An update on the Old Man

Say it with me...Stress free, that's me! Well, that's my motto at least. We can all take a big, well deserved sigh of relief, our boys are almost home!!!!

My nephew has these funny things my sister calls laugh cry's and I think I've inherited them. I was finally able to talk to the Old Man for longer than 10 minutes in I don't know how long and I didn't know whether to laugh at some of the funny stories he told me or cry since I was so happy to talk to him. I did both. At the same time. Thinking about it now makes me laugh if that counts!

Back to this stress free thing. While I was taking my week long hiatus from the phone, computer, and pretty much everything so I could get de-stress after the holidays and get back on my feet for the new year, the Old Man was coincidentally doing some stress techniques of his own. Mistakenly, one of his Marines received a girly care package that included this huge bottle of lavender spray that has stress free and relax written all over the bottle. The Old Man seized the bottle. Every time his Marines get crazy or things get hectic, he busts out the bottle, sprays everyone down, and screams, "RELAX!!!!" He said it works like a charm!

Surprisingly, the Old Man said things in the city were calm the day Saddam was executed and have been ever since. He and his Marines are all doing really well, but they're ready to get back from rotation. (In other words, a few more days and we'll probably all get more calls!) He said that it's been really cold over there and a lot of the Iraqi families don't have heat sources. The Marines have been giving out heaters to as many people as they can. They also had a ton of toys to give away to the children so the kids were excited about that. He's been interacting so much with the Iraqi's that he's been picking up the language pretty quick too. All of his higher ups are impressed by how well he's doing with every aspect of this deployment.

So here's the really good stuff! He was promoted to Sergeant of the Guard!!! He's the third in command from the Capt. It's sort of a within rank promotion, but an awesome achievement! Send him an email or leave a comment to say congrats!

We're over the halfway hump!! Keep praying for their safe return!