Me, the kiddos and my brother with his girls

Days 149 and 150

We made it back home from our trip. The boys were very excited to play with all of their toys. They have just about destroyed my very clean house! Oh well, I am happy that they are glad to be home. I will post all the pictures from our trip tomorrow. For now I need to clean up and head to bed.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Abrahm. We love and miss you more than you could ever imagine. Stay safe and come home soon! We can't wait to see you in a couple of months!

Happy Father's Day Daddy

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 148

We are back in Huntsville. Adalee and I were up and going pretty early this morning. We left Nashville by 9:00. We got home around 11:00. We ate lunch and then took the boys to the mall and let them play in the fountains and ride the carousel. Then we headed to Bruster's for dirt sundaes. When we got back my brother, Richard, was here with his daughters. We had a nice visit this evening and are ready for a busy day tomorrow.

Day 147 (Update 2)

We are back at the hotel now. Adalee is asleep. She was great for the testing today. All of the nurses were so surprised that she did so well because of her age. She watched TV for the first half and slept through the second half. They were testing for reflux, to see how fast her stomach empties, and to see if she was aspirating. The test took over 2 hours.

After the test we headed to the mall to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. She inhaled her dinner. She was starving after not eating all day.

We are now back at the hotel and Adalee is sleeping soundly. We will head back to Huntsville tomorrow. Once again thanks so much for your prayers for our Adalee.

Day 147 (update 1)

Adalee is about an hour into testing and doing beautifully. She drank her "chocolate milk" like a champ and is peacefully sleeping. She has been watching Mickey Mouse for the past hour and has just now fallen asleep. Hopefully she will sleep for the next hour. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. I will update this evening from the hotel.

Days 144, 145, and 146

We have been having so much fun. We got back home from the beach today. We are at my parents' house for a few more days. My brother, Richard, and his daughters are coming up for a visit so we are waiting here to see him.

The kids had a blast at the beach. I can't wait to share the pictures. The condo we stayed in was perfect. It has an indoor waterpark for little kids. Just perfect for the boys. Adalee enjoyed it too. We also swam a lot. They had several pools for the kids to swim in. They had a lazy river too! The boys enjoyed the beach too, but the waves were so strong and there was way too much seaweed. Their favorite was scavengering for shells. We brought home some beutiful ones.

Tomorrow Adalee and I are heading to Nashville for more testing at Vanderbilt. Please pray she is patient. She has to lay still for 2 hours while they do continual scans. It is going to be a long day I am afraid. We will be spending the night in Nashville while mom and dad keep the boys in Huntsville. Pray they don't drive my parents too crazy.

I will post tomorrow when I get the chance.

Days 141, 142, and 143

Wow! The past few days have been like a whirlwind. We got to Enterprise on Friday at lunchtime and met up with some of my parents' friends. We had a nice lunch and visit and then headed to Ozark to the people's house where we were staying. Then we headed back into Enterprise to meet my friend Kelly and her family for dinner. We had a wonderful visit and the kids had a blast playing together.

On Saturday morning we got up and drove to my friend Denise's parents' house. We hung out with her mom and children. They fed us a yummy lunch and the kids enjoyed playing with one another. It was fun hanging out at the Nichols' house like I did when we were little. After that stop I put the kids and had them take a nap while I drove around Enterprise looking at the places I grew up. Then we went to my friend Melissa's house. We had fun catching up. We lived in Alaska together. Her boys are the same ages as mine. The kids had fun playing and Nolen even introduced Adam and Alden to their first Wii game. We also ate a vey delicious dinner that Melissa and Ed made me. Oh, and a couple of glasses of wonderful red wine. All in all, not a bad day!

Today we got up, packed up the car and headed to church. The children enjoyed Sunday School and I enjoyed catching up with old friends. Then we went to lunch and the Commissary and headed to Florida. We got here and ordered pizza dinner and then we headed to the indoor water park. The kids had a blast! They were really enjoying themselves. They are very excited about tomorrow.

News from Afghanistan as well. Abrahm was Laura Bush's personal pilot during her stop in Afghanistan today. He will send pictures as soon as he gets them. He is doing very well and is getting excited to come home for a visit in the next couple of months.

Day 140

We had a busy day today. We got up this morning and headed to the botanical gardens. The kids had a blast. They got to see the dinosaur displays and play in the water. They splashed in the fountains and explored the butterfly gardens. There were so many butterflies. They were very beautiful. Adam loved the butterflies and Alden loved the bees. All in all we had a great time there.

