Paintball Weekend

* Whiskey keeping me company while Preston is gone..

* Preston's cheek after getting hit in the face by a paintball, our last paintballing before

* Preston was getting a kick outta be being happy about finally having some "battle wounds" from paintballing, oddly the only time i get bruises they're on my legs

* It was such a nice day..

* Getting ready to go

* A paintball hit our car somehow haha

* Waiting on a match..

* Preston trying out a Tipman Paintball Pistol. We made friends with a couple there, Timothy and Taya, and Timothy wanted to try out Prestons Tipman A5 (a larger paintball gun) and Preston wanted to try the Pistol, so they switched for a few rounds

*Just getting our stuff ready to play

So lately, we see the MPs around our neighborhood lately. Im not sure if they just picked up their neighborhood drive throughs or if there are serious problems but this is what I saw out of our bedroom the other day.. At one point there were 6 MP cars! Couldnt decide if it was between 2 soldiers or between a soldier and his spouse but there were 2 guys in uniform and one woman each talking to seperate MPs..

* So Prestons Tippman Paintball Gun had been breaking paint REALLY bad since he got it and at the paintball field a friend told us you can call Tippman and they will either replace your gun or replace the part for free. Well they sent Preston a new part and so we took the gun outback after he got it and shot at a box that was on the grass infront of our porch... obviously we missed the box a few times and hit the back door haha it cracked me and it was suprisingly easy to wash off!

So im not really sure why but it wont allow me to type above the top picture! But anyways, as we said before February just wasnt our month, but we knew we needed to make the best of it cause Preston was leaving and we wanted to spend as much time together and have fun before he left! We saw a few movies and hung out at home with Whiskey but we also went paintballing a few times. I am seriously so in love with paintballing now! My first time I got hit a few times but no bruises and of course i was so nervous but had a blast, my second time was right after I learned my dad had passed and that i couldnt go to Germany at the same time as Preston and so I was pretty distracted and didnt play too much, but my 3rd time i played ALOT and had a blast. Its so fun once you catch on more. Haha I actually even got a few guys out! Preston was happy that I enjoyed it so much. Its something I will be enjoying with him for a long time! I so recommend paintballing to everyone. Yes, it hurts a little getting hit but your adrenaline is pumping so your dont really notice it! I didnt really feel the pain tell that night when we got home! Preston got more bruised than me though. His cheek split open after getting hit in the face when the guy was prolly 5 feet away. It bled for a bit and swelled up alot but it didnt seem to hurt him much! He has bruises up and down his legs too.. We had a lot of fun though.

Well Preston did leave on 27 February to Germany. I will hopefully follow soon, most likely around June! But who knows, it is the Army! It was hard on us to say good-bye again, but we're both handeling it pretty good. We've been pretty lucky as far as a Military Family goes. We've only spent a little over a year apart since he joined almost 4 years ago. Prestons 4 yrs is actually the 26 of this month! Man its gone quickly! He will be in until 2015. Ever since Preston left Whiskey has been missing him. Every Night Whiskey will go down stairs and lay infront of our front door and whine for a few hours, hell then come upstairs and lay by Prestons side of the bed and whine, and at night he sleeps infront of our bedroom door growling or barking at every noise llike he is protecting me and he has also taken to walking up and down the hall.. He seems to be fine during the day. We go for walks/runs and play fetch out back or he runs around the house with his toys but as it gets closer to night he gets sad like he knows Prestons not coming home. I've found if i let him lay at the foot of the bed he'll stop whining and sleeps pretty good. Preston and I are really upset that we cannot take him to Germany. He is such a good dog. I love him, but we know he'll be happy with Carol and Jimmy! We are hoping that they will be able to take him in! He needs a good family!

Well thats all for now... haha we dont have too much going on right now, but we're gonna try to keep posting regularly!

February, What a rollercoaster month...

