Happy Easter Everyone! 

I love you Jesse! 

Ethan is growing up! 

Can't wait for Jesse to be home for GOOD! 

Our Property 

so cute 

sweetie 

baby 

A Break...

Well it is Sunday, mid-morning, and I am enjoying a seldom experienced phenomenon in this household -- Quiet! My mom met Ethan and I at Walmart for some early morning shopping and then she took him home with her for a couple of hours so I could have a break. It is still hard for me to accept help with him, but I have realized that he needs a sane, happy, healthy parent to take care of him, not a crazy lady! :) I am just going to pick up a few things around the house and do some laundry. Nothing exciting, but that is the way we like it. Jesse is waiting at the air field to go on pass for a few days to Quatar. He needs a break as well! He is getting anxious waiting to come home, as we all are. We are headed to California on Friday for my Grandpa's memorial. It will be sad, but I am glad we can all go as a family. Anyhow, hope everyone is well. Love to you all!
Linds

Jesse's Return

Well an end is in sight everyone! Jesse has received “official” word on when he will be returning home. I won’t publish a timeline since this is a public blog, but it will put him into Montana about the end of the first week of May. He said that these dates are “give or take a week.” However, I am so happy to have some sort of definite time, I can be flexible a week or two! Our plan after he returns is to immediately go to the Tri-Cities and find a house. Since it will take some time to find a house and close on a house we want to do that as soon as possible. Then we’ll return to Montana and pack, and hopefully take a vacation somewhere! Then we’ll be moving back to the Tri-Cities. We are hoping to be moved by the end of June. Then Jesse will be back to work! For those of you planning on coming out to Montana for Jesse’s arrival, I would estimate coming around the second week of May.

I am hoping the next few months go by fast. Now that I have a date I am extremely anxious and it seems that time is going by more slowly. Ethan and I are very excited for Jesse’s return. We are both doing fine. Ethan is feeling much better. We had a nice trip visiting all of Jesse’s family, as usual. I am looking forward to the next visit – with Jesse!

Hope you are all doing well. Take care and talk to you all soon.

Love Lindsey & Ethan

Hanging with Grandpa 

Come home soon.....

Well another week has gone by. Slowly, but surely. I wish the time would go by much faster. It seems to be just crawing along. I have been thinking about all the things that will need to be done when Jess gets back. I wish I could start on them now, but it is hard without a definite return date. Jesse will go to Bagdad in a couple of days to attend a re-deployment meeting. He should have a more clear outline after this meeting -- maybe even a concrete date. Let's all cross our fingers and hope. Other than wanting Jesse home, I haven't been up to very much. Just taking care of Ethan. I am headed to Seattle on Wednesday so that should be a nice break. Hope everyone is well. Love to you all.
Lindsey

Feeling Better

Well Ethan and I are both feeling better. I never realized how hard it can be on a parent to take care of a sick child. I think it is more traumatizing on the parent. I know that is how I felt! Ethan seems to be feeling better. I think it will be a couple more days before he is back 100%, but at least he is getting there. I am feeling better too. I am a little tired, but better. I have had a nice break from the Bengalettes, which has made me feel better too. I have decided not to let the actions of a few teenage girls influence how I feel. I hope the days start going by more quickly. It seems like time is dragging by. I just want April to be here so Jesse can get home. I am headed to Seattle the first week of February for one last visit with Jess's family. I think it will be a nice break and change of scenery for Ethan and I. Hope everyone else is well. I know a lot of people have been sick lately...hope you feel better!
Love Lindsey

INSANITY

Well as those of you who I talk to regularly know, the dance team is driving me insane. If I ever say I want to have anything to do with high school age girls again, someone please stop me! Especially if the job only pays 35 cents an hour. All their drama and negativity has been weighing me down. I am trying not to stress out over it, but it is hard. I have made the decision to just toughen up and let it roll off my back. On a better note, Jesse will definitely be home earlier than June. I can't wait. I think life in general will seem better when he returns. I can't wait. I think all things in the world will be right when he returns. :) Love to you all.
Lindsey

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope this year brings you all the happiness in the world.

Linds

Another Early Morning

Another early morning for Ethan and I. I don't understand why my son decides that 3:45 am is a good time to get up, two days in a row. He is a total mystery when it comes to sleeping habits. He has none, except he never sleeps. I can't wait for Jesse to come home and help me crack this code. Maybe he'll have better luck with the insomniac. Well it seems that the word on the street is that Jesse's unit will be returning early than June. I hope so. I am not supposed to get my hopes up, but it is impossible not to. I can't believe Jesse has been gone nine months already. It seems longer to me. The days go by so slowly! It looks like J and I will be headed back to the Tri Cities when he gets home. Not where either of us would like to be, but we'll make the best of it. Maybe I can get my child to tire out so I can go back to bed....doubt it. Love to you all.

Ethan's Christmas Outfit 

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Jesse's Comments

Some people mentioned they couldn't read Jesse's comments, so here they are!

JChaquette said...
Hello Everyone, it's been quite a while since I've written a message on the blog. I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy new Year. Thank you to everyone for all your support over the months, I really appreciate it. Things here in Iraq are going well and thankfully election time was nice and quiet. It's always a tense time but luckily we didn't have any issues. It's going to be an experience spending Christmas in Iraq. We've done our best to decorate our living space and office space with all the chrismas decorations we've recieved and I think we've done a pretty good job. We have fake trees set up with lights althought we burnt out the power converter so it's not no now. We figured if we plugged them into the 220V plug they'd be dead in a minute...it does however make for a very bright tree. Anyway I'm sure looking forward to coming home in the near future. We'll well over the half way mark of our rotation but still no word on a return trip. Take care and God Bless. Linds I love you with all my heart. Thanks for being so wonderful!!!

10 Days and Counting...

Only ten days until Christmas. It still doesn't seem quite like Christmas. However, I did go over and decorate my mom's tree, and we have already received a few gifts in the mail. I think Christmas will come and go, just like any other day. I am excited to see Amber though. It has been too long. Plus it will be fun to have Erica here and for us to all be together. Ethan is still too little to really understand -- he enjoys eating the wrapping paper more than opening the presents. Next year will be different. Next year we'll have an actual Christmas, hopefully at our own house, with a tree and decorations, and everything that makes a holiday special. Happy Holidays to everyone! Love you Jesse.

Love Lindsey

It's been awhile!

Well it has been awhile since I last posted on the blog. I have been so busy! Ethan and I had a great time visiting all the family in Washington. It was nice to relax and nice to have some help and some company! It still doesn't really feel like Christmas to me. I am not sure if that is because I don't have a single decoration up at my house or because Jesse is gone. Either way, Christmas will still come and go. Jesse should find out in January a more definite date of when they'll be returning. I hope we get something final, so I can start planning!! I feel like me whole life is on hold until we know when he'll get back. Anyhow, life is fine here. Same old stuff!! Hope everyone is well.
Love Lindsey

Party Time

We had a great birthday party yesterday for Ethan. It was really fun to have everyone get together. Of course he scored some serious loot. I am not sure, but people always tend to go overboard with the presents when it comes to kids. I know I do the same! Anyhow, it was a lot of fun and I am glad we did it. Who knows where we will be next year, so it was nice to have friends and family who could attend. Thank you everyone who made it. Thank you for all the nice gifts, but more importantly, thank you for coming to celebrate and share in our special time. Just wish Jess could have been there. (Pretty common theme in all of these posts!) I can't believe my little baby is already one. Wow, the time went fast! Love to you all.
Lindsey

The Birthday Boy 

Happy Thanksgiving/Happy Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and Happy 1st Birthday Ethan! We had a great day yesterday. It was nice to be home for Thanksgiving. I haven't been home for the last three turkey days, and it was great to have all the favorites. I only wish Jesse could have been there for a Smith Family Thanksgiving dinner. Another year I suppose. I can't believe Little E turned one yesterday. It is crazy how fast the time went. He still seems like a little baby to me. I suppose he will always be my little baby. He is such a sweetie. He is walking like a champ now. I bet in about a week he'll have it down. Today he has to get all his shots. (yuck!) Tomorrow is the big birthday bash. It should be a lot of fun. Hope you all ate lots of turkey and pumpkin pie! We love you J.

First Steps...

