Pretty Pretty Pictures

Here's a picture update of what's been happening recently--more details about these pictures are in the post below. Sorry that some are sideways-can't seem to get them to behave like I want!


First Presbyterian, Columbus! Had to take a picture since we enjoyed it so much!


Some of the memorials different states built for their soldiers who spent time/died at Andersonville.

The prison was built to hold 6,000 prisoners-it's only 16 acres. Instead, it held on average 13,000-ahh, talk about overcrowding!

What it looked like: lots of tent shelters...

Andersonville (also known as Ft. Sumter). Prison for over 45,000 soldiers during the Civil War.

BEACH.

Clay and Cameron at BigStuf playing a game while we waited to go into the main session room.

More shenanagins with the youngsters!

Epic dance party in 1026 at BigStuf. This is why we got no sleep...

Hey look, I'm going to finish giving you the house tour! Except I definitely uploaded them in the wrong order, so scroll down and then come back up to get the full effect of 'walking through' the house!
The side of our bedroom--Mrs. Shamburger's dresser! And I just love the built in bookshelves. It used to be a doorway that the closed in and put in shelves-ingenious!

Our bedroom!

Bathroom! So exciting. No counter space=problems. Well, it's not as bad as having two girls who had blowdryers, curling irons, etc. but this house's bathrooms are definitely not teenage-girl friendly!

Sideways. Strange. This is the hallway to the 'master suite'. The bathroom is on the left.

Washer and dryer! Super exciting. Also the doorway to our 'master suite'.

The flip-side of the guest bedroom...Our old rocking chair and the bookshelf my dad built. It's the first piece of furniture he ever made! As you can see, we're going to need him to build another one as this one is already full...

The guest bed! I also have a blow up mattress, comfy couch, and two sleeping bags, so do not worry-I can accommodate you!

Alphabet Soup: AFTB sponsored by ACS

Well, I have some things to catch you up on! Where to begin...

This weekend Brian and I decided to enjoy being here for an entire weekend together-hooray! That's the first time it's happened since we've moved here, ironically. We had dinner downtown in Columbus Friday night at (of course) a Mexican restaurant! Not as good as Casa Blanca, but we'll take it. And if you come visit (as you should), I'm taking you downtown-it is darling! Big, wide, Southern streets to walk on with lots of "window-shopping". They've done a lot of renovation work and it looks great down there. Lots of fun girly-lunch places that I could never drag Brian into simply because he'd still be hungry after we left...ha!

Saturday we slept in...ah, bliss. I blame it on the fact that my dear ole husband spent a few nights in the field and has been going strong all week. So I join him in relishing some extra sleep hours. Not like I really need them, but it is a nice feeling not having a school project/paper hanging over your head! Saturday afternoon we went to Andersonville, which is home to one of the Civil War's most deadly POW camps. It's also the site of America's national POW museum and memorial....kind of depressing, but very interesting! Pictures to come.

Sunday we tried out First Presbyterian Church in none other than downtown Columbus. It was awesome! Almost cried when I walked it because it resembles FPC-Starkville; tall stained glass windows, ornate crown molding, the pews are set up the same, but this one has a lot of woodwork. Even the church body resembled Starkville--old and young people, and quite a few kiddos! We were approached by at least five people after the service which was so refreshing; it's hard to get motivated to go and search for a church when you don't feel like you're at home; we think this might work out for us! And of the approximately 15 people we know on Ft. Benning, 2 of them were there! They had joined the church a month or so ago and they were telling us how much they enjoyed it-praise God from whom all blessings flow! The woman sitting next to me was so incredibly friendly and kind--made me giddy! I wanted to start talking about 1,000 miles a minute but I made myself hold back for fear that I might scare my new friend away...Needless to say, we're going to keep going back! Afterwards we walked downtown and had lunch at this GREAT old cafe-another one I'm taking you to when you come! A very charming place.

