A typical day - I hope

I've been in a slump lately.  It's partly caused by the fact that I don't have to be completely in charge of the family 24/7.  Now that Brandon is home I've been relaxing.  And I've also been having a few emotional breakdowns - because I can now.  The other cause of my slump is Baby D.  I'll admit it, I am not 100% happy about this pregnancy.  I'm not even sure I can say I'm 60% happy about being pregnant again.  I was very much looking forward to a few years without diapers or bottles - to say nothing about how great it would be to not have a baby in my arms for a while.  And now I'm soon to be back at square one.  Arrrrgggg, I'm not thrilled about that.  

Anyway, I've been working on "un-slumping" myself as Dr Seuss would say.  I might do a more in depth post about that later.  But in case I don't, two things that helped were 1. deciding to spend more money when I grocery shop.  Because we aren't starving college students anymore and yet we have been eating like we are.  And 2. I went and bought new clothes with some of our tax refund money.  Because I'm superficial like that.  

So on Wednesday February 27 I was feeling up to doing my typical day post for this quarter.  (Yeah, I kind of consider them my "quarterly report.")  This turned out to be the best day I'd had at home in a long time.  I hope that more days are like this.  

6:50 am  I wake up to Lydia calling my name from the hall way.  I'm almost certain she was calling me Valerie instead of Mommy.  She peaks her little head into the doorway, and I tell her she can come in.  Charlotte joins her a second later.  "Where Daddy?"  They ask.  I tell them that he went to work early today.  When it was still really really dark outside.  "Scary Dark" they say.

6:55 I get up and Derrick starts crying.

7:00 Get Derrick out of his crib and change every ones diapers.  Charlotte and Lydia's sleepers are damp so they pick out clothes and I get them dressed.  Charlotte and Lydia start fighting over something.

7:05 Lydia and Derrick start fighting now.  Wow this is turning out to be a great day so far - not.

7:11 I herd everyone into the kitchen and get them all some breakfast.  They all want cornflakes so we have those.  

7:15 Everyone is happy

7:25 I drank a little too much water a little too quickly and now I'm at the sink trying not to throw up.  I've thrown up twice in front of the kids. The girls are always really concerned about me.  The first time I did it  Charlotte gave my leg a big hug and a kiss so I would feel better.  Luckily this time I don't actually throw up.

7:35 Derrick is done "eating" and is ready for a bottle.  He's been on some sort of hunger strike lately.  It's been driving me crazy because he's clingy and hungry, but he wont eat anything besides his bottle - and diaper wipes.

7:38 The girls are done eating, but Charlotte decides to raid the refrigerator and get and apple out.  I take the apple away and she flips out.     

7:40 I carry Charlotte into my room and the other two follow.  They all play on my bed while I get dressed and do my make up.  I went clothes shopping last night and this is the first time in a long time that I am actually excited to get dressed.  Consequently it is the first time in a long time that I get dressed before noon.

8:05 All the kids are upset again.  I grab Derrick and change him out of his pajamas.  

8:15 Charlotte and Lydia run by holding hands.  I guess they are friends again.  I go back into my room and hang up all my new clothes and some other laundry.

8:30  Charlotte and Lydia have started freaking out again.  Lydia is just laying on the floor crying.  I pick her up and put her back in her bed.  Charlotte follows so she goes back to bed too.  Derrick starts crying so he ends up in his bed too.  I go back into my room and sort out all the kids clean laundry into piles so I can put it away easily.

8:55  I can hear happy noises coming from the kids' room.  They are still in their room so I just leave them alone and lay down on my bed and let my mind wander.

9:20  The girls open their door and go play in the toy room.  Derrick immediately starts crying because he's been abandoned.  This is how each day usually begins.  I get Derrick out of his crib and we join the girls in the play room.  All three kids seem to be in much better moods and they all play together without any crying or fighting.  

9:50 At almost the same instant Charlotte decides she wants cheerios and Lydia tells me she needs a diaper change. I take care of the diaper and then find Charlotte like this in the kitchen.

9:55  I get the cheerios down for Charlotte and the other kids want some too - as do I.  So we have "second breakfast."  This one goes much better than the first.  Derrick even eats a few cheerios.

10:15 After breakfast I tell the girls we need to clean the living room.  Over the past day or two a lot of toys have migrated from the toy room.  The girls are excited to help clean the "Messy Room."  I sit on the floor so Mr Clingy Derrick doesn't freak out.  I pick up the small toys and put them in a basket while Charlotte and Lydia take care of the bigger stuff.  I give them clean directions like, "Lydia, can you find all the numbers and put them in the toy room?" or "Charlotte, will you take the doll house into the toy room."  They are motivated by the fact that we are going to "fac-oom" when we are done cleaning.

10:38 We are ready to "fac-oom."  The girls jump up on the couch and I put Derrick up there with them.  They all shriek and laugh when I push the vacuum up against the couch.  The girls reach down and try to touch the light on the front.  (Funny story.  The girls used to pronounce vacuum in such a way that it sounded like they were saying, "F*** You."  It didn't help that they would yell it as loud as they could every time they saw one.  One day we were at church and they saw the giant vacuum that was used to clean the hall carpets.  I could have died when they started yelling, "F*** You" over and over again in the church hall way.)

10:45 The room is all clean and now we can enjoy it.  The girls want to play Ring Around the Rosies with me and Derrick.  Derrick is able to stand and walk when he holds my hands.  I hold one hand and Lydia holds the other and he does a pretty good job of keeping up.  He's really good at the "we all fall down part."  Soon all he wants to do is fall down and I can tell it is nap time.

10:49  I put Derrick in his crib and go wash out the bottles.  I'm hoping he falls asleep before I'm done.  The girls know that Derrick's birthday is when we will say "bye bye bottles."  But Derrick doesn't know yet.  I need to start teaching him how to fall asleep without a bottle soon.

10:58 Derrick is still crying in his bed.  I give him a bottle.  It's time for Word World.  This is one of the few children's TV shows that doesn't drive me crazy.  It's also one that the girls LOVE.  So I turn it on for them.  While they watch that I work on cutting out curtains for the kitchen.  Several months ago my neighbor Danielle gave me this red fabric.  It just so happens to match all my red kitchen stuff.  Unforturnatly there isn't enough to completely cover the window.  Still I put it up like this for now and one day I'll add a black panel to the bottom.

