Here is a before picture of my deck!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
I have just had an incredible day today! I had my first trip to the spa! My wonderful aunts gave me a very nice gift, they got me a day at the spa, a massage, facial and a pedicure! I am such a huge fan. I think if I were rich you could find me there every day. I also made a very nice meal that I thought was difficult that turned out really great (thanks to my sister-in law Sammy's help) for my parents, who are here building my deck (well my dad is) and I just found out my deck is costing $500 less than what we planned! SOOOOO excited. And should be done next week. Anyway not to shabby of a day! Thanks to my wonderful aunts, Cookie, Nancy and Bobby, and to Sammy, and to my talented Dad!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
So I think my kids (or maybe me) are very sick of Macaroni and Cheese!
I was kind of hoping any of you guys that are better cooks than me, could hook me up with some really good recipes! So that would be all of you! :) I would also think it would be fun if maybe you could post a good recipe on your blogs every week or so. (do you like how I said "I think it would be fun if YOU could post a recipe he he he) Anyway I think sharing some of our good recipes would be fun. I could always use a new idea. Let me know if you think that is a bad idea!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Kids Rooms
Emery's room
I just finished painting Emery's room, well I'm not completely done yet but just about. I either want to put chair rail on the wall or do some kind of a border around the room just above the stripes. I know it's not the best, there are probably much cuter things I could have done but it is way cuter than before (and those of you that saw it know it is a huge improvement) I also want to give her some cute stuff to put on the wall, I want some vinyl lettering with some cute saying on it, but I don't know yet. (if anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them). And yes her room is already a mess and yes she was asleep when I took the picture. And yes it looks better in real life.
Okay , now I know what you all are thinking, "this is way cuter, why didn't she do this instead?" (This is one I found off the internet) Well I already bought the paint before I saw this, and for some reason I really wanted the green. But this is what I want to maybe do as a border (the polka dots) what do you think? This or chair rail? Or should I paint over it and do something completely different? Or should I go buy the brown paint and do this one (sigh)
Roadway room
This was what I did in Nate and Will's room. I think I like this one the best! It was fun!
Pirate room
And here is Ethan's room which I did right after we moved in because his room was about the size of a closet (and didn't even have a closet, until my dad built one in Nov) and felt so bad that he was in the crappiest room. There is a little dorsal fin of a shark on the other wall (that was my favorite)
Jungle room
And this is my nephew's room that I helped my sister paint. I just threw that in there for fun cause I thought it was cute and wish I had done that for one of my kids instead. Oh well!
I just finished painting Emery's room, well I'm not completely done yet but just about. I either want to put chair rail on the wall or do some kind of a border around the room just above the stripes. I know it's not the best, there are probably much cuter things I could have done but it is way cuter than before (and those of you that saw it know it is a huge improvement) I also want to give her some cute stuff to put on the wall, I want some vinyl lettering with some cute saying on it, but I don't know yet. (if anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them). And yes her room is already a mess and yes she was asleep when I took the picture. And yes it looks better in real life.
Okay , now I know what you all are thinking, "this is way cuter, why didn't she do this instead?" (This is one I found off the internet) Well I already bought the paint before I saw this, and for some reason I really wanted the green. But this is what I want to maybe do as a border (the polka dots) what do you think? This or chair rail? Or should I paint over it and do something completely different? Or should I go buy the brown paint and do this one (sigh)
Roadway room
This was what I did in Nate and Will's room. I think I like this one the best! It was fun!
Pirate roomAnd here is Ethan's room which I did right after we moved in because his room was about the size of a closet (and didn't even have a closet, until my dad built one in Nov) and felt so bad that he was in the crappiest room. There is a little dorsal fin of a shark on the other wall (that was my favorite)
Jungle room
And this is my nephew's room that I helped my sister paint. I just threw that in there for fun cause I thought it was cute and wish I had done that for one of my kids instead. Oh well!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Not Political This Time
All,
Well still here in Gardez, chilling cold filling. The weather has turned into a nice dry dusty low 90's day in day out. The funny thing about the mission is it seems to be either a really slow boring day or an insanely busy out of control day. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. But, with the way things are here I assume that things will only get busier and busier. Ben, if you read this I want to let you know I hate your old division. More specifically the 4th BCT. Wow, words can't describe how incompetent they are. I must admit though I'm stuck with the Cav Unit that is here with them. And man, talk about everything I hate about the big army coming to pass here. The S-3 (Operations) to all you non military types, doesn't like the following units, MI, EOD, Psy-Ops, SF, and Finally CA. Translation: Military Intel, Explosives Ordinance Detachment, Pyschological Operations, Special Forces and finally Civil Affairs. In other words he the man in charge of planning operations in a counter insurgency war refuses to use any other assets aside from his beloved Cav. Needless to say they are doing very poorly her right now. It's gotten so bad that all the side units are planning operations on the side with out them. LOL. Such a funny way to try and fight a war. Oh, well thanks goodness we're not under their chain of command. So we can get the job done. But the guys have been great and working hard doing all we can behind the scenes to accomplish the mission in spite of big army getting in the way. You'd think after 7 years they'd know what to do but... Oh, well, some infantry officers can't get it through their heads that you have to be a team player in this fight.
