Thanksgiving, Christmas and all those other days

I'm still here(knock on wood) and I'm just a terrible blogger. If you know me at all then you know that I get into a routine and then I fall off the face of the planet to everyone not in the routine. For those of you that don't know that about me, treasure the time you are in my routine, or if you hate me than just know that it will all be over when I change routines. Anyway, when I got back from leave I stopped dismounting and became a gunner, so now I have to clean another gun when I'm off from mission. Also, we are starting missions later because of the lack of daylight, so I just seem to get free time so late and then get stuck in my routine(dinner, mission brief, movie with Gonzo, sleep, rinse, repeat as necessary) All well, I guess.
Anyway, Thanksgiving. Well, we were in the middle of a 7 day mission in a tiny base with nothing there except us and a bunch of Polish and Afghan forces, so we keep to ourselves which was always fun. 72 actually came down on Thanksgiving day and so both platoons were there and we had a BBQ and ended up staying up late and party-boying everyone we could find. Also, in our company than we have a game called "Get the Cookie" and all it is(bear with me here, its been a long deployment) hold someone down and slap their butt...ALOT. so we got into a big platoon cookie getting war and that was a blast. We had a few games of chicken and we would randomly go up to our leadership that was there and take their cookie. All in all, it was a really fun Thanksgiving.
The next month went by pretty boringly, nothing really exciting happening. Harry had to go away for surgery and he'll be back soon(hopefully for his birthday on the 27th) and I had another friend, Josh(thecanadianPheniseh) go home for his back after he got hit by an IED, but he seems to be OK, he's just trying to get healthy again. Menard got moved to Florida nearer his family(Louisiana) and they are supposed to take the trach out of his neck soon, so hopefully he'll be talking soon, I'd really love to talk to him. Harry and I are going to try and go visit when we get back. He was fistbumping to A Day To Remember and has asked for his glasses, so that's a good sign, it means that he's still in there and has his memory so thank God for that.
Anyway, now it's Christmas Eve. It really takes me back, that's for sure. I have so many good memories of Christmases past, including last year when I got to be home(It seems like SOO much longer ago, doesn't it?) and when I was a wee little kid back in the Redwood home(I miss that place). It's been really fun here, just goofing off with everyone. Hmmm, not sure what to say here now. I'll just go off on random tangents for a few minutes I guess. I got the box from home, it was way great to get, I really liked the pictures and bored a few of my friends showing off my family to them. I beat Arkham City(the new Batman game) and it was SOOO good. I beat it in 2 days(about 6 hours each. I play to win...) so it wasn't REALLY long, but there is alot more I haven't done yet so I'm excited to try and fill out the rest of the game. So, I can't take my ACT here, so I think I'll have to find something else to do next fall, which kinda makes me sad so I just don't think about it. I think I might try and hang out in Missouri now or something until school starts. I don't know, the nearer I get to being home the more I want to be traveling, you know? I am single and can go to school somewhere else and live there for a while, so I think I might do that. It will be hard, but should be fun and a good experience. I've experienced too much outside the US, time to travel some inside of it, methinks. Anyway, I think that's it. To end I'll list off some Christmas phrases:
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
God bless us, everyone.
Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings!
You'll shoot your eye out!
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

Seems about time I posted again....