I wasn't sure how to get the fabric to hang from the hardware for the blinds.  Eventually I decided to use safety pins.  The girls helped me sort out the pins.  They liked finding the Mommy pins, the Daddy pins, and the Baby pins.  Then they were really good to put all the pins back so Derrick wouldn't find one and choke on it.  

11:30  Word World is over.  Huge airplanes keep flying over and making a lot of noise so we go outside on the patio to see them.  This picture does not do a good job of showing how big the planes really looked.  I thought they were 747's but later Brandon told me they were military planes.  They were C-5 Galaxy planes.

When the planes weren't flying over Charlotte and Lydia had me draw snowmen with sidewalk chalk.  They like when I draw Daddy Snowman, Mommy Snowman, and Baby Snowman.  Usually they all look alike they are just different sizes.  Today they want me to draw Baby Snowman with a binkie.  Then they want me to add a binkie to Daddy Snowman, and Mommy Snowman.  They laugh at how funny that is.

12:00 We go inside and make lunch.  The girls want peanut butter and jelly.  Thinking about jelly makes me want to throw up so I have a turkey sandwich.  I also have pickles.  Lydia eats a bunch of pickles too.  Charlotte doesn't like them.  Both girls like the blackberries that we have.  (See we're spending more money on food.)

12:25  Both girls are due for a diaper change.  While I change her Charlotte laughs really loudly and wakes Derrick up.  I'm a little annoyed, but not too much because it means he might go down for a second nap when the girls go down for their nap.

12:30 We all end up playing in my room on my bed.  The girls get their babies and pretend to change their diapers.  Derrick climbs all over me.

1:00 Charlotte gets some books and asks me to read them to her.  So we have an impromptu "reading time."  This is something my mom did with me and my siblings.  As the kids get older I want to make this part of the routine - when we get a routine.  Charlotte is just like me (in so many ways) and snuggles right up to me while I read.  Lydia is more like my sister Lindsey and wanders around while I read.

1:15 We've finished the two books that Charlotte brought in and the girls go back to playing.  They play a game with Derrick where they try to give him a kiss and he pushes them away.

1:30 Charlotte wants to use the laundry basket that her clothes are in.  So I hurry and put away the clothes so she can push the basket around and put things in it.

1:35 Derrick is acting hungry.  I take him in the kitchen and hold him while feeding him little bits of Lydia's leftover sandwich.  I've found that the less it seems like a real mean the more likely he is to eat. (As evidenced by the fact he will eat off the floor or any "stolen" food he can get his hands on.)  Lydia announces she is poopy and needs a "change."  She's been known to start stripping off poopy diapers so I hurry and put Derrick in his high chair and go change Lydia (who was not really poopy).

1:45 I go back to Derrick.  I'd left some sandwich pieces almost out of reach so he's grabbed those and eaten them.  He still seems hungry and willing to eat so I open a can of baby food.  He lets me feed him him a few bites!  This is the first time he's let me feed him baby food in at least 2 weeks.

1:50 Charlotte wants me to help her build a tower out of mega blocks.  We all play with the blocks.  We make castles.  Derrick keeps knocking them over and we rebuild them.

2:20 Charlotte and Lydia start whining for bottles.  I make them very watered down bottles of milk.  Both girls want to go to sleep on the window seat.  I lay them both down on there and think, "well this naptime is doomed."  Still I go into the living room and try to check my e-mail.  It's super annoying to do with Derrick in my lap.  Within a few minutes Charlotte and Lydia get up and so getting much done on the computer is out of the question for a while.

2:53  Charlotte starts kicking her bedroom door while laying on the floor.  I tell her to stop and she just looks at me.  "Okay your ready for a nap." I say and put her in her bed and shut the door.  She cries a lot, but stays in the room.  Lydia seems to be pretty "out of it" too so I put her into my bed.  She wants a bottle, but I tell her she already had one.  She cries, but stays in bed.

I go in the living room with Derrick.  I watch him play around on the floor.

3:10  Derrick starts crying for no apparent reason so I decide it's nap time for him too.  I make him another bottle and put him in his bed.  I find Charlotte asleep on the floor by his bed.  I just cover her up with a blanket and leave her there.

I check on Lydia and she is asleep too.

I go into the living room, turn the computer back on, and start editing a handout for an emergency preparedness fair that we are participating in on Saturday.

3:50 Brandon calls.  He has been awake since 3:30 am and I can hear how tired he is.  His unit spent the day at a shooting range.  He's tired, hungry, and ready to come home.  He asks me if I feel like having fast food tonight - because he does!  I tell him go ahead and get something for both of us.

4:08 Brandon comes home with Burger King hamburgers  fries, and soda.  We eat those and enjoy not having to share with the kids.

4:25 Brandon wants to take a nap on the couch.  I've been trying to avoid naps because I don't sleep as well at night when I take them, but I wont pass up a chance to snuggle.  So I climb onto the couch with him.  We talk for a minute and then we both fall asleep.

5:30 We both wake up.  Derrick is making noise, but it sounds happy so we just ignore him and talk for a little bit.  We both know we'll regret letting the girls sleep past 5:00, but it was worth it.

6:00 We get up to go wake up the kids.  Lydia and Charlotte are actually already awake and playing in their room with Derrick.

6:10 Since we already ate, we just make something that the kids will like for dinner.  That some thing is Butterfly noodles.

Charlotte and Lydia help clean up a little while the noodles cook.  Charlotte points to the dishwasher and asks, "clean?"  When I say yes she opens it up and starts putting the dishes away.  She hands me all the plates, bowls, and cups that go up in the cupboard.  She takes care of the silverware and pots and pans.  

There are is a bunch of cereal by Lydia's high chair so she asks me for a "sweep."  I help her fish the broom out from beside the fridge and she sweeps the crumbs up.  Charlotte wants to sweep too, but we convince her that holding the dust pan is just as fun.

6:35  The kid are eating - it is silent while they eat.  Even Derrick likes eating butterfly noodles.

6:50 Since the kids slept past 5:00 we know that they wont go to sleep until after 9:00.  I have a project to keep them occupied.  I've wanted to make them a kitchen out of card board boxes for a while.  They already pretend to cook on the stove with boxes so I thought it would be fun to make a stove with burners drawn on it and a door cut into it.  Brandon helps with the cutting and soon the girls have a fridge, sink, and stove to play with.

