Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Merry Christmas, Matt!

So for Christmas I got a shopping trip and Matt got some pictures of his wife he hasn't gotten to see for awhile... Actually this is just a sneak peek. I don't think they've actually made it to him yet. Thanks again, Ash!


The scarf is from World's Window downtown Cedar Falls. It's my new favorite store in the city. I'm not sure why I didn't know about it before...

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

That time of year

Well, here's how the first day out to play in the snow went!Note to self: no snow angels for Joella...

Also, I'm guessing you have a few gifts to wrap in the next week or so... If I'm right, take a look at this video to spark your creativity in eco-friendly gift wrapping.

I hadn't seen the video until today, but have found myself wrapping presents with these bags instead of wrapping paper over the last year or so. Jane gave me my first one as a gift a few years ago and I LOVE them! If you have gotten a gift from me wrapped in something else, it's probably because I got selfish and decided I "needed" another grocery bag. Sorry!


Monday, December 13, 2010

One of those Days

Today was one of those earplug days. Yes. Earplugs. They were a necessity in our house in Alabama when Joella was born until she was about 3 months old. Lots of screaming to say the least. Today I had to break them back out -- she wasn't very happy with her mama and sure let me know it! I guess we'll try again tomorrow.

Some of you may be wondering about Matt. He's pretty good but I think it's getting COLD over there. We still don't get to Skype often, but the times that we have I can almost see his breath. Yeah, he has to go outside to get online. Plus, he has to wake up super early because of their lack of access during the business day. Convenient, huh? I guess we should just be thankful things aren't how they used to be! He at least has the option to Skype every once in awhile so that's good.

On a different note, you Iowans probably know about Fox River Socks. The best around I think -- the only socks that don't give me blisters when I run, errr, jog, Wait, when was the last time I did that? Anyways, they are an awesome company with great energy efficient / sustainable initiatives and offer a cool Socks for Soldiers program. There is a wish list for deployed soldiers that if you fulfill a request, the company pays for shipping. Matt doesn't have a wish list and he's covered on socks for now, but I'm sure there are other soldiers over there that would be thrilled to get warm socks and an uplifting note from a stranger. I'm just pumped that there are companies are doing things like this. Check it out!

P.S. if you do place an order, try one of these coupon codes to save a few extra bucks. I can't remember which I used now, but it worked.

S5510576
P6167C85

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Random but special

Alright, not going to elaborate much but here are some recent pics. Below is a picture of one of my favorite people. My grandma (on the right) turned 90 years old this week, so lots of friends and family got together to celebrate. I could go on and on about how much she means to me. In short, she's probably one of the most Jesus-like people I know and I have learned so much from her. Always loving, loving, loving.
A couple pictures from that day of the little ones...
Ha, Conor wasn't exactly thrilled about getting his picture taken at the time but how cute can you get? Love that little boy!


Joella helping me implement our new recycling / reusing system at our house (aka keeping lots of junk and hoping to find a good use for it someday). Don't worry, I had an eye on the plastic...


A little of what goes on daily :) Enough said...

And last but not least - happy birthday, Papa! Matt and I agree that his parents have helped us out so much during Matt's deployment. Joella loves her papa and gets to hang out with him at least twice a week while they (Jane & Jerry) let me have some time to work / get things done on my own.

Today was funny -- I had Joella ready with her coat on, waiting for Jerry to pick her up. It was the first time that we were ready before he got there and I could tell she knew exactly what was going on. She was so excited, kept smiling, and looking out the door expectantly.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Can you find the dimple?

So if you haven't noticed, I've gotten a bit lazy with this blog. I neglect it for awhile, take lots of pictures of Joella all at once, then can't decide which ones to post. So here's what you get! The animal crackers were to send to Daddy. We both used to eat them growing up, so it's a fun surprise for him when they show up in his boxes. Whoops, I might have just ruined the surprise since I don't think Matt's gotten his latest box yet. Oh well - he says the anticipation of knowing they're on the way is half the fun :)

Joella loves toting things like this around.
The next round shows what Joella looks like when she doesn't quite get her way... silly girl.



The next series is a typical day in the backyard. Can you find the little girl in all that coat? Can you find her dimple?


Ah, there
it is!!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Can't believe it

I can't believe our little girl is one today. It seems like just a few months ago that Matt and I got to meet Joella for the first time. We sure did not know what we were getting! She's such a sweetie and FULL of personality.

Just in case you are a family/friend that doesn't know and/or check out Ashley's blog on a regular basis, you should definitely take some time to do just that today! She got some awesome shots of Joella. She wanted to make sure Matt got to see his little girl on her big day. Thanks so much, Ash!

