A Week full of Lasts

It was a hard week- a week full of lasts, as my husband put it. There was the last party for Scott and Jodi- our best friends. We had a mini olympic theme with speed jump rope, egg races, monkey bar chicken fights, bobbing for peaches-(by the way, peaches sink- who knew?), blowing up a balloon after eating an entire cupcake race, grape spitting for distance and bubblegum chewing with who could blow a bubble with 3 pieces in their mouth first! I had opted to do whatever was left, but that ended up being the bubble gum and since I have braces, not the best idea, so Jodi had to go twice. It was fun, even if the guys did win!The last blast in the pool with them and the kids. The last night and the last Good-bye hug.

Then there was the last day at the temple with my husband until he gets back from Iraq. It was special since we were the only ones in the session and they actually prayed for Robert, individually. There was the last dinner out as a family with Daddy, the last father's blessings for awhile and the last family prayer for awhile and then the last good-bye. Ok technically it won't be the last good-bye, yet. See, he gets to come home Friday night and stay until he leaves for Kuwait on Sunday. They issued his weapon here and so he has to come back and pick it up again after his inprocessing is done. He said, " by the end of this, you will be saying 'get out of here, stop dragging this out so much.'" And it is probably true. You can only dread something for so long, before you need to just get on with it.

We did find a neat way of communicating and hope it works in Iraq. We both got webcams and are able to video conference. It's almost like he's right here with us. Can you see him in his new helmet? The kids are playing a game with him on the right hand side of the screen. We even said a Family prayer- video conference style. Amazing thing- technology! Really all these aren't lasts, they are just for awhiles and that is a much better way of looking at it!