my grannie...

found this picture on my computer at work today...
boy, do I miss this face... every day. 

reliance...

When you help someone up a hill, you are that much nearer the top yourself.  - Unknown

In 2004, I was deployed to Kuwait with about 8 other people from my unit.  One of those people happened to be one of my great friends, Bobby.  Bobby was married to Morgan, another one of my great friends.  I remember in the beginning of the deployment that there were days of Bobby worrying over whether or not Morgan was being taken care of while he was so far away, and I didn't really understand his concern, just thought he was being obsessive over nothing. 

Before he left, he had asked several of our friends to help her out with certain tasks that he knew she wouldn't be able to do on her own, and he thought he was leaving her with a pretty outstanding support system.  About 2 weeks into our deployment, he learned differently.  Turns out, none of these so called friends were willing to help her with anything and blew off any task that he had called and asked them to do.  He would have to call and call to get them to go over and help her with anything that needed done.

I mentioned to Bobby that Jason would be more than willing to help Morgan if he asked him to.  So Bobby made one phone call and that's all it took.  Every week, without fail, Jason went over to Morgan's house and mowed her lawn and helped her with anything else that she needed help with. 

Sadly for me, that awesome guy who is so eager to help is the one that had to leave me alone for a year.  Now that I am in the position of "Morgan", I have a better understanding of why Bobby was so obsessive over having good people around to help her.  I have been struggling with relying on my family because I hate putting the burden on so few people.  They do so much for me already, that when extra tasks come up I want to find someone else to help me so that they aren't always the ones to help.  I'm learning very quickly who I can rely on for that help and, unfortunately, who I can't.

Everyday I am more and more grateful for the wonderful people in my life and have a deeper appreciation for everything that they do, even if it's simply asking me how I'm holding up.  I miss Jason.

Baby Summer...

Obviously if I don't have time to blog about my own kids, there is no way I have time to blog about my amazingly cute and awesome new baby niece, Summer Mackenzie.  However, since this pic can include all 3 of them, I will go ahead and post a quick blurb!

Summer joined us on December 3, 2010 at a whopping 9 lbs 7 oz. and she just continues to chunk up and get cuter by the day!  At 7 weeks old that baby is already wearing 3-6 month clothes!  If only you could see the girls thighs... wow!  Andy got the fat baby I always wanted!  Amelia was a chub, but nothing like this!  She has so many rolls and I just love every single one of them!  She's so dang adorable!

Amelia has attached right onto "Baby D" as she still refers to her.  The day Summer was born, Amelia cried for the first 20 minutes after we went into the delivery room because everyone was holding the baby BUT her!  When she finally got hands on her she was happier than ever!  She would hold her all day long if she was allowed too.  She gives her hugger bugs and kisses the entire time, and even sings her songs.  She loves her new cousin, but is a little put out that Nan doesn't get to give her as much attention as before!  Kendall also loves holding the baby, and has to kiss her 4 or 5 times once a new person starts to hold her (especially if that new person is Grammie), just so she doesn't feel too left out of the cuddling.

Unfortunetly, Summer also gets the task of breaking Kendall in with the "new baby" experience, and she has taken her beatings like a champ!  Kendall tries to be gentle, but rarely accomplishes gentle!  I have no doubt she will get the hang of it by the time "baby boy" Goretsky shows up, but in the meantime Andy's rule is the Goretsky girls are not allowed around the Dixon girl... for safety reasons haha!

These 3 are shaping up to be best of friends one day...

Noble "Steve"...

last night I was giving horsey back rides to Amelia and Kendall... Amelia was loving getting bucked off and well Kendall was a smidge confused and kept mounting me around my neck and backwards LOL... it all almost came to an end when they both wanted to ride me at that same time, which is a disater and a half waiting to happen...

so Nan (Andy) had this brilliant idea to have Amelia and Kendall joust each other...  I told Amelia that she was going to be my Knight in Shining Armor and I was going to be her Noble Steed... not sure why she thought that was so funny, but she laughed and laughed every time I called myself her Noble Steed... after a few rounds of Nan mowing us over, cause that's the only way she could win with the littlest Knight on her back, Amelia ran up to me and said something to the effect of, "let's do it again Noble Steve!"  we just about peed our pants laughing... and so from then on we were not Noble Steeds, we were her Noble "Steves"....

good night laughing... definitely needed that!

when a photo should be cute....

I'm almost certain this is how the conversation went:

Me:  Alright, Amelia you just keep smiling until I can get sissy to smile for the camera, okay?

