Day of Departure

I am just now able to sit down and make myself look at pictures from the day Justin left. I tried especially to document the time shared between him & Isaac, as Isaac will be much different when Justin returns. See the captions below each picture for explanations.

Daddy & Isaac using Isaac's first Christmas present, pictured below.
Justin bought Isaac his first Christmas gift once we had discussed it, a chalkboard designed to count down the days of Daddy's deployment. We do realize he has no idea what a number is (and probably can't even see the funny white squiggles very well), but it is a great tool for discussing "Daddy," in hopes Daddy will be familiar when he comes home. **Note: The count of days is only approximate.

The boys are enjoying some cuddle time while watching television.

Justin just finished loading the car with everything necessary for deployment that had not already been shipped.

Justin is giving Isaac his last bottle of the night, also being the last bottle before he left. This was a very sweet moment. Before taking the bottle, Isaac babbled everything to Justin that was on his little heart. At least that's what it sounded like.


Continue to keep Justin, his soldiers, and fellow chaplains in your prayers. As horribly as we miss him, I do realize that he is following God's will. What an awesome God we have!

Waiting to Leave

I have set down 2-3 times this week to write about what all I've had going on, but never really got started. A lot of that is because I still am stubbornly refusing to begin emotional, philosophical, or other ramblings online. As close as I came was putting a lot of pictures from Thanksgiving and mine and Em's Christmas celebration in my photo albums (there's a link on the right side of this page). That said, I finished packing my bags a couple of days ago. I think every other person I know has called at some point this week (thanks everyone). We've videoed several story times with Isaac. Sorry Mom, I think I enjoyed "Hello Colonel Rebel" more than Isaac did. He preferred looking at the window. He'll come around I'm sure.

Em and I have gone to dinner more than we've cooked this week. Neither of us really felt like doing a lot. That's pretty much been all we've done. I think she is getting extremely tired of me repeating information about insurance, banking, the dog's medication, changing oil in cars, and all of the other things I am obsessing about far more than she is. She says her days of obsessing about those things are coming soon enough.

For the moment, we're simply bored and waiting for my time to report. She'll be more or less taking over the blog for the time being. She'll keep everyone updated on what is going on in all of our lives. She'll be posting my address sometime soon.

Great Sat Morning

I think I did well on gifts for Em last night (I also irritated her, but we won't get in to that). Her back has been tight all week. (She had an observation at work yesterday). Since I have already bought her anniversay, birthday, and valentine's gifts I convinced her to open the birthday gift a few months early. OK, so its a lot of months early. I'd gotten her one of the mats that you sit in a chair and it warms and massages your back. I'm a little surprised that she didn't sleep in one of the recliners.

Isaac woke us at 6 this morning, which is what he is supposed to do. Since this is one of my last weekends before heading out, I got up to feed him and let Emily sleep in. He's always in a great mood in the mornings. He'll laugh, or come as close to laughing as he does at this point. He doesn't really get upset (at least after he finished the bottle). He's just happy to have someone around that talks to him. He goes back down for the first nap of the day around 0730, so I now have a good 30-40 minutes to relax before Em gets up.

Christmas Pictures

I thought I would post a couple of pictures from our Christmas this past Saturday. I am waiting to get some pictures of the entire family from other people. I didn't think to get the camera out when everyone was still here. The top picture is Isaac's first Christmas gift. This is one of the few pictures with his gifts where he isn't screaming. He didn't mind laying in his bouncy seat while everyone else opened gifts, but he was not a fan of us tearing paper and cutting tape with him in our laps. After months of complaining that clothes don't fit (for obvious reasons), Emily got a lot of clothing.

The last couple of days have ben spent getting the house back in order. I've also rearranged the garage to make sure Emily can easily get to any tools she might need while I'm gone. Finally, I finished my packing yesterday. I have to pick up some personal hygene things and load them.

On a side note, I just saw my little brother in the crowd at the Today show. He and his wife took a trip to NYC for their Christmas gift this year.

After Thanksgiving Exhaustion

Its been a busy couple of weeks. Last week, my entire family was here for Thanksgiving. My Aunt and Uncle from Houston also came up for the day. In all, we had twenty people eating at the house. My oldest brother and his family arrived Tuesday. The next brother and his family arrived on Wednesday. Everyone else came in on Thanksgiving morning.

Emily and I crashed yesterday. We got home from lunch, fed Isaac, and both slept the rest of the afternoon. By Saturday night, everyone but my parents had gone home. Emily and I did our Christmas while they were here. We just didn't want to exchange gifts with just the two of us. Em surprised me with a handheld GPS. She had convinced me that she'd gotten something else. Em had another great gift she gave me. She had contacted a large number of my friends and family and mailed them a playing card. They wrote messages on the cards and sent them back. This gives me a thought or message from someone for each week of deployment (approximately). I flipped through to see who she had contacted, and I'm thankful for all who've participating. I am waiting to read them throughout the deployment.

This morning, I'm watching Isaac kick and play before he goes back down for a nap. I am going to the office for a couple of hours later today, but I still have a lot to do around the house to get ready to be gone.