Long, long time since I updated!

I know it's been.....2 years?!.....since I've updated this.
So, let's update.

I made Senior Product Engineer at Scott.
We had our 5th child, Della Raye.
We started on our addition and have the 1st floor mostly framed and have started on the flooring for the 2nd floor.

Most of this stuff is on Ann's website, www.SandInTheirDiapers.blogspot.com. Go look and see for yourself!

Allen

Fort Bragg

Well I was wrong but now I know I am right! Haha! Allen called this morning and is on his way to Fort Bragg NC. His plane arrives Sunday evening and the kids and I will be there! I just got word that we can meet them at the air field. Last we heard that was a no go! Of course until 8 am this morning I thought I was leaving for a long hard trip to Mississippi tomorrow, Thursday, evening, now i can wait and go Sunday! We will plan a Welcome Home party for the middle of May sometime, details to follow. They also told us that he should be released by May 2 so that's really soon! Yeah!!!!
Ann

Even Better News!

It is now less than 10 days in country for Allen! I am so excited and wanted to make sure everyone knew! It looks like he could be home with us in Fort Mill by the 30th! Yeah!!
Ann

Better news!

Unlike my last couple of posts, this one is actually good! Beleive it! We have less than 20 days left in country! Woo Hoo! OK, maybe I'm starting to suffer from Short-Timer's Disease, but I am excited about this! Ann already has a vacation planned for when I get back, then proabably another week or so to get back to life as it may be in the States. After that I'll go back to work.
I may even get to be an engineer again! Actually Scott has been very good to me and my family. They've continued to pay me even while I'm here! That's just been awesome! We got to pay down a lot of debts and rework the house some. If you look at my wife's accompanying website, you'll see how she defines 'some.' From the photos I've seen, it's really great! The kitchen is totally redone, the old fireplace and chimney are gone, there's a mudroom with laundry facilities where the back porch was. All sorts of stuff!
I'll see all of you very soon!

Allen

Newspaper article on our fallen soldiers

This article has bios and photos of the 4 guys we lost this last week. In other news, we're getting short! I can't give out the number of days we have left but I can say that we are down to 7% of our deployment left! Sounds good to me!

Me again

Hey folks!
I know it's been awhile and I apologize. Unfortunately I don't bring the best of news. We lost 4 more of our guys on Sunday. I can't say very much about it right now, OPSEC being what it is. After the families are notified and everything that can be done, is, I'll tell a little more. I saw that it already made the news within a few hours of the incident, which would be about the same time we learned about it here in Salerno. All I can do right now is ask that you would pray for their families.
I know of at least one name that's already been released, so I'll go ahead and include all of them.

In memoriam:
SSG Ray, A co
SGT Akins, A co
SPC Hill, A co
SGT Hiett, HHC

Please remember these names and honor them as best you can. I'll try to get some photos of these guys from somewhere and post them.

Back at Salerno

Just wanted to let everyone know Allen got back fine and is busy as ever! He sent me this email today which I found amusing!
I finished going through the xxx's tents and a lot of them were in pretty good shape. A few things to be tossed out or left outside for someone to appropriate and that's it. But there were 2 tents that were just a mess! The worst was the one the commander, XO, and first sergeant used. I couldn't beleive the ammount of stuff left behind! Boxes of stuff, a lot of it still good but destined for either the 'flea market' outside the tent or the dumpster not much farther. I found at least 3 irons and ironing boards, a refridgerator, a microwave, a hard hat shaped like a cowboy hat, movies both pirate and factory, books, a footlocker full of empty ammo magazines, and a 6 ft stepladder. And there was more! At least I got all the extra stuff consolidated into one tent and got the rest turned in. As I understand it, Base Ops is hurting for tents to put people in. So they got 8 more of them today. I hope it helps. It's a little crazy here right now with people coming in before others leave. The lines for everything are insane! I went to the chow hall for dinner, but the line was as long as it was for Thanksgiving. The line for Subway was at least 30 people long and the line in the PX was all the way to the back wall! I went back to the tent and had some Pop Tarts because I had stuff do and no time to wait in line. I'll be glad when this settles down. Hopefully that wont be too long.