Amelia:  Okay, Mama.  **smiling, smiling, smiling**

Me:  Kendall, look here, Kendall, look at me not your sister... Kendall!  Kendall, BOO!!!

Amelia:  (while I'm talking to Kendall)  **smiling**  derp da doo... **dink off, dink off**

Kendall:  (Oh mom is hilarious) **huge laughing smile**

Amelia:  (if you think mama is funny, check this out) **horse face**

Me:  CLICK

and the result..........

I can't stop laughing at this picture... I love these two!

If you thought this was funny and want to continue laughing, click HERE

The Medal of Honor.....

The first living soldier since Vietnam to be awarded the Medal of Honor, Salvatore Giunta. 

WOW...

the only word that comes to mind for me.

How would it be, at the age of 25, to say, "I have the Medal of Honor."  No.  What he said was, "I did what I did because that's what I was trained to do.  I didn't run through fire to do anything heroic or brave. I did what I believe anyone would have done."

Please, if you have a chance, read his story.  He stopped 2 Taliban fighters from carrying off one of his fellow soldiers, who, sadly, died of his wounds hours later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091002712.html?wprss=rss_world

Kendy....

This little girl, at one year old, can throw the biggest temper tantrums I have ever seen a child throw..... but she never fails to light up my day.... she is such a little sweetheart and I love her to pieces...



Official Orders...

Jason got his official orders last week.  His report date is December 29th, for Fort Huachuca, Arizona.  Fort H is approximately 1,000 miles south of Pocatello and about a 15 hour drive.  The nearest city is Sierra Vista, which I hear is not that fun of a place!  His training will last approximately 44 weeks, however, he will be able to come home for a week of emergency leave the birth of our third child. 

Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, we are expecting baby #3 on May 6th!!

We've known that he was going to be leaving for a while now.  As soon as he rejoined the guard we knew.  This is the only way that he can advance his military career in the Idaho National Guard and it's the best option for our family.  Considering that the 116th just deployed to Iraq for a year, I've never been terribly upset about him spending his time in Arizona.  I feel like I have enough control over my life that I will be able to adjust just fine without him here.  I guess that's the soldier in me.  That's how military families are required to work.  I can't spend 44 weeks crying over him not being around and wishing that our lives were different.  It's what we signed up to do and we need to pick up and drive on, like I know we are able to do.

Without my family though, none of this would be possible.  They are our backbone and help us more than anyone will ever imagine.  I love them all, and am hoping that I will only lean on them with minimum weight, as to not burden them more than they already are!

The Symphony...

Jason is in a music class this semester and he was required to choose a performance to go to so he could write a paper about it.  He chose to take me to the Symphony on November 12th.  It was a first time experience for both of us, and we actually enjoyed it a lot!  The music was amazing and I can't believe that people understand how to play instruments like that!  They have some great talent!  There was a soloist that performed after the intermission and I will admit, I couldn't stop laughing at how animated he was playing his cello!  He did an encore just by himself and played a piece by Bach that I love and so I stopped acting like a 5 year old and took it all in!

We also had dinner at the Sand Piper that night, also a first for us.  It was fun to get all dressed up and go to an expensive restauant all by ourselves and actually have fancy plans after we left!  All in all a great night!

When we dropped the girls off at my moms....



a TRUE American Hero... a MUST READ!!

 I cannont express in words how this story makes me feel ~  Thank you Dan Luckett for being such an awesome example to the world!

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When a bomb exploded under Dan Luckett's Army Humvee in Iraq two years ago - blowing off one of his legs and part of his foot - the first thing he thought was: "That's it. You're done. No more Army for you."

But two years later, the 27-year-old Norcross, Georgia, native is back on duty - a double-amputee fighting on the front lines of America's Afghan surge in one of the most dangerous parts of this volatile country.

Luckett's remarkable recovery can be attributed in part to dogged self-determination. But technological advances have been crucial: Artificial limbs today are so effective, some war-wounded like Luckett are not only able to do intensive sports like snow skiing, they can return to active duty as fully operational soldiers. The Pentagon says 41 American amputee veterans are now serving in combat zones worldwide.

Luckett was a young platoon leader on his first tour in Iraq when an explosively formed penetrator - a bomb that hurls an armor-piercing lump of molten copper - ripped through his vehicle on a Baghdad street on Mother's Day 2008.

His Humvee cabin instantly filled with heavy gray smoke and the smell of burning diesel and molten metal. Luckett felt an excruciating pain and a "liquid" - his blood - pouring out of his legs. He looked down and saw a shocking sight: his own left foot sheared off above the ankle and his right boot a bloody mangle of flesh and dust.