Monday kicked off with both Brian and I headed out the door at 8; he for formation, me for AFTB class! Let me translate: Army Family Team Building. I basically spent about 8 hours listening to different 'teachers' talk about different, basic functions of the Army and services the Army offers to families and spouses. If you want it, the Army has training/a seminar for it! We got information on schools, financial planning, Army etiquette, memorizing rank, tons of services the Army provides, and on and on! We also got a huge binder, so I'll show it off to you later ;) There are two more levels to the AFTB classes, and I'm planning on taking those too, with hopes of being an AFTB instructor at some point! In addition to all of our lessons we got one on ACRONYMS...the Army has a long love affair with these puppies. Some of my old friends and I decided it would be quite fun to make a drinking game out of them...get it wrong, you know what to do...we never played for fear that we'd be at an unhealthy level in about 5 minutes... I'm pretty sure I could now have an entire conversation in acronym-language. For example:

Hey Molly, do the guys have an FTX this weekend? Their CO emailed us the OPORD ; they have to bring their TA-50 along with their ACUs for a GI tomorrow morning. We have an FRG meeting at the ACS building Wednesday where we're going to discuss some of the MWR events as well as MFLC.

Roger.

Translation: (Thank goodness I'm schooled in deciphering foreign languages...)
Hey Molly, do the guys have a field training exercise...commanding officer...op order (operation)...TA-50: all of their government issued camo junk that's residing in my living room...Army Combat Uniforms...General Inspection...Family Readiness Group...Army Community Services...Morale, Welfare, Recreation...Military Family Life Consultants...

And that's just a sprinkling of them!

In other news I've been applying for jobs all day, so keeping my fingers crossed on those! Brian is in the field tonight through Thursday, so we have some fun girl stuff planned-whoo hoo! He's learning how to hurt people. By hurt I mean make them dead...Yes you heard me. Pretend like I whispered that. But he's excited. It means he gets to shoot guns-of course he's excited. And this morning they did combatives for PT (ha, another one...), so I think I'm off to mend a pair of ACUs (hey, you now know what that stands for!) that he tore this morning. They're too dang expensive to buy new ones just yet! This pair IS new...

I also finished "The Help"-definitely read it in about 3 days-it's really good! Sad portrait of how unequal life was in the time of segregation/desegration movement, but it also gives hope. One of the girls who the book follows is a Chi Omega (fictionally) but she mentions some of the Chi O rules--pretty funny. I think I'm going to lay off of leisure reading for awhile and instead pick up my "Army Wife Handbook" that looks like a FM (field manual :) It's green. And thick. And reads pretty dry, but I feel like I need to know all of the rules so I don't get myself or Brian in trouble!

Well this has gone on long enough. Probably won't hear from me again until after this weekend--I'm trekking back to Mississippi for Anna Crain and John Clemmer's wedding. I'm so excited-both for them getting married as well as the fact that I'm going to get to see some of my amazing friends and family!

Big Stuf

So this past week I was in Panama City Beach with my former youth group from Starkville at a Big Stuf summer camp...we had a blast! Now, I don't know who in their right mind would have a youth conference in Panama City...but thankfully, we only got hollered at as we walked...that's about as racy as it got. After driving through PCB when I was about 10 with my family, I quickly informed my mom that I never wanted to visit there again-I think she was relieved.

Onto a happier note! I met up with the youth Sunday. Good news for Rebecca: Ft. Benning is only 3 hours and 45 minutes from the beach! So yes, I am planning another trip before summer ends! We spent Monday-Thursday in this fashion: 7:30 was our breakfast "slot" (1500 people there...had to have a flow.) 9:00- start of big session. 11:00-the kids get to be crazy with Big Stuf interns, the leaders get to go to seminars that were awesome. Noon-lunch. 1-5: free time! 5-11:30: dinner, session, quiet times. We spent two of our free times on the beach, which was great. The ocean felt awesome, and not a speck of oil in sight! Our group also competed in the ultimate frisbee tournament they held on the beach. Again, I question the thought behind this. For all 1500 of us, there were two gatorade jugs of water on the beach. I repeat: two. Plus, the kids are most likely dehydrated, since they've been drinking coke from the machines and not water...With that said, we had a youth get extremely overheated and Cameron and I spent about 1.5 hours inside with her bringing her temperature back down and getting fluids into her...She bounced right back after a nap. ha! The sessions had a large praise band and lots of high energy music-I think our kids were a little taken aback at first! We had a great time with the kids and got to spend a lot of good time talking about our relationships with God-hopefully the truths will stick!

