Merry Christmas

Hi, Honey,

So aggravated I want to throw this phone in the trash. I went to bed with it beside me and kept it with me all day in case you got a chance to call.

I had it in my pocket when you called, but it keeps turning off by itself and I didn't get your call. Yesterday it kept turning off every time I tried to dial out.

I hope you had a good Christmas, sweetheart. I don't know what to send you. I did send a box with a few things, but I know you don't have much room.

I have the picture you sent of Logan up on my blog. He is such a cutie.

I took my camera with me and showed Dad and Brandon the pictures of you, Katie and Logan.

Dad seems to be doing ok. He's still thin, but getting around all right. Still working too much, but that's your dad. I don't think that will ever change.

I had to work Christmas eve and will work again tomorrow. Really thought about taking off Friday and writing, but I may need it for something so I decided not to.

Stopped by Walgreen's to pick up my prescriptions and it was packed solid. I nearly passed, but I didn't want to have to get out again another time. I guess Walgreen's was the only business in town that was open. I got some holiday tea on sale, so I guess that's all right.

Found some mint M&M's too. Guess what you're getting in your next box? Go ahead. Guess.

My boss has a half-grown cat he wants to give me. I think I need to go to the shelter and get one that might not live otherwise. I'll check with the shelter tomorrow maybe.

I wasn't going to get a pet since I was going to start applying to KBR again after March. They don't have many job openings and I don't know where else to look for a job in Iraq or Afghanistan. So, it looks like plan b for a house.

I'm going to be posting some Christmas stories on the blog if you want to read them. They will be mostly short stories, but Santa Was a Cowboy is a true story about when we lived in Gardendale.

Do you have room for a picture frame?

I am still so upset about missing your call. I miss you so very much.

I was looking at Irish vacations earlier. I'm going to find some kind of meter to post on the blog for the Irish fund. Need to post a Surrey fund meter also. I have $20 saved up for Surrey. Not by choice. I got home with $20 Canadian and no banks will convert it. So, I decided to start my Surrey fund with it.

Paladin is even closer than I thought it was. I should be finished with it by the end of December. Then I start on the revisions.

Brandon looks good. He's lost a little weight. He's trying to get his service truck finished so he can go back to work. He's going to do contract work for Capstar.

I have no idea how or why I was so blessed to have you in my life. You were always such a good-natured baby. You never woke without a smile. Perhaps somewhere you knew how much of a miracle it was that you even made it. You were, and are, in so many ways a miracle. I love you so very, very much and I am so proud of you.

Katie said you wanted me to send your monitor over there. Are you sure you want to send that nice monitor? I can send the one you gave me for Christmas. I don't have a computer anyway and not sure when I will get Big Blue fixed. I can get another monitor when I do. How much would it cost to ship a tv over there? Can you even get reception there?

Well, sweetheart, I am going to sign off for now. Let me know about the monitor. Also, let me know which games you want.

I'll try to figure out how to get pictures from the camera to the computer so I can send you some Christmas pictures.

Daddy bought Samantha a pair of little boots with pink tops. Brandon faunched and fussed about that. She has too much pink and he doesn't want her to be a little sissy girl. Silly brother of yours.

I love you. Merry Christmas.

Mom

12-22-08 Iraq

Hey Mom.  Katie will like the book. I think she went and watched to movie so I‘m sure reading the book will be cool.  I’m going to weigh like 400 pounds when I get back. A group out of Midland sent care packages for everyone  plus another group sent Christmas stockings full of stuff. Before every convoy that rolls out I go and pick up class 1 which is 3 to 4 pallets for Cokes, dp, muffins, honey buns and all kinds of other crap for he guys to eat on the road. So the army runs off of Dr Pepper, honey buns and aa batteries. Now the mission couldn’t go with out them.  Sarge’s first paladin that he made and still plays on is Belas. It’s good the book is coming along like it is. I’m happy for you I’m attaching a picture of Logan for you. Katie sent it to me. I think its cute. Well mom I love you and it’s late. I’ve got to get up early to do some more secret squire stuff so ill talk to you later. Love you Mom. Take care. Tell Dad I’m doing good and I miss him and everyone else.

