part 3: 2-87 Summit Ball

well the end of deployment is official. We attended our final military ball on May 4th. It was wonderful! we had a great time with awesome friends and got to honor even more amazing soldiers. I feel so blessed that we were part of a unit that would care so much. They are family. I cant even begin to express how much I am going to miss my Catamount girls!!!!

me getting ready. i totally went to set up the event like this only with a scarf covering the rollers. it was awesome. my husband claimed he didn't know me while setting up. but my bff did so its all good! lol!

the beautiful early mothers day present I got from hubby right before the ball.

leaving for our last ball.

Lt. V and his minions. Lt. V, Carman, Dutton, and hubs.

centerpieces. we had to scrub all the old wax off these before the ball. it was FUN! :(

in the ballroom. man was it HOT in there!!!!!

me and my other half Jess G. Her dress was AMAZING!

Jess and her hubby Kell

my fav pic of the night. This is the Lieutenant Jeremy had when they left on deployment and his fiancee Lisa. Jake was injured by an IED last summer and lost both of this legs. I think I cried just as much when I got the news about Jake as I did when I first got the call about Jeremy. His strength and determination is nothing short of amazing. We are so proud of how far he has come and cant wait to see what life has in store for these two!

So there it is in a nutshell. We had so much fun. It was over a month ago but I know I wont forget that night. It was a great way to leave the Catamounts.

THE BOYS ARE BACK!!!!

I meant to post these pics the other night but totally forgot (this is what happens when you go to a welcome home ceremony at 1:30am!!!!!) Main body 11 comes in today and just makes my heart swell to see so many of our guys finally home. 2 more flights and thats it! then everyone will be home!!! but for us, all our "boys" are home. its incredible. I had to share the pics of main body 10 because well.... you will see. ;)

Riley, Simon (my <3), and Dutton before the ceremony

Formation. I can see the Lt!!!!

Riley was just a little excited to see Carman

the Lt and his minions this pictures makes me so happy!

so there you have it. our little army family is finally all back together. I am so super excited for my friends that are getting their husbands back today and in the coming week. SO glad this deployment is over!!!!!!!!

Welcome home!

What an AWESOME St Patricks Day!!!!!

Yesterday was amazing. So great in fact that I felt called to share it with y'all! It started with an early wakeup call so that we could go help out some friends while they ran in the annual Watertown YMCA shamrock Run. I am so thankful to have such amazing friends that help support our local community. It helps that our kids are best friends! Makes it easy to keep them all happy together! I am proud to say that my bff ran the entire 2.2mi "fun run" and her hubby came in 2nd during the 5mi! WOW! So proud of you both!!! We had many other friends who also ran it and I am so proud of all of you!!!!!!!!!! The community up here is one of the reasons I am going to be sad to leave Ft Drum.

Jenny, Me, Jess, and Jess

Jess & Kell before the race.  Mr long legs came in 2nd!

Next we picked up another bff's darling daughter so they could go shopping for a new vehicle. She is seriously one of the easiest kids to take care of! So glad her daddy is finally home! ;-) 

While she was here, Jeremy and I worked on cleaning out the garage (still tons of work to do in there but we made a dent) while the kiddos played in the front yard. Nothing like 60+ degree temps to wear out the monkeys!

After our "other" child left we headed out for some ice cream. I cant believe our fav local place is already open for the season!! It was so nice to just hang out and watch the ice cream melt down the chins of our amazing children. I should have taken pics but I was in awe watching Jeremy push them on the swings and just thought how amazing our life here is. I was partly in awe because I knew what our next adventure for the day was....

We got to take the kids to welcome home another flight full of 3rd Brigade Spartans! And one of the soldiers on this flight is very special to us. You see PFC Bryce "Doc" Kampwerth was the medic who took care of Jeremy when he was first injured. In my opinion he may have saved my husbands life. It was an honor to finally get to hug him tonight and tell him thank you.

Jackson in awe of how big Kampwerth is!lol!

This is an AWFUL picture of me but who cares. I am so thankful that THIS soldier was with my husband on Sept 20th.

I am so blessed that my kids finally go to enjoy the chaos that is a welcome home ceremony. It is such a priveledge to get to help welcome home so many of our amazing soldiers. The love you feel in that room is electric. There is nothing like watching a daddy get to hold his baby for the first time in months, or a soldier kiss the bride he had barely begun a life with.... Not many flights left to come in but they are not all home yet so I ask that you please help us continue to pray for their safe return.

