My Thanksgiving Post

In the land of limited internet access, I have finally found a way to make this post. For those who don’t know I have spent this thanksgiving, much like I have spent the rest of my year, in the depths of the Middle East. I wanted to take some time from battling the forces of evil to share two recent stories with everyone.

The Turkey

While sand and sun abound, turkeys do not. In fact, this thanksgiving was to be without our tasty feathered friend if it were not for a stroke of luck and my extended line of credit. Yes it seems the remoteness of my location precludes the growth of turkeys, and pretty much any other living creature for that matter. That and my Muslim friends aren’t too keen on celebrating the rebirth of the Christian faith in the New World or the white man’s conquest of the Native American (at least that’s what they taught me in school).

Well as luck would have it I found myself in Germany just two days prior to our great celebration. Upon learning that my fellow airmen would be without their turkey this year my crew embarked upon a journey to hunt and acquire said bird. So like the fathers before us we went to the grocery store and bought turkey. 500 lbs of turkey that is! And we loaded those birds up and left the freedoms of western society to return to our tents in the land of despair. But we had turkey and everyone was happy if but just for a moment.

Anyway, you can imagine the resources available for cooking these birds, just picture nothing. However, thanks to some good ol’ American ingenuity, our remarkably resourceful civil engineers created some makeshift smokers and spent the entire day smoking 26 turkeys. And behold, the most beautiful thanksgiving meal was upon us, an exceptionally juicy and smoky flavored bird enjoyed by all. Now let’s just get to what everyone is waiting for the pictures…

The Aggies

Ladies and gentlemen, it is by no mistake the fightin’ Texas Aggies beat the hell out of Texas this year. Not easily given to superstitions, I am convinced that a little act of kindness on my behalf is mostly if not wholly responsible for our victory. It all happened thanksgiving morning as our crew arose in the early morning hours to go fight the war on terrorism.

Driving past our local hangout, my eye, like many times before, caught the sight of this stuffed animal Texas longhorn. For weeks this tea sippin’ son-of-a-gun has been staring me down with that stupid little grin and abhorrent burnt orange vest. Well friends today would be the end of him.

Commanding the driver to stop the bus, I took the sharpest knife I could find, charged that longhorn, and like any self-respecting Aggie would do, I sawed that suckers horns off! And to this day that pathetic excuse for a mascot sits there, horns dangling, as a reminder that just because I live 7000 miles away in the heart of our enemy’s territory, doesn’t mean that we can be friends. That and my football team is gonna beat you this year. Thanks for letting me rant, now here’s the pictures you all want...

Too cute!

I realize my goal was to update this and so far I have failed.  I actually have a post written about Jackson's last couple of months, I just have to organize and upload the pictures.  Until then, here is a really cute video of my baby boy::

Sorry about the weird orientation.  I had to hold the camera off to the side.  If he sees the camera, all stops and he just stares at it.  It's still really cute though.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day!  My veteran is currently on his way to help the war effort again.  I am thankful for him and all he does.  

Ok.

Really.  I am well aware of how badly I am lacking in the blogging department.  But, I feel like I have somewhat of an excuse.  Kyle has been gone A LOT and is leaving again this evening for 3 weeks.  And my parents came to visit.

So during these next 3 weeks, it is my goal to catch up on blogging.  Jackson is so sweet and I need to share updates with all of you.  Stay tuned....

More pictures...

http://picasaweb.google.com/ktobin/Month1

One Month! (A little late)

Sorry it seemed as though we disappeared for a while.  We had family come in town during Kyle's 2 week "baby leave" and shortly after that he went on a 10 day trip.  So, I had my hands full and that is why I am posting about Jackson's first month of life when he is really 5 weeks old.

This is really the first time I have posted anything about Jackson.  He is amazing, challenging, beautiful, sweet, cuddly, precious and generally perfect.  (I may or may not be biased).  Looking at him I am so in awe of God's creation and so thankful that he picked me to be Jackson's mommy. 

It's hard to believe that a month (and some change) has gone by so fast!  He has grown so much already.  Last week at his 1 month well check he weighed 9lbs 13oz and was 22 inches long!  That means in one month he gained two and a half pounds and grew two and a half inches.  I don't know what is normal, but that just seems so fast!  He is getting better about holding his head up when he is on his tummy.  Actually, he doesn't really like tummy time, but when he is on our chest, he is fine.  He is starting to find his voice and "talks" a little bit, usually to his little play gym, but sometimes to me when I am changing his diaper.  He is also really close to rolling from his back to his side and when he is on his tummy, he tries so hard to scoot around (he actually moves a little but I think he would be perfectly content if he could crawl already) ;)  I have a feeling that when he does start moving, he's not going to stop.  And, this isn't technically a one month thing because he did it a few days ago, but he smiled!  At Daddy of course (he adores his dad already), but it was a real smile.  And even though he is probably going to be a spitting image of Kyle, it looks like he is going to have dimples, which come from me.  On a not so fun note, we have been dealing with what we think is tummy issues/colic the past couple of weeks or so.  We got him some gas drops and that seems to have helped, so please pray that it is just gas and that he will grow out of it quickly.  I take that back, not that he will grow quickly because I want him to stay little forever, but that this phase passes quickly :)

I will leave you with a few pictures that I snapped of him on his actual one month birthday.  I haven't edited them, so forgive some of the lighting issues.

Day 3

Well it is day 3 of Mr. Jackson's life and things are going well. Mom and baby were discharged from the hospital on Sunday evening and we all travelled home for the first time. Mugsy was eager to to greet us. Amy went in first to try and calm him down, not that it mattered because it was some time before he even realized we brought a baby into the house. Jackson and daddy hung out while Amy took Mugsy on a walk to try and settle him down. Since then Mugsy has been very calm with the baby, mostly just sniffing him and his blanket. I'm not sure what he thinks yet about all of this. Last night was pretty good. Besides waking up Jackson to get fed, everyone sleep very soundly and no one missed the hospital beds. We all took it easy this morning, ate our breakfast and went to our first pediatrician's appointment. The doctors says that Jackson is a perfectly healthy little baby. After that we went out for hot dogs down in Summerville, cause they're awesome and came home for some R&R. Anyway, I have uploaded to quick videos we took and posted more pictures on the web album. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/ktobin/day3