Logan James

12-21-08

Hi Sweetheart,

Mother loves you.

Spoke to Katie earlier. She was doing homework. I’m glad she’s continuing with this. It will be good for her and it helps occupy her mind.

She said she was reading a vampire book also, so I bought her a copy of TWILIGHT today. It’s young adult, but a lot of people like it. It’s not something I would jump on, but my reading time is limited now. The main thing is she is reading and enjoying it.

I got Logan several size 3-6 month things, but Katie said he is really growing so I went back and got some 6-9 month things also. I’ll get to the bank tomorrow one way or the other and put some money in for you. I had a friend who was going to get with me this weekend, but haven’t heard anything out of her. I can take the bus, but I haven’t figured out the bus schedule very well yet. I’ve been taking it to work and then my boss gives me a ride home. That’s not a good situation so I need to get things taken care of asap.

It’s Sunday, so I’m baking. Mint chocolate chip cookies!

Your snail died. I’m sorry. Not really sure what I did wrong, but I was cleaning out the fish tank and all that rolled out of the skull was an empty shell. I finished dumping it out and some kind of flesh came out. I had just cleaned out the lint filter in the dryer and he, I’m assuming it was the snail, fell into the lint. I kept watching it to see if he moved, but he didn’t. Not really sure how I would have got him back in his shell if he had. The first thing I thought of was just wait until Fuzzy the snail joins his little fish friends. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer just thought he had it bad.

Don’t tell Katie I killed her snail.

Your dragon eels are doing fine, though they are a bit spoiled. They think I’m supposed to feed them as soon as I get home from work. I feed them in the morning when I get up, but they keep watching me when I get home, so I feed them again. Now they start jumping around if I don’t feed them right away. I thought fish were supposed to be kind of mindless?

Well, Lisa said her son trained a Beta to jump out of his bowl and do a few other tricks. A neighbor’s little girl did whatever he did to get the fish to jump and then took him outside to let him go because he obviously wanted out of the little bowl.

I gave Dad and Brandon your address.

Talked to Grandpa and Grandma today. It’s been very cold up there. Wind chill -40. Cody isn’t impressed with the cold weather at all. I don’t think he’ll be moving north anytime soon.

Brandon got laid off. He said it really worked out for the best because he can do contract work for them now. He just doesn’t have any benefits. Laura is still working and I doubt her job is in danger. Hopefully, I can see them this week. I have some things for Samantha and I want to see my little doll anyway.

Nickel is doing better, but still very thin. It will just take a while to get the weight back on. I think I’m going to go get a Christmas tree Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, I know, I’m doing the Dad thing. It’s just tough to get much done without transportation.

I may just get a plant instead and buy a little pine next year.

Paladin has forty-seven chapters. Possibly forty-eight if I decide to split one chapter. It turned out better than I thought it would. Which is kind of sad that it has surprised me like that.

I still need to figure out a title for it. I would ask you and the crew to come up with one, but Sgt. Hardin is the one who named his character Tankerbelle.

I’m sending the first chapter to Barbara Rogan for edit. She has a get acquainted offer to edit the first 5,000 words for $50. That’s a good price and the first chapter is really the most important. I hope to be submitting by the end of January. The book will be done by the end of December.

Well, sweetheart, it’s going on 2:00 a.m. here and I still need to get some presents wrapped and boxed so I can get them in the mail tomorrow.

I love you so very much.

Take care of yourself. You are in my prayers nightly.

Love,

Mom

December 18, 2008

Hello Sweetheart,

Mother loves you so much.

I shipped a box off to you today. I hope it will be there for Christmas, but it might be a day or two late. Hope to get Katie’s box in the mail tomorrow.

I didn’t know what to get you so come of your Christmas will be scattered. Sort of like the graduation that went on for a while. Katie said you haven’t got a tv yet, so you don’t need any games. Would you like some more mech warrior books? Music? Socks?

I’m going to send Katie the pearl necklace set. I’ll get her a camera after Christmas. I got Logan some clothes. One of them is a camo sleeper that says, “Majorly Cute.”

