It's my LUCKY day!

April 6

Nine years ago on April 6th Jason and I took the LONG way (we got lost) to Fort Walton Beach for the night. It was still chilly but we didn't care, we were in college and it was still cool to wear our swimsuits when it was 60 outside. We spent the afternoon on the beach again, trying to look cool and not freeze in the sea wind. Right before sunset, Jason hugged me, dropped down to one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. He placed a ring on my finger and I think the first thing I said was "Oh, wow!" and after he prompted me, I said "YES!" It's still one of the best decisions I've ever made and I love thinking about the last 10 years we've spent together and the next 50! These photos are from the pre-digital era and I have them affixed in my scrapbooks so they don't scan well.

April 6

Seven years ago on April 6th sometime around 4am a plane landed at Green Ramp on Pope Air Force Base and made me the happiest girl on the planet at that very moment. This was the return of Jason's first and hardest deployment. He left 6 months into our first year of marriage. It was a little unexpected and it was the beginning of the Iraq hotspot war. It was to an obscure place where they slept in tents, had little communication or long long waits to contend with. I saw him on webcam for the first time 5 months into this deployment and cried tears of JOY. I think I might have forgotten what he looked like in person it had been so long. He didn't have a phone or a computer. To send him emails, I would compose them in Word and send them to my FRG leader who would send them to the 1SG's email and he would download and print them and hand deliver the letters to the guys. Yeah, not very personal. It was the hardest for Jason because it was the most extreme area where he was located. It was the hardest for me because I was here...ALONE. I didn't have tons of friends, I worked 2 jobs to occupy myself and if it wasn't for Roxy greeting me at the door, I'm sometimes not sure I would have made it through it. I never thought it could be easier to suffer a deployment with kids but they take their mind off of things and seem to help with the loneliness. This deployment was a mere 7 months in comparison to his 14 and 12 month subsequent ones but this one was only supposed to last 4 and on Christmas Eve I got a phone call from an FRG wife that the unit had been extended for another 3 months. Merry Christmas to me! Seeing that plane touch down that night lifted the heaviest burden I think I have ever felt. There were more than a few nights during that deployment that worried for Jason and his unit's lives. I still say it was the happiest day of my life. I could finally stop worrying, temporarily.

April 6

Six years ago today, while working at my job as a Medical Technologist in a hospital laboratory, I wondered if my "timing" had been right. We had become homeowners and had offically began "trying" to have a baby. Since I had the most sensitive test on the market available to me, I had my blood drawn. What the heck, why not? It was a long shot and way too early. I did my morning work and then in my downtime, I started playing around with testing my own blood. For the heck of it, I asked the chemistry department if I could throw mine on for an HCG with the others in the rack. I even programmed it in myself. I walked away and thought nothing else of it. It was before lunch that she walked over with a duplicate test result in her hand with a smile. It was COMPLETE disbelief. NO WAY, that fast? I had NO symptoms. It turns out I was about 6 days pregnant with Jackson. 6 DAYS! Who else can find out they are 6 DAYS pregnant! My life changed on April 6. I found out I was going to be a mother. It took a little while to get used to the idea, it did happen rather quickly. I wouldn't take back ANY day of the last six years. Jackson has always been a little ahead of his time! ;)

April 6

I'd say it's my LUCKY day!