Before he left..

The title makes this sound like another very sad post, but it is not going to be. I promised to record the good stuff about the last few days before Dave's departure. A wise friend of mine told me that "there was time enough to be sad AFTER he left." That was good advice and even though I didn't always feel like getting out and doing things, I am very glad that we did. It is hard to enjoy your "final moments" with a sense of impending doom hanging over you, but you gotta try because those final moments become memories to carry you through your separation.

These are a few of our memories...

A couple of weeks before the deployment we had a wonderful family vacation in St. Louis with my parents and brother Andy and his crew. We were hot and busy and together. (Perhaps a separate post to review the vacation is in order.)

At the end of our vacation we found a Build-a-Bear store in a mall so the kids could make an animal. It has become a pre-deployment tradition. Dave records a message on a voice box that is put in the animal and we get to hear his voice whenever we want to. I was afraid that the mall store would be cramped and crowded but it turned out to be spacious and not very busy so it was an enjoyable as I'd hoped.








At the beginning of August we saw the Smurf movie (in 3-D only because the normal showing was sold out,) ate frozen yogurt at our new favorite place "Sweetberry" and we spent a hot afternoon cooling down at a nearby water park.

During our last family night, Dave gave each of the children a father's blessing. He had given me one previously and he was able to receive a wonderful blessing from our Branch President. These are all pieces of comfort and assurance that Heavenly Father cares for us and our partner in this journey.



Dave led us in a game of "Who's Line Is It Anyway" during family night and we all laughed and laughed. Paul and Olivia sang a song about a sparkly unicorn.

Two days before Dave got to go to the open house at the elementary and meet Paul and Faith's teachers. We were happy to hear Faith's teacher say that she could email her daddy in class! One good thing about being on post is that the teachers and schools are very familiar with and understanding about deployments.

The day before Dave wanted to take me out to a Mexican lunch. This may have been one of the only times I didn't feel like eating Mexican but, again, I'm glad we did. Little Seth was with us and we reminisced about how we had eating at the same restaurant a few hours before Seth was born.

The night before we took our second family bike ride. I was nervous about transferring Seth's trailer to my bike-- wasn't sure I could handle it, but I was glad that Dave encouraged us to go 'cause I wanted to give it a try before he left. It was a success. We rode to the shoppette where we drank Gatorade and the kids each picked a candy. Then we rode to a park where Dave joined the kids in a game of
"ghosts in the graveyard."



The morning of we went to Cracker Barrel. My appetite was shot, but Dave was apparently experiencing an opposite reaction to the stress. He finished his plate and a couple of the kids' plates. :)


Our friend Angela rode with us to the airport and I'm so grateful for her. She kept us talking and laughing and took the pressure off of me having to be emotionally pulled together enough to drive home. We all did okay. We said good-bye to Dave at the curb. He had to wake up Seth to say goodbye and we had to tell Seth that Dave was going to "go on an airplane far away for awhile, but he would be back." (Okay, I'm bawling now. But this wasn't suppose to turn sad.) As we were hugging a pretty lady and her son walked up to us and thanked Dave for his service and gave me a hug. That was very sweet and a comforting reminder that even people we do not know support and pray for our troops. A couple of minutes after we drove away I noticed Dave's cell phone in the car. This was going to be his way of communicating with us during the next week where we was training in the states. So we circled back, I told a lady at ticketing and she paged Dave. I got to see his smile one more time! We had to laugh about the phone- so typical.


So that is my pre-deployment report. Things are going okay. Dave is very well and we get to facebook or skype almost daily.

My friend and fellow Army wife, Roxanne, shared this quote with me--

Missing someone gets easier everyday because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are one day closer to the next time you will. --Author Unknown