Our Nyx

As some of you already know, we had to put our beloved Nyx (right) to sleep a little over a week ago. Only a few days after this picture, she dug up our newly planted Sago Palm plant in the back yard and it put her into liver failure. She spent a week in Mississippi State's veterinary school in the ICU and after fighting as hard as she could, blood clots in her lungs were the final straw.

We bought the plant from Lowe's, and didn't think twice because there was absolutely no warning on the label. (I even went back and took a tag from another one to double check). We're now trying to raise awareness about some of the common plants that are extremely toxic to humans as well as animals. The Mississippi State agricultural communications department wrote an article about toxins and pets and interviewed me about Nyx's case. http://msucares.com/news/print/cvm/cvm11/110526.html My mom even persuaded me to write a letter to the Ellen show since she's such an animal advocate. We just don't want this heartache to happen to anyone else!

She was such a blessing in our lives and we will miss her dearly!

Iraq Post 2

Sorry for the formatting on the entry. I have no experience with how to use blogspot. I am not going to re-enter them though, due to the fact that it took 1 hour to upload them with my blazing internet connection. As of right now I have been in Iraq for 20.5 days and have completed 10% of my deployment!!!! The days literally fly by over here. I have been flying twice a day. When I first arrived the weather was beautiful. 50 degrees at night and 80-90 degrees during the day. Now we still have nice weather at night but it is usually 100+ degrees by noon. In the coming week or two it is suppose to be up into the 120-130 range. I am told it feels like your standing in an oven with someone blowing a hair dryer on you and sprinkling sand while doing so. FUN. The pictures above are of of me and my first student. Victory Over America Palace that Saddam had built after his "Victory" over America in the first Gulf War. The other Palace belonged to a family...whom Saddam at first asked to have it from. When they refused, he took them and fed them to the tigers, lions, and other wild game and the Baghdad Zoo. Nice guy huh? He then made man made lakes/ponds around each of them so he could put his yacht in them. Did i mention that he filled them with the city's limited supply of potable drinking water. The other pics are from my sweet living quarters. While 90% of the people on base live in large tents, i get this. The call our little living area Golden Boy Village......I'm okay with that. Well...that's about it for now. Shoot me an email if you have time to let me know what is going on in your life. Also, to correct the previous post...my Skype account is under the screen name of ttbaby83 if interested in Skyping.

Iraq Post 1

Well, I arrived in Iraq two weeks ago tomorrow. The travel over was better then expected with emergency row seats all the way to Al Udeid. Woohoo. The last two weeks have been all about getting moved in, paper work done, and getting spun up and ready to instruct and advise the Iraqi's. Living quarters are about as good as you can get and will probably never get it this good again at a FOB (Forward Operations Base). I have my own room with A/C, full bathroom, fridge, and TV. There is a fair share of dust, sand, and mold but I can't complain. I just got internet hooked up in my room and started up two more Masters courses, so I have plenty to keep myself busy with. I have my first student sortie tomorrow with Lt. Saif. It will be his first sortie in the Iraqi pilot training program so....it should be interesting to say the least. I will try to start taking some pictures and updating the blog on a more regular basis. If you want to be able to skype with me you can look me up on skype by email patrick.weekly@gmail.com or you can search by my screen name...i think....which is patrick joseph weekly. Anyways, hope all is well where ever you are.

Well, the dreaded day has come and gone. Patrick is in Baltimore as I type, waiting for his flight overseas. The last few weeks have been a blur and my head is still spinning. Preparing for the deployment has been exhausting, and the work only begins from here for both Patrick and myself.

We are starting this blog mainly to keep our family & friends informed of what (and how) we're both doing, but also because communication will be restricted for Patrick and time will be restricted for me. We will both try to add pictures of what's going on and anything we think might be interesting to you! We just want to say thanks to all of you for your love and support. Please keep all three of us in your prayers as we stumble through our latest adventures!