I got back yesterday, and proceeded to take a four hour nap. Then, I slept about 10 hours that night. And I just woke up from another nap. I'm telling you--those youth conferences don't allow any time for SLEEP! Especially when you're up til around 1 AM having super awesome dance parties with 13 year olds. Lindsay and I impressed them with a super incredible dance that we made up on the spot. Some of our girls like to make up dances to songs, so we thought we'd join the fun. Highlights: my "worm", and Lindsay's headstand. Things got crazy... The nights also were long due to much talking with my bedmate, Lindsay Sistrunk. Not much sleeping...more like lots of talking. This week also reminded me how much kids can eat. We thought about $100 of snacks would take care of them for 3 nights. Nope-they pretty much disappeared in one night!

Brian and I are excited about this weekend because we're actually here for the whole thing! We're planning on hanging out with some friends and maybe going to check out a state park if the weather cooperates (AKA, it's not desperately hot outside...). Next week I'm taking "Intro to the Army" class number 1-I'm pretty excited! It's an all day affair, and we were told to bring a lunch-should be fun! Some of the girls and I have started having lunch over at one of the wives houses every Friday. We eat, make a craft (earrings this week!), and end up spending about 2.5 hours with each other. We have a lot of fun and it gives us a good reason to get out of the house. Which currently is in a state of disaster, as I am in the midst of laundry and no one was here to pick up after Brian this week...kidding! He actually maintains himself very well! Just a lot of dirty dishes and stinky PT clothes. I've decided that I'm going to dedicate a clothes basket just for ACU's (his uniforms) and his PT clothes, because they belong in a class of their own. That class being "stinky, full of dirt, and wet". Not his fault though...it is July. In south Georgia. You wonder why I stay inside or only venture to the pool for outdoor fun!

In some of my free time lately I've been reading a lot-it feels so good to pick up a book for fun! I just finished "Her Mother's Hope" by Francine Rivers and "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis. Both incredible reads that I highly suggest! Francine's book starts in the 1800s and follows a generation of women and their coming of age, stories, and relationships with their mothers and how those relationships shape who they are. She's a Christian fiction writer, so there are incredible faith related details that I guarantee you can identify with! There's a sequel due out in the fall-I might pre-order it...

"The Great Divorce" was my first venture into C.S. Lewis. Our college minister loved him, and I've had this book for awhile so I decided to read it! It's an imaginative story of what Heaven and Hell might be like as well as showing how all must be left in order to follow Christ. I flew through the book at lightning speed because it was so good! I think I'm going to read it again more closely now that I know what happens. It follows a guy who decides to get on the bus to Heaven, and it follows him around as he overhears conversations with ghosts (the people from Hell) and the souls from Heaven. It shows how past hurt, pride, and many other things get in the way of these people accepting Christ and considering all as lost when compared to knowing Christ. It's really good-another good one that I think a lot of people could identify with!

Now I've picked up "The Help" which I started yesterday and have read about 100 pages! Follows life/relations in Mississippi back in the 1960's-it's being turned into a movie, and I have a friend who's working on it-pretty cool! More on this book as I get deeper into it. I also bought a Barnes and Noble cheap book called "Ask a Mexican!"-it's a compilation of a column that's written in a California newspaper, and it deals with social mores, questions from people about Mexican traditions, slurs, reasons why Mexicans do certain things...it is hilarious. And refreshingly not politically correct, but rather true! I actually think I will be able to learn a lot from it! As well as all of the curse words in Spanish, as it outlines them. Probably a good thing to know when teaching teenagers. Then at least I can stop the madness....ha!
Feel free to recommend books...I'm always looking for a good read!

Social Butterfly-ing and Bellydancing

This has been such a full week! I spent Monday with the Home Depot delivery people...they brought our washer and dryer-hooray! I then proceeded to do about 8.5 hours of laundry. It only got put away yesterday...Laundry is about my least favorite chore.

The rest of the week I spent running around doing errands and being a little social butterfly. Wednesday I trekked over to Auburn to get registered for my last graduate course. MSU messed up my scheduling, so I'm taking my last Masters course at Auburn in the fall. What I was told was a 30 minute drive to Auburn took me over an hour. The "over an hour" part consisted of me being lost on Auburn's campus. It didn't help that Camp War Eagle (their orientation for freshmen) was going on...lots of hyped parents and lost drivers! After being told I was going to have to get a visitor's pass to park (which who knows where THAT office is), I decided to be illegal and park by the football stadium. My car was still there after about 45 minutes, so they didn't catch me :) Meanwhile I walked around campus, asking about 10 people where certain buildings were. I finally decided to ask an Orientation leader where something was (they're the ones with all the info anyways...) and as she turned around, I realized it was the one Orientation leader I actually KNEW-Lauren Ketron! We went to high school/ran cross country together! After a fun little reunion she sent me in the correct direction.

