Tim....in some of his own words

So far Tim has been able to call home and e-mail quite frequently (thankfully). He seems to be doing well. He is almost through MQT (local training to get him up to speed on local procedures before he takes students up). He seems to be enjoying the challenge of the flying and he seems to be enjoying seeing all of the places we have heard of in the news up close and personal. He has been flying quite a bit and he doesn't expect that to slow down for a while. It seems the thing he likes least is the living situation. As I said earlier he is living in a tent and apparently it is dirty everywhere. He has to walk quite a distance to go to the bathroom and that seems like the worst. I'm including some excerpts from his e-mails so you can hear from him in his own words.

FROM HIS FIRST DAY:
For your information. I live on Sather AB. That is where mu\y tent, and it is not kidding a tent with linolium floor a buck bed and a locker box and about 7 feet by 10 feet of living space. (I work at New Al Muthara AB). It is located a short walk from my tent. Imagine I am in prison but I have to walk 100 yards to the crapper and I shower about 300 yards away. Nothing is paved. Everywhere you walk on stone paths..... It rained this week so now it is wet and muddy and the water has no where to go so there are mud and brown water ditches everywhere. To get into the tent from the path, we have put crate boxes, a sandbag, and a think piece of plastic we found.

FROM EARLY THIS WEEK:
We are flying our you know what off. Got
10 hours already. Things are looking up. It will still be a long and
aggravating year in ways I do not think you could imagine unless you are
stationed here.

Baghdad is wet, muddy, disgusting and dirty. Flew over places you hear
about in the newspapers daily to take a peek. Been unreal to see the
battlespace from this perspective. Not saying I am dropping but flying
with Iraqis over the battlespace is something I will always remember.

we laugh everyday here until it hurts. some of us are soooo busy it is ridiculous. I get up at 545 am and I get home after working out every night around 1000 or so.

He was also able to send a couple of pictures. One I think is of his C-130 trip there and the other is his sleeping quarters....GLAMOUR!!!

NEWS OF TIM!!

I received some news of Tim this weekend. He has arrived in Bagdad and is starting to get settled in. He expects to be flying soon so I guess he will be jumping in with both feet. He wrote a little about his living quarters. He is living in a tent with six other guys and from his description it seems to be pretty muddy there now (I guess it just rained). He compared it to some of our camping trips and while I wanted to believe he was referencing the fun I think he was more likening it to the "roughing it" part. He said he would let me know if he needed any comfort items and I will pass that along if you'd like to send him something. Below is a picture of us at the airport right before he left.

Baby Furniture Weekend

Last week the store I bought the Baby's furniture at called and the Furniture was ready to pick up. YYYIIIPPPPEEE! I rented a trailer from on base on Saturday and drove to Birmingham and picked it up. After a quick stop at Stephen and Jenni's to show off the ultrasound pictures :-) I got home. A neighbor friend helped me get it in the house (Thanks Beau!!) Then today I put the crib together....fun in theory not in practice....:-) Here are pictures. The room is still rough but at least I have all the parts (except the mattress) and it just needs time to put it together. An ongoing process I imagine.


The final result.....


The crib Before....


AHHHH.....I love the glider!!!!


The Dresser/Changing table

I will, of course post more pictures as preparations progress.

Welcome Back

Hi Friends and Family!!

Welcome. I am starting up the Blog again as a way for Tim to check in on us while he is away and because we seem to have a great deal going on in life right now. Tim is off doing amazing things--I hope to be able to share them with you here. I am preparing for the arrival of the new Baby.

Some background for those just joining us: Tim is currently deployed to Iraq where he will be flying as an Air Advisor to the Iraqis. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. If you would like his address (mail is much appreciated) call me and I will happily send it to you. I am about 4 months pregnant (YYYIIIPPPEEEE). The baby is due March 21st, 2009. We have decided to let the gender be a surprise on birthday so for now we call the baby "Bean" because every book compares the baby's size to various forms of beans--coffee, pinto, lima etc. We love Bean and can't wait for his/her arrival!!!

To jump right in with the news I had my ultrasound today and I am going to try to post the pictures here.... (HINT: if you click on the picture it will blow it up...making it clearer)



The top one is an image of Bean's foot and the second is Bean's leg--do you see a punter or a ballerina??



The top one here is Bean in a kind of head down position...you can see the spine clearly. The second one is Bean's arm (the fingers are clear) and the last one is Bean again in a head down position but not so bent over. Isn't he/she PERFECT??

I also have a DVD of the ultrasound. I'll try to post that tomorrow.....Thanks for visiting!!!!

Spring Vacation

It's a been a while since we have blogged...I guess it is just that time of year. The Holidays were over and it was time to go back to the grindstone. So we did but then we needed a break so Tim and I decided to take a Sprig vacation to Utah where we hear the snow was PERFECT for Spring skiing....and so it was. Here are some pictures:

Well Blogger is acting up...I'll post more later.....

Christmas Visitors

Merry Christmas!!! Tim and I had a wonderful holiday with his Mom and Todd. They took the long drive down from Ohio to spend Christmas with us and while Missippi doesn't have much to offer in the way of entertainment, we had a wonderful time enetertaining each other. We learned that Momma Shedd is a magnificent bowler, a whiz at Trivial Pursuit and can beat anyone at the board game of life. When not doing that or watching "A Christmas Story" we petted Renegade (the family dog who also made the drive). Renegade is pictured here:

As the Shedds were pulling out of the driveway we discovered another visitor....the cutest puppy you have ever seen!! It turns out the poor little thing was abandoned in the neighborhood. After hanging signs all over the neighborhood we spent a couple of hours falling in love with her and then I took her to an animal hospital close by. It turns out she is a pit bull and, given that and the fact that Tim and I are still working 12 hours a day it just seemed like keeping him wasn't a very good option. The nice lady at the animal hospital fell in love with her too so she took her and promised to find her a good home. She sure was a sweet visitor though. Here she is for you to fall in love with too:

Like a Drug......

It's like a drug...once you start with this home improvement stuff you can't stop. Tim and I ripped apart the cabinets above the stove and installed a new venting microwave. I really like the microwave and I LOVE the counter space that is opened up since it is not sitting on the countertop. If you ignore the fourth of july-like display of sparks when I sawed through the 220V cord going to the stove it was a successful project.
BEFORE:


AFTER: