A Day in the Life of a Dawg

Whew! It's been a long time since an update...very sorry! Life has been sort of crazy these past few weeks. Let's see...started my class at Auburn (it's going well), Brian was in garrison for 2 weeks (hooray!), my "job" started, we went to a Braves game again and to Starkville, among various other outings! So yes, life's been pretty good here at Benning! To begin...Brian was in garrison the past two weeks, which means he went to class for the day, and then came home every night! Super exciting. They got off pretty early some of the days too so Brian and I took advantage of having more time together. We mostly lazed around, but at least he was home! But this week we're back to normal...after our lovely holiday weekend, Brian went to PT Tuesday morning, which went late, rushed home, showered, changed clothes, and was out the door and won't see him again til Friday night. This week their learning about Urban Ops, setting up a patrol base at night, and doing a live fire. Urban Ops: Not totally sure, but pretty confident it has to do with urban warfare. Patrol base: Brian explained this one to me. It's a base you set up when you're out on patrol and cannot make it back to the FOB (forward operating base). It's got a pretty rigid schedule of what has to be done, and someone has to be up at all times pulling security...AKA, making sure the bad guys don't find them/overrun their camp for the night. It's a lot of rotations through weapons cleaning/maitenance, eating, "hygiene" (which equals changing your socks and "taking a shower" with a baby wipe or two...), and sleeping--well, in 1 hour increments. No thanks. So I'm betting on him being pretty tired when he gets home tomorrow!



Brian and I trekked to Atlanta two weeks ago to go to another Braves game, but this time with his parents and grandparents! Sorry, I managed to not take any pictures somehow...but we had fun! Brian and I were a little more saavy this time and packed a cooler with our own food. And of course, the Braves won!



Next on the list was another Ranger graduation, except this time I took pictures! If you ever come on a day when they're having one of these, we'll go--they're fun, and educational too!

To begin, you get a little background on the Rangers, where they were formed, and some of the major battles they've led (Normandy, for example). Then we go onto a rappeling demonstration. Brian will learn a lot of these tactics when he's in Ranger School!





This guy is hauling himself up the wall...wanted you to see how tall it was!

Next, we get a demo of C-4, which is an explosive! They blow up a building back here.

This is some type of rigging system that's used to haul things up a wall/rockface. They pulled some people up while we were there. (Soldiers, no civilians...ha!)

Ok, this is called an Australian, or Aussie, rappel, and it is TERRIFYING! I should've taken a video of it, but this man comes flying, face forward, off the top of the platform and starts to fly/run down the wall. It is so scary! Then he "shoots" at us with a gun. You know, gotta make it realistic...

Up you go!

So this is pretty awesome. They demonstrate how they can drop in/pick up soldiers into a combat zone. So first, the soldiers rappel out of this Blackhawk (thank you, Allen :) helicopter.

Next, they are picked up by a helicopter and they attach themselves to a rope. Then, the helicopter flies away, carrying their bodies hanging from a rope outside of the 'bird! It's insane! I have a picture but it won't cooperate, so I'll upload it later!

Next Demo: Squad Tactics

This is what a squad looks like; when Brian takes command over a platoon (~30-40 people) at Fort Bliss, it'll be comprised of two squads-A and B.

Next, a Ranger climbs up to this platform, which is about 1 ft. wide. He must run/walk over it, jump over that yellow Ranger block in the middle, then jump onto a rope, shimmy across, touch a Ranger tab, and then ask for permission to drop into the water. This is something Brian will have to do one of the first days he's in Ranger school!

So here's this boy running. Yep, he almost fell after he tried to be macho and jump over the yellow blocks. I think I would have great success with this...hurdle form :)

Shimmying across the rope...Once they touch the Ranger tab, they have to drop their legs and hang, and say "Permission to drop sir!"

Once permission has been granted (and they usually let him hang for a few seconds, for our enjoyment...), he drops into the water!

While dropping, he screams "Rangers lead the way!"

We had a few other demos, such as combatives and various weapons. This one is a wire that is made for decapitating someone, such as this lovely watermelon.

Whoops forgot the combatives pictures. Well, they weren't too interesting-just guys beating up on each other. Usually the loser (pictured below), gets dumped into the water. May I remind you that they do these demonstrations year-round....can you imagine being dropped into that water in January?!

