Rewind

I just realized that I never told you guys about Grace's Christmas program at church. I can't say much about how the other kids did because my eyes were trained on our girl! She did all the motions and sang all the songs. Sometimes, she would forget the words, but when she remembered them, she sang them louder than anyone else. It was hilarious! A few of our friends said "Grace really knew those songs!" If they only knew how often we had listened to that CD. I am glad it's over!

Last night, Jasen and I got a sitter and went to see "Rocky Balboa." Yes, it was a cheesy Rocky movie, but if you loved the original ones, you'll love this one. Then, we went and grabbed some ribs at Buffalo Wild Wings and came home. It was a good night.

This morning, Davis was up at 6:15. Gotta love that! Grace requested waffles so we had waffles for breakfast and then I ran to Wal-Mart. I tried to beat the crowds and I succeeded! Hopefully, I won't have to go again until we're in Texas!

Jasen and Grace are outside right now with Jack Roberts, installing a garage door opener. Whoop!! I am so excited. Sadly, baby Ryann won't be home until closer to New Year's so Julie is still in Topeka with her, Jackson is in Texas with Julie's parents and Jack needed something to do to take his mind off of things. The Grahams were happy to supply him with some work!

Santa Visit

Yes, we visited Santa Claus last night! We finally made it to the Manhattan mall for the kids to see Santa. Grace was beyond excited. The girl was thrilled. She was ready to tell him all that she wanted. Can you tell by the picture that she was happy? I think it's one of the best pictures we have of her EVER. She told Santa she wanted an Easy Bake Oven, Baby "A-lie" (Alive), and floam.

Davis, on the other hand, did not want to see Santa, as evidenced by the picture. Poor guy. First, Grace went to tell Santa what they both wanted. She told Santa that Davis wanted 2 diapers, 2 "clothe," 2 pacifiers, and 2 bottles. Davis only wants necessities, you see! Anyway, as Grace was talking to Mr. Claus, I was asking Davis if he wanted to go see the old guy. Of course, he was confused. I knew it probably wouldn't go well, so we told the photographer just to take the picture.

As I went to put Davis on Santa's lap, he immediately stiffened. When I sat him down on Santa's knee, the screaming started. I mean, he let us all have it! He looked at me like I was a traitor and started wiggling. I don't know how we got a picture even this good.

Once we took Davis off of Santa's lap, he just sat there in Jasen's arm, with the most stunned look on his face, eyes all round and mouth puckered and round. It was the funniest look! Jasen and I have laughed over and over about it.

Today was Grace's last day at school before the break. She cried when we left, thinking she wasn't going back. Silly girl! We've been busy delivering bread today. It's been fun because Grace has gone with me. Now, we'll just be cooking for the family!

Decorating

Last night, after Jasen got home, we ate dinner and put Davis down to bed, the rest of us decorated the tree. We had such a good time, Grace especially. Most of our ornaments are hung at 4 year old eye level, but that's okay. We helped her move some of them because they were all in a clump.

After we finished with the tree, the Christmas music was still playing. Grace treated Jasen and I to a dance recital. That girl is hilarious! She had such serious facial expressions while she danced. Some moves were of the "Kim Possible" variety; more martial arts than ballet. It was so funny to watch her. We all had a great time.

This morning, Grace had dress rehearsal for the children's musical at church. The actual play is tomorrow night. Jasen took both kids (!!) and I went to run some errands. When Jasen and Davis came back for a few minutes, Jasen had taken Davis to get his haircut!! It was such a nice surprise for me. Davis has needed a trim for quite some time now and I'd been asking Jasen to do it. He didn't want to and I understood why. Davis cried pretty hard this time, just like last time. But what a nice treat that I didn't have to do it! Anyway, Davis has an official high and tight. It's so short, but precious!

Jasen is now off of work until Jan. 5th, when he has to sign back in by midnight. I know he's glad for the time off. We're going to be able to spend a lot of time together, which we need. His work has been so stressful lately. Sadly, we also have to talk about the deployment. Once we return from Texas, we'll only have three weeks and it will be time for him to leave. So, although neither of us wants to, it's time to sit down and get our lives in order for this Iraq rotation.

Sick again

Davis and I are currently fighting another illness. I think we both have colds, but he's having a real time trying to shake his. I just started feeling yucky yesterday. I don't feel bad today, just sound awful. Davis has been hacking a lot. Just in time for the holidays, of course.

We finally got our tree up and put the lights on. Still no ornaments or stockings hung. Baby steps, I guess!

Jasen's stuff is on the way to the desert. He packed up most of it Tuesday night. Then yesterday was a busy day for him, getting the Conex's packed with all of their stuff. It's been a stressful time for him, trying to "split" his property book. Not all of the equipment he has signed for will go to the desert with them. Some will stay back here. Jasen is trying to stay on top of everything so that, when the time comes for him to give up this command, he won't have to pay for anything that is missing. He's in a tricky position for that because he has so much stuff under his name.

Our friend, Julie had her baby night before last. Ryann was born here at Fort Riley then had to be flown to Topeka because there is no NICU here. She's doing really well, though. Breathing on her own, but with a feeding tube. I think she's going to be in Topeka a shorter amount of time than the doctors think. At least that's our prayer!

