have been very friendly and I guess I wasn't intimidating enough. Well, that all changed today! He told me that he will be here later this week to start the work (depending on the weather) and that we can walk around the yard and discuss everything that I want done. I feel very accomplished!

Operation Hero

I had an interview this morning with the YMCA on Ft. Campbell. Last week I got an email about a program called Operation Hero Mentoring. It is an after school program for children who go to school on base, and is 2.5 hours after school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I met with the director this morning after dropping off my application at the end of last week. She told me that she was very impressed with my resume and told me that she wanted to place me with elementary age kids (YAY!) at a diverse Elementary School that pulls students from every housing development on base. We discussed the program and she told me as much as she could. I will be in charge of 8-10 students and they will work with me for a 9-10 week session. They come to me after school and have snack, complete their homework, and then we have a discussion/activity time about different topics in the cirriculum. These topics include bullying, deployments, peer interaction, etc. She told me that I will hear from her by Friday to let me know that I definitely got the position and to give me the curriculum guidelines.
I am really excited about this job opportunity. It is a way for me to continue working with children but should not be too overwhelming. I want to really focus on my Master's courses and this should provide me with a chance to keep myself busy, while bringing in some extra income.

It's ours!!

We settled on the house yesterday at 2 central time. After a hectic week of trying to get things done, it finally closed! We signed a contract with the builder to make sure that the backyard would be fixed in a timely manner. About 1 hour and 45 mins after we started, I had signed the book of papers. I, of course, couldn't just sign my name, I had to sign my hubby's name too. Which means that I had to sign my name twice plus his name. And I couldn't just sign "Paul Evans POA Amie Evans," I had to sign "Paul D. Evans by Amie C. Evans, his attorney-in-fact." Then sign my name. My hand had a HUGE cramp in it! It was a huge sigh of relief when I signed that last paper and when I knew that the house was ours!! It was also nice when I saw that the monthly payments are less than what we get for BAH. Thank goodness!!!
Now it's just waiting for Paul to get home so we can get to work on the little odds and ends around the house. We are going to put up a privacy fence in the backyard, so Kahlua can run around without being attached to a leash. Also, we are going to do some major landscaping out front. The builder put in the cheap ugly bushes and cheap mulch, so we are going to build up the flower beds, to create another wall to keep water away from the house, and put pretty flowers in them.
That's about it! Now it's just a waiting game... waiting on my amazing husband to get home!

Sgt. Evans is doing pretty good. He is bored at work, and doesn't really have much to keep him busy. Therefore, he is trying to help me out and it is not working out very well. But its the thought that counts! They cut the shifts down to 9 hours, instead of 12 hours, which is always better. He still does not have internet in his room, so he can only use internet when he goes to work. That's the newest update! I will try to keep updating as I find information out!

Settlement time =)

Got word from the realtor this afternoon. We go to settlement tomorrow afternoon. So basically we are bringing in September by being first time home owners! =) I am extremely excited to get it done and over with. I'm getting antsy and I know Paul is too. Keep us in mind tomorrow afternoon and pray that everything goes smoothly!!

Waiting on Settlement

It is so exciting to finally have a nice day, without the humidity, so I can finally enjoy my deck. I was about to write this in the house, when I realized that, thanks to wireless, I could write it outside and catch a few rays. The house is coming along really well. I took a few days off and spent time with Karen and Christina, but I have been working hard on it since I woke up this morning. I truly wish that everything would just float to where it is supposed to be, however, it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
I got a text message from my realtor this morning letting me know that the specific POA that we were waiting on showed up in todays mail!! This means that we can now proceed to the final step of the house buying process; settlement. I am very hopeful that tomorrow will be the day, and that the house will officially be ours. I just wish that Paul was here to enjoy it all with me. He will be here soon, though, and will have a home with a huge garage waiting for him.
Paul is doing good at work. His unit is on the verge of switching to 9 hour shifts instead of 12 hour shifts. This will make everyone happier, I'm sure. 12 hour shifts everyday is just too much for the guys. They need some down time during theirs days. Working nights has worked out pretty well for him. He has been able to do research on all of the fun projects that he plans on doing at the house, such as the fence and extending the deck. Oh, and I can't forget all of the toys he needs for his garage!! =)
As for me, I am just trying to get as much unpacked before I start classes next Wednesday. I am pretty nervous about them because I am not sure what to expect. I haven't really paid any attention to the books I got because of the house. Hopefully that won't come back and bite me in the butt!
That's all for now!!

