End of Tour Ceremony

We've made it to the end of tour ceremony. This is exactly how it sounds. Drew's group has reached the end of their tour so they get together to give out awards, reflect on the past year, and highlight successes of the deployment. Below are a couple of pictures from the ceremony.
Here's a picture from the day. Many groups were present.


This is a picture of B-Co. which is Drew's group. Don't strain your eyes too badly as you can't see Drew in this picture anyway. He took a look at it and said he is somewhere in the middle of the group behind the flag. I told him he needs to be more conscious and make a better effort to make it into pictures. (Yeah right!) I told him he could at least give me an arm, ear, nose... something! :)


The great news is that in about 10 days I will no longer have to search for him in pictures. He will be right next to me! The latest is that he should leave Iraq on the 7th and be home NEXT weekend. Wow. We'll see if anything changes but we are close. Really close. Drew leaves Iraq in a week from tomorrow. He got back from checkpoint today and only has a handful of missions left. The new group is in the process of taking over so Drew could be relieved of his duties VERY soon. I'll keep you posted.
Today Drew was awarded a ceremonial coin from his boss. The first sergeant awarded five guys (out of everyone) a special coin that signifies the soldier has worked hard this past year. Drew was not expecting it which made the recognition a nice surprise. His boss basically said he cannot wait to see what Drew will accomplish. Neat. Proud of him!
On a cute side note- Today I found two dozen roses at my door from Drew. :) Before he left he came home one night with a dozen roses and told me there was one for every month he would be gone. To be at the point where he now sent two dozen to celebrate that we made it and he will be home soon is overwhelming. Overwhelming in a good way of course. :) Feel so lucky to have him.
Stay tuned for more homecoming details!

Two Weeks

We are really getting down to the wire here. Drew should be HOME in TWO WEEKS!!! I truly cannot believe that Drew himself will be here in our house in two weeks. A year long deployment is about to be behind us. Wow. I went to a meeting on base last night where I learned all of the details. Of course everything is tentative but one thing is a fact: It is a matter of weeks until my big man is home! He is in Main Body One meaning he is in the first group out. The first group will be HOME on October 7th give or take four days in either direction. The way it works, without getting into too many details, is I will get a phone call sometime during that week giving me a 24 hour notice before I need to be at Fort Stewart where Drew and his group will parade on the field, have a 10 minute ceremony, and he will be released. Woo hoo!! The same phone call gives me a flight number so I know when Drew should land, check in, and bus on over to the ceremony. Luckily Drew has his cell phone with him which we will reactivate. That way he can also call me when he lands. As I told my family this morning, I am wound pretty tight. I was cleaning the shower with a toothbrush this morning when I was talking to my mom. I go from butterflies in the mdidle of the night to the lump in my throat to tears in my eyes to trying to focus on work to understanding that we are going to realize the dream of being together again so soon. So soon.
The other good news is that Drew has internet in the tents. We have continued to be able to see each other and talk through the computer which is really nice. It is a little different in tents with so many guys in one room so Drew has to talk quietly but he is in good spirits. He was recently moved to a different platoon to be a team leader. At first he didn't want to switch groups because he has come a long way this year with those guys, but he really likes the new group. He has more responsibility with this group too which makes him even busier but busier means the time goes by more quickly. He is on checkpoint now and thinks he only has a handful of missions left. Two weeks. I seem to be measuring everything in Drew arrival time. I see due dates for work and think Drew will be home when I complete that report, or Drew will be home when I have that meeting. I see expiration dates on food and think that will still be good when Drew is home. When I mow the grass I think I will only mow two more times, I will only run this many times, there is only ONE Mizzou football game left before Drew could be home. This is insane. As you can tell, it is front and center. Can't wait. Here's another example.. if I blog once a week, I only have one more blog left and the next week MIGHT be a blog about Drew coming home. Can't wait. Also, last time when Drew came home for R&R some of you sent cards for Drew to open. I will be setting up another table with cards that Drew will see when he gets HOME. You definitely do NOT have to send anything but feel free to send anything you would like our way and I will make sure he gets it. And we love pictures for the fridge too if the kids want to update their artwork. :) This is the fun time! We plan to come back to St. Louis in November where we look forward to seeing friends and family, but if you want him to see your note ahead of time go for it! If you need our address just let me know. Again, you do NOT have to send anything but wanted you to know you are more than welcome to. Thank you for all of your love and support this year.

Moving Out

Drew is moving out! This week Drew will move out of his CHU and into the tents. Today he is on checkpoint, tomorrow he will have final room inspections, and Thursday he will be living in the tents. It is basically a huge tent/gym almost with tons of bunks. Drew said today that there will only be one guy to a bunk so that makes it a little better. I remember in basic training when Drew made a deal with his bunk-mate so that they helped each other make their bed each day because it was more efficient and they could sleep in a minute longer. Drew is always thinking isn't he? :) Anyway, he should have his own set of bunk beds which would make it a little nicer for him. He should be in tents for a couple of weeks while he trains the new guys... then he is on his way home! Hard to believe Drew should be home in about 4 weeks. 4 WEEKS. We can do that! So it's back to calling cards from a community phone instead of the luxury of the internet but we are on the same page in that this is truly a step in the process to get him HOME.
Because we are getting down to the wire, they are keeping the guys busy. Today they played a game of football which Drew of course enjoyed. He took pictures but again, he already sent his camera cord home so I will have to share those later. So overall sequence of events:
This week: Move Into the Tents
Two Weeks After That: Train new guys in assist and advise role to IPs
4th Week: Come on Home!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is already the 15th....;)

Next Month

So happy that we are already 7 days into September. What are we up to next month? Oh no big deal... my husband is just coming home from war after being gone for a year... should be a nice time. I mean really who are we kidding here? Even when I talk to business colleagues I can't help stifle my excitement. What part of coming home from war after a year-long deployment sounds calm? Anyway, at this point, as you can tell, we are focused on October. Drew is preparing for his relief to arrive around Sept 15th. They'll then move to tents, teach the guys how to do what they have been doing, then come on home! They call it redeploying which confuses me every time I hear it. I catch myself immediately thinking let them get home before we start talking about redeploying but they call coming home redeploying. WHEW. Get that man home before we talk about the next deployment. :) Just FYI in case you hear our guys are redeploying.
You may not have noticed but on 8/31 and 9/1 when we were switching to Operation New Dawn, the news media borrowed Drew's company's banner so Drew's company was highlighted for over 24 hours on multiple news sites. Kind of fun!
That is about it from the Harris homefront. Counting the days... we are more than ready to be together. We are heart sick to say the least but we are so excited at the same time. I said it last week but truly... just trying to be calm. Patience is a virtue, right? :) Oh, and as a side note, Drew packed his camera cord and already sent it home so no more pictures from him. He is looking for pictures from other guys but I apologize for not having pictures.