Celebrating 14 Years!

This year Eric and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary.
On April 4, 1997 we were married in the Manti Temple.

I can honestly say after 14 years, he is still my best friend and I can't imagine life without him.

We had plans to go to St. George for a few days later in April, so I will post about that trip later. Happy Anniversary honey. Here's to another 14 wonderful years!!

My poor hubby's feet...

Almost 3 years ago, Eric's feet started bothering him. They would be tingly, numb, and sore all off and on. He played around with different things, and it got better for a while, then went bad again. Not really painful, just enough to be annoying.

About 6 months ago, I seemed to notice that it was getting worse. He seemed to tough it out daily, but I could tell his feet were bothering him. When I finally convinced him to go see a Dr. he didn't fight be as bad as I thought he would, so it must have been bad enough.

First he went to our family doctor. They took blood, ran some tests, one of which was for diabetes. They did come back with the diagnosis that his blood sugar was a tad bit high, but that couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that he was drinking Mtn. Dew by the gallon. LOL
So, he quit drinking Mtn. Dew and they put him on metformin, so of course between the 2 his blood sugar is normal. So now no more metformin, and not near as much Mtn. Dew either.
But still, after those changes, nothing had helped his feet, so we decided to keep digging.

The next step was to see a nerve doctor. He went and got his feet poked and prodded to check to see if he has neuropathy. That was a no go, so they next sent him to a podiatrist.

This doctor put him on Lyrica, which is a nerve medication to help replenish the nerves or something. After a couple weeks of that and no relief, we kept digging on the internet trying to find our own answers.

The tingling and numbness had since turned too quite a bit of pain, and was making it hard to walk and move around. This hasn't been easy what with us trying to move and all.

Anyway, finally the other night we were reading on the internet and came across the most perfect description of what Eric was going through. We printed it out so he could take it to the doctor with him and show him what we thought. At his appointment yesterday the doctor had come up with the same diagnosis in his notes. It is called Morton's Neuroma.

Morton's neuroma begins when the outer coating of a nerve in your foot thickens, or becomes enlarged. We are not sure what caused this, but we do know it is very painful now and something had to be done.

While at the Dr. he was given a cortisone shot in each foot. I think this was more painful than the neuroma itself. However, in the long run hopefully it will help!
After 6 weeks, if things haven't changed, we will try foot orthotics, if that doesn't work we move to surgery as a last resort.

Please pray for the cortisone shots to work! He has suffered enough!

Hometown Heroes Salute

The first Friday in November Eric's unit had a special awards night, honoring all of those who just returned, or have recently been deployed. They called it a "Hometown Heroes Salute". It was really neat. They served dinner, and had a couple speakers.

The coolest part was they invited the employers of those who had served and honored them as well. One of the owners of the company Eric works for came with his wife! We thought it was awesome they would come all the way to Salt Lake for it. (They and only 1 other employer came.) I guess they only gave them like 4 days notice! It was definately a feel good moment for Eric when they walked in. They had to walk through the line up and receive a special plaque. We took a picture, but it somehow must have got deleted. :(

Here is the "line-up". Kind of intimidating. Each of us (wives and families included) had to go through the line-up and receive awards. Eric received a very nice plaque, I received a medal, and a nice pen/pencil set and all the kids got dog tags. It was really nice.

This is a picture of Eric's boss getting her award. She is retiring here in a couple weeks, and they are really going to miss her up there!

This event was extra special for their unit also, because they were eliminating their specific unit, and combining with another one giving it a brand new name/title. It was kind of sad for a lot of them. Here is a picture of them retiring the unit flag.

All in all it was a great night, and everyone had a good time. We had a guy take pictures while we were getting our awards, and have yet to see them. Maybe someday.

Eric Comes Home!

Well, the day finally arrived! On October 21st at 9:00 p.m., Eric's unit returned home from Qatar! They were greeted by many employees lining the hall with flags clapping as they walked towards us. It was great to see them!

The smiles were big ones as they began to see family and friends awaiting them there. They were so glad to be back on U.S. soil.

I had to take a back seat for a hug because my kids desperately needed to hug their daddy. Except for Cade. He was still not too sure he was ready to go to him yet.

I tried to give him a backwards hug, but Cade still wasn't ready.

Eric's uncle Russ came to welcome him home as well. I know that meant a lot to him!

Several of the officers from the unit were also there to welcome them back.

The girls even made Eric carry them down the escalator.

My parents, and my sister her husband and their 2 kids came to the airport with us.

Finally Cade decided he wanted to go to his daddy.

He got to ride the luggage cart out to the car. It was the only way he would let Eric put him down. Grandpa couldn't even carry him, which is rare!

The kids crashed the minute we got on the road.

I had hardly got to wish Eric home because I let the kids take over. Eric decided to steal a kiss on the way home while I was driving.

Cade woke up as soon as we got home. Then he wouldn't go back to sleep. Eric had to hold him and rock him, and he wouldn't let him leave his side.

All in all, we were very glad to have him back!

The FINAL countdown!

Here is a shot of Eric getting an award certificate. This is great, because it means they are almost done! Woohoo! Only 7 more days!!!!

Only 3 more weeks!

We are on the final countdown! Eric will be coming home in just 3 short weeks!

