Best of luck to your son. Although I'm not a mother I maybe have a tiny inkling of what you're going through since my "baby brother" (Army, 82nd Airborne paratrooper and occasional sniper) spent over a year in Iraq in 2003, right when things were getting really "hot", and we didn't find out until afterwards that he was right in the Sunni Triangle where the worst of the fighting was at that time. His unit's job was called something like "leapfrogging" (can't remember the exact name) - they set up the bare-bones forward camps for other units to occupy, as soon as the other unit arrived off they went to another spot to set up another camp. They were never in the same place for more than a week or so. They were often ahead of such minor niceties like, oh, their food shipments, tents, cots, etc., but somehow the mail got through, including packages. My mom, sister and I rotated who sent a crammed-full package and who just sent letters, but between the three of us we sent enough stuff to keep his squad (he reached sergeant and squad leader in no time, and most of "his guys" didn't have anyone to send things except lots of "Dear John" letters) fed (yay for dehydrated hiking food and granola bars!) and warm/cool (black mylar blankets that folded up smaller than a pack of playing cards - oh, and wasn't THAT a coveted item, so we sent about 50 packs once and he used them as currency! - and evaporative-cooling neck-bands) as needed. I remember our dining room was the staging area for making up packages, crammed almost to the ceiling because we bought stuff by the case, and people were always confused by the weird range of items, from fly strips to caffeinated mints/gum (the guys would eat the instant coffee from the MREs while on night duty for the caffeine, but it made a lot of them barf). He didn't reenlist when the time came, since he knew that his unit's stateside time was going to be cut WAY short (like a couple of weeks, not months as is normal) and they were headed for waydahellout in Afghanistan, to do the same dang thing they did in Iraq. Thank heavens he didn't get caught in the whole stop-loss mess. Your son's unit may have an Internet mailing list or forum for family members. My brother's did, run by the wife of the CO (the only stateside civilian who had contact with the unit) and Mom and I joined in, and if yours does too, join up! We knew about casualties before they were announced to the public, we learned what "the boys" wanted/needed and what they didn't (like we learned that Gatorade mix - a frequent request in the summer - will wreck a Camelbak like nobody's business), we had ALL the scuttlebut. When we found out they were being sent into battle in inadequate body armor (don't GET ME STARTED, but I've heard things are better now) we ganged up, raised money, and bought a bunch of mil-spec vests to ship over. Eventually we knew the names of all the soldiers in the unit, and we'd find out who wasn't getting mail and send him something. And it was also a place where we could vent and cry and talk about how d@mned scared we were...

Kim, I've had three stress tests done. The first two I ran on a treadmill, the second tine I fell off, luckily not hurt. The third was the "chemical" kind, where they inject you. All three were very unpleasant, to say the least. Glad yours is over. I just got a letter from my transplant center that I need a bunch more tests, mammogram,etc.

Oh yes, I know the look very well!. The employees at the dollar stores and the thrift stores know me now, but a new employee said to me the other day, "Oh, you're the one that breaks things!" I just laughed and went on, but I did notice some odd looks from the people behind me! Maybe I should change my screen name!! I especially have learned not to say anything at garage sales, but my DH did try to explain it to one lady and I could just see the red rising! I've got to give him a few lessons in discretion!!

I just got home again from the hospital a half an hour ago. I had been in contact with the Dr. all day because of severe tension headaches. Well they turned into a full blown migraine on the left side of my head, my vision turned blurry, bright sunlight was hurting my eyes and I felt nautious. I went into the clinic and Dr checked me out my blood pressure was 120/80 so wasn't the cause of the headache. Decided that since the tylenol 3 with codeine wasn't helping ( I am on that for yesterdays contractions) I needed a shot and they wanted me to have blood tests to see if there was anything wrong pregnancy wise. So DH left to take the girls to my sisters and bring Hayden home. He is a little monkey and is easy to take care of and entertains himself so will take it easy while they are gone and tomorrow until we have to go and get the girls. Stacie girlsingardens