Alot on my mind!

The other day i found out that my friend's husband was killed in Iraq. Since i found out i have had so many thoughts running through my head. It has hit me really hard - one because I knew the guy - he had been to my house a couple of times to eat dinner, two he was my friend's husband, and three because Eric is about to deploy. What do you do when something like this happens? What do you say? In an instant your whole world changes upside down. My friend is widowed at 23 years old. How is that fair?? I guess it goes to show that you can't take the ones you love for granted. I know i can be there to love and support her and do anything she might need done. I feel so sad right now. I just don't know what to do.
Sorry to post such sad things - I just needed to get them off my chest. Please pray for the troops and their families, they need all the prayers they can get. I know it is the life we choose, my friend's husband, Eric, all the other troops. They all chose to do this and I'm sure they are all proud to serve and fight for our country. I am so proud of Eric! But it doesn't make it any easier! I still can't fathom the idea of not being able to see my husband for a year, it makes me sad that he will miss a year of little Eric's life. But i can't be more proud of my husband and 100% support him in what he does. They say the hardest job of the army is being an army wife; i have to agree with that sometimes. Just pray for the ones who are deployed and their families; especially those like my friend who have to go through an awful tragedy like this.

Little Eric is in heaven!

This year we are signing up Little Eric for ice hockey. He is so excited and it is one of the few things that he talks about alot. Well this evening they had skating with the Cottonmouths (the hockey team here in Columbus). He was so excited today and couldn't wait. He kept asking me if it was time to go. At one point he asked me if i had checked the schedule and was it starting. Eric has been skating once before so he knows how to, he is just nervous about it. When he first started, he used the sled to help him but since i knew he knew how to skate i kept taking it away from him. By the end he was skating all around all by him self. I'm so proud of him. Alot of the players had commented that he was a really good skater. I was such a proud mom! :) Little Eric had a blast - he had a smile on his face the WHOLE two hours. Sorry to post all the videos but big Eric really wanted to be there and really wants to see them. Enjoy!

It is going to be a LONG year and a half!!

Technically we have only been apart for about for 1 week but i feel like it has been an eternity!! I miss him like crazy! We survived all the visiting family, the vacations, and the long drive to Kansas. Going out there we split it up into 2 days. On the 2nd day we stopped in St. Louis and went to the arch. That was alot of fun. I had been there but big nor little Eric had. Little Eric thought it was pretty cool to look out over the city. The week in Kansas wasn't too bad. I started to go alittle crazy because you can only spend so much time in a hotel room with a 3 year old. Thankfully Eric was off about 3pm every day. It turned out that Eric had Columbus Day weekend off so he was able to drive back with me. We decided to drive straight through. It was 15 hours (well more because we stopped alot) and I thought we were never going to get home. We left at 5pm when Eric got off and got back home about noon the next day. It was really nice to have a few extra days with Eric.



Saying goodbye at the airport was hard! Eric told me I COULD NOT cry and of course what did i do - i cried. Only alittle bit though. Little Eric didn't want to leave the airport because "he wanted to be there when daddy got done at work". That broke my heart when he said that. We are still adjusting to Eric being gone. Little Eric asks almost every morning when he wakes up if daddy is done at work yet. We take one day at a time and somehow we will make it.



Eric is hating life right now. They had 2 weeks of in processing so this week they just started training. He sleeps in a bay with about 40 other guys so there is no privacy what so ever. They really haven't been busy so he has nothing to do because he doesn't have a car. Once they really start training they train 6 days a week and Eric is looking SO forward to it. He just wants to stay busy so he has less time to think about how much he misses home.



But i just wanted to update everyone on how things were going. Check back often - I'll put updates about Eric here. Have a great evening.

the family at the top of the arch


Little Eric was alittle bored on the trip

Big and Little Eric at the arch