And make no mistake about it. We're going to have a fight on our hands here this summer. But, no worries, to all you panic types, we'll stay out of trouble I promise.
In the mean time, I just want you all to know, how simple life gets while deployed. For example, I love it when the porta john is cleaned. A clean porta-john makes my day. Also, happiness revolves around a cold bottle of water after a long day outside the wire.
One more final long thought. I was watching a TV show about rich movie stars and their friends (Entourage rules Cally!) any way its easy to get a little jealous of that lifestyle. Who wouldn't want more toys? Any way, then I thought about what we have done and seen in the last couple of weeks here. What a life. Randomly just the other night I had long discussion with a Maj. and Capt. and we talked about the best way to rid a town of bad guys. Then a couple hours later a friend burst in happy as could be talking about how he now had better ways to go kill the bad guys if we can just help him out. Of course we were all excited and said, "Hell, yeah lets do it!"
I mean how many people get to do this stuff and get paid for it. So, it sucks, it's scarey, it's not fun, it's hot and dusty, the people stink, so does the country, and last of all we miss our families and would rather be with them. But like last time I will look back at it and not regret being here one bit. So, in the mean time my final thought is this:
All you action movie stars out there you may make the big bucks pretending to be what people think is cool. But I work, play and live with guys that the stories and movies will be written about for decades to come. And honestly and pridefully life doesn't get much better than that sometimes.
Cheers, Josh 7 June 08
Well still here in Gardez, chilling cold filling. The weather has turned into a nice dry dusty low 90's day in day out. The funny thing about the mission is it seems to be either a really slow boring day or an insanely busy out of control day. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. But, with the way things are here I assume that things will only get busier and busier. Ben, if you read this I want to let you know I hate your old division. More specifically the 4th BCT. Wow, words can't describe how incompetent they are. I must admit though I'm stuck with the Cav Unit that is here with them. And man, talk about everything I hate about the big army coming to pass here. The S-3 (Operations) to all you non military types, doesn't like the following units, MI, EOD, Psy-Ops, SF, and Finally CA. Translation: Military Intel, Explosives Ordinance Detachment, Pyschological Operations, Special Forces and finally Civil Affairs. In other words he the man in charge of planning operations in a counter insurgency war refuses to use any other assets aside from his beloved Cav. Needless to say they are doing very poorly her right now. It's gotten so bad that all the side units are planning operations on the side with out them. LOL. Such a funny way to try and fight a war. Oh, well thanks goodness we're not under their chain of command. So we can get the job done. But the guys have been great and working hard doing all we can behind the scenes to accomplish the mission in spite of big army getting in the way. You'd think after 7 years they'd know what to do but... Oh, well, some infantry officers can't get it through their heads that you have to be a team player in this fight.
And make no mistake about it. We're going to have a fight on our hands here this summer. But, no worries, to all you panic types, we'll stay out of trouble I promise.
In the mean time, I just want you all to know, how simple life gets while deployed. For example, I love it when the porta john is cleaned. A clean porta-john makes my day. Also, happiness revolves around a cold bottle of water after a long day outside the wire.
One more final long thought. I was watching a TV show about rich movie stars and their friends (Entourage rules Cally!) any way its easy to get a little jealous of that lifestyle. Who wouldn't want more toys? Any way, then I thought about what we have done and seen in the last couple of weeks here. What a life. Randomly just the other night I had long discussion with a Maj. and Capt. and we talked about the best way to rid a town of bad guys. Then a couple hours later a friend burst in happy as could be talking about how he now had better ways to go kill the bad guys if we can just help him out. Of course we were all excited and said, "Hell, yeah lets do it!"
I mean how many people get to do this stuff and get paid for it. So, it sucks, it's scarey, it's not fun, it's hot and dusty, the people stink, so does the country, and last of all we miss our families and would rather be with them. But like last time I will look back at it and not regret being here one bit. So, in the mean time my final thought is this:
All you action movie stars out there you may make the big bucks pretending to be what people think is cool. But I work, play and live with guys that the stories and movies will be written about for decades to come. And honestly and pridefully life doesn't get much better than that sometimes.
Cheers, Josh 7 June 08
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