Sweet prayers

Oh man, I have to share with you all what Grace prayed about today. First, before dinner, she took her turn praying. When I pray before dinner, I always say something about how hard Jasen works to provide for our family. Well, tonight, Grace offered her twist on his providing for us. She thanked God for our food, then thanked Him for Jasen and how he works so hard "sweating and sweating and hurting because he works so hard!" I nearly fell out of my chair! That girl!

Then tonight at bedtime, she had another great one. First, the background: we've been reading Junie B. Jones books. For those of you who don't know who Junie B. is, she is a precocious, smart-mouthed kindergartener. They are chapter books so I read them and Grace just listens. It's a precious time that we both enjoy immensely. Anyway, tonight, Junie B. talked about how she sometimes she wished her baby brother could go back to the hospital because he cries a lot and can't play Chinese checkers. After we finished the chapter, I asked Grace if she ever wished Davis wasn't around. She smiled so big and said "NO! Because Davis makes me laugh! Like when he tells you 'NO!' and when he runs around in his diaper, slobbering on everything." It was wonderful and sweet.

Finally, it was time for her to pray. Lately, Grace's prayers have been heavy on the requests (although sweet ones) and slim on the praises. So I told her she has to start thanking God for at least three things before she asks Him for anything. Tonight, she thanked Him for the rain we had this morning, for her good day at school, then thanked God for her brother. She said "Thank you for my brother and how you made him because he really cracks me up."

You can't imagine how blessed I am by those two!

Iraq Update and More

First, news on the kid front: yesterday was the first hard day we've experienced since Grace started school. I could tell on the walk home that she was in a mood and it wasn't good. She didn't make good choices and had a few consequences. I know a lot of it was because she was tired. She told me that one of the girls in her class wanted to wake her up during their rest time after lunch, but Mrs. Kueser told the other little girl to leave Grace alone. That was funny because just before that I asked Grace if she had napped during rest time and she said no. I guess the truth is somewhere in there! Oh, and Grace is going on five days of perfect behavior in the classroom. She wants to make the whole school year without having a discipline issue. We'll see.

Davis continues to ask to wear his cowboy hat everywhere we go. He's talking so much now, some which can be deciphered, some which can't! He misses his sister badly while she is at school. He calls for her constantly and it breaks my heart. He's at a really precious age and I am so glad Jasen's getting to come home to see it!

Okay, first the "toot your own horn" portion of this update: Jasen's name was on the promotion list to major! Yea! So sometime in the next fiscal year (OCT to SEP), Jasen will be promoted. He's glad to finally know for sure that he's going to be a MAJ. There wasn't a whole lot of doubt, seeing as the promotion rate is over 95%, but it's always nice to have the reassurance that, yes, the Army does deem you qualified to move up. Jasen also said he's done everything he could do as a captain (and some things twice!) and he's ready for his time as a captain to be over.

Guess who else has some cool news? The stay at home mom/FRG leader! I was nominated by Jasen's brigade as the volunteer of the quarter. I think our brigade commander's wife feels sorry for me and all the people I am supposed to be keeping up with! Anyway, it was very nice that they chose me out of all the volunteers that this brigade has and there are a lot.

Now comes the Iraq update, which was promised in the title. Jasen's brigade commander, COL Gibbs, is home on R&R and briefed all the FRG leaders and our company last night. He's your average infantry guy, very HOOAH (gung-ho, for you civilians out there!) and loves his soldiers, even if he drives them hard. He had a great slide presentation prepared for us and there were some things he mentioned to us that I wanted to share with you all. Since 4IBCT has taken control of a sector of Baghdad, as part of the surge, the following things have happened:

• Murders in their area dropped from 553 in February (before they took control) to only 58 in July
• IED incidents dropped from 180 to 59
• total events (murders, ambushes, IEDs, etc.) have gone from 883 per month to only 231

COL Gibbs also mentioned that because of some of the progress that is being made in these and other areas (electricity and gas availability, road improvements, etc.) the average Iraqi is more open to giving our soldiers helpful information. He said the one area of concern he has is that, with the talk of us leaving Iraq, the Iraqi people are fearful and have said, if we are going to leave, they need to get right with the "right" people (choose sides in the neighborhood, if you will) before we go. That makes them less likely to help us with intelligence.

