Battle at Kruger

If I had to be any animal, it'd definitely be a water buffalo.  And I'd be a part of a huge herd.


(I'll put pictures up of my current human life as well as Christmas when I put them on my computer.)

Thank You Thank You Thank You

Check out this story on WPSD.  It's a sneak peek into what we've been up to the past few days.  Some names are spelled incorrectly and a few details are off.  It doesn't matter; the message is the same.  I'll be sure to post more about it (with pictures) later.  But for now there's an article and video for you online.

It's Daddy!

Ryan would have never made it home in time for his Papa's funeral if this man, our friend Rick Jeffries, hadn't flown Elayna & me to meet Ryan in Atlanta, GA.  At Neil's visitation, he & his wife had asked when Ryan was coming in.  (We thought he'd already be home.  Silly us.  Stupid Kuwait.)  And when I said that he wasn't going to make it for the funeral (or might, if every star was in some sort of miraculous alignment, and only by the skin of his teeth and arriving very late), Rick offered to fly down and pick him up in GA, saying that it would take less than 2 hours to fly down there.  And since his plane was supposed to land in the early morning, that would give us plenty of time to fly him home so he could also go the the second visitation before the funeral.  Sounds great right?  Well, the problem was that I had no idea of how to get this message to Ryan, "Don't make your connecting flight.  We're picking you up in Atlanta!"  Rick said to call him any hour that night if I'd heard from Ryan and was able to give him the message.

Ryan had turned his phone off for the duration of his leave, so there was no way of telling or texting him the message.  I was stewing and talking to Jess when she brilliantly said I should just contact the military liaison in GA and they would get the message to Ryan.  When I called the liaison, Sgt. Someone stated he was confident the message would be delivered.  "Okay, that's great.  Can you guarantee that he'll get it?"  (I didn't want to take advantage of all this generosity if it was wasted.)  "Well, no.  I'm not the one working in the morning, but I can leave a message for the guy who is. And you can call back in the morning to remind him."  Despite the odds, Rick said we would fly down there in hopes that Ryan got the message, called home, spoke with his parents, and knew we would pick him up shortly.  Good enough for me!  (Even though I was still anxious we wouldn't pull it off.)

It worked!  We met Ryan and were able to fly him home by noon!  The funeral was at 2pm.  It was a very bittersweet day.

Rick, Gloria, Ryan, & Elayna with the company plane

Elayna's waking, so I won't go into all the Christmas details.  But it was another marathon year.  Here are a few pics and I'll post more later.  (Elayna sticks her tongue out the same way Ryan does when he's trying to do something.  Look at her intense and eager concentration on the toy he's got!)

Sweet!  Another phone!

"Tomorrow! Tomorrow!"

Ryan just called.  He has this awful habit of calling me at midnight.  Luckily for him, I'm usually still awake.  Ugh.

He's still in Kuwait.  Surprise.  We're on Day 2 now.  But he's got a connecting flight in Germany and will be landing in Atlanta, GA tomorrow morning, 10am-ish.  (-ISH because if there's one thing I've learned from the Army, it's to expect plans to change at least a dozen times and also last minute before they actually happen.)  From Georgia, he'll connect once or twice to Paducah, where I along with the rest of his entire family will pick him up from Barkley Regional Airport before we hustle to the funeral at 2pm.

So there you have it.  Finally an update with promising news.

Stupid Kuwait

Ryan's STILL in Kuwait.  STILL trying to catch a flight outta there.  STILL on a list of over two hundred other soldiers trying to catch that same flight.  And we're STILL hopeful that he'll make it to the funeral tomorrow.

...I hate Kuwait.

Kuwait. Can't wait!

UPDATE ON RYAN: The husband was able to catch a flight out of Afghanistan this morning and now he's in Kuwait trying to catch a flight out.  But there's a waiting list of 200 other soldiers.  Keep praying!  (Diane! Come on 2 for 2!)  We can't wait to see him.  WE'RE SO EXCITED!

I'll let you know more as soon as I can.

peace

Thank you for your prayers. They've been answered.

Wide Eyed but Not So Bushy Tailed

It's going on 2:30am.  Why am I so wide awake?  Ryan called two and a half hours ago to say he was coming home.  Leave was moved from April to this weekend.  That's right!  *victory dance* YAY!!!!!!!

However, I wish Ryan's visit would be under better circumstances.  His grandfather's health is failing fast and the doctors have only given him a few days to live.  Please please pray for peace and also for the family.

Now that's all I can think about.  I'm so excited he's coming home, but then I feel guilty that the only reason he even gets to come home early is because Papa's dying.  And I've been laying in bed the past two hours thinking about how the next two weeks will be.  Also thinking about how we didn't budget for him to be home this weekend... and I'm nowhere near losing those twenty pounds. Okay, you caught me.  Thirty.  But mostly I'm just so excited my mind won't stop doing cartwheels.  (That's right.  My mind is doing the acrobatics b/c my body is stuck at 2:30am.)  More yay!  Elayna gets to see her Daddy and that, my friends, is what gives me the warm fuzzy feeling this holiday season.

Okay... I'm crashing.  Gloria out.

KY Christmas Jig

Ryan, we're missing you *this much* and are sending you happy happy thoughts.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Oh. I have a blog?

I know, I know.  Don't be mean.  And stop sending me hate emails.  We've already established that I'm a bad blogger.  But I have an excuse this time!!! I've lost my camera.  Oh, my beloved Sony Cybershot, which I would jump in front of a train to save.  It's been MIA since Thanksgiving.  (*Ahem* Note that the last few posts were around that time.)  Since our favorite Elayna Vaye has become very fond of moving things, putting them inside other objects, or my personal NOT favorite of throwing them away, I'm very worried that my camera was not misplaced but rather it was very purposefully thrown in one of the three trash cans I've seen EV frequent.  It's just a shame that I'm weeks into coming to this conclusion b/c had I realized this was possible sooner, I would've been head down and heels up in the roadside trashcan.  Ugh!  So we've been mourning its loss for over a week now.  I'm in between denial and acceptance.  I still check the couch cushions every day, as though it'll magically appear since the last time I checked.  (Isn't that the definition of insanity?  Repeating something over and over while expecting a different result?)

Okay, so to hold you over until I get a replacement camera...

Drumroll please...

This was during a visit to EEOOCH!!!  We love our Eeooch.

The next two were during Renee's Christmas card photo shoot.