This past year has been a crazy roller-coaster ride. This picture is from Garrett's home away from home in Balad, Iraq (leave it to Garrett to make a port-a-potty and dumpster look good!). He left us in December for a 6 month deployment which was extremely difficult for all of us. We dropped Garrett off at the airport and I felt like a gutted fish. We were fortunate enough to get to go to Utah and be with family for Christmas--I don't know how we would have gotten through Christmas alone. With dad gone, the boys especially needed all the extended family around. Grandpa Bohman helped Sam and Jacob make frames for scouts. I helped Mason make a birdhouse. By the time the birdhouse was finished, not one of the pieces we used for it was an original birdhouse kit piece--I had managed to break them each during construction and my dad had to cut new pieces, using the old pieces I had split as patterns. This is why dads are supposed to be there to help with these scout things. Luckily, Garrett is home now to help Mason with his pinewood derby car. We tried to stay busy with snowmobile rides in the backyard, trips to see the Elk at Hardware Ranch, movies and cousins, cousins, and more cousins. Dan and Julie came to visit too and we had so much fun playing games, bowling, El Sol and Panda Express (we sure miss American restaurants!). We missed Garrett so much and broke down quite a bit, but had the support of family to help us through the holidays. It was over too soon and we were back on the plane to Germany. The thing that kept us going was knowing that Grandma Bohman would be coming to visit in April. I don't know how soldiers and their families coped with deployments before e-mail and skype. Through skype it was so nice to see Garrett and talk face to face (almost).
Joseph brought home a worksheet from school today, outlining his New Year's resolutions. They have inspired me to make some of my own resolutions. 