Found Brandon an M&M Swami dispenser. So, I got that and a big bag of M&M’s. Fluffy towels and a Home Depot gift card round them out except for Samantha. I need to go find my little doll some clothes.

Aly gets the turquoise necklace and earrings. Need to shop for little Stormie and Cody. If I could find my beads I would bead some halters for him. He’s been hauling oilfield stuff and he put another driver on his cow truck. Apparently the driver abandoned the truck in Florida and it cost $2,000 to get it home. I think between the mess with the cow truck and them sending him back and forth to North Dakota where it’s so cold his truck thermometer isn’t working, he’s ready to go back to hauling cows.

Cody and Aly took Richard to Nebraska to a cutting horse trainer. I think Aly is going to try to show him in reining.

I was going to go up there for Christmas, but there were some problems, so I’m not going to make it. I’ll try to go in the next few months and try to do it with enough advance notice so Aly and Cody can get away for a few days while I watch Stormie.

Wish I could do more for Christmas for all of you, but I do want you all to know how very much I love you.

You and Katie have been true blessings to me.

You have no idea how much it meant to me last year to come into the apartment and find that tree on my table. I think I’m going to walk down to the nursery and get another one and use the decorations you gave me last year. Maybe I can keep this one alive.

I thought about using my Pirates of the Caribbean wrapping paper, but I’m greedy and I’m going to keep it just because you gave it to me.

Try to get some pictures for Bailey and Garret if you can. If you’ll send me an address for some army stuff, I will get that for them from you.

I’m enclosing a link to a new blog for us. We discussed this a bit before you left. If you feel uncomfortable posting to it, I understand, but I would like you to when you have time. I would also like to hear from anyone else over there who would like to share their thoughts.

And, speaking of other people. I found a recipe for eggnog fudge. I’m going to make some for Henderson. Any other baking/cooking requests?

Well, need to get ready for work, sweetheart. I love you so very, very much

Let me know what I can do for you. I have to work tomorrow, but I’m going to try and catch a ride to your bank and put a deposit in the night deposit box for you. Hopefully, they will post it Monday.

Take care, honey.

Love,

Mom

http://julieweathers.blogspot.com/ Letters on the Wind blog for us.

December 3, 2008

Dearest Will,

I mailed off your first letter today. We’ll see how long it takes to get there so I can make some plans on some other things.

This letter will be included in a card. Some friends at Surrey signed this card for you. All of them are very talented writers. Vickie Petterson is one of the many writers from Books and Writers who has gone on to publishing success. She is the author of some popular urban fantasy novels. I was happy to see she had signed the card for you. I thought it just got passed around our table.

Still waiting to hear the verdict on your blue laptop. Art is trying to install drivers for the Ethernet since it has decided it doesn’t want to work. He did some fidgeting with the cooling and has it dropped down a bit, but it’s still running way too hot. He agrees with Joseph that it’s mainly a design flaw. He did discover the computer was set to shut down after a few minutes if you weren’t using it. That, of course, causes anything unsaved to be lost and a disconnect on games etc. He changed that setting, but left instructions about how to change it back if you want. Basically, he said it will cost more to try and fix it correctly than it’s worth.

Art just called, his assistant found a program that is supposed to help cool the system by “under throttling.” I have no idea what that means, but if it works I am thrilled. Being without a computer and the net is driving me kind of bonkers. I was thinking about a scene last night involving a gatehouse and went downstairs to get on the net to look up the portcullis mechanics. I wish I hadn’t given the encyclopedias away now, but hopefully the boys will make use of them. I do think I’m going to get another set when I settle.

Just talked to Dad. Nickel did have strangles. She’s lost about 300 pounds because she couldn’t eat and she’s still nursing that colt. Poor thing. I haven’t seen her, but she has to be miserable. He said she’s eating again so, hopefully, she’ll start picking weight back up. Luckily, your dad was already shooting her up with antibiotics or it could have been much worse. I just hope the rest of the horses don’t come down with that garbage. He said the baby isn’t showing any signs of it, so maybe she’ll be the only one.

