Josh and I had a very entertaining Halloween. We played two games of Scrabble and handed out candy to some very amazing visitors. Here's who came by:
By age:
0-3
A Sheep
Giraffe
a White/Green, Fuzzy boy (head to toe covered in fleece.)
and a very hungry Pumpkin
4-7
Dorothy (Josh thought she was Cinderella...but the red sparkly shoes and blue checkered dress with an apron clearly says Dorothy.)
Wonder Woman
Lizard (totally a Dinosaur but Josh says lizard. That poor boy would probably cry if he knew- he could probably tell us the exact dinosaur he was)
three Fairy's (one of which Josh said was really Cinderella, and the other one he thought was supposed to be a butterfly)
Spiderman
Superman
the Real Cinderella
8 on Up:
Venom
a Knight of the Round Table
a Jedi
Court Jester
two Soldiers
an Unknown--yeah we had no idea
Tina Turner??! Or maybe Beyonce?
a Dead Tony Hawk...we had to ask.
a Witch
the Dark Knight ((Batman))
Our favorite was the Hungry Pumpkin and the Lizard. We had a great time talking to the kids about their costumes and handing out not nearly enough candy. However, the Pumpkin could have taken much more. Oh, and I'm still undefeated in Scrabble. However, the last game was fairly close, keeps me on my toes!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Bye Bye Birdie
I just have to let you all know that the birds have left. They are finally all gone. There is silence in our backyard (except for yelling soldiers and artillery thuds). Horray!
My job search continues to heat up, and hopefully some of the applications I turned in will elicit responses in the next few days! I hope to have a job soon! :)
Sorry for the short update, but there isn't a whole lot to report yet. Except that Josh and I are growing exceedingly more excited for this Saturday's Husker game. Oh boy. !!!
My job search continues to heat up, and hopefully some of the applications I turned in will elicit responses in the next few days! I hope to have a job soon! :)
Sorry for the short update, but there isn't a whole lot to report yet. Except that Josh and I are growing exceedingly more excited for this Saturday's Husker game. Oh boy. !!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Before and After Adventure
Today when I checked the therm in our house...52 degrees. I thought I'd better turn on the heat to save our electronics. I am just fine in 3 layers! :) But we all know I like it cold. Mainly because then I can sleep comfortably.
Josh started school today. I was going to take a picture of him this morning before he left, but it was 4:00 so no thank you. He looked like he does everyday going to work. Uni. So nothing really new. BUT Josh is the PTOIC. Physical Training Officer In Charge. Wouldn't you know my husband gets a job I'm qualified for and can't get. Geez. That's the way it works isn't it. BUT he's going to do fantastic and I'm sure they will be in better shape at the end of the class.
Hope you enjoy the pics! Tell me if you are still confused on the layout. I tried to make it clear, who knows if it worked. If you want to see the pics big and with all the descriptive captions, check out my picasa: Pick1 !
Friday, October 24, 2008
Fort Leonard Wood. Three words.
I’ve lost sight of my mission! As the heading promises, A Day in the Life of the Army, I should provide more insight than I have been! We are nearly settled in, leaving half our boxes packed and closeted; our house looks nearly occupied! We only put two things on the walls throughout the house: A clock in the living room, and the calendar in the kitchen. Bare walls…I think yuck, Josh thinks wonderful. I told him he should live in an institutional facility.
The last few days we have gotten very little accomplished in the house due to a wonderful term the Army calls “In Processing”. I was explaining to someone the other day “Out Processing”. Trying to search my mind for an example, I recalled senior year of high school. Remember when, in order to graduate, you had to go to all your teachers, and get signatures which pretty much meant that you hadn’t stolen your text book, or your gym locker was clean…etc. Well, that’s what it’s like. At Leavenworth we had to go to the medical clinic and take our names out of the system, forward our medical records....etc, we had to go to post housing and sign out (which was easy because we never lived on base there), to different departments like the sales store, AG (Adjutant General), personnel, DEERS, a billion other acronyms. Blah blah blah. Or as those in the military say, blasé blasé blasé. Say that with a straight face. Actually just listen to that with a straight face. I crack up every time, what is that! So we are cleared to PCS Leavenworth. Permanent Change of Station.