7:42 We are done with the project and the kids are playing with the boxes.  They love climbing into the fridge and shutting the door and then opening it and yelling "peek a boo."  They shove all their babies into the oven (not sure if I should be concerned about that).  And they "wash dishes" in the sink.  The card board kitchen is a huge success.

Brandon takes advantage of the fact that the kids are distracted and works on some projects on the computer.

8:25  Bath time.  I've finally been able to coax Charlotte back into the bath tub.  But she still is partially afraid of the water.  We've come to some sort of an agreement though.  Saturdays are the only nights that I will force the girls to wash their hair.  The Wednesday night bath is what we call a "splash bath."  The girls can get in and play in the water.  If they have any noticeable dirty places I will wash those, but I wont touch their hair.  They can get out whenever they want.  These "splash baths" have helped Charlotte feel more comfortable in the water again.  She still gets upset when I have to put water on her head to wash her hair, but at least she is getting in the tub again.

On this night Charlotte spends about 5 minutes in the tub.  Long enough to let me wash the pen marks off her legs.  Then she is out.  Lydia stays in about 10 minutes.  She has fun splashing with Derrick, but soon she wants to play with Charlotte.

Unlike his sisters, Derrick doesn't mind getting his hair washed.  He could stay in the tub all night, but eventually I pull him out too.    

Derrick's absolute favorite part of bath time is when he gets to look at himself in the mirror.  Charlotte and Lydia never reacted much when they saw themselves in the mirror.  It was like they thought, "so there's another baby - how is this different from normal?"  Derrick on the other hand has always loved looking at his reflection.  He's actually pretty narcissistic.  He smiles, coos, laughs, and waves his arms at himself forever.  Its so fun for both of us.  (Of course when I took the picture he just wanted to look at the camera.  Check out my cute new clothes.  And ignore my dorky expression.)     

8:45 Bath time is done and we let the kids play with the boxes some more.  Brandon has a yogurt cup for a snack.  Derrick crawls over and begs for some.  Lydia wants some too.  Charlotte wants nothing to do with yogurt.  Derrick ends up eating a ton of yogurt which is great.  One of the nutritiousness at WIC recommended feeding him yogurt to see if that would help fix his milk sensitivity.   So far we haven't been able to get him to eat any. 

The girls continue to play with the boxes.  They do this which I really should have seen coming.

Soon they both want a hole for their own so we turn the stove on its side.

9:15 Time to start bed time.  I get bottles ready then bring them into the bedroom.  All the binkies have disappeared and I am pretty ticked off about that.

We do the whole bedtime routine.  Now that the girls can get out of their beds they like to sit in our laps while we sing a hymn and read a chapter in the Book of Mormon.  Charlotte likes to look at the song book when we are done with it.  Lydia likes to flip through the pages of the scriptures when we are done with that book.  She especially likes to look at the picture of Jesus in the front.

We read a page out of the Conference Edition of the Ensign.  Then I write in the kids journals.  Charlotte and Lydia share a journal and Derrick has his own now.  The girls find some word search books and color in them while we do these things.

Then we say a family prayer (the girls don't like saying personal prayers yet) and put the girls in bed with the crayons and word search books. Charlotte wants the song book.  I tell her if she colors in it I will be very mad.

Then we sing one more song and shut the door.  Some nights this routine is pretty crazy and involves looking for lost baby dolls and "important" toys.  But this night the girls are so worn out they don't even notice they don't have their binkies.

9:45 We are done with bedtime.  Brandon and I have a discussion about possibly making the bedtime routine shorter.  I tell him that I've thought of that, but I really don't know when else we would do scriptures and prayers.

We get a few things done on the computer.  Then get ready for bed.  I check on the kids to make sure they are in bed and cover them up.  Charlotte and Lydia are asleep in almost the exact positions we left them in.

And so is Derrick.

Brandon takes a minute to get his stuff ready for tomorrow.  He and his unit will be going on a 8 mile ruck march.

10:20 We get in bed and talk for a few minutes.  Soon we are both asleep.

The kids sleep through the night, but I didn't.  I knew I shouldn't have taken that nap.  At one point Derrick fussed a little in his bed and I checked get up to check on him.  But he went right back to sleep.

4:00 ish Brandon's alarm goes off and he silently gets ready for work.  When he gets up this early I don't bother getting up with him.

6:50 I hear Derrick babbling in his crib.  Soon Charlotte and Lydia's voices join his.  They all sound happy so I just enjoy the fact that I don't have to get up yet.

7:50 Charlotte and Lydia come into my room and Derrick starts crying that he has been abandoned.  Time to start another day.

In Brandon's words: NTC Journal Entries

Prologue 

Brandon says that the phrase "when Hell freezes over" pretty much sums up his month at the National Training Center (NTC) in the Mojave Desert in California.  It was a long, cold, uncomfortable, and confusing month for him.  I've been trying to get him to write about it, but he hasn't been able to find the motivation.   A few days ago I read his journal from that month.  Now I understand why he doesn't want to relive that experience - even to write about it.      

Reading his journal reminded me of the book (novella?) The Heart of Darkness.  Brandon's cold, uneventful month reminded me of Marlow's slow, maddening trip up the Congo River.  In the book the only thing that kept Marlow sane was his preoccupation with finding enough rivets to keep the boat together.  In real life the only thing that kept Brandon sane was this little book that he drew and wrote in constantly.    

Brandon's little book

 So with his permission I'm sharing excerpts from his journal.  I've left out the things that Brandon and/or the Army probably doesn't want floating around the internet.  I've added a few pictures of the drawings.  There were A LOT of drawings.  Basically every journal entry had 3 or 4 pages of drawings between them. 

Before we begin, I have to add that this might have been an okay experience if it hadn't been right after we arrived at Fort Hood.  Brandon didn't know anyone in his unit.  He didn't know what they were doing either.  Everyone else had been training for a year for this rotation at the NTC.  Brandon had just got out of basic training.  He also was worried about me and the kids living in a new area without any furniture.  He couldn't help feel like he could use his time better at home.

Preparation Week

January 10, 2013
Today I got up at 2:30 am to be at [my unit] at 3:00.  Val dropped me off and I went in and signed in and was issued my weapon - an M249 SAW. I then pulled weapons guard so everyone else could go home.  I had weapons guard from 4:00 am to 12:00 pm.  Eight long hours.  At about 2:30 everyone got their equipment and went outside.  We'd already dropped our other duffel off.  We waited until 3:00 when buses finally showed up and finally boarded to go to the airport - I thought.  We ended up going to a giant arena gym and eating dinner and waiting for another hour.  After which we finally boarded the buses for the airport.

