Jay's first letters from Boot Camp!

3/11/14

Hey Fam,

Well, the first day has been....interesting.  Not bad, but just kind of what one would expect, a lot of what one would expect, a lot of standing, waiting, listening and reading.  They forced us to spend $240 of our own money but the majority was a one time purchase so that is good.  They guys I am here with are for the most part, pretty good people.  I've got a great bunk mate and the drill sergeants... well they are drill sergeants.  What more can be said.  We do not have a return address yet, but we will probably be changing location pretty soon so it wouldn't do any good to give one if we had one.  They also will not let us exercise, which stinks, but what can you do?  Well, I guess that is about it for one day.

Love y'all,

Jay

03/14/14

Dear Fam,

Well, we are adjusting.  We still haven't started basic yet, but are getting closer every day.  We had our shots yesterday and our dog-tags passed out.  I did not have to have that awful shot in the rear end because of my allergy to Augmentin, which means I am one of the few who are walking normal today.  We have also been issued our ACV uniforms, and I have to admit, I look pretty dang good.  I am with a group of good guys; a little rough around the edges and there are some who won't make the cut, but they are for the most part well-intentioned.  There really isn't much to tell, just been doing a lot of sitting around and reading; waiting for the next station, i.e.: hearing, dental, shots, etc.

Love you guys, I pray for you daily,

Love,

Jay

03/15/14

Dear Family,

Well we have finished all of our in-processing and we still have until Tues/Weds till we start basic.  That means a lot of doing nothing.  As such, I don't have much to tell.  I do not speak up around here very often.  Mostly because everything that is talked about is high school-age topics.  There area a few of us seasoned guys though.  However, when I do speak up, everyone seems to listen.  (Must be the gray hair.)  I have been called "Sir", "Sergeant", "Drill Sergeant" and all kinds of stuff and I gently remind them that I am not different than they are, we are all in the same boat.  In my barracks, everyone just calls me "Specialist."  (Even though there are other, I seem to be the only one they call that.)

It is odd how the days pass sooooo slow, but the week has just zipped on by.  They, the Drill Sergeants, say that Basic will pass so quickly that we won't remember half of it.  We will get a video of it all at the end, to remember our time here at L-Wood.

I love you guys,

Miss you all lots!!!

Jay

03/16/14 (This letter was written at church and mailed with a letter from the Branch President and a picture of Jay!)

Hey Honey,

This will probably be the first letter you get from me, and I apologize for that.  I have written 3 others, but have not had a chance to get them out yet.  I will do so in the next day or so.  I caught the last half of sacrament meeting today and what a needed blessing!  There was a very impressive talk on self mastery.  Self control was likened to a rudder on a ship which allows it to travel in a straight line.  The compass gives spiritual direction so that the line we choose to sail brings us back into the safe harbor.  Loved it.

I miss you all dearly,

Love,

Jay

03/16/14

Just a quick update: This morning on the way to breakfast it was freezing rain.  Coming home from church it was sleeting.  On the way to lunch it was snowing.  At dinner time there were 2-3 inches of snow.  Coming back from dinner the sun was shining.  Thank you Missouri!!!

Love you guys,

Jay

P.S. Thompson and Hatfield said - Hey!

New AdVentures...

Jason just left for his oral boards in Tucson for Border Patrol. It's hard to get my hopes up after all the crushing blows the last three years, but I feel really great about this. As we were driving back from Sierra Vista on Monday we went through the border partrol check point (to make sure we weren't smuggling illegals), I noticed how ugly their uniforms are. This really bothered me until this morning when it dawned on my that they look like venture scouts who never grew up. Ding, ding, ding! That is Jason. Maybe this is a perfect match. :-)

The Voice

No, I am not talking about the tv show.  I am talking about my voice.  Rachel is getting baptized this weekend and it had brought back so many great memories from Jayne's baptism two years ago.  I remember arriving at the church to practice our musical number in the primary room.  I started to sing and sounded like a frog.  I drank some water and cleared my throat but nothing seemed to work.  Being in the 6th month of my craziest pregnancy I chalked loosing my singing voice up to the pregnancy.  That makes sense, right?  I was humiliated singing at the baptism knowing this was not MY voice. 
Hindsight is 20/20.  The next February I would discover that my voice changed due to the tumor growing in my already enlarged, diseased thyroid.  After going through ultrasounds, etc for over six years you would think that I would have put 2 and 2 together, but I didn't.  I am grateful that I had a good four months of obliviousness with my brand new baby boy. 
As soon as I came out of surgery to remove my thyroid we realized something had changed.  The doctor said he didn't think he had damaged the vocal chords, but he did have to "identify" them.  This caused my voice to sound like Micky Mouse for a few months.  Jayne talked to me on the phone and said, "Mommy, you sound like a sweet little girl!"  Luckily over time my voice has come back, but when I sing I sound like a teenage boy going through puberty.  At first the girls would tell me to sing for people like it was some kind of circus act.  Now I am coming to terms with it.  Singing has been such a joy in my life and I have decided that whether it sounds good or not, it's coming out.  And that is very liberating!  :-)

Life is Constantly Changing...