Still conscious, he took deep breaths and made a deliberate effort to calm down.

A voice rang out over the radio - his squad leader checking in.

"1-6, is everybody all right?" the soldier asked, referring to Luckett's call-sign.

"Negative," Luckett responded. "My feet are gone."

He was evacuated by helicopter to a Baghdad emergency room, flown to Germany, and six days after the blast, he was back in the U.S.

As his plane touched down at Andrew's Air Force Base, he made a determined decision. He was going to rejoin the 101st Airborne Division any way he could.

For the first month at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Luckett was bound to a wheelchair. He hated the dependence that came with it. He hated the way people changed their voice when they spoke to him - soft and sympathetic.

He wondered: how long is THIS going to last? Will I be dependent on others for the rest of my life?

At night, he dreamed of walking on two legs.

When he woke, only the stump of his left leg was there, painfully tender and swollen.

His family wanted to know, is this going to be the same Dan?

He assured them he was.

Luckett was fortunate in one sense. His wounds had been caused not by shrapnel, but the projectile itself, which made a relatively clean cut. That meant no complications - no joint or nerve damage or bone fractures.

His right foot was sheered across his metatarsals, the five long bones before the toes. Doctors fitted it with a removable carbon fiber plate that runs under the foot and fills the space where toes should be with hardened foam.

His left leg was a far bigger challenge.

In early July, Luckett strapped into a harness, leaned on a set of parallel bars, and tried out his first prosthetic leg.

It felt awkward, but he was able to balance and walk.

The next day, Luckett tried the leg on crutches - and tried to walk out the door.

"They were like, 'You gotta' give the leg back,'" Luckett said of his therapists. After a brief argument, they grudgingly gave in. "They said, 'If you're gonna be that hard-headed about it, do it smart, don't wear it all the time.'"

By February 2009, he had progressed so far, he could run a mile in eight minutes.

He rejoined his unit at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and told his battalion commander he wanted to return to duty "only if I could be an asset, not a liability," he recalled.

Months later, he passed a physical fitness test to attain the Expert Infantryman's Badge. It required running 12 miles (19 kilometers) in under three hours with a 35-pound (16-kilogram) backpack. It was a crucial moment, Luckett said, "because I knew if I can get this badge, then there's nothing they can say that I'm not capable of doing."

The Army agreed, and promoted him to captain.

In May, he deployed to Afghanistan.

On his first patrol, wearing 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of gear and body armor, Luckett slipped and fell down. But when he looked around, everybody else was falling, too.

The region around his outpost at Ashoqeh, just west of the provincial capital of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, is surrounded by irrigation trenches and 4-foot (1.2-meter) high mud walls that grapes grow over. Troops must traverse the treacherous terrain to avoid bombs on footpaths.

Capt. Brant Auge, Luckett's 30-year-old company commander, said Luckett was as capable as every soldier in his company, and treated no different.

"He's a soldier who just happens to be missing a leg," said Auge, who is from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. "He tries to play it down as much as possible, he doesn't like to bring a lot of attention to it."

On one of those early patrols, Luckett took to a knee and his pants leg rode up a little bit, revealing the prosthetic limb to a shocked group of Afghan soldiers nearby, Auge said. One gave him the nickname, the "One-legged Warrior of Ashoqeh."

Beside his cramped bunk-bed, the 185-pound (84-kilogram), 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Luckett keeps prosthetic legs for different tasks, each with a carbon fiber socket that attaches to his thigh.   One is fitted with a tennis shoe for running, another a boot. One, made of aluminum so it won't rust, has a waterproof black Croc for showering. The most important leg though, he saves for patrols. It is made with a high-tech axle that allows him to move smoothly over uneven terrain. His squad leader painted its toenails purple.

Luckett's prothesis is often a source of good humor - most often generated by Luckett himself.

Some joke of his advantage of having little to lose if he steps on a mine. "That's always a big one," he said, "but the reality is, you don't want to step on an IED (bomb) because you enjoy living and you want stay living. The fear is no different than any other soldier."

Before heading to Afghanistan, Auge said Luckett had an as yet untried "master plan" to upset the insurgents.

Troops would have Luckett step on a mine and blow his fake leg off. He'd then look up at the trigger man while whipping a replacement leg over his shoulder and slipping it on.

"Then he would flip them off," Auge said, "and keep on walking."

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Associated Press Writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.