Off to Iraq

Jake is heading off to Iraq pretty soon. They have been stationed in Kuwait the past two weeks and the phone bills are crazzzy so i have not been talking to him very often. But I am lucky that we get to talk about twice a week and he will send little messages on facebook or a quick text now and then. One of the other wives was awesome and shared the Baghdad address with us as soon as she heard it. The address is : Jacob Smith
HHC 1/252 CAB
Scout Platoon
FOB Falcon
APO-AE 09361

I am already planning Jakes first box to go out, i am so excited to send him things I cannot wait!! I have a lot of things to do on Thursday, but the top priority is going to be shopping for goodies to send Jake!

busy busy

can you say busy? yeh that is an understatement!! Everything has just been crazy since Jake has left! It has been nice to see friends and keep busy, but work and travel on top of that and all the worry and stress as well just makes things crazy. I have only gotten a few things done this week outside of work.
Also, just a heads up for everyone, I am working three weekends in a row at work and on my days off I am going to see my mom and I have things planned most week nights (like sleep) so I will not be around too much.

I know this is a quick and disconnected blog, but my thoughts are rather disconnected lately.
My mom starts chemo on Wednesday and it will be a long haul. My brother is staying with her this weekend and I am going to stay with her the second week in may for two days. She still needs lots of prayer as she goes through this time.
I will try to write a better blog later, just tired and stressed and really busy right now. more to come later

Last Days

Well, you all know that Jake has left for Iraq and he actually had time to call me for two seconds today to let me know he landed safely in Kuwait! We were able to spend a lot of time together before he left and he was able to spend time with his friends and family before he headed out.

The first thing we did was to take a night all to ourselves. We decided we had to get out of town to avoid any disturbances so we boarded lela in her great kennel here (http://www.armadalekennel.com/) and we headed out to Greensboro. Jake and I found this really awesome bed and breakfast online and their rooms and prices are GREAT. We looked and looked for a hotel that was as nice and as affordable and could not find one at all. So, we booked our bed and breakfast room at the Troy Bumpass Inn. (http://www.troy-bumpasinn.com/) . We stayed in the Allah room and it was so nice. The bed was super comfortable and the bathroom had a european shower with 5 shower heads and a jacuzzi tub!! The owners of the bed and breakfast were so nice and they were very accomodating.
After we checked in to the bed and breakfast Jake and I did some research and found a cute little Italian restaurant in Downtown Greensboro. It was such a nice day outside that we decided to walk through down town to the little restaurant. I have to tell you, it was such a great surprise to find a nice italian restaurant with home made food instead of mass produced pasta like the Olive Garden. You could really tell that the pasta sauces were home made and all of the food was Great! (http://www.rivastrattoria.com/). If you are ever in the Greensboro area, or just want to get out of town for a bit I would highly recommend both the troy bumpass inn and riva's restaurant. It made for a really romantic but casual weekend.
After we went to the inn, we came back for a whirl wind going away party for Jake. We invited all of his friends and had about twelve people in our little apartment! It was a great time and pretty much everyone came up which was awesome. We even had out of town guests come so four people ended up staying at our place which was a blast!!!
and..without a minute to spare Jakes dad came up for Saturday and Sunday, Jake had a good time with his dad and I am SO SO glad he got to see him before he left.
To continue our whirl wind week...
We went to Journey on Easter Sunday, left to pick up Joe from jakes platoon at the airport, left for durham to have easter lunch, came back, packed, left for Ft. Bragg on Monday morning, came back to Raleigh that night, went BACK to fayetteville for the going away ceremony...found out Jake was leaving the next night....ate dinner, dropped Jake off at 8pm at Ft. Bragg..said goodbye and Left.
It was CRAZY.
I have never felt so happy and then so sad in such a short period of time. My emotions are shot and I do believe I will walk around in shock for a few days. But, Jake is safe and sound in Kuwait and I will be sure to post lots of news about him in days to come.

quick blog

this is just a quick blog before I run out the door. Jake is leaving tonight for Iraq. He won't actually be flying to their base right away. They will probably stop in Europe somewhere then head over to Kuwait where he will be for about a month. I will keep you all posted, we dropped him off at Fort Bragg last night and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I keep randomly breaking into tears. I think it will take me awhile to get over this. I actually skipped work today because I am so emotional! I hate being a girl sometimes :) .
My mom is also doing well today. She just had her surgery yesterday morning and it went well, she will start chemo shortly. I will keep you all updated. I will write a longer blog when I have some time to do so.

more news on mom

well, we heard back from moms MRI today. Honestly we were expecting better news than we got. The cancer is being really aggressive and has grown significantly since it was first found. The doctor also found some new spots popping up so they are going to do a lumpectomy on the largest spot and then chemotherapy and later on radiation and possibly a mastectomy if the cancer spreads too much after the chemo. So we are facing a long road ahead and I am sure there will be days when we have both good news and bad news. But right now we are pretty much waiting for the 14th which is when mom will have her lumpectomy. This is also the same day as Jake's going away ceremony in Fayetteville so it will be a really hard day.
When the hard things in life all happen at the same time it is really hard to answer the question "why?", but it is really easy to rely on God and the strength he gives to get through even the hardest times in life. So, that is what we are going to do. We will keep praying and if it gets better then we will have a lot to praise God about and when it gets harder we will lean on Him and we WILL get through the hard times.

Home for awhile

well, I was taken by surprise Monday at lunch when I received a call from Jake saying that he would be home on the 31st of March instead of April 8th! I was so excited I literally jumped through the house screaming. (Oh well, just can't contain the excitement sometimes!!) So, FINALLY Jake is home for the first time since Jan. 3rd. He will be here until the 6th then he has to go back to ft. Bragg for a few days and will come back home from the 8-14th. I cannot explain what a great surprise and blessing it is to have him here for awhile longer. I'm not going to want to let him go again!