Dear Family & Friends

As we have settled into our new home near Ft. Lewis, WA, we also settle back into our lives as a real Army family. You may think that we have always been a real Army family and I would be inclined to agree if we hadn't spent the last two years on a cake assignment in the Midwest no where near a major installation.

Being at Rock Island Arsenal, IL was like being on a 24 month vacation. We had daddy and husband at our beck and call. He was able to coach soccer, be home for school functions, go into work late so I could go to appointments and take long weekends to Ohio on a whim. It was nice and I was spoiled. Now back to reality.

He now has regular p.t. in the mornings and we will be lucky to have him home in time for dinner. He has already left us for a week and a half for training and I was a mess. Not to mention the late nights of meeting flights this week putting him at work between the hours of 9pm and 3am. I was so not prepared for any of this. I think I lost my supermom cape in the move... or it was revoked! I don't know. But I definitely need it back.

We learned last Friday that the 3rd Stryker Brigade would be deploying in December for 12 months. Not all of it, but most of it. One unit would be deploying later than the rest but be back before them due to the new 9 month deployments starting in January but that's not John's unit. Another unit is staying behind altogether... also not John's unit. However, not all of his unit would be deploying. We had anticipated the deployment due to rumors but we were hopeful that he would get to avoid a third deployment but no such luck. Before Christmas, our hero will be deployed to Afghanistan.

It wasn't easy news to swallow. Especially since we have a Christmas vacation planned. We were supposed to go as a family to Southern California but this deployment has changed that. The kids and I will still go and my sister is meeting us there but we still wish daddy could go. It won't be the same without him and we will definitely miss him.

I had already been contemplating a Thanksgiving vacation. I was trying to work out the details for flying to D.C. with the kids for a long weekend while one of my friends is in the area. After receiving the confirmation of deployment I began to rethink that idea. A better idea would be go home to Ohio to visit family before John goes overseas again. However, neither vacation is proving to be affordable. Flying 7 people across the country is costly. Add in a rental car because no one has a 7-8 passenger vehicle to loan us plus food and we are talking easily $4000 for a 5 day vacation.

This lead me to an even better idea. We just moved to a new house that many people are interested in coming to see. After all, it is a beautiful house in a beautiful state. So I extend to you, a Thanksgiving invitation. If you would like to visit with us before John ships out then you are more than welcome. Or if you have an extra $4000 lying around, that would work too :)