Sean called me on Saturday and Sunday to wish me a happy birthday and to say a quick "hi" to everyone at Granny's. He was expecting to begin the move to the more permanent base of operations on Monday and thought there might be a few days before the communication lines (phone, e-mail) were set up.

I will definitely send out the new address within two minutes of hearing it from Sean. I know I'm not the only one with packages all wrapped up and ready to go. Thank you to all of you who have let me know that you have a package just waiting for an address. I appreciate so much all your support not only for Sean but your offers to help me out with whatever I might need. We already knew that we have amazing family and friends, but it is truly overwhelming to have it demonstrated so undeniably over and over!

p.s. Has anyone had any mail returned to them? Kathleen, Sean's sister, had something returned that was postmarked April 15, with "APO not valid" stamped on it. This exact thing happened once while Sean was in Bosnia. And I KNEW that APO was valid!! When that happened, I e-mailed everyone I thought might be involved, right up to the Secretary of Defense. There's no excuse for some APO worker to make that kind of mistake. This mail is important. Mail always is, but especially when it could be the only contact a service member overseas has with his/her family. And it was just that someone read the number wrong. I had not mis-addressed it. I got an apology and a promise to look into it and then a very detailed explanation. Anything that seems to be "APO not valid" should be double-checked and triple-checked by other employees before it is returned. Please let me know if anyone else has any trouble. I will try to see if I kept the response from the last APO trouble or if I have to start over.