We think it's okay!

I think Jordan's knee is finally all healed up and is going to be okay (knock on wood!). It has been well over 2 weeks since he got off crutches and began working out again and no problems. We are so elated! Poor Jordan has been dealing with this since Thanksgiving of last year so I know he is really excited to look past this knee injury. So off to Ranger School and then Fort Carson!

Winter Formal

Saturday night was the Winter Formal for Jordan's Battalion. It's kind of fun to get all dressed up on occasion!

Home Brew

So Jordan and I finished our 2nd homebrew just in time for Thanksgiving. We tried an Oktoberfest beer this time. The first time we tried it we did an American Ale. I like the American Ale better but Jordan likes the Oktoberfest better. Of course! There are so many different kinds to try so we have a lot more to do! It is really fun making your own beer so I suggest it for anyone that enjoys good beer! It is way more flavorful than kinds you can buy. It is pretty easy too. Of course you can make it harder by putting in the ingredients and hops seperately but so far Jordan and I just buy the kits that have all the ingredients already put together. Anyways, I took some pictures so here they are. The 1st picture is when we transferred it to the tub with the spicket so we could bottle it. The second picture is when it sits and ferments. The fermenting process kind of makes a mess as you can see. I think it is less of a mess if you get a glass tub (called a carboyle I think) instead of a plastic bucket. It also usually smells really awful but this Oktoberfest smelled like fresh baking bread!

Pinning Ceremony

Well, Jordan is officially a 1st Lieutenant! The battalion commander did the pinning today. All of the drill sergeants came so there were more people there than I thought there would be. I got to take off the old patch that goes on his chest and put the new one. You are supposed to punch it after you put the new one on so the blurred picture is me punching him, ha! Then the commander put the new one on his beret. He got a signed document from the U.S. President (that is what is in the frame). The commander made a short speech and that was basically it. He said Jordan was not a "butterbar" anymore. I guess that is kind of a deragatory term they use for 2nd Lieutenants since the insignia is a yellow/gold bar (see my post below). The army has very odd and strange culture!

1st Lieutenant!

Today Jordan officially gets promoted to 1st Lieutenant (from 2nd Lieutenant)! The Battalion commander is going to pin him today at 5:00 pm (the official removing the 2nd Lt symbol and putting on the 1st Lt one). He is excited to be bumped up to the next ranking. From what I can gather I think it is like not being a freshman anymore. Hopefully, I can get a good picture of the pinning and post it without embarrassing him too much!

The 2LT insignia: A gold pin goes on the cap and the beret. It is a gold patch on the ACUs (the camo uniform) The 1LT insignia: It is silver on the cap and beret but a black patch on the ACUs.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend this year! Jack, karol and Jason came to stay with us. All the food turned out great on Thanksgiving, we watched lots of football and had a great weekend! Karol and I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving and I got a Christmas tree so now we finally have one! We found some other good things too with all the crazies! Karol had never been shopping on Black Friday since she is always around boys so I hope she had fun! I didn't really take that many pictures but here are a few from the weekend. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving also!

Dr. Appointment today at WP

Well, Jordan just finished up his appointment at West Point. Overall, it is just another wait-and-see approach...we sure are getting used to this! The Dr. walked in, looked at Jordan's "tumor" and said "well, I've never seen that before!" haha! He was pretty sure it was going to be joint fluid that had just accumlated there for some reason but when he went to drain it, blood came out instead! Jordan said he pulled out about 1 1/2 big syringes of blood! Jordan said it was really painful. The Dr. put lots of compression wraps around his knee and wants him to keep it straight and to stay off of it for 14 days. His theory is that something traumatic happened underneath where the big lump was and that is why blood accumulated there. Staying off of it and keeping it straight for 2 weeks should be enough time to let whatever happened to it heal. After that Jordan is supposed to begin running and training again. If the "tumor" recurs then we will have to go from there...he said he didn't really know what this was all about even though he had this theory since he has never seen anything like this before.
Jordan has also not been able to stretch his IT Band like he has been instructed to-there is way too much pain. The Dr. was also baffled at this, saying that he has never heard of somebody not being able to stretch it while also being able to run and squat and lift weights. He is hoping that it is related to this "tumor" thing. So overall we don't really have any answers. Hopefully, the tumor thing doesn't come back and this will be all there is to it!

Back up to West Point

Well I guess it's not going to be quite as easy to get the "tumor" (that's just what we call it jokingly, it's not really a tumor) on Jordan's knee fixed. The doctors here would not even look at Jordan's knee because he did not have surgery here. It's so dumb! Sooo...he has to fly all the way back up to West Point just to have that surgeon look at him. Jordan had an MRI done a few days ago and his appointment at West Point is November 12th. Jordan bumped into somebody at work whose dad is a doctor-this guy said he was pretty sure it is not bursitis but some kind of cyst that just got filled with fluid. But I guess we will find out next week what the "tumor" really is!

Baylor Homecoming Weekend

Jack and Karol flew me in for Homecoming last weekend and we had so much fun! This was my first time back since I had graduated. We went to Pigskin, the bonfire, the parade and the football game (which was dreadful!). My parents came to get me after all the events and the next few days I stayed with them. We met Travis halfway to have lunch and I got to see Libby's new baby Natalie! I had not seen her yet so I was really excited!

Post Assignment!

Soooo....we got Colorado Springs (Fort Carson)!!!!!!!!!!! We are beyond excited because it was our 1st choice! It is called the Mountain Post and Jordan will be in the 4th ID (Infantry Division) but I cannot remember what brigade - I am so awful with all that - I can't even remember which one he is in now. Oh well, maybe someday I will remember! Anyways, YAY!

