Countdown

Approximately 25 days on the wall!

Approximately 25 days

Go to sleep,

Wake up the next day,

Approximately 24 days on the wall!

That's right folks.  Time has been marching right along and we have been pulling links off that old chain of ours.  Big Girl has been the main 'ripper' around these parts.  Only when Big Boy sees her doing it and then protests that he "never" gets his chance.  I pointed out the plain fact that he is alone for approximately 30 minutes with said chain every morning when he gets up before the rest of us and waits for his ride.  He came back with "I am in no frame of mind at that hour to pull links off chains."  Agreed.  At 5:00AM I am lucky if he puts the milk away.  I am also hoping he will eat some other side dish besides fruit by the foot.  He cannot seem to learn to hide the evidence.  Middle boy would never be so careless.  But I digress : )

Even though, last week when we were all puking our guts out and time seemed to be passing very slowly indeed, time did pass and we are still ever closer still to the day when T gets home.

I have been feeling a sense of pride that we made it.  In one piece for the most part.  I seem to still be fairly sane.  It was hard, I will not lie, and it still isn't over (keep praying for us!).  Just two days ago more violence and death was reported just an hour away from where T is.  3 more killed.  One from our home state of Utah.  This news frazzled and saddened me to the core.  I emailed T to ask why he hadn't mentioned it and he thought since it was nowhere near him that it needn't be mentioned.  "These things happen still all the time Kelly" was his reply.  Like that will make me feel better about his lack of sharing.  

I watched the HBO special movie titled 'Taking Chance' with Kevin Bacon.  Cried my friggin eyes out.  Despite the headache it caused, I highly recommend seeing that if you get the chance.  It's about a Colonel who volunteers to escort a deceased soldier home from Iraq.  Probably not the most happy shiny subject matter for me to be watching right now, but it was so well done.  An intriguing insight into the steps they go through and how they care for/respect our men and women who make the ultimate sacrifice for their country.  

I now have a greater understanding of what every military family who has a husband or wife deployed goes through.  No one has been more understanding and empathetic then the military families around me.  They just get it.  Hopefully I will be able to pay it forward somehow someday.  In a future blog I would like to try and put into words the many meaningful things we have gained through all of this.  Nothing is all bad (as Dad George used to say I am told).  Tonight I will just say that I am so excited that time has past and the best is yet to come!  Now does anyone want to come over and fix a broken cupboard for me?  I don't think we can live with that for 25 (approximate) days...