Update on Mitchell

Just a quick update on Mitchell. Not much has changed really, just confirmation that he has to report to River Falls on Monday at 8 a.m. From there he'll go to Ft. McCoy for two days and leaves for Ft. Bliss, TX. on Wednesday Feb. 25th. He said he found out at a high level what they'll probably be doing once they get to Iraq. It's a medium risk mission I guess, escorting POWs to and from their trial dates, etc. But if you've had a loved one in the military or were in the military or said the word "military" you know that they change their direction or orders like a fart in the wind so that could all change between now and when he leaves for overseas at the end of April. The middle/end of April he gets a few days leave before they actually leave for Kuwait and then Iraq, fortunately or unfortunately (depends on how you look at it) he has to stay 150 miles from the base, so he won't be able to come home. So it looks like the family is taking a trip to Texas in April. It will probably be Logan's first trip on an airplane and Mitchell said my mom's excited about going to Texas, she's never been there. I guess you need to find the silver lining in every situation right?

I asked Mitchell again last night if he was scared or nervous or ?. He said no, he just wants to go and get it done and get home. He did say things were a little crazy at Ft. McCoy because they've changed so much since the last time he was being deployed (or at least starting the process). I asked if there were any familiar faces or guys that he knew. He said actually, it's funny that you ask that. There was a solider, (can't remember his name, but it starts with an "H", so we'll call him Hogert), that he met the last time he was being deployed. Hogert was a finance major at the University of Minnesota, so right away Mitchell and him hit it off and had things in common (Mitchell's also a finance major at UW-Eau Claire). He said when he got there on Tuesday, Hogert was there again, going on his second tour of duty. Hogert now goes to UW-River Falls and is still a finance major. He's a level above Mitchell in the rank of command, but he said it was nice to see him again and have someone that he could talk too already. I'm sure it won't be long before he's met a ton of other guys, but it's always nice to see a familiar face in the midst of chaos.

Anyways, that's all I know for now...which isn't much really. I keep having dreams about Mitchell. Nothing bad or upsetting, just funny little dreams. One dream I dreamt that he was a little boy again, like 4 or 5 and he just wanted Logan to sit on his lap in the car. I was obviously not happy about this in my dream. You can tell I've been thinking about him a lot these past days, plus in my condition crazy weird dreams are common and normal. :-)

We love you little brother! XOXOXO