Hello!! What a week this has been! It seems I’ve
lived two weeks in one!
Well, I’ll just start right in!
When I went to bed at about 11:00pm on Monday night, I
thought to myself “well, Brad is supposed to have his homecoming ceremony at
4:00am on Tuesday.” I knew that at that time, it was already 2am in
Savannah, so he would be there in two hours and I would not be there to greet
him as I dreamed I’d do. I felt like I had failed my son. During
Brad’s deployment, my plan was to be there when he came home. We checked
out United Airlines since that is where Dad’s frequent flyer miles are.
We knew there was no way to purchase a ticket with cash. When we looked,
we found that United had raised their frequent flyer prices by two times and we
were priced out of the market. I was in contact with Brad’s girlfriend
Lauren and knew that I’d have to let her know that I’d failed in my attempt to
attend.
Then, Tuesday morning when I got up, I began attempting to
get a hold of Brad, since he should be stateside by then. Well, he
replied almost right away and told me he was still in Manas! He had been
bumped to another flight group and was scheduled to arrive for a ceremony at
8pm on Wednesday! So, I mentioned to Dad that it would be good to check
the airline just one more time just in case there was a change in price.
Dad said he would and I went to work. Didn’t hear from him and so I
called him. He checked and the prices had come back down!!!! So, he
then commenced looking for a hotel that he could use his Starwood Points
with so I could stay the night. Long story short, I was on my way to
Savannah, Georgia that night!!!!! I took a red eye flight and landed in
Savannah the next morning at 10:56am. I waited a little while to get a
rental car (the only expense I ended up having to pay besides some food) and
then drove to Ft. Stewart and met up with Lauren and her dad at Brad’s friends
Mark and Amanda Sullivan’s home. They were so kind and what a great fun
house of many children! They have a little girl who is 8(?), a little boy
who is almost 2 and twin baby boys who are 4 ½ months old. So much fun!
A few hours later, we went out to the ceremony. We
waited and pretty soon the busses arrived with the soldiers aboard. The
feelings were electric as I watched so many excited family members and friends
come out to greet these brave soldiers!
It was soooo worth the trip! And I was able to
surprise Brad!! I love you Brad!
I got to go see his barracks and then the next morning
Lauren and Brad came and took me to breakfast before I had to return to the
airport and fly home. A quick 48 hours and I was back to work and regular
life!!
Here are some photos I took while we were together:
Well, I got back home just in time to hit the ground running
for homecoming! Lainey, as you know was invited to the dance by Aaron
Bell. They planned to have dinner at Tyler Jones’ home. They were
going with a group of 10 kids. Fun group!
Lainey decided that she wanted to use Annie’s “Cinderella”
dress that I made for her sophomore year, but she wanted it shortened. So
I thought, no problem! I made the dress, so I can alter it, right?
Well, we purchased some lace to put on the bottom hem and I got to work cutting
18 inches off the length of the dress and applying the lace. When I had
that done, 4 hours before time for her to get dressed, I took it downstairs to
press it. One touch of the iron told me that it was too hot and put a
giant hole right in the front of the dress near the hem!!!! I screamed, I
cried, I fretted, I felt stupid and foolish for doing something so very
basically wrong and ruining that beautiful dress.
Well, a couple of hours later and with Nina Hastings over to
cheer me on and Dad and Lainey making a trip to the fabric store to get some
pearl trim, I reconstructed the front panel of the dress with the fabric I cut
from the old length that I had cut off. We had a new dress!
She looked beautiful and it all went well. What a
stressful day!! We also made two dozen rolls from scratch that day.
All in a day’s work!
Oh, and by the way, before all that on Saturday, we got a
wakeup call in the morning from the Ward to tell us that vandals had broken
into the church building in the night and discharged the fire extinguishers all
over the south hall way and the nursery. We were all meeting that morning
to wash down the chapel and clean it all up!!
Oh, and one more story. Annie is now the best
neighborhood watch person in the area! She was in her room looking out
the window when she saw across the park (on the street the Foodys live) there
were a bunch of boys gathering at the driveway of a newly built house.
The house doesn’t have a roof or siding yet, so it is just under
construction. Then she saw them go into the house and start pulling stuff
out! She came downstairs and told us and then called 911. We went
back up to her room and watched the action. Very soon, a police car
pulled in off of Rock Road and stopped halfway down the block. He got out
and walked up. Then we saw a car come up on Jay street and started
shining a bright beam of light over to the house. The walking officer
started yelling and we heard him say “everyone stop and sit down! Nobody
move!” Then another car pulled up from the direction of the Foodys house
and several other cars from varying directions. We saw a person run
beside the house and go into the back yard. It looked like one or two of
them were trying to jump the fence on the west side of the back yard, so Annie
called the dispatch back and told them. I think they got them too!
We watched as lights went throughout the house and they pulled several people
out. It was cool!! Now, Drew….add Annie to the family roster of
crime stoppers!!
So you can see….no slow moving around here!
Have a great week!!
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