So this month has been a hard one on us. First we learned that I wasnt going to be able to move with Preston to Germany this month. Due to some mistakes made by my off-post doctor when feeling out my paperwork I am unable to leave until around June. It has us upset, and not just us but many others. Prestons Command is trying to help and we like that. They are seeing if there is anything they can do. They dont feel its right that we be "punished" due to a mistake made by a doctor. We'll see what happends, but as of right now I will be staying here on Fort Bragg while Preston heads to Germany and in roughly 3 months I should be able to move!
I did sign up for my Medical Transcription Course this month. We were excited to learn that the entire cost is covered under MyCAA. Its a program for Military Spouses whos spouse is an E5 or below. If you are studying a "mobile career" they will cover up to $4000 of your tuition. Its nice cause my Medical Transcription course is considered a "mobile career" and they are paying for the entire course. I will be starting next week! I received all my books this last week. There are 10 of them and they also have the foot pedal that controls the Fast Forward, Rewind, Pause and Play actions on the computer. Its easier to control them with your foot when trying to type whats being said on tape then using your hands to push the buttons. I am excited to start the course and will hopefully have it mostly completed by the time I move to Germany.
This month we also had 2 people pass away. On February 17, 2012 at around 11:30 my time my little Sister Cesalee called to tell me that our father had passed away. I sat in shock for a few min then told her I would call her back. It was hard to take. My dad and I havent eve been close but knowing that there is now never a chance of him being in my life hurt. I wasnt able to attend his funeral, which was held Saturday Februaury 25, 2012 in Henderson, but he still means a lot to me. He was my dad after all. We then learned on February 20, 2012 that a good friend named Brian Schramm was killed on Valentines Day in a car accident. We met Brian in Korea, he was in Prestons Unit. We used to go to his room at the barracks and eat pizza and play guitar hero. If we werent hanging out there it was either at our house or the McDonalds house. We used to sit around and goof off, watch movies, play guitar hero and eat. He was one of the nicest guys. He gave great advice and everyone loved hanging out with him. He had just gotten out of Active Duty Army and was in the Reserves and had just gotten a Civilian Job. of usHe had been Military for so long and wanted to spend time with his kids and wife. It breaks our hearts that he was killed. He was hit by another driver, and killed. His death has shocked many people. We pray for both my dads family and for Brians family. Losing someone is never easy.
As you can tell February just hasnt been the best month for us. I cannot wait for March! It has to be a better month then this one!
* Brian Schramm we will miss you! You gave out such good advice and could always make us smile! I will never forget the night you guys went Ghost Hunting in our apartment. Rest In Peace.

* Rest in Peace Dad. I wish we could have been closer. I hope you are in a happier place now and free of all your personal demons. I love you

Just cant help myself sometimes...

Okay, so there is no assigned parking in our neighborhood, but you would think there would be some common sense and respect in where you deside to park your car when you come home. Well apparently our neighbors to the one side have neither! Where our house is we have 3 homes "connected" and we each have our own front yard, so you would assume we would all park infront of our own houses. The Prices always park in their front yard, and we always want to, however our other neighbors dont have that thought apparently. They love to park infront of our house usually giving us no room to park our car in our front yard and we'll have to park infront of theres. This week it got on my nerves... * The other day we came home to them, once again parked infront of our house leaving us no room to park infront of our house so we had to park infront of theirs. you see that little walkway on the left of the picture? That leads to their front door! They should be parked where we were, but nope!

* So today when we got home, they had again parked in our front yard instead of their own, so I got out of the car and had Preston back up until we were super close to their car.... I'd had a not so awesome week and this kinda pushed me over so parking like that made me smile! Haha well thats my little vent!

