Dear Rob,
I love you. I love you because you called me back today just so I know you did not hang up on me. You are a wonderful man and I do not know how I am lucky enough to have you.
We had a good day, we went to church for the swap and came home with about 5 bags of clothes for the girls.They are in the garage now but I will put them away tomorow. I did get all the kids school books from last year put away. I even got all the laundry put away. I really need to deep clean the house. It honestly just seems like I am tired all the time and I can not figure out why. I was falling asleep at 4pm today. As soon as the kids are asleep I am going to bed.
I had planned on going to the commisary today but some how while we were at the swap Grace changed into pajama pants and high heels and buy the time we left her clothes were on the bottom of a trash bag in the van.
We are picking up Kim at the airport in the morning and then I think Michael is having a friend come over tomorow afternoon.
I love you babe and can not wait for the time when we can talk without interuptions of fear of one of us hanging up on another.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob,
I love you and miss you like crazy. Today they showed pictures of your unit coming home on facebook. I have to admit while you have not been gone as long as them I felt a little jealous.
We had a good day. I never even got out of my pajamas. I got the school stuff ordered for Faith and Michael. That was a quick $2200 gone. I did get some school work done with Hope today. She wants to learn but only for a few moments here and there. I really think I am going to need to make a schedule for her and Grace and include things they can do like watch Sesame Street. I may even tell them it is part of their school. Our stuff should actually be here by Monday. It will be like Christmas.
Tomorrow is going to be kind of busy. They are doing a free yard sale tomorrow. Basically you set up a table with anything you want to give away and you walk around and take anything you want. I only have a couple of things to take. Then I am going to stop at Wal-mart and pick up a couple of storage things and come home and pack up all of last year’s school stuff. So for a day we will have a neat school bookshelf. Then I just need to straighten up and get laundry put away. That way when everything gets here I can start school without being behind in school.
Can you believe it is 9:30 and your kids are still awake? I swear they are on strike from sleeping and it is killing me.
I love you babe! But for now I need to go quiet YOUR children.
Pamela PETRIE
p.s. Grace sang to me today. I know the pictures are bad but the words are cute.


God is great
God is good
God is always great and good
We sing for your life
God is good, god is always I love you
I am the most beautiful girl
We are the most beautiful kids
We are the prettiest kids
We love you more
I will love you
I will kiss you on the cheek
We are good, we are great
We are a family
We will forgive you
We will give you the best family, the best of our family
Do you want to hear my singing
Do you want to hear me sing guys
Yes you do, you want to hear me sing
Jesus loves me now,
He died on the cross for our sins
Jesus is great, Jesus is good

Dear Rob,
I love you babe and can not wait to see you, can not wait to talk without beeping noises and phone calls and the line getting cut off. I can not wait to roll over and snuggle with you.
We had a good day. The plumber came this morning and of course the toilet worked perfectly the entire time he was here. I was so annoyed. I am trying to stay positive and remind myself at least I have kept the house really clean this week.
When he left we went to the post office and thrift shop and then Wal-mart. When we got to Wal-mart there was a radio station and car dealership outside collecting school supplies. So I let the kids pick up school supplies to donate and even let Grace choose a back pack (tinkerbell of course) to donate. But when we walked outside they were gone. It is all stuff we will be able to use.
We came home and straightened up a little and Michael spent the afternoon playing his new game. Did I tell you he ended up reading the girls 40 books, doing 2 pages of mathh and running 20 laps to earn the last of his money.
I worked on our new budget for when you get home and e-mailed it to you. It will be tight but I think we can do everything. I honestly see the light at the end of the tunnel if we stick to the budget. I got our electric bill today and it was $250 which kills me because I have kept the AC at 75 and made sure everything is unplugged. I guess that is what happens when you have 3 digit temps.
Hope found 2 pictures of horses I forgot I bought her so I hung them up. I was to lazy to go get a hammer so I used this.
I also hung up a couple of pictures in the office. One day I will learn to decorate. We do not have any plans tomorrow. I need to call Bob Jones in the morning. I tried to order the kids school stuff and it would not show me the free shipping option. It looks like it is $2150 for Faith and Michael and then I still need to make sure I have everything for Hope and Grace.
Have I told you that your two oldest daughters have all but refused to sleep recently. They have taken turns staying up until midnight. I woke them both up really early this morning in hopes that I can get to bed earlier tonight. We will see, it is almost 10pm and I have not even started going to bed.
I love you babe and can not wait to have you here so I can tel you "I cold".
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob,
I love you and hope you had a great day. We had a good day. The repair guy did not get here until after 3pm. He did not bring a new filter so he will have to come back with a filter for the fridge. At first he said the dishwasher issue was rust. Then he smelled the rinse aid spot and said oh this is vinegar. Which is total trash but whatever, I have used vinegar forever.
We do not have any plans the rest of the week except to mail Michael’s hard drive back to BJU. Speaking of home schooling can you please call me soon? We need to talk about what exactly we are ordering. I am hoping to order by the end of the week so I can get free shipping. I am hoping to start working on school next week.
Michael is determined to get a new DS game. He needs about $6 more dollars. He read 26 books to Grace tonight. I paid him 10 cents a book. The picture is of him reading to Grace.
I love you babe, I am going to try to go to bed early again tonight. I went to bed before 9 last night but it was after 11 before Faith was asleep. I do not know what is going on with her and Hope but they are not sleeping.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Ron, I mean Rob,
You better come home soon before I forget your name. I am totally teasing because you are not here to be mad. I love you babe and cannot wait for you to come home.
Today we really needed you. Yesterday I noticed a wet spot in front of the fireplace. I thought a child had spilled something and was not admitting it. Today I noticed the spot was bigger. Then I realized the fridge sounded like it had running water. I have waited around all day for the plumber who has not called. With your moms help I was able to get the water turned off.
We stayed home all day and I finished up the dresses and can drop them off at the post office tomorrow. I am so sorry I did not tell you about it before. I thought I had told you about the dresses and I did not tell you on the blog because I did not want anyone to think I was bragging.


