An American Solider

It is only fitting that on my first RWBF I pay tribute to my husband Sgt. Fries. Although he is no longer active duty, he served for four years with two deployments to Iraq. I feel like there is so much to say and so many people to pay tribute to. He is my rock and I am so thankful that he was able to return to me. Although his sacrafice was not as great as some, his greatest sacrafice was missing so much of our children's lives, before he left for his second deployment he kept talking about how much he was going to miss. Yet he was still an amazing father while he was gone. Like most that were with him, he rose to the occasion and went above and beyond what was expected of him. So, to him and to all of those Workhorses, I would like to say a big THANK YOU!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After seven LONG months of cute husband being gone, he is finally home. In case you were wondering, he has actually been home for almost two weeks now, but still he's home. As the time drew near there was much to be done. The most important thing was getting all our junk packed up and ready to make the long trip back to NC. I was so stressed out about that, anyone who knows my son knows that it is not possible to get anything done when he is awake. He is in constant motion and always getting into something. You can't leave him alone for more than two minutes as that is the window of opportunity for him. However, I did manage to get everything packed, somewhat organized and ready to go. Thankfully, my parents went with me for the long drive so that I would not have to try to do it on my own. It was sort of a bittersweet end to our time in OH, as we do not know what the future holds for us. That could very well have been the last time that we were up there for that long of a period. On the other hand my husband was coming home, so that excitement outweighed the sadness. We split the drive up over two days and the kids did surprisingly well.

We arrived in NC on a Saturday and cute husband was coming home the following Friday, less than a week to get all of our junk, I mean stuff unpacked and to make signs for Daddy. Luckily my parents stayed through Tuesday giving me a little help with both. The kids loved making the signs....well Hannah did, Alex did not get to get too close to them. We made two big sheets for Daddy, the one pictured above that we hung on base and the other (that I do not have a digital picture of) we hung on our porch. We also made a couple of smaller signs, one for at the end of the road, one for in the yard and one for on the stroller. There were quite a few hung on base and a couple really creative ones. My mom and my favorite was one that said Iraq: 120 degree, our bedroom 1,000 degrees. Welcome to the heat! We laughed for days over that one.

By this point Hannah was getting very excited about the idea that Daddy would be home soon. I had explained to Hannah that Grandma and Grandpa were driving us to NC and they would stay with us for four nights, then when they left we would have three nights left until Daddy came home. I think that in her three year old mind she took this to mean that the sooner Grandma and Grandpa left the sooner Daddy would be home. Everyday she asked them if they were leaving, when they would say no she would say "Yes, I want you to go and my Daddy to come." It was a little bit cute and a little bit sad at the same time. Anyway, Daddy's plane was scheduled to land at 11:15, then they had two hours of processing and we could see them at 1:15. Unfortunately their plane was delayed...of course and they did not land until 1:15, meaning we could not see them until 3:15. I had struggled for days with what time we should arrive on base. After all I had two children and I did not want to end up sitting there for two hours with two crazy kids running around. At the same time I did not want them to end up being there early and us missing him. So, I decided I would leave my house at 2:00, planning on getting there around 2:15; only an hour to waste.We were in no hurry and kind of took our time, I dropped off some videos, got gas, got Hannah something to drink at McDonalds, and then went to the designated area. When I unloaded the kids it was 2:30, and I was like great, what am I going to do for 45 minutes? By the time I got the kids in the stroller, the sign attached and over to the homecoming reception the guys sea bags were already unloaded and sorted. Hmmm, maybe we wouldn't have to wait long after all. I took a few pictures of the kids waiting, took some video and the buses were pulling up. What?! It was not even 2:45!

I actually sort of ignored my husband and video taped Hannah's expression as he walked up. She was so excited and she jumped right into his arms. Alex was a little wary but went right to him as well. In fact it did not take him long to warm up to this guy called Daddy. As you can imagine, Hannah was Daddy's little shadow for quite a few days. She would even sit in the bathroom while he took a shower. She was worried he was going to go back to "Myraq" and kept asking about it. I explained over and over that he would just be going to work on base and would be home for lunch and then home for supper and to spend the night. I think she understands although she will still ask sometimes if he is working in "Myraq". We are somewhat adjusted to being "married" again, now if he could just find a job we would be all set.

MIA

Geese, it has been so long I forgot my password! We are past the half-way mark, officially we have 96 days until the middle of October, unofficially hubs thinks he will be back the first part of October. Of course we all know how that works....nothing is official until the day of and even then it will change. Last homecoming I almost missed because my KV did not call and inform me that it had been moved up an hour. How awful would that have been if I missed his homecoming because she was "out for the day and didn't have her list with her to call". Ummm, I am still bitter over that one. Anyway, I can't believe that it has been over four months. Yet October seems so far away. We are visiting our house in NC right now, so it almost makes things worse. Everything here reminds me of him, everywhere I look there is a bit of him left behind. It is comforting and hard at the same time. Thankfully I hear from him quite often, I do not know what I would do if I didn't. I am actually very blessed because I usually hear from him daily via email and IM. I do not usually talk about how much I miss him. I'm not sure why, maybe I feel like I need to be strong for those around me. Maybe I feel like it is a sign of weakness, or maybe I feel like I am protecting my children. Who knows, but I miss him so much that it hurts. I can't wait to hold him in my arms again, to smell his neck and kiss him endlessly. I can't wait to be able to reach out and touch him whenever I want, to be able to talk to him whenever I need to and not have to wait until he calls me in order to do so. As a matter of fact, I am even looking forward to arguing with him and not feel the guilt over the fact that he is so far away. To you two-and-a-half months seems like the blink of an eye, but to me an eternity.....I miss you my love, please know how much I miss you.

