Happy Birthday Haley!!!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!
Have a piece of cake for me, and one for the baby too. I love you ~ Bryon
(Couldn't think of a better occasion for my first post)

Check out my Slide Show!

What A Shiner!

I wanted to show you all a picture I took today on Skype of my tough husband. He and some other Army and Marine guys were playing football this morning and he took a hit while trying to get the ball. Check out his lovely shiner. That's a black eye if I ever saw one! And you should have seen it before he had the ice on it all day! I love you sweetie!

Mali News Reports

Below is a link from allafrica.com which describes some of what Bryon and his team are working on now. This is a recent public article so anyone has access to read it.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803310349.html


This next article is one from the Economist which describes the role Africa is playing on the War on Terror, specifically focusing on the vulnerabilities of West Africa (where Bryon is stationed).
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9340544


When articles show up in the news, Bryon can tell me about them and I will share them on here for you to see. Before they become public news, they are classified. Every little bit helps us stay informed and helps us know how to route our prayers.

Volleyball Tournament

Bryon has been a part of a volleyball league the last few months while in Mali and has really loved it. This past Friday, they had a tournament and these are pictures from the tournament.

March Prenatal Visit 2

I had my second OB visit this morning at 9am. All is well with little baby mushrush and mommy. The heart rate is a strong 164 and I have a very squirmy little one! My OB was looking at the ultrasound and kinda started grinning. She said I have a very squirmy baby. Thats cute now but when I'm further along, I'll probably be wanting a still baby that sleeps all the time. You know, Bryon and I always said, nothing has ever been "normal" with us, throughout our entire relationship. How we met, our dating history, our wedding and now our baby! Makes life more interesting for sure. Plus who needs sleep, bring on the kicks!

My fantastic OB took a few pictures for me to send to Bryon since he is missing out on the whole process and I wanted to share them with you all. There isnt really a good full body shot, but there are a few really good ones of his/her hands and fingers, head and leg. The leg pictures looks like its drawn up and ready to kick me good! I guess I'll have watch myself!

I will be able to find out the baby's gender in 6 weeks which will be May 12th. She scheduled the 3D ultrasound for then. Thats easy to remember because I graduate three days before that on May 9th. What a great week that will be! My next visit is 4 weeks from now. I'll post more updates then. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mali update

I talked to Bryon a few days ago and he and his team have officially moved into their new house. This is very exciting for him because he now has his own room and bathroom and took his first hot shower in since living in Africa a couple of nights ago. I know your probably thinking, who needs a hot shower when its 100 degrees outside, but there is just something soothing and comforting about taking a hot shower and I'm so glad he gets to take them finally. They live much closer to the embassy now. Actually, he told me that he can see the embassy from their rooftop. This means the house is a bit closer to civilization so their internet connection is better! Praise the Lord for this!

Bryon told me that he had dinner the other night at a place called WAFC, aka. West African Fried Chicken. How hilarious is that, KFC all the way in Mali. Of course, this made his night, being that he is a frequent flier at KFC here at Fort Bragg. You cant beat a plate of fried chicken and fries when your missing the south! Oh and he has been training on driving stick shift. He's never had a stick shift car before and most of the one's you find in Africa are stick. He said, he's ready to drive my dad's jeep when he gets back!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers for both Bryon and I. If you get a second send him a card or an email. He would love it. I have my second prenatal appointment on Monday so I'll put an update here after that. I think all is well, we will see! We have our first wedding shower this weekend at my church Elizabeth Baptist Church in Shelby. I'm crazy excited about that. Bryon told me that I should wait and have the showers while he is gone because it will give me things to look forward to. I didnt really agree and wanted him to be involved, but now, I see he is right. Men don't get excited about receiving dishes, towels, and house things like women do and it has given me things to get excited about.


And dont forget to tune into the NCAA tournament. My prediction= TAR HEELS ALL THE WAY!

Easter 2007

I got up this morning to the sound of the birds lightly chirping outside of my bedroom window. I felt a soft breeze on my skin and could hear the light rustle of the curtains gently blowing in the wind. I reached over to touch Bryon, but of course, he wasn't there. So I rolled over and spent time praying for him, for his safety, that he would be able to come home for the birth of our baby and that God would shorten his deployment. At this point, I decided I should get up, so I got online, my normal morning routine, to check if Bryon happened to be on skype. It said he was! So I typed him a message with much enthusiasm and to my deep chagrin said, "Bryon Mushrush is currently not online, your chat messages will be delivered when you are both online again". For those of you who use skype, this is the message of the devil. NOOOO, Dad gum. So, instead of pining on my irritation, I started flipping through old pictures of us and found the ones we took last Easter. Thought you might like to see a few. We spent last Easter visiting my grandma in Charleston and then came home and spent Easter Sunday with my family. At that point, Mary and Nate were just dating and there was only ONE little one in the family. Now, only 1 year later, there are three little one's and a fourth is on it's way! wow! Oh, and isn't my husband handsome in his suit!

Love you all and Happy Easter.

Bryon and Casey

Bryon spending time with Casey Ray before his deployment. I have a picture of Bryon hanging on my mirror in my bathroom. I often give Casey a bath at night before his bedtime and he sees the picture hanging on the mirror. He quickly begins his nightly routine of saying goodnight to Bryon by saluting him. How cute is that. My sister taught Casey that whenever he sees Bryon is is supposed to salute him and sure enough, somehow it stuck! Now that is Bryon's official sign. I love both of those boys so much.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day to ya!

This is such a fun day, well as long as your wearing green its a fun day. I remember on St. Patrick's Day last year, Bryon said he refused to wear green and that I was not, under any circunstance, allowed to pinch him. Well, of course, that means nothing to me, so I proceed to pinch him as often as possible. Well, he got tired of it and decided to tape a green M&M (his favorite candy) to his shirt so that I would have to stop pinching him. What a goofball! You can see the picture below. Boy was he proud of himself for being so cunning. :)

Aside from that, today is my little sister Mary's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MARY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!! Mary, Nate and Ayden are living in Seminole, Florida with his parents now, while Nate is doing his culinary internship (not sure exactly what its called, but internship sounds good). They will be home soon though and will be moving to Boone (yes, most definately God's country up there, so georgous!)

In addition to all of that, today is the graduation fair at UNCC. What that means is that today, I pick up my cap and gown and hood for graduation. Wow!!! The end is really in site. Sometimes it seems like I've been in school forever. It's only been three years of graduate school but I guess that, plus 4 years undergraduate makes a whole lot of education. The goal, of course, is that I know what I'm doing so that I won't kill anyone. I had my board certification review course all weekend and am so intimidated! It's amazing how complex the human body is and how much there is to know. I will say that both UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte, together, have prepared me pretty well for being a Family Nurse Practitioner. The one thing I'm sad about is that Bryon won't be able to be at my graduation. Oh well, I'd give that up any day, to have him here when our baby is born.

I pray the luck of the Irish is with you today and the blessings of our Lord abound in your lives. I have two favorite Irish blessings to share with you.


"May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire."

and finally

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.