Time machine anyone?

Where has the time gone?  I guess I'll go back a little and talk about Jeromey's 4 day pass. His unit was granted a 4 day pass to spend with their families before they leave country.  We had decided that we didn't want to spend the limited time driving Jeromey home and back so we went to the Wisconsin Dells.  Friday morning Jeromey's mom, Hunter, and I left to go pick him up.  We were all excited to get there, and we couldn't arrive soon enough!  We picked him up and I think we packed Mom's(Nancy) car as full as it would get!  It was about an hour drive to the hotel.  We got there and as soon as Jeromey took a shower, he passed out. I think they've been working him extra hard.  I know he had been doing a lot of training and it was late nights and early mornings the whole time he was there.  My phone calls usually came at midnight if not later.  He didn't sleep long though, because Hunter REALLY wanted to go swimming.  We had supper and waited for Dad(Jerry) and Matthew and Austin to get there, then we all went and sat in the pool and hot tub.  It was so nice to be together, and just sit and relax!  We didn't stay too long though, because we had all had a long day and we were ready for bed.  Of course, the next morning the boys were ready for swimming again first thing after breakfast.  Basically the whole 4 days we spent in the water and I'm surprised the 3 boys didn't grow gills.  We went to lunch at Famous Daves. I've never been before, but it was delicious.  We decided to go bowling, and everyone had fun.  The next day we were able to head to the Glacier Canyon resort where Jeromey's parents had booked a 3 bedroom suite. It was beautiful and we were so very thankful to his parents.  Of course, once we checked in the boys wasted no time getting into their swim trunks.  We walked to the closes water park through the skywalk and the boys were off and playing.  Hunter wasn't too excited about the big bucket of water that would fill up and dump over, so he was hesistant about playing on the kids play area.  The two big boys had no fear and they were off having a blast. We took Hunter on the lazy river, and he didn't mind it but he was shivering so we took him to the smaller kids pool and that water was warm. He enjoyed that much better. Jeromey and Jerry took Matthew and Austin onto the slide called the Hurricane.  I'm glad they were there because I sure as heck wasn't going on that!  They had fun and we finally decided to head back to the room for some supper.  We checked out a movie from the front desk, ate supper, and relaxed some more.  The next day we went to the 2nd waterpark called The Wild Water Dome.  It was nice because it has a glass ceiling for "indoor tanning" and the sun was shining that day.  It was warm and with the sun, felt just like you were at a beach.  This waterpark's main attraction was the wave pool.  It was big and we jumped right in after we found a table.  It was kind of crazy in there though because they have all these tubes, and if you aren't on a tube, other people's tubes were crashing into you and pushing you around.  There was also a waterslide that was more my style.  It was a family waterslide so you would go down on a tube for four. Again, Matt and Austin were all about it, but Hunter wasn't as sure.  We finally talked him into going down and the first thing he says at the end is "Yeehaw ride em cowboy".  I'm sure you get that he loved it!  Of course that meant a couple of more trips down the slide with dad and the boys.  I do have to mention, I know that all 3 boys missed Jeromey, as we all did.  But it was very noticeable with Hunter.  He wanted Dad to help him with everything, to sit by him, to ride in the same car as him, just be around him.  That is one of the hardest things with all of this is knowing how much the kids are going to miss him. Jeromey was only gone for 40 days before we got to see him again, so I'm not sure how he will handle going longer!  We came back for a late lunch/early supper and then decided to go to the 3rd waterpark.  Like I said before, I am surprised the boys hadn't grown gills at this point with as much as they were in the water.  Our plan for Jeromey's last day with us until his R&R we decided we would go to one more waterpark, then out to lunch before coming back and packing up.  That whole day was so bittersweet.  We had the inevitable goodbye looming over us all day. The worst was after lunch when we came back to the hotel for Jeromey to pack and start putting his uniform on.  I had a hard time keeping it together and at the end, I didn't.  We played one of our favorite songs, and slow danced in our room. Very wonderful and sad at the same time.  Neither one of us was ready for a 2nd goodbye and the four days felt as if they had flown and left us wanting more time.  I'm sure no amount of time would have been sufficient though.  We drove Jeromey back to the base and headed back to the hotel. Everyone went to bed when we got back.  I think I stayed up and watched tv for a while.  The next day we packed up and headed home.  We found out the next day that he would be leaving the country on Sunday.  So another four days that would fly by.  We were still able to talk daily, and that was great but Sunday was here before I knew it.  He called several times throughout the day and we tried to talk as much as we could knowing that we were uncertain of how long it would be until we talked again. I think they left on the bus about 9 or so that night.  We talked for some of the bus ride.  He called again from outside the airport or hangar or whatever, and again while waiting on the plane.  I think the last phone call came at 2am!  That was when they finally took off.  It was awful, I cried myself to sleep, and was sad.  On Monday I received a message that he had made it to his layover but the calling card he had was not working so he wasn't able to call home.  I didn't expect to hear from him again but was pleasantly surprised when I got a phone call at 2:45am this morning.  There is no better phone call to wake up to!  I was so excited to hear his voice and talk to him.  He only had 15 minutes to talk and I couldn't believe when it had already been 15 minutes!  In the middle of our conversation I accidentally hung up on him :(  I began to panic because I didn't know if he would be able to call again.  I sat there staring at my phone, willing it to ring.  I was praying "Please God let him call back" over and over.  Next thing I know, without my phone even ringing I had a voicemail.  I REALLY started to freak out then because I knew it was from him and I was sure he was going to tell me that his chances to call were up and that I would have to wait until his next available time.  I didn't want to check my voicemail for fear he might try calling and again wouldn't be able to get through, but I had to know if he was going to try again or not.  I checked my voicemail and to my relief it was him saying he would try back in a few minutes.  He called back and we were able to talk for a few more minutes.  It was afternoon time there and although he hadn't slept much on the flights, he was trying to stay awake so he could go to sleep at night time and try to get into the schedule there.  We hung up and I was so excited to have heard from him that I stayed up until almost 4am.  That made for a long day today!  I am still tired and plan on going to bed ASAP when I get home.  He had promised he would try to call before bed, which would be morning time here.  He called before 8am and we talked again for 15 minutes, this time getting cut off.  The phone line beeped, we tried to hurry and say quick goodbyes, and then we were cut off.  I happened to be at my dad's and I got message from him saying he was online on facebook so I got online and we were able to chat for a little bit.  His computer time is limited to 30 minutes, so once again we were watching the clock.  Man, I know I said I wanted this year to fly by but not in small 15 to 30 minute increments!  I told him to try and get online again if he couldn't call when he woke up.  That would be evening time for us, and Wednesday morning for him.  So here I sit, waiting to hear from him.  Is he going to call?  Is he going to get online?  Is he not able to do either?  If not how long will it be?  Ugh, this is making me crazy!  I will be thankful in the future once he is settled and has more of a schedule and an idea of when he'll be able to call and get online.  We plan on skyping if/when he's able.  I am putting together my first care package to send over.  Its hard trying to find stuff to send to show how much he's missed and how much you love him.  I am sending peanut butter girl scout cookies, some pictures, and some other things. Heres to hoping I find a time machine to either make this year fly by, or go back in time before he ever left!