The other days this week my friend Dana and I spent going to various exercise classes at the gym as well as laying out at the pool in the afternoon. We did "Cardio Core" on Tuesday (which worked everything but core...strange, I know), and today (Saturday) I actually am not sore. It was probably the hardest workout I have done in a really long time. You know when the instructor tells you to get about 7 different exercise "tools", you're in trouble. But it was a great workout and I plan on returning to kill myself week after week. Dana and I then took about a 45 minute "tour" of post as we tried to find a swimming pool...Ok, there are probably 10 swimming pools on post, but the one closest to us was closed, so we set out in search of one in a really nice neighborhood....that took awhile! Mainly because we only knew the general DIRECTION of the subdivision...we eventually found it...

Thursday we spent a good amount of time at the gym, pool, and a friend's house. The boys were in the field Thursday night, so we decided to hang out (the wives, that is). We had planned on watching a movie, but we ended up talking instead! We're coming to learn quickly that the way you figure out things in the Army is that you have to talk to people. And more people. I have said more than once "It would be so much easier if they just had a handout for this!"...heralding back to my days at the Center for Teaching and Learning...Tina (boss, not roommate...), I should've learned to make those while I was there! :)

Friday morning me, Dana, and Dana's mother-in-law (who's in town) went to a Ranger demonstration/graduation...it was AWESOME! They did rappeling demos, explosives, combatives (yes, fighting), as well as a bunch of other stuff. They'll do it again for each Ranger graduation, so I'll get to see it when Brian finishes Ranger School (hopefully the end of January!). It kind of gave us a glimpse of what the boys will be up to in their jobs! We also saw "Restrepo" last night-it's a documentary film about a outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. If you want a very realistic idea of what's going on over there...watch it. It's all actual footage from the time the documenters spent with the squads.

This next week I'm headed down to Florida to chaperone a youth trip with my old youth group from Starkville. I'm really excited about it!

Oh my goodness I almost forgot to tell you about bellydancing! Yes, bellydancing is one of the "aerobics" classes they offer at Smith Gym...hilarious. But it was packed! I would've felt much cooler if I had one of those jingle-y, sequin-y sarongs they wear...because about 10 people there whipped them out before class started! The teacher was intense but adorable-at the end we learned a dance, which I loved! I got corrected on how to properly hold my hands...hilarious. I also realized that I do not like to watch myself bellydance in front of a mirror...I decided to hide behind the girl in front of me and just watch the instructor-she looked way better than I did! And yes, people actually whip off their shirts as well. But not this girl!

As far as Brian goes, he's really enjoying his training. They spend this week getting CLS certified (Combat Life Saver). Basically, combat first aid. This next week they get to spend a lot of time doing BRM (Basic Rifle Markmanship) which means shooting! Brian's pretty excited about it!

Welcome to Lumpkin Street!

So my promise of having pictures of the new house up by the middle of last week did not come to fruition...as it turns out, last week got a little crazy! More details on that as you scroll down. Here are about 3/4 of the pictures of the interior of our house. Today our washer and dryer got delivered, so our bedroom is covered in dirty clothes piles-didn't think you really wanted to see (or smell...) that. As it turns out, PT uniforms really stink after waiting on a washer and dryer to be delivered! Needless to say, I've been cranking out laundry since about 8:45, and I've got two more loads to go!

But laundry is boring-pictures are not! So if you were to walk up the front stairs in our house you would be greeted by...our living room! Welcome.


From the TV's perspective:
Again from the entryway. Yes, I took these while watching the World Cup. Viva Espana!

Like the rug? The day Brian and I moved in there was a tent rug sale at Ft. Benning, so we purchased one! Quite serendipitous. Think I spelled that right...

From the living room you walk into our dining room. One thing I love about this house is all of the windows! There are on average two on each wall in each room! In the mornings, I don't even have to turn the light to take a shower because it's so bright!

From the dining room you head into the kitchen. The door you can barely see is our back door. It takes you up or downstairs to the attic/basement/patio.

The kitchen!

Kitchen again--if you look through the doorway, you'll see the living room/entry area.