New House.. New toys.. New dog... New life!?

A lot has changed since the last blog. The biggest being that I am no longer in Delaware.. I am now living in Tennessee in our first house. I got the keys on Friday, the 21st. I was able to recruit the help of awesome family members to help with the move. Mom, Daddio, Parry and Nathan arrived Friday afternoon, after I had completed all of my meetings and we were able to get the truck and trailer unloaded in good time. After everything was unloaded and the big projects were put together, we made a trip to the storage unit so we could get the futon for someone to sleep on. We were able to load of the trailer and leave in 20 minutes. Talk about hardworkers! We woke up on Saturday morning and started all over again. Mom and I went to Lowes to shop for the house. I was able to find the perfect washer and dryer, which were on sale!! Thank goodness! I also bought blinds, the curtain rods, a cabinet for over the toilet in our master bath, and a cute little mirror for our bedroom. When we got back from the store, the men were making their last trip to the storage unit. All of the furniture was moved out before noon and they were even nice enough to sign us out of the storage unit, so now that payment is gone!! We got all of the furniture and started the little projects. Mom made a list of everything that needed to be done before everyone left me and everyone worked their butts off to make sure everything got done. They left Sunday morning and I didn't mind staying by myself because the house already felt like a home. I really appreciate all of their help! It was extremely nice of them to put their lives on hold to help us move. I also appreciate all of the offers from others to help. It is very comforting to know that we have so many family members and friends that love and support us.
After everyone left on Sunday, I started unpacking more boxes and then went to the Splash Park to meet Karen, Christina, and the kiddies. I enjoyed spending time with them and catching up. It's nice knowing that I am out here for good and will be able to spend time with them.
While I was with Karen and the girls, Paul called me to inform me that he had just spent a while on the phone with a German Shepherd breeder from Chattanooga. He has been researching German Shepherd breeders and found Sequoyah Breeders. They have a perfect female and male that were recently bred and they are planning on breeding them again in September. Paul was so excited on the phone and I just knew that we would be getting one of these puppies. I sent out the deposit yesterday and I guess we will be adding a German Shepherd puppy to our family in February. Here are pictures from the last litter of pups from Tigress and Wasko.


We are really excited to add a puppy to our family!

Update on Paul ~>
Everything is going good with our soldier and he has been switched to nights. This of course leads to long, boring nights of looking up information on German Shepherds! =) The latest news is that he is number three on the list of soldiers to come home. This means that he should be on the first rotation home. They are going to start pulling the important people out in mid-October and start pulling the rest out in November. It looks pretty promising that he will be home in November! Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!

231 Raintree Drive =)

We are on our way to buying our first house! We go to settlement on August 31, possibly earlier if everything goes smoothly.



