Taji Pics

This is a picture of Abe at the flight line in Taji. You can see more pics in the photo collection at right. The other pilot with Abe is Steve Farabaugh. They were taken with somebody's digital camera and Abe emailed them to me yesterday. I have sent Abe two disposable cameras so that he can take pictures and send the cameras back to me for developing. I hope he uses them (hint, hint -Abe). Abe only got to fly for an hour yesterday. He should fly again in a couple of days. He has logged 64 hours of flight time since arriving in Iraq. Most of that is co-pilot time but counts towards his overall time. Abe has hung some old posters in his room that I sent him. He also has a wall of photos and artwork from Zane. He is making it feel like home as much as possible. I have been talking to him online pretty regularly. With the use of webcams we are able to see and hear each other pretty clearly. We are very thankful for that luxury and it is easy for me to forget that he is off at war. He is sharing his room with a mouse, which he has named Dog. He hasn't physically seen Dog for a couple of days, but knows he is still there because food is still going missing. I guess Abe is an animal lover, through and through.

On the homefront, today was pretty much an ordinary day. It started off with running a few errands. While we were out, Zane and I stopped by a park to play. But it was so windy we only stayed for about 20 minutes. I left the house so quickly that I forgot Zane's jacket and felt like his long-sleeve shirt just wasn't cutting it out there in that wind. You can see some pics of Zane at the park in the photo collection; it is the album right below the flight line pictures. You can see how windy it was by looking at his hair in most of the pics. Like a crazy person, I also left home without any socks for the boy. His shoes were already in the car and I had set out a pair of clean socks but forgot to grab them on the way out the door. Well I didn't realize this until we got to Wal-mart. I parked the car and went around to put his socks and shoes on before we went in and realized I forgot the socks. So the poor child had to wear his tennis shoes without socks while we ran errands and played at the park. I guess I failed as a parent today when it comes to dressing my child (between the socks and the jacket). If you are wondering why I don't put his socks and shoes on before we leave the house, it's simple. He always takes them off in the car and usually right before we reach our destination. So I decided it would be easier just to put them on in the car once we get to where we are going. Other than that, we just hung out at the house. I did quite a bit of cleaning in preparation for my friend Jenny and her daughter visiting this weekend. They will be arriving tomorrow. Jenny and I first met in 1st grade. And have been best friends ever since 6th. Her daughter, Claire, is 4 years old and as cute as can be. She and Zane will have a good time, I'm sure.