Tom's Castle in Kuwait

The handsome man above is Tom in his full battle garb. He was out at the range shooting or something I guess. Hopefully he won't be in it too often. He let me lift up the vest when I was down visiting and it is very heavy. I imagine they get pretty hot in it out there in the desert. Makes me feel very thankful that I live here in the green hills of Missouri (not to mention in the USA).

He also sent me these pictures of his temporary home in Kuwait (he leaves next week sometime). I suppose they have everything they need, but it is not too luxurious. He sent me a picture of the "gym" too, but I didn't think anyone would be as interested in that. It is pretty much the same kind of tent, but filled with all kinds of treadmills and whatnot.

These are the 80 man "tents" from the outside and inside.

Home sweet home (as Tom calls it).

Farewell 115th CSH

Last week I was able to go spend the week with Tom in Louisiana before he left for the middle east. The army gave them a few days off to spend with family, but they weren't allowed to go too far. So I drove the 11 hour drive (without the kids (thanks to my friends Rachel and Kari)...I wanted to spare them the the long drive and the emotional roller coaster), which surprisingly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be for me (a good book on CD will do wonders).

We had a relaxing week. It was so awesome to be together just him and me for awhile. On Tuesday morning the Army held a formal deployment ceremony for all the families to attend. The best thing about it was that it only lasted 30 minutes. It made me feel very patriotic to see them all together in their ACUs as the national anthem was sung. Being with him all week made it that much harder to say goodbye again. I couldn't help but shed some tears Friday night.

Saturday night when I got home, I showed these pictures to the girls and they started to cry and say how they missed their Dad. Reili said, "He is going to be far away for so long!" Which pretty much sums up the feelings for all of us right now. We miss you Tom!

Tom and I before the ceremony.

One handsome Man!

Formation (where's Tom?).

There he is.

A closeup after the ceremony.

Let Him Eat Cake

On May 9, Wesley turned one. We had a fun birthday celebration, though we missed Tom. Our friends the Wehrli's came to celebrate with us. It was sort of unconventional, because we had Wesley eat his cake in the master bedroom so that Tom could be a part of it over Skype. Just look how he demolished his cake.


Then he opened his presents, the favorite being the tricycle (which he is way to small for at the moment). He did enjoy some male bonding with Chris while he watched him put it together. The rest of us had a delectable piece of his real birthday cake (chocolate of course). YUM! Happy Birthday Wesley! We can't imagine life without our little boy. Can't believe it's been a year already.

An Indy Weekend

Rachel, Kari, and Jane after the half marathon.

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Indianapolis where I ran the Indy 500 mini-marathon with some friends. I took Wesley and two young women from our ward along to babysit him. We left Friday morning and came back right after the race on Saturday. The weather was perfect for the race....overcast for the first 8 miles and then the sun came out for the finish. The course was mostly flat and part of it was running the Indy 500 raceway...which was an experience. I was able to better my time by almost 10 minutes since the last half marathon and I ran it in under 2 hours, so I achieved my goal. It was an emotional moment. Thanks to Rachel and Kari for all the training runs. You guys are awesome! See below for my stats and pictures:

Half Marathon Stats

• 13.1 miles in 1 hour 58 minutes and 58 seconds
• Average mile: 9:05
  
• Fastest mile: mile 8, 8:43
• 7,530th out of 30,067 people running
  
• 1,977th out of 15,748 females running
• 372nd out of 2,449 females in my age group running
  

Kari and Scott Young at the race expo Friday night.

Lisa and Chris Wehrli with baby Bridger at the race expo.


Rachel and John Westhoff at a late night dinner Friday night at Red Lobster.

Goodbye Daddy

This is a picture of Tom and the kids outside the airport the day that he left us a couple weeks ago. It turned out to be much more dramatic than I thought it would be (after all he has been gone before). Reili started crying as he walked into the airport and didn't stop for about 15 minutes. Amberly joined in and then Wesley. It was a very somber ride home. It was difficult not to cry myself, but I tried to hold it together for them. We are still adjusting to life without Dad...we miss him terribly.

Lemonade

Thursday night Amberly and I had the pleasure of attending the kindergarten performance of "Lemonade". Reili sang beautifully with about 100 other kindergarteners. I was unable to get a closer shot of her than this.


Amberly posed with Reili after the performance. Good job Reili!

Guess who is wearing panties?

One great accomplishment this week was Amberly getting potty trained. After about a week and a half of going once in a while when she felt like it, she finally decided she was ready to go all day and all night. Wednesday was the first day and she has done great, even at night she wears panties now and stays dry. Reili was a good supporter too (mainly because they both got a treat every time Amberly decided to go). It is wonderful to be back to changing only 1 baby's diaper now. Way to go Amberly!