Hard Not to Count

Tonight, Grace asked me how many more days until her dad came home. I told her that I wasn't exactly sure what day and because it can still change, I couldn't tell her. She looked at me and said "It's hard not to count." Boy, don't I know it!! Jasen knows it, too. We've been emailing and he's doing okay. It's just hard watching the clock tick away! If it's hard on me and Grace, I KNOW it's hard on Jasen.

I spent all afternoon yesterday filling goodie bags of snacks for our soldiers. Next Saturday, we'll go up and make up all the rooms. It's so exciting!!!

Grace went with her friend, Lena, today to a play place in Manhattan. Evidently, it's mostly an arcade. Grace had a great time, of course. I really like Lena and her mom, Michelle. They are from South Carolina, too, so Michelle and I have discussed getting the girls together whenever they are there visiting. They've invited Grace to spend the night next Friday. We'll see how she behaves this week. She had two green cards (the first step of discipline at her school) this week, which I think was mainly due to coming back from spring break. It's got to be hard to settle back into it all. She still had consequences here at home, though. Let's hope that doesn't happen this week!

Davis is doing well. We've got highs and lows. He's really into hugs and kisses these days. When he's in a loving mood, I can't get enough!! And neither can Grace. Anyway, then we have our downtimes, where he throws himself on the floor and kicks and screams. So special. I keep telling myself "Jasen is almost here, Jasen is almost here!" I hope it makes as big a difference as I think it will! More than anything, I just want Jasen here to observe how I am handling Davis and give me ideas and input. I don't want Jasen to come home and have to be the disciplinarian right away. There's plenty of time for that. But I need help with Davis and I know Jasen's going to be a huge help with him.

Oh, one other thing Davis was doing today. He loves to do something, get your attention, then act like he doesn't know you are watching. Lately, it's involved him closing his eyes. Today, he closed his eyes while he was walking out the kitchen and had a huge smile on his face, then bumped into right smack into the wall! He turned around to look at me, eyes still closed, and started to whine. But he wasn't going to open those eyes for anything!

Karnes Visit

While we were in Texas, we took a day and went to spend time with the Karnes' in Tolar. Landry, Braden, and Grace played so well together. I don't know that I checked on them almost the whole day! Davis was not on his best behavior. He was especially fussy when we got there. I took him into Jen and Jason's bedroom and told him he had to stay there until he was ready to be nice. Well, after a few minutes, he kicked the door or the wall...I can't remember which. So the physical punishment began. After a few more minutes, he did it again. I don't know how many spankings he got, but it was quite a few.

Finally, Jason had to go in their bedroom to get something. He took that opportunity to talk to Davis and reminded Davis that all he had to do was quit crying and he could come out. After that man-to-man talk, Davis decided to come out. He was pretty good the rest of the day. Oh, except for that time that he scratched Landry's arm on purpose while they were watching "Lion King." Ugh!!

We were also able to meet baby Tripp, the third Karnes baby. He is so precious and SKINNY!! Oh man, he was just so long and lean. He's precious and looks quite a bit like Braden.

As always, we had a great time visiting with them. They are so special to us. All of the Grahams are fond of all of the Karnes and I think the feelings are mutual. We're all friends and that's really neat.

Jasen is doing okay. We're getting so close to him coming home! He has moved out of his regular room, which means we can't webcam/IM with him. It's hard going from that back to only one email during the day. But we're surviving. Knowing it's not long until he comes home makes it all better!

Egg Decorating/Final Webcam

Here is a picture of the kids decorating their Easter eggs with Grandmama. They had a great time. Davis thought you were supposed to use your hands, so he ended up with a white egg "coloring" in water. He thought the water was colored because we put it in a pink cup and he couldn't tell. Then, he started using a spoon to drink that clear water. Let's hope he doesn't remember that next year when we color eggs!!

We went to see the movie today and the kids enjoyed it. By the end, Davis was done watching. He was tired of sitting still. Grace's favorite part was when it snowed in Whoville during the summer, then the snow all melted. It was a good movie.

