Day Off

Today Drew enjoyed a well-deserved DAY OFF. Thank goodness!! He has had a busy schedule of 24 hour checkpoints, multiple missions, skipped meals... etc. He woke up at 2am this morning to head out to the trucks only to find other guys getting into his truck. When he asked his boss what was going on he was informed he had the morning mission off AND 24 checkpoint! YAY!! He needed it. It wears on you pretty quickly when it is non-stop like that. He has been fortunate to be able to sleep during his breaks at the checkpoint but they changed the schedule this last time and he was unable to sleep. No fun. He is a new person I tell ya! :) His group started back up with the ruck marches and they have continued that. Part of their training to get their expert infantry badge later this year includes a 12 mile ruck march so I guess they are getting a head start. Drew really likes rucking though and looks forward to it. Tomorrow morning he is going again even though he is technically off. Oh yes... that 12 mile ruck will be later this year when he is HOME!! Get used to it blog readers. I'm just warning you now. There will be lots of talk about Drew coming home in the next few months. Oh wait! Not even three months!! YEP! We hit the three month mark until he is home last weekend so we can now say LESS THAN 3 MONTHS!!!!! Ok, enough of that. Can't breathe. :)
I have asked Drew numerous times for pictures but his internet is so slow when he does try or he is so busy he doesn't think of it. He said he will send some this week but I will believe it when I see it! In the meantime I guess I will share my pictures from this weekend. Last minute I decided to go to Myrtle Beach with one of the girls, Rachel. She was going to pick up her mom and staying for Saturday night so I joined her. Might as well do something to pass the time! It was really nice there. Our condo was right on the beach and it had a really neat lazy river pool thing. We enjoyed beach time then headed to a neat restaurant on an inter-coastal waterway and went to a fun bar right on the beach. Tomorrow I am actually headed to a Dave Matthews concert in Atlanta. I feel like I am going back in time to high school in going to the concert but my neighbor invited me and I said why not?! I am going with her (my neighbor) and my friend who lives in Atlanta. I loved living in Atlanta when Drew was in training at Fort Benning and I love going back to visit. It should be a nice time. Drew and I were saying how quickly we feel July went so here is to a very quick next (less than) 3 months!!

Rachel and I getting ready at the condo. It kind of reminded me of Destin.


This is Rachel's daughter Gia. We played "beauty shop" and I curled her hair too and put on make-up. She is so cute! She didn't come out to the bar with us obviously but her cousins took her to get ice cream. :)


This was at dinner on the river.


More pictures of Drew as soon as I have them. I promise!

Late Post

I can't believe it is already July 19th. I realized I hadn't posted anything since the 8th but it feels like it was just my birthday. I guess time going by quickly is a good thing. Drew's boss is already counting down the days until the guys parade onto the field. We are at 90 something days left. It is great to think about Drew being home soon. Great doesn't even explain it. Anyway, it is also hard to already be talking about it. Drew started to get antsy to come home this week with so much talk of the homecoming. He is filling out leave forms, learning about what will happen when he gets back, and dreaming of being together again. We also need to stay strong and focused and plow through the last 90 days. That is exactly where we are now. We are energized and focused and ready to rock the rest of this deployment. Drew learned he isn't going to have a choice in concentrating. Beginning tomorrow, his schedule is getting crazy again. They are consolidating 4 groups into 3 so the 3 groups will now cover the workload the 4 groups used to. He will have two missions one day and the next day he will have a mission followed by a 24 hour checkpoint. This will continue until the boots are on the ground back here in GA. Drew is rather optimistic about it. He knows this is the final push until he is back home and we both know time flies with the hectic schedule. We just have to steal our moments when we can.
Drew is even more excited to come home now because his new bow arrived today. Well, it arrived here so I spent much time analyzing it, taking pictures to send him, and holding it up to the camera for Drew to see. I believe I accurately performed the assessment and Drew is quite happy with it. :) He spent a ton of time reviewing which bow to get and found a great deal. When he gets back we will head to the bow shop and outfit it with all of the bells and whistles. Before we know it we will be hunting together. Can't wait! I have been reminding Drew to take pictures daily so I will share when I have some.

Independence Day and My Birthday

Happy 4th of July! I read a few interesting takes on the holiday that you shouldn't say Happy 4th of July but that you should focus on the fact that it is Independence Day. I think both are important. 4th of July bring memories of family, friends, fun, food, and fireworks. Just realized those all start with F. :) But it is also a time to appreciate and thank the men and women that sacrificed so much before us, are currently serving, and those that will continue to fight for our freedom and the luxuries we enjoy each day. So Happy 4th of July and Independence Day! How about that?
I had SUCH a great holiday weekend. Soooo much fun! The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been if Drew could join us but soon enough. My parents arrived on Wednesday evening and didn't have to leave until Tuesday morning. So nice! Thursday we played total tourists in Savannah. We went on the trolley tour which was really interesting and fun but it didn't stop there. It started to rain so I bought an obnoxious poncho that literally looks like the plastic that comes when you pick up your dry cleaning. Even the trolley guy commented to the whole trolley how nice our ponchos were. Dad was too cool to wear his but Mom and I rocked it. If that wasn't bad enough, I needed a baseball hat because my hair was a mess with the rain. Oh yes, I got a hat that said Savannah. So between my Savannah hat, dry cleaning poncho, and my trolley sticker, I looked so cool. :) That was the extent of our "bad" weather. Wouldn't even call it bad weather actually. It was in the low 80s so we didn't complain. We also stopped by Tybee on Thursday. Friday we headed to Jekyll Island for three nights. AMAZING! The weather was soooo nice. We rode bikes, fished, walked on the beach, went on a shrimp boat to watch fireworks... the works. Like I said, would have been perfect with Drew there but it was pretty darn close!! Drew of course was so cute on my birthday on Monday. His roommate came over to tell me Happy Birthday when I was talking to Drew and I asked Drew if he had just told him. He said he had told everyone he talked to that it was my birthday. We tend to miss each other like crazy on special occasions so I wasn't surprised. :) Can't wait to make up for every missed occasion.
Notice Dad's trolley sticker. My sticker stuck to my poncho when I took it off. Darn!


Here are the three of us at a restaurant in Jekyll.


We found a new place to catch flounder but we kept snagging so didn't catch anything. At least it was pretty!

We have hit the 90 day mark for Drew. Hard to believe he only has 90 days or less in Iraq. His boss said these are the days that can be the most dangerous if guys lose focus or become complacent. Drew is completely aware and encourages his guys to remain sharp. He's now helping to design the workout programs for the guys too. I was watching the news yesterday and they were saying children should not be playing sports in this weather (it went back up to 100 after my parents left) but yet it is 130 in Iraq and Drew plays sports all of the time! He is drinking water by the gallons and feeling good.
Last week we had another blackout when a guy in Drew's company was shot in small arms fire. He will be fine and again the team reacted perfectly. They are taking many measures to increase safety and they continue to train to prevent this but unfortunately, sometimes no matter what you do, things are going to happen. Drew is confident in himself and his team's training to handle anything.