This was sent to me by a fellow Army wife:

Here is combat footage from our side of the war on YouTube. The guys that I work with that put together the MNF-Iraq.com web came up with this idea and it’s taking off. If the insurgents can post their footage we can beat them at their own game. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MNFIRAQ

Active Duty???

Well... as we look at all the options that lay ahead of us, one seems to stand out more than the others. That's the option to go Active Duty. Next weekend when Rick has Drill again in St Louis he will talk to his unit's Retention Officer about the possibility of going Active Duty with it IN HIS CONTRACT that Ft Leonard Wood would be his first duty station. If that happens, we would be here for aprox 3 years, at least. Then we'd be moving wherever else Uncle Sam wants to send us. That option sounds better and better every time I think of it. We would be able to live on Post which would take away the many fears and insecurities I have living here on Rt 66. And while the housing on post is old... I think the oldest housing there is STILL a good 50 years newer than the house we're in now! Plus it would help with our transportation issue (only having 1 car) if everything was close, as it is on Post. The possibility is REALLY excited and REALLY appealling to me... but we want to be sure it's what is in God's will. Please continue to pray for us as we search for the direction God wants us to go.

Good News / Bad News ?????????

Rick found out at Drill this weekend that his name is NOT on the current Battle Roster list ... meaning, as it stands right now... he is NOT deploying to Iraq this spring.

While this is obviously a HUGE blessing... it is also a HUGE prayer request! First, this IS the Army we're dealing with... so everything is subject to change. The last thing I want is to once again get my hopes up... only to be let down. Second, nobody from Rick's unit has a clue as to why he's no longer on the list to deploy... nor do they have any desire to help him figure it out. He's on his own. So, tomorrow he'll be making phone calls to find out more about why he's not on the list and what this really means for us. Third, if this really IS true and if Rick really ISN'T deploying, we need God to make it abundantly clear what it is that He wants us to do. Rick is not employed right now as most of you know and we've been waiting on deployment orders. So, if those orders aren't coming we need to figure out what God wants us to do for employment - civillian or military. There are lots of options - we just don't know which ones are open for us right now.

What we DO know is that God HAS made it extremely clear to us that this area is where we need to be right now. He's put alot of work to do in front of us and there's no place on earth we'd rather be during this season.

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for Rick as he begins making phone calls tomorrow.