Jay asked me if it was time to remove our blog link from our email because I don't do anything on it anymore.  I was hurt.  Then I went to the blog and realized how pathetic it is.  Facebook has made it so easy to share loads of pictures with family and friends without the wait and limitations of blogs, but I find that I don't have an outlet to write anymore.  I think writing is theraputic.  We have had so many changes in our lives over the past 18 months.  So many things that I haven't slowed down long enough to process. 
I think I am going to post about one aspect at a time.  Today is our house.  We lived in our first house for almost 7 years.  The last two and a half were spent fighting with banks/mortgage companies who were obviously using the government to make money off of us.  So we gave in and forclosed after a hard-fought battle.  Luckily we are able to live in my parent's tiny rental home in the same neighborhood.  This is the same home that Josh, Dyan, Katie and Jessie have lived in at one time or another.  Lots of memories there.  It's where Josh proposed to Dyan.  I am determined to make lots of our own memories there.
The move earlier this month proved to be more emotionally trying for my kids than myself.  I think with everything being so un-constant in the last two years I have actually learned to move on and look for the positive in what is coming.  Kids aren't as resilient.  We had a hard time explaining to them that a home is where your family is.  If you aren't together in a house, then it's not your home.  Lots of crying.  Jayne would say things at the grocery store to the cashier like, "We are being KICKED out of our home!"  Not the best timing to be able to handle that as kindly as I could. 
One HUGE blessing in this move has been purging our lives of so much junk.  We were able to get rid of a ton of our belongings at our Relay for Life yard sale where we made over $400!  It was easier to part with nice things that we love when it was going toward fighting cancer.  After that we took 7 loads to DI and Goodwill over the next two months.  We are now at the point where there are about 12 boxes on the back porch and if there isn't a place for them to fit nicely in our home, they go to DI.  I am amazed how wonderful it is to be clean and free from "stuff".  I am definitely a pack-rat.  This has given me the opportunity to turn over a new leaf. 
My kids are all in one room and they love it.  My girls are so in love with their little brother and he adores them.  He also loves teasing them and being in the same room enables that. 
All in all life is great.  We are still struggling with all aspects of our lives and seam to barely keep our heads above water, but somehow it works out.  :)

Hello friends and family,

I am participating in the San Tan Valley Relay for Life this April. I am looking for people to join my team or donate to help us reach our team goal of raising $1500 to help fight cancer and celebrate life. The Relay is an overnight event (cancer never sleeps) where one member of our team will be walking the track at all times. My girls are very excited to be a part of our team. Rachel named us the "Th-ancer Fighters!" (Thyroid Cancer Fighters)Even a donation of $1 can help us reach our goal. If you have been touched by cancer or have a friend or loved one who has, please consider dedicating a luminaria. Each luminaria costs $10 and goes toward our goal. The luminaria ceremony will happen after the sun goes down. Each participant will walk a lap in silence as all of the luminarias are lit around the track. I feel like this is a cause worth fighting for. Luckily, I was able to fight a type of cancer which is the most treatable kind of cancer. However, my children's lives will always be touched by cancer. Grandparents, friends and cousins have fought this fight as well. Help us celebrate LIFE!Here is the link to our team page. Thanks!Meg :-)http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12GW?team_id=1097194&pg=team&fr_id=43077

Just wanted to let friends and family know that Jay's Mom passed away this morning at 10:50am. Melissa and Dad were with her and she went very peacefully. We are grateful to her lung donor family for giving us this past year with her, for the support of friends and family, for the perspective of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and our knowledge that we will see her again.