I love you babe but I am going to close and go to bed early. I hope you get to call soon. Thank you for talking to Michael today. He really did have a good attitude after talking to you. He even took a 2 or 3 hour nap today.

Dear Rob,
Before I forget I have to tell you something. Every time I try to use my IPHONE and write I love Rob or Rob is doing okay it changes your name to Ron. I promise I do not love Ron. Sorry, I thought you needed this laugh.
We had a good day, busy day but a good day. I offered to make eggs and sausage for Kim’s kids and they said no thank you they would prefer pop tarts. Easy enough! They brought a HUGE Hershey bar with them. So I put it in the food processor and made chocolate chip cookies. I have to be honest and say these are now my favorite cookies. Then I let the girls use my sewing machine and taught them how to make tote bags. Then I dropped them off. We really had a good weekend. They slept all over the house. I am sending you a picture of the boys at the movies with their DS’s in hand. All weekend every time I heard them talk to one another I could not help but think of you and their dad. They are so much like you guys.
After I dropped them off I took our kids and went to Sam’s. I picked up pancake mix and trash bags. Can you believe this is the first time we have had to buy trash bags in over 5 months. Something weird did happen at Sam’s. Michael went to look at games while I ordered dinner. When he got back to the table he said his hand hurt. He had tripped over his own feet and fell doing a flip flop on the ground. He put his hand down to break his fall and when he did he hurt it. I do not think it is broken. He has scratches on the side of his face but they look old. We got in the van and he got really quiet. I asked him if he was okay and he said he was tired and his hand hurt. I had him soak it in Epsom salt when we got home. Then he got a attitude with me and angry with me. He has not done this in a while so I sent him to bed and within minutes he was asleep. I have to admit this kind of worries me. I really think I will make him a appointment to make sure he is ok.
The silly cat got out again this evening. I have to tell you this is twice today and it is ticking me off. I told the kids I am tired of chasing after her.
We are home all day tomorrow and I cannot wait to talk to you. I miss us being able to talk on line. The kids are doing well, I have not told them when you are coming home. I have said about 5 more fencing classes. I cannot wait to have a real time line (side note to blog readers, I will let you know when he is coming home after he is already back on U.S. soil).
I love you babe but I am going to climb into bed. I really want to spend the day straightening up and deep cleaning tomorrow.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob, we are having storms so I have the laptop off . I love you babe

Dear Rob,
Good evening my love. We have had a great day. The man was here at 7:30 to power wash the house and clean the gutters. Michael tried to mow the grass but then said the lawn mower was smoking. I tried hard not to curse considering it is only a few months old.
I got all the laundry done and will fold it and put it away tomorow. We went to see Karate Kid today. It was really good. But honestly I kept thinking "I wonder what Will Smith thought every time his son got punched". The kids loved it. Grace even set a couple of rows down with the girls. I thought for sure when it got scarry she would come running to me but she did not.


I stopped at the movie store and rented the original Karate Kid for us to watch after church tomorow.
I love you babe and can not wait to talk to you soon.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob,
We had a wonderful, amazing, encouraging day. We got up at 4am and took Kim to the airport and then came home and relaxed. We went swimming on post for 3 hours. Honestly if I had taken something for Michael to eat I may still be there. It was so much fun. The entire pool was no more than 5 feet and a HUGE kid section. I did not have to carry Grace around. She even started putting her face under the water.
We came home and collapsed. Actually I made dinner and then relaxed. Then we went to the closing ceremony for VBS tonight. It went really well. The kids had a great time. I met the mom of Michael’s new friend. Can you believe they live in our neighborhood? To me that is only God. I told her we would get together next week to talk. It seems like we are on the same wave length. The church seems amazing. She said the men have a lot more functions then the women. I will tell you more about it when we can talk. For now I guess I should go to bed. I am running on 4 hours from last night and 6 the night before. And I already know the guy will be here at 8am to power wash the deck, porch and entire house and then he is going to clean out the gutters. I did talk to a neighbor today and he said the city never comes out and our grass is not long at all. I am going to have Michael mow it in the morning just to be safe. I am so tempted to have someone trim the bushes so you do not have to do it.