If you take a left out of the kitchen, you come to this hallway! Brian hung the candle scones on the wall the other day-he was quite proud of his handiwork. And I agree-they look good and they're level! The room you're looking into is the guest bedroom (aka, your room).

If you were to stand right in front of the guestroom door and look to your right, you'd see the office. If you looked to your left, you'd see the guest bathroom.

The office. One of those rooms that got set up last...better pictures to come of this.

Here's the guest bathroom! The tile is a grayish-blue, so thankfully all of my college gear looks good in here!

Bathroom again.

Ok that's all for the house tour right now. To come: guest bedroom, and our "master suite" as I like to call it! Ok it's not that fancy, but it's got a set-up I've never seen before!

And here's Brian! I made him take this picture. It was his first day of IBOLC! This one is to show the grandkids what a strapping young lad their grandfather was back in his early years. Yes, I am undyingly nostalgic. Some of my favorite pictures are old ones...my favorite picture of my grandfather is one of him next to a very sweet car-he seems very proud in the picture!

So now onto the reason I've kept you in the dark until now...it's been crazy around here! Last week I spent most of my time unpacking, cleaning, and running errands around town. Bought my first washer and dryer, explored (got lost in...) Columbus, and had three social events to attend! The first was a wives meeting for IBOLC, the school Brian is in right now. Out of about 170-180 guys, there are 10 wives! Some of them are married/engaged but their wife/fiancee is still in school/working, so they're not able to be here. In fact, we're losing about 3 of our wives in the fall because they're going back to finish up school! Thankfully, the group is amazing. I've made some friends already and it seems like a very easy-going group. We're going to get to be quite the friends this year mostly due to the fact that our husbands aren't going to be around much! At the IBOLC wives meeting, we were briefed (yes, briefed...) on the going-ons of our dear husbands. The commanding officer told us that out of the 16 week course, they'll be in the field (AKA, not coming home) for 10 of those weeks! This week is a classroom week, so they're around, but next week starts a 2 week field time. They do get to come home on the weekends-hooray! After IBOLC, the boys go to Ranger School, which is 2 months long. During Ranger School, we won't see them at all...Except, our boys have the slot that goes over Christmas, so they get 2 weeks leave! Praise God. So as you can see, this little group of girls and I are going to be spending a lot of time together so that we don't go crazy!

After our wives brief, they had a social for all of the wives and the IBOLC guys. I got to meet some of Brian's friends and cadre (the officers/NCOs (non-commissioned officers) that are in charge of IBOLC) at this, which was really fun! Brian and I ended up being some of the last to leave...meaning, I only saw 3 other lieutenants there as we exited. We started talking about SEC football--let's be honest, that's never a short conversation.

The next day, one of the wives hosted an informal lunch/craft party at her house. We painted faux stained glass (mine is awful...I wish I was good at art!) and ate sloppy joes, which was hilarious to me. I have a long history with sloppy joes! After the lunch party, I rushed around to get the oil changed and get packed up because Brian and I had to go to Starkville this weekend for a wedding that Brian was in. The wedding was another one of Brian's ROTC friends-Patrick Franks. The wedding was beautiful and we had a really good but short trip! All told, I think we were only in Starkville for about 18 hours! We decided to drive back Saturday after the wedding so that we would have all day Sunday to get chores/errands done. And of course, watch the World Cup. Yes, I am a bandwagon fan, but I do not care. Probably because I cheer for about 10 teams...the USA always being first, but if they're not in the game, I always go for the country that speaks Spanish, if applicable. I see teaching moments through those games...Yes, I am a certified dork. So naturally I was cheering for Espana! I jumped throughout the game because they came so close to scoring about 10 times...and so did the Netherlands! If you didn't watch, they did a snippet on the Netherlands fans-some of them had been gone from their home country since April 3 and had DRIVEN all the way from Holland to South Africa--one of them said it was about 17,000 miles! Now that's a roadtrip. And through Africa, no less.

Well I'm on to the 4th (or 5th? I've lost count) load of laundry. Just in case you ever order anything through Home Depot, know that they are very concerned about your opinion of their service! I've gotten quite a few "follow-up" phone calls to see how it all went...pretty impressive!

The Best Army Installation in the World !!

