More From Iraq

Matt has been doing well and looking forward to completeing the second half of his deployment. He gets more homesick everyday, but is still working hard. They stay very busy over there. His Mom and Aunt came to help me out for a couple of weeks and while they were here he sent some more pictures which I am posting here. If you haven't wrote Matt a letter yet, but were meaning to, please do. He says that letters are his favorite thing to receive.

A Needed Break

Well, we had a visitor for a week and it was wonderful. My Mom came and pretty much picked up the slack that (if you know me) is constantly a part of my life. She kept the house clean, did the laundry, took the kids to school, and even cleaned my fridge. It was so nice...and appreciated more than I could ever express. The kids really enjoyed her being here and we were all sad to see her go.

Ryan has been struggling lately with quite the little attitude and he and I seem to be constantly butting heads. We are working on it, but definately have a ways to go. The counselor at school wants him to maybe start seeing a counselor while he is there, so I guess we will see how that goes. He is still playing soccer and enjoying that when he isn't being overly competitive.

Colin is also playing soccer and is loving every minute of it. Unfortunately for him his practices seem to get canceled a lot due to weather...so he is always really disappointed about that.

Some of you may have heard that we had a huge fire in this area last week. Over 200 structures burnt to the ground including 26 houses in Midwest City and 58 houses in Choctaw which is the town where I live. several people that we know through church, boyscouts, and school were affected. Our house was fine, although the fire was fairly near. The houses that did burn down burnt all the way to the ground as the firefighters focused on keeping it from spreading instead of putting out houses that were already on fire. Luckily now one was killed and there were only a few injuries.

My school will be over here soon for the summer and I cannot wait. i had clinical today in a pre-op area where I got to start several IVs. I was able to start 7 and got all of them on the first stick. It was great to get that skill under my belt so that I can move forward to pediatrics next semester and not feel so nervous. I will update more later...I hope everyone is well.

Bathroom

I just wanted to update really quick and show off my new bathroom. I am putting some pictures from before as well as now. I still need to paint and hang up a mirror, but I am sure you can see the huge difference!

Spring Break

We are in the middle of spring break over here and although I have no school and I am only working one day, I have barely sat down! The weather has been wonderful so my long to do list hasn't gotten touched and instead I have been working outside. I have gotten all the leaves cleaned out from around the bushes and dug up dirt from the back of the property to fill in holes that Roxy dug. Also, a friend of mine is retiling our shower for a cheap price so I have been trying not to get in the way of that. The kids have been running around outside and really burning off some energy. So much so, that tonight we had a meltdown here at about 6pm when that usually doesn't happen until 8.

I have no pictures to share because my camera was stolen out of Matt's car when I went to the store a little over a month ago. I miss it so much, but I can's spend the money right now on a new one. My mom will be here in about a week though and I will take some pictures with hers!

Not much else is going on here...we are just busy as usual!

Update on Matt

Matt is doing well in Iraq. I email almost daily and he writes back pretty often as well. He stays very busy with his work and the extra activities that he takes part in. He is doing honor guard where helps out with the flag as well as playing various sports. He also signed up to take some more classes towards his bachelors and should start working on that soon.

The kids and I really miss him, but the time is moving forward. I am going to post up some pictures that he sent back. The pyramid looking thing is called the Ziggaraut and has some historical significance. The picture that has the sunrise in it is what he says he looks at every morning and the picture with the kids was taken at a little market place out side of the ziggaraut.

January Activities

I can't believe it is almost the end of January. We have been stuck in the house for the house for a few days due to ice and some snow. It has been a good opportunity to update the this and catch up on some housework, but now I am about ready to get out. I wanted to update with some of the stuff the kids have been up to.

Ryan had a pinewood derby car race for boy scouts the other weekend. He basically had to take a block of wood, pick a design, have it cut out, sand it, paint it, and then put wheels on it. Then they race them down a track designed for the cars. Ryan won first place in his den (a group of about 10 boys) and then 4th place out of the pack which is about 5 dens put together. He pouted about winning 4th but was over it by the time we got home.

Colin had 100 day at school to celebrate the 100th day of school. He had to count out 100 items to take into the class to mix together for a snack so he took 100 M&Ms. I was surprised how few M&Ms make up 100. He also made a shirt with 100 things on it to wear to school. He had a lot of fun helping me make the shirt and said the next morning that he looked "great". The picture is of him wearing his shirt while playing army. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Christmas

Well, I know it is about a month late for my Christmas post but I am sure everyone still wants to see the pictures. We had a great time in Virginia and I might dare to say that it was our best trip home yet. The kids had a great time and both said it was the best Christmas ever! That is always great to hear. While in Virginia we visited all of our family members in the area, took the kids to water park, watched the Cowboys lose (again), went and saw Christmas lights at the park, and ate more food than we thought possible. Several pounds gained and great memories made we made it home to get ready for Matt's departure.

Matt left almost three weeks ago and the house is not the same without him. We are often times missing him, but we know he is doing well and get to talk with him fairly often so that is really great. He says that his job there is busy and challenging, but gratifying as well. We get to talk with him on the phone twice a week and then he and I email back and forth almost everyday.

The kids have adjusted pretty well so far although I am not quite sure it has hit them how long Matt is actually going to be gone. We will see though and just deal with issues as they may arise. Colin's teachers say that since returning from break he has been talking more and is playing with more kids. I guess it just took a trip home to get him to come out of his shell. Ryan has been very loving since Matt has been away and that has been very nice.

I have been busy with school, work, and the kids. Matt and I were both baptized at the church that we found and I have been busy doing stuff there as well. People have been very nice and have really tried to call me and invite me places so that keeps us busy as well. My class has started out pretty well and I am hoping I can just stay focused with Matt gone and find time to study. Today both the kids and I had school canceled for ice and snow so we are camping out here for the day. Hopefully Matt will send some pictures soon and I will post them up here so you all can see what he is up to. As usual, I will try and do better and post a little more often. I hope this finds everyone well...