http://s464.photobucket.com/albums/rr9/Baxter74_bucket/
Today was the last soccer game of our spring season. This also marked the first time I was the head coach. I certainly learned a few things about myself. I had a lot of fun with the kids and enjoyed seeing them grow and learn over the course of the season. I also learned it's hard to coach your own kid, especially when your a "bit" competitive and your child is maybe not the most talented kid on the team. Hmmm. All in all it was a great season. Our league does not officially keep score, but I think we only lost two of our games and not by much. The question is...... will I try it again? Thanks, Mandi, for coaching with me.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Everything You Wanted to Know about why the Edwards are moving to Germany.....
Many of our friends have asked why we are going back to Germany, so I thought I would answer all your questions here. For those that don't know, when Chris and I were first married, we were stationed in Baumholder, Germany for three years. Riley was even born there at Landsthul, the major regional medical center over there. We really enjoyed our time over there and traveled quite a bit, but there were so many more places we wanted to see. We considered extending our tour but Riley was still an infant and I wanted to be a bit closer to family when he was young. We knew Chris still had ten years left in the Army, so we figured we would just go back when Riley was older and could appreciate the culture more. Not to mention be a bit easier to travel with. When we were told we had to leave San Antonio after our three years here, we tried to get back to Germany then, but the Army wasn't having it. Instead, we ended up in Kansas and that is when Chris deployed to Iraq. As most of you know, our whole life changed in April 05 and we have been trying to get back to normal ever since.
The next part of the story is that I have worked on and off for the Army's Child,Youth and School Services (CYSS)Chris and I got married. My first job for CYSS was as a Center Director in Baumholder and the Trainer that worked with me was Bonnie Phelps. She is still in Baumholder and is now the Chief of CYSS and that is who I will be working for over there. We have remained close friends over the years and she is wonderful person. The job I have taken is back in Baumholder working directly under Bonnie as her Program Operations Specialist. She made it really hard to turn down the job. She knows Chris and I are a package deal and she has made it clear that his medical needs should always come first. That even means if I need to come back to the States for Chris to have a surgery, I can work from my laptop or take an extended leave of absence. It really will be a great work environment for me. I am excited to be back at a Garrison where I can have a greater impact helping other Army families. My job right now at the Region has been an amazing learning experience, but I feel more like a paper pusher and I want to be more involved then I feel I am now.
Now let's talk about Chris. He wants to stay in the Army so he can finish out his 20 years. He has been accepted into a program the Army has called Continue on Active Duty (COAD), that will allow him to retire with his 20 years. He spoke with his Branch that is in charge of assignments and they are also putting him on orders to Baumholder. That means we will both be our own sponsors. For those of you that don't really understand that, the bottom line is that we do not have to live in a small, apartment on post. We can live in a nice big German house on the economy and have plenty of room for guests. One of the Doctors from the Burn Unit at BAMC is now working at Landsthul and we have already been in contact with her. She has agreed to manage Chris's care and thinks he will do just fine. She also has some contacts at the large Burn hospital in Germany. We are only 25 miles from Landsthul. As it is, we drive 20 miles each day just to get to BAMC, so there really isn't much difference. Plus, traffic over there is much better and there's no speed limits!!We also spoke with Dr. Pederson, the hand doctor here that Chris has been working with to reconstruct his hands, and he has a colleague over there that he said can do the same surgeries he would do. He said he hated to say it, but he might even be better than him. Imagine a doctor admitting that! This is also the most excited and involved Chris has been since his accident. The unit here has not made him do any kind of job since he was injured. He just goes to his appointments and comes home. He is actually looking forward to being back in a regular unit and getting a bit back to normal.
Riley is very excited. He was a bit apprehensive about going in the beginning, but as we talked through things, he became very excited. He wants to go to Scotland to try to find the Loch Ness monster, go to Paris to see the Eifel Tower like he read about in a Magic Tree House book, and see the Queen's desk in England like in National Treasure 2. He is also very excited about learning to speak German and has already been counting things in his "new" langugage. The Department of Defense operates all the American Schools overseas and he will go to a regular english speaking school on post.
Sadly, Chopper can not go with us to Germany. He is a boxer/pit mix and pits are restricted breeds over there. So if anyone knows of a nice family looking for a 2 year old pound puppy, please let me know.
Jas may go with us. We are still not sure. We do have a nice place for him to go if we decide not to take him. Chris is trying to get approved to get a service dog that helps him with his ADL's (activities of daily living). If that happens, then we will be starting from scratch with a new puppy.
