A Boy and His Stick

Jeffrey is still on the go with his stick in hand.

Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one.

The Flower Shop Around the Corner

Just around the corner from our home is a nice little flower shop wich sells a nice assortment of interesting flowers. It is nice to walk in an pick out exactly what you want and have a boquet made on the spot.

After giving the flowers to Tricia I put a chair up on the table and draped a black cloth around it as my back ground for a flower photo shoot. My latest discovery about my camera is the ability to plug the Cannon right into my laptop with a USB cable and view each shot I take a few seconds later on the laptop screen rather than having to make all judgements of the photo based on the 2.5 inch LCD screen.

Primary

So this week we had to say goodbye to our secretary in primary. That's one of the big drawbacks of a military ward, we're always saying goodbye to someone. But I found a good idea on sugardoodle.net and so we took a picture of our kiddos holding up signs for a thank you. I thought I'd share it here so you could see what our little primary looks like. (We are missing some children who have gone home for the summer or for the deployment.)

Dexterity

Tricia pointed out tonight that while we were winding down for the night Jeffrey was in our room with a pencil and Tricia's puzzle books and he was holding the pencil with surprising dexterity. This is the second time today that he was found doing this. While I had his hands in my camera view finder I noted that he repeatedly wrote on the page in a manner suprisingly close to how a pencil should be held, and any time that he lost this grip he would use his left hand to replace it.

We think this is a sure sign of being right handed. I hope that he ends up with his mom's hand writing and not his dads. These posts of mine are legible only because I am typing.

Chicken and Bacon

Tricia came up with this recipie on Sunday evening when we needed to get a dinner together.

1. Fry chicken in a pan and cook up bacon at the same time.
2. Put the hot chicken on a plate with the bacon on top and add a sweet and sour sauce and cheese.
3. While those are melting and warming together add thousand island dressing as a sauce to your prefered pasta cooked aldente.
   

Turning up the Heat

Our preparations for the USAREUR NCO of the Year Competition have been keeping on a steady rising pace. After two hours of physical training that starts at 0600 on the days that we are not conducting a ruck march we have been spending our mornings with hands on training, from throwing practice grenade bodies, to installing the claymore mine; clear, disassemble, reassemble, function check and load the .50 caliber machine gun; to land navigation courses under time constraints. The afternoons are still dedicated to study for the board and going back over the step by step performance of basic tasks.

I made an appointment to visit the Central Issue Facility and turn in my old Vietnam style ruck sack for the modern update. Wow, what a difference. The new ruck is much larger and a lot more thought was put into the design. It looks much more like something an avid hiker would use on a long mountain treck rather than looking like the model used in the Korean War. Other than the size improvement, the next best feature is the ability to raise, lower and make other adjustments to the strap to fit your own back and body style. I am excited to test it out tomorrow morning and break it in with a quick 5km march.

Getting Class A Ready

Tricia helped me out last night getting my Class A uniform ready for this morning when I was to have my photo taken as a part of my packet for the upcoming competition. I had recently taken the uniform to the cleaners which of course meant that I had to remove all awards and decorations. If you remove anything with a pin it is easy to put back into the same small hole, but after a run through the cleaners all of the holes disappear. I needed a good second pair of eyes, and steady hands to help me out. With some team work we got it together in a timely manner and I was ready for my photo this morning.

Jewelry

I did a jewelry class today and made a good little chunk of change (that I'll spend at the stamp camp this weekend I'm sure!) but I finally updated my blog and website with all the latest. Check the blog for a coupon!

triciajewelry.blogspot.com

I also recently updated a pair of Earrings for Mary from the vintage screw-on earrings to lever back earrings. So if you have any vintage jewelry that belonged to Grandma that you want updated, let me know!

*Pins on the Geek Badge*

"We now have the first 15 students who have successfully completed their
seven years of HOL education and passed their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests
(N.E.W.T.'s).

Anne Damhsoir, Hufflepuff - 90% "

I am a Harry Potter dork. (And darn proud of it.) Today I graduated seven years of my pretend online school. I can't believe it's been seven years, so much has happened! I've moved twice, gotten married, had a baby and survived a year of parenthood!

Just so you all know, HOL is one of the safest online environments that I've seen. There are no real names or locations allowed and the language has to be kept clean. I'm very protective of my privacy, which is why I've gone back and forth deciding to make this blog private or not...but I've really enjoyed getting to know people from all around the world.

But yes! I am a pretend school graduate! Go Me!

CinderJeffrey, CinderJeffrey

So, I'll show you why our house work takes so long...








Jeffrey just isn't very fast at it!

In less than a month my parents and Scott and Jen will be here, I can't wait to see them. Thankfully we finally got their travel arrangements here worked out. It's going to be so much fun.