Tonight, after Jasen gets home from work, I am going to Topeka to pick Jack up. Julie wants to have a car there but Jack needs to be back here for a hearing. So I'll go look at Ryann through the glass. I won't get near her with this cold!

Grace had her Christmas party today at school. She was very excited, of course!

Been awhile

Yes, it's been awhile since I last blogged. I have no real excuse, although we've been busy. I guess it's just the time of year for little downtime. We have definitely been crazy busy. So what have we done this past week? Let's see if I can recount it all!

Last Monday, Grace was off from school, so we had a little downtime. We didn't do anything special that I can remember. It was just nice for the kids and me to be at home together, without having to rush around and do anything. Aside from Friday and Saturday, we're usually out of the door by 8:30, except for Sunday, when we get to stay at home until 8:45. I can barely remember the days when Grace wasn't in school, when we really didn't have to be anywhere on most days. Those were the days!

Tuesday was the last day of my Bible study at PWOC. I did a good one this time, on Proverbs, where we did a lot of scripture memorization. I was sad to see the study end, as I usually am. It was a great group of ladies, too, quite a few with older children and couple of chaplain's wives. Lots of wisdom to learn from! I have agreed to facilitate a study in the spring, too. I'll do the book "The Lies Women Believe" which is one I have done before. I loved it before and know I'll learn even more. I am also going to have a co-leader, too. Her name is Susan and we have a "Germany Army friend" in common. (Jen Gration Yoder, for those of you who know her) Anyway, Susan knows Jen's mom. As soon as Susan and I met each other, we had a connection and that's so important. She's a chaplain's wife with older kids so I know she'll be a mentor to me.

On Wednesday, Grace had school, of course. She took four cans of food for their Christmas tree. Until the 15th, they bring in things to give back to the community. I am glad Grace is learning to give already. She's come up with a new desire for Christmas, too. Baby Alive, or Baby "A lie" as she calls it. Oh good, a baby that drinks, poops and pees. I can't wait.....

That night, I had my final coffee with the field artillery battalion. There weren't many people there, but it was nice. The farewell gift is a precious hand-painted beverage tub with 2-32's crest on it. I have so enjoyed Kim Gadson, the battalion commander's wife. She is just so genuine and real. Anyway, it was sad to say goodbye to that unit, but I am glad that I didn't actually leave. After the coffee, I went to the Gadson's to get their take on some FRG issues. Kim is such a great mentor; just really down-to-earth and logical. I am going to be using her a lot while the soldiers are gone.

Every time I write "soldiers," I have to go back and change it because I usually type "guys" or "men" then I remember that some of Jasen's soldiers are women. It's such a strange thing!

Thursday, Grace had school. Jasen got off work early and we went to get a tree. Jasen managed to buy a damaged tree stand, so the tree spent it's first few days in a mop bucket in the garage!! Boy, that garage smelled good! :)

That night, one of our Germany Army friends came for dinner. Chuck Walters was the signal officer in DIVARTY while we were there. So Jasen worked with him for awhile. His wife, Kathy, was one of my really good friends while we were there, too. He was here at Fort Riley, visiting with signal officers about their next jobs and what was available. The Walters used to live here, in a house I can see from our backyard/kitchen window. Believe me, there have been days I have looked back there and wished they were here with us now!

Chuck works at the Army equivalent of human resources. He had some good advice for Jasen regarding his next Army job: shoot for the moon. He told Jasen that with two commands, two deployments and decent officer evaluations, Jasen should decide what his dream job would be and go for it because he'll likely get it. So right now, Jasen and I are discussing what a dream job would be. There are two ways of thinking: close to home and very far from home. We'll keep you posted.

So visiting with Chuck was wonderful. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we miss our Germany Army family so much. You can't understand how close you get to people until you live in a foreign country with them. They were our family away from family and miss them like we missed our family while we were in Germany.

Friday Grace had a dental appointment, Davis went to a sitter and after her appointment, Grace and I had some mother-daughter time. Grace's teeth are doing well, and her dentist gave me some ideas to help encourage her to quit sucking her thumb. I was glad to hear him say that until she gets her adult teeth, there's no reason to worry that she's damaging her mouth in anyway. After the appointment, we went to the Manhattan library. They have a great facility there. We had lunch at McDonald's then came home because...

My sister, Katie, and her husband, Clancey came in around midnight. Saturday, we took them on a drive-by tour of Fort Riley and stopped at the Cavalry and 1ID museums. That night, we had a sitter and went out to dinner and to Aggieville with the Kilcoynes. We had a great time. Jasen and Clancey are two peas in a pod, which is sometimes surprising. They are different in some of their views, but so much the same in the way they act. Clancey was the perfect choice for Katie and so much a great choice for Jasen. hahahaha!!!!

Yesterday, Jasen narrated the Christmas cantata at church. Katie and Clancey left around lunch. The Grahams all took naps, then picked up the house a bit. With the exception of the Cowboys losing big time last night, we've had a great week!!

