Dan goes to Kuwait JULY 6

Questions and Answers:

Asked by Becca: How long will Dan be gone?

Dan will be gone for 1 year, and with our fingers crossed we think he will be able to come home half way through for a visit (hopefully that's not just wishful thinking). I keep wanting time to slow down (until he goes) but inevitably it speeds up, and well, I'm sure when he's gone it will slow again. I hope its not the longest year in my life.

Asked by Thomas (Aunt Cathy's son): What branch of the Army is Dan in?

Ok, I am a new army wife, not quite sure what is meant by branch, but I'll send out the information that I do know, maybe that will answer the question... Dan is a sergeant in the reserves. He is a mechanic and works on the big trucks and hummers as his main course of work. He loves cars. He does other army stuff, guns, tracking, driving trucks, etc.

Aunt Cathy: "Thomas thinks it safe in Kuwait.." I hope he is right. Dan convinces me of that as well. Kuwait is the last part of the official U.S. holdings of Desert Storm. It looks like it's a couple of bases where U.S. soldiers are making sure the land is kept safe and free. (They are a very rich country because of the oil production and everyone wants to own Kuwait; the US has tried to help protect them and fight for their right to remain their own country). I hope Dan stays safe there.

Anne and Becca: Still don't know how to use facebook and I'm afraid of those High School stalkers that may be lurking. (Anne knows who I'm talking about). I'll think about it. I've heard stories about face book, not so sure yet, but I'll try to check it out. Sorry I haven't done it yet. You'll have to show me the ropes. Maybe when Dan leaves I'll get us both to sign up so we can also communicate that way. I hope he has access to the internet there?

Trip to New Mexico and Texas

I've been back for a week or more and I'm finally getting back into the hang of thing, jobs, house cleaning, laundry. I finally have a few minutes to share about my trip to New Mexico and Texas.

We started out in Logan and traveled to Spanish Fork to see Anne and Nate. We put together a gift for Kirsten's girls (flower hair clips that Anne has been selling). Then we drove to Price, UT to pick up Dan's brother Joel and his girl friend Barbara. So if you see pics of them, you will know who we are talking about. The trip was alot of driving and alot of fun. After a 12 hour drive we reached Las Cruces to see Kirsten, who was pretty sick when we got there, and the girls were just getting over a pretty back cold. (none of us got sick..) We didn't have much of a chance to stay at her house on the way down, we pretty much slept the night and left the next day. I wanted to stay but we all knew that we would have some time on the way back through... we continued our drive and another 8 hours later and a sleepless night we were in San Antonio Texas. We arrived at 6 in the morning, and found 3 little boys playing in the living room on their wii. We all looked at eachother wondering why the kids were up, then realised that the time was actually 7 am there. We slept on the floor for 2 hours, and I heard the boys saying to eachother, "Man it sucks they can't go to Six Flags with us, wish they would wake up." I prodded the others awake, and our day was already starting with just 2 hours of sleep! It's a good thing we were not a bunch of little whiny kids, cuz they would really have not wanted us to come on that much sleep! I think Dan had the worst of it, he did all the driving. I wanted to drive, but we had just traded in his other car for a new Subaru STI the sports edition and he really wanted to "get to know her". I don't blame him for not wanting me to drive, I'm not really that good at manual and I wouldn't want to ruin something right after we got it.

Six Flags was a blast, we all got in with special passes for the day for just $10 thanks to Dan's uncle Joe. We rode the new ride Galiath and other crazy rides, it was really just like Lagoon, but bigger. 3 little boys running all over the park like it was their own back yard was pretty crazy, I don't know how their parents handled it mentally, emotionally.. but they didn't lose any of them.

The part of the trip that Dan was most excited about was getting to see his dad. His dad owns a club called atomix. We drove to downtown San Antonio after Six Flags and walked inside of his club. The bouncers were not excited about letting us in until we told him that we were Jame's kids. He smiled really big and gave us all passes right away. We sat at the bar and waited to talk to James. He came over after serving a few drinks and we talked, I could tell Dan was very excited to be there. We watched people sing Karoke, (none of us had the guts to sing). That night, worn out we slept pretty soundly until the boys woke us up again, "You guys coming to the beach with us?" It was about 10 in the morning this time, but even with more sleep we all felt more tired than the night before!

We drove to Corpus Christi and went to Mustang Island... there we tride out boogie boards and Joe's Surf board. We played in the sand and burried a couple of the boys. It was about the only really sunny day we got, but it was windy. We had fun anyway. Our San Antonio trip ended with the afternoon spent walking around downtown with Dan's dad and eating at the Hard Rock Cafe there. (pretty expensive, good food though). It was good to see Dan's dad in his own atmosphere. No dress up clothes, just a regular guy in a regular restaurant.

Well, the trip had to come to an end sometime, so we drove again, all day and slept again at Kirsten's. This time we got to stay for another day. The kids went to school, we picked them up early and went to White sands. It was pretty windy (again) but we got some neat pictures. I was worried it was going to be a bust at first because of the wind, but Dan said, "We're here so lets have some fun" and he ran right out into the dunes, everyone followed. I was glad for his initiative. The girls really took to Dan and Joel, Macy even took alot of time playing with Barbara and trying to get her to sit by her and play with her. It was really cute. Dan took some videos of his car in the sand, that was a little scarey for me and fun for Dan. I guess this trip was ready to end a week later, all of us crabby and tired. I'm glad we got to go though.

Dan texted his dad just this last week, "Glad we got to come see you... I won't have the chance in the next year to see you." His dad texted that he enjoyed seeing us and wondered why Dan would be able to see him in the next year. Dan has gotten his orders to go to Kuwait. He gets deployed this coming July. He's leaving on July 6th 2009. It seems so fast coming, and even though we have been trying to plan for this, I never expected it to come so soon. I'm hoping I can get through this time by staying busy. I know Kirsten is doing now what I'll be doing in a couple of months, getting along without the one you love most is going to be hard. We are going to be moving in with Dan's grandparents in Brigham City so that I don't have to pay rent while he is gone. (I will also have emotional support as well). Here comes another big change in our lives, but I can't help feeling a little helpless and lonely at the thought of Dan leaving.

We're going on vacation! One full week of driving and stopping at several different locations on the way to San Antonio Texas. I know it sounds like a strange location, but Dan and I talked about going to visit his dad. Dan called his dad mentioning that he might go. We still were unsure of our trip until talking with his grandparents, we found out that even though his dad didn't sound all that stoked about us coming, he was actually very excited and hoped we chose to drive his way. So we are taking Joel (Dan's Brother) and Barbara, (a good family friend, currently dating Joel) with us. We will drive down through new mexico, stopping at Kirstens, then take our trip to San Antonio, and visit his dad's club (that will be interesting for me) and go to the beach just 2 hours south of san antonio. I'm just excited to get a break from my job. It's been stressful lately, the economic problems in our country is affecting everyone around us. My work has been making budget cuts, laying people off right and left. They just cut a shift from the wing I work on, which gives us another whole list of work to do. I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, I keep thinking that I'm really glad I still have my job, but I'm having a hard time taking on all the extra responsibilities we get because no one else is there to do it. A week break sounds like heaven to me, and I know it will go way to fast for all of us.

Is the world just going nuts? I worry everyday about the future and what it holds. My fears stand tall in the area of the war, and my hopes are irrational, wishing that Dan will not have to leave, that things will change before he is chosen to go. I want so much for us but it's all put on hold as we wait for the future to take hold of us. I'm glad for those already going through the hard times so that I have examples to help me know that I can do it. But that just helps the tears stop their flow for a time.