Lunch Date

On Wednesday we had a lunch date with my grandparents. We haven't seen them since July and they were unable to attend our Sunday gathering because my grandfather recently had knee replacement surgery. They really wanted to see Daniel before he left. Daniel decided to dress in uniform on Wednesday. He wanted to go by his office so they could take a picture of him to hang in their waiting room. This will be to inform their patients that Dr. Henrichsen is currently away serving his country.

We first stopped by the Armed Forces Recruiting Center. Daniel has spent some time there and met the soldiers working there. We dropped off a dozen donuts and Daniel let them know he was leaving soon. One of the soldiers gave Dan his card and said email me when you get there with you new address. He said they often have people come by to drop things off or see where they can send things to the troops and they like to send things to local Lancaster County service members. So perhaps Daniel will receive some surprise packages while there.

We then stopped off at Daniel's office, then to pick up some sandwiches. While at the sandwich shop, two different people came up to Daniel and told him "Thank you for serving". It makes everything more worth it when ordinary citizens are grateful for those who serve our country.

We had a nice lunch and visit with my grandparents. As we were packing up, my grandmother said more than once, "Oh Dan, I just don't want you to go." At first I thought maybe she wanted us to stay and visit longer - then I realized she was talking about going to Iraq. I wanted to say, "I'm with you on that." But as she said that and gave him a hug, she became a little choked up with a slight swelling of tears. I had to turn away and pretend I was organizing Ainsley's colored pencils to take home so I didn't burst out sobbing. I know I have a few rough days ahead but then I think I'll be less emotional. The anticipation of the goodbye is always worse. I've NEVER been good at goodbyes. Once the goodbye is over, I think I'll actually feel much better. Then, the countdown will be until he comes home versus the countdown til he leaves.

While taking pictures at my grandparents house, Ainsley was invited to be in the first picture. This made me quite nervous since she was up on my grandfather's lap so soon after his knee surgery. My grandfather reminded me she was on the good knee and she knew which was the good knee and which the bad but - 3 year old's memories can be quite short and I was just hoping she wouldn't wiggle or kick the the bad knee. She actually did fine on his lap - It was the picture taking part that she didn't do quite so fine with. She has this great desire to make funny faces everytime her picture is taken. So this is the first picture we got. She also had a rootbeer barrel in her mouth.

Let's have a closer look:

Not the angelic face we were hoping for - actually it's quite monsterish! She was promptly invited to no longer be in the picture and we were able to get the nice picture at the top of this blog.