We got to the Killeen airport and there was a 747 sitting on the ramp.  I was excited.  We got to board the plane through air-stairs and I felt like the President of the US or something.  It was fun.  I made sure I was one of the first 58 so I could get upstairs.  I got a window seat on the top floor about 15 rows back from the cockpit.  I'm not sure, but I think we got first class service.

We flew from Killeen to Victorville Cali and landed 20 minutes after we took off - it had been 2 hours and 20 minutes.  Then we took a bus ride to the NTC (National Training Center) army base and found our bags and went to go to sleep.  We had to wake up at five and eat breakfast and have a roll call, but have basically done nothing since.  I've been reading, writing, and sleeping.

January 12
I now have friends here.  This morning we went and zeroed the lasers to our sights on our weapons.  One of the Lieutenants talked to me and told me to get involved with other so I wasn't alone.  After that people kept talking to me and now I have been playing cards all afternoon.  Val is doing great too.  She got to play with all the neighborhood kids.  It's been a good day.  Oh and by the way, I love the sight on my weapon. It is nice.    

An airplane Brandon dreams of building

 January 14
I got to take a class today on driving a robot for an IED detection.  IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices) are the biggest problem for the military today - or close to it.  We learned how to drive the robot and how it works.  It was pretty cool.  It has tracks like an army tank and was controlled by a computer console with a game controller attached to it.  It had two cameras and two boom arms that you would manipulate to drive it and explore things.  That was pretty much all I did today - more than the past few days.  I did get a chance to figure out some things and make some drawings for my airplane.

I got to talk to Valerie and text Caleb a bit.

Yesterday I tried to go to church, but I guess it was cancelled due to lack of interest.  When I showed up no one was there.    

January 15
I hate this place.
I have no where to go for quiet.  I dislike commotion - it stresses me out - especially when it is non-stop.  Here it is relentless and I am always surrounded by at least 50 people.  I had a little quiet time in the latrine today, but even there there were people walking aback and forth and tapping on the latrine curtain.  I haven't fully detoxed from basic training, and yet I am already back being completely surrounded by army life.

Math equations (sorry they are upside down)

January 16
My sweet wife always helps me to have a better attitude.  I just talked to her about nothing really and I have regained my positive attitude.  I guess I will be okay. I can deal with this.  I know what to do and I am doing okay at it.

I think the reason I am so frustrated with this place is the fact that I have not been home for more than 1-3 days since basic training.  I have had a break but I really haven't had a chance to relax for more than a couple of hours.  I have been going non-stop since September.  And really done many things to keep me busy since December.  The last weeks of basic training are the hardest - then I went to Ft Hood - had to get out of there - got to go home - did Christmas - got ready to move - drove to New Mexico - broke down - spent the whole weekend dealing with that - got to work on Wednesday - dealt with getting my equipment - finished checking in there - then I had to go back to NM to get the jeep - came back - and then had to go to NTC in Cali - very busy.

Yes it is time for a break.  But I've had no time to relax. Even when I did watch a movie with Val I had to sit in camp chairs and I didn't get my popcorn.  Oh well I guess I will do what I can to work it out.  I think I need some time off to just relax with Valerie and the kids and not have to worry about anything.

Brandon's calender of how busy the past few months have been for him.

In the Box
The next 16 days were spent "in the box" - this is when they actually went to the desert and started training like they were on a mission in a foreign country. Brandon and the rest of the guys turned in their phones the night before.  They wouldn't get to shower again for 16 days.   

January 17
It has been a long day of nothing.  Apparently that is how the first day of NTC usually is.  We woke up this morning freezing, packed our sleep system, got back in the Bradley's [tank-like vehicle to ride around in], and waited for a couple of hours to go and finally get to leave.  Inside the Bradley it is dark - pitch black except for the monitor and 1 or 2 tiny cracks in the hull where light and sand can get through.  Looking at the computer monitor was like watching an alien movie about creatures flowing through the deserted landscape of an airless planet.  It is infrared and also as blurry as can be.  I thought maybe the tracks would smooth out the ride [more than tires] but not so.  The rest of the day we spent waiting in the cold breeze under the warm sun. I don't think I will be warm again until I get home.

I got to know ___ pretty well.  He is pretty cool.  We got there about 10:30 - 11:00 and waited outside talking and freezing until the sun went down.  Then we got to go to one of the Bradleys and hang out inside of it - have dinner and drill with the operating crew.  It was as pretty good day.  I am finally starting to feel a little bit at home here.  I am sure it will continue.

I miss Valerie, but her assurance that she is having a good time is helping me feel good about this decision.   . . .

January 18
This has been an interesting 24 hours of NTC.  We haven't done anything.  We have been hanging out relaxing in the dirt of the desert and in our Bradleys.  We've had a couple of meals and talked a lot and slept on the ground outside and inside the Bradleys.  We have been listening to frequencies.  We went to get fuel and "hot chow" (it wasn't even warm).  But no one has really done anything very exciting.  It is funny.  After the first few days I kind of wondered if this wasn't how the whole thing was going to be, but I am sure we will do something exciting - after all we have 1 week and 5 days left.

January 19
Yesterday afternoon sucked.  We finally got to go on a mission.  Me and 5 other guys were put in the commanders Bradley.  We drove for 30 seconds and waited for thirty minutes, drove for 30 seconds waited 30 minutes - seriously what should have been a 45 minute ride (I think) took us 3 hours.  We didn't get to get out and we didn't get to shoot anything.  To top it all off we did it again all over at night.  Very sucky day.  After we got out the second time I couldn't walk.  My legs were so stiff.

Today however, was a great day.  I am sitting on the top of a mountain pulling rear security for our team while we are watching the battle played out below.  It looks like a lot of Bryan's army micro-machines we had once a long time ago.  I am very much enjoying myself.  The sun is shining and I don't have to worry about shooting anything.

To top it all off I got to fly in a Black Hawk Helicopter!!!  They had our team in the helicopter and took us from our base, flew us around a mountain, landed briefly again and took off to the Southwest.  He landed and we undid our seat belts.  The door flew open and we jumped out, knelt, and waiting for it to take off.  It was way cool!  They briefed me on what to do because I had never done it before.

Cooler than that was I got to talk to one of the mechanic guys.  He told me all about flying.  He mentioned it's easy to get in (I told him I wanted to fly) he said he could take me on a tour of the airport and told me to text him after we get home.  Way Awesome Day!