I hope you all know that I am not beating the war drum here. I just got this information and wanted to share it with you. Jasen has said before that he feels they are doing good work in Baghdad, but he didn't have the numbers to back it up. COL Gibbs has those numbers and they speak for themselves. He mentioned that 4IBCT lost more soldiers than he thought they would, but he said their area was in such a mess before. Now, it's getting cleaned up and our casualties have leveled off. Let's pray those will continue to decline.

Funny, when I think about it, Jasen's last deployment, his brigade was playing clean up. Let's hope whoever follows his brigade this time does a better job keeping things clean.

On another note related to the Gibbs, they were in D.C. on Monday to present Jasen's previous battalion commander, LTC Greg Gadson, his Purple Heart and other awards. He and Nolly said the Gadsons were doing well. Currently the plan for Greg after rehab would be for him to go back to West Point (Greg's and Kim's alma mater) to coach football and teach. That would be amazing and such a great thing for those cadets at West Point. They would definitely be learning from the best the Army has to offer.

Hearing all of this last night and repeating it for you today has me in an emotional state. We Army wives hold it together pretty well, but sometimes the dam just breaks. There are so many things I choose to "stuff" but you can't stuff it forever. I am just so darn proud of Jasen and the soldiers, some of them just babies to me, who are working so hard and making progress. Then, when I think about Greg and the other soldiers who have lost a part of their earthly bodies and those who have given their lives, it's just too much. Just pray for our soldiers and their families.

Whew!

Wow, it's been a busy week and I have no idea when the last time was that I blogged at all. Things here are going well. Grace began her first full week of school today. Last week went well. She had a 1/2 day on Thursday, then a full day on Friday. We had a few meltdowns, but not too bad. She slept for an hour Sunday afternoon, but considering she had two days of school, plus two nights of late bedtimes (Friday and Saturday), that wasn't very long.

Grace said she really liked school. She was very timid during the first two days, and today was no exception. She gets so quiet when we head that direction, and it's really funny for me to see. She's so outgoing when she's in her element, but when she's not completely comfortable, she gets so shy! This week will be interesting, with 5 days of all day school. I expect next weekend will not be a lot of fun, so I am not planning anything!

I emailed Grace's teacher about helping with school parties and, wouldn't you know it, no one else has volunteered to help! So, she graciously agreed to let me coordinate them ALL and she'll get me info on parents when it's time to start putting things together. Thank goodness there are only three. I know some of the parents work, but really, do none of them have any interest in being involved in their kids' classroom??

We had a great time with our visitors last week. Amy and Reagan were here from Wednesday until Sunday. It was so nice to have them here, especially on the first day of school. It took some of the spotlight off of Jasen's absence. Don't get me wrong, we missed him, but it wasn't quite as painful. Grace and Reagan played a lot together, which was wonderful. Oh, they had their moments, but all-in-all it was a great visit for them. They played lots of "Hannah Montana" up in Grace's room. Oh, and they watched "High School Musical" on Friday night. Very important.

Our cousin, Jennifer, and her family, Jimmy and Joe, came to visit on Saturday. We had such a nice visit with them. They live in Kansas City and this was their first visit to Fort Riley. Grace adores Joe, so she was so glad to have them here!

I've put two pictures up...one from Grace's first day and another of Davis in his cousin Randall's cowboy hat that his Aunt Amy has graciously shared with us. If you want to know how big Davis' head is, just think, Randall was about six when that hat fit him. Davis is 19 months old and barely has any room in it!

Bee stings, whiffle ball issues and more!

This past weekend, the kids and I headed to Fort Leavenworth, just outside of Kansas City, to visit our friends, Kim and Derek, and their kids. We had a nice time, and even got to see my cousin, Jennifer and her son, Joe at my FAVORITE Mexican food restaurant, Abuelos! For me, the weekend was a huge success!

