MONDAY, JUNE 28th.

Day 414 of CPT Patti's deployment.

One year, six weeks, six days.

And the momentum is building, as is the excitement. The first 150 soldiers returned to our community over the weekend. They comprised the ADVON, the advanced echelon sent to prepare the way for the others.

You may recall that just prior to the extension the ADVON was 48 hours away from being home. But they never left Baghdad.

Consensus around the picnic table last night is that the arrival of the ADVON makes some of our folks who had been saying "I'll believe it when it happens", well, some of them are now tilting toward believing.

Me...I believe. And I spent the weekend putzing around the house...I've got about half the apartment "reunion worthy".

I saved the other half to give me something to do next weekend.