The following are facebook notes/posts that Jay put up while I was in the hospital. He is such a ham. :-)


She is radio active now!! Break out your geiger counters!!
.by Meg Bowman on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 4:32pm.(Jay) Ok, Meg has placed me in charge of sending out updates on her FB account. I'm not too good at navigating around this thing, but we'll see how it goes. We got to the hospital around 9:45 and were admitted right away. We head up to the room and just start laughing. The entire floor is covered with those disposable towels that have been taped down. Everything that she MIGHT come in contact with, the soap dispenser, towel dispenser, faucet and handles, bed rails, TV remote, etc. etc. etc., has been wrapped in cellophane and medical tape for fear that her radioactive sweat might touch it. She has a big bio-hazard symbol on her door and there are radioactive exposure counters by the door. We get her settled in and wait. Around 1:00pm the nuclear medicine guys come and they are carrying this small metal capsule. Kind of like a really short metal thermos with a red ribbon carrying handle. It has the pill. They begin to open it and that is when I have to leave the room. I wait outside and the doc comes out and totally straight faced tells me "She is radio-active now" and turns and leaves. I'm thinking "that’s it?" No mean, green, hulk like reaction? No torturous screams and fists pounding through the walls?!!? Where was the fun in that?!!!?? So I sat in the waiting room for an hour to make sure that all was ok. She requested a taco combo from Julio G's on her cell, so I went and picked it up and dropped it off. She texted me and told me it was delish and she is doing just fine. So, there you go.


Meg update
.by Meg Bowman on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 11:37pm.
(Jay) Just talked to Meg. She said to put down that she is doing just fine except for a headache and a little exhaustion, which the nurses say is very typical for this treatment. She has no problem recieveing and replying to text messages, but she dosn't want to talk on the phone due to the headache and the agravating effect of noise, not that someone who might call would be considered just noise, but .... you get the picture. So, all things considered, she is doing just fine.

Get your latest radioactive update right here!! Where is the hottest place to be? Not Japan!! It's Banner Baywood Hospital!!!
.by Meg Bowman on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 7:32pm.
(Mega-Isotope's words) "Less than 24 hours left of isolation at the hospital! Dr. just ordered meds for the horrible headache and nausea. That should make for a much better night tonight. Thank you for your prayers. This has been harder than I imagined. Love you, Meg." (Jay-the-soon-to-be-custodial-of-nuclear-wife-material says) A sonnet for my dreary deary: Oh Margret how I miss you, little "light" of my life. The nights are so lonely, though I sleep quite alright. I lack all the "energy" to make all my meals, when there is no one else, I just eat cereal-s. Your "radiant" smile and "glowing" face, their absence makes this home a "desolate waste(land)." Until you come home and "recharge" my soul, I just sit here all alone, watching all my favorite shows. (And work all day. And do homework. And clean the house. And side jobs. And go to the gym. And maintain your facebook in its immaculate condition whilst augmenting its credibility with scholarly content. Oh yeah, back to the rhyming bit.) As time runs longer our "attraction" builds stronger, oh return to me Mega-Isotope, with love, yours truly, your adorable, atomicaly neutral dope.(Thats me!) ;-)

.(To the hospital) So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu! Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you! (Sound of Music)
.by Meg Bowman on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 6:26pm.
(Jay) Hazah, Hazah! Mega-Isotope is home!! Since the bulk of the radiation is gone I shall now refer to her as Minor-Isotope. (Doesn't quite "pop" like Mega, does it?) And with her return I must relinquish command of the Facebook account. I shall miss this new found freedom and power. Yes, this power that I have felt has been both maddening and intoxicating to say the least, and so, I must give it up before it corrupts me completely. It has made me feel somewhat akin to Prince John who was left to be in command when his elder brother, King Richard, left to fight in the Crusades. (For further information on this story and its tragic outcome, please refer to the historical account "Robin Hood" as produced by Disney. A lovely cartoon with the utmost respect for historical accuracy and scholarly details.) But one more post before I go couldn't corrupt too much could it? Good! As I had mentioned, Meg is home and appears to be quite sedate. I figured she would be all "charged" up and rearing to go, but, alas, she is passed out cold on the bed. Her glow would be almost angelic if it was not for the fact that it was derived from chemicals. We apparently have to maintain at least three feet of space between us for the next week. Want to guess how many times we have already broken that rule? Now don't be thinking dirty, I’m just talking about holding hands and a little hug, then a mad dash to the restroom to wash her radioactive sweaty excretions off of me. (I'm a little paranoid, OK?) Regardless it is soooo nice to have her back home again. Just having her around brightens my day. And besides, if I have it figured out right, I can hook her up to the breaker box while she sleeps and maybe save some cash on our electric bill!! Win - win, right?