A Day of Training

This is my partner, SGT Black, who is competing for the Soldier of the Year. We took a quick break on our seven kilometer treck this morning to get this photo. We jogged most of the way and encouraged each other on.

After breakfast it was off to the indoor electronic range to shoot the M4 without expending any bullets. It is a cost effective way to do training and the lazers give the shooter accurate information about their target aquizition and shot placement.

The afternoon was our usual two hour block of studying general military subjects followed by an hour of questioning over the selected subjects of the day.

Seven Dust

A few days ago the band Seven Dust came to Grafenwoehr to put on a concert for us. I took my camera to get some photographs for the American-Bavarian magazine. It turned out to be a lot of fun. The band was very appreciative to the military audience for our service.

Jeffrey's Favorite Toys

Jeffrey has a lot of favorite toys that we keep in various places around the house, but there are a few that stand out as his favorites and most frequently used.

Every boy needs a stick. Jeffrey loves to hold this wooden dowel from a set of wood blocks as he walks and crawls around the house. When he crawls with it he makes the noise of a peg leg pirate walking around on a wooden deck. He waves it to piont, show emotion or wake you up after a nap with a poke in the eye.

One of Jeffrey's favorite places to plays to play is the kitchen where he has three drawers of kitchen instruments to play with. Of all of them the measuring spoons are most attractive to him. Tricia has placed a plastic set in her diaper bag to keep Jeffrey entertained when we go out.

The book shelf is his other favorite place to go. He has his own shelf of books placed down on his level. He often pulls them off to the floor to inspect several at a time. He is always able to find Hop On Pop by Dr. Seuss and drag it around the house with him.

Jeffrey has several stuffed animals, but his Pop is by far his prefered. When ever he falls asleep on our bed Pop is not far away.

Preparing for the NCO of the Year Board

SGT Black and I worked back and forth with the study guide to get to know more in depth some of the subjects that we will be questioned on during the board. There is a lot to know. My study book is easily an inch thick with pages and our list of subjects to study is very long. I have found that the most effective way for me is to study with a buddy who will repeatedly ask me the sames series of questions until I can answer all of them right. We became tired enough at the end of the training day that it felt like nothing was sticking. There comes a time when I just have to recognize that I need to take a break or I will be wasting my time as my mind is exhausted from learning in that one manner.

Much Needed Rain

The weather has been very dry lately and has left our grass more golden than green. Fortunately for the last few days some scattered showers have given us some much needed rain. The bushes outside of our house must have enjoyed the cool moisture very much.

Jeffrey Makes Me Laugh!!

Jeffrey is way too big for this changing table. He's way too big for lots of things that 1 year olds are supposed to fit, the boy is doomed to be a string bean! But yesterday we were going to change him and he had to bring his Hop on Pop book. We just laughed so hard. Silly guy! Seriously though, he LOVES the Hop on Pop book. I don't know what it is, but that book is wearing out! I have to tape it periodically because he's just loving it too much!

My Birthday

So I never did post about my birthday. Well Cory did about the day. But we did see fireworks. Like all three they lit here. Seriously sad display. But at least we caught it on film and so I can just loop them over and over and pretend it was a spectacular show. Right?
This is my new baby carrier. Jeffrey was getting a little big for the sling (though he still fit in it, just not as comfortable on my hip) so I started looking for a new one. This is the Maya Tie. and it's pretty nice. It's a little difficult to get him into by myself, but I'm sure if I really tried I probaby could to it. But it's a nice alternative to the stroller in places where a stroller just won't go. When we go back to the King Ludwig castles this year, I'll bring this!

Cory made me brownies with minty frosting for my cake. (I just bought all the stuff for him, a big step though, I think last year I might have made my own cake). He's such a sweet guy! Ooooh and he bought me the Star Wars Lego Wii game! (Quincy do you want to come play?) It's so much fun, we get to run around and break all the other legos!)

Post-a-palooza Part 1

This is for Sugar and Paige.

I just noticed he's wearing a CSI shirt. Free advertising right?

That is Mr. Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. They recently came and did a USO tour here in Germany. I wanted to go and see them, but someone had to protect the Bean's ears (he would have taken whatever cotton we put in his ears out) and Cory needed to take pictures for the Bavarian-American, so I made him promise to get a good picture for my mom! So here you are mom. Here's that nice man, Gary! ;)

WALL*E

For date night Tricia and I went to see WALL*E, a new movie from Disney and Pixar. We thought it was a great and original movie, but toward the end Jeffrey became hot and restless and was a little bit hard to handle. He is coming to the age that is difficult to take him to places such as a movie theater where he is required to sit still for a long time and not make any fun noises. http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/index.html

Training for the USAREUR NCO of the Year

August 11 will kick off the United States Army in Europe Soldier and NCO of the year competition. From now until then my job is to go through some intense training to get ready. While most everyone else is back to work with another cycle at the Academy I am in a daily two our physical training session, a morning of training on tasks and an afternoon of subject study.