So I stole my title from the sign that greets you at one of the entrance gates at Ft. Benning. It exclaims that Ft. Benning is "The Best Army Installation in the World !!"; and yes, with two exclamation points and an inaccurate spacing job...but other than that minor grammatical error, I love it here! We've met some of our neighbors, all who are very nice, and we even made some friends last night! Hooray for friends!

Before I get into Ft. Benning life though I'll update you on the last fews days in Starkville. I managed to fill my last few days in beloved Starkville with all my favorite people at all my favorite places! I got to hang out a lot with the girls, my youth group, and Joey, Kate and the boys. Joseph and I managed to have a lot of fun on our last play date--the good news is, I've found him a reason to come visit-there's a very cute two year old girl who lives below us...maybe she can be his girlfriend :) ha!

The girls helped me visit all of my favorite places before I left town. On my last night, we headed to Bop's for ice cream, and that morning they saw me off after a delicious breakfast at City Bagel! I already miss them so much.


After breakfast with the girls last Thursday, I packed up the rest of the Starkville house and headed home! Here's a picture of the empty living room--it feels weird to know that we'll never go back to this house! The boys lived in it for 3 years before Brian and I got married and it's strange to think it won't always be there for us to come crash in!



The Starkville house--one last time!

My dad and Mr. Page both were in packing industries at one time; Dad worked for U-haul back in his younger days and Mr. Page put in 20 years in the freight industry. Needless to say, I just hauled the boxes...they packed them.

Our living room in Madison-an aerial view. We had furniture/boxes going into the dining room and they were stacked taller than me! No picture can really do it justice!

Packing away! The Pages came over Friday to help us pack up the U-Haul. Thank goodness for parents!

Some how I managed to not take any pictures of us unloading the truck. Probably because it was done in record time! Mom, Dad, Emily, Mr. Page, Mrs. Page, Brian Sells, and two MSU ROTC cadets who are at Ft. Benning in Airborne school came to help unload, so we pretty much had the massive U-haul empty in about an hour! It was awesome. Mom and Mrs. Cindy set up most of the kitchen and dining room while Emily and I worked on the bedrooms/bathrooms/linen closet. By the close of Saturday night, our house was functional!

Here's me and Em on our front porch-306 D!

Brian and I out front of our 1/4 of the building. I think the housing office at Benning must've read my mind...I've been in love with these houses/apartments ever since I saw them at Brian's Airborne graduation back in 2007. They're called the "White Elephants", and are white stucco with Mexican tile roofs. Hello, I fell in love at first sight! I can't believe we actually live here!

This is us--go in the bottom right door, up the stairs, and we inhabit the upper right hand side of the building! Three other families live in this building with us.

The whole 306 building. It's impossible to get into one picture--it's huge!

My neighborhood! We have this fun little half-circle in front of our house where we can park our cars.

There are also tons of tall trees and the landscaping here is also pretty good! There's some sparse-looking areas around, but for the most part the residential areas are full of old trees and crepe myrtles! The weather has been great here too--it's hot (90's and up) but the humidity has been about 0%...praying that sticks around! Another thing I love is that while we're now in Eastern time (still trying to get used to that...), we get sunlight for longer during the day! For example, it's 8:32 PM and we've still got almost an hour of sunlight left! It's awesome. You should visit. :)

Now I can't take you inside yet...still have a lot of cleaning left to do! I have about 3 boxes left to unpack and then I'm off to Swiffering and sweeping the floors! I should have another post up soon about the interior of the house--Brian has some really long days ahead so I'll be looking for something to do! He left this morning around 4 AM and just got back around 7 PM...looong day. But he says it was a good one and not too much happened!

One last note that doesn't really pertain to me...Clay got a dog. A super, duper, duper cute dog that I already miss and that needs to see Aunt Becca as soon as possible. His name is Eli, and he's half lab, half Rottweiler. And he's precious. Blue eyes, all black coat. I think I need one. And as it turns out, the weight limit on dogs for on-post is 100 lbs! That is super great news, considering I love big dogs! But that won't be happening for some time, so meanwhile, enjoy Clay's bundle of cuteness.

Miss you all already--it's weird having to figure out a new town again, but it's been fun so far! If you're bored during the day, feel free to call! I have my first official Army social gathering tomorrow morning--"Newcomers Orientation". Should be exciting. We're pretty sure they're putting us on a bus and giving us a driving tour. A herald back to RoadRunner days...I'll let you know how it goes!