Well that's all for Ranger Graduation...onto Starkville! One thing I love about the Army...on national holidays, we get not only the holiday off, but we also get a "training holiday", so we get a 4 day weekend! I'd say it's usually well deserved! So we headed to Starkville Thursday afternoon and we stayed with AC in her adorable new house! Brian wore his uniform so AC was trying parts of it on...ha!

Second Lieutenant English:

Ok, so my weekend was full of 'dawgs and real DOGS! AC and Jesse got a yellow lab...meet Maggie! She's so fun!

Friday Brian and I spent the day visiting friends and eating our favorite Starkville cuisine (Mexican food...delicious). I had breakfast with Erin at City Bagel, of course, and then AC and I went over to the Sherrards for some good quality playtime with the boys! Thankfully, Joseph still remembers who I am and we had a blast playing sports, trains, and reading--I miss them so much! And baby James is growing so much! Joseph had lots of play-plans for us, so I didn't get to see baby James too much...was too busy chasing a 2 year old around! I don't know how they do it full-time!

Friday night we went to dinner at Old Waverly (a fancy golf course in West Point) with Lindsay, Clay, and Lindsay's family. We had such a wonderful meal and it was great to catch up with her family!

Here we are again at City Bagel Saturday morning! Ha I love this place!

The girls at Anna CLEMMER'S tailgate! Yes, I know I'm not wearing white, and it was a white-out game. Here's why: A) I thought a white-out was stupid for the first game. I wanted to wear school colors! B) I really wanted a new MSU t-shirt (haven't bought one since freshman year!), and I wanted it to be charcoal gray. So yes, I rebelled. But so did Brian. He wore maroon...

Brother!

Showing off their sweet tats...

Me and Linds!...and John :)

We found Stacey!

Ok, so the white out did look pretty cool. Whoops. We had tickets for the upper deck on the west side (where this picture is taken from), but some of Stacey's family friends had 50 yd. line tickets that they didn't need, and gave them to us! How awesome is that?! We sat about 30 rows up from the field-amazing! Erin sat with me and Brian and we even had chairbacks so we were super comfortable...thank you to the Brown family!

All the white you see to the left side of the stadium is the student section...AKA, the last part of the stadium to get any shade!

I've been trying to get a good picture of this for years...guess it takes sitting on the opposite side!

Ah how cute is this?! Leigh's sister got a baby bulldog! Her name is Izzy and she's 8 weeks old. Isn't she precious?!

Proof: Brian can hold a "baby".

Out on the town!

Friends! Leigh don't hate me...it's your husband's fault!

Sunday, Jon (our first college minister) got ordained at First Pres! It was a crazy fun weekend in Starkville! I was so glad we were able to be there for it! This is some of the old FPC crew!

They had a lunch honoring Jon and Bib after church--it was so fun to see all these people I've been missing!

Whew! All in all a wonderful weekend, although I now have a cold due to staying up waaay too late with friends and getting no sleep while going 90 miles an hour all weekend! It was pretty sad leaving Starkville; I think Brian and I have been in denial about our new life...ha! We both keep thinking we're going back to State for classes "in the fall" (I know, classes have already started...), but this weekend was a sore reminder that A) we aren't students there any more, and B) that we don't even LIVE there any more. So yes, I cried. Of course. But it was a very happy reunion of friends and I can't wait to do it again in a few weeks for the Georgia game.

Hannah and I started our "job" as ESL teachers today! We gave the diagnostic test of several of our Hispanic friends/students, and we start teaching on Monday-we're excited! I've also been going to a Bible study with them on Wednesdays which has been a lot of fun...lots of talking and fellowship plus Spanish practice!

Well that's all for now...thanks for sticking through this epically long post! Just for you Em :)

Pictures!

Here are the pictures from Anna and John's wedding! So much fun-I can't believe this was only a week ago!


Clay and DZ--sweaty after hours of dancing!

Warden dance party...epic times...

Anna and John!

Friends dance party...we had fun!

Sweet friends. How I miss you all!

Some of the crew!

Roomies at Tina's house, before we were attacked by a large bee...

What a Weekend!