Today our task for the morning was to properly put on and take off the chemical protective suit. There is a specific order in which the gear needs to be put on, and a specific order to go through to decontaminate yourself . This hands on training has been great and will be very useful to draw upon when the compeitition turns to the events.

An Afternoon at the Pool

Tricia and I finally had the chance to take Jeffrey to the pool together. Several times it rained us out or our schedule conflicted. When the chance finally arrived we had to jump on it. We were only at the pool for an hour before Jeffrey was ready to go, but he simply has to have his afternoon nap. He likes to walk around the edge of the kitty pool holding onto the edge. I took him out for a ride on the slide but he did not like that very much. Tricia has said that he gets a little bit braver every time he goes.

Logo

For my photo editing class I had an assignment to create a logo for an imaginary company. I had a lot of fun with text effects in Photoshop making this one.

JMTC and Seperate Brigade NCO of the Year

The next step in the competition took me to the JMTC and seperate brigades level. The first day of the competition consisted of a physical training test, a board, writing an essay and ending with a written test. Day two started with land navigation, then a 7.5 mile ruck march with all of our gear and ruck and ended late in the night with a night land navigation challenge. Day three was an all day situation lane training comprised of eight distinct lanes testing our abilities on basic soldier and NCO tasks. The fourth day was an awards ceremony and luncheon where I was announced the winner along with SGT Black who is also from the JMTC and competing at the soldier level. We will be working together to train for the upcoming level which is the United States Army in Europe.

My prizes for winning included several coins from guests in attendance, the Army Commendation Medal, a new dress blue uniform, a Visa gift card for $100, an AAFES gift card (the PX or commisary) for $250, and iPod touch (which I gave to Tricia for her birthday for giving me so much support), a very nice plaque and a back pack.

At this level the competition is taken so seriously that I will not be going back to the NCOA to work until this is over. I will be spending the next four weeks in focused training for the next level of competition in preparation to win the USAREUR level and move on to the final step, Department of the Army.

Bavarian - American Magazine

A while ago my boss suggested that I offer my photographic skills to the Bavarian - American Magazine, a local publication which high lights activities in our area for Americans living in Bavaria. The writers of the magazine were excited to get me on board and my first assignment was to get a photo for a story on the craft store here on post. The cover of this months magazine is the first photo that I gave to the magazine. If that is not an encouragement to continue to contribute I do not know what is. http://www.grafenwoehr.army.mil/info/BA_Magazine.pdf

Out for a Drive

For a fun activity on Tricia's birthday we decided to take a car trip to the town of Weiden. We took an unusual route and found ourselves on a great scenic tour. Jeffrey fell asleep in the back seat as always. In the Weiden shopping district we had fun exploring the stores and we had lunch at a great bakery.

Bear Muffins for Breakfast

Being out of cycle is great. For breakfast Tricia and I made muffins in our new bear shaped muffin cups. The cups are made out of sillicone and they work great. No more loosing half of your cupcake to a stubborn paper cup that will not let go.

A Morning with Jeffrey

I am usually up and gone long before Jeffrey wakes up, but being out of cycle I was able to take my time this morning and spend some fun time with Jeffrey right after he awoke from a night of sleep. We played around on my bed for a while and I took a few photos of him while he had his first breakfast course, a big cup of milk. Jeffrey can get pretty cranky right before he crashes for a nap or for the night, but he is just the opposite when he has freshly awoken and is ready for some action and interaction.

One of our fun games to play with each other is to hold out our pointer fingers and touch them together. When his finger touches mine I make a buzzing sound, as though some electrical connection was made upon our contact. He always gets a kick out of it, and some times it can get him through a cranky period.

Image Editing Class Project

This is my project for this week in my Image Editing class. This is the most fun I have had in a college class. Education is great! Thanks for paying my tuition and books Uncle Sam.

Keeping the House Clean

Tricia came up with a great idea for keeping our home clean without spending hours running around to all of the rooms every day to maintain good order. With a color coded schedule posted on the refrigerator we can know what are of the house we will be focusing on each day with minimal maintenance in all other areas. We find that when we really stick to the schedule the house stays generally clean, yet we do not have to spend all night together getting it that way.

• Monday - entryway, front room, office
• Tuesday - kitchen and dinging room
• Wednesday - our room
• Thursday - bathroom
• Friday - Jeffrey's room
• Saturday - laundry room