eric is off on the first part of his journey

We did most of his packing on sunday. That left most of last night for fun. We went to eat bbq just the 4 of us. He bought a camera. Then Clay and Lauren came over for some apples to apples. Dean even stayed up and played with us.

Joy Anna and I made a walmart run at midnight. She is going to be in a commercial today. Her friend Jordan is going with her. That will keep her mind off Eric leaving. Maybe. Everyone got to experience the hiccups last night. They were really really bad. After 2 pills and a chocolate shake combined with lying on the floor, they eased up. Clqy is taking her to do something fun tonight. He really is sweet to her.

Lairen and I are going to go to the gym. I have a lot of stuff to do like yearbook and photo stuff. Keep busy.

Dean has taken him to the airport. I only got 3 hours of sleep. Wish I could go back. Doesn't seem likely.

I am not doing too bad. I cried when he told Ranger goodbye. Poor boy just doesn't understand.

I know he is doing what he needs to do.

A real thunderstorm is rolling across el paso. Delightful. Tonight we went out with the relatives. The steak was good, but a little different.

Tonight Clay and Lauren came over and we had a lot of fun. Now the rain is just a wonderful way to end the night.

Hot, hot, hot

Hot is the only way to describe our house and El Paso right now. We are roasting.

I know I have not updated in a while. Bad me. A lot has been happening, but I have been busy. We celebrated Eric's birthday with the Alexanders and the Gambers at Lowreys. We had a lot of fun just sitting and talking. The food was yummy, too. We did that on the 10th. On the 11th, we had a party at Mitzi's to welcome our new staff member, Amy. The whole staff, spouses and families were there. Except Joy Anna. On the 12th she came home. Lauren and Clay went with us to get her. A balloon, poster,a stuffed animal and gifts made her feel really special. She was really glad to see Clay and Lauren.

This last week was crazy at work. No Air condtioning for half of Monday and most of tuesday made it rough. On Tuesday I copied over 1000 pages of music for the praise band. I had it all stacked in the office that several different people use at various times. one of those people came in on Wednesday night after work to do a few things. Because the paper was there on his desk, he didn't know it was good and took it home to recycle. I was sick. I was in tears. Joy Anna, Lauren, and Eric came up and copied everything over for me on Thursday afternoon.

Last night we went to the Alexanders and celebrated Dean's and Teresa's birthdays. We had a wonderful dinner. Mark did an excellent job on the steaks. Two other couples were there. We had a lot of fun just talking and visiting.

Today we joined Western Hills Methodist Church. Lauren cheered. We laughed. It was great.

Joy Anna is going to California and nanny for Shannon. They are meeting Shannon's friends in Newport Beach. She will have 4 kiddos to watch. She is really excited about it. It will be whole new world for her.

Eric leaves in 8 days. I am not having the easiest time with this. Neither is Joy Anna. Lauren is having a bad time with it, too. Her brother is being deployed right after Eric goes. And she leaves for college all about the same time. Joy Anna is going to struggle with Lauren going. We are really going to miss Lauren, too.

Lots of changes.

Playing catch up is really a pain. I am so glad we went last week. Joy Anna and Camille had a grand time together. I managed to get the majority of the newsletter done but not proofed. It is going to be a day late. It was the best I could do.

Tonight we went to eat with kim, john, and bailey. I am really going to miss them. All this saying goodbye is getting tough.

I really miss joy anna.

Eric got his travel dates. I am going to miss him like crazy. Having him gone for 2 years is going to be very hard on me. I just have to know who has him in the palm of his hand.

I am so tired of not sleeping. I really don't think it has a thing to do with the time change. Tonight I had real tea so maybe it is caffeine. Maybe tomorrow night will be better.

What a fun time we are having with the family. On saturday we got up early and headed to the country to see the sun flowers and go to the sunflower festival. The heat and humidity is awful. We are not used to that. That evening we all played apples to apples for several hours. It was so much fun we played through the entire set of red cards. We laughed til we hurt. On sunday we went to the old family church and saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in many years. That was very pleasant. We had lunch at billies and sort of just hung out. After all the family left we hit a couple of stores and had supper just the 6 females as eric had gone to ruston. Again we laughed and laughed.

Monday we we're slow getting moving since we had laughed and talked til about 2 in the morning. We went to eat lunch and borrowed ricky's truck and headed to johnny's and patti's. We all visited and hung out and looked at pics. We watched a movie t
And again we laughed so hard. JoyAnna and I slept in patti's office which is like sleeeping in a tree house.

We headed back to town shortly after noon. Eric had camille and joyanna and let them take turnes driving. We stopped for some canes chicken before coming back here. Shayna came to visit and we played apples to apples again. Needless to say we laughed and laughed.