For Grace it wasn't as good. We'd only been there for a couple of hours when she managed to get stung by a bee in her eyebrow. Very traumatic. Then later that night, she was nailed in the same eye with a Nerf-type missile toy. More trauma. Then on Saturday, just before we left to come home, she was nailed with a whiffle ball (I won't tell who hit it, lest he get beaten up by my husband) on the inner upper arm. It was awful looking to start with; her arm was red and blue where the ball is solid, with a hole in the color on her arm from the hole where the whiffle ball was. Now, you can barely tell she had a bruise.

So we came home on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning, when Grace woke up, she couldn't open her eye. It was pitiful! Since then, though, the swelling and redness have gone down. We saw our "personal medical professional"/Sunday school teacher (Larry, who is the head nurse at our clinic here at the hospital) at church and he said that if the swelling hadn't gone down by Tuesday, I could always go get a shot for her to minimize the reaction. I don't think we'll have to do that, thank heaven! But if I thought it would look like that when school started, I would definitely consider it!

This week is going to be a busy one...school starts on Thursday! Amy and Reagan, my sister and niece will arrive on Wednesday night. We are so excited for their visit. I am especially excited because it will be a welcome distraction from the fact my baby is going to school, all day!

Davis is doing well. He's chattering more and more. Now, most of you might not recognize what he is saying, but Grace and I do. It's so cool! He loves his trucks, big ones, small ones, you name it, he loves it. He would stand at the couch for hours and push them around. It's precious.

Gum Trauma and Light Sleeping

After I put Davis to bed last night, Grace stayed up a little longer to watch the movie "Brother Bear" on TV. I was working on getting some pictures into frames so I was in the dining room. Grace came into the dining room, crying, holding her hair. Seems her gum had accidently dropped into her hair. Then she tried very hard to get it out, which means it was really wrapped around her hair. I was able to get most of the gum out, but had to cut a little bit of her hair. As I went to cut her hair, I was feeling sad about it. Then I realized what a small portion I was going to have to take off and decided it could have been much worse!

You can't really tell we had to cut her hair, but Grace was very upset. She said, "Do I have to tell my daddy? He's going to be so sad I had to cut my hair!" I couldn't be mad at her because she was so upset! It was pretty funny.

After she got in bed and I finished up downstairs, I headed up to bed. Imagine my surprise to find Davis' light on. He can stretch from his bed and flip his light on and that's just what he did! He was asleep when I got up there, laying on his back, sucking on his paci, all with the light on! Silly boy!

Still Busy!

Just because we are home doesn't mean we aren't busy! This week, Grace has been in VBS at the chapel here on Fort Riley. She's having a great time, learning new songs, dances and Bible verses. They have a western theme and every time they say something like "God is good" they say "Woo-hoo!" I tried to get her to say "Yee-Haw!" but she told me that was wrong! One day she'll learn that her mom and dad lived in the land of cowboys!

Grace has been completely wiped out everyday after VBS. It's only three hours long, but it's first time she's had to do anything five days in a row. Makes me wonder how all day school is going to work.

Davis had his 18 month checkup this morning. He weighs over 27 lbs. and I can't remember how long he is, but above the 50th percentile. His head is still bigger than 90 percent of the other babies his age. After he had his three shots, I put him through more trauma (why not?) and took him to get his haircut. I forget how short a high and tight is! He looks so handsome as you can see from above. One picture is from before the haircut. Can you tell how much those two love to play with each other?

Tonight, we had a reunion dinner with some of the ladies who went to Colorado with us. It was a great time. We got a special DVD with pictures and music from our time there. It brought back a lot of memories. That was special time for all of us.

Grace is having a rough time again, being home without her daddy. I keep praying for it to pass and I know it will, but it's so hard. Say a special prayer for her, please. Yesterday, we talked about why her dad is in the Army and some of the benefits (friends, of course, and growth) of his being in the Army. It's still hard on her.

We got some good news yesterday. Jasen will have 18 days of R&R instead of 14. WOO-HOO! What in the world will we do with those extra days?? :) Enjoy each other. He's planning on being here late September/early October. He wants to be here for our anniversary on Oct. 3. We'll see if he makes it. I think, out of the past 8 anniversaries, he's only been home for three. Not even half. That sucks! Sorry for the language, but it does!