new old way of life

Well we have had a lot of helicopters flying around, and they come down so close so fast they shake the ground. They have to combat land so that the bad guys can't shoot at them, it just basically means they have to nose dive. They come very close to our roof and this is a probably a 10 foot ceiling. I have picture of some of them, these aren't close at all, I think these can just come straight down, so they don't have to nose dive.

The next picture I have is of the inside of the plane that we took from kuwait to here. Not exactly a made for its beauty, and there weren't any complimentary beverages, but up at the front they did have a big orange cooler full of water. I almost forgot, it was REALLY hot in there, there was something wrong with their air and it must have been about 140-150 in the plane, it felt good outside where it was only 110 when we got off.

I'm finally here

Well we finally made it! This place is great too, I know that after awhile its going to get boring, but right now we are all very happy with our living conditions, it is a thousand times better than it was at any of the training sites. We even have flushing toilets!! Small victories. The pictures below is of our living area inside and out.




The bed with the blue blanket is mine the messy one is Jens. We have a little kitchen area and Jen bought a tv, it quite nice. I will be giving updates, but I don't have much time right now so until tomorrow, I wish you well.



Sorry my hair is crazy, I just took my hair out of some braids.

free time

As you may have noticed, by my ability to post something every day, I have had an ample amount of free time of late. As a side effect of free time soldiers sometimes do silly things, let me explain, I'll let you know when I get to the silly part. Yesterday one of my friends here decided to re-enlist, her name is Jen and she has decided to dedicate another several years of her life to the protection and freedom of our country. As a thank you, along with generous monitary consideration, the army gave her a piece of luggage that is quite large. Jen came back yesterday from swearing in and she said, "yeah and they gave me a bag that Julia could fit in." Us being bored, and soldiers, we had to try it out to make sure she was right.

We had her put her head all the way in too, there was extra room. I think we could go ahead and pack her in there with enough snacks and water to last her till she got back to her husband. Anyway I hope you enjoy my picture have a lovely day.

sand storm

Well today we are having our first real sand storm since we have been here, not so exciting as you might think. First off its never a good idea to wear chap-stick or any other kind of lip product during this sort of thing. The wearer may have a little trouble with a sand paper like feeling on their lips about 2 seconds after leaving the inside area. I got some pictures to put on here.

This one is right outside of our tent, went for a little walk over to the px during the storm, stupid soldiers! We got all dressed up.

We were talking about all the places we had gone the other day and that is seems whenever we go anywhere there is some kind of natural emergency, like tornado or hurricane. We had a tornado knock down tents in South Dakota, and a tornado ran through our sleeping area in Texas we even had the tornado sirens go off. Also the day we got mobilized is snowed in Iraq. At least here this kind of thing happens all the time.

your change is a dollar even

They don't have change in Kuwait. I don't know what else I can add to this sentence except maybe they have change and it isn't american, or maybe they have it just not here, but there is no actual metal change. Instead the army has devised another way for us to get our change.

Julia calls them pogs, you remember pogs? Those little discs the kids used to collect? Well now they really are worth something, granted its only pocket change but still. You should have seen the look on Julia's face when she got them back, like what is this? Don't think just because I'm small I'm going to let you get away with giving me card board instead of real money. I gave them my money and they gave me these, is this worth anything at all. Well anyway I just wanted to let everyone know they are giving our troops fake money over here...Until tomorrow. :)

my husband

Well I have realized this past week I have been somewhat remiss in introductions, this is my husband steve. We have been married for 4 years.

I know he looks a little strange in this picture, but I can assure you that is his, why are you taking my picture you already have pictures of me look. That one was taken when we were on my four day pass right before I left. That is a signature steve look that I love. He has been doing fine since I left, keeping busy with school and now work for the summer. Right now he is working with his daddy on a house that his father owns, I think he may also be getting a summber job sometime in here at a deli where he worked last year. When I am home we live in a huge house that also houses three other guys, they are crazy and loud but I love all of them and I miss them.
Well I was going to go and put on another picture but my internet is too slow I can't get it to load. So I will describe it for you, the other one has steve with a beard, a red beard. He seems to pick up more and more pigment in his hair the further down his face it is. I'm sorry I think I said that wrong the way I said it makes it sound gradual, its not. The hair goes from being white blonde to bright red in 1 milimeter, the change is amazing. As you may hear again I am not fond of facial hair, so for my birthday every year he shaves it off. Well this year I pulled the Iraq card to make him shave it for a little longer, and I think he might keep it shaved. Some people here say he doesn't even look like the same person with a beard. I'm here to tell you he is.
So I have a little story that will either make you laugh or be gross to you. A few years ago I made something for dinner that had a lot of cheese in it, Steve ate it and enjoyed it. Later that night I was snuggling with him and I said "Hey your beard smells like cheese". It stuck and I started saying it kind of often because I didn't like the beard, well my army friends heard my say it one time and they started saying "the cheese beard" too. Its funny because it is an orangey kind of color. Well now there is not a cheese beard, so its ok. Alright I have nothing left to add today, excpet that you can go and see this post my Mom did about Steve on her blog last year: The Snowman Post.

what's this?

Today we got up at 2 am and wandered out into the middle of the desert to ensure that our weapons still worked even in another country. Yes, one and all, that is what I put up with on a regular basis. We really did drive an hour out into the desert fire 20 rounds and drive back. But anyway, today I was able to get a picture of some of the beautiful foliage they have out here.

Isn't that about the sadest little...thing you have ever seen? The ones that I saw as we came in were worse, they didn't even look a little bit green. Well to be fair Kuwait is having a drought right now, but even taking that into consideration there is not shell of an old tree or anything but these and there aren't any where we live.
While we were out in the desert today I decided to also get a picture of the desert, because it is hard to fully appreciate when you don't get to see it. For fun I went ahead and stood in the picture so that you would have something, anything to acually look at. The lady in the picture with me is Jaanna.