Cuddly

It has been getting cooler here lately and Major has been so snuggly and cute! He has been crawling under the blankets and sleeping there I guess because it's colder outside. The other day I just had to get this picture of Jordan and him. He stayed like this under the blankets for a few hours watching football with Jordan!

Another Knee Update

Last week Jordan was able to meet with a really good physical therapist here. They are going to try to get the swelling on Jordan's knee to go down with a compression sleeve. If that doesn't work then they are going to have to have the bursa sac drained. This is an irritated and inflammed bursa sac that used to be under the IT Band (what Jordan had surgery on). Due to the surgery the bursa sac floated ontop of the IT Band and gets irritated now (it is called Bursitis). So that is a simple fix that we are happy with! I just had to take another picture of it last night because it is huge right now! We call it the "tumor". Also, the therapist was able to help with the bending problem Jordan is having. He said that sometimes small muscles and small connective tissue and ligaments can get out of line if you only move a joint one direction (he explained that this can happen with any joint if you only move it one diretion since all joints are supossed to move two directions-extension and flexion). He had Jordan do a lot of leg extensions (straigtening of the leg) and he can already bend it more with less pain! This was the one thing we were really worried about so things are looking a lot better now!

Knee Update

So the newest thing with Jordan's knee is this tumor-like thing right where the incision is. We think it is a fluid-filled sac or something like that from swelling. Jordan is going to try to hopefully get it drained today and see if that helps. He also cannot bend it a certain way still (he can't bend it across his other leg like men do when they sit in a chair) so who knows what that means! We are trying to get in touch with his surgeon at West Point to see why...so I'll update when we get some answers.

Very Strange!

Well not much has been going on around here-that's why there have not been any postings lately. Last week, though, I did see this out of my window! Very odd! Major was outside and I suddenly heard him barking like crazy (which he never does, he is a pretty quiet dog) so I looked out the window and there were two men riding down the street on horses. I guess you never know what you are going to see in Alabama!

Atlanta Braves game

Last Friday we went to an Atlanta Braves game (yes, we lucked out-it was not raining at the time!). We had really good seats, on the 8th row right behind home plate! They ended up not winning but we still had a great time.

Floods in Atlanta

So we are not quite floating away like Atlanta is. It is about 1 1/2 hours away from us and the Chattahoochee River runs throught both Atlanta and Columbus. Yesterday Columbus opened the floodgates here to help with the flooding in Atlanta so Major and I took a walk by the River Walk here to see it. In the second picture you can see where the Riverwalk usually is.

The ampitheater is underwater.

Post Selection

Today Jordan is submitting our post selections for where we will go next! This is one of the perks of the job Jordan has here at Fort Benning-he gets to put down a top 5 list of places we would like to go next. So no, we are not going to Fairbanks, Alaska anymore. Here is our list:
1. Fort Carson-Colorado Springs, CO
2. Fort Lewis-Tacoma, Washington
3. Fort Stewart-Savannah, Georgia
4. Fort Richardson-Anchorage, Alaska
5. Fort Campbell-Clarksville, Kentucky/Tennessee

We are REALLY hoping for Colorado Springs because I can get my nursing degree in just over 1 year. All of the other places will take twice as long to get the same degree. We should know in about a month which one we get!!!

Zak's Wedding Weekend

I also just got the pictures from this weekend in June-when Zak got married. The wedding was really beautiful at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. I don't have any pictures of the wedding but I do have some of the rest of the weekend.

Dee's Wedding last May

I went home last May for my cousin, Dee's wedding. I'm just now getting the pictures from my dad so that's why I'm just now writing about it. The wedding was beautiful and a great time!

More from the weekend

My Parents Visit!

Last weekend my parents came to visit us. We drove to Wake Forest to watch Baylor v. Wake Forest. Sic 'Em Bears, we won! McKay and my aunt and uncle were there as well with a big group of Baylor alumni so we got to see them as well.

The Woodlands

So last weekend we decided to drive to the Woodlands to surprise Jack and Karol. It was so wonderful, they had no idea we were coming! I wish I had taken a picture of their faces because it was priceless! We had a wonderful weekend with them-they were beyond excited all weekend long!

A week and a half ago my dad came to visit. We had a great time! He showed Jordan how to change the brake pads on my car and we fixed a few other things around the house.

Turning Blue Ceremony Continued

Here is a picture where you can see the cord around Jordan's right shoulder/chest. So now if you see a light blue cord you will know that person is in the infantry! Another tidbit for you: no girls are allowed in the infantry.

After the ceremony, I held whatever this type of gun is--it is ssooooo heavy!

Turning Blue Ceremony

On Thursday I went to the Turning Blue Ceremony for Jordan's company. For those of you who don't know what Jordan does, he is an Executive Officer for a Basic Training company at Fort Benning. Jordan's job is basically all of the paperwork and organization for the company. The soldiers Jordan's company gets are those who have decided to enlist in the Army and have chosen the infantry for their branch within the US Army. The Turning Blue ceremony is the day before these soldiers grauate from basic training and from what I understand represents their admittance into the infantry. They receive a blue cord, which represents the infantry (light blue is infantry, whether it is a light blue flag or the cord). They wear this cord on dress uniforms. I will post a picture of Jordan's uniform so you can see the light blue cord to understand what I mean. The ceremony was really neat! All the parents are there and they get to put the cord on their soldier for the first time. If you ever get a chance to go to a ceremony like this or some sort of graduation you really should! It is really emotional and you can see how proud the parents and loved ones are!

Washington DC Trip

A few weekends ago we drove to Washington DC to visit one of Jordan's freinds, Tyler, who is going to medical school there. These pictures are taken at the Air and Space Museum.