Moment of the Week

Touristing

 8

Eric Church

A Touristy Event

We had a few days with the visiting Beckers.  We wanted to show them around some of our favorite places in South Dakota.

 We hung around at the park

We spent a rainy day at Reptile Gardens

Visited the Badlands

and Wall Drug.

We also went to Mt. Rushmore and drove through Needles Highway.  

It was a fun filled few days.

It's always fun to play tourist around here.

Having the Beckers visit was super fun for Nate and I. 

Balance

There isn't much of it during a deployment.

I just got a sweet note in the mail and it said, "I admire your strength".  

The irony that this card arrived today wasn't lost on me.  

The truth is I cry a lot.  

Because I can't do everything I want to do, or even what I need to do.   

And when things go wrong, it feels like I have a mountain to climb to get things 'right' again. 

Today I cleaned up a lot of dog shit from my carpets. 

I wanted to scream.

 I did.

Then I cried.

I wanted to murder the offending canine.

I didn't.

After the shit was cleaned the puppy came in with an epic level of muddy feet.

I cried

I wanted to murder her.

I didn't.

I gave her a bath.

I had not had coffee yet.

Or breakfast.

So I showered, made coffee, had breakfast, then ran to the store for more carpet cleaning supplies.

Then I mowed my yard.

There is no balance.  I fake it.

I take an adorable photo of the puppy....and share that instead.

Moment of the Week

7

Dave requested that I show what Nate opened in the weekly package. 

I terrible bout of winter weather

 Two days after the snow storm

 First Grade is FINISHED.

Moment of the Week

enjoying the yard work

and the pretty things before some spring snow

6

Weeks 3, 4 and 5!

I am sorry that this post is a little overdue, and I mean a lot overdue.  I meant to post it last week but somebody on base cut our Fiber Line and knocked out our internet for a few days, so I decided to wait until Sunday to post this.  I am going to try my best to not let more than two weeks go by between posts from now on.

Just a quick update on me, everything is going fine.  I have gotten into a good routine and now everyday is starting to run into the others.  Life pretty much is work, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat.  It seems like last deployment seemed to take a lot longer to get to this point, but it's probably attributed to me doing the same job here as I do at home.

Our 3rd week came with a surprise as this guy showed up for a special concert.

Mr. Honkytonk Badonkadonk himself.

It was a great show and really weird attending a concert in combat gear and everyone is carrying guns.

I also received a lot of great packages.  Somehow, everyone must know that my favorite snack food is sour gummy worms and sour patch kids.  But the other snacks were well received too. 

 Teresa sent me some much needed supplies to include bedding.  We have to turn our laundry in and it takes 3 days or more to get it back, so I asked for some sheets but this time cotton.  Now apparently I am a sheet snob for asking for comfy cotton sheets instead of poly blend.  But they are great and I can handle the name calling for a nice nights sleep.  She also packaged up my favorite quilt.  I am the luckiest man in the world for having a wife that tolerates my loyalty for the Lions, secretly, I think she enables it too.  Oh yeah, those mint chocolate chip cookies are amazing, you need to try them.

 I got some goodies from the Becker Family that also included some very colorful and somewhat questionable thank you cards from Jackie's class.  I think some of the kids really don't like bad guys!!

 Dad and Ruthann sent me some popcorn, turns out, we have a microwave and it was delicious.  Thank you

 Cindy sent some ammo, she must have seen a pic of me with my guns hanging on the wall.  These were great as later that day we arranged an assault on the office next to ours.  we pretty much kicked their butts due to the superior firepower we had.  Earlier this week, another gun showed up but I didn't take a picture.  Thank you Cindy!

Here is one of Sandy and Sean's two packages.  I apparently forgot to take a pic of the first one but it had a lot of candy in it and a coloring from Ina, she did a fantastic job.  The Michigan Tattoos are now all over my computer and Nerf guns thanks to my co-workers, I guess that's what I get for leaving them on my desk overnight, but I think they will stay.

Thank you everyone for the care packages, it is always an exciting thing to have one in the mail room and to open it up.  And yes, I may have gained a few pounds while I've been here, like close to 10, but you all know that I could use it.  And NO, I did not eat all of this food by myself, I have been sharing with the others in my office.

Moment of the Week

5

Dog Park

My friends helped us celebrate our first month being OVER.  

Miranda loaded us up with lots of fun stuff. 

(there was also chocolate, but I ate it before I could take a photo)

And Kristen dropped off a beautiful plant and a few fun things for Nate.  

We also went to sign up for summer stuff, swim lessons and day camp.  I have a feeling this summer is going to go by very quickly.