Jason is safe

Well, no pictures this week. Jason is safely in Iraq. He is trying to get settled in and they are really busy, so I haven't talked to him too much. He is definitely living better than he did during the last deployment, thankfully. Maybe he will be able to post some pictures by Christmas.

The kids and I are doing alright. We are in a routine, but everybody is grumpy. It's been raining a lot and we have been so busy. A lot of it is my own doing- I am the family readiness leader for the company Jason is in, so I have a lot of time spent organizing and meeting with the ladies so we can support the families. I have a terrific group of about 25 ladies who help me take care of the rest, so that is a HUGE blessing.

Thank you for thinking of us and praying for our family. Hopefully we will be smiling in the next pictures :-)

Deployment Day

Jason left for Iraq yesterday. I had been thinking that since this was our third deployment, that it might me a little easier to say goodbye. I was wrong. After Jason finished packing, we spent the day playing Monopoly and a little xbox. It was time to drop him off at the company area and neither of the kids wanted to go. We were all crying. I don't think they could bear driving off and leaving him there. I dropped him off, said my own goodbyes through the tears and drove the 2 miles back home.

When I got home Hunter was sitting in the chair with his face buried in Jason's pillow, just sobbing. I grabbed him up and we took Ashley to swim practice-her choice. She needed a 2 hour swim to get all those feelings out and said she felt much better by the end of practice. Hunter and I meanwhile drowned our sorrows in hot chocolate at the top of a beautiful mountain pass in the pouring rain. When we first got there all we could see was the clouds and tips of the mountains. Just as we were finishing the cocoa, it stopped raining and a ray of sunlight cut through the clouds and shined down on the ocean. The mountains were so green and the fog of the clouds was hovering around us. It was so beautiful. I really felt like God was letting me know that through this storm there is always hope and He will be there to comfort and care for us.

I haven't heard from Jason yet, but no news is good news. We do have one thing going for us from past experience and that is we know what routine to get into. We aren't fumbling around trying to figure out how to deal with life. Everyone seems to be doing alright today. We have cried out all the tears and are picking ourselves up by the boot straps and focusing on Jason's return. Hunter told me today "only 364 days to go Mom!"

Paintball Saturday

We spent the day at Bellows Beach. There is a beautiful beach, camping and paintball recreation area at this Air Force station. This was our first time doing the paintball and guess what???They are hooked! Ashley, Hunter and Jason got all geared up and headed into the gaming area. Someone had to stay out and take pictures and resupply the troops. I, of course, volunteered quickly. Combat is not my thing at all. They played a game of capture the flag and Ashley was just feet away from scoring 1000 free paintballs, when she took a hit. Too bad Ashley, what bravery! Ashley was good for the first game, but after three hits, she decided it was enough for the day and went to the beach with me and some good friends who live on that side of the island.

Hunter and Jason stayed for a few more hours and had a blast! They both took some painful hits, but I guess that comes with the territory. The bruises are monstrous today. Everyone is looking forward to coming back, but with a little more protection.

to hear the video

In order to hear the video, you have to manually turn down the volume of the music player at the bottom of the blog :-)

Jason and Hunter have been going to the skeet range about once a week for the last few months. Tonight was a historic night for Hunter. He shot 20 out of 25 clay pigeons, a new record high. The video is the last 10 shots. He actually beat Dad tonight! You get a little glimpse of what I will be doing twice a month for the next year.....wish me luck.

Kaneohe Bay

Today we met some friends down at Kaneohe Bay and took the boat out for some afternoon fun. We tried to do some diving, but the water was really murky, so we stuck to snorkeling and hanging out on the 4 mile long sand bar that sits in the middle of the bay. It was a beautiful day full of family fun. We did run across a turtle covered in barnacles. I think he needs to get a little more exercise!

Advanced Open Water Class

One of the things Jason and I wanted to do before he left was take an advanced open water diver class. That's what we did this weekend. The kids were pretty happy because they both got to go on sleepovers with friends. Basically you do five adventure dives to include a night dive, deep dive and practicing navigation and photography. All of our dives were from a boat and the current was pretty strong at one of the locations, which made for an interesting entry to the site. We traded in our old camera, which flooded on the last dive we did, and opted for one with the strobe. You can see how much better the pictures are.

These were some of the best dives we have done. The night dive was really cool. Everyone had chem lights on them and flashlights. It looked like something from outer space. Super cool!!! I was really nervous in the beginning, but it wasn't scary at all. We saw some octupus and some creatures that only come out at night.

Sunday's dive brought us within 5 feet of a nice little white tipped reef shark hanging around a sunken plane. It's hard to guess size and distance underwater, but we think he was about 5 feet long. Jason had gotten closer to him than I did and actually face to face, I know you're surprised. I was wondering if we would be practicing rescue diver techniques that day too! He tried to take some closer pictures, but when he pushed the button, the card was full and wouldn't take anymore pictures. Talk about mad! He spent the next minute deleting pictures, but the shark had left by then.

We are now qualified to dive to 100 ft. We will be doing some night dives with the kids, hopefully this week. Right now the surf on the North Shore is projected to be 16-20 ft, so we have to see how that effects the rest of the island water.

Halloween

We had planned to have a Harvest party at our house this year, but with living on such a small post and the kids living so close to their friends, we decided it might be fun to go trick-or-treating. The kids dressed up- Hunter was a Roman Gladiator and Ashley was a twin to her friend Lindsey. We took Mack and walked the streets on post collecting candy with our gang. The kids were tired after about an hour, I actually think they were tired of carrying their loot.

We headed over to our community center where they have a private movie theater that residents can use. We met with about 15 of their friends and watched "The Forbidden Kingdom" (Jackie Chan and Jet Li). We had quite a karate display when the movie was over. After getting everyone safely to their parents, we went home. Ashley and Hunter sorted, counted, compared and traded candy for about an hour. I'm certain there was a fair amount of tasting going on too. Jason took all they didn't like- the dark chocolates and lemon heads. They both went to bed around 11:00 pm on a sugar high!