HOMECOMING!!!

Well, ya'll all know by now that Landon came home from his deployment, it has been a few weeks afterall and I know we weren't keeping it a secret! The news has been in the Houston Chronicle and on the front page of the Tomball Tribune!! haha

Houston Chronicle

http://tinyurl.com/2atrogj

Tomball Tribune

http://www.tribunenews.com/news/1599-tomball-marine-comes-home-for-christmas.html

His homecoming this year was very different than the last one. I basically went and picked him up, a couple of friends of ours (Katie and Chris Early) went with me and Katie took some pictures. It was dark and raining so they aren't the best, but at least it's something!

This was my very nervous, excited and nauseous face right before we picked him up!

Just taking a second to look at each other, it was a long 7 months!

It's been great just having him home, I spent the last 3 weeks with him mostly out in California. We were able to come home for a few days over Christmas and that was wonderful! We got to see lots of family and some friends, I know there were a few of you that we missed and we were sad not to be able to see everyone.

Here is a video of a surprise welcome home. Thank you to all of the wonderful friends and to my mom and grandma that came! Landon was very surprised! It will be a great memory for us!

***WARNING- i'm very loud in both of these videos and it is actually a bit annoying, sorry, you might want to mute them :) ****

This is a video of Levi seeing Landon for the first time!




For New Years Eve Landon and I went to Santa Barbara for a few days, we had a very low-key but nice and relaxing weekend! And I just came home this past Monday and started working again. Fortunately we have a ski trip planned with both of our families for next week, so we are looking forward to seeing each other again and having a blast with our families!

We have an unusual situation now that Landon is home. He has about 5 more months left in the Marines and has to stay out in California during that time. I have my job here in Texas and we decided it would be a good idea if I just stayed here and worked since he will be coming back to Texas soon. So in the mean time we are trying to visit each other as much as possible. So any prayers or thoughts you could spare for us, we always appreciate it!

Finally, I need to take a minute to say thank you. There are so many people that have truely been a blessing to us, I know I wont be able to mention everyone. Mostly thank you to everyone that prayed for us throughout the deployment! It was tough but we got through it like pros and I believe that it was all because of the prayers and thoughts and support we had from so many people. To our family, you all have always been so supportive and I can never tell you enough how much we appreciate every one of you! We look forward to getting back to Texas and finally living near ya'll. Thank you to all my friends who supported me even through the times when I was sad. A special thank you to Katie and Chris Early for letting us use your house and your truck (that's a whole other story!) while we were out in California. We loved living at your house! You helped us out so much and really kept us from having to spend so much money, we just can't thank you enough for your generosity!

We are both glad to have this deployment behind us and can't wait to see what the future holds!

Dubuque Newsletter

Sorry it's been such a long time since I've updated. It has been a crazy month, I moved to Texas and immediatly started my job here as a Petroleum Landman. I've been really busy with that but it has been making the time fly!

Landon has been doing well, they were in Guam a little while ago and while he was there he and some friends were able to go snorkeling! Guam, I'm told, is a very tropical, beautiful island, much like Hawaii.

I know he felt like he was on more of a vacation than a deployment during his time in Guam! I'm glad he had the opportunity to do this though!

While in Indonesia he had a little bit of bad luck though. While sitting under a tree, reading a book and enjoying the afternoon, a big tree branch fell on his face! Luckily he was wearing sunglasses that protected his eyes, but he still had to have three stitches above his left eye and one on his nose. He thought it was pretty funny, and his shipmates wont let him live it down, I however didn't think it was quite so funny, but I'm glad he is fine.

At least he is smiling...

And finally, here is a newsletter from the USS Dubuque. It talks a little bit about what the Marines did while they were in Indonesia. I hope you enjoy reading it.

http://tinyurl.com/2dloq9d

The day has come and gone

Landon has left for his deployment, and while it was really hard saying good-bye, I'm glad we are underway finally. Now I can start looking forward to him coming home, I know it's soon to be thinking about that day already but it gives me something to look forward to.

I want to give a very heartfelt thank you to everyone that has been praying for us, I know there are many of you out there and I really truly thank you for it. I honestly have been doing really well and I think it's due to many prayers for me.

My mom is flying out here Friday and we leave that evening to make our drive back to Texas. In the mean time I'm tying up loose ends here with our house and our stuff. I still have an overwhelming amount of cleaning and stuff to do, I'm really surprised because I've been packing and cleaning and organizing for weeks now! It seems to be multiplying! I realize I definitely took the military moving us for granted! But I guess it gives me something to do to keep me busy and keep my mind off of Landon.

I don't have any news yet, but when I have something I can report I will post about it as soon as I can!

Again, thank you to everyone for all the support!

Beach Pictures

Some of you may have already seen these on facebook and there are a lot more if you want to see them on mine or Landon's profile.


My friend Becca took these for us and did a wonderful job! I am so happy about the way they turned out and wanted to share them. The beach pictures are taken at the Oceanside Harbor Beach and then there are a few on the pier down at the harbor also. I have to say that Landon wasn't all that thrilled about it but did it for me anyway because he loves me! :) And he probably won't be too happy that I'm sharing them either, haha!

What is a MEU?

You may have heard already that Landon will be going on a MEU for his deployment. In hopes of not having to explain it too many times, I'm going to tell you what it is and what he will be doing as best I can. There are limits to what I can talk about because of OPSEC (Operational Security) so sorry if there may be some questions I can't answer.

So, back to the question at hand. What is a MEU? Well, MEU stands for Marine Expeditionary Unit. This means that Landon is going to be on a Navy ship, as part of a ground task force, they will serve with the Navy as the nations forward deployed, quick response team, capable of accomplishing numerous missions around the world. The MEU combines air, ground, and logistics which all together makes them a sufficient and powerful force. On many occasions MEU's have been able to bring stability to regions destroyed by natural disasters, or send a message to worldwide agressors that the United States is able to defend itself on extremly short notice.

The MEU consists of about 2100 Sailors and Marines, divided up among three ships. Landon is part of the 15th MEU, stationed out of Camp Pendleton, California. There are three MEU's stationed on the West Coast out of Camp Pendleton, three on the East Coast out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and one out of Okinawa Japan.

So to tell you what Landon's job will be on this deployment, I have to explain that there are four major elements of a MEU, the Command Element, Ground Combat Element, Aviation Element, and Logistics Element. Landon is a logistics officer, but he is with an Infantry Batallion so he is with the Ground Combat Element *, this element includes about 1200 marines and provides the over-land combat power for the MEU. I can't say exactly what it is he does, because to be honest, I don't even really know! Lol. But if you have questions ask, and maybe he will reply....


Now, Landon will be on board the USS Dubuque, one of the oldest ships in the Navy, poor Landon, but it has lots of history so visit the link I added if you are interested.




http://www.dubuque.navy.mil/Site%20Pages/history.aspx


So there it is, sorry if that was a bit boring, I hope it was clear and educational and that it made some sense. Like I said I'll answer any questions I can, so leave me a comment if there is something you want to know.

*If you saw this post earlier, I got this part of the information wrong! As I suspected, Landon caught it and corrected me. Sorry, i'm still learning, haha.