I was unpacking a suitcase today and spilled an entire bottle of mouthwash on that satin comforter. I may have ruined it and that makes me pretty sick. I love that comforter. I really have to be more careful.

Spoke to Katie and they were just coming back from deer hunting. They got five deer so there will be meat in the freezer for a while. She said her dad was going to buy half a hog also. Little Man was having some stomach problems. Poor little guy. He threw his head back and hit her thumb while we were talking and was screaming bloody murder. She told him he’s the one who did it, but he didn’t seem to care much whose fault it was. He is such a beautiful little boy. Did you get your hair cut in a warhawk so you and your son have the same hairstyle?
Just talked to Art and Tracy, who are working on your laptop. They’re still trying to fix the graphics card issue and the Ethernet. They hope to have it finished tomorrow. I just hope they have it done by the weekend. I think after the holidays I am going to check Tiger for some refurbished computers. Art said it’s just a matter of time before yours goes down permanently and I don’t want to be using it when it does.

Now, time for a Will story.

When you were pretty little there was a Dairy Queen commercial with a monkey riding a Border Collie who was herding chickens. That commercial fascinated you and you kept pointing at it and asking me what that was. I just assumed you were talking about the monkey, so that’s what I told you. You, being you, insisted from that time on that every chicken we saw was a monkey. I learned a very valuable lesson. You learn quickly, but I better make sure you learn it right the first time because changing your mind about anything once you had it filed away was like parting the Red Sea.

All right, I gave you a bit of time to get acclimated there. Not much, but I have faith in you. Tell me about the sand box. Are you still trying to get situated? Have you gotten any rest? Do you still have to sleep in the armory or did you get a real bunk this time? How was the flight over there?

Do you need anything or want anything that I can send you?

I love you so very much. Take care of yourself. Read your bible. I pray God’s protection over all of you.

Love,

Mom

December 2, 2008

My Darling Will,

Mother loves you so much.

I’m sure you get tired of hearing that all the time, but I never get tired of saying it. You have always brought me so much joy. When you were tiny one of your favorite games was, “How much do I love you?” You responded by giggling and throwing your arms as wide as you could, “Big bunch, Mama.”

I miss hearing your voice. Hopefully I can get something figured out on the computer soon and we can hook up some kind of voice speak.

I spoke to Diane today and she asked about you. I gave her your address, so I’m sure she’ll be sending you a letter. I reminded her of the cat box she gave you so many years ago. She remarked how unusual it is for a man to be so sentimental. I think you have some of me in you as I am a collector also. It’s not a bad thing. Life is made up of memories and reminders of the good times triggers those fond memories for us.

I discussed her writing. Guideposts called her and wanted to put two of her stories she had previously sold to them on their website and include some of her stories in a book that is supposed to publish next year worldwide. They are little victories, but important ones. Of course, with as many awards as she has won, it’s no surprise her stories are so well received.

She’s working on a new inspirational book now and I told her I would help sort through agencies and the submission process. She loves to write, but doesn’t much care for the submission process. I, on the other hand, think of agent hunting as a great adventure akin to watching dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. I hope the dangerous ones are safely under guard with ample warnings, but it’s still thrilling to watch them from a distance while I pet the stegosaurus and try to make friends.

And, speaking of adventures, I am trying to retrain myself about grammar. Ugh. You would think after seventeen years of writing for Speedhorse, I would have it all figured out. The problem is journalism is a rather straightforward style, while fiction, for me anyway, mixes things up a lot more.

I hung up the cow skull, elk horns and deer antlers. Home is where you hang your horns, as they say. I’m trying to leave the apartment as much as possible as you had it, but I got tired of being stabbed by the elk horns on the floor.

I did put up shelves for books, but not as many as I had at the other apartment. I will repair the holes when I leave.

And, speaking of books. I want to send books to you all for Christmas. Is there some place central you could keep the books so others can borrow them or at least set them out so the guys can get what they want? I’m keeping the selection bold and manly with a copious amount of mysteries and fantasies thrown in. I don’t want to make this difficult for you, but I thought the guys and gals might appreciate some books. They can leave them there for the next group if they want or take them home.

