A Message From Pres Bush to Me!

As you may have heard in the news, President Bush paid a visit to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on Monday morning. Jeff was among those who got to see him in person, and hear him speak to them! One of the things that he told the troops was to go call their wives and tell them thank you from him. He is aware of the major sacrifice it is for families to live without husbands and fathers for so long while they work in harm's way to protect our country. It means a lot to me. I take it as a personal "thank you" from none other than our Commander in Chief.


Before Jeff deployed the first time, in October of 2001, the families of Jeff's unit were shown a video message from President Bush, recorded specifically for deploying military families. It felt up close and personal as he sincerely thanked us for our sacrifice as we were sending our soldiers away. I felt his sincerity then too. His gratitude for my sacrifice lifts me.




Click on any picture to see it full size.



Following is Jeff's telling of President Bush's visit.

All -
Last night at about 6 pm, my command asked for any volunteers who would like to attend a meeting with an unknown distinguished visitor. The report time was 2:30 the following morning (and yes, it was very cold). I volunteered and am very glad I did. Shortly after I agreed to the meeting, we heard that President George W. Bush was visiting Iraq, so we put two and two together.

We were escorted to a very large tent, where planes are repaired. The tent was well decorated with military vehicles and such. Hot cocoa was served (thank goodness)! About 500 or more soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines were in attendance. After waiting for about four hours, the President arrived in Air Force One. I have to admit that that is one amazing airplane! It was awesome to see it land and park right in front of the tent. In addition, I was able to get close to the walkway, and was literally inches away from the President. This is the second President Bush I have met in person!

The President talked for about fifteen minutes about several topics. He first said that everyone is asking him what he will miss the most about being the president. His answer was first that he would miss his airplane, Air Force One, but above all else he would miss being the Commander in Chief of the US Military. He thanked the men and women in uniform for their sacrifice and service. He then went on to explain how the Afghanistan's Demographics have changed, due to the work of the US Military. Girls are now able to go to school. Public executions and beatings are now done away with. And, elections are taking place next year, all courtesy of the Service Members.

He then told us to relay a message to our spouses and families, to thank them for their sacrifice and support to their servicemen. He acknowledged that spouses and family deal with the heaviest of the burdens placed on the military. They are the ones left at home to deal with the challenges of life while living with the fact their spouses are in danger while serving their country. The President specifically wanted to pass that message of thanks on to the families.

It was a wonderful experience to see and meet the President, even if he is president for only 35 more days.

Jeff

Ele-vated

Check this out! My sister, Erica, designed this t-shirt and won 2nd place in Woot.com's latest design contest! Good job Erica. I'm going to go order one before they run out. I hear giraffes run pretty fast.

If you want one too, go to
http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=24912

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a great Thanks-giving day! We enjoyed a fancy dinner with my professor and his wife at their country club. I have been working for him for a year and we have all become great friends. And, boy, do they adore Marin! They feel like family.

The Best Thing I've Done For Myself in a Long Time

I've gotten so burned out doing the single mom thing for so long, trying to keep up with a seemingly endless list of things that need to be done last week, not having time to call friends or not being able to get a hold of friends, and the house has gotten only more and more out of control, even though I feel like I'm cleaning all the time.

So, today I had forget about everything else for a while and do something for me. While Marin was preschool, I went to Barnes and Noble to just sit and read! I pulled 5 books off the shelves and got totally lost in those books for three hours, while listening to some of my favorite music on my iPod. It was great! I read about graphic design and watercolor and learned a lot. I hope to buy the books eventually, probably on Amazon.com.

Feeling so much better, I was able to come home to the house that's a wreck and start to get it more under control.

I hope to do some watercolor soon. I've done some watercolor in the past. I don't know a lot about how to do it, but I've come up with a few decent pieces of work. All but one is in storage in Utah. The one above is the one I have with me. It is of Thanksgiving Point, behind our house in Utah.

Jeff, Emily, and Marin Anderson...a Military Family

Jeff came home for 2 weeks at the end of August! It was wonderful to actually feel like a family again, even if so briefly, in the middle of 13 long months apart. This is his 3rd deployment since 9/11 and we are ready to be a whole family again.

We are proud to serve our country, and grateful that we can in such a significant way. But being apart for so long really takes it's toll on us as individuals, and as a family. I'm not saying this to complain. It's just how it is. I think any military family would say about the same thing.

I certainly have grown a great deal over that last several years, though, because of the challenges of these deployments, and I am grateful for it. I do love personal growth, stretching to greater heights, and becoming more than I was last year, last month, or even last week.

Honestly, I might be pretty bored in my life without these real challenges to push me so far out of my comfort zone. So, as hard as it is to be married to the military (yeah, pretty much literally!), I know the challenges in my life have been skillfully tailored for me by a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and my potential far better than I know myself. I know that I am well watched out for. What more could I ask for?

My New "Window" into the World

The word "blog" was completely new to me at the begining of this year, but I am now slowly discovering what they are and how they work. (Okay, so I'm a bit behind the curve in the area of cutting-edge technology and the World Wide Web).

The wonderfully accidental discovery...

Upon finding a want add on Criagslist for an old farm window for use as decor, I responded just to find out what ideas the woman had about how to fix it up. I have four of them myself and want fresh ideas. Kelly emailed back with excitement about her plans and sent me a link to a great blog about "Window Mistreatments", which has many links to other blogs. This is my first real "window" into the blog world. I looked at many blogs, and I am begining to understand.

An entirely new world is opening up to me. I am excited to see where blogging takes me, particularly because it gives me a peek into people's lives, to see how they live, how they experience their ups and downs, how they express their wonderful uniqueness.
I love humans. They're so much fun to watch.