Good Morning. I am not even sure if you can call it that. Morning -- it is about 2:40 am and my little prince insomniac has decided he doesn't want to sleep anymore. He would rather be up causing a ruckus in the living room playing with all his toys and eating graham crackers. There is something wrong with this child's sleeping habits, seriously. Oh well. I was hoping he would eventually get sleepy and we could go back to bed, but from the looks of it, that won't be happening anytime soon. Anyhow, our Griz lost yesterday. I don't want to hear a single comment about it (Jennifer!) Overall, it was about the worse football game I have ever seen. However, it will be etched in my mind permanently from this day forward. Ethan decided the game was boring too and thought he would entertain me instead. He took his first steps!! He walked about four steps towards me. Then I had him do it like five more times! It was way more exciting than the game. Hopefully he keeps it up -- I can't believe he will be walking before his first birthday! I can't believe his first birthday is only four days away. Most of all I can't believe I am typing a blog post at 2:40 am. Love to you all.

Hmmmmmmm.....

I have realized now that I sat down at the computer that I have absolutely nothing interesting to write about. Does that say something about my life??? Well things are just the same as always. I suppose that is a good thing. No news is good news it seems in my life. I am just gearing up for Ethan's birthday, Thanksgiving, and yes, Christmas. I already had to wrap all of Jesse's presents and ornaments so I am getting into the holiday spirit early. Ethan is getting his pictures taken on Saturday. I hope they turn out cute (of course they will!) Day to day activities in this Chaquette household are fairly mundane lately. I am sure they will pick up toward the end of this month. Hope you are all happy and healthy. We love you Jess.

Another Early Morning

Well my little insomniac night owl was up even earlier this morning (3:30am) I think he is trying to kill me. Or at least prove who is in charge -- yes Ethan, we all know who is the boss! We had our first real snow last night. I went outside this morning and the ground was covered. It looked very pretty, but I am not looking forward to icy roads and even colder days. It will be interesting to see how Ethan feels about it. I can't believe it is already November and that in three weeks Ethan will turn one. I am not sure where the last year has gone. I only wish Jesse was here to celebrate with us. It will be an amazing Thanksgiving/Ethan's first birthday. I am excited. Well the little prince is calling, love to everyone!

Our Little Monster! 

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween! Ethan and I are looking forward to our first trick-or-treating experience with all of the cousins. We are only sorry that Jesse couldn't be here -- next year!! With love, Lindsey

What a Cutie Pie! 

Another Day...

Well it has been awhile since I posted a message. Probably because my life is, for the most part, pretty quiet. I don't do much, besides take care of Ethan. That consumes almost every second of every day and doesn't leave to much time for other pursuits. My dancers have cross-town football tomorrow. It should be fun. It is going well with the dance team, for the most part. There are definitely some people I like more than others, but that is to be expected I suppose. Hopefully with the upcoming holidays the time will start to go by a little quicker. First Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Ethan's birthday, then Christmas. I am already getting Christmas presents ready for Jesse. I always thought it was strange to see wrapping paper in the stores before Halloween even hit, but now I am understanding why. I looked everywhere this week for Christmas paper, but haven't found it yet! :) Well today is another day closer to Jesse's return!! Hope everyone is well.
With Love,
Lindsey & Ethan

Crazy Man!

Ethan is crawling around the entire house like a crazy man. If I was looking for something to keep me busy after Jesse left, I found it! Now he crawls through the entire house (he used to sort of stay in the area you put him in!) He has also found it interesting to pick things up along the way and carry them with him. One of his newest favorite activities is emptying the entire bookcase around himself. Yesterday he had a mountain of books surrounding him. He is hilarious. I don't think it will be much longer before he starts walking. He can pull himself up on anything now, including the wall!! He will also chase you if you get on the ground and crawl with him. It is so much fun. I just wish he didn't go for the things like cords, computer equipment, pictures etc. Wow he is going to be a lot of work!!! I can't believe his first birthday is right around the corner!

Congratulations Shannon and Eric!

Well today is the big day!! Just wanted to say congrats to the happy couple. I am sure we are going to have a great night, and a fun weekend! I have never seen Shannon happier or Eric more excited. Wishing you both all the happiness in the world. You both deserve it!!

Getting Excited....

