Tom is in Ireland

Tom boarded the plane for Ireland at 2pm (Columbia time) on Sunday and called me at 10am Monday morning to tell me he made it to the hotel. I felt so bad for him and Rod having to travel so long. By the time they got to the hotel, they were exhausted and starving. They are 5 hours ahead of us so they were going to grab something to eat, head to the plant to check things out, then go back to the hotel early and sleep. I got this e-mail from him this morning (I deleted the personal stuff....yall don't need to read that. hehehe)

Good morning from Ireland!! I'm about to head out to the office but I just wanted to drop you a little note. It feels weird here. The sun doesn't even set until about 10PM and it's not really dark until almost midnight, then the sun is back up at 4:30AM.
Hope you and the girls are doing OK.

I can't imagine having only 5 hours of darkness. We sleep ALOT. That would definitely put a crimp in our sleeping. We are really missing him....especially Katie. We knew she would take it harder than the rest of us because she doesn't understand what is going on and she is VERY much attached to Tom. Last night she went outside to feed Belle and came running back in screaming "Daddy's truck is outside!!" So for the 100th time that day, I explained to her that daddy is in Ireland working and that is VERY far away and he won't be home for two weeks. She will hold her two fingers us and say "this many." But she is only 3 so she doesn't understand how long that really is. After 17 years of marriage, it is hard sleeping alone. He may come home late alot but we look forward to that every night. Our family just isn't the same without him. Hopefully he won't have to go to Ireland very often after this trip. Hopefully it won't be as often as he goes to New Jersey.....and he rarely goes there...maybe once every couple of years or so.

Oh! I do have one more update! I called Bubba yesterday, who was my best friend in elementary school and high school, to tell him about Tim dying and we starting talking about his time in Iraq and he was actually in a shoot out and shot in the leg. He dug the bullet out with his knife and kept shooting. They wanted to send him to Germany for medical attention and he said he was fine and stayed and finished out his time in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart! He's like his daddy in that respect. Mr. Robert was one of the manliest men I had ever met and growing up, I thought he was the toughest man alive. I guess he's passed that down to Bubba. But I'm so proud that we have people like Bubba protecting us! (By the way, I think everyone is calling him Robert now that he is older but to me, he will always be Bubba!)