Just Because

Today was sort of an off day; we did not do much. I had to write two article reviews for my class, one in a memo format and the other in a paper format. Of course they were both due by tonight and I waited until today to do them! We did go to the post office and mail a package out to Tony. When we got back home I told Hannah how messy the living room was and she looked at me and said "Oh.My.Gosh.Mommy, it's messy." It was so funny I just laughed! I think she picked that phrase up from her daddy because I do not say that. Then, she was running around without a shirt on because she spilled water down the front of her and just because she has a perfect nose like belly button I drew a face on her belly! She was running around in her typical fashion and since I was busy most of the evening working on my papers, the hurricane Hannah roared through the living room again.
Alexander is just getting so big so fast...and I'm not just talking size wise either. He no longer stays in one spot on the floor because he scoots. However, he hates to be on his stomach so he scoots on his back. If I recall correctly this is how his sister started out. He is just so grabby, he will stare intently at something I have (like a glass) and as soon as it gets in his reach he is grabbing it! I have to be extra careful with what I'm holding now. He is also getting very vocal and is very loud. He just squeals away. Since Daddy has left he is getting pretty spoiled; when he wakes up at night I end up just leaving him in my bed. Oh well, we have seven months to break that habit.
I am so excited because Tony is settled in and has started working, which means e-mails. In the past two days I have gotten almost 50!!! Mind you that is back and forth chatting so most of them are only a couple of sentences, but I am so blessed to be able to stay connected with him. I talked to him on the phone last night as well. He is working the night shift right now, which is great for me because his hours are like 3pm-12am my time. Meaning I don't have to wait up to talk to him like I did last time.
Anyway, that is just a bunch of ramblings from today. My creative juices have not been flowing lately, so I apologize for the randomness of this post. I do have a picture to post of Hannah's belly face, but I will do that in the morning.

Update...

Just a quick update, so far we are doing pretty good in the Tater-tots household. We have an awesome ya*hoo group for the families that has been great! Haven't heard from hubby yet, but I got a message from the KV and she said the hot line had been updated today. So I called it and it said they were waiting for transport to their location. So, hopefully I will hear from him in the next couple of days. Tater seems to be adjusting well, she has been her usually joyful self. Yesterday when we were picking up her prescription she was prancing around in circles singing one of her praise songs. Very cute...until she started yelling them! Anyway, just wanted to put a quick update.

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Update on my update...I just talked to him!!! The connection was great and we got to talk for about 20 minutes! They are still waiting on transport so please pray for safe travels

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P.S. Are my comments working? I haven't gotten one in a long time, so give me a shout if you are out there....

Broken

Well, today was the day that we have been dreading...Daddy left for Iraq earlier today. It was a lot harder then I expected. I thought I had prepared myself mentally for it, but I was not prepared for the emotions that flooded me when I saw my husband say goodbye to our children. It was especially hard when Hannah was crying:(

We thought that she was prepared because she was so excited about going to Ohio, unfortunately I think that she was just focusing on that to "help" adjust. When Tony got dressed today and said he was getting ready for work, it was an instant meltdown. She did not want Daddy to leave. I think this made it even harder for Daddy.

Here are my two men, looking so identical:) Of course Alexander did not understand what was going on, so he was Mr. Personality. Smiling away at Daddy, which made me so sad. He loves playing with Daddy and all the sudden this person is going to go "missing" from his life. In seven months when Daddy returns, Alex won't even remember him.
I wish her hair wasn't blowing in her face for this picture, it is such a sweet shot.
Daddy with his two kids, notice the tears in the girls eyes! They are going to be so big when he returns...well Alex will be so much bigger, Hannah will just be older.

The highlight of the day was when Daddy took her over to the "big truck." It was the first smile of the day and it got better from there! Here she is driving!
She has already talked about him a couple times today; wanting to call him or show him a picture she drew. As you can tell it has been an emotional day. I do not remember it being this hard the last time!!! Thankfully, we will be going to Ohio soon and that will keep us busy for the deployment. If you haven't noticed there is a countdown at the bottom of the page. It is tentative because I don't know the exact date or time that he will be returning so I just have it set for October 15th at 5pm. Please keep us in your prayers as Daddy travels and we adjust!

Prayers

Just wanted to ask everybody to keep my brother in your prayers. He left Sunday night for Iraq and will be there for the next seven months. Thanks!