Whew! Sorry I haven't been around lately-this past weekend wore me out! I spent the rest of last week having friends over for dinner, running, and getting my butt kicked at an aerobics class at Smith Gym here on post. I told Brian about what we did and he called it a "smoke session"...meaning they wear you out! I felt pretty good that he considered my aerobics class credible enough to be deemed a 'smoke session'. My friend Dana and I think that the boys (our husbands) would get a great workout with us but we know it'll never happen...A) it's in the middle of the day, and B) Can anyone see Brian Page in an aerobics class? With fun music and a peppy teacher? Didn't think so. And he would be considerably outnumbered...there are currently no boys :)





So after my 'smoke session' on Friday I got in the car and drove 6 hours! Talk about some sore muscles afterwards! But it was completely worth it, as I ended up in Jackson, Mississippi at the end of my trek! I don't care what people say about Mississippi: I love it. Something just hits you when you cross the state line...feel like you're home! Maybe that's why Mississippi's welcome sign says this:

The sign-makers must feel it too! Anyhoo, I stayed with my old roomie Krystina and we had so much fun! We spent most of Friday night catching up on life, with her mostly telling me crazy stories about where she works! She works at an inner-city church and gets to interact with a lot of the homeless community on a daily basis-she has some great stories about learning about herself and the people who visit her everyday! Saturday Stacey and Zach got into town and Karen and Jared came over too--a roommate reunion, plus husbands! We had so much fun together, catching up, telling stories, and hearing what's new in all of our 'adult' lives....Although I still feel like we should all still be in college, living together, watching Friends, eating ice cream (except you might find Stacey eating lettuce...) and sitting on our lovely red couch!

Saturday night we headed out to have dinner at this awesome place called Sal and Mookie's. When the girls were saying it's name though, I thought it was spelled "Salimuki's", and I thought it had something to do with sushi...as we all know, not exactly my favorite! Except of course, for the fried rice :) No instead it was a New York style pizza/calzone/stromboli type place! And it was so. incredibly. delicious. I might drive 6 more hours just to eat there again! Needless to say, I was NOT hungry at the reception! We headed to the wedding and I got to see my parents and my brother who were also at the wedding, as well as the rest of our MSU friends! Such a glorious reunion. Lots of big hugs, laughs, and smiling! Not to mention dancing. We pretty much tore up the dance floor all night long, only stopping for a few water breaks! Anna was a beautiful bride and everything was gorgeous at the reception--pictures are coming, I promise! I'm usually so excited to write to you all that I don't like to waste time uploading pictures while I write-ha! Hence a second forthcoming post with pictures :) Plus I never know where to put the caption: above, or below? Above, and you get confused with what picture it goes with. Below, and you see all the picture before the caption...ah the dilemma! But thankfully for me, I don't think these wedding pictures are going to need many captions-they sort of speak for themself...

I headed back to Fort Benning Sunday...it was a long drive. Boo. You might be wondering why Brian didn't make it to the wedding with me...well, he was at the lake with our dear friends the Arants and Abernathys! We had to do a little double duty this weekend with our social schedule! He reported that they had a lot of fun; they took out the jet skis (AKA, death on water when Brian's driving...watching him usually takes about 2 years off of my life and will probably make gray hair come prematurely...), and got to catch up a lot. Hopefully we'll do it again soon and I can go with him! I love the lake: it's the easiest way to get a tan because the breeze off the boat doesn't make you hot while you're laying out. Matt always drives the boat and we boost up his ego by telling him he looks like quite the ladies man with three girls tanning on his boat!

Brian is in the field this week-should be home Thursday at 13:00! That's 1 PM. Ok, this never happens-a SUPER early release! Unfortunately I have a meeting at 3, but I'm hoping it'll be quick so I can get home and see him! Not seeing him much this weekend really made it feel like we hadn't had any time together, so I'm eager to see him! I feel bad for the guys-the past two times they've been out in the field it's rained! I mean, it probably feels pretty good but then you have to deal with wet gear and clothes for quite a few hours-no thanks. And those ACU's don't dry super fast. Brian's in leadership this week, so praying that he does well!

