NAVY Ball

It's time for the NAVY ball!  This could possibly be our last one.  TJ only goes when he's forced to go and I'm not sure the next command will force him to!  We had a good dinner and good chats with our fellow dining partners.  I will miss not being here at Virginia Tech for this next year.

Shooting

Tj had Thursday off, so the lieutenants from the unit planned a shooting event.  The kids wanted to go too, so they headed off to the outdoor shooting range while I went and taught BodyCombat.  The kids have been shooting a few times before, but this time they got to throw some clay pigeons up and they had a blast!
Here is Brena with that big arm of hers (at least there's no windows nearby...)

 Gorgeous day!

Tyler throwing his.

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best hubby and daddy around.  We LOVE you!  Brenalee made lots of gifts for daddy.  I got him a spray in bed liner for his truck - he's been wanting one since he got the truck.  The bed liner hasn't happened yet - but I'm sure it won't be long until he gets it done.  We had the missionaries over for dinner and had a feast of all of Tj's favorite foods.

 I always LOVE reading these little questionnaires! 

Father Son Campout

Tj and Tyler went on a father son campout last night.  Tyler was so excited.  We had initially planned on going to Busch Gardens this weekend, but then we found out the campout was scheduled.  We let Tyler decide what he wanted to do and he choose the campout.  He was also excited that he got to leave school early Friday.  They left about 11am and drove to Pulaski and had, what I'm told, the best Japanese food ever.  Tj ate so much I guess he was sick the rest of the night with details "he would spare me."  Thanks.  I wouldn't have wanted to be in that tent last night!!  I wish they would have taken more pictures!

 That's Tyler punting the ball right there.

 Apparently he started chopping wood and he is now obsessed with chopping wood.  They came home and he wouldn't leave us alone until we went and bought him his own ax to chop wood with!

22 Mile Bike Ride

22 miles!  Yes!  The scouts went and did a 22 mile bike ride on the New River trail.  Tj went with Tyler.  He said it was just gorgeous.  Tyler finished, and I was really proud of him.  Tj said he shed a few tears because it was hard, his butt hurt, and he was tired.  But, he did it.

I'm still impressed Tj was able to take pictures with his phone while he was riding and not crash!

 Lunch break!

 The New River

 A smile?!

Bummer

Tj left Thursday evening to head to the gym.  Normally he just walks over since it's so close.  But, it was a little cold, so he drove.  He had just gotten out of our neighborhood when he called me to say he was rear ended.  About an hour later he came home.  The poor car is totaled.  I am still so angry!  Why can't people pay attention?  The girl that hit him didn't even slow down!  Now we are out a good car that we had no plans on getting rid of for a very long time.  And, I HATE going through the process of buying/finding a new car.  Except for whiplash, thank goodness TJ is ok!

Tj's 35!

The unit went to The Cellar for lunch to celebrate Tj's birthday.  They go out to lunch for every birthday.  Happy birthday my love!  He wanted new golf shoes for his birthday.

Columbus Day!

TJ had today off because of Columbus Day.  We have been really needing to paint our house.  It came with this beige flat paint.  I'm sure you can imagine all the little dirty fingerprints I have all over my walls - especially going up the stairs.  And of course because it's flat paint - you can't wash anything off of it!  It was horrible!  It was a big undertaking and we spent the entire day painting - but we finished it!  We only have a couple of rooms left to paint now.

Football - Jag's opening game

Our neighbors called to see if we wanted their Jaguar vs. Miami tickets for last night. They couldn't use them. We decided that TJ would take Tyler. I've never been to a NFL game, and I would have liked to go. We thought Tyler would have more fun though. The game was supposed to start at 7:30p.m. TJ and Tyler got down to the stadium and the game got delayed because of all the lightning we had been having. The game didn't even end up starting until 9pm! The boys stayed for the entire first quarter and then TJ decided they needed to leave because it was so late. Tyler was upset - he wanted to stay the entire game. I'm glad he had a good time despite the rain and delays.

Go Jags!

The true meaning of Christmas

I get to talk to TJ a lot, it's wonderful. If you would have told me 12 years ago (when TJ was on his first deployment in 1997) that I would be talking to/seeing my husband on a computer on his deployment 12 years from then (in El Salvador for heaven's sake!!) - I would have thought you were nuts! But, we do. We use Skype and our webcams, and we talk A LOT. In fact, I don't get much else done around here because we talk so much.

Yesterday during one of our many conversations I asked him what he had been doing. He casually mentioned he had gone to an orphanage. This is so totally my husband - he never, ever will brag about himself or bring any kind of attention to anything good he has done. He is a very humble, modest guy. I asked him what he did at the orphanage. He said some of his squadron had gone there and delivered Christmas presents to the orphans. This touched my heart in a big way. Here are some pictures (that I had to cajole him to get from another guy who took them):

The Orphanage. Tin roof, no a/c in very hot weather. It is hard to imagine people live like this! TJ said a tin roof is a good house, some people just live in the bushes.

He said there were "lots of cuties there." He was right:

My husband doing something he does well: playing sports!

The part that broke my heart was that they didn't have enough presents for all the kids. I guess there were kids visiting from other orphanages. So, there were more kids there than they thought there would be. TJ said they will be going back when they celebrate Three Kings Day in January, to deliver more presents.

The best Father's Day ever!

As most of you know, TJ left for Maine earlier this month. He completed SERE school on Thursday (if you don't know what that is...google it...) and I didn't think we would be seeing him until the end of next month when we closed on the house. Well....the house is of course delayed. Only our house though, no other house is delayed. Something about building permits being lost by the County or something like that. Anyways, I know there has to be a reason for all of it. One of the reasons is that TJ got to come home! Yep, he flew in yesterday. So, we got to spend Father's Day with him, and it's his 31st b-day today too. It was a pretty sweet day. And, he gets to stay with us for 3 WEEKS!!!!!! Can you see the smile on my face? :) If we had been closing next month, he wouldn't have been able to come home now and again next month. So now he's here for 3 weeks, and he'll be home again at the end of August. YIPPEE!!! He is doing great after SERE, just a few minor issues that should resolve themselves in time. He did eat a rabbit eyeball...raw! EWWW! And he is only at 17% body fat, but we'll get him beefed up in no time!

He requested his favorite, red velvet cake made from scratch...I'll have to share that recipe later.