So now we’re here and have to “In Process” to all those same places only now we don’t know where they are, and we’re on a MUCH bigger base so there are forever long waits wherever we go. What makes it a little frustrating is most places we go all we need is one tiny signature…takes 5 seconds. And we have to wait in line for everyone with actual issues. I’m not against waiting my turn, but seriously. Today we went to the ID check and Josh has to simply show that he has his dog tags, get a signature, and we leave. We had to get a number….105. They were on 78. We would have waited over 3 hours. We left.
So what’s new about living here? Well, Ft. Leonard Wood is a BCT base. Basic Combat Training. AIT and ANCOC and BNCOC and OBC and CCC are also here. Those are all schools. All the Army’s Military Police, Engineers, and Chemical personnel are trained here at many different levels. Since Josh is an MP we come here for school! Get it? Well anyway, three Army branches make this base pretty busy. And there are Marines here…and Air Force, too.
You’ve all heard of the 12 o’clock whistle, or maybe a 6 o’clock whistle. We have a 1700 cannon. (5pm) And every day at retreat (when they take down the flag and the cannon goes off and the bugle plays a little tune) all soldiers in uniform or otherwise have to stop what they are doing and face the direction of the flag and salute. Well, not if you’re indoors. But if you are outside and hear it (you can’t NOT hear it), you stop your car, get out and salute, or stop whatever you’re doing and salute the direction of the flag that’s getting lowered. I forgot all about this. Mostly because we didn’t live on Leavenworth so I didn’t hear it and Josh tried not to leave work until after 5 to miss it. Ha ha ha.
So with BCT troops here comes many wonderful side effects. Our house in near a major training area and even though it’s probably a block or two off the major intersection, there is nothing in between us an the main road besides a few trees and a tennis court parking lot. So, that means whenever the soldiers leave their training area (moderately often) they march in formation yelling “singing” cadences. Now, let me tell you, this is a large amount of soldiers, it sounds like a mob or possibly a riot. And many times you can here the yelling much before they are in sight and that’s always funny too. Imagine being about 20 blocks from Memorial Stadium during a game and hearing that distant roar of voices sporadically all the time.
Today Josh came in and asked me if I heard the artillery fire. I didn’t. But I had heard it the day before. So that’s new.
I love it.
PS- I asked Martha yesterday what was larger than a flock. Because I think we have the equivalent of 5 flocks of birds living in the trees behind our house. They need to start using their inside voices. Or just hurry up and migrate. Or fly over the artillery range.
The last few days we have gotten very little accomplished in the house due to a wonderful term the Army calls “In Processing”. I was explaining to someone the other day “Out Processing”. Trying to search my mind for an example, I recalled senior year of high school. Remember when, in order to graduate, you had to go to all your teachers, and get signatures which pretty much meant that you hadn’t stolen your text book, or your gym locker was clean…etc. Well, that’s what it’s like. At Leavenworth we had to go to the medical clinic and take our names out of the system, forward our medical records....etc, we had to go to post housing and sign out (which was easy because we never lived on base there), to different departments like the sales store, AG (Adjutant General), personnel, DEERS, a billion other acronyms. Blah blah blah. Or as those in the military say, blasé blasé blasé. Say that with a straight face. Actually just listen to that with a straight face. I crack up every time, what is that! So we are cleared to PCS Leavenworth. Permanent Change of Station.
So now we’re here and have to “In Process” to all those same places only now we don’t know where they are, and we’re on a MUCH bigger base so there are forever long waits wherever we go. What makes it a little frustrating is most places we go all we need is one tiny signature…takes 5 seconds. And we have to wait in line for everyone with actual issues. I’m not against waiting my turn, but seriously. Today we went to the ID check and Josh has to simply show that he has his dog tags, get a signature, and we leave. We had to get a number….105. They were on 78. We would have waited over 3 hours. We left.
So what’s new about living here? Well, Ft. Leonard Wood is a BCT base. Basic Combat Training. AIT and ANCOC and BNCOC and OBC and CCC are also here. Those are all schools. All the Army’s Military Police, Engineers, and Chemical personnel are trained here at many different levels. Since Josh is an MP we come here for school! Get it? Well anyway, three Army branches make this base pretty busy. And there are Marines here…and Air Force, too.
You’ve all heard of the 12 o’clock whistle, or maybe a 6 o’clock whistle. We have a 1700 cannon. (5pm) And every day at retreat (when they take down the flag and the cannon goes off and the bugle plays a little tune) all soldiers in uniform or otherwise have to stop what they are doing and face the direction of the flag and salute. Well, not if you’re indoors. But if you are outside and hear it (you can’t NOT hear it), you stop your car, get out and salute, or stop whatever you’re doing and salute the direction of the flag that’s getting lowered. I forgot all about this. Mostly because we didn’t live on Leavenworth so I didn’t hear it and Josh tried not to leave work until after 5 to miss it. Ha ha ha.