I’m afoot so I’ve been making use of public transportation. Another adventure. One nice lady bus driver. One grouchy lady bus driver. One grouchy and confused man bus driver so far. How can someone drive all the way out to Family Dollar and forget to let your passenger off? The whole bus, all twelve of us, were screaming at him to stop and let me off. He finally stopped at the west end of the lot next to the highway and I got some exercise. He forgot the woman who works at Televista and had to go back and drop her off so it could have been worse. He blamed his confusion on someone stepping on the wheelchair rail. Not really sure what that has to do with anything.

I’m going to try and go to Cody’s for Christmas. He wants me to come up and see Stormy and their home. Christmas will be a little slim this year. I shouldn’t have spent the money on the dental work and Surrey, but shouldn’t have and did make no difference now. I am going to send Katie that gift I bought her and get some clothes for Little Man. I’d like to get her a camera. She needs one to take pictures of the baby. We’ll see how things work out. Who knows, I may do really well at Awesome Auction. (laughs hysterically).

Ah, speaking of Christmas, a Girl Scout troop has adopted you all!

Aren’t you excited? I was so touched at the offer. Jenny, their leader, is one of my writer friends and a wonderful lady. I’m not sure if they have any Girl Scout cookies left, but if they do, I will buy you some.

Lisa Norman, another writer friend, is also a techie. She is building me a web site. It is just beautiful. I wish I had something exciting to put on it, but samples of my writing will have to do for now. I do have a place for pictures. Do you mind if I put some pictures on you on it?

Talked to Dad yesterday. He is feeling very well and sounded good. I was concerned about him for a long time, but I think he is over the hump. It would be better if he would quit smoking, of course, but that isn’t going to happen.

Nickel had a baby two months ago. He is a beautiful colt with white stockings. She has been really sick. Sounds like strangles, but older horses don’t normally get them. Whatever it is, it’s a very bad respiratory problem and she is very sick.

Ally has nicknamed the horses, Super Glue (Cowgirl), Glue Stick (Cowgirl’s baby) and Glue Pot (Richard). I think she did that to put the fear in them, but they don’t seem to be affected much by it. Cowgirl still insists on playing in the water whenever she can and aggravating Ally. Cody has a picture of Stormy sitting on Richard. So, she can literally say she was riding before she could walk.

I had Thanksgiving with Laura and Samantha. Brandon got called out and Dad was working, so it was just the girls. That baby is so beautiful and such a happy little thing. This has really been a good year for Weathers babies.

I’m so glad I got to go up and see you, Katie and Logan. He is such a precious little guy. I wish I could see him more. I wish I’d spent more time with you. I guess that’s selfish, because I know you and Katie needed the time together, but I do love you all so very much. I dearly love my grandbabies.

As you probably know, the laptop crashed. All my fault. I was taking clothes upstairs and a pant leg fell down and tipped over my coffee. Fried the laptop, but Art was able to rescue the hard drive. I’m trying to get hold of Wes to borrow that laptop. I’ll get Big Blue rebuilt after I settle the divorce or get my income tax refund. I don’t mind a laptop, but I prefer the pc, plus, I miss my big monitor.

It’s been pretty frustrating without a computer. I finished Paladin on a tablet, but I would like to get back to weaving the new parts in and revising. I think you will like it when it’s done. You were the magic spark that started it all. You loved the magic of fantasy and wanted to share it with me. Did you have any idea it would swallow me so completely and draw me into that world?

Well, sweetheart, I am going to close this for now so I can get it in the mail in the morning.

Think of Ireland. We are going next year.

Love,

Mom

The Journal

Writing letters has become a lost art, I suppose. Perhaps these letters are as much for me as for Will, but they give me something positive to focus on while he is in Iraq.

So, during the next year I will keep a journal here of letters to Will. They will be of little interest to anyone besides Will and myself, so forgive me if I don't try to make them spellbinding.

And forgive me in advance for the times when I may become emotional. It's a mother thing and my greatest pride in my life is being a mother.

Julie