I have Dusty's address!!! I sent it in an email to most of you...if I forgot you (so sorry) and you would like his mailing address, let me know and I can email it to you! Thanks so much!

Dusty has arrived in Iraq as of early this morning. I still have not received a mailing address, but as soon as I get one, I will pass it on. Please continue with the prayers! Thanks to all!

One M&M At A Time...

You all must be wondering what the update with Dusty is. We said goodbye Thursday morning at 6:15, his plane was supposed to take off at 1:50, needless to say, many plane malfunctions, he is still on the ground at Hunter in Savannah. I just got off the phone with him and he will be taking off in about an hour. He will go to Newfoundland, then to Germany, then onto Kuwait, where he will be for about 3 weeks. Thank you all for the support and prayers. I want to give a huge thank you to my family and Dusty's family. We (I) could not have done it without you as you all know. The reason this blog is titled "One M&M At A Time" is because my mom, along with Kim and Dad, made Liz and I jars filled with 365 M&M's, tied with a yellow ribbon. We are to eat one, only 1 Liz, everyday as a way to countdown the days til he will be returning home. Now, we don't know exactly how many days he will be gone; could be less or more than 365, but it's a good guesstimate. Thank you all again to everyone reading this. Please keep Dusty and the rest of his battalion in your prayers. They are trained and ready for the tasks ahead!

Dusty's Party

Thank you to everyone who came out for Dusty's party! We had a really great time seeing everyone and are thankful for each and every one of you! Here are a few pictures from the night. Remember, I will keep everyone updated about the deployment as I know the information. Please keep Dusty and I in your prayers!

Back in Ringgold...

At the beginning of October, Dusty left for Ft. Irwin, California for training, and I went to stay with my parents in Ringgold. It was nice seeing all my family and hanging out with them. I got to see friends of the family I hadn't seen lately, meet new friends and people, and hang out with family! Layla and Paisley enjoyed themselves out on "the farm". Paisley couldn't run just in the yard; she always wanted to go in the pasture and then would never come back when you would call her, so she was stuck on the leash every time we went out. They did enjoy playing with Bertha and Ellie. It was mostly Bertha and Paisley playing. Paisley has gotten so big...she is now 7 lbs!!!! I can't believe it, but she is still so cute!
More of the things I did: My cousin Adam got married on October 2. It was a beautiful wedding out at Walnut Hill Farms ( I think I got the name right). Mom and I had a girls day and had lunch in Collegedale at End of the Garden Gate, a little tea room. Then we went shopping, which is always fun! I babysat a lot for Elli Grace, Anna, Jackson, and Jase...what fun kids! Many funny moments with them all!
One Sunday, me, mom, dad, and Kim all drove to Elijay after church to go to the Apple Festival. It was fun, cold, but fun. I had a funnel cake and we took a bag of apples home (they were soo yummy!).
Rachel, my older sister, is in a praise band at her church with her mother in law and another lady. Well they sang at the fair the last weekend I was home, so Dad and I went to hear her sing (Mom was out of town on a choir retreat). It was freezing that night!!! But they did an excellent job. After we left there, Dad and I went to a Halloween Party (bonfire thing) at some friends house that we go to church with. It was fun!
I learned how to pick turnip greens and cook them. A lady from her church took me to pick them and then the next day I went over to her house and she showed my how to cook them. Wash them 5 times, boil with salt, add oil and sugar and bouillion cubes, etc. They were pretty tasty!!!
Mom and I and Grandpa would go to breakfast/lunch once a week. It was good seeing my Grandpa and hanging out with him. I cooked supper a lot while I was home, and he would come over and eat most of the time.
I also made new friends. I hung out with my cousins and their friends, all of which have children and a little older than me, but thats ok. We had a lot of fun!
I also got to see my old roommate from Georgia Southern, Melissa. We first met at Dalton State in 2004 maybe, and have been friends ever since. She too is married to a man in the Army so we now have that in common. They are expecting their first baby, a baby boy, in February. Like Dusty, her husband is also deploying, so this next year, we will be seeing a lot of each other. She came up this past week and we had lunch and spent the day with each other. It was so nice to see her and visit with her. She is adorable pregnant!
Sorry this post is so long and I'm sure I left out many things I did, but that was most of it. Some days I did nothing and didn't get out of sweat pants until 4...nothing to do!
It's nice being back down in Savannah with Dusty. We are planning on taking a vacation soon. He has time off for 2 weeks, so that will be nice spending time with him.

