However I will admit I am sad to see someone that I truly admire leaving office. People may not agree with the decisions President Bush made, and thats fine, no one will ever agree with everyone elses decisions. We will never know all the intel that came across his desk that led him do the decisions he made.  I feel, that he did what he felt was right for our country, and for that, I will truly miss him.

Rob leaves for South Carolina next week, and I have to admit part of me is excited. I mean yeah the 9 weeks he is away is going to stink, but the sooner he leaves the sooner we can get our move under way. Plus I think once you go through a 15 month deployment, 1 to 6 months is nothing when it comes to being apart.

The boys and I will be busy the entire time he is gone. Between me being in school and the boys being in school, and cleaning out old things we don’t want to take with us, we’ll be fairly busy. The boys are really getting excited about our move, they get to be back near family. Most of my family is in Georgia, and Rob’s family is in Virginia, so we’ll be able to see everyone fairly often.

On a side note, Jo is going to 8 on March 1st….Holy smokes where as time gone???????

Even though we are still months away from our move, we have started to clean and throw things out that we don’t want to take with us. I was going through our filing cabinet which has all of our important papers in it and throwing out old and expired power of attorney paperwork. I came across Rob’s will that he did almost 2 years ago before deploying. I’ve read the thing a million times, but each time I stumble upon it, I can’t help but read it over again. I could tell you everything it says, and what he wanted done if something were to happen to him. Some people probably think I’m a little nuts for reading them again, but I just can’t seem to help myself.

Rob had more than a few scares, there were times he honestly thought he wasn’t going to make it home. We still count our blessings that he made it safely home, and still think about those who lost their lives and didn’t get to come home to their families.

One of the hardest things we did when gearing up for deployment was discuss that what ifs…..What if he’s injured? What if he lost a limb? What if he was a POW? What if he lost is life? We discussed all his wishes that he wanted if anything had happened to him. Discussing how he wanted his funeral if he did get KIA was not the best conversation any couple can have. I’ve known couples that avoided that conversation and then the bad happened and the spouse had no clue what her husband wanted. One spouse was so afraid of messing everything up, and it not being what he wanted, she had a nervous break down because of it.

Rob had chosen a song that he wanted played at his funeral if he had lost his life. When that song comes on the radio, I instantly think back to his will, and the deployment. He carefully wrote everything out, I was to follow everything to a T and not mess it up. The song he chose was “If I don’t make it back” by Tracy Lawrence. Here are a few of lyrics from the song.

He said, boys, if I don’t make it back

Have a beer for me, don’t waste no tears on me
On Friday night sit on the visitors side
And cheer for the home team
Drive my Camaro, 90 miles an hour down Red Rock Road
With ‘Born to Run’ blastin’ on the radio
And find someone good enough for Amy
Who will love her like I would have
If I don’t make it back

This song hit home for so many reasons, we, as a family go to locale high school foot ball games, and no matter what team it is, we sit on the visitors side and cheer for both teams. Granted he didn’t have a Camaro, but he did have an old beat up Ford he wanted his buddies to drive at 90 miles per hour. Lastly, my name is Amie, not spelled the same but obviously said the same. The have a beer for me part, I was instructed to have several cases of beer, and at the funeral, he wanted everyone in attendance to have a beer for him.

Who knows, if and when he deploys again if his will would be the same, he may change it entirely when that time comes again. But I can tell you this much, if the worst were to happen, I can honestly say I would follow all his wishes for him. And this is why I encourage every couple getting ready for a deployment to have these discussions no matter how hard they are.

If you haven’t heard the song before, you can hear it here. Not the greatest quality, but it was the best I could find. If I don’t make it back

Christmas was great! Last year Rob spent Christmas in Iraq, and it was the worst ever, it was also the first time he wasn’t home for the holidays and it was extremely hard on all of us. This year though, we really counted our blessing that he was home with us.

The boys were able to get the one big thing they both wanted this year. Jo got his first rifle, a Crickett .22, and AJ got D-Rex. They also got some star wars dudes, transformers, and AJ got a Wall-E figure. They were both thrilled with what they got. Rob and I didn’t do gifts this year because we’ll be moving in a few months and we want to do some sightseeing when we move, so we’re saving the money. Although right now we are both looking at bread makers. Rob wants one, cause he loves homemade bread, and I want one, well just because I want one.