Wow, is this a long post or what? Depending on when I can get my orders, I am probably leaving the last weekend in May. I will leave Riley here with Chris to finish school. Once I get settled over there, I am going to come back and get Riley. My cousin is getting married in the middle of June in New York and we will probably leave straight from the wedding to fly back over to Germany. While we are over there, we plan to keep in touch with as many people as we can on SKYPE. Email me and I will let you know our contact information. I hope this answers a lot of the questions most of our friends and family have. We think this will be a really good thing for our family. It's time for change and although it is far away, we think it will be a great couple of years for us and everyone is welcome to come visit!
The next part of the story is that I have worked on and off for the Army's Child,Youth and School Services (CYSS)Chris and I got married. My first job for CYSS was as a Center Director in Baumholder and the Trainer that worked with me was Bonnie Phelps. She is still in Baumholder and is now the Chief of CYSS and that is who I will be working for over there. We have remained close friends over the years and she is wonderful person. The job I have taken is back in Baumholder working directly under Bonnie as her Program Operations Specialist. She made it really hard to turn down the job. She knows Chris and I are a package deal and she has made it clear that his medical needs should always come first. That even means if I need to come back to the States for Chris to have a surgery, I can work from my laptop or take an extended leave of absence. It really will be a great work environment for me. I am excited to be back at a Garrison where I can have a greater impact helping other Army families. My job right now at the Region has been an amazing learning experience, but I feel more like a paper pusher and I want to be more involved then I feel I am now.
Now let's talk about Chris. He wants to stay in the Army so he can finish out his 20 years. He has been accepted into a program the Army has called Continue on Active Duty (COAD), that will allow him to retire with his 20 years. He spoke with his Branch that is in charge of assignments and they are also putting him on orders to Baumholder. That means we will both be our own sponsors. For those of you that don't really understand that, the bottom line is that we do not have to live in a small, apartment on post. We can live in a nice big German house on the economy and have plenty of room for guests. One of the Doctors from the Burn Unit at BAMC is now working at Landsthul and we have already been in contact with her. She has agreed to manage Chris's care and thinks he will do just fine. She also has some contacts at the large Burn hospital in Germany. We are only 25 miles from Landsthul. As it is, we drive 20 miles each day just to get to BAMC, so there really isn't much difference. Plus, traffic over there is much better and there's no speed limits!!We also spoke with Dr. Pederson, the hand doctor here that Chris has been working with to reconstruct his hands, and he has a colleague over there that he said can do the same surgeries he would do. He said he hated to say it, but he might even be better than him. Imagine a doctor admitting that! This is also the most excited and involved Chris has been since his accident. The unit here has not made him do any kind of job since he was injured. He just goes to his appointments and comes home. He is actually looking forward to being back in a regular unit and getting a bit back to normal.
Riley is very excited. He was a bit apprehensive about going in the beginning, but as we talked through things, he became very excited. He wants to go to Scotland to try to find the Loch Ness monster, go to Paris to see the Eifel Tower like he read about in a Magic Tree House book, and see the Queen's desk in England like in National Treasure 2. He is also very excited about learning to speak German and has already been counting things in his "new" langugage. The Department of Defense operates all the American Schools overseas and he will go to a regular english speaking school on post.
Sadly, Chopper can not go with us to Germany. He is a boxer/pit mix and pits are restricted breeds over there. So if anyone knows of a nice family looking for a 2 year old pound puppy, please let me know.
Jas may go with us. We are still not sure. We do have a nice place for him to go if we decide not to take him. Chris is trying to get approved to get a service dog that helps him with his ADL's (activities of daily living). If that happens, then we will be starting from scratch with a new puppy.
Wow, is this a long post or what? Depending on when I can get my orders, I am probably leaving the last weekend in May. I will leave Riley here with Chris to finish school. Once I get settled over there, I am going to come back and get Riley. My cousin is getting married in the middle of June in New York and we will probably leave straight from the wedding to fly back over to Germany. While we are over there, we plan to keep in touch with as many people as we can on SKYPE. Email me and I will let you know our contact information. I hope this answers a lot of the questions most of our friends and family have. We think this will be a really good thing for our family. It's time for change and although it is far away, we think it will be a great couple of years for us and everyone is welcome to come visit!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Surgery #48 (we think!)