Whiskey

So, back in August we adopted a Lab/Retriever named Whiskey. He is about 2 years old, but he still acts like a puppy in many ways. He loves to go on walks, run around outside, play with his toys, take rides in the car, chase flies and squirrels! He will even clean up his toys when you tell him to, well most of the time! If they're outside on the porch or in the grass and you tell him to get get all his toys hell go out and pick them up one at a time and bring them in. Its funny to watch, but if they're inside and you tell him to get his toys he usually just starts playing with them! And man, does he get into playing with his toys! Haha he will throw them up in the air and chase them around. Its so entertaining to watch. Yesterday he cracked us up by getting scared of his own reflection in the window. He kept growling and barking at himself until i would drop the blinds back down, the second i pulled them back up hed start all over again! It was hilarious! He also just loves going for rides in the car! When we first got him, getting him in the car was a job in itself, now he just LOVES getting in the car for rides. When we ask him "do you wanna go for a ride?" he will run straight to the door, and then if we take to long hell run back to us and start to whine and bark and run in circles! The second we open the front door hell take off full speed for our car! We really like Whiskey, and we are so sad we gotta give him up. Moving him to Germany with us is just WAY too exspensive. It costs $1400 just to get a reservation for him. Thats not including any fees or taxes. Needless to say were pretty bummed, and are tryin to find him a home, but until we do, we'll continue to enjoy him! *Whiskey follows me around pretty much all day long! Its kinda like how Taffy is with Grandma Anderson, but Whiskey is around 65-70lbs!

* Hahaha LOVE this picture! He looks like he is just so annoyed that im taking his picture! Whiskey makes the funniest faces sometimes... His "i know im in trouble but arent i cute?" face is my favorite haha

* Whiskey loves to play with our neighbors dog, Kitty. She looks almost the exact same as Whiskey, but her fur is browner on her back. She loves to chew on sticks, and now Whiskey loves to chew on sticks... so the other day when we were out in front working on the car we let him run around in the front yard and he found a stick and he just went to town chewing on it and chasing it.

* Whiskey loves to cary his toys around! That was his favorite toy for about 2 weeks. He carried it EVERYWHERE! Everytime he steps outside and gets off the patio he will always first look to his left and see if Zues and Chuck (our neighbors dogs) are outside, if they are he'll run to their fence and run back and forth with them, haha then hell look to the right to see if Diamond (our other neighbors dog) is outside same thing happens if she is.. except he sometimes pees on Diamond haha havent figured out why, or why Diamond lets him pee on her... but if Kitty is outside hell usually run straight for her and then they play tag for as long as we'll let them!

* Now and then he loves to sleep on his back like that...

Taco Night & Paintball

Preston took me paintballing for the first time this last Saturday! It was the funnest day! I went out thinking I really wasnt going to like it at all, but man was I wrong! I had a blast! Preston was excited I liked it too. We now have an activity we both like that we can do together! I was really nervous at first, but when you're out there you cant sit and think bout being scared, you just start shooting and running! Haha, there were tons of people out there. I think they estimated around 85-90 people! There was a lot of people who were out for the first time so that was nice! Plus everyone there wants everyone to have fun so they help you out when you need/ask for it! I cannot wait to go again! I hope they have Paintball in Germany! * I am now in love with Paintballing!

* One of the managers made this mask, it was crackitng me up so they let me try it on

* Me, I am not the best morning person, nor do i look human without my make up! Haha, at least my eye brows grew back!

* Preston getting ready for a match

* Preston with our tacos! Hahaha the other night we both wanted tacos, but I wasnt in the mood to cook so we decided on taco bell haha we hadnt intended on getting so many but, well...

* Tons of Tacos and tons of Taco Sauce haha

Fort Bragg Home

So in September we moved on-post. The house we are in is set up kinda like town homes. There are houses "connected" on either side. Our neighbors to the left, the Prices, are such good neighbors! Same cannot be said for our neighbors to the right... Anyway our house has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, its 2 floors, with the 2 full baths and all 3 rooms upstairs and then a kitchen, half bath, living and front rooms and a laundry room on the first floor. We also have 2 storage units out in the back. Our backyard is connected to everyone elses, unless you pay to have a fence put up and then taken down when you move. We opted to just let our back yard connect! This house is pretty big for us, but we truly love this house! We are gonna miss it when we move! We had plans for it, haha but that changed when we learned we'll be going to Germany! Here are pictures from the house. * View from the front door. The 1 thing I dont like about this house is how the stairs are directly infront of the door.

