Can't believe it's been 9 months since I last posted about our (un)Empty Nest. Life goes on. Quenton is still
living with us, he's 16 months old now, walking very well and learning new words almost daily, seems like. His
dad, our oldest son, is in northern Iraq with the Army's 10th Mountain Light Infantry Division, 1st Battalion,
stationed in Kirkuk. Thankfully he's been safe, hasn't had any really close calls himself, but another company
of his battalion was recently hit hard by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) at a patrol base
about 12 miles from Kirkuk, one dead and 20 wounded. Our son is a medic so he's been keeping busy at the aid
station taking care of the wounded. He's scheduled to come home around the end of November, Lord willing.
Our son and Quenton's mom are in the process of getting a divorce. We don't hear from her much, and from our
point of view it makes all our lives easier that way. It's sad though, no doubt about it.
We still don't really know what the future holds for us and Quenton. We live with the mindset that he's going to
be with us long-term, and we'll just have to see what happens. In the meantime we're coming to grips with this
new lifestyle and all in all we're doing very well. He's a joy to be around, really a good kid. And Papa and
Nana have hopefully learned a few things about being parents from the first time around, which certainly helps.
Since it's been 113-115 degrees here lately, we're getting a lot of use out of the swimming pool at our apartment
as well as from our city pools.
Our 22-year-old son who's been living with us in our 2-bedroom apartment since December is getting ready to leave
for Air Force basic training in Texas on July 1. Weren't sure we were going to make it that long with all of us
living here, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. He's enlisted for 6 years--yay!