Camping

Dusty and I went camping this past Thursday to Saturday here in the Savannah area on Skidaway Island. We decided to go at the last minute, so we didn't get to the camp ground until 9:56 p.m. I say 9:56 because when I called to reserve a place, the lady told us we had to get there before 10:00 because the gates close. So, as you can see, we made it by 4 minutes! We were so excited to make it. We (or Dusty, I just held the lantern) set up the tent in the dark. Dusty asked me to read the directions and the first line said "If you are setting this up for the first time, you might want to set it up at home so you aren't trying to figure out how to do it in front of friends and family" hahahahha! We both laughed and moved on. Thankfully, we got it up in about 20 minutes...not bad for first timers with this tent AND it being dark out. I hadn't camped in a long time so I forgot how uncomfortable the ground is...wow! Dusty, on the other hand, was asleep and snoring the minute he layed down...not fair. I kept tossing and turning and he would wake up and ask if I was ok. Yeah, just forgot about how it is on your back! We woke up early Friday morning and realized we forgot the cooler with the food and water, so back to Pooler we go. After we got back to the camp site, we took a 4 mile hike/walk through the marsh/jungle haha of Skidaway Island State Park. It was pretty, but tons of fiddler crabs everywhere. I am not exagerating about this one...there were thousands and everywhere! And the noise they made scurring on the ground was a little creepy! After the hike, we came back to our site and noticed some of the groceries were on the ground. Something (a raccoon maybe, only cause we saw one near our tent) stole our hotdog buns and popcorn :( We ate our lunchables for lunch after the hike, hahaha, and felt like we were in the 2nd grade eating those things! The temperature was a little hot, but in the shade it felt pretty good, so we relaxed in the shade and read. Then we drove around Skidaway, not much to see. For supper, we cooked hotdogs, bratswurst, and baked beans over the fire and it was so yummy! Since the hotdog buns were stolen, we ate our hotdogs plain. We had a little trouble eating with our utensils. We bought the cheepest stuff and they kept melting when we would cut into our hotdogs! But, we managed! We also roasted marshmellows and made smores! Sooo yummy...possibly one of my favorites! Saturday morning we woke up to rain! And lots of it! We had time to change clothes and then it poured! We were drenched! But luckily, we were going straight home anyway so it was okay. We had such a good time camping, roasting marshmellows, hotdogs, reading, hiking, and relaxing!

Past 2 Weekends

Dusty and I have been busy visiting with family for the past 2 weekends. It was great to see everybody and spend time with family. The first weekend we drove to Germantown, TN (right outside of Memphis) to see Dusty's parents and sister. We left Pooler Thursday night, spur of the moment, and drove to my parents house to spend the night. We got there late, slept about 5 hours, and got back on the road and drove 5 1/2 hours to Germantown. We did take the girls, Layla and Paisley, with us, and they were pretty good in the car, but a little stressed. With his parents, we cooked out, shopped, looked at houses, and ate some more! Haha! It was a relaxful weekend with them and we were so happy that Dusty had time off and we were able to go see them. We drove back to Pooler on Monday, 10 hours of driving, but making a stop for lunch at my parents house to see my grandpa.














My parents came down this past Thursday night and stayed until Monday. On Saturday, we went downtown to River Street for the First Saturday of the Month. They have arts and crafts and some entertainment down by the river; it was nice. That night, we ate at Uncle Bubba's...pretty good! Also on Saturday, we drove down to Wormsloe, the site in the movie Forrest Gump where he is running down the dirt road as a little boy and his braces fall off. It is so pretty and we even saw a buck! Sunday, we went to Tybee and packed a picnic and walked on the beach. After leaving the beach, we toured Ft. Pulaski...pretty cool! The brick work was amazing!

















Dusty and I are so thankful for the wonderful family we have. We were so excited to see them and spend time with them! Thank you all for everything. We love each one of you and are so glad you are in our lives!