Matthew's Shadowbox

Hey everyone. Matthew has found a pretty cool website. He was able to put in all of his military information on it and his memories. I'm seeing it as a journal type thing actually. I really like the idea. He has worked on it all night and it's slowly starting to come along. Hope it's something you can enjoy.

The baby bump...

Ok so 35 weeks and a few days along... I'm beyond miserable.

Not the greatest picture of me but shows the belly really well.



Other than that, life is just moving along. I'm always uncomfortable but it's to be expected I guess. Matt and I are doing well, and slowly adjusting back to life. Dogs are taking well to the training sessions and I couldn't be happier about it. They are listening so much better. They are enjoying the fact that Matt is sticking around more and are getting use to the "old routine" we had before he deployed.


Well, there's a short update. We love ya all!

Another Sad day

My mom called me this morning and told me that her brother, my Uncle Kirk, passed away over night. The cause is unknown at this time and I don't know if they are going to do an autopsy or not. My poor Grandma. She has out lived 4 of her 7 children and her husband. She is one of the strongest people I know to have to go through this. I love my Grandma dearly and my heart goes out to her.

They always say that death comes in three. I really hope it's not true. As you know, last month I lost a dear friend of mine and now my Uncle. I hope it stops here cause I don't know how much more I can handle.

I'm sad cause it's so close to the holiday and I am, still, unable to to travel to be with my family. It does help to have Matt home though. I'm not alone. The death of Shana last month was hard cause I did feel alone even though I had my friend Jennifer to confide in.

I just want to tell you all that I love you and I know I don't say it much but know you are greatly loved and that I think of you all often.!

Pictures of Matt's Homecoming

The wounded were the first to come in and lets just say they got probably the biggest applause of them all!
Here they come in a single line and start to form up in their formations.

Forming up in Formation

After they were released and we were able to find one another

Great to actually get to hold him

My friend painted the sign on the door the rest of the stuff I put up.

Kayla did a good job I think!

Here is the link to the Guidon. It has the best picture of the entire troop formation. It's the only one I could find. Hope it's worth looking at and it has the story attached so you can read it.

http://myguidon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8959&Itemid=39

HE'S HOME!!!

Well, it's official. Matt is home from the war. He actually got into the state of Missouri around noon yesterday but wasn't on post until about 5pm. They marched into the gym and all the spouses, family and friends went into a huge up roar. The first 3 people were wounded soldiers and they got a huge round of applause and tears started rolling. Matt walked in about half way through the huge group of soldiers. The commander of the post gave a small speech, we had a moment of silence for the fallen soldier, SGT John Savage, and then they were released. It took us a minute to find one another but once we found each other it was great. We hugged and he just stared in aw at how big I am. (I will post pictures later). My friend Jennifer was there to take pictures.

I just want to say thank you to all my friends here that helped me through this deployment and for all the support from the family. I have learned a lot of independence and I definitely don't let people take advantage of me anymore.

We will be calling people throughout the week but I'm sure it will be short due to phone minutes. At least until the weekend.

We love you all and I know you are all just as happy as I am that he made it home safely after 14 months of being so far away.

FINALLY!

Well, it's official. I am in my new house. Now, as far as unpacking, HA HA! That's funny. Just moving here about sent me into labor and on top of it, I have gotten sick with a chest/sinus cold. I have just been taking it easy and only getting things out that I desperately need. I do have to say THANK YOU to my friend Jennifer. She helped me a lot. She came over on Monday and pretty much packed my house up for me and then Tuesday, she helped me unpack my kitchen. She has been a HUGE life saver. Like I said, I was almost thrown into labor on Monday from all the stress and bending over and everything else I did. I didn't lift anything over my weight limit but just the stress on my body was enough. Luckily I'm doing better and now just trying to get over this stupid cold. Other than that. I'm doing my best to settle in and straighten up. The only down fall to this new house is that for some reason, there is a huge sand pit right out my back door and the dogs and I are constantly tracking it in. I have my "pre-inspection" on Monday with the housing company and I'm going to ask them to fix it cause I have to sweep at least 4-6 times a day just to keep the house from looking like the sand pit outside. The dogs seem to like being able to actually use their dog kennel that we bought for them so long ago but never got to use cause of how swampy my old house was in the back yard.

After the drama I heard about that went down in the old neighborhood last night, I am really glad I did choose to move out. I don't know all the details but I was woken up at 4 am by my friend that still lives in the neighborhood (2 doors down from my old house) telling me that our neighbor across the streets husband, (who is home on R&R) just found out she had been cheating on him while he was in Iraq and went postal. He didn't actually hurt anyone but there was such a commotion that it woke her up from a dead sleep and that they were actually in her yard fighting. I obviously didn't witness anything but I guess 4 MP cars with 2 MPs per vehicle showed up and started searching the neighborhood for the husband cause he said he had a gun and wanted to kill himself. Yeah, scary stuff. I am just glad I wasn't there to have to listen to it cause I guess it went on from about 2am-6am this morning. I was on the phone with my friend from 4-5 am and it had started to finally calm down. I don't' know what had actually happened after that but we did see the husband this afternoon get dropped off at the house. I'm just glad to be out of there and away from the drama. So far, the people in this new area are quiet and keep to themselves which is what I like. I just meet the lady that lives 2 doors down from me and she seems to be nice. They just moved here from Fort Stewart, GA.

Well, I'm rambling cause I only got about 5 hrs of sleep and I am just so slap happy. I hope the blog makes sense. OH I do have some sad news. The other day, 1 soldier was killed while out on a mission by a suicide bomber and 3 others were wounded but later in the day returned to duty. They were part of the 103rd CO which is part of the 94th En Co. (Unit Matt is in). Another soldier was killed in the same bombing and another wounded but they were part of the 84th En Co which is replacing Matt's unit. My heart goes out to the families in their time of need. It's just so sad it had to happen to them with the Holiday's and the fact that they are days/weeks from coming home. I will sure be praying for them.

Well, I hope you all have a good weekend. I am going to rest cause I am extremely busy this next week with appointment after appointment. We love you all!