Jim's deployment

I finally feel like I can post about this, and it definitely needs to be a part of our family journal. So I'll write the whole story from the beginning. In May of 2009, we moved from Greeley, CO back down to Colorado Springs, CO. Almost as soon as we got here, Jim started hearing about other Logistics officers deploying, even ones who had gone to get a PhD. Normally after a move, you won't get deployed for at least 6 months, so when Jim started hearing about this, he decided to contact assignments to find out. They told him that he was #1 on the list for a year deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. We asked if the year he had already done in Greenland counted and they said no. So we mentally prepared for another year apart. Jim called back 2 weeks later and they told him there was a mistake and that he didn't have to go at all. That was a relief. But, as the weeks and months went by, Jim started having a gut feeling that something was going on with his assignment. So again he called, and that person said "who told you you were off the hook? You are #1 on the list for a year deployment!" So, we scrambled a bit to figure out what to do, and after asking many people for advice including his bosses, he found a six month deployment that would get him back home before football season. ( He is a big fan of football, but his job is team logistics for AF) Anyway, on Jan 2nd Jim left for Balad, Iraq. Honestly I feel blessed that he is there, it is the best case scenario in my opinion. He is over the airport over there, and it is a very busy base with over 40 planes coming in a day. He is mostly in charge of the "heavies" and doesn't have to do much with the fighters, so the 40 plus planes he deals with don't count the fighters. His first day he had his first mortar fire, and there have been multiple attacks every day. But he honestly feels that the base is very safe. Throughout the decades before when Saddam was in power, the Iraqi's would bomb Balad regularly because he was stealing all the water. So it's almost a part of life to bomb the base. With the elections coming up in Iraq, alot of people suspect the bombings will become more frequent. He has been able to go to church, and last week during a talk there was mortar fire. I asked him if everyone "hit the deck" and he said "No the speaker just kept on talking". We laughed at that. But they do take each one seriously, in fact yesterday there was an attack in Jim's area and they all dove for cover except for one airman who kept driving his truck and almost ran over the commander. So he said things got exciting after that. As for me and the girls, the first 2 weeks or so were very rough. They handled it a bit better than me. I don't remember taking it so hard last time. I think last time the kids were babies and I couldn't even take one second to think about it because I was physically "on" the whole time. This time the kids are self sufficient, so I get more time to stew over my thoughts. I am a tad bit worried about him, but mostly I just miss him terribly. He is my best friend, and I told him that I'm sure everyone is getting sick of me talking about him constantly.
I have had wonderful friends who check on me constantly and have us over, They are the best! My dear friend Wendy, just flew out to visit for a week, and we had a ball. We have Dave and Amy here in town, and we all love to be with them! They girls love to play with the boys, and we all have to take turns holding Annie. In fact the day Jim left I was able to mope around for hours and hold Annie who was 2 weeks old, I tell ya that was like therapy! I'll never be able to thank Paul and Dave enough for spending the entire day with Kimrie. I get choked up even thinking about it. I know they wanted to hang out with each other, but they let Kimrie tag along all day and that night played rock band with her for hours. I don't think they know how huge that was for Kimrie, and how touched I was to have them love my girl. They filled a huge void for her and I think helped her have a great transition to having Jim gone. I have honestly felt so loved and supported and I am so grateful.
One thing I'm not looking forward to so I won't dwell on it, is moving while he's gone, but I've had so many people offer to help, so I think it will be ok. Just mentally tiring.

So here are a few pictures of Jim leaving, I'll try to post the least sad ones!

Our trip to Ft. Worth, Texas, ridiculously long post

The week after Christmas we went to the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth Texas. (Jim is in charge of team travel for the AF sports teams) We woke up Christmas morning, quickly opened presents, and headed out the door for Texas. We felt bad for ruining Christmas day with a road trip, but we figured it would be worth it in the end. We had a great drive up until the 10 hour point. It was supposed to only take 11 hours. At that point the roads started getting really slushy and icy. Then, it moved to frozen slush and pure sheets of ice. That area in TX hadn't had snow in 100 years, and it had snowed 14 inches the day before. There were hundreds of cars and semi's off the road, and even 5 or 6 SNOWPLOWS were off the road! Even being from Colorado, it was terrible driving. Well, once we were way out in the boonies, they closed the freeway, with us on it! We had to sleep trapped in the car for 8 HOURS!! The line of cars was thousands and thousands of people long. They even sent the national guard out to rescue drivers. We never saw them because we were too far out. Here is the best picture I could come up with at the time:


At this point the girls are all crying and saying "This is the worst Christmas Ever!". We felt so bad! So Jim stayed up all night turning the car back on every 20 minutes or so to warm back up. I was happy Jim had just filled up the gas tank, so we didn't have to worry too much about that. I tried to sleep, as well as possible. We got close to having the girls layer up with clothes from their suitcase, but their small blankets worked fine. We kept ourselves entertained by all the male drivers taking the "walk of shame" to "use the restroom" right on the side of the road. You do what you gotta do! Even if it is in front of thousands of people. We being a family of mostly girls had to improvise.... The front bumper with blankets to form a curtain...enough said. Yes we are a crass family that laughs at innapropriate things! Anyway we finally were able to get moving for about 1 mile after 8 hours, and stopped again. Jim ran up the road to push someone out, I followed him, dodged other cars and we finally broke free and were able to go off on our own. So, a road trip totalling 22 hours, when we finally made it to the hotel we looked like something the cat dragged in.
Speaking of the hotel, it was gorgeous right downtown Ft. Worth. A guy who works with Jim had told the hotel that Jim was going to Iraq and the hotel gave us a suite. That definitely worked in our favor. The beds were turned down for us and we fell into them immediately!!
The next day we explored Ft. Worth, which is the cleanest, nicest, cutest, downtown ever.


Cute cowboy boot stockings at the hotel
Let's see where was I? Oh yah
There was another AF family there with 3 girls all the same ages, and we had a ball with them, all the girls got along great.
In the hotel there was a hospitality room for all the AF coaches and staff. In this magical room was: 3 catered meals a day, tons of candy and drinks, snacks, games, you name it, it was there. That room was a lot of fun. In fact, on the second day we went to a movie ,but first we stopped at the hospitality room and got a bunch of candy. Kimrie said "mom that was so tacky" after I finished laughing I said "Yes it was.. But I don't care, live a little!" So anyway, the first night we went to a rodeo, which I affectionately call a bloodbath massacre. This ferocious,evil, bull provided us with the opportunity to shield our childrens eyes as it flipped a horse with a rider on it, and then started goring the horse in the stomach. This was not the only death defying incident that evening, there were many more. I will spare you the details.
Here we are before the rodeo, standing with a longhorn who you could tell was so humiliated by his life:

You can tell the girls are thrilled to be forced to stand there. As you can see, Kimrie has perfected her fake smile.
We had a very fun day with Jim's brother who lives in Houston (Mike and Brita) and their kids who drove up to spend the day with us. We really enjoyed playing with all the cousins. We went out to eat, went to a ceramics shop, and to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth.


We went to the grassy knoll, in Dallas where JFK was shot. It felt so weird to be excited to see such a tragic place. It was neat to see a part of history though.

The bowl put on a kids day where they took all the kids to a museum, bowling and an arcade all day with no parents! I was happy that one of the moms decided to go just in case. I was a little worried about Abbey getting scared, but she had more fun than anyone! They got to ride on a huge chartered bus with a police escort. I really got a kick out of that. Oh and a t-shirt. They had a great day, and Jim and I enjoyed a date of lunch and a movie.

On the last day, we went to the super fancy Galleria Mall in Dallas and the best jewelry store I've ever seen called Sam Moon.
Here is the Christmas tree in the Galleria Mall. It was the biggest tree I've ever seen in my life. And the mall was full of all the fancy stores you see in movies, but never actually buy stuff in. There was an American Girl cafe we went into, which was a big mistake because our kids have never gotten in to those $150 dolls until we went there.

And now Jim's worst nightmare, a huge store full of cheap jewelry.. More fun than a girl should have. Obviously Jim was on what we like to call "suicide watch." I know you shouldn't joke about that, but we think it's funny, and as you can tell from this picture, it might just be a true statement.

Phew.. so the last day was the football game, which we did not go to, because we had to get home so we could send Jim off to Iraq. So he helped get the players on the bus and we headed home. Thankfully the trip home was uneventful and boring.
You'll be happy to know that by the end of the trip the girls were saying the had the best time ever, and can we go again next year! We felt the same way, it was wonderful to just be together and play. Especially because it took our minds completely off what was coming up next as soon as we got home. All in all a great week, and I do plan to go next year!