Oh I am so excited for Jesse to come home, I can hardly stand it. I don't know what to do with myself. I am going crazy, trying to stay busy. It is snowing at my house right now!! Little E man has been up since his usual time (4:30 am) so I got him all ready to run to Target and it is snowing. So we cancelled that shopping trip. Brrrrr.....it is freezing out. It is a very slushy heavy snow. Thank goodness it should warm up to about 70 by Monday or Jesse would seriously freeze. I am glad I bought him some sweatshirts to wear while he is home. I just received an email from him. He made it to Kuwait. From there, we don't know. He has to go to a briefing tonight I guess. Usual Army bull -- there has to be a briefing for EVERYTHING. Now he has informed me that he will be flying into Atlanta. So of course, I mapped out every possible flight time/route from Atlanta to Helena. Man, I need something more to do!!

Oh no.......

I'm sick. I woke up this morning at felt horrible. Well, actually Ethan had kept me up most of the night and at 4 am I finally gave up on trying to get him to go back to sleep and just got up. My throat is killing me, and I found out at practice today that my Captain found out last night she has strep throat. Great, that is all I need!! Could the timing be any worse??? I don't want to be sick when Jess is home. I don't have a doctor in Helena yet, so I am going to try and find one and have a strep test done. I've had strep before so I know I am prone to getting it again. Ugh, it is always something. Oh, and on top of that, we have a Winter Storm Advisory for the weekend? Are you kidding me. Jesse is going to freeze his little behind off when he gets here. I sure hope that all this hurricane business doesn't delay his arrival. He is supposed to be flying into Texas. Man, it would be nice is something ever just worked out smoothly!! I just want him to be here!!

Countdown

The countdown is on! Only three days until Jesse gets to leave!! We still have no idea how long it will actually take him to get here....and more then likely we won't know until he has reached the U.S. However, he believes it will take him four days to get here. I am thinking the 28th at the latest. I am trying not to get so excited, but I can't help it. I am really looking forward to seeing him. It is going to be a great visit. I can't believe we have already been apart for six months!! When I say it, it sounds like a long time, but it has felt like a long time! I am excited for him to see Ethan and how he has changed. He hasn't seen him for four months, and when he did get to see him last it was only for two days. A lot has changed!! I can't wait!!! Hopefully the next post on here will be by Jesse!! Love to you all.
Lindsey

Feeling Better

Well I am feeling better since Ethan's doctor appointment on Friday. I am convinced that Ethan is perfect. I spend more time with him than anyone and I don't ever see anything wrong with him. The only time I am reminded of it is when I have to go to another appointment. I am feeling better after talking to Jesse and the Grandma's. I think Ethan is going to be just fine. No, I know he is going to be. He is an angel and is nothing short of a miracle. I couldn't love the boys in my life any more than I do. You know that saying "God will never give you more than you can handle?" Well I wish he would take a break with testing that theory out on my family. I think the last six months have brought just about all that I can handle. I told Jesse I am going to need therapy after this whole ordeal. I just can't wait to have Jesse come home to visit. There couldn't be a better time. Everyone seems to be reaching their stress limit. Jesse's visit will give all of us a much needed morale boost. I am so excited. Well, better get to bed soon. 4:45am always seems to come so fast!

Three Little Words...

Drama. Drama. Drama. Can I just tell you how glad I am that I am not a high school girl right now. Ugh, these fifteen and sixteen year olds are driving me nuts. I don't even know where to start on all their issues, but let's just put it this way -- it is going to stop. Tomorrow they will get a little talking to. I guess it is time to show them the Army Sergeant or something. Final tryouts for the Dance team are tomorrow. We have 21 girls. I am impressed with a few of them, and am excited to have them on the team. We'll see tomorrow. I have been doing so much work already with these girls and I haven't even got a pay check yet!! :) Hopefully things will smooth out. Other than that, all is well over here. I am so excited for Jesse to come home I can barely stand it. I am trying to stay busy, doing random things around the house, etc. We have decided to fly to Ryan and Amy's wedding now. Even though it will be expensive, I want Jesse's time home to be as relaxing as possible. The thought of over twenty hours in the car, with Ethan, just wasn't appealing to either of us. Then, Shannon and Eric are getting married the next Friday. They wanted to include Jesse, so they chose October 7th. Just when I thought we would be done with weddings!! Well hope everyone is having a great week -- it is almost the weekend. Corn maze here we come!

Lindsey