So with BCT troops here comes many wonderful side effects. Our house in near a major training area and even though it’s probably a block or two off the major intersection, there is nothing in between us an the main road besides a few trees and a tennis court parking lot. So, that means whenever the soldiers leave their training area (moderately often) they march in formation yelling “singing” cadences. Now, let me tell you, this is a large amount of soldiers, it sounds like a mob or possibly a riot. And many times you can here the yelling much before they are in sight and that’s always funny too. Imagine being about 20 blocks from Memorial Stadium during a game and hearing that distant roar of voices sporadically all the time.
Today Josh came in and asked me if I heard the artillery fire. I didn’t. But I had heard it the day before. So that’s new.
I love it.
PS- I asked Martha yesterday what was larger than a flock. Because I think we have the equivalent of 5 flocks of birds living in the trees behind our house. They need to start using their inside voices. Or just hurry up and migrate. Or fly over the artillery range.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Our New House
Sooooo like it? We were warned of lead based paint and a potential mold problem. We're pumped. :) Ft. Leonard Wood, here we come! Oh. Side note about the top pic...it's a duplex, the part I've included is our half. I've been assured our neighbor does not have a snake pet. Side note about the bottom pic... Josh is standing on one half of our kitchen, the vacant space to his right--washer dryer hookups. NICE. The doorway he's in front of is the entry way from the front door. ha ha ha haTuesday, October 7, 2008
Washington DC!
Wow. This is a long one. Hope you like it!
Here's an update of our trip to DC. PS- it was awesome. So we got there Wednesday morning and figured out the railway system to get to our hotel. We went to Subway for lunch...then were going to go out and explore a bit but it started pouring down rain so we ordered pizza for supper and stayed in. Nice and relaxing, and we got to give our canks time to unswell after the flight. Thursday, our friends Catie and Matt flew in and we went to Andrews Air Force base to get groceries and try to see Air Force One. Which we might have seen but we have no idea because it doesn't say AF1 on it. Smart. Wouldn’t want someone to know where the Pres is. Then we went into DC and saw the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Mr. Sherman, the White House and a bunch of stuff then went on a moonlight tour of all the monuments and memorials. SWEET. Too bad our camera decided it would forget how to focus so we have nearly zero pics from that. The guide told us all these awesome facts about history and the different monuments. I think my favorite was the Lincoln Memorial, and the Iwo Jima Memorial. The Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial are pretty neat too, especially at night. Then we went home and tried not to get shot walking from the Metro (their underground train mass public transportation) to our hotel.
Friday we went into DC early and went to the Holocaust museum. It took us 4 hours and we hurried through it. It was soooo sweet. And sad. BUT really awesome. You will not believe some of the things you can see in that museum. Honestly, woah. Ever wanted to see footage of when the U.S. Military first found and shut down a concentration camp? You can watch it there. They filmed the whole thing, walking into it, first time they'd ever been inside. OR- how about wanting to see what it was like living in the Ghettos (areas of a few cities where Jews were forced to move to), yeah they have the actual street of one you can walk on. Then they had recorded stories from survivers playing constantly. If Josh was ever assigned to DC, I would work there somehow. I love WWII stuff. Then we went to the Washington Monument and some other stuff...now I can't remember. Dang it...oh yeah. We went to the Capitol and we saw when the House of Representatives passed the Bailout Plan. We weren't inside but we were right there! WOAH. Then we went to the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court and turns out, Bush had been there only a few hours before talking about the Bailout to some people. Missed him. Geez. Then we went back to the hotel, and then met Amit and Liz at this Mexican place for supper. I swear it's the closest I've been to having been in a club. BUT it wasn't Josh told me because it wasn't based on dancing. Sad. I had a swirly margarita...it was delish. Then we went back and tried not to get shot again.