January 20
This is the longest camping trip I have ever been on.  It hasn't even been one week.  I feel dirty, dusty, and disgusting.  I also feel dehydrated.

Last night we drove from 7:30 to 12:30 in the back of the Bradley - cramped and uncomfortable.  We camped in the cold until woken up at 5:00.  I had to do security fireguard at 2-3 in the morning.  When we had had breakfast there was nothing to do so we all slept until 10:30 -11:00 or something (I don't have a watch. I lost it the last week of basic training).  Now apparently we have another 8 hour trip again today. It probably wont be 8 hours, but the thought makes me cringe.  I do not like Bradley's or being a dismount.

January 21
Well I am getting used to the ridiculousness.  I can't wait to get home, but I am enjoying myself.  The rides might be long, but I'm getting to know the guys here pretty well.  I have come up with a nice idea though.  I am [going to do all I can to fly as soon as possible.]

We have been shooting.  I have expended 199 rounds since being here and I have another box of 200 to do sometime today and tomorrow.

[Lots of complaining] This place does suck.  I am very excited to go home and see Val and the kids.  I want to spend some more quality time with them.  We will see what the future holds.

January 22
I might be used to it, but it doesn't mean I still like it. [Lots of complaining] Yesterday we drove to the low part of the desert and then basically had dinner and camped for the night.  Everyone got on my case about not being loud or aggressive.  I will try I really don't know why, but it is difficult for me to be loud.  Everyone keeps telling me that I better do a good job and be able to kick in doors etc.  I will try my best.  If it is not good enough oh well.  Maybe there wont be too much of an argument for me to go to aviation.

January 23
I don't know what I am doing here.  I have made a few friends and now have verbally fought someone (3 guys at once) about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  I am having a good time even though I am filthy, tired, and sore.  I am doing pretty good for myself, but this definitely is not the job for me.  I know why I don't fit in.  I don't care about, nor do I ever want to kill someone.  And I don't like guns.  Everyone here talks about women very derogatory  and swears too.  Everyone here doesn't know why I am here either.  They all still tell me to go fly.  I have 2 weeks left here and I will be home - Yeah!  I can't wait.  I miss Valerie like crazy.  I think about her all the time.  I cannot wait to finally get home.  By "home" I mean somewhere with my wife and kids and furniture and TV and food and everything else normal.  I miss it so much because I have only had that for 3 days since September.

I can't wait to relax on my couch with my wife and watch a movie with popcorn.  I want to watch every movie I own again.

January 24
Well I am going to explain this trip - what has happened so far.  We have come here into the desert to do battle scenarios and practice our fighting skills.  We are supposed to mount the Bradleys and drive to our target, get out, shoot, kill, obtain the target.  That is not what it seems though.      

I think they purposely drive all over the place so that we can get disoriented or have a long trip or something then get out and fight.  I have been killed in the first two times I attempted this and I showed up the last time basically after was over.  This was our path to the battle field from what I could tell through the back window.    

Map of the trip to the battle

Mostly it has been sitting and waiting (very uncomfortably) in the cramped back hold of the Bradley.  It takes forever!  My bum has never hurt so bad sitting so long in a vehicle before.  I have asked if they will drop the ramp and I get no response or "No we are in a shoot zone" or something similar.  There was a point where we would just drive for 4 hours get back and have a debriefing.  Our captain would tell us what a great job we did and that the objective was met.  I would wonder to myself, "Were we in the same thing? Because I was bored out of my mind."   It took a couple of days before I finally heard gun blasts.  Then our guys fired for the first time - by mistake.

Either way we did not, nor have not really done anything up until yesterday and the day before.  [On those days] we got out and tried to secure a compound both in the day and night.  The first time our Bradley got blown up so we have to bound for about a half mile or more to the objective (where I got shot and had to wait out the rest of the game.) Apparently everyone died.  The second time we got out of the Bradley and never heard a gun shot and I died again.  Luckily I had a partner every time I died.  _____ pretty much has been with me so we just hang out and talk.

It's been interesting.  I've been getting to know a lot of people here.  Last night I got to know ___ better.  And ___ and ____ and ____ and ____ again.  I am making a lot of friends.  Today it happens to be raining.  This is the coldest wettest desert I have ever been to.  Ha ha!

Future house plan

January 24  January 25 (we are further than I thought) January 24 (I don't have a calender)

Today was a nothing day so it was Brandon Illguth Architect day as you can see from the pictures.  We stayed at our sleeping place all day and I got in trouble when I left my weapon when I went to use the facilities.  So I decided to design a house plan for our future house.  I finished to bottom floor how I want it.  It worked out really well.  We made covers for ourselves out of ponchos as we relaxed all day in the rain.  We are sleeping under them tonight.  I have built up a really good relationship with almost everyone in the platoon now and get along with everybody pretty well.  

I am definitely going to run out of room in [this book] before I run out of days to write about.  However, I think the next couple of days are going to be really busy and I wont have time.  

Saturday January 26th (I think) -- no Friday January 25

Today we got up really early and waited around until 10:00 am or so. Then we mounted the tracks and waited until 12:00 or 2:00 or something - time has no meaning here.  This is where I am right now.  

I am sooo bored!  We do nothing everyday and people complain about doing something.  I don't like that.  . . . 

Positively January 26th Saturday

Only 7 more days to go!! Last night we were woken up at 9:00 pm to go on a "mission."  We sat in the back of the Bradley as it went and did it's thing from 9:44 to 4:15 in the morning.  We didn't do a thing except add blast to the truck.  I was pissed.  We came back and it was sprinkling rain.  It had been sprinkling rain all day yesterday and didn't stop until about 9:00 am today.  Luckily I know how to stay dry.  Everyone made this tarp tent and slept under it.  The water dripped off and pooled and got everyone wet because it was in the middle of a small shallow basin.  I was dry and warm and have been all morning.  The rest of today we have done nothing even though the first sergeant came over and got mad at us for wearing beanies and not wearing our full kit.  We will see what the rest of the day brings.  

It is early evening and we are still on standby.  I have gotten to watch A-10 Warthogs and some F-16s fly around and basically just waiting.  I hate it here.  It sucks.  I am out ASAP!!!!