We’re gearing up for a TDY in January which will have Rob gone for 3 months, then shortly after he gets home, we’ll be PCS’ing to Georgia. I have to admit, I’m dreading him being gone, feels like he just got back from deployment, and yes I know TDY is much better than a deployment, but I still hate him being gone.

Other than that we have all the decorations up. Rob really is not one for Christmas, but this year he is getting really excited about it. I think that has to do with what we are getting the boys. Yesterday we went and did a little pre-planning to decide what we are going to get them. I think we have it all figured out, and I must admit, I’m getting excited myself.

School is going good, and I’m 2 weeks away from the end of this term, and I’m skimming by with a low A in both classes, so I’m hoping I can finish the classes with at least a high B or low A.

Next month Rob will be going to Drill school, which will be taking him to South Carolina through the end of March. I’m excited and not excited about this. He just got back in June from a 15 month deployment and I’m not looking forward to him being gone. Then when he gets back it will be hustle up to get moved to GA. I’m really hoping that his assignment doesn’t change. We are both looking forward to going back to Ga for awhile. The boys will be near family, which I’m thrilled about, because they really don’t remember most of our family, which is sad, but I think our families could have helped with that, but we really won’t go there right now.

Time to get back to researching my landmark case for school. Happy Tuesday everyone!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving. Had some single soldiers from the barracks over since they couldn’t make it home. One guy brought his girlfriend, and I must admit, she was quite rude. The food was amazing though!

We don’t have cable anymore, we just do the netflix thing. So Thanksgiving evening we all sat around and watch the first season of Weeds. Man this show is addicting! Netflix had the first and second season on instant view, but now I have to wait until Wednesday to start watching season 3 when the disc gets here.

We are still months away from PCS’ing but we have started going through things and organizing and throwing out stuff we don’t want anymore. We started it early because Rob leaves the end of January for drill school and doesn’t get back until the end of March, and then about 2-3 weeks later is when we’ll be moving. I’m exciting to finally be leaving here, yet sad to be leaving here. There are so many fun things to do around here. I’m sure we’ll find things to do at our new location too, but nothing like here.

Fort Lewis has so many great things to offer, if you just go looking for them. I’m amazed at the amount of people who sit around and complain that there is nothing to do here. But the fact is all they do is sit around, fun things aren’t just going to slap you in the face, you have to go looking for them.

Well the kids are still nagging me, so off to put up the tree and decorations. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

“His son’s story should make us all think about our armed forces, as well as the police and first responders, who risk so much to serve us every day,” Wolf said.

Hubbard’s essay follows:

“Whatever your political take on the war in Iraq, nothing can alter it more than having a loved one in the midst of it. Nor is anyone’s current perspective balanced until they hear at least some things from a soldier’s point of view.

“My wife and I learned these truths when our son, a 2004 Handley graduate, decided to join the Army in 2006. His reasoning was simple: he wasn’t comfortable knowing that thousands of others his age were sacrificing their own freedoms to protect his. When he signed up to join those thousands, it changed our perspective as well.

“Up to that point, it had always been other people’s sons and daughters doing the fighting. Now it would be our own child. Naturally, no one wants their child to volunteer to go in harm’s way for freedom’s sake. It was something of a conviction, though, when my wife and I had to ask ourselves why it shouldn’t be our own son in the Middle East, why we should be spared the rituals of anxiety, prayer, hope and waiting that tens of thousands of other families over here have already endured.

“In early June, we flew to Fort Hood, Texas, to see our son deploy for a 15-month tour in Iraq. Again, one’s perspective is limited until one attends a deploying ceremony for a unit of soldiers. Spouses, children, parents, siblings and friends, all crowding a gym, all clinging closely to their treasures in uniform, accompanied by flags, prayers, cheers and tears. Our son had joined a ‘band of brothers.’ My wife and I had joined the ‘band of others’ who would be waiting at home. Both those going, and those left behind, carry the war on terror in a personal way.

“Still, those of us left behind need to see something of what our soldiers see, and not only what is offered us in the news. To that end, here is one story our son, Luke, shared with us by phone that must be shared with anyone who claims an interest in what our soldiers are doing in the Middle East.

“Stationed outside a city on the Tigris River, Luke had accompanied his colonel into town as part of a security team, while the colonel spoke with a local sheik. While standing guard, Luke noticed a woman approaching from behind and cautiously turned in her direction, his rifle at the ready.

