The Bowl Game

Here is for my brother in law, and the rest of my family. Current Scores in the Young/Paul Family Bowl Game Game.

This is currently scored my correctly picked winning teams

Dad - 5

Mom - 5

Scott - 6

Sara - 4

Mathew - 4

Rachel - 6

Eric - 3

More as the games continue

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jog.

So I am home, which not everyone may know yet, but here I am. Back in Edmond, where I will be off and on due to the holiday and everyone that I want to see. I will be at the Skyiatook lake House for the 3 and Buck and Spideys for the 4th. After that I will be making a little trip to North Carolina to hang out with my brother for a while. I miss you all and I am sure I will see you all soon. Be safe, and I am glad to be back with you all again. Time for a nap.

OK, so here is the deal, my friends.  Relief in Place is almost over, and the Turn over of Accountability is pretty much done.  So what does that mean for the home team?  We are very close to getting home.  Still not absolute about the dates when we will have our feet back on the American soil again, but it is very, very close.  Everythings done but the waiting.  So anywho, to your left you will see a picture of me and my gang spotting water Buffalo in Malawi, Africa.  If you are looking for yours truly, peek at the drivers side window.  (if your still confused, this part of Africa drives like England.)  I don't have a lot of pictures from that adventure as of yet, but do not lose faith, Chadaux and Kiwi, will be visiting about a month after I get home, so I will be getting a lot of pictures from them.  Also, I grew out my beard while I was there, so the below picture is from my adventure in shaving it off.  Thought I might try out the old timey inventor look for a minute.  Maybe that is how I will grow it out when I get home.  But enough of this.  For more pictures right now, check out Chadaux and Kiwi's blog, which is listed on my profile as a blog I follow.   Thank you all for all your support and hopefully I will be able to visit all of you and thank you in person when I get home.  Pray for my safe travel and I will see you all soon.  Peace OUT

They are Here!!

So the awesome news is this.  Our replacement team has arrived, in on site and currently doing inventories.  That means that we are that much closer to heading south and getting out of here.  Very exciting.  Soon my friends, Soon.

Back in the Sandbox

So my journey to and from the heart of Africa is complete. Sadly for you all, I don't currently have any pictures for you. My lovely friend Kiwi is currently sorting and fixing and desposing of the fodder not fit to see, so in a couple of months, after I am home, I will have some stuff, and I will try to through some up here for you all, or at least direct you to where they are posted. But, let it be known, that I have visited an island in Lake Malawi, tracked rhino's, almost been attacked by elephant, maybe a few times, and seen a super wide variaty of hoofed animals that Malawi has to offer, aside from seeing some people I have loved and missed and meet some cool Peace Corp Volunteers. So, be at peace, I am safe for now, and that much closer to returning to the states. See you soon!!

Surfing Penguins Make Me Feel Better

A Scenic view at the Lake.

So here is the new Poop.  I am on my way to vacation.  And so you know, that is a bit of a process.  First I had to get to the nearest FOB with an airport that could fly out to Kuwait.  I am here for a few days and when I leave I will arrive in Kuwait, be processed and if all works out fly out in a day.  Where I fly out to is still a mystery to me.  Either I am going South to a major airport in Africa, which would make sense or I will fly Northwest to Germany, one of the Army Gateway airports, which would make sense to the Army.  Won't know that until I get to Kuwait.  So I am just whiling away my time here trying to ge

t some personal business done before I leave for a while.  All in all the mission is kind of winding down, so I think everybody is about ready to leave for home.  Soon enough.  May be another while before I post again, so hang in there, when I do, I should put some stuff up from my journey to Africa!!  Peace OUT.

P.S.  I wrote that title and then realized I had not explained it.  I watched Surf's Up the other day.  That is the animated movie about surfing penguins filmed in a documentary style.  I have watched that about 3 times before and fallen asleep every time, so I know how it starts and what it is about, just never really made it to the end.

  The sleeping wasn't the movies fault either, that was all a result of when I was trying to watch it, on a plane was one of the times.  This time I made it through and Loved it, and it put me at a kind of peace.  Most of the surf movies I watch have that effect on me.  I love the ethic and philosophy of surfers (as portrayed in the movies).  It's weird though, because I long to live near the coast and learn to surf and be a part of that lifestyle, so these movies make me long for that while giving me a kind of peace of heart.  It's a bit of a conflict, but these surf movies help me get by.  SO I know I should watch music movies and surf movies.  Good stuff.  Thank you and goodnight.

Back in the North.

Not the best of pictures, cause it was shot through the dirty glass of a Blackhawk window, but that is the mist shrouded Mountains that are prevalent in this area.  I was on my south to take a class.  See how everything is green?  It has rained or drizzilled every day since I got back up here.  I love it.  everything is moist and alive up here.  It is so much better to me, then the dusty dry waste-like plains down south.  Yesterday we even journeyed out to some of the Stations of the Brigade we work with, and drove through snow, and sleet and rain and sunshine and a little of everything all in one day.  It was very exciting.  The terrain reminded me of northern Arkansas, driving up to some of our climbing spots.  The weather down here at the Patrol Base reminds me of Seattle, which I really enjoyed.  So now I am just counting the days until I get to go on vacation.  Well, not really counting the days, cause I am not even sure when I am going, but definitely looking forward to it.  I also got pictures in the mail from my Niece's baptism.  I feel compelled to post a few that interestingly do not include my direct family.  I miss them a lot, but I also miss my brothers in-laws as well, and that whole group of people they are connected to up in Tulsa.  This is interesting.  I now have more pictures to post and less and less to say, so I find myself trying to think up some filler to make it look like I am talking about lots and lots of interesting and important things.  Mostly I just want to gush about how I feel like I got moved to the most wonderful faery land of Iraq that no one talks about and about the beautiful little girl I can not wait to meet.  And I am looking forward to getting home and seeing Cash and his family all over again.  And please no one take any of this to mean that I am not looking forward to seeing my own family.  Trust me, they are the first people I want to see.  My sister put together a video of the pictures of Lydia's baptism and it made me cry.  I wish I could have been there.  

And on that note, Sara, when you use music for something like that, please credit the artists and writers at the end of the video, otherwise when I post stuff like that on Facebook it will get taken down for copy write infringement and I 

will get into trouble. Not big trouble, just more of a slap on the wrist kind of trouble.   

And here is one of my favorite pictures from the cd I got.  Well maybe not one of my favorites, cause it doesn't have Lydia in it, but it has one of my favorite Lutheran Pasters in the whole of the Northern Tulsa area.  At first glance, I saw Paster Tim and thought "He looks like the Don of some Lutheran Mafia standing there in that suit."  Perhaps this isn't funny to anyone but me, but just in case I thought I would share in my mirth with everyone.  Can't wait to hang out with that whole clan again.  So anywho, that is about all the filler I can create for the moment.  For now, I continue preps for the end of tour, and begin a dedicated study of Johnny Cash music.  Peace be with everyone, Worry not about me for I will be home soon, and love all of you.  You are all in my prayers, and thoughts.  Be safe, and Peace OUT.