Sunday January 27th

Today we woke up and left early like 4:00 am.  I don't know how early it was.  We drove and parked forever.  Drove, parked even longer, drove, parked, drove, parked, etc.  I think with one or two latrine breaks in there too.  Oh yeah, while we were parked we played cards.  I read the very first part of the Lord of the Rings and that was about it all day long.  

Then we drove and parked and talked about the "Most Amazing Day" of battle ever.  The guy in charge told us what we could have done differently like stop and inquire whether or not our village was friendly.  When he was done talking I was like, "What battle did I miss?"  I am so sure this is a training exercise for leaders and they just need grunts to run around with them.  

Some sort of schematic

Monday January 28th
Last night 20 minutes after going to bed (not even) they woke ___ and I up to get our stuff ready to go.  I was furious and I let a few people know too.  I was mad that they didn't tell us before we got everything set up.  They drove us to a mountain with MREs and water and told us to hike all the equipment up and replace the guys on top.  So all day today I have been chilling out (literally, the wind is blowing cold) and drawing and writing in this little book.  I don't think much is going to change and we brought enough food until Friday.  Hopefully (in my opinion) we will be here until then doing nothing, but sleeping and eating and chilling.  Hopefully the wind will die down tonight or tomorrow.

January 29
12 hours straight + or - in the Brad with no break.  We tried sleeping, talking, reading, but we were all very uncomfortable.  The heat was on full blast and we got ready so fast that we had our snivel gear (long underwear) on all day until each of us in turn took it off.  The machine broke down and only an hour and a half after that did we finally get out.  I really hate this place!!!

It was in total 15 hours.  We got out and went to bed.  We drove the Brad to the place where they would fix it and then got a ride to our campsite.

January 30
Today has actually been an okay day.  We got up at 6:00 am I think.  Everyone left but our squad.  Our team is still broke down so we went to the headquarters area and chilled (literally) all morning.  I had breakfast and sat down and wrote in my book.  Then Sgt ____ told me I looked cold and if I wanted to I could come rack out in his Humvee - so here I am.  I am guessing it is about 10:00 - noonish now.  No big update.  1 1/2 days left.  Yeah!

January 30 continued  . . .
Late in the day.  We drove up to a rocky terrain area and hooked up with sergeant F____.  We got the rest of the platoon together (who had been waiting and climbing in the mountains all day some twice up and down.- Everyone complained) We came back for chow and then drove back up to sleep for the night.

January 31
What did I do today?  I don't remember because it is actually tomorrow.

We left early and sat in the track all morning long in full MOP gear (hazardous environment gear ie: gas masks).  At about 1:00 ish or so we finally got out and did something! We pulled security.  At first we looked for, found, and killed some enemies.  Of course my weapon didn't work at first.

Then we loaded, drove some more, and we stopped.  We had to patrol down a road to a shack to check a dead body.  I pulled security again.  I don't mind pulling security.  I really don't have to do anything except for look for enemies when I do that.

We then had to clear buildings with full kit MOP suit and gas mask.  Many on our team died.  Me and ___ survived.  Our MILES harnesses (Laser tag type system) are dead so we are alive.

I actually got to shoot people and I think I killed a few guys.  Then it took forever to assess casualties and clear out everyone and their gear.  I pulled security   One of the tracks broke down again and so we waited.  The sun started going down so the LT had us put on sleeping bags until 10:00 pm.  When we woke up and packed and went to our campsite.  

February 1

It's over! We finally did the last mission today.  Now I have to get through the last week of laying around and doing nothing at the Ruba.  

Today we got up early, mounted the tracks.  I guess we waited until it was light.  We had another safety brief about how dangerous it is to drive back because everyone is in close proximity to each other.  Then mounted the tracks and drove for hours.  Sometime in the early afternoon we stopped, got out, walked to the top of a hill, pulled security for about half and hour or so, then walked a longer way back (the tracks had moved) then climbed another hill and pulled security for a while (45 minutes maybe).  Then got in the tracks and drove away.  

We heard about what great things happened during that mission - again I thought, "was I a part of that mission?" Anyway, we got back into the tracks and drove all afternoon back to the last camp night we were going to have.  We had ribs and potatoes for dinner - okay, a tad under cooked - and got ready and went to bed.  

"Recovery" Week

February 2

We got up early again to wait.  9:15 rolls around and we finally leave to come home.  About 10 miles take 2 hours.  We finally roll up to where we need to be and it takes us the entire rest of the day to get everything squared away.  We have to bring our rucks and assault packs back.  We have to get all the MILES (laser tag system) and other sensitive items accounted for.  We have to get our cots, bags, and other boxes from the ConX (trailers).  We have to unload all the equipment we've used and clean the tracks.  It took forever!  

Finally at about 7:00 pm (we got back at 11:00 am) we get our phones back.  I finally got to talk to Valerie. She had some news for me . . . her IUD malfunctioned.  And during family pass in basic training she got pregnant!  She is going to have another baby - 4 kids under 3.  We are going to have to get a new car and a lot of other things.  Crazy!!! I finally got a shower.  I told her about this time in Hell! and we had a great conversation.  

February 3

I wish I could say I went to church today, but I didn't.  I did fast and pray for my aviation career all day long until dinner.  We went back into the desert and picked up litter - all day long.  It was long, boring, and tedious - and very annoying to be around so many people who were complaining about having to actually work.  At one point they had us do a formation.  Not everyone was lined up so they had to count and recount.  Finally they made us Dress Right Dress (stand next to each other - shoulder to shoulder) and everyone started complaining . . . I was pretty upset the whole day.

Tonight I called all my siblings and Jake and had pretty pleasant conversations with them about how Valerie is pregnant again - so she could write it on her blog.  Everyone told me they were praying for us and they thought we were pretty inspirational.  Good Day.

February 4

Today I got up early again to do the garbage detail in the desert.  And it was again very lame.  They made us get out of our trucks and stand in one long line and walk and pick up trash in the desert.  We were supposed to stay inline and all remain next to who we were standing by, but it is impossible with about 150 - 200 guys and 8 people in charge.  We got screwed up every single time we walked forward.  Then they made us stop and hold our arms out at a double arms interval and get back on line.  I felt like I was in Kindergarten.  It was pretty ridiculous.   I will be so glad to get out of this place.  

There were guys smashing down every bush that stood in their path.  There were guys who wouldn't even pick up anything, let alone cooperate.  I picked up everything.

I had a pleasant conversation with Valerie who is absolutely loving Texas.  Something I am very glad for.  Her and I have a lot of fun plans for when I get back and hopefully we will be able to accomplish them.