Chris had another surgery yesterday. There is a new Doctor that comes to BAMC once a month or so from Johns Hopkins to work on the guys. He was originally supposed to do some reconstruction on his nose, revise the scar on his neck, and add some skin to below the right eye so he could close his eye all the way again. They ended up only doing the eye. Chris has been doing pretty well. They did not even keep him over night. They sent him home with some percocet for pain. We were a bit nervous about how his pain management might be. He was on some pretty heavy narcotics for a really long time until last summer. In June, they did a "rapid detox" which basically cleanses his body of all the drugs and resets his pain receptors. He seems to be handling the pain pretty well. He has only asked me for one percocet since yesterday!!! I think Riley gives him more when I am not looking. HA ha. He goes back in tomorrow for the doctor to take off the dressings and see how things went. If this surgery is successful, then we can try again for another corneal transplant that will go a long way to improving his vision. Keep your fingers crossed!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Catching Up
Okay so I guess it has been quite a while since I posted. I think we have been on the go since my last post. After the football game, we spent another weekend in New York where we attended a good friends 50Th birthday. I know, I am way too young to have 50 year old friends, but he is awesome! Then we went to DC and sat on a panel to talk more about issues the wounded soldiers face. We were home for a few days and then we headed to Atlanta for Thanksgiving with my sister. The next week I had to go TDY for work. I got home late Friday night and first thing the next Saturday we hopped right back on a plane and headed to Disney courtesy of the Coalition to Salute America's Hero's. It was a blast. Burn families rock. It was good fun to take Chris to the stunt show where they set a guy on fire and listen to him critique how, " that's not what really happens". The guy seemed to walk away fine. Maybe we should ask the Disney costume department to work on some new uniforms for the military. It is always fun to hang out with other wounded families far away from the hustle and bustle of BAMC! So we were home for about a week in which I had just enough time to decorate my house, get a tree, and do all my Christmas shopping. Was I off from work that week you ask? Oh no! I am superwoman, you forget. (and slightly delusional) Oh, and did I also mention I still have to do my Christmas cards. Is there anything in Emily Post about Christmas card etiquette and timing? I'll need to look that up. So if your feelings were hurt that you didn't get my card this year, keep checking the mail. It's never too late! (Well, unless Emily tells me it is.) Then maybe I'll send out two next year. Anyway,Christmas was, well hectic. I had this great idea that we could fly to my sister's house on Christmas day. I had visions of having a nice Christmas at our house, then getting on the plane and still being able to spend it with family as well later. DUMB idea. We had to fly through opening our presents so we could get on the plane. I don't even remember what Riley got and he didn't get to play with any of it. Then we spent most of our day on a plane, in a train, and in a cab! Please, someone, never let me do that again. We spent a few days in GA and then drove up to the mountains of NC to a really neat ski resort in Mars Hill. We rented a beautiful cabin and my mom and dad, sister and her family, and Chris, Riley and I all spent the entire week after Christmas there. Although I was a little disappointed that it hadn't really snowed there, they had snow making machines and they coated the mountain each night with a fresh coat of "fake" snow as Riley put it. The kids had a blast. They went skiing, tubing, sledding, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight. It was a very nice place to spend the holidays. So, now we are home and trying to remember what life is like in our own home. I think the dogs are starting to recognize us again. I am so glad to be home for awhile. Has anyone made plans for spring break yet???
Thursday, October 9, 2008
FSU-Miami Game
For those of you that don't know, I graduated from Florida State and Chris was raised in the Miami area. Needless to say, this puts us on two opposing sides of a huge College Football Rivalry. October in our house tends to be the roughest month of the year. Last year, I had the honor of serving on the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors. One of the two co-chairs was Donna Shalala. It just so happens that she is also the President of the University of Miami (and the best one ever from what I hear!) We were invited to this years game and were treated like royalty!!! Valet parking at the stadium and the very best seats I think anyone could ever have for any football game. Prior to the game we attended a pregame celebration where President Shalala made a speech and introduced us as her special guests. She told a bit about how Chris was injured and needless to say, he received a standing ovation. It was absolutely amazing. I thought I would share some of the photos.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Riley lost his first tooth!
Okay for those of you that don't know, I have had a "shark boy" for the last six weeks or so. Riley's first loose tooth happened about two months ago. I went out of town for a week and when I came home the first thing I wanted to do was wiggle his little tooth. Much to my surprise, the new one had popped up behind it. He thought it was pretty cool. He said he was just like a shark. I called the dentist and they said it was actually a pretty common occurrence. Well, six weeks or so went by and the first one still had not fallen out. We even went to the dentist and he still wasn't concerned. Finally, today he came running down stairs and had his tooth in his hand. He is so excited about the tooth fairy coming. Sometimes he sleeps with us ( I know but I just love to have him snuggle with me before it is too late), but tonight he told me he needed to sleep in his bed because we had too many pillows on our bed and he didn't want to confuse the tooth fairy. Isn't he considerate? So, if I can figure out how, here are some pictures of him at bedtime.
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