I love you babe and wish you were here this weekend to do things with us. I miss you so much. It is almost harder now that I know you are coming home soon.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob,
I love you and miss you. It is so weird; now that I know you are coming home soon I can almost feel you. It does not seem so lonely. Kim is here tonight and tomorrow she will be with her husband. It is almost like the world is going back to where it should be. I know it sounds like I have lost my mind.
We have had a great lazy day. As much as I am ready for school, I also am enjoying our easy days. The lady came to inspect the house. She said everything looked good except we need to trim the bushes and mow the grass. She said the city would fine us. Let me just tell you it is not even ankle high. I think she was blowing smoke. If we keep it much shorter it will die. I was impressed to see that she really did walk in every room and turn on every light. She was really nice though. I already got a call about them replacing the dishwasher. Oh, I think she is annoyed that we do not have a answering machine on our home phone. She said I called yesterday but did not get a message. My thoughts were she left a message on my cell phone at 4:45pm; it was not even 24 hours so I am not stressed.
Guess what? The PX called today. They said it was a courtesy call to see how we were treated in customer service recently. I was so nice to the lady. I said I did not file a complaint but………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
She said man you handled that well and with kindness. I told her that our children were being good and that everyone was in a good mood. But that I probably would have lost it if that was not the case. She apologized a million times and told me I should have filed a complaint.
I made bread today and cookies for the cookie jar. Really I just wanted the house to smell good while the lady was here. But it did feel good to have baked goods around. I need to make laundry soap this weekend if I get a chance.
I got an e-mail saying they are beginning to decorate for the welcome home ceremonies. It is on a day I cannot go. I cannot believe it is close to you coming home.
I love you babe but I better get in bed. We have to leave for the airport at 4am. Then we are going swimming.
Pamela PETRIE

Dear Rob,
Do you remember what you were doing 15 years ago this moment? I do. We were at Taco Bell inside of that new gas station still in our wedding clothes. I remember that day. Do you remember how the storm hit 45 minutes before our wedding, do you remember how the electricity went out, how we the cake was tilting from the heat, how the balloons were de flating, do you remember how late your parents were and how long we had to wait on them. Do you remember how many guests were stuck on the side of the road because of the storm? Do you remember driving to our honeymoon and not finding our hotel? Do you remember the man without underwear answering the door or the bats flying over the pool? I would not change any of it. You have given me more than I could have ever asked for. You have been there to support me and encourage me, you have been there to pray for me, to hold my hand during the birth of our son, to protect my heart during the delivery of our angel baby, to hold my hand when we thought Faith would be born with Down’s and one kidney. You were there when my dad died, when we bought a house. You have been there to guide me. You are the strongest man I know. Not just physically but mentally and spiritually. You trust in Christ never waivers. Your faith in our marriage has never changed. When I knew our marriage could not possibly make it through another minute you promised me it would. When I broke your heart you glued it back together.
When you are tired you are there. You gave me four beautiful children, a military life I love. I love to watch you wrestle with our son or dance with our daughters.
When you are around I feel safe, safe in a way I did not think possible. I love you babe and am so glad I have had the last fifteen years to be married to you. I look forward to the next 15 years with you.
I love you babe,
Pamela PETRIE

Song of Solomon 1 >>
King James Version

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1The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

3Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

4Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

5I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

6Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

7Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

8If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

9I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

10Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

11We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

12While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

13A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

14My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

15Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

16Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

17The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.


Proverbs 31 >>
King James Version

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1The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
2What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?

3Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

4It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

5Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.

6Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.

7Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

8Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.

9Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

10Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

11The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

12She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

13She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

16She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

17She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

23Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

24She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

25Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

26She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

27She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

28Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

29Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

30Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

31Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.



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<< Proverbs 31 >>
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HOLY BIBLE, King James Version, Cambridge Edition.
Text Courtesy of www.BibleProtector.com.

Dear Rob,
We had a good day. It honestly started out with me crying and loosing it. I tried to fix the van seat and ended up messing up the coach seats. I lost it because I did not know who to call and what to do. I finally took a shower and relaxed. Then I decided to take the van to the little auto place that does inspections. The guy was really nice and fixed both seats for $10. So now the van is great.
We did not do allot today which is not good because that means I will be up late tomorrow cleaning. Tomorrow Michael has counseling and then we are going to the commissary and then coming home to clean up.
So I am sure you are wondering why I am sending you a picture of another man. It is because I want you to explain it to me. This was a bunch of airmen on Saturday. They were not in PT's but did have on boots. We were at the playground on post. Every time the kids would say it was hot we would point to them and remind them they were not too hot.

Fencing went well tonight. Faith did not get to fence because she could not find her tennis shoes. So I made her set on the side lines and watch. Hope was upset because she did not have anything to do at fencing and I reminded her that it is not my responsibility to entertain them. I am really working on them taking responsibility for themselves.
I love you babe and hope you can call tomorrow but if not please know I love you and am glad we have been married for 15 years.
Pamela PETRIE