Deployment Day 20080531

Ok so here are some pictures I took of the "waiting time" on deployment day. Nothing special but hey it's nice to see that we can be photogenic. Anyway.. The picture with the bus.. you can't tell but john is in the second big window. I will truely miss my honeybear!! Oh and yet again the pictures are out of order. So the bus is the last picture before they moved out.

Deployment Ceremony 20080529

These next few pics above are of the Color Guard putting the Unit flag and colors away until they get to their final destination

General Lally giving his speech (above)

If you notice the smoke in the background is where the cannons were shot off no actual picture was taken because we were standing at the time

I am pretty sure they are covering the guidon (above)Color Guard

I think John is in this group (above)

The Color Guard

The band!!

These are the pictures of John's Deployment Ceremony. It was on May 29th, 2008. The pictures aren't very good because I wasn't in a good seating area and well we were just a bit far. But I got most of it. They are out of order. I always do that. So they are in order from taking last to first. OOPS!!! But you guys get the gist of it anyway.

Our new Neighbor!!

Ok so its only a few weeks late but.. this post is really for Justin and Sarah anyway so I dont think they will mind. Anyway.. We used to have 3 horses across the street from us. Beautiful horses at that. There was a young male (the stud), and a momma horse and her daughter. Anyway, the owner apparently has been tryin to breed the little girl for a few years now. Little did he and all of us know (becuz of of course we are over there quite alot with Rylie-she loves em) that the girl was indeed pregnant. It was early so noone suspected. And then one day a few weeks ago.. She was born. Our newest neighbor, a beautiful little girl. The day she was born the owner let us go into the area with him and just gawk at her. He was just so surprised and was just amazed, it was like watching a brand new dad. Rylie was definitely excited. She is soo beautiful and what a good mommy Telly is. In the picture the big horse the baby is by is of course Telly (mommy) and I am pretty sure that the other big horse in the other pic is the stud or daddy. HEHE!! They are all wonderful and friendly horses and always come to greet the passerby. They have wonderful temperments. We have even fed them some hay that blew out of their land and they didnt try to bite. I love having them as neighbors. The best you can ask for! I can't wait to see how she grows over the years that we are here. Sorry so late but Congrats Telly!!! (the 1st 8 pictures are taken from our front porch while the last few were taken while driving down the road to our home)

Random remarks

Ok so here it is end of April already. As most of you know, John is deploying for 15 months. we are not sure of the exact date but we think it's like 1 June. I do have an address for him and will email it to anyone who would like to have it. I will also let people know in the email as to the location of his unit but don't feel it wise (OPSEC) to post it on here. Although everyone over there is a permanent station for unit and the enemy is aware of their whereabouts I still don't feel the need to disclose that information. We're not at all looking forward to another year and an extra 3 months away from each other but.. Tis the life of an Army wife I say. There is so much to do still around the house and now they will be out on hold for the next 455 days ( more or less who knows). I can however let you know that he will not starve over there nor be bored. They have plenty of facilities to visit and a PX to go to for anything he may need. The time difference there is I think as follows ( from Eastern Time that is).. from April to October its 7 hours ahead and from November to March its 8 hours. But don't mark me on the months.. they don't turn their clocks ahead or back. I do not know how well the internet or phone services over there are. But hopefully I can get some info about that at a later date.

On a happier note (and I know it is a few weeks late but) we welcomed (well not us personally) a new member to the family on April 7th... Miss Katelyn Victoria Tepker. Wish we could be there to hold her and visit her. I am sure her big brothers Collin and Owen are happy for her to finally be there. Miss Katelyn makes the 8th grandbaby for my mom and dad in law. I think on my dad's side alone there are like 15 of us and like 5 great grandkids... hehe big family

Rylie is getting smarter everyday and if I wanted to I could go on and on about her funny little words she knows. But I won't. She is learning her shapes and numbers very well. She knows her colors very well. Still loves to read books and not leave mommy's side. She likes to play outside with her golf ball and her birdie (a badmitton birdie). She is learning to use pedals for her bike and likes to use the little scooter that used to be Justin's. Day care is not her favorite thing but pretty soon it will be an everyday thing. Naps are slowly fading away but there is still always rest time.. HAHA!!! She is becoming a very good little dancer and singer. She likes to sing songs and then dance to them. She is big on throwing tantrums now (not the tantrums I am used to seeing but they are all different in some way) she will start fake crying and get louder until she is screaming and crying (for real). So time outs are becoming popular around here as well. If you ask her how old she is she ised to say "rylie's 2" and now she will tell you "rylie be 3 soon". So she is smart and funny and cute and squishy and well all that good gravey.

As for me.. I am hanging in there. I haven't been volunteering since beginning of March. OOPS!! I did however apply for a job, get an interview and then finally get the job. Its a clerk position at the CDC building. It doesn't pay much but at least it gets me out of the house and Rylie socializing with kids her own age. it's basically an on-call position. I most likely wont start until sometime in June since I have to complete background checks and stuff. The job isn't umm... it doesn't guarantee that I am going to work everyday or all day so with Rylie being in full day I may be able to continue volunteering at the hospital red cross office. But we'll have to wait and see.

Well I reckon that's about all I got for now. So when the time comes closer I will email the address for John and then I will keep people up to date either on here or in emails of how is doing over there. TTFN

Spring Break 2008

Justin taking pictures while we wait in the truck

another good action shot

Umm I think she went over the line.. penalty!!!

Rylie bowling for the 1st time

Nice action shot!!

Justin helping Rylie bowl

"do I have to eat my green beans?"

being silly with applesauce "You mean this green bean?"

"CHEESE"

learning to play "Elefun" game

helping move rocks in the driveway (above)

Posing for the camera (above)

Listening to Grandpa J play the ukele (dunno the spelling)

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted anything since March whatever it was. I guess I been busier than I thought. Anyway I had been wanting to post some of the pictures I took while the kids were here on their Spring break. It was great seeing them again and I sure miss them. Rylie talks about them a good bit still. She really enjoyed meeting her brother and sister (again). She was like Sarah's little shadow and then she wanted Justin a lot too. It was nice having all the kids here again. Anyway we didn't do much because the weather was so bad. And plus John working didn't help either. Umm so yea there are some pictures and some captions to go along with them. Enjoy...