February 5

I spent the entire day outside drawing and writing and texting and talking to Val.  I refuse to waste my time lounging about in our shack doing nothing.  I am going to try to be even a little productive.  So I drew house plans (Brandon the architect) and aircraft plans (Brandon the engineer  and I tried to write about this dumb trip for Val's blog.  

February 6

Today was the day we were supposed to go home.  We didn't.  I was so mad all morning long.  I hated the fact that I was still here.   . . . 

February 7

I was finally able to post a message to Valerie's blog.  No thanks to smart phones - lots of thanks to smart friends.  I texted Val periodically throughout the day and got her to hopefully have a pretty okay birthday.  After lunch I talked on the phone to Trevor for almost 4 hours.  We caught up pretty well.  He is doing great in life.  He actually helped me buy a present for Val.  He is such an awesome friend.  

I also got to talk to Val after the girls went to bed.  It was nice.  I love hearing her voice.  All in all not a hugely productive day.  However, I did have fun. 

We finally packed up and moved our bags to where they were boxed up.  And then we moved to our new location.  Sometime around midnight we should be boarding the buses to go to the airport and then to Ft Hood.  Hallelujah!!!!      

Epilogue 

Brandon was told that spending time at the NTC was the worst form of field exercises that he would ever do in the army.  My brother-in-law John says that the NTC is the worst place on earth - and he's spent time in Iraq when it was an active war zone.  So even though the month was terrible for Brandon it's kind of nice that he got it out of the way at the beginning of his Army career.

When he got home he did get to enjoy his movie and popcorn while sitting on the couch.  The first movie we watched was Mission Impossible.  The kids watched it with us and liked it too.  

Now that he is home he is starting to get into the routine of real army life.  He goes to PT (Physical Fitness Training) every weekday morning at about 6:00 am.  Then he stays on base and get various things done.  He's home every day by 5:00 and some days he's home a lot earlier than that.  

One good thing about his time at the NTC is that he is now more motivated than ever to become a Warrant Flight Officer.  He knows that the infantry is not somewhere he wants to spend the next 5 years of his life.  As I write this he is sitting on the couch reading a study guide for the military flight aptitude test. 

Inspiration: I want to see you smiling

I finished reading the Mistborn Trilogy while Brandon was away in January.  The third book in the series, The Hero of Ages, was amazing.  Everything came together so well.  There were revelations about characters that blew me away.  And the ending, WOW the ending.  Honestly this is probably the first trilogy that I've ever read where the third book didn't leave me disappointed (cough Hunger Games cough).  I would even go so far to say that this book surpassed the final Harry Potter book in its ability to wonderfully, and yet chillingly, wrap up a story.

I wish I could talk to you in detail about why I love this series, but that would give away too many of the fun surprises.  Let me just say that while I was reading the first book I was shocked at least 5 times by different plot turns.  Reading these books is a rare literary pleasure. Here is a brief synopsis that sadly doesn't convey how good these books are.

The story centers on a young girl named Vin who is a Mistborn - meaning she can metabolize metals in her body to give her extra powers.  For instance "burning" pewter makes her stronger.  She joins with a group of thieves who also have powers from metals.  The thieves are lead by a man named Kelsier who is planning to overthrow the distopian government known as The Final Empire.

Okay lets stop there.  If you are like me your eyes are rolling back in your head and you are thinking, "Weird  fantasy book alert!"  And yes there are some fantasy elements.  But it's so much more than that.  It's well written with lots of cool battles and killing.  The characters seem real, the world is believable, and important lessons are learned about friendship, trust, leadership, responsibility, morality, etc.

For instance, here is a quote that I loved from the the third book.  This is from page 117.  Things seem pretty bleak and Elend Venture gives this little speech.  Consider this your inspirational quote for the week.

"We can survive this.  But, the only way that will happen is if our people don't give up.  They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel this fight can be won.  So, this is what I ask of you.  I don't care if you are an optimist or a pessimist - I don't care if secretly, you think we'll all be dead before the month ends.  On the outside, I want to see you smiling.  Do it in defiance, if you have to.  If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling . . . "

I love the idea of smiling in defiance.  A few months ago someone told me, "it doesn't take much to get you to laugh."  Which is true.  I laugh at everything - even things that I really shouldn't laugh about.  But laughing and joking about things like money problems, health concerns, car breakdowns, and other worries, helps me feel like I am still somewhat in control.  It's like no matter what life dishes out I am still in charge of my attitude.

Anyway, read the Mistborn books. They are good.  So good that Brandon and I are seriously tempted to name Baby D Vin if it is a girl.  And smile through life.  That's good too.  

Our Home

Despite the fact that we moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom house we have been able to make every room feel furnished.  I guess that just shows how squished we've been for the past few years.  I still have a few things I want to do before I will consider us completely moved in to our new home; however, everything is mostly how I want it so now is a good time to give you a tour of the house.  

When you come in the front door there is a little entry way.  The first room you see is the living room.  This living room is huge.  The girls love running, skipping, rolling, and jumping across the whole length of the room.  

The living room has a opening that allows the kitchen and dining room to see into the living room.  This is nice because I can watch the TV while making dinner.  

Before Brandon and I started seriously dating I bought a set of furniture when the Inn at Temple Square closed.  We've had that furniture in each of our last 4 homes, but we never really been able to use it all for it's intended purposes at the same time.  For instance the green arm chairs have spend the last two and a half years in the girls' bedroom.  Now we finally have room for them in the living room again.  And can you believe that this little round table was our dining room table for at least the past 4 years?

 Here is looking at the living room from a different angle.  I love that the piano we were given matches the wood for the furniture that I already owned.

The book cases are back where they belong - on either side of the entertainment center.  Brandon built both the bookcases out of particle board and we painted them to match the color of the arm chairs exactly. 

Back at the entry way, if you turn right you go down the hallway that leads to the FOUR bedrooms.  

The first bedroom you come to is the kids' room.  I played around with several ways to arrange the furniture, but I ended up deciding that I liked how the beds were in our old house.  So thats how they are here.  There is one major change though - the girls can get in and out of their beds now.  When I put together Charlotte's crib I couldn't get the last side panel on.  Charlotte jumped up on the bed and seemed to like that she could easily climb in and out, so I just left it off.  She fell out of bed the first night, but never again.  Lydia's crib is different from Char's so the side doesn't come off easily.  I keep asking her if she wants it off, but she always says no.  She doesn't seem to mind climbing over the side every time she wants in or out.  I dropped the side to make it easier.  

