AUGUST 7TH!!!

August 7th?
Almost three months since I posted.
Summer, all four or five days, has all but come and gone.
I've played golf five times.
Had my boat on the water twice, but that's a whole different story.
And life is just flying bye.
Matt has been home since May 15th.
We left Tacoma on Tuesday, May 13th at 800 hrs, and drove into our driveway in New Hampshire on Saturday, May 17th at approximately 16:30 hrs. Not a lot of sight seeing.
I have found it hard to get motivated to post.
While Matt was in Iraq it was a great stress reliever, and made the time pass.
And it was great to hear from people who were in the same situation, or who just wanted to offer support.
To say that life has become once again normal would be a lie.
While there is a lot less stress, there are still the memories.
I have dreams of things blowing up, and being shot at, and isolated, and of people getting hurt and not being able to help them.
Much the same as the dreams I had while Matt was deployed.
I still have times when I suffer the same depression brought on by the worry of having a loved one in harms way.
I wish I could tell everyone with a loved one serving in Iraq or Afghanistan that when their son get's home it will all be great.
But I can't.
Don't get me wrong, it is a whole lot better.
There's a lot less worrying.
But it doesn't go away.
Or at least in my case, it hasn't yet.
I hope to find another cause to take up here in the blogosphere.
And when I do, I intend to continue to do all I can to support our heroes serving in harms way.
Until they all come home.

Thanks NUGHT for rattling my cage.
Now it'll probably be another couple of months before I post again.

THE WORD OF THE DAY

CIVILIAN.
Sometime this afternoon Matt got his papers declaring him a civilian.
I'm headed to Seattle tomorrow to join him for the ride home.
So the journey that started with profound pride and sadness more than three years ago will end in profound pride and happiness, and a long ride home.
Hope to take a lot of pictures to share.
My heartfelt thanks to those who have taken the time to stop by here and offer words of encouragement.
I can never express how much it has meant.
It's difficult to show emotion through this media.
So all I can do is tell you that time and time again I have been moved to tears by the generous support of people I have never met.
I stand in never ending support and with the utmost respect for our men and women serving this great country.
God bless.

FINALY SOME GOOD NEWS

Word on the grapevine is that the 4th Brigade received notification today that their deployment orders were changed.

This is second hand news, and unverified by yours truly, so I am cautiously optimistic.

What I'm not sure of is exactly what the change is, but Matt messaged his brother that it meant that the stop loss order will no longer affect him, and he will separate from active duty on 5/12/09.

We will keep our fingers crossed.