R&BKing

Thought it would be nice to put up some pictures of the lovely country side of Afghanistan. It really isn't all that bad looking when there's no excitement going on. Due to the amount of excitement I don't have nearly as many pictures as I'd like,but then again, I aint on a pleasure cruise right?                       Poppey and marijuana are their biggest "exports" I guess you could say. The drugs as well as it's profits mainly get exported to the Taliban and terrorists. You can probabaly guess what they do with the money. The big hill was built by Alexander the Great. We have a small base up there now. A small compound we took over and made into a strongpoint. We would go down there 3 days at a time. You can tell how simple/primitive we're living down there. MRE boxes for stairs, ply wood pieces and ponchos and parachutes as our shade.     ...

Ryan arrived, only 8 hours late. Typical army! He was suppossed to arrive on Saturday, June 18th at 5:20pm. He actually arrived on June 19th at 1:39am.  Good thing I had Matt and Vicki to keep me company. We went shopping, saw a movie (in 3D), ate dinner, had 5 minutes to buy books at Barnes & Noble, and fully enjoyed the Syracuse airport. Here's how we occupied our time. Here he is! 20 pounds lighter.

Take a look at these pictures posted today. I was so excited to see these! 

I have to admit, this past Memorial Day I had a brand new appreciation and respect for military and their families. I'm grateful for all those who have served and still do.  I saw these pictures on the TF Chosin page. I'm not sure if Ryan got to participate in the events but I hope so.  I was spending my Memorial weekend participating in the Lamb bike hike and the annual Utica Ward Picnic.

My dad shared a fact with me today, "This is the most rain northern NY has received in 500 years."  I believe we've had 3 days of sun since April and it's almost June.  I finally wanted something to represent spring so 1 of the 3 sun days I picked up some flowers and created my own "spring"on our porch. Now the test begins...can I keep them alive?

Here's a few pictures from the Battle Company facebook page.  Interesting to see the landscape of the area.

That's a question I ask myself all throughout the day..."I wonder what Ryan is doing?"  I don't know many details but he has shared a few with me. Currently it's very hot where they are at, already reaching above 100 degrees and it's only April. It will be one long, sweaty summer. He's in a tent with 15 guys and their air conditioning broke, he's not too happy about that one. Some of the newer guys in his company and squad just arrived. They've been busy working on training them. They had a nice Easter. The chow hall (eating area) served beef, rice, stuffing, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and cookies. They even decorated it all up. They had the rare occasion of eating ice cream a few nights ago. I sent sprinkles in a package and they arrived just in time. I must have been inspired to send those! I also sent the graham crackers and frosting to go along with them. They've been busy building up their mortar pits and making sure the area is secu...