Saturday we woke up early and went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ((Very awesome)) and JFK's grave. And the house where Robert E. Lee lived, thanks to our Moonlight Tour Guide, we knew exactly how Arlington National Cemetery came to be that way. Then we saw Bobby Kennedy's grave, and about 300,000 other people's. Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial then to the Vietnam Wall of Names, then we went to the new WWII memorial and that was sweet, too. I took a ton of pics for Gpa. I hope he goes to see it himself though. It’s amazing how sobering history can be…these memorials are memories of some of the saddest events in our history- it’s amazing to get a glimpse of what people were going through and how tragic these events were. We headed back a little early cause we wanted to watch the Husker game. So we went to Red Lobster and then watched us get POUNDED. Seriously how can we be so continually bad? Aren't teams supposed to make improvements week to week? I guess we made a 3 minute improvement when we scored right away. Didn't help. BUT- I am no less of a fan. :)
Sunday we woke up before the crack and went to the Pentagon (!!!) for Josh's race. The Army Ten-Miler- 26,000 runners (not all military- it’s just Army sponsored, anyone can run it, but it is mostly military). It was crazy. We got to see him once during the race, when they ran over the Memorial Bridge (I’m pretty sure that’s the right name). It was at mile 1.5 in the race and went from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial. It was really cool because the first group of runners were amputees. The double amputees were on arm-operated cycles. There were several single leg amputees running, and several with an arm. I tell you what, I was so proud of those runners, all of them. Can you imagine what they’ve been through and they’ve not let it change their life as much as they can help it. It was amazing to see so many people serving our country in one place- and that have a commitment to fitness! We were standing on a four lane road that was packed full of runners for over 40 minutes. Then I went to watch the finish back at the Pentagon, and Catie and Matt had to leave to go home. Josh finished 857th, out of 26,000, with a time of 1 hr 9 min 26 sec, a 6:57 pace. Really great! The guy that won ran 10 miles in 48:59. Sic. He was from Brazil, there were several elite (professional) runners there. Then we went back to the hotel and Josh showered then we got back on the Metro and went to Amit's house in Baltimore. He lives in a row house above a Pie store. ha ha ha. Ate lunch, watched football, hung out, then he took us home and Josh was pooped.
Monday we went to the Library of Congress again (we went there the afternoon I forgot what we did) and then we went to the Botanical Gardens, sweet, the National Air and Space Museum, pretty cool, and then we went and watched a Supreme Court hearing. That was so awesome. We got to sit in the back row and the case was about a trial between a credit card company and a person that owed. We think. Ha. When a trial gets to that level, what they are arguing is wording in the Constitution and other documents to convince the 9 Justices that their side is correct under the constitution. Literally a 4 word phrase in one document. There isn’t evidence or witnesses. The Justices have the information on the case, then each side gets 30 minutes to prove their position under the Constitution. What makes it really interesting is that they have to have a pretty dang good reason for bringing it before a Federal Court because it’s reserved for important cases and cases that will alter define the interpretation of the Constitution. Those Justices don’t hold back either, they were grilling the lawyers. WOAH. I would have cried if they were putting me under that much pressure. In fact at one point, one of the Justices I didn’t know asked the lawyer if he had a reason to be there cause he felt like his time was being wasted. Ouch. After the hour, It was really fun. Then we went back to the hotel, got our gear, went to the port, flew home, and boy are our arms tired. Ha ha. We had such a great trip! If you made it this far in reading about it, hope you enjoyed it too! Pictures to come!
Here's an update of our trip to DC. PS- it was awesome. So we got there Wednesday morning and figured out the railway system to get to our hotel. We went to Subway for lunch...then were going to go out and explore a bit but it started pouring down rain so we ordered pizza for supper and stayed in. Nice and relaxing, and we got to give our canks time to unswell after the flight. Thursday, our friends Catie and Matt flew in and we went to Andrews Air Force base to get groceries and try to see Air Force One. Which we might have seen but we have no idea because it doesn't say AF1 on it. Smart. Wouldn’t want someone to know where the Pres is. Then we went into DC and saw the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Mr. Sherman, the White House and a bunch of stuff then went on a moonlight tour of all the monuments and memorials. SWEET. Too bad our camera decided it would forget how to focus so we have nearly zero pics from that. The guide told us all these awesome facts about history and the different monuments. I think my favorite was the Lincoln Memorial, and the Iwo Jima Memorial. The Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial are pretty neat too, especially at night. Then we went home and tried not to get shot walking from the Metro (their underground train mass public transportation) to our hotel.
