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!
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
27 July 2010
23 July 2010
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!
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!
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