Monday, May 25, 2009

Off to Afghanistan

Ok, I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to write this and honestly, just thinking about makes my eyes water up and gets my brain all disarrayed. Scott left for his 7+ month deployment on Friday and it sucks. Scott got up around 1am that morning to finish packing and Brennen somehow woke up, too. The saddest part, when Scott asked B what he was doing up and B said, "I want to spend time wif you, Daddy". How do you tell your kid to go back to bed after that? So B stayed up and helped Scott till we had to drive him up to San Mateo on Camp Pendleton. He had to be there at 6am and thankfully he kept finding excuses for us to hang around a little longer. We stayed till about 7:15 and finally got around to saying our good-byes. Which is good, because if I had stayed around to wait for them to load the buses at 11am I would've been a total mess. Scott had called me right when they started loading the buses and made a comment about how the waterworks were starting and I replied, "They started when everyone woke up this morning." Then he said, "Well, I guess this is the grand finale." Glad I wasn't there for that.

I know the family has been waiting for me to post Scott's address, and if anyone else wants to send letters or care packages (let me know if you want to send packages cause there's some guidelines and other things to know before mailing things) please feel free to!

Lt. Stewart S.A.
1/5 A Co
Unit 40325
FPO AP 96427-0325
Can you tell how much I had been crying?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Mini Va-K

Ahhh! Our trip to Virginia was everything we had hoped it would be and more! Not only did the kids and I have a great time while we were out there, but we got to spend soooo much time with Scott! Seriously, every little penny spent on airfare (yes, I came to my senses and decided not to drive) was TOTALLY worth it! It was amazing that Scott was done with classes by 4pm at the latest (most days even earlier!!) every day! I was shocked. I didn't know what to do with myself. It was crazy to see Scott while the sun was still up on a weekday! In fact, every night felt like a Saturday night. We went out to dinner, went to Target (hehe), or other fun places, and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Funny and true story: we went out one night and on our way home I commented to Scott about how the week had flown by and that when we got back to the hotel I needed to find out what time church was in the morning. Scott gave me a funny look and said, "Chris, it's only Tuesday!". See how unused I am to spending time with him during the week?!?

The kids had a blast while we were there. Every morning while Scott was in class I would take the kids somewhere fun. We went to museums, to parks, to the beach, went bowling, and to several malls! Scott's joke was that I was on a full shopping tour and I was having more fun spending his money then anything else. I spent a little and might have spent more if I had more luggage space! ;) I took tons of pics so here's a few of the fun ones:




So, some additional good news (my favorite thing to do: brag about my awesome husband). The course Scott attended was great. Scott learned a lot and loved everything he did. It's even made him more excited about his deployment to Afghanistan and all the "fun" things he's going to be able to do while there. So, when his class first started the instructors warned Scott and the 3 other guys (who are infantry and not pilots, which are who made up the rest of the class) that they would have a harder time with the class and should be really happy if they passed with an 80%. The pilots would obviously have the advantage because the have been working with planes for years and have a better understanding of the fundamentals, etc. Not only did Scott beat that 80%, he made Honor Grad! (Graduated #1!) Yes, he out-scored and out-preformed all the rest of the pilots. Amazing! The reason I'm really amazed: I was with him for a little over two weeks of his class and saw how much (little) he studied and that none of the other guys in his course had the HUGE distraction of having their wives or kids around! I mean seriously, how does Scott do it? This course is the 6th (out of the 7 since we've been married) that he's got Honor Grad. Way to go, Scott!!

And, there's more good news. I know I might have shared a little TMI with everyone about how clomid works in my last post, hehe, but it does. It really works and it only works one way and that one way worked and we're having baby number 3. Yay! So, we brought home a little souvenir from our trip to Virginia. Don't have an official due date yet, but it should be arriving the middle of January. And since both of my kids have come two weeks early, it might even arrive on Brennen's birthday!