He's Blue, Graduated & Home!!!!

Pfewwwww!!!
All the anxiety, worries and excitement are over...for NOW anyway!

It's nearly 9 am Dec 3 and we (Bob & I) have been home for about 3 hours. I had to upload the photos from my digital camera as soon as I got in the door, then I spent ages trying to find this video of Tyler from one of the private's cell phones that he uploaded to his website, but no one knew the web addy. I tried googling everything I could think of to find it but no luck so far. I'm sitting here typing with frozen fingers. We had turned the heat down before we left and the house is freezing cold. Apparently there was snow while we were gone.

I'm not going to write a whole lot right now because there's just too much to say. But Bob, Holly and I got home about 6 am and I've no idea where Ty and his dad are. Wayne had completely different driving directions and was adamant about going his own way, so I've no idea if they got back home yet, stayed overnight somewhere, or what. I was hoping we'd all travel the same way and that maybe Tyler could ride in our car part of the time and spend some time with us since he will be living at Wayne's while on leave. I asked Holly to let me know when they got in and I haven't heard anything.

Most of the trip was good. A lot of biting my tongue in the cause of peace and to make it "Tyler's Time". But I guess anytime you put mom, daughter, husband and ex-husband all together for an important occasion and have a long, anxious trip, there's bound to be some raw nerves. Most of the time I felt pulled in 4 different directions trying to keep everyone happy. I didn't think we would be back til sometime late this evening, because for some reason I had it in my head that they went on pass after graduation (Dec 2) and then reported back to be released. Actually they went on pass Dec 1 after Turning Blue, then reported back for the night before graduation. So Tyler was released about 1:30 yesterday.

His Bunkmate/battle buddy's family had made reservations at a restaurant (Ruby Tuesdays) for all of us which was pretty kewl. I guess those 2 wanted to celebrate Turning Blue together! This was Tyler's first time out on pass and he was so much more relaxed than when I saw him in October! We had a really nice time with Kirby's family at dinner, then went and hung out at Wayn'es hotel room for a while. Tyler really wanted to hear some of "his music" and we had his cd's and player at our hotel room, so Bob & I left to get them, plus got him some rootbeer and smokes. Ty was smoking like a fiend lol! Shhh...don't tell. He showed us some of the stuff they had to do in PT and had us all laughing at his stories. But the funniest thing was the rap video and how he was asked to perform it many times. He's so funny.

Anyways, Bob, Holly & I took him back to Benning since our hotel was in that direction. We were so concerned with getting him back on time and not getting caught up in a clog at the gate that we were actually more than a half hour early. So Tyler chilled in the car listening to music on the radio til it was time to report back to the barracks.

I'm going to write more later - I'm a little irked over a few things and I don't want that to cloud my story. Bob is sleeping, since he drove the whole way back. I just called Wayne's cell and got voicemail, so I still don't know if they got home or are sleeping in a hotel somewhere. *sigh* Oh well, more later - I promise!

Oh, I have to say the graduation totally kicked ass.