Here's a picture of our last webcam session with Jasen. Yes, he's losing his room, computer and Internet. Can you believe it's that close to time for him to come home??? They'll be moving into tents in the next week, giving their rooms to the unit that is replacing them. If you notice in the picture, Davis was passed out on the couch when we started talking to Jasen. Davis was just almost asleep when we got home from the movie, then fell asleep on my shoulder when we came inside. I laid him down on the couch when we got inside, then let Jasen see him from Iraq!

I'm Back!

Sorry it's been awhile!!! I didn't realize how long it had been until a couple of people told me it'd been since March 7th. Oops! Funny, I didn't think it'd been that long. Sorry!

We returned yesterday from our trip to Texas. It was a busy time, as usual. But it was great to get away from Fort Riley for just a little bit before Jasen returns. Woohoo!! He's coming home!!!

Anyway, we had a great time in TX. We got in a really good visit with our Thomas family, our Graham and Gee families, the Kilcoynes, Aunt Angie, and the Karnes'. The only ones missing were the Graves, who were busy enjoying themselves on a ski trip to Tahoe, and my grandma. We did have a great time. As always, we were burning up the road, going here and there. Oh, and there were illnesses, too, with Grace battling fever, Davis coming down with strep throat, and I had a funky tummy thing. But we got better and were able to enjoy our time.

My mom came home with us. It was nice to have extra hands on the trip up. Of course, I had to be reminded that she could help me! When you are used to doing it all by yourself, it's hard to remember that another adult is there to help! Anyway, we had an uneventful trip home, which is always good. We've got a full day today. We're going to see "Horton Hears a Who" today with my friend, Amber, and her son, Kyle. Then we're going to webcam with Jasen. We also need to decorate eggs at some point!!

I'll post pictures soon with more info on our visit!!

Less Than 7 Weeks

Yep, we are down to less than seven weeks until Jasen comes home. I can't believe it's almost time. Today, I went to Sam's Club on an FRG outing; we purchased over $600 worth of goodies for the single soldier's rooms. We filled one flat cart and one huge shopping cart with stuff. It was great! It was awesome to get all that stuff and know that our soldiers would come home to rooms with sheets on the beds and snacks to eat.

We also had our "redeployment" brief last night. They gave us things to be aware of when our soldiers come home. I would have really benefited from the information before Jasen's last redeployment, but it's always good to have a reminder. I just can't wait!

The kids are doing well. So much of what I could say about them would be repetitive. When Davis is good, he's really good. When Davis is bad, he's really bad. Today, he took off from me at Grace's school with me yelling for him to stop. He knew what he should have done and chose not to. So he suffered the consequence right there in front of God and everyone at the school. I was (and am) prepared to be confronted by someone who saw us, but no one said anything. He can't do that and I've got ingrain that in his mind like I did like with Grace.

Grace continues to do well with reading. Her class is preparing for their big music concert the first week of April. So everyday, she MUST practice her songs. It's too funny. She took some money that her Granny sent her and purchased a new Webkinz toy. She wanted the bulldog and insisted on naming it, wait for it....Jasen! Too funny!

We are all just anxious for the next few weeks to go by. We'll head to Texas next Friday morning and stay until the following Thursday or Friday. It's going to be a quick trip and we'll be exhausted by the end of it, but it will be all worth it if it provides a week's worth of distraction from our impending reunion with our soldier!

Yikes!

Yesterday, when Jasen and I were instant messaging, something came up about our move date. For some reason, I was under the impression that Jasen's report date to The Citadel was 1AUG. I was wrong! His report date is actually 1JUL!!! Talk about a shock. Of course, Jasen was surprised that I didn't know that. I know he's told me and I don't know what I was thinking.

The date change doesn't change anything for me, really, but it's just a real awakening that our Kansas experience is fast approaching it's end. I really can't believe it.