All the windows in the house have big blinds on them.  The girls love to pull on the blinds.  I figured the blinds in their room didn't stand a chance of surviving so I just took them down.  I put up this fabric that I happened to have.  Eventually I'll get around to actually making it into curtains, but for now this is good enough.  

 I debated whether or not to have Derrick continue to share with the girls.  Finally I decided I wanted to keep them all in the same room.  They all go to bed at the same time so it makes sense to have them share a room.  Plus Derrick hates feeling left out.  I think he would consider it the ultimate betrayal to be separated from his sisters.

 I originally put the big dresser in the kids room.  But then I changed my mind and gave the kids the two little dressers.  I did that because the girls couldn't open the drawers to the big dresser.  They are picking out their own clothes more and more frequently and I wanted that to be as easy as possible for them.  Plus both little dressers fit in the closet really well and so that left more floor space free in the room.

One nice thing about having so much more room throughout the whole house is that I don't have to store extra clothes under the cribs anymore.  The kids like playing under their beds.  The other night Charlotte cried herself to sleep for about half an hour.  Later I went into check on her and couldn't find her anywhere.  Finally I found her fast asleep under Derrick's bed.  No wonder it had taken her so long to settle down to sleep.  I covered her with a blanket and left her there.  

The next bedroom is the kids' toy room.  Having this room allows the kids to share a room without it feeling super crowded.  All the toys hang out in here and it is usually a huge mess.  Once a week we clean and vacuum it and that is good enough for me.    

 This is another room where a lot of the stuff is stored in the closet.  I have lots of shelves and stuff in there and they hold all the toys - at least until the kids decide to dump everything out.

 Our wonderful window seat has found a new home in the toy room.  I put it in here because most of the other rooms in the house have low windows.  But this room has high windows and I want the kids to see out.  We have plans to paint it bright colors to match the number rug on the floor.  Charlotte loves to take naps on the window seat.  

 Like I said, this room is usually pretty messy.  Here are the girls taking apart the number rug only a few minutes after we got it put back together again.

A couple nights ago Brandon helped me hang this quilt up on the wall.  His mom made it with a star for where he served on his mission.  I wanted it up in this room because it is the same bright colors as the number rug.  

After the toy room the hall turns to the left and continues to the other two bedrooms.  

The next bedroom is our office.  

 This is where Brandon set up our big storage shelf, our desk, and his big airplane.

 I love having a big room to work on projects.  Not that I've really had time to use it yet, but the idea makes me happy.

The last room is our bedroom.  It's the biggest bedroom and it is so spacious.  

Look how small the "big" dresser looks.  And check out my "large" wedding card collage.  These things used to dominate whatever room they were in, but now they seem regular sized.  

 Our bed also seems smaller.  We had talked about getting a new bed as soon as possible.  This bed had started to seem uncomfortable.  Well, after almost a month of sleeping on a folding sleeping pallet I couldn't believe how comfortable the bed was.  We still might replace it in the next year or two, but it's not a huge priority anymore.

 Our room has it's own bathroom which is nice.  

But it still seems to get overrun by little kids quite often.  Every Saturday after bath time I put the girls up on this counter and comb the tangles out of their hair.  Then I put moose in their hair to keep the curls looking good.  It's a fun routine that we like doing.  I used to do it in Bountiful in my tiny tiny bathroom with only a little corner of counter to stand the girls on.  It's so nice to have a big counter now that holds both of them.  

 Oh and I can't forget to show you the walk in closet.  The girls like to pretend that this is their "house."  They go in there and then open the door and say hi.

Going back to the other side of the house you come to the kitchen and dinning room.  I really can't tell you how nice it is to have a real dinning room.  It's so nice to have dinner and not have to worry about getting every spill and crumb up off the floor right after the meal.  

Like I said in an earlier post.  Getting enough chairs for our table is our next furniture priority.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying the use of our dining room table again.  This was Brandon's table when we were dating and first married.  In the moves since then we haven't had room for this table.  We've held on to it knowing that one day we would have room for it again.  And now we do!

The dining room and the kitchen have this nice counter between them.  

 And here is the kitchen from a slightly different angle.  I have plans to make the area above the cupboards more decorative.

 The girls love to unload the dishwasher.  They are especially good at unloading the silverware.  But they weren't very good at sorting it in the drawer.  Brandon and I finally gave up and just took out the little divider thingy.

 Here is the inside of one of our cupboards.  All these dishes used to be crammed into a cupboard less than half the size of this one.  I am so happy to have lots of storage space in my kitchen.

And here is some more of the storage space.  I need to organize this cupboard better.  The girls have figured out how to push the stools (Lydia calls them stoves) over to whereever they want and then stand on top of them.  That means that most everything is withing reach of their little hands.  I've learned to put the cereal on the top shelf of this cupboard.  

The house is kind of shaped funny on this side.  You can either head back to the entry way, or go through this door to a little bump of a room that sticks out in the front.  That bump is a kind of mudroom/laundry room.  

Here are our wonderful washer and dryer.  The door to the garage is right next to the dryer.  

 This is looking back through the room toward the rest of the house.  You can see into the living room in the background.  There is also a little room behind the door with all the jackets and bags on it.  That little room is a storage room.

 It's where we keep a lot of Brandon's "Army Crap."

 And our extra food and stuff.  I really don't know what to do with this much storage.  I kind of have a goal that I wont let myself fill up all the storage space here.  I don't want to hang onto junk just because I have room to do so.

 Oh and we can't forget about the patio.  Thanks to the "fire ant incident" the girls wont step off the cement.  So thank goodness the patio is huge.

The kids love to spend time out here playing with chalk and balls.  They like to watch the airplanes and helicopters that fly over our house all day long.  (The airport is about 2 miles behind our house - and every member of the family is THRILLED about that.)  They also love to see the birds and squirls that play in the trees on the other side of our fence.  

 This is the view from the patio.  We live on the last circle of our neighborhood.  There is nothing but outback behind us.  I love how secluded our house feels.  We don't even have to worry about shutting our back blinds at night.  This kind of privacy was unheard of anywhere else we have ever lived.

 So there you have it - our beautiful, furnished home.  Some things about this army lifestyle drive me crazy, but at the end of the day I am very, very, very grateful to have this house.  There is no way we could have afforded this much space back in Utah as civilians.