I'll start the two day craziness from the beginning. My mom and I left Saturday morning around 9 with Sasha in tow. Sasha was visiting the week prior and we arranged to drop her off to her parents on our way out to Tennessee. We stopped and had lunch with her parents at the Cheesecake Factory and ate plenty for our ride ahead. It was really great seeing everyone and visiting for a while. We got back on the road around 2 and continued driving. Around 9, we stopped at a hotel just west of Knoxville. I walked into the hotel while a lady was arguing with the guy working at the front desk. They were discussing something to do with the rate for that night, but I wasn't really paying attention. When it was my turn to get the room, I politely asked about a military discount and he told me that he would give me the same rate as the lady before me because I had overheard the conversation. He told me the rate would be $75. I thanked him very much for this extra $10 off of what the military discount would have been. Then when we looked at the bill, my mom noticed that he only charged me $70. It just goes to show that killing people with kindness works best! =) Anyways.. this kinda gave me the idea that it was going to be a lucky trip.
The next morning (Sunday), we woke up way too early because we did not realize that we had not reached the time zone change. We got to Clarksville around 10 and were supposed to meet Cherie (our realtor) at 11. We decided to check into a hotel room and get situated and then took some things to the storage unit. It worked out perfectly and we arrived at the office a couple of minutes early. Once we arrived, Cherie handed me the list of houses that we were going to look at on Sunday. All of our favorites were in that pile so I was pretty pleased about that. We started with two houses on Athena Drive. These were the two houses that Paul and I were really impressed with but when I saw them, I realized that there was no way that the little bit of furniture that we had would fit in those houses. There were nice but super tiny!
The next houses we looked at were on Raintree Drive. There were 4 houses that were for sale because they were new construction. We stopped at the one Paul and I picked out and looked at it first (our home!). I walked in and fell in love. It was perfect but I knew I couldn't stop there. I needed to have other houses to compare it to. We went into all of the others and each one was a little different than the one before. The first was my favorite. After that we spent the rest of the day looking at ALL of the houses that we had picked out, plus others! We looked at over 20 houses on Sunday.
When we finished, Mom and I went back to the hotel and I uploaded the pictures of the favorites and sent them to Paul. It worked out well because Monday was his day off so he was able to look at the pictures and pick his favorite house while I was sleeping. He was ready to discuss everything when I woke up Monday morning. We discussed numbers and monthly payments and down payments and all of that stuff that makes my head hurt. We both decided that Raintree was the best house for us, but that I should go back and look at it just to make sure.
We went back to meet with Cherie and I told her that I wanted to look at Raintree and this other house. We went to Raintree first and when I walked in the door, I knew that I was home. It was one of those feelings and I knew that I didn't need to go back to the other house. I walked around and decided that we needed to go write the offer.
We wrote the offer and sent it to the seller and less than 2 hours later, Cherie called to let me know that the house was ours!!! I was soooo happy and I emailed Paul right away.

Everything worked out perfectly and Paul was able to be involved in everything. He called me multiple times on Sunday, and on Monday was able to be on speakerphone while we were writing the offer. When he went to work on Tuesday morning, he found out that he was moving and that he wouldn't have internet. So it really could not have worked out any better!


Our home has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Its garage is HUGE! It is a new construction so we will be the first people to live there. We have a utility room and plenty of counter and cabinet space in the kitchen. Our master suite is amazing compared to others in the same price range. We are both super excited!! Here are some pictures....



Our backyard



The Kitchen



The Master Bath



Our whirlpool tub



The Master Bedroom

Shadows of the Neanderthal

I received my books yesterday for my first graduates class. I was really excited when I learned that my books were in because I wasn't sure what to expect. Since I was very curious to see what I was getting into, I opened the box immediately and the first book that I pulled out is called Shadows of the Neanderthal with cavemen shown on the front cover.


Wondering what kind of class I got myself into, I opened to the first page. This is what I found....

Once upon a time, there were five cave people.
Their names were Unga, Bunga, Oogie, Boogie, and Trevor.
They lived together in a cave.

I can only imagine what else I am going to find in this awesome book. I am really starting to question what exactly I am studying. =)

For those of you who do not know what I am supposed to be studying, I guess I should enlighten you. I am going back to school to get my Master's in Reading and Literacy. I chose an online school called Capella University so I could participate in my classes no matter where I am. This was the best choice for me due to the travelling that I will be doing in a couple of months. I'm excited to get started and a little nervous at the same time. I'm sure, however, that I will make out just fine!

On the move again

Paul is situated back in Bagram and quickly fell back into the routine of things. He says that he is pretty tired and has been going to bed earlier to try to get rested up. I guess the newest news is that his unit is moving again. No worries - He is staying in Bagram and his address will not change! In order to make room for new units to come in, they are moving Paul's unit closer to where they work. His living quarters are currently located on the other side of the base and they have to ride a bus to work. The Army has decided to move them when they only have 4 months left. Makes sense, huh? The huts that they are moving to aren't built up as well as the huts they are living in now. His unit will have to build the walls on the inside to divide the rooms. This will all need to be done in their spare time after their 12 hour shifts at work. Clearly the soldiers are not very happy about this move. Another downfall to this move is the fact that these huts do not have internet connection and will not have it while Paul is staying in them. He will have to take his computer to the MWR to check his email and keep in contact with everyone. I'm sure that he will find some spare time when he isn't working or building his new room to make it there occasionally. Poor thing!
On a positive note... He only has 4 months left! Hopefully it will fly by for him and everyone here at home. Thanks again for your support and prayers!

We're buying a house!!

