Monthly Archives: February 2007

Family

At Long Last… He’s Home!

Posted on by Jean

I’m so behind on emails and I really try to answer all but I don’t think I’m going to catch up this time so please accept my thanks for all of your kind words and support.

Dan didn’t make it home on Wednesday.  The whole plan I had went down the tubes.  I still didn’t tell the boys and when a couple of more delays came into play we decided that we would ask that someone from the office go pick him up and bring him home.  I sent the boys on the bus and about the same time they were arriving at school, unbeknownst to them, their dad was landing at Ramstein Air Base.  After going through security and everything else he finally got to our door just in time for some lunch.

Then the fun began when we went to the school to surprise two little boys that had no idea how good their day was going to turn out.

The video link is at the end of this post.  We went to Joe’s class first.  I brought the video camera in under the pretense that I just wanted to video him in his class.  The little ham went for it and you can see the big smile he put on for the camera.  Then you’ll hear me say, “Okay…okay….”  That was Dan’s cue to come in the room.  Joe was in such shock that he just said, “Hi, Dad.” like he just saw him yesterday.  He started crying though when Dan was holding him and the stun wore off.

Then we hit Daniel’s class.  My friend works in the office and went in and called Daniel out like he was in trouble.  You’ll see her running out of the room and then Daniel come out and spot Dan right away.  He was a little misty-eyed too.  It was so good to see my men all together again.  It was fun and we definitely made the right choice in not making the boys wait.

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

1/2 a Saturday Left

Posted on by Jean

As of right now we have 1/2 of a Saturday left.   The boys think we have two.  Here’s the clicker.  For weeks, at least six, I have thought the 7th was on a Thursday.  Dan’s Detachment Sgt’s wife called me from Italy yesterday to see what my plans were for “Wednesday”.   I assumed she wanted to drive up a day early and needed a place to stay.  I said, “Oh, it’s only a 2 1/2 hour drive for us so I’ll just go up on Thursday morning.  Would you like to spend the night here with us and follow us there?” 

Dead silence.  Cricket.  Cricket.   I’m thinking, “What?  What’d I say?!”

“But, Jean, they come in on Wednesday.”   WHAT?! I ran to look at my calendar.  Holy crap! She was right! Why didn’t anyone tell me that the 7th was Wednesday?!  LOL.  I mean, I would have realized it sooner or later, probably tomorrow when I look at the calendar for the next week, but NO ONE told me!  Not even Dan.  I have sent him an email every single Thursday for weeks now, “Six more weeks today!…..  Five more weeks today!…”  He never caught on.  Everyone around here said they thought I was just excited and mixed up.  What a great gift!  It also means I have to get off my tail and get things done.  Wednesday is SO much earlier than Thursday.  Seriously.  Thursday is at the end of the week.  Wednesday is in the middle.  There’s a HUGE difference. There’s a rack of beer to be bought, house to make sparkle, banners to finish and hang up, clothes to be washed (his clothes have been in a closet for a year… they need freshening up)…  I think Daniel will figure it out (if he hasn’t already) but Joseph doesn’t have a clue and I can not wait to see his face when he realizes we’re going to pick up his dad.  He keeps saying, “I wish it were the 17th so dad will already have been home for a day.”  It’s killing me.  I’ve never kept a secret so well. I’m going to pretend I overslept and they missed the bus.  I’ve already set up the ground work and keep telling them that Aggie has a vet appointment (I just said, “next week” in case the flight gets delayed) so they won’t wonder why she’s in the car.  They won’t realize until I make a right turn for the Autobahn instead of a left for the school.  I wish I could run a video camera and drive at the same time.  lol.  So please everyone pray for on-time flights, no bumping of  seats and great weather from Afghanistan to Germany so that he actually gets home when they say he is because I don’t think I can keep quiet much longer. 

I gave Aggie a bath and good brushing yesterday.  Can you believe she’s 17 months old already.   She’s grown into such a beautiful little lady.  I use the term “lady” loosely.   She’s really a big pig.  I know it’s hard to believe looking at that face but you can bet that within five minutes of eating a huge belch comes out of that pretty little dog.  It’s hilarious and we laugh every single time.

I cast on the Chick Knits Ribby Cardi a couple of nights ago.  I’m using my favorite yarn, Elann’s Highland Wool which I bought for this pattern over a year ago.  I also bought it in medium and dark blue.  It was just serendipity that the Elann group is doing a KAL.  It’s a perfectly relaxing knit so far.

Okay.  Gotta get to work.  You probably won’t hear from me until next weekend so everyone have a great week.  I know I will!  :-))))))))))))))))

Animals and Nature, Family, Sewing

Hey there, Chickadee

Posted on by Jean

One of my favorite things about being around my grandparents is being surrounded by nature. 

My grandfather built their house up on a little mountain in the White Mountain area of New Hampshire.  I love getting up at the crack of dawn with them, wrapping up in a blanket, cup of coffee in hand, and going out on the deck to watch the woods wake up.

It’s so perfect to see a family of deer or foxes run across their land and listen to the birds.   My grandparents can tell you each kind of bird we hear.  They’ve always had lots of birdhouses and I remember my grandfather always at war with the squirrels trying to figure out a way that he could keep them out of the bird food.  Ever since I was a really little girl I’ve loved Chickadees.  I would actually start crying if the other birds looked like they weren’t letting the poor little Chickadees in the bird feeder. When my grandparents see Chickadees they think of me (there are a LOT of them in NH) .  I love that.  It’s sweet and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.   Gram’s 81st birthday is on Saturday.  My gift is late because I just found a great book (Backyard Bird Quilts) and knew exactly what I had to make her.  The book just arrived on Tuesday so I dug into my fat quarter stash and spent yesterday afternoon working on this:

I took a little artistic liberty with the colors (that and it was really hard to see since it’s so dark here in the afternoons) but I think it’s pretty dern cute.   

And because I’m feeling so nostalgic lately, here’s a picture of Gram when she was about three or four years old just outside of Boston.

After the whole Mayflower discovery that I wrote about in the last post, I went to the library and got the book “Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick.  I’m into the second chapter and really enjoying it.   I had no idea that they lived in Holland for about twelve years first.  It popped up a couple of times during the research but I couldn’t figure it out.

And finally, we are so close to Dan coming home that I swear the air is electric.  I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about something.  One week from right this very moment, if all goes as planned, we will be on the Autobahn and less than an hour from being home.   YeeeHAW!