Adieux

On July 16, we had a Going Away/Sort-of-Surprise party for Jon. It was only “sort of” a surprise because he knew we were having a family dinner, but he didn’t expect to find the whole fam-damily!

We did a Stars & Stripes theme and it turned out AWESOME thanks to the help and hard work of family members (all the stuff that looks amazing was not done by me :))

  
I’m not sure if you can tell, but these pizzas were massive. We got them from a local pizzeria that does 36” diameter pizzas. Jon loves a good giant pizza!

His brothers and younger sister took him out for a Jeep ride. One last sibling hurrah before he went overseas…and the perfect diversion. As soon as they were out of the house we broke into full on Par-Tay mode. (Well, Par-Tay Decorating mode, anyway.) When Jon and his siblings pulled up later and he saw all the cars he was like, “What the…?” And then he saw my dad in the front yard. “I think that’s my father-in-law!” The look on his face when he came through to the back yard and saw everyone there was priceless.

And then the biggest surprise of the night. The one I almost blurted out millions of times as I was planning because I was so freaking excited! I made arrangements with Greg, his best friend from high school (who we hadn’t seen in about a year and a half), to come out for the party to surprise him.

Best. Moment. Ever! It’s so funny to see Greg peeking around the corner before running out and tackling Jon! :D

BFF Surprise

Chatting with our friends Matt & Heidi.

Our sister-in-law, Whitney, was kind enough to take some pictures of the party with her super-fancy camera. She did a fantastic job. I love the pictures she took. (Hers are the reeeeealllllly nice looking ones. ;))

Whitney also worked with Kristie to string up these fabulous lights for the party. After everyone left, I snuck out the take a nighttime, glow-y shot of how it looked. Makes me want to string up twinkle lights in my own patio someday!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and to those who worked so hard to make this the best possible send off for Jon. It meant so much to him (to both of us) to have so many of his family and friends come to show their love and support as we were about to embark on this difficult chapter.

XOXO,

Do You Remember The Time…

…Not when we fell in love. Sorry Michael Jackson fans. Oh, all right. Jon, remember the time when we fell in love? *sigh* Ahem. Any…way…

Remember the first time we took the kids to visit Great-grandma Johnson’s new digs? Elise refused to come pose with us so I had to hold her in place for the picture. Heh.

Remember the time Alex finished kindergarten? His school had these really awesome posts made to look like giant Crayola crayons.

Remember how Alex’s teacher looked just like Carrie Underwood?

Seriously! Look!

Remember the time we took Elise to the Primary Children’s Medical Center? According to Elise, it was “so her kidneys wouldn’t be broken anymore.” It’s a long, involved explanation. So we’ll just say, “Yes, honey, it was so your kidneys wouldn’t be broken anymore.” :D The staff were very sweet. They gave her stuffed kitten her own ID tag that reads “Mittens.”

Remember the time Taysum had his first breath holding spell that turned into a seizure and scared the you-know-what out of everyone? He’s fine, though. Promise.

Remember when we officially put our house up for sale? (Hey, know anybody who needs a good starter home? Check out the details here.)

Remember when the Army sent us to Las Vegas with the kids for a Yellow Ribbon Event and I only remembered to take, like, 2 pictures?

Well, we’re not quite caught up yet, but we’ll get there.

Reservist the Best for Last

Okay, not exactly last, but I needed a catchy title; so sue me it works!

As you know, Jon has been mobilized with a unit from Washington and is headed overseas for about a year. Let me start by saying, I knew what I was signing up for when Jon and I decided to get married. I was fully aware of the fact that the Army could send him away at any time. Doesn’t make it suck any less. There, I said it. And I swear, the next person to tell me that Kuwait is a vacation deployment, so help me…! Think Martin Lawrence in Blue Streak:

Blue Streak still from here

We got up the morning he left to find that Jon’s parents and brother and sister-in-law, Jacob and Kristie, had put flags up in the front yard as a send off. It was wonderful! Jon was touched that they wanted to show how proud they are of him.

If you look closely at the house to the left, you can see that our neighbor, Gary, put his flag too. We were so moved by this show of solidarity. Our neighbors are awesome!

The kids said their goodbyes at the house. We felt it would be easier for them to see him off from a familiar place instead of the airport. Jon gave each of us a blessing just before we left and it was incredible and heartbreaking at the same time.

This Sunday marks one month down. The kids really miss their Daddy, but we do the best we can with regular phone calls and Skype. And we have a little photo album for Taysum mostly filled with pictures of him and his dad. It’s working! He still remembers him!

In spite of some not-so-minor paperwork snafus at the base’s finance office that left us without a paycheck for nearly a month, we’re doing okay. Not great, I won’t lie, but we’re okay.

And in case anyone is counting (ahem, me), today is Day 28. *sigh*

XO,