Brendan Smitke's World Tour: As Promised

Sorry for the long stretch between posts. I suppose you can consider no news as good news. Brendan was picked as one of a group of 40 soldiers for Freedom Rest. It's a bit of R & R at one of Sadam's palaces. It was a wonderfully relaxing and much too short break. The huge pool was obviously the highlight of the stay. The high dive looked like something you could parachute off of. He still has the bruises from his jump! Here are a few pics he sent us.

Things where he's at have gotten much worse. They are patrolling twice a day now plus he pulls guard duty a couple of days a week. The heat there is crazy. He says his whole body feels just like a sidewalk that's hot enough to burn your feet. Here are a few more pics he's sent back. The kids over there LOVE getting their pictures taken!

Brendan is up for a promotion soon. A much over due one but the company he's with isn't famous for promoting people until they have to. Hoping he'll be Private 1st class Smitke in a couple of weeks , though. There is also talk that they may be back as soon as December but we've gotten used to the Army and will count on nothing until it happens.
Brendan's brother Bryan was due back from Afghanistan over a week ago and has been bumped 3 times now. His wife , Lindsay , is in Texas waiting and getting very impatient. All has been quiet for a couple of days so we're hoping that means he's back and they are just honeymooning it.
Father's Day was a rough day as were all the other 1st's that Brendan is missing. Rachel sent him a card with a recording of Caiden screaming Dada Dada. He's got that down pat. He knows his Dad's voice and visits with him on the computer all the time.
My parent's were in Ohio this week-end doing a whirl wind tour of parties and get togethers. Saturday we all met at Bob Evans in Bellefontaine as well as Rachel's parents. Here are a few pics from the meeting. Notice my hair...Rachel colored my hair Friday night and it looks SO good! A belated Birthday present from our future hair stylist to the stars.

It's been a busy month the month. I took the kids and their friends to Kiser Lake State Park camping for a week right before my birthday ;Teresa had a slumber party that drug out an extra day for her birthday; many trips to drop the kids off at Mad River to canoe or swim near the dam to help fight the sweltering heat here. Also , the Friday after my birthday out friend's Dirk and Felicia invited teresa and I up to Dayton for a birthday treat. We ate dinner at Dewey's pizza which is THE best pizza EVER made! And then we went to the Dayton Dragon's baseball game. They have season tickets right behind home plate. We were surrounded by scouts. The man right in front of me was from the Padres. He had a radar so I got to see how fast every pitch was. Here are a few pics from some of the going on's:

We went to Chicago since a dear friend of mine's daughter was killed. Albe was my best friend when I lived in Chicago. She now lives in Florida and I'm in Ohio but friendships as close as our's will always stand the test of time and distance. Her daughter Nikki babysat for Brendan , Elijah and Christopher when they were little. She was trying to close the garage door which was broke and she somehow lost her balance and the door slammed on her neck. A neighbor found her body several hours later attacking out from under the door. She leaves behind 4 children , one of whom just graduated from High School that same week. We went up for the viewing (Tom went with me) and we headed home the next day. Not much time to visit with Albe but I know my presents meant so much to her. She is now heading back to Florida with 2 of the 4 kids.