Some other random updates before I let you go...I've been applying for jobs, so we'll see what comes back! Just put in most of the applications last week, so it may be awhile before I hear back. I've also started running (regularly) again! My friend Dana is a great runner and she is always up for a run, which I love! I've even been able to talk through several of our runs...I can't believe it! ha :) I usually left Lydia and Gena to talk through the runs as I huffed alongside them...The reason I've kicked up the running is because I'm running the Baltimore half-marathon this October! Why the Baltimore half-marathon? Because dear best friend Katie lives there! I think Sarah and maybe Lydia are going to run it as well, so it's going to be a great reunion! I'm really excited about it. I think this is going to be great motivation to run over the years. The key: sign up for races in towns where your friends live! I'm hoping to run the St. Jude half in December too, and the only thing spurring me on is that I'm going to be able to see tons of my MSU friends who are going to run it too! I ran that one a few years ago (2009?), and loved it. It's a pretty flat course and now the course goes through the children's hospital-how awesome is that?!

Well my cleaning is calling. Had to take a break...Much love!

1st Annual Baby Summit

No, neither I nor any of my friends are pregnant. Just thought I should throw that out there immediately after you saw the title. Instead, a group of MSU friends have a bet going... this is something our husbands dreamed up, and as you read, you will be able to tell, due to the nature of the "baby bet", as it is entitled.

Since the majority of our husbands are terrified of a little creature called a baby, they have made a deal. Whoever has the first baby out of our group owes everyone else a case of beer. (Can you tell now what party made this bet up?...) I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a deterrent for us females, knowing that we'll have to part with some money to buy beer for the boys in the case that we get pregnant, but the boys are quite excited about it. There are bylaws that outline the type, quantity, and "due date" of the beverages, as well as when the bet is solidified (they have to hear the baby cry). Meanwhile, us females are trying to figure out what we get out of this...the boys unanimously agreed that while they got beer, we got a baby, and we should be happy about that.

All this to tell you that we've decided to celebrate this "bet" by all getting together and hanging out! So this past weekend a group of us headed to Lake Martin, where Matt's parents have a lake house. It was heavenly! It was so great to catch up with friends and hear about what was going on in everyone's lives. We spent looooong days in the sun; Matt chauffered us girls around on the boat while Brian and Allen tried to kill each other on the jet skis. Well, not quite, but that's what it looked like to me and Lindsay at least. They will beg to differ, I can assure you... The wonderful thing about Lake Martin is that the water is very, very clear, and that is something I greatly appreciate, because if you know me, you know I really do not like getting into water where I can't see the bottom, or at least see my feet. Thankfully, I spotted no fish that could eat me and we played in the water a good bit! Saturday night we took the boat and drove to a restaurant that's on the water called Sinclair's. It was packed, but we had so much fun--I've decided that I am perfectly content riding all day on a boat-it is so relaxing, and it is the absolute easiest way to get a tan and not realize it! Brian and I are really excited about moving to Ft. Benning because it means we'll be a lot closer to some of our great friends--it'll put us about 2.5 hours from Allen and Lindsay at Ft. Rucker, and we'll be about an hour away from Matt and Leigh's lake house, which means we might find ourselves at the lake again...

Speaking of Ft. Benning, Brian reports in less than 2 weeks! I kind of can't believe it! The month of June (so far) has been incredibly busy/fun/crazy. I feel like we haven't stopped going all month! We're trying to cram in as much time with everyone here before we leave, and it's making time fly...please tell time to sloooow dowwwn. We're gearing up for another busy weekend as Stacey and Zach's wedding is this Saturday! I can't believe it's here! I think we're going to have a lot of fun--just praying we don't melt all day Saturday! But considering that we're under a heat advisory until tonight and that when I left for work this morning around 7:30 it was 82 degrees already, I'm not sure how we're going to fare on Saturday...might have to get into the freezer at church before the ceremony!

VBS went well last week--those 3 year olds are crazy! I helped Stacey out for two days with the 3 year old class, and we had a good time, although they wore us out! I had two kids get into a little scuffle and when I asked one (the perpetrator) to apologize, he quickly responded with "I don't know how". It took everything I had not to burst out laughing! At night during VBS we also got to hear Dr. Andrew Purves speak, who is a teacher at Pittsburg Theological Seminary-he was great. I really enjoyed his lectures and it gave me such a better understanding of grace and faith. We've also spent some good time with Jon and Elizabeth, our former college ministers who are in town for about 2 weeks. It has been great catching up on life with them and telling crazy stories--they are full of them!

Well I've gone on for long enough now...school is going well too--I really like my class, but it's totally the background compared to everything else going on!