Moving on before I totally start bawling (oh the emotions of homecomings!!!)....ok so for dinner I decided to play up St Patricks day with a "wee little dinner". This is what happens when you are trying to make sure your kids eat all their dinner!!! We had little smokies wrapped in cresent roll dough, corn, and what I call sweet peaches (sliced peaches with some cinnamon and sugar all warmed up). Ok so not the HEALTHIEST meal I have served this week but it was still fun. For dessert I made some Rainbow cookies. I had decorated the table with gold coins so I thought it only fitting that we finally have some rainbows! They didnt turn out as nice as I had hoped but I was in a hurry ok! ;)

As this day comes to a close I am again just marveling in how awesome today has really been. I give God all the glory for this one. I cant believe that He has blessed us to live on such an amazing journey.

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Ok So as I was waiting for the video the upload last night so I could publish this post (it was taking too long! i will post the video later!), I got a text that required my full attention. An awesome friend of mine needed a ride to the ER because she had injured her arm. Because ya know stuff like that just doesnt happen when your husbands are home and not at JRTC right?! I was so blessed that I could be able to just leave right away and go take her to the ER, while another friend watched her kids. I love it when God gives you awesome opportunities to get to know someone better through the most unique circumstances! Im so glad you are ok K!!!!!! It was fun to stay up late and laugh at the crazies at Carthage ER!

When I got home, my daughter decided it was time for her to try and get up. See she fell asleep on the way home from ceremony (this is what happens when you have no nap!) at like 6pm. So when I got home at midnight she was WIDE awake. We spent the next 3 hours putting her back in her bed every 15 min or so. Needless to say there is a lot of coffee being served in my house this beautiful morning! No matter what I dont think I would have changed a thing about yesterday at all. God has truley blessed our family. Now off to get everyone ready for Church! Later y'all!!!!!!

the roller coaster continues....

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times...He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace." ~Micah 5:2, 4-5.

These are the verses God laid on my heart this morning. That even though we are going through a difficult time right now, soon we will be celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and rejoicing in what his birth means for us.

The last few days have been a roller coaster. There was the ER visit on the 29th, and then a couple days of recovery, then jeremy had a few more good days and the throwing up started all over again. It not just 2 steps forward and one back its like 4 steps forward and 3 back. He is currently at sick call trying to figure out why he was getting sick every hour. so help me God if they tell him its a stomach bug i may explode. The doc he saw monday thinks it has something to do with the bacteria in his intestines, maybe a bad one. quite possible after all the trauma to his system. so they are running some labs on that already but he CANT keep throwing up like this. dehydration is not really an option with only 1 kidney.

so i am asking once again for prayers. for healing and strength for jeremy and for patience and understanding for us both. the patience thing is getting harder and harder for us. we are so blessed that the recovery he has made so far has been so amazing, but there is still a long way to go before he is back to his "normal" pre-injury self.  thanks everyone!!!!!!

he is home!!!!

thank you God for bringing him home!!!! kids were super excited. i promise to post some pics and stuff later. have some errands to run while he inprocesses at WTU (thats been a fun experience so far let me tell you what), relying on the fact that we KNOW God brought him back here NOW for a reason. and i KNOW there are great things coming. trying to be happy about the small things, like hearing him snore while i sleep, and going to get pumpkins this weekend, and just getting to be a family again. love this soldier!!!!! welcome home baby!!!!

the sun will come out TOMORROW!!!!!

he is scheduled for a flight to ft drum TOMORROW!!!!!! wow! so much to do, so little time! so glad my friends here have been able to help! i could not have survived this without them. so thanks deploymates!! you rock! =D they know i love them dearly. jeremy was again a little sore after a PT session and an OT session but is just very anxious to be coming home. The kids are both very excited. I keep stressing the  fact that daddy cant lift them, or really do more than hug them. no jumping, rough-housing, or climbing of any kind. i know once they see his stomach they will be careful.

so tmrw i need to run to the grocery store, finish disinfecting the house and complete some welcome home signs. thinking about letting friends and family "sign" one. going to post this on FB too, so please leave me a comment below or a comment on the FB post telling me what you want your message to jeremy to say and i will sign them on his welcome home banner for you. local friends feel free to stop by and sign it yourself!!!!! you have until 4pm to do so! =D AND DONT TELL JEREMY!!!!!!!! iwant it to be a surprise! this is gonna be a great but insane day! i am just soooooo thankful that God has provided for us in such amazing ways.

