Back in US, back in the US, back in the US of A!!

Hooray!!! Nic just called and said he's in Minnesota temporarily while he waits for his flight to Hawaii. He sounded tired and pissed that he only gets 3 days off upon his arrival in Hawaii. I reminded him that 72 hours in paradise is way better than where he's been and he agreed. :-) So the man is safe and sound on US soil...so we can all breathe a sigh of relief that our soldier is one of the lucky ones.

Stay tuned for "Coming Home Party 2009" details! Much love and thanks for the prayers and support you sent up and over for him.

The latest.

He called yesterday. He said it's looking like they will depart Taji for Kuwait on February 21st and sometime around February 23rd they'll depart Kuwait for O'ahu. It will take him about 24 hours to get back to O'ahu at least. But he'll call us as soon as he can.

He was told that they might have to sleep in tents when they return to O'ahu because the barracks are full of new soldiers. Great welcome home, huh? Of course I guess if you're going to have to sleep in a tent, O'ahu is the place to do it!

So that's the most recent info we have. We'll keep you posted as he makes his way back to the States. Continue the prayers and well-wishes...he's not out of the war zone yet!

Here is a picture he recently posted on his myspace page. I know the guy on the right is SPC Cool, one of Nic's good buddies who I have taken under my wing and sent lots of goodies to. :-)

Let the countdown begin!

Ladies and gentlemen we have an estimated date for Nic's departure from the desert. He should be leaving on or around February 17th. Can I get a "hell yeah!"? I thought so. I'm so happy I could burst. So he will go back to Hawaii and then at some point after debriefing and getting acclimated back to non-combat life he'll get to come home. We'll definitley keep you posted on that front.

I will update with any new information soon. Keep the prayers, good vibes or whatever else you can spare coming...he's not out of the woods yet.

No more boxes please...

Our soldier is coming home! Well, not immediately, but he has asked that we not send anymore boxes. He said it's not that he didn't appreciate them...but if we send them now they either won't get there before he leaves for Kuwait OR they'll get there and not get TO him and he'll have to go hunt them down. He said even if he chose not to go find them out of inconvenience the Army would FORCE him to go find the boxes before he leaves which could result in a huge headache for him.

So no more boxes because he's leaving soon!!! Hooray!!! The word on the street is that they should be back in O'ahu in mid-February...which means they'll probably leave Iraq by late January or early February. We'll keep you posted as we know more. Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts and reminding him how loved he is while he is gone. Keep the prayers coming and we'll all see him soon! Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

As tempting as it is to send him TONS of candy...don't. He emailed me and said no more candy...he has enough. I think I might've gone a little overboard at Halloween. :-) I thought he'd share, but I guess he missed that lesson in kindergarden. What he did request is books and magazines...just any sort of reading material. (No hard backs...too hard to transport.) He said they are on the move pretty much all the time now...so he can't carry much with him...so reading material is best. So there ya go! Email me if you have any questions. Happy shipping! He'll be home in 4 months!

Getting closer!

Well, Mom and Dad spoke to Nic and he said that the higher-ups from the unit that will replace them in Iraq are now over there getting briefed and caught up to speed on what's going on. So that's an EXCELLENT sign! He thinks that they should be back on US soil by mid-February and hopefully home to Kentucky by mid-March or thereabouts. So we're counting down! It's bad to wish our life away, but we just want him to be home safe and sound as soon as possible.

He told Mom the other day that he thought he was going crazy because he could smell a cheeseburger. So I'm going to include in my Halloween box some hamburger-shaped gummy candies. :-) Remember he's going to need extra support at Christmas as it's hard to be away from family and friends when he knows we're all celebrating. So if you could send him a Christmas card or something I'm sure it would mean the world to him.

Remember on his new address to switch out the PFC to SPC since he's a specialist now. :-) Thanks all folks!

Just pluggin' along!

Sorry for the delay in writing. It's safe to assume that no news is good news though, for the record. :-)

Nic was promoted to specialist a couple of weeks ago. He's very proud of himself and super happy for the pay increase as it just sits earning interest in his bank account waiting on him to come home to it. haha. They did a little ceremony over there where the commanding officer (I think) comes up to each promotee and rips off their PFC tags and replaces it with the new SPC (specialist) tags.

He's well over the hump now. Just 7 months to go now!! He told me in an email that he wanted to make sure I know how much he appreciates all of our boxes and cards we send him. He said it's hard to show via email how much he loves them, but he said it makes his week when he gets them. So keep up the good work people! I'm still updating the movie list with anything anyone emails me to add to the list.

I am also adding to his boxes each month a DVD with pictures and videos of Miles so that Nic won't miss a beat. He can see him growing just like the rest of us. Starting with month 2, the one I just sent out, I added a place at the end of the DVD for video messages from family members. So if you'd like to do one let me know and I can explain to you how to do it with your digital camera OR we can meet someplace and I can video you. I'm happy to do this for you so just let me know. :-)

That's all for now. I promise when I get back to work I'll be better about updating for you. Thanks for reading.