An Early Wake-up Call

It's my first day of the long weekend - aka vacation. For the last month or so, I have literally needed to peel myself out of bed at 7 or somtimes 7:30, eventhough the alarm goes off at 5:30. Today, a phone call woke me up at 5:25 - it was Josh (2 pm his time). (He had actually called yesterday at 6 am, but I never even heard the phone!)

He sounded wonderful. Seemed to be well rested and doing well. I gave him the scoop on the local neighborhood children and upcoming kindergartners - reporting who had what teacher for school next year. Our nephew, Dominic, was screened for kindergarten the other day and did very well, making Uncle Josh very proud of him.

He said it is VERY HOT over there and that our 90 degree heat would actually seem cool to him. It helps that over here he could wear shorts and tshirt and would lack the 60 or so pounds of body armor.

He is excited that is July. As you all know, a lot has happened the past few months and he said that knowing it is a new month just helps. He says hello to everyone and continues to thank everyone for their support and encouraging words.

A special thank you to some of my co-workers and their families. My friend Hailey had a covert candy drive with some other people from work and her family. She shipped him four ten pound packages full of candy to share with the Afghani children. A continued thanks to St. Michael's School in Annandale, VA as they raised money to purchase phone cards for Josh's group - which continues to keep Josh connected to us via phone, as well as many other soldiers and their families.