* The view from the Family room. As you can see we really dont have anything in our Front Room. We thought we had tons of stuff, until we moved into this house! Haha

* This is our kitchen! I love my kitchen! I have enjoyed to having all the counter space! I was also happy to have a garbage disposal again and a good dishwasher and an electric stove/oven! Its funny how the small things make me so happy!

* Our back patio. We put up the baby fence and then leave our back door open when the weathers nice (which is has been a lot lately) and let Whiskey go in and out as he wants. He LOVES to sit out on the patio with his toys and just watch! We have a door from our family room and then one from the kitchen that both lead out to the patio.

* The view from our laundry room. Excuse the mess on the table. Its all our paintball gear. We'd been going through it all so we could go paintballing over the weekend.

* Our laundry room.. this is the best laundry room we've had yet! The one in St.George and our apartment here were both the closet kind and then in Korea it was such a tiny room that our washer and dryer barely fit!

* Our front room/dining area. Our kitchen was just to small for our table so we had it in the front room cause we orginally didnt have the couch.

* The dining area, the door on the far left leads to the patio and then you can see our laundry room and then the door on the right is where the a/c unit is.

* Just the family room...

* The kitchen from the 1/2 bath we have downstairs.

* This is from the top of the kitchen. The first door on the left is the pantry, then the next door is where the water heater is, and then the door you can see part of is the 1/2 bath and then there is a door across from the one with the water heater that leads out to the patio.

* View from the fron door... whiskey was trying to figure out what I was doing with the camera.

* Right up the stairs, you can see our guest bathroom. The stairs are pretty steep, they can be a little dangerous if you arent careful

* View from the top of the stairs. Straight ahead is the Master Bedroom, then the smaller guest room and then the room directly to the right is another bedroom, its a little larger then the other spare room

* The guest bath

* The larger of the 2 guest bedrooms

* This is our smaller guest room. We had intended to turn this into our office. Thats what all the boxes contain, mostly, is office stuff!

* The Master Bedroom has 2 closets. So we used the smaller of the 2 for all Prestons Military stuff. We have loved it. Makes it easier for him to keep all his things in one spot. Its usually WAY more full then this, but he had an inspection of Military Gear the day I took this so most of it was with him..

* I am really gonna miss this closet! I have loved having so much closet space! Korea we had NO closets and we've heard that they dont have closets in Germany either...

* The Master Bathroom.. I love that it has 2 sinks! I wont lie, I've also loved the counter space! Haha, like i said earlier, small things make me happy! After you live in other countries, you learn to love little things, like counters!

* The Master Room from the bathroom! The sun was way bright the day I took these as you can tell by the window!

* The Master Room from the Military Closet! I love how big our room is. I have loved this house! I hope we get something like this in Germany, but not holding my breath!

Prestons Fairwell Dinner

Prestons Unit had a Fairwell Lunch at a Resteraunt called Chedders this last week for a group of Soldiers Leaving the Unit soon. Among them was Preston! Our Unit gets prety loud at these, haha and so were usually seated in the back of the place or in a seperate room! This time they had us in the back, but with 1 horrible server. He was being SO RUDE to everyone while taking orders and finally one soldier asked him "whats your problem?" this prompted this rude waiter to yell "Whos this guys Commanding Officer?" Not knowing our First Sergeant was sitting just across from the Soldier who asked him what the deal was. Little to say, the Manager and Owner got called over by the First Sergeant and the waiter was removed from serving us. He had been so rude, none of us were sad to see him go!

* Major Casco trying to hide the foam parts from the box for the picture

* Major Casco giving Preston his Iron Mike Statue

* Major Casco Reading Prestons Award he received from the Unit for his service here.

* Major Casco talking about what a good Soldier Preston is, and talking about how much he appreciated the work Preston had done for the Unit