A Call Home

Brendan called home this morning and we were able to talk for quite some time. As most calls home it is difficult to understand or hear what he's saying the majority of the time and we got disconnected at least 6 times. He's not at the main base so he has to rely on his cell phone. For whatever reason calls to our home phone never go through but the calls to the i-phone works just fine. Maybe our small town phone company just can't handle overseas calls or something although that seems odd because our phone company is pretty darn impressive.
Brendan is out with a small group of guys mainly doing clean-ups right now. This first patrol is the first real look he's gotten of Iraq outside of military bases and it was a real culture shock to him. He says he can't imagine people living any worse than the folks he's seen so far. The area he's at is full of trash and raw sewage in the streets and no running water. He hasn't had a shower in over a week. ICK!
He said the boxes I mailed him arrived at the main base this week. That was much faster than I had expected. Not sure when he'll get the boxes. I don't know if they bring mail and things to them when they are out on patrol or he has to wait until he gets back to the main camp. I have a feeling it's the later. He doesn't have access to a PX or anything where he's at so it would be nice if they could get some care packages out there though. If that is the case I may send one food package and one hygiene package each time.
Now the real bummer. His leave has gone from one extreme to the other. He went from being here next month to now getting here in November.( And men say women can't make up their minds! PLEEEEEASE! Army has us beat by miles.) He is really saddened by the amount of time before he can see Caiden again. He is 5 months old now so he'll be walking by the time Brendan gets to see him again. All we can do is reassure him that at Caiden's age he'll adjust to seeing Daddy just fine. We are the ones who are saddened by all the milestones that Brendan will miss. We need to get our camcorder fixed so we can start making movies each time he comes over to visit so he can watch them and see how well he's doing.
I went down to Yellow Springs with my friend Wendy yesterday. For those of you who aren't from around here Yellow Springs , Ohio is a small town that is stuck in the 60's. I absolutely love seeing all the wonderful shops down there and trying out new and interesting foods. If you don't like the smell of incense you'll not want to enter any stores down there. They also have a state park down there with some really sweet trails to hike. I take the kids alot down there to hike and Brendan now drags Rachel down there as well. Last year folks in town decided to crochet a sweater for a tree in the downtown area. It was so pretty but you can't leave them on long or the tree will die. Now they have taken that artistic talent and made sweaters for every street sign and light pole in town. This first picture was taken yesterday the rest were last summer. This new one is covered with little signs that show you how to say peace in all the languages of the world. So I went on a bit of a tangent but wanted to give readers an idea of where I was at. At any rate I had to buy a hacky sack for Brendan while I was there. Most that the lady had this time were a yellow or light brown background color which doesn't work well in a desert setting. Kick it over someone and they'll never see the darn thing! I dug around and finally found one that was a black background which will be much easier to spot. When I go down there I always wear my tie dye (which I wear most days anyway) but I went rebel and wore camo pants and a "Army Mom" t-shirt. REALLY had to resist buying some hippy 'make love not war" and "Peace" patches to sew onto the camo though. And don't even get me on bumper stickers! But I'm a good Army Mom , all bumper stickers on the family van are Army related and only in a positive way. However , if I hit the lotto before it sells there's a 75 VW van in bright yellow for sale down there that is going to be all mine and will be open to anything I want to put on it! lol






Well , time to shower up and clean up , Caiden is coming for his Sunday visit. You all have a great week.