purple heart

Jeremy got his purple heart today! and from the president no less!!!! it was a quick meet-n-greet type thing but still he got pinned (on his KU tshirt!) jeremy said everyone was very nice and i cant wait to see some of the professional pics taken and hear more about what happened. so proud of him!!!!

ok onto his progress. he is def more sore today. big PT session yesterday wiped him out. they changed some of his meds to hopefully curb the anxiety. still looks like he should be home with us in the next couple of days!!! i am so excited!!! there is still tons to do to get ready for his arrival though. with both kids having been sick i have to scrub this house and clorox the crap out of every surface. ugh! i am just glad he is continuing to make tremendous progress. this whole thing has really made us have to evaluate what we want out of life, our marriage, our faith, and i cant wait to see how God is gonna work through us in the coming weeks. its gonna be rough, there is no getting past that. But that doesnt mean it wont be good for us. i love you baby, im so proud of you.

I am simply amazed

Jeremy has had another good day even though his anxiety is bad today. Hey it happens, mine hasnt exactly been controlled lately! Lol! His went downstairs for occupational therapy and did really well that is until they had to peel him off the ceiling when a balloon popped!!!  Got my papers done for coming home to drum, and had lunch with him then rode the metro (scary!) to downtown and went sightseeing! Met up with inlaws to see the white house and when i got back found out we saw the 1985 chicago bears superbowl team on the grounds meeting president obama! Da bears!
Now we are waiting to meet back up with inlaws and have dinner. I still gotta do some laundry for j and pack for my flight tomorrow. Sad to be going but so glad that i am able to leave jeremy in capable hands. =D so thankful that God has given us the chance to grow closer through this experience.
Simple amazed......

Look ma! No tubes!

Today has been another eventful day. Not only did he get the feeding tube out this afternoon, but he also got to shower, shave, and is up and walking like a champ. I am simply amazed at how far God has brought him in the last week. A week ago we were worried that he couldnt tolerate being off the vent. Werent sure what i was going to see in germany. I am simply amazed.....
We have also been so humbled by the amazing people who volunteer their time here. Not only did the uso serve a fab lunch for families today, but jeremy also recieved 2 new coins today. 1 from "marines care", and one from the under secretary of the navy!! Tomorrow he is scheduled to recieve his purple heart. Not sure who all that entails but i will have my makeup on! Lol! And also met a couple who is going around to all the armed forces blood centers and donating blood. Considering we found out that jeremy had almost 50 units in all during his surgery we were so very thankful for their sacrifice. Its also amazing how much quicker paperwork can get done here. All mine is now done (as much as can be for this stage), his mom and bro have their orders and are coming tomorrow, and his purple heart papers are done! I seem to remember those taking a lot longer last go round! So excited to see the fam tomorrow!!!! =D
Best news of all is that everyone is working very hard to get him moved to drum as soon as possible. I am so thankful that God has placed so many of these people in our lives. Each day here has been a gift from the most high king.
Thank you Lord....

Today is a better day

Well yesterday after i posted was kind of rough. Jeremy was ok but it seemed like we had to fight to get his basic care done. At shift change i felt a lot better and confident that his pain was going to be better controlled and he would be better taken care of. So i went back to the hotel to sleep. Bad idea! He had a bad night, getting sick, having to try and hold himself up while doing so (not ok!!!!!). So when pain management team doc and his surgeon from yesterday came by this morning we expressed our concerns and they were PISSED. dr. Malone (surgeon) flat out said people could lose their jobs. I now have her card and have been ordered to call if we have ANY issues. She apologized profusely said it was totally unacceptable and pain doc was mad that he wasnt notified of jeremys problems controlling his pain. I hate that "heads are gonna roll" but the lack of care yesterday sucked.
Everything is going so much better today though!!!! He is way more comfortable and seems to be feeling a bit better. Even held his O2 stats at 94+ while off the oxygen when we were getting him cleaned up and changed into his sunday best (aka the pretty striped blue hospital gown! Lol!). Thats seriosuly great progress! Got him his wounded warrior quilt and a good pillowcase so he is feeling a little more at home.
Also got to check on kevin, the 21yo soldier who was on the medevac flight with us is going to get to keep his right arm! PTL!!! Lots of surgerys and wont have 100% use of it but still will be tons TONS better than losing it. So overall today has been much better. Cant wait to talk to his whole team of docs tmrw and get a full report and care plan in place. Lots and lots of info, meetings, therapists (physical, occupational etc), and paperwork for me (finance, woohoo!). Keep praying y'all! Its working wonders!