The Last Night...

...it was just a normal night. Spending time together as a family. We didn't want Mom to spend all her time cooking a big fancy dinner and staying stressed the whole time. Chris and I showed up after work. Clifford and Jeanna jumped in the explorer with Keira and went and got them some Japanese take out. As you can see in the picture everything seemed to be perfectly normal...Chris fixing a computer, Clifford and Jeanna finishing up their dinner, and Ivy terrorizing poor Milo who was sitting quietly in the chair behind Jeanna.

Keira and Milo waited patiently for someone to drop some food.

Clifford even busted out the old Jeff Foxworthy joke while I was taking pictures...you know "sins-u-es" - "Hey Sis, sins-u-es up would you get me another drink?"
We just talked and laughed and acted like we would any other normal night...only at any given moment one of us could have burst into tears because the truth was it wasn't a normal night. This was THE LAST NIGHT, the time had finally arrived. The dreaded thing we found out about a year ago and we brushed off because we had a "whole year" and we knew something would come along to make this not happen...the war would end or the orders would be changed. And now as we wonder where the past year went so quickly nothing happened to change this and the LAST NIGHT finally arrived.

It's hard to talk about it or blog about it without getting teary eyed. We spent the evening talking about old memories that made us laugh and we talked about how we were going to make new ones when he came home. We all laughed as Ivy put on a show of her own just singing and dancing for Uncle Cliff and Jeanna and then she read us a story from a blank journal.
We watched Pollack steal Keira's toys and then growl at her as if he were a Pit Bull and dare her to take it back. Of course she always would then he would tuck his tail and pout until he could get another toy.
We wrestled with the dogs...

...and rough housed with Ivy.
Uncle Cliff had to explain that some toys are Keira's and not Ivy's (she didn't take that well).
Clifford and I went out on the back porch and just talked like brother and sister, laughing about all the silly things we use to worry about as kids. We talked about how I would come over to Mom's and run around with Keira because she loves her Aunt Sissy so much. Then I watched the boy play with his dog and give her his love. Keira is his baby and she sure does LOVE her Daddy! She literally cried when he came home from 2 weeks of training. Watch the video here.

She let her Daddy know when she was tired though and then they just sat down and she wanted to have her belly rubbed. She loves that belly rubbin' so much. When I see her at Mom's she barely even greets me anymore, she practically comes running and half way there rolls over onto her back and just slides across the floor belly up to my feet. Seriously, she has the timing worked out perfectly!

Me like belly rubs!

Ivy got to take a bath in Grammie's big tub while Jeanna shaved Uncle Cliff's head (seriously, that's love). We stayed as long as we could but Ivy started getting tired and she has to go to bed at some point and so do we. So we took one last family picture with our puffy red eyes while we were sniffling and we said our good byes and gave each other hugs and kisses with "I love you" and "See you in the morning."

And then we left. I cried all the way home with Chris trying to comfort me. Ivy was in the back seat sucking on her finger trying so hard not to fall asleep. I didn't eat and I didn't sleep. I thought about all the times that we watched Ninja Turtles and Wayne's World together and all the times I kicked his butt at his Joe Montana Football for Sega (wow Sega, that's a blast from the past) and how he would get so mad that he would throw down his controller and say I was cheating (I loved it because it was the one and only game I could win). I thought about all the times we climbed on the hay together and attempted to jump from one to the other and we missed everytime (how we never killed ourselves I'll never know). I thought about how we rode the go cart in the big field on the farm trying to hit each other with cow patties (I know that's gross but we had to entertain ourselves some how). I thought about the time we got charged by a horse and I climbed and jumped a gate like a cat but Clifford was too short and I was so scared that she was going to run him over and at the very last second he flattened himself down to nothing and went under the gate (we laugh about this now). I thought about the time we were fishing and I got so excited because I had a huge fish and my line snapped and then he reeled his in and cast it back out where I was just fishing only to reel in the biggest bass I had ever seen (and yes I was so mad I cried and threatened to push him out of the boat into the pond). I thought about the time the ocean current caught him while he was on his boogie board and swept him away, we were both so scared and he was crying and screaming for me and I somehow managed the courage to swim to him, I thought we were going to die and he still swears I saved his life but we were 8 and 13 so we may remember that a little worse than it really was.

I'll think about all these things many and many more a lot over the next year. Some will make me smile and some will make me miss him. But he will come home and we'll get to make more. I'll think about him everyday and pray for his units safe return. I hope you will pray for them as well.