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Return Home

I have finally made it back home from my deployment to Iraq and I am glad to be home.  It nice to be back in my own house with Nani again.  I am not sure if everyone knew or not, but I have moved to a new house in a little town called Bury St Edmunds.  Over the last week I have been trying to get everything settled in the house.  It is amazing how every time you move there is always things you have to buy.  Of course it does not help that the house is three times as big as my last place.  Once I get everything done around here I will take some pictures and post them so people can see the new place.  Other than getting settled back in there is not much to report.  I start back at work tomorrow.  It is going to be strange working a full day after having a week off, but I am sure that I will be able to make it through.  As for the holidays, I am still trying to decide what I am going to do.  I am going to try and come home for some part of them.  I am just trying to figure out the best time so I can see as many people as possible.  

Deployment

Well things here are going well.  I am currently deployed to one of those lovely sandbox locations.  There is plenty of sun and sand (the only thing we are missing is the water).  I have a great crew, so things have been going really smooth.  We will see what happens after we have been together for a while.  Deployments are fun.  We do not have to think too much about paperwork.  There is still a little that has to be done, but it is not too bad.  Our normal routine here is to sleep, eat, work, and workout.  The workout part is great.  I have been getting to the gym at least once a day and I try to go twice a day at least every other day.  I figure if I can not get in shape while I am here, then it is not meant to be (just kidding). 

Norway

Erik is already hounding me that I am not keeping everyone posted enough.  Things are going well here.  I just got back from Norway.  It was an awesome trip.  I have to go back some time and do some hiking.  The area was so beautiful.  I will post some pictures later.  I will be heading to the states in a couple of weeks.  I am going to get to see Mom, Dad, Kelli, and her new man (do worry Kelli I will be nice:)).  After that weekend I will be staying in Oklahoma City for Advanced Instrument School.  I am really looking forward to this.  I will also be heading down to Dallas with Charlotte and Becky.  We are going to getting our tattoos this weekend.  I know Mom and Dad are already disappointed, but you know you love me.  Then I am going out to California for a week.  I am going to steal my nephews heart:)  I am so excited to meet him.  I think this is the part that sucks the most about being overseas, I miss out on so much of the family stuff.  Finally I am going to be heading down to Florida to see my friends Gwynne and Chris’ baby, Samantha, for a weekend.  Then I will be heading back to England for a couple of days before heading back for Kelli’s birthday.

As you can see I have a lot planned.  I am always on the go as you know.  I will try and keep everyone posted.  See Erik I can post every so often.  You will probably have to continue to nag me until we are 100.

Since Christmas

As everyone knows.  I am a horrible computer person and I have been putting off trying this.  Partially out of laziness and partially out of fear of the unknown.  Since Christmas I have been back to the states taking a plane to Florida to have some maintenance done.  When I got back here to England I was chained to my desk because we had an inspection in the beginning of February.  I was upgraded to evaluator, this means that I evaluate how well a pilot does there job.  And the inspection went really well for the squadron.   Immediately after, I went to Stuttgart, Germany to do personnel airdrops.

As for my personal life, I went to Dubrovnik, Croatia the third weekend in January.  The trip was fantastic.  The area was so beautiful, I will post pictures later.  I had a four day weekend and decided this would be a great place to go.  I went with a good friend of mine, her name is Maria and she is a flight doctor.  We arrived on Friday night late and we just went to the hotel and went to sleep.  We got up the next morning and scheduled a massage which was definitely needed from the week before.  We walked around the city and saw a sign that said “Cold drinks with the most fantastic view.”  And it was a beautiful view.  We ordered water and then there was a staircase leading down to the ocean.  We walked down so that we could feel the water.  Then an older man came by and asked if we would like to get a tour of the island on his boat (might I add this was a 25 foot boat, very small).  Maria and I looked at each other and decided we could take him if we needed to and jumped on the boat.  I thought I was going to fall in the water, but luckily that did not happen, it would have been very cold.  Once he dropped us off at the harbor we had dinner at a cute little restaurant in the harbor.  The next day we walked around the city wall, the view was breath taking!!

That covers everything that is going on in my life now.  If this works correctly, I will try and post more often.  But as you all know me, it will most likely be a bit sporadic, but that is why you all love me so much!!!

Merry Christmas

Well another year has come and gone.  And boy has it been a busy year.  I started January with a trip to Albania as a planner which means that I did not get to do a lot of flying.  Then I came home for a week and then left a on a trip to Morroco for three weeks.  That trip was a lot of fun!  I had never been to Morocco before and I had the chance to travel around and see things.  When I was not flying I went to the market.  It was crazy there, there were snake charmers and vendors that wanted to sell you stupid trinkets that none of us needed.  Of course I bought a couple Luckily after those two trips I was home for two months, and I did a short trip to Stuttgart Germany for a week.  Of course the down time could not last too long.  June things started getting busy again.  I went on a trip to Africa for a week.  I worked with the Malian Army which was a good learning experience.  The weird thing was that they compared me to Condoleezza Rice since I was a pilot.  i thought thatat was really funny!!  After this trip I took a crew to the desert the next week.  This pushes us into July, where I did another trip to Albania for three weeks.  Just prior to going on this trip I was told I would be going to Stuttgart Germany for two months as the liaison officer for the SOF (the local agency I work for now) and SOCEUR (which is the high headquarters staff we work for).  I returned from Albania for one week before I left for Stuttgart.  The trip was fantastic I will fill you in on that later.  I came back from Stuttgart in October and then went to the Simulator in New Mexico for a week in November.  And now I am going to Stuttgart again for a short one week trip this month.  Next year in February I should be pinning on Major.  I will keep everyone posted.

As for me personally, you can tell from the pictures that I have done some traveling on vacation also.  In May, my great friend Becky Muggli and Mike (Icke) Schmidt came to visit and we traveled to Scotland together.  I kissed the Blarney Stone so I should have good luck for awhile :)  Then while I was in Stuttgart for the staff job, I did a lot of traveling.  My goal while I was there was to see something new every weekend.  While I was there I saw the Kronigstrauss, Ramstein, Neuswanstein, and Garmish Germany.  Finally, after returning from Germany in October, Erik and Kristi came to visit and we had the opportunity to visit London and Paris.  I sure loved having them here. 

As you can see, this year has been jammed packed.  I miss you and love you and wish I could be there with you.  Please be safe and I will talk to ya soon.