Ryan made it safely to Iraq!!!

(saturday 1st)
i keep wanting to get a long stretch of time to get a blog out and decided that is never going to happen, so i am forced to conform to do this a little bit at a time if i have to. i just don't like not finishing.
well, as the title explains ryan made it to iraq sometime between friday or saturday, depending on whose time zone you are refering to. by the way if you feel inclined to write to him, his address is: ryan.armes@gimail.af.mil. so far he has been checking his gmail too but i think this one is more reliable while he is there. i also got to talk to him on thursday morning while they stopped @ UAE. he said wednesday had been rough on his stomach because of the food available to him. keep praying that there is no more damage to his stomach and that he has good healthy food while there.
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(monday 3rd)
i talked to ryan today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he actually called yesterday, but i left my purse in the nursery and didn't want to go back and let abby see me. so sure enough i missed his call :( i was so bummed! so today i held the phone in my hand at all times to make sure we don't miss him again. it was so good to hear his voice. he said he has had a difficult time with his stomach still. the time change has really thrown him for a loop. i hope he starts to feel more settled in soon so that the irritation stops and there is no further damage.
anyway, him and abby got to talk a little bit. she is so silly, she pretends to talk on the phone all the time. she calls maddie (her friend), mali (another friend), daddy, nana, mama, daddy, but the minute anyone is on the phone for real she freezes and doesn't say anything. just stares. towards the end of the conversation i finally got her to give ryan a kiss and say: "airplane", "hi daddy", "love you daddy", "boo dadda, boo, dadda boo, boo, boo" (something she says every time she gets out of the shower while running to find ryan and "scare him").
as for abby and i, we are doing quite well. i am really surprised at how well she is doing with all this. i am not sure what she thinks of it all, or how she has made sense of what has happened, but somehow she has. she doesn't cry or seem sad. but i know she has her daddy very present in her mind. whenever she sees a shirt he wears, his coffee cups, pictures, her daddy woof woof, her pillow with their picture, etc, all remind her of him and she is very happy to be reminded of him.
we have kept ourselves pretty occupied so far, this week has seemed to fly by fast already. i don't think there is much more to share for now, so until the next time!