After that we went out to lunch and ran a few errands. We came home and mom kept the kids so I could go out with Tracey for a bit.

Tonight I got the car packed up and we are ready to head out tomorrow. Next stop, Enterprise.

Days 136, 137, 138 and 139

We have had a lot of very busy days. A couple of stressful ones as well. Our vacation could not have come at a better time. This morning we packed up the car and headed to my parents' house in Huntsville. We are here for a couple of days before heading even further south.

My parents kept the kids tonight and I got to go out with my cousin and her friends. We went to a movie and dinner. It was nice to have a little break.

Since we're on a trip I won't be able to post pictures. I will try to at least give an update everyday. Wish us luck!

Day 135

Busy describes today perfectly. With our countdown to the beach coming to a close, I've got so much to do. I have lots of errands, organization and cleaning to do! I am also trying to finish up some projects around the house. Let's see, today we got up early and headed out. We went to Lowes to pick up a new sprinkler and some garden spikes to put my fence trellis up with. Then we headed to the Dollar Store to pick up some beach toys and other little treats for the beach. I just love that everything is $1.00. Very exciting for me. I know I need to get a life :) Then we headed to Walmart. One of the things we needed to pick up at Walmart was a new sippy cup for Adalee. It seems as though I forgot hers and about halfway through the first stop she started crying for her "dink". She pretty much threw a nice fit all the way through the Dollar Store and Walmart until I got her one. Wow! What a temper that little girl has. Not to mention a one track mind.

After that we came home and put everyone down for naps. I then was able to get some work done outside. I put up the trellis for the peas. Then I cleaned out our storage shed. I had just crammed stuff inside after that yard sale I had a couple of weeks ago. After that I needed to reorganize the van for our trip. I had to put back in the 8th seat and rearrange the car seats. I think we should have enough room now to put all of our junk plus my parents and their junk. Then I did some more work around the house. Lots of laundry and cleaning. I managed to pack a couple of bins for the trip as well.

So now that I have worked hard, I am ready for bed. I hope tomorrow is just as productive.

Day 134

Today started out great! My hubby called me and told me he was going to hook up his webcam so we could try to see each other today. He went back to his room and hooked everything up and we were able to visit with each other for a little while. When he was in Iraq, our only communication was via webcam. It was just the simplist and easiest for him. But this time he has access to a phone daily so we haven't tried the webcam yet. I just sent it over a couple of weeks ago and we tried it out for the first time today. It was great getting to see him. Oh how I miss you dear! The kids enjoyed seeing Abrahm and showing off for him. It took Alden a little while to understand that we were actually seeing Daddy live. Adalee just hammed it up for him. Technology is wonderful. Each day we talk, or email or now use the webcam, makes me feel so blessed. I think back to Vietnam or even the beginning of this war and communication was so sparse. Now if I need to get his advice or just hear his voice, I can just about instantly (well maybe not that quickly).

After chatting with Daddy, we headed out to our follow up doctor's appointment for Alden. We saw the doctor that we had a hard time with Adalee with. His name was in a letter Abrahm wrote to the hospital commander a while back. The past 2 visits with him, he has bent over backwards to be accommodating. He was very thorough and even apologized for our confusion on Wednesday when his PA was seeing us. He said that today Alden had a yucky ear infection. So he gave him antibiotics and sent us on our way.

This afternoon we had to be home for the air conditioning guys to come. So we spent the afternoon outside working in the yard and garden. My garden has had a rough start. It seems we have a bunny or two that think my garden is like manna sent from heaven. He (or they) have eaten my broccoli, peas, zucchini and cucumber plants. He's gnawed on my parsley as well. I think my broccoli is a lost cause now, but my peas seem to be thriving. I am going to put up a trellis for them tomorrow. A couple of my zucchini plants are looking good and my cucumbers are trying to come back. So we'll see how it goes. My tomatoes are doing nicely as well as the corn. If anyone has any suggestions for keeping bunnies out of the garden (besides fencing the whole thing or shooting it!) I'd love to hear the ideas.


Guess who we got to see today?
We were able to visit with Abrahm using the webcam for a while this morning! Yea!!!!

The kids sitting in the chair talking to Daddy

My garden as of today

It looks like my snow pea plants may make a comeback after being chewed up by the bunnies

A closeup of my corn

One of the two zucchini plants the bunny hasn't eaten yet

Some of our cherry tomatoes

One of the broccoli stalks that the bunny didn't eat