Patricia's update from 12:53 a.m. today

Adam called about 9 p.m. our time [Sunday] to let us know he has arrived in Kuwait. (When he called, it was 7 a.m. [this] morning.) They are 10 hours ahead of our time.

He said:

• It was 134 degrees there.
• It feels like you are standing in front of a hot hair dryer all of the time.
• The heat feels like it's draining all of your energy.
• The plan is they will be here for orientation and briefings while getting used to the heat.

Patricia's update from 12:48 a.m. Sunday

Greetings family and friends:

About 6:30 [Friday] evening, Adam called from Fort Stewart, Ga., to say he and others in his unit were waiting for the buses to take them to the airport as his unit would be leaving for Kuwait sometime later that evening. He said he would trying to call again before he boarded the plane.

When Phil called me on his break about 8:30 p.m., I told him about Adam's call. Because of how the U.S. post office works, he didn't think he could get off on such short notice, but within 30 minutes, he was home. This was truly amazing and a miracle. But then one of his supervisor's son is coming home within a month, and the other supervisor let him go immediately.

Adam is one of about 600 soldiers in the advance group. The other 2,400 soldiers will be leaving between now and July 7. The plan is they will fly into Kuwait and will be there for three to four weeks and then they will fly on to Iraq and be stationed at the Al Asad Air Base in Baghdad.

Adam was able to call us about 12:30 a.m. (3:30 EDT), and then he texted us at that the plane was preparing to land in Germany.

We will be sending you his mailing address and e-mail address if he has a new one. We are using these for now:

armyguy120@hotmail.com
adam.fodge@us.army.mil

Thank you for remembering him and us in your prayers. This is one of the most difficult things we have done in our lives.

This is it

They fly to Kuwait today. It's real now.

Beachside fun

The boys enjoy some time off in Georgia before flying to Kuwait.

A few more days to go

The boys are on a 1 1/2-day pass and having a blast off post. They were, however, stuck on an island in the Atlantic Ocean because of high tide. I don't think they minded too much, because then they got to play in the ocean. They apparently had an awesome meal at a seafood restaurant, and Adam likes gator. Ew. Maybe it's better in Georgia than in Florida.

Here is a pic from Camp Roberts, Calif., back in April that I forgot to post. Lovely, huh?

Next weekend-ish

The latest word is that the guys are leaving for Kuwait on June 28 or June 29. From there, they will head to Camp Victory (a.k.a. Camp Cupcake) in Iraq. No one knows yet how long they will be in Kuwait.

Puffin got his present and loves it. He especially likes "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." And he quite enjoyed the Victoria's Secret catalog pages I used as stuffing. It wasn't even really intentional -- I just had so many lying around, I wanted to get rid of them!

Not the 14th, and apparently not the 23rd either

Alpha Battery was supposed to leave June 14, but that didn't happen. Then it was supposed to leave June 23, but that isn't happening either. Maybe it's going back to regular-scheduled programming. Adam will be mad if he does get his leave because it's likely too late for me to plan for going to Georgia.

Monday was our first anniversary. It's too bad he wasn't here, but it wasn't so hard. I'm surprising OK without him. Sure, I miss him, but he's busy, I'm busy, life happens ... you can't let something like this stop you from living.

I sent him a just-because present yesterday: cookies, "Gran Turino," "Family Guy Volume 7" and this crazy book titled "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Apparently it's really popular. The chick at Barnes & Noble said she sold a lot the day I bought mine, and the library has a trillion holds. I'm like No. 48 on nine copies. Awesome.