Paul and I have decided to go ahead with buying a house! We met with Carol Smith while he was home to discuss our finances and what we could afford as a house payment. She made us feel so much more at ease than what we were before meeting with her. I would strongly recommend her to anyone who is looking into buying a house. We realized that we could easily afford an extra $10,000 house than what we were originally looking at.
The first thing we did after our meeting was start looking online at houses and we have found quite a few that are in the right location and that are the right size. We were still planning on waiting until Paul gets home but before he left he told me to go ahead with it. He claims that he wants to come home to our first home, but I think he is just trying to get out of the moving process. Such a smart one!
We have made a list of the houses we are interested in and have been talking over the internet about the pros and cons of each house. It has been great to still work on this together. It is proof that long distance can work. We are just as strong half a world away as we are sitting next to each other. It makes it easy when you get to work with your best friend on something like this!
The next step is contacting a realtor and making the trip out to Tennessee to find the perfect house to turn into our first home. I am planning on taking our realtor (my mom) for professional and personal opinions. We are planning on driving out on August 2nd and hopefully by the end of that week we will have signed a contract. This is alll sooooo crazy! I never thought that we would be in the position to buy a house but I am soo happy that we are.

News with Paul - He went back to work today (well, actually last night our time). He got a day off and was able to pretty much catch up on his sleep. Nothing else that I have heard of. Just trying to stay busy so the next couple of months fly by.

Sgt. Evans is in Bagram

Paul called me around 1 a.m. to let me know that he made it back in Bagram, Afghanistan. It was a relief to know, even though I was sound asleep. He is currently online and said that everything went smoothly and that he was happy to finally be back. The best part of his day was getting a shower, which he really hasn't had since he left on Tuesday. He is getting everything organized and caught up to return to day work tomorrow. Just a brief update so everyone knows that he is doing fine!

Back to the Real World

So here it goes...

I have been looking at the blogs that many of my friends have started and it dawned on me that it might be a good idea. First off - it will be a great way for everyone to follow Paul's and my crazy life and second off - it will be a way for our family and friends to stay updated on what is going on with Paul. I am not going to make any promises, but I will try to be better at this than my sweet, loving husband is.

Paul left Tuesday to head back to the lovely land of Afghanistan. It was hard to let him go, but I know that he will be home soon. We stayed up as long as we could on Monday night after a great night with family and got up very early on Tuesday to get on the road to BWI. We stopped at Everything Bagel in Milford for breakfast before leaving town. We had no problem getting to the airport and arrived around 9 a.m. Paul checked into his flight and we headed to Starbucks to get me some coffee to keep me alert for my trip home. When it was time for him to go through security we made a deal to just hug eachother and then walk away without looking back. This, of course, made it much harder to let go. He made it through security and to Atlanta with no problem. Once he got to Atlanta, he discovered that there were only 2 flights leaving on Tuesday; one left as he was checking in and one was leaving around 2 p.m. The plane could only hold 700 people, and apparently there were way more than 700 soldiers waiting for a flight out. The soldiers arriving around the time of Paul were told that they were trying to arrange another flight but if they couldn't they would have to wait until Wednesday and stay at a hotel for the night. Unfortunately for Paul, they arranged another flight and Paul flew out at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday night. He landed in Ireland for a couple of hours and then landed in Kuwait late last night. I got a phone earlier today to let me know that he thought he was going to be in Kuwait until tomorrow, but then I got a brief call a little later saying that he was catching a flight out today. I expect that he will arrive in Bagram sometime tonight, but I will let everyone know when he definitely does.

We had a GREAT couple of weeks for his R&R. First stop was a romantic getaway to the OBX. We rented a nice house that was 3 lots back from the beach. It was a beautiful week and we had a great time. After a week there we headed home and spent a lot of time with family, enjoying every second of it. Both of us would have liked to see more people but with such a short amount of time, it was hard to see everyone without stretching our time short. Rumor has it that he will be home before Thanksgiving, so there will be plenty of time to see all of the family and friends that we missed.

Thanks to everyone for showing your love and support to Paul and our family. We feel so blessed to have such great people in our lives.

As for me, I am getting adjusted to the real world again. Everything got put on hold for the last couple of weeks, so now I have a list of things that need to be done. Bills, cleaning, shopping... the grand things in life!

<3