I know this is the life of a military wife, and don't get me wrong I am so proud of him, but being a single mom sucks! I don't know how those military wives do it whose husbands are gone for 1-2 years. I know I have it easy, so I try not to complain.
So excited that he is coming home though! Finally we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Eric's Trip to Doha!

Eric sent me a couple pictures a few weeks ago! He finally got to leave the base with some of his unit! They were able to go into Doha and see the sights! Here they are in the car!

Relaxing in some massage chairs in one of the stores! Love how the chairs cradle your legs and feet. I would love to see how that feels right now!

And finally...restaurant food! Yummy!

It was too dark outside to get any good pictures of the city. He is hoping to go once more before he comes home, then maybe he can get some! We are on the final countdown now though!!! Only about 30 more days!!!

Life in Qatar!

Eric has been gone for almost 2 months now, so we are almost 1/2 way done! It is harder at times than others, but we are surviving! Here are just a couple basic pictures he sent me a while back. This is just various shots of the base.

Can you believe all the pretty colors? NOT! I would so miss the mountains, trees, and flowers. Everything is so white. Blah!

This is like an outdoor lounge area. Everyone can hang out. Let me remind you it hardly ever goes below 100 degrees there. And if it does, it is like 2:00 in the morning. It is usually around 110 to 115 degrees every day, and has gotten as hot as 140 degrees. They also do not have rain there at all. Since it is the desert, they have mostly sandstorms.

Here is Eric with one of the guys he works with! What is funny about this is when Eric joined the military over 20 years ago, he was stationed at Beale AFB in California with this same guy! Small world!

Keep up the good work honey! We love you!

If I Get Close Enough......

I think Cade misses Eric the most, simply because he doesn't understand what is going on, or why he just never came home from work one day.

I got Eric a webcam and sent it in the mail. He got it today, so when we talked on MSN we were able to use video. We could see and hear him, but he can't see us. (My webcam isn't here yet.)

Anyway, Cade loved it! He tried to climb right up into the computer. I think he thought the closer he got to him, maybe he could really touch him. Very cute and sad all at the same time.

We are hanging in there though! Only 15 more weeks. LOL

Bangor, Maine

Here is a picture of Eric, and one of some of his Unit taken at the Bangor International Airport. There are so many troops that go through there, a group of people started a website to honor and recognize all the soldiers. Eric said it was the coolest airport he'd ever been to. They had wifi, and they were handing out cell phones. Then from this group, guys came around taking pictures to post on their website. Below is a quote from their website:

"Bangor is frequently the last American soil our troops set foot on before going over seas and the first American soil our troops set foot on when returning to the United States. MAINETROOPGREETERS.COM was established as a domestic non-profit to provide a humble thank you to our troops for their sacrifices and those of their families. To date almost 900,000 troops have passed through Bangor making Mainetroopgreeters.com and American Legion Post 200 efforts formidable."

Pretty cool.

Eric Leaving for Deployment

Today was the day I had been dreading for some time now. I don't know how these women do it for 3 to 4 times longer than I have too. It is the life of a military wife, and I guess you get used to it. We had to arrive at the airport by 5:00 a.m. The plane was leaving at 7:00 a.m.

They were able to get special permission for us to go straight through to the gate, so that was really nice. I was able to linger clear until take-off.

Here is Eric checking his monster of a bag. It was big and huge, and so HEAVY! It is truly a good thing that they waive overweight baggage fees for the military.

Everyone kind of standing around. Waiting until each one was checked in and ready.

We had one of the guys take our picture while we had the chance. While I liked the picture, I was smiling a little too much considering the circumstances. Someone was joking with Eric though so I started laughing, and I was caught with a big cheesy grin.

Here is the group of them. Several of them went on the deployment to the same place last time too (almost exactly 6 years ago), so things will be fairly the same.

Time to stand in line and board.

Here he goes.

Here is the plane they are flying on. It was a Boeing 737.

Backing out.

Heading down the runway to turn around.

Back again.

Off they go!!!

Sorry for the play by play. I was a little camera happy, and knew my kids would love to see every detail.

Good luck sweetie! We will all miss you!

He Passed!!!!

My hubbie passed his 5th and final test for rank advancement yesterday!! I am so happy & proud of him. Those are some pretty tough tests, and I don't know anyone who loves taking tests. He has to wait until his Senior retires (should be after the first of the year), and then he will replace her as SENIOR MASTER SERGEANT!!!!

If any of you know Air Force, it is not an easy task to obtain this. This should all happen this fall/winter in between deployments, but he is now next up for sure!!! When it happens I am sure they will have an official "ceremony" type event. When they do, you can bet I will post those pics for sure, but the hard part is over!!!!

Way to go honey!!!

Flashback Friday!

In March of 2007 Eric had a training that he had to attend in California. It was a military training, and it was just him that had to go. He got special permission for me to go with him, and we drove. It was about 9 hours, but so much fun!!

We stayed in miltary housing. This is the outside hall on our floor.

The beautiful California trees!

An old Air Force building.

A old plane that was displayed on the base.

Here is Eric and I in our hotel room. Grandma & Grandpa Robison kept the kids, and it was a nice getaway for us. Even though it doesn't look it in this photo, I was 7 months pregnant. I laid around all day watching t.v. while he was in class. I was never officially put on bed rest, but this trip was very good for me!

Fun times!