“An interpreter told our son it was OK – the woman just wanted to touch a soldier. Still uneasy, Luke stood still while the woman reached out her hand and touched his face, tears in her eyes.

“Looking to the interpreter for meaning, our son was told that the woman simply ‘wanted to touch the face of grace.’ It seems this trembling woman, like most of the people in her town, looked upon our soldiers as angels of grace, sent by God to protect her from the violence and oppression her people had come to know up to then. Learning this, our son squeezed and kissed the woman’s hand, and she left, weeping.

“The ‘face of grace.’ How many of us, safe at home debating the politics of the war on terror, have ever seen our soldiers in such a light? How many of us have even read such an uplifting newspaper account of our soldiers?

“To be sure, our soldiers are not virtuous simply by being soldiers. At home in their ‘civvies’ they are as un-angelic as the rest of us. Yet when they voluntarily get into ‘full battle rattle’ (as they call their battle gear) in a hot and hostile land, their job is both protective and sacrificial – as angelic a purpose as humans can take on.

“People like this woman, having suffered years of oppression and fear, have eyes and a heart to see this, and the desire to “‘touch the face of grace.’ Do we have the ability to see our soldiers in the same way? And not merely our soldiers: Can we see the ‘face of grace’ in the police who protect us in every town, day and night? Or in the fire and rescue teams who are ‘soldiers’ in their own right?

“My wife and I obviously pray that our son and his ‘band of brothers’ will come safely home to their personal ‘band of others.’ After listening to our son’s experience, though, we have added the prayer that Americans in every community will be given the eyes and heart to see the ‘Face of Grace’ in all who protect our lives and freedoms – especially in soldiers like our son.”
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If only more people would read stories like these, instead of believing everything they hear from the mass media, perhaps they would have a different view on the War in Iraq.

So, we’ve got the meats figured out. What I’m having a hard time doing is planning the sides. Every year I completely stress out on making it a great meal, and it always turns out more than I could have imagined. So I’m not entirely sure why I still stress it.

Honestly I think one reason I’m stressing it is because I have no clue exactly how many people are going to be here. Every year that Rob is home we invite the guys in the barracks over. 2 years ago we had 30 people in my tiny house. It was insane! Thankfully the weather was fairly decent and we could sit outside without freezing.

Thats another thing 2 years ago, I had some friends over since Rob wasn’t home. A few of the guys from the barracks came over for dinner. One of the guys that has been at my house the last 4 years for the holidays was KIA in Iraq last year. I’ll admit it, it’s still hitting me hard. I don’t even want to think about how different its going to be this year without him here.

I’ve been busy with helping to plan the Battalion Holiday party, and getting ready to start handing over the FRG functions to whoever is going to be taking my place. I must admit, I’m quite sad to be stepping down as FRG leader, but I obviously can’t remain leader since we’ll be moving in the spring.

I love the new Battalion Commander, and his wife is just awesome. They are both so caring, and I don’t get the feeling that they are just pretending to be truly are!

The boys are doing superb. Jo got his glasses and his reading as improved greatly, which I’m very thankful for. AJ is doing good, I’ve been working on beginning reading with him. Since he has a speech delay, I’ve put it off until now, and he’s really picking it up.

Well I’m off to do more homework. Hope anyone who reads this is doing good!

Then at 2 a.m. the dog decides to start barking, and stumble down the hallway and yell from the stairs telling her to hush, it appeared to work, for about 30 minutes. So I come downstairs and let her out, she goes outside and gets her food bowl, so when she came back in I kindly explained to her that it was the middle of the night and I wasn’t feeding her. So of course she got pissy with me too, oh yes, the dog got pissy with me. I didn’t really care, I was tired and she was ruining my good nights sleep.

Back up the steps I go to crawl back into bed with my 5 year, still mad I had to share my bed! I successfully fall back asleep. 3:30 a.m. I hear barking again. I yell down at Sallie (the dog) “you have got to be kidding me, if I come down there, you’re going outside for good and its really cold out there” I hear her sigh and lay back down. Back to lala land for Amie. Only till 5 a.m. that is! I get woke up again by the dog barking and this time I have feet in my face, what a wonderful way to wake up.

So yeah instead of going back to bed for an hour I get up, no so willingly though! All I can say is, thank gawd for coffee!