Monday, September 27, 2010

cheer

Sometimes Matt and I joke that we probably aren't making the ISU college of engineering very proud since we aren't technically using our degrees right now. If we don't make ISU proud, Joella will do her part in the shots below... Sorry if these all look the same to you. Joella's expressions make me laugh so I had a tough time picking out just a few to share.






Lately I've been wondering if Joella's going to be a little tomboy or a girlie girl. I think maybe both. She loves kicking (shhh. she's getting a soccer ball for her birthday from this cool company. http://fairtradesports.com/ ) and is really good at her mini basketball game she plays with Grandpa Jerry. On the other hand, she LOVES purses and seems really good at getting her mouth ready for Grandma Deb to put lipstick (a.k.a. the end of the closed chap stick container) on her. Joella is always toting my purse around and even has her own mini purse now. It's just big enough to fit an extra sock in it. Never know when you'll need an extra sock!

Update on Matt -- his internet has been spotty lately so don't be disheartened if you e-mail him and don't hear much back. He loves the e-mails, letters, packages, etc., so keep them coming! Maybe some day he'll be able to post more for you. He has been on a handful of missions now, and they sound pretty intense. He loves the flying but obviously doesn't love the reason the Medevac mission is needed... Sounds like he's staying busy and doing a great job flying.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

She's a Toddler

She likes to put her feet under the tray like that...


She doesn't usually give a thumbs up - not sure what's going on there


Really excited to be able to play standing up

Taking things seriously - no clue what she's staring down. There's nobody over there


Kickin' it (not prompted)


Having fun but starting to lose control

Darn!

Up and at it again


Goofy

Showing off her teeth

Typical Joella shot with the fingers in her mouth. Getting sleepy... oh, and can you see all the bite marks on her crib? Little stinker.... :)

Short post today -- mostly pictures so Matt could see them the fastest. Usually I send him DVD's full of videos and pictures that take a little over a week to get to him. Joella changes so much in a week that it's just not fast enough! I'd say she's officially walking now. Not much crawling these days. Lots of falling of course but that doesn't seem to bother her much. I can't believe how old she seems now that she can really get around. It's crazy!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A new home

Matt here this time, with my first post in several weeks. I think the last post I made was from Kyrgystan prior to flying down into Afghanistan. A lot has happened and changed since then -- so here's a quick update.

I spent the first 4 weeks of my deployment in one city in northern Afghanistan. I did quite a bit of flying there -- much more than I expected to that soon in the deployment. All of my flights were training flights (no real life medevac missions), but it was good to get back into flying after several months off.

The best way I can describe the first place is hot and dusty, but actually quite beautiful at times. Here are a few pictures:

The view as I stepped out of my tent one evening

A view of the tents we lived in

A look inside the tent at my bunk...I hate the top bunk.

Getting ready for a flight


I recently moved to a new place though, which puts the first place to shame in a lot of ways. It might be that I have lowered my standards of living, but many aspects of this place are comfortable. It's about 5-10 degrees cooler, the camp is much smaller, the people are friendlier, and the food is excellent. Yes, excellent.

I'm not going to say the name of the city I am in, but it is one of the safest cities in Afghanistan. The people here are friendly and like the ISAF because we brought them electricity. We've also brought them a great deal of money in the form of leased land, building projects, etc. I don't have many pictures yet but here are a few:

The new place I live

My space in the tent (two cots)

The outdoor "indoor" soccer field. The Norwegians are good at soccer!

A look outside the interior perimeter of the camp

That same gate from a different angle -- those are village buildings on the other side of the fence.

One of the things I've done since getting here is taken over for the Air Force Master Planner who got pulled from his job a few weeks early. He was coordinating all of the building projects on the camp that were being done by the local Afghan people. How it got dumped on my lap I still can't figure out, but now I'm finding myself as a construction project manager in addition to medevac pilot.

Have you ever tried to explain what needs to be done on a project without using words? That's what I do several times a day now. Explaining that each floor needs two coats of polyurethane is not easy without words. It's also tough to explain that the two water tanks, which were included as part of the system, are not needed for the project but they must be left with us. I really need to learn some of the Pashto language. I'll be sure to post a picture next time of me with Rustam, the foreman.

I almost forgot the best part about my new location. Free wifi internet! We are only allowed to use it during certain hours of the day, and it's usually pretty slow, but it's been wonderful to have internet access again on a regular basis. I got to talk to and see Johnni and Joella a few days ago via Skype for the first time since I left Kyrgystan -- it was wonderful! Joella is getting so old! Johnni has been great about sending me photos/videos of her when she sends me packages, but those are always at least 10 days old due to the transit times. It was wonderful to get to see them in real time. Joella kept trying to hand me things, point to me, blow me kisses, and walk toward me. Yes, walk! I couldn't believe it. Johnni said she counted 14 steps in a row last week. crazy. It's fun that even if I have to be gone for so long I can still keep up with things back home fairly well.
 

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