Paul left for deployment on Sunday morning, 3am. It was heart-wrenching, especially because he was leaving Cooper too. That was incredibly difficult for him. After tearful goodbyes, I spent the entire day packing for Houston, dealing with Cooper and Sarge, and crying. Around 9:45pm Laura and Nick came to pick us up and take us to Sacramento Airport.

Let me tell you about our delightful trip to Houston...

We got to the airport at 10:30pm, only to find out that the Cargo office, where we drop off Sarge, was closed...closed at 3pm, even though they told us 11:30pm when we called to check. They had to reschedule our flight to the 6am flight. So we drove back home to get 2 hours of sleep and then drive back to the airport at 3:45am. I tried to sleep, but it was a bit difficult since Sarge wanted to play outside. It was 52 degrees, so I could not leave him out there all night, so I spent awhile outside chasing Sarge back into the house with a garden hose...in my pjs...and crying out of pure exhaustion. So we arrive at the airport around 4:30 to find out that they did not re-book Sarge on this new flight. It took me over an hour to re-book him and get him checked in b/c Continental has some workers that move at a snail's pace. UGH! So, by 5:30am, I was running through the airport with Cooper, the stroller, the carseat, the diaper bag, blanket, jacket and small carry-on...traveling gypsy I know! I got on the plane and fed Cooper and then we both dozed off for about 30min. When I awakend, I saw runway everywhere and I thought, "Yeah, the flight is over and we slept right through it!"... WRONG...We had not even left yet! We sat on the runway for 2 hrs b/c of a maintenance problem. Oh my word...I was losing my mind at this point, b/c Cooper decided to show everyone his ear-piercing, high-pitch, deafening scream. He did not sleep again until the last 20 min of the flight. He proceeded to scream, and talk, and hollar, and burp up bananas in the face of the man next to me, and slap, and hit, and pull hair...then, here is the kicker...he decided to tee tee all over me...all over my jeans! Good gravy! Finally, after 4 hrs of torture, we landed. Oh but wait, that isn't all...Continental lost all of Sarge's stuff (food and bowls) and then they broke his crate. Damn Continental!

So I thought that the craziness would end, but unfortunately, poor little Coopster was not adapting to new people, new crib, new home, new everything. If I am not right there with him...he is usually crying...just plain terrified! Bless his little heart. So, I rocked him to sleep last night and he woke up 2x from 1-3am, screaming histerically b/c he did not know where he was. My dad and I calmed him back to sleep...taking shifts...and finally he was down for the count.

Hopefully Cooper will adjust soon. Maybe, he just misses his daddy! I talk to him as much as I can about daddy and tell him how much daddy loves him and misses him. I have a hunch that these deployments are just going to get harder for both Paul and Cooper!