Update on Derick

Derick spent just over a week in Kuwait and has now been in Afghanistan for a couple of days. We've been able to talk daily on the phone and on Facebook. There is nowhere to call for free like there was in Kuwait so he has to use phone cards, which is better than nothing, but say a 300 minute phone card only allows around 90 minutes or so of actual call time. Derick says that he is kind of bored right now as they just have briefings to go too. They will start working in the prison in a few days. He's anxious to get to work in hopes that the days will go by faster. He is at Bagram Air Base and if anyone would like his mailing address please let me know. You can email me or comment on this post and I can get it to you.

Amazing how he can change in a year!

This top photo was taken Memorial Day 2008. The bottom photo July 4th 2009! Crazy to see what a big boy he is now!

Going thru old pictures on Mom's computer and found some of these!

It's hard to believe he was this little!

Tyson's first haircut...we shaved his curls off! What were we thinking???

So cute with Grandpa on his old motorcycle!

Just a few more from Derick's time home!

Tyson was in the flower next to Derick but he wasn't looking at the camera so I cropped him out! Thought I'd take this opprotunity to make everyone giggle at Derick's expense! He he! He's seen the picture!

Tyson had his first Laffy Taffy over the 4th! He LOVED it! I however was not as excited for this new food adventure.

This was the view from our hotel room. Derick and I stayed at Crown Center at the Hyatt the night we went to the Royal's game. He made it a point to make sure we were as high up as we could be...38th floor I think it was...

Tyson and Derick at Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.

More random pictures

Random pictures from when Derick was back.

And he's gone...again.

Derick was home for about 20 days on leave before heading overseas. During that time we put about 2500 miles on the car! We spent 2 weekends in Nebraska at his parents and the rest of the time here in KC. We went to Union Station, a Royals game, Science City, Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, a movie, shopping, the gym and quality time together! It was a lot of fun and I'm so sad that he had to go back. It went by too fast!

Derick left today around noon to head to Omaha to check out of the Reserve center there. He flies out of Omaha tomorrow morning, his brother Sean is taking him to the airport. He will be back at Camp Shelby for a couple of days before catching the next flight to Kuwait. Once in Kuwait he will be there for a couple of days before heading to Afghanistan where he will be working in a prison. He said he'd be finding out shortly after he arrives in Kuwait when he'll be getting to come home. The Unit he's attached too has already been there for a while and they get to come home in January of February so he is hoping that's when he'll get to come back too...his orders are for 9 months boots on ground so we'll see. Here's to hoping he gets to come home early!

Today was definitely one of the hardest days of my life thus far. We were one big crying mess! We think Tyson understands to a point what is going on. Derick had a heart to heart with Tyson a couple nights ago telling him that he has to leave again for a while and when I went into the room (I didn't know what they were doing) Tyson was holding on to Derick around the neck and they both looked very sad. Today Tyson just kind of hugged on Derick and was very calm and mellow. He's seen me cry a lot today and he just comes up to me and rubs my arm or back. After Derick left 2 months ago and Tyson would see me cry he would just say, "mommy you sad?" but today was different, I can tell he gets it a little.

Tyson and Troy

Daddy and Tyson on the train!

Tyson and Troy

Such cuties!

We spent the afternoon in Topeka on Thursday and met up with Kim and Troy at Gage Park! We had to ride the train too! Tyson loves them, as you know!

4th of July

The weather was a bust, but it didn't keep us from having fun outside on the 4th! Here are a couple pictures from the day of Derick on the Bonzai slide his brother brought to the farm...for the kids!

Royals Game

Mary, Becky and I

Derick and I standing in the newly renovated outfield.

Derick and I at our hotel for the night!

Becky's boss was gracious enough to give us his tickets to the Royals game Thursday July 2nd. His seats are third row up right behind home plate! They included a pre-game buffet, all you can drink and all you can eat stadium snacks all night! We even had a server come to our seats to take our orders! It was awesome! The Royals lost, but we still had a great time! I'll have more pictures later to show the view from our seats!