Friday we went into DC early and went to the Holocaust museum. It took us 4 hours and we hurried through it. It was soooo sweet. And sad. BUT really awesome. You will not believe some of the things you can see in that museum. Honestly, woah. Ever wanted to see footage of when the U.S. Military first found and shut down a concentration camp? You can watch it there. They filmed the whole thing, walking into it, first time they'd ever been inside. OR- how about wanting to see what it was like living in the Ghettos (areas of a few cities where Jews were forced to move to), yeah they have the actual street of one you can walk on. Then they had recorded stories from survivers playing constantly. If Josh was ever assigned to DC, I would work there somehow. I love WWII stuff. Then we went to the Washington Monument and some other stuff...now I can't remember. Dang it...oh yeah. We went to the Capitol and we saw when the House of Representatives passed the Bailout Plan. We weren't inside but we were right there! WOAH. Then we went to the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court and turns out, Bush had been there only a few hours before talking about the Bailout to some people. Missed him. Geez. Then we went back to the hotel, and then met Amit and Liz at this Mexican place for supper. I swear it's the closest I've been to having been in a club. BUT it wasn't Josh told me because it wasn't based on dancing. Sad. I had a swirly margarita...it was delish. Then we went back and tried not to get shot again.
Saturday we woke up early and went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ((Very awesome)) and JFK's grave. And the house where Robert E. Lee lived, thanks to our Moonlight Tour Guide, we knew exactly how Arlington National Cemetery came to be that way. Then we saw Bobby Kennedy's grave, and about 300,000 other people's. Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial then to the Vietnam Wall of Names, then we went to the new WWII memorial and that was sweet, too. I took a ton of pics for Gpa. I hope he goes to see it himself though. It’s amazing how sobering history can be…these memorials are memories of some of the saddest events in our history- it’s amazing to get a glimpse of what people were going through and how tragic these events were. We headed back a little early cause we wanted to watch the Husker game. So we went to Red Lobster and then watched us get POUNDED. Seriously how can we be so continually bad? Aren't teams supposed to make improvements week to week? I guess we made a 3 minute improvement when we scored right away. Didn't help. BUT- I am no less of a fan. :)
Sunday we woke up before the crack and went to the Pentagon (!!!) for Josh's race. The Army Ten-Miler- 26,000 runners (not all military- it’s just Army sponsored, anyone can run it, but it is mostly military). It was crazy. We got to see him once during the race, when they ran over the Memorial Bridge (I’m pretty sure that’s the right name). It was at mile 1.5 in the race and went from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial. It was really cool because the first group of runners were amputees. The double amputees were on arm-operated cycles. There were several single leg amputees running, and several with an arm. I tell you what, I was so proud of those runners, all of them. Can you imagine what they’ve been through and they’ve not let it change their life as much as they can help it. It was amazing to see so many people serving our country in one place- and that have a commitment to fitness! We were standing on a four lane road that was packed full of runners for over 40 minutes. Then I went to watch the finish back at the Pentagon, and Catie and Matt had to leave to go home. Josh finished 857th, out of 26,000, with a time of 1 hr 9 min 26 sec, a 6:57 pace. Really great! The guy that won ran 10 miles in 48:59. Sic. He was from Brazil, there were several elite (professional) runners there. Then we went back to the hotel and Josh showered then we got back on the Metro and went to Amit's house in Baltimore. He lives in a row house above a Pie store. ha ha ha. Ate lunch, watched football, hung out, then he took us home and Josh was pooped.
Monday we went to the Library of Congress again (we went there the afternoon I forgot what we did) and then we went to the Botanical Gardens, sweet, the National Air and Space Museum, pretty cool, and then we went and watched a Supreme Court hearing. That was so awesome. We got to sit in the back row and the case was about a trial between a credit card company and a person that owed. We think. Ha. When a trial gets to that level, what they are arguing is wording in the Constitution and other documents to convince the 9 Justices that their side is correct under the constitution. Literally a 4 word phrase in one document. There isn’t evidence or witnesses. The Justices have the information on the case, then each side gets 30 minutes to prove their position under the Constitution. What makes it really interesting is that they have to have a pretty dang good reason for bringing it before a Federal Court because it’s reserved for important cases and cases that will alter define the interpretation of the Constitution. Those Justices don’t hold back either, they were grilling the lawyers. WOAH. I would have cried if they were putting me under that much pressure. In fact at one point, one of the Justices I didn’t know asked the lawyer if he had a reason to be there cause he felt like his time was being wasted. Ouch. After the hour, It was really fun. Then we went back to the hotel, got our gear, went to the port, flew home, and boy are our arms tired. Ha ha. We had such a great trip! If you made it this far in reading about it, hope you enjoyed it too! Pictures to come!
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