All is well at Ft. Lewis and at home.

My sister-in-law, Nancy, and neice, Ellen, left last night. The boys were in bed by 8:20 p.m. or so and all was quiet at home.

Don called. It was so good to hear his voice. All is going well at Ft. Lewis. It sounds like Don and some of the other officers have been getting together to get to know one another. Most are stationed there at Ft. Lewis but a few others that will deploy with him are staying in the barracks and at a nearby hotel as well. He went to a cookout at someone's house on Saturday. Sounds like they had a nice time. He says they're a good group of people. Very friendly.

He heard he will be living in a "container" in Iraq. Two guys to a container.

We talked for about a half hour last night. Mostly about the boys. Benjamin's big success with potty-training this past week (a big highlight in my world these days!).

At bedtime last night. Benjamin and I looked at a photo book I had done of our trip to Virginia Beach last summer. We hadn't looked through it in awhile. He was thrilled to see all the photos of him with Daddy in the sand. He said "I want to go to the beach" several times. Then halfway through the book he realized Samuel wasn't in any of the photos (these were taken the summer before Samuel was born!). He was thinking the book was from our recent trip. I guess I need to work on putting a book together from that trip. In my spare time.

Benjamin received his first post card from Daddy in the mail. He was so excited. It was waiting for him on the breakfast table. It had pictures of Army helicopters doing Air Assault exercises. He loved it! Thank you, Daddy-O!

Don's been going to a church on base and was off to the evening service last night once we said goodnight. At our church, the pastor did a nice Independence Day themed service and encouraged everyone to thank a soldeir, marine, airman, etc. in uniform when you see them. I thought it was funny that I mentioned something about that in my last blog post. I think it does mean a lot to them. It's great to have words of encouragement and support.

The boys and I are doing pretty good. Today is the first full day since our great helpers have departed. And before we know it my nephew, Keegan, will be arriving! Time seems to be going by fast. I can't believe it's July already! I just hope time continues to zoom on by.