Parties' Over

The pictures above are of Jasen in his Texas shirt, and one each of us getting our awards on Friday.

Thank goodness, our wild weekend is over! It wasn't so wild as just busy. Last night, we returned home from the Wine and Cheese party at Jasen's brigade commander's house around 9, about an hour after we really wanted to be home. I told Jayme, our babysitter, not to feel slighted if we didn't call her again for awhile; goodness knows she's gotten enough of our money this weekend!

Do you want to know what a great sitter this girl is? First off, she let Grace help her feed Davis. Wow, that's something Grace's mom doesn't even do! Grace said Davis had two sitters last night: Jayme and Grace. So Grace got to help a lot. Then, when I was trying to pay Jayme, she kept refusing to take our money, saying we had already paid her enough for the weekend. She ended up taking some of the money, but not as much as she should have gotten. She's a sweet girl and the kids like her, too, which almost seems to be bonus!

The Hail and Farewell last night was really nice. The garrison (meaning Fort Riley) commander and his wife were there, acting as "hired help" for Col. and Mrs. Gibbs. They are both Aggies (well, I guess she isn't but both their families are) so we had a great time visiting with them. One of their oldest friends in the world is the (a?) professor of military science (PMS) at A&M right now. That's a good contact to have, especially as Jasen gets back from Iraq. We don't know if we'll be able to go straight to Jasen's next school, which is at Fort Leavenworth, outside of Kansas City. Anyway, last night we were talking again about the option of going to A&M as part of the ROTC cadre. Something not to get too excited about right now, but Jasen's keeping his options open.

We were welcomed into the new unit last night and Col. Gibbs could not have been more nice to us and about us. He said he only keeps Jasen around because of me. I think that might partly be true, because all he says about Jasen is a "darn Aggie." And he doesn't say darn. I don't know if he knows that I am the one that actually went to A&M! I'm pretty vocal about my support of the Aggies, but I think Col. Gibbs thinks it's just because Jasen likes them.

Anyway, it was a sticky situation for Col. Gibbs last night because the commander Jasen replaced was there, too. So he couldn't talk about all the work we'd done already without being ugly about the old guy. However, Col. Gibbs did tell us (and Jasen's new first sergeant and his wife) how much he appreciated our hard work and that we'd already done priceless work for the unit by getting the FRG going. His wife, Nolly, was especially complimentary in front of the whole group of people, which I appreciated. The fact is, I couldn't have done what I did without her.

Party Time

Whew, it has been a busy, busy weekend. And it's not over yet. First, a little update. Julie was able to come home from the hospital on Thursday. Jackson did go home with her mom, though. It's going to be a tough few weeks for her, being away from her first baby, but she's doing a good job of keeping it in perspective that it's what is best for her second baby. Keep them in your prayers.

I am sitting here writing this update, listening to Grace and Davis play together. It is the sweetest thing, when the two of them play together. Sometimes, I'll have my back turned and hear them laughing away. It's a special memory I'll always treasure.

So, Friday was our big St. Barbara's Day ball. She is the patron saint of field artillery and every year, the FA battalions have a ball in her honor. Jasen received his St. Barbara's medal and I received a Molly Pitcher award. We had a great time. Possibly the best part was that Jasen was able to unveil his Texas tuxedo shirt. I was able to get the back part replaced with a nice satin replica of a Texas flag. Jasen has wanted to do it for a long time and we finally were able to get it done. Everyone at the ball was quite impressed. And Jasen was able to show it off when we danced the second dance. We tore that dance floor up! So much so that no one else danced with us that dance. They didn't want to have to compete with us.

The next morning, our friends, Art and Christine Weeks came out to see us. Art is doing the pre-battalion command course at Fort Leavenworth and Christine had to join him for a week of the class. They were with us in Germany; Jasen worked for Art for much his time in Bamberg and Iraq. Christine was one of my closest friends there and their kids, Arfur and Brittany, were like Grace's older siblings. They currently live in England but will be making the move (probably to Fort Bliss) in the next year back to the USA.

We had a lovely visit with them. Just as it always is, though, it was just too short. Christine and I were able to go shopping and leave the guys to their shop talk. Alex Lee came over, too. He was with Jasen and Art in Iraq and commanded Bravo battery here at Riley, alongside Jasen. Anyway, we visited all day long.

They left the same time our babysitter came and Jasen and I left for a hail and farewell. We had a nice time at the dinner, sitting with Jasen's new first sergeant and his wife. Then we went to their house. It is so beautiful! They live in Manhattan and recently completed their basement. They created almost double the living space by finishing the basement. It was awesome to see the work they had done.

After that, we headed to Aggieville in Manhattan where four of Jasen's former lieutenants were having their promotion party. It was okay, but after about ten minutes, Jasen and I looked at each other and agreed we were too old for that kind of party: loud music, lots of drinking, etc. So we said goodbye and headed home.

This evening, we have another hail and farewell. By being in HHC, Jasen belongs to two units: HHC 4IBCT, and the STB. We went to the STB dinner last night and have the HHC dinner tonight. UGH!! My kids have had sitters every night this weekend. I am ready for the party season to be over. I can't take much more and neither can our pocketbook!