Almost Time to Go

After nearly 3 months of training to get ready, it is finally almost time to head overseas. Our training has been fairly comprehensive, which is to say we spent a whole lot of time training for things that we will not be doing over there, but most of it is good to know "just in case" type of stuff. These past few weeks we have finally focused on our jobs and I am confident to say that we should be able to do our mission without too many major problems.

Erin and the boys are flying up to Chicago to spend one last mini-vacation together. We are going to stay downtown, close to the Navy Pier, which has lots of kid friendly activities. The Chicago USO has pointed me to quite a few free or reduced price things to do, so the hard part will be to try to limit what we try to fit in so we have plenty of time to relax together. We will have enough stress as it is, as Erin is braving the airports just her and the boys, and I have about a 4 hour drive down from Ft. McCoy. I'm really looking forward to it though, one last chance to love on my awesome family before I have to say good bye for quite some time. Just can't tell Erin and the boys enough how much I love them and how much I'm gonna miss them.

Looking back at old posts, I realize I've missed a lot since I posted the last time. I did get a chance to go home at the end of July for just a few days. There were so many things I wanted to get accomplished, but so little time. I chose the "do what you can and don't stress about the rest" option, which made the trip a little better. I got to see Jim & Christine's new house nearly completed. All those finishing touches just seem to take forever, but I can already see a lifetime worth of memories just waiting to be made there. After a couple of days at home, we all drove up to Omaha and stayed at a Holiday Inn that had an indoor water park. We though the boys might really enjoy that, but the pool (separate from the park) turned out to be a better option and a lot less crowded, so we never did make it to the park. Oddly enough, I ran into a West Point classmate of mine at the pool. Jim Doty and I hadn't seen each other in probably 14 years or so, so when we saw each other at the pool, each chasing our kids, we did the "hey, don't I know you?" look. Jim just happened to be passing through Omaha on his way to his next post. My boss and friend, Jon Allbaugh, came up to see me off at our farewell ceremony and then treated the family to lunch at Chuckie Cheese. It gave the boys a chance to run around and blow off some steam before starting the 7 hour trip back to Oklahoma. I did catch Jon chuckling a time or two watching the boys run around, I have a feeling he enjoyed it, too. It meant a lot to me for him to come up, I can't thank him enough for making the trip.

Speaking of Jon, for those of you who don't know him, he is a big Oklahoma State fan, and not real fond at all of University of Oklahoma. But at the farewell ceremony, a Nebraska rep gave the unit a big Husker flag to "fly proudly" while we are overseas. Jon didn't want me to feel out of place, so when he got back to Enid, he bought me an OU flag and sent it up to Ft. McCoy. As you can see, I have it hanging over my bunk, were all the Nebraska fans in the bay have to look at it, every day. Thanks again, Jon!

Since my last post, a couple of friends have had babies. Congratulations to Jaime and Megan on their little bundles of joy!

Well, my next post will likely be from either Kuwait or Iraq. Please keep me and my family in your prayers, it is definately going to be a challenging year on many fronts. Thanks for all of your support!

Shawn