So, leave came, leave saw, and leave conquered. Or something along those lines. I ended up flying home with my buddy from my unit, Norman Craig, which was fun and it was nice to have someone else to be confused with/annoyed with due to the army's way of moving people from place to place. When we got to Kuwait we got stuck for 30 hours or so, which was kind of a buzzkill, but we were in the same tent with a medic that was showing us a collection of videos he had collected from friends and he and I ended up becoming good leave friends and later that night when he(Girard) and I were separated during a brief then a really hot girl came and sat down by me in the brief and we started talking during the brief(army briefs rarely tell you anything important, in this case it was 1 hour to tell us to show up in the morning at 8, so we had 59 minutes or so to spare) and afterward we went and grabbed food and Girard found us and turns out she(Hawkinson) and him work together as a medic team in Bagram. It was nice hanging out with them for flight back and we got to talk about alot of cool things. Hawkinson and Craig said they hated us though because "You two just met and already we can't say anything to get between you two and you guys have these 1,2 insult combos already" but they still hung around. In Dallas then Hawkinson had a flight to catch and Girard and I had a 5 hour layover so we ate at Fridays with another girl with a layover(Davis, I think?) and that was way fun to hang out with them and not be bored for 5 hours.
I ended up landing late Saturday night in Idaho Falls and my parents picked me up and dropped me off at Mel's house(Mel and Danny were in Salt Lake picking Megan and Sabriel up) Justin and Seth were there so I convinced Justin that we needed pizza and we went and picked that up. By the time we got back and were done talking then I had been awake for around 30 hours or so and ended up eating one piece of the pizza and falling asleep. The next morning I grabbed a piece on the way out the door(even though Justin had refrigerated it. What a looney, doesn't understand the right way to let pizza age) and that was the last I saw of it because when I came back from Church then I looked for it and Danny and Mel had eaten it. :'( It was nice going to church and seeing everyone, I really miss going to church regularly and my home ward is so amazing.
Anyway, the next day I got a phone and all that for leave and I was going to Rexburg to meet with Nathan and Whitni to hang out and right before I left town then they suggested we go see a movie in Idaho Falls. Armed with fresh time to spare and the unwillingness to go back to Mel's house after I had just said bye for the night then I drove around town and for some reason found myself at the Whittier's house.
Well, as I pulled up then I saw someone working on the old truck in the garage and it turned out to be Cory trying to change the headlight(this didn't work out well for him) and we ended up talking for about an hour! It was so great to see him again, it had been so long. I missed him and all the Whittiers. I got his number and had to run to the movie.
I went to the Paramount and it wasn't there so I assumed it was at the Edwards. I got there literally as the show was supposed to be starting, except there was one problem. It wouldn't start because it wasn't there. Going about 12,000 MPH I got to the Centre Twin apparently right after the movie started and was able to find Nathan and Whitni fairly easily. After the movie(good action, no plot, token Olivia Wilde hot chick) we went to Starbucks and just sat and talked for about an hour or so and then wandered around Wal Mart for another hour or so, 50 minutes of which was spent smelling candles.
I'm going to sum up the rest of leave in cliff note form, this thing is getting wordy. You all let me know what you want to hear about and I'll do my best to write another post about that thing.

-Pictures with family
-hanging out with Haley and racquetball with Dallin
-Haunted house with Ashley
-Saturday with Lauren
-Lack of BYU game
-Preparing to go to BYU-I
-sitting around all day relaxing and not sleeping till like 3 AM
-specifics of hanging out with justin
-Andrew and our escapades
-Haunted Mill with Nathan and Andrew followed by meeting up with Lauren and her roommates
-Final days.

In summary for now, leave was a dream come true. I just didn't have a care in the world, was able to meet two new nieces, catch up with family, eat a ton of unhealthy food, find out Linda was pregnant(for non family, I never find out about pregnancies until months after the rest of the family which was the case again....), and I think that is all, but I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this.

It's been a hard week

So, as you guys may or may not know then we had 3 guys die this last weeks, so I'm just going to talk about them a bit.
They got hit by an IED and the driver(Drake) and the TC(LT Lechowich) died there and the gunner(Gutowski) died on the way to Bagram. Right now Brett is in Germany fighting for his life, he's still unconscious but I'm sure he'll pull through, he's stubborn like that.
Drake was a new guy that came to us when we were already in country about three months ago. He came with 3 other new guys and he was the only one that kinda faded into the background without doing anything stupid. I did like him though, you could talk with the guy and he was really easy going and a hard worker.
LT Lechowich was the same way, I met him the first time when I came back from FoB Warrior with 1st platoon after a month away and he had moved in my room with me. It was really dark in the building and he had his stuff EVERYWHERE(he had just moved in) and so I kept tripping over it all trying to get in. Then I got to the TOC where he was and introduced myself and then I kept giving him a hard time about it saying that it was such a pigsty in there and how I always like a good clean room(blatant lies) and little things like that. He just had a baby on the 23rd and had gotten to see her on Skype, but never got to meet her. He got married last November. He was a really laid back person with a great sense of humor who could make a joke out of anything and was always trying to make life easier on his soldiers.
Guto is the one I'm going to miss the most though. I'd known him since I had gotten back from Iraq. He had gone to basic with harry and he was always having barbeques at his house and just getting wasted every weekend. He was a guy that was always walking around with a big idiotic grin on his face, too. He was that guy that was always going to still act like he was in high school, getting drunk and listening to Blink 182 and singing along like an idiot. I have a ton of great memories with him. Me and him were going to go to a Dave Mathews Band concert when we got back and eventually meet in Boston(where he lives) on St Patrick's Day and see Dropkick Murphy's. He LOVED all teams from Boston and you could get him talking about sports for hours if you just said something bad about any of them. He thought Tom Brady was the rebirth of Christ, haha.
That's all I have to say about that. Pray for their families and for Brett.

This is a working title.

I'm still a little while from being home, but I'm really excited to be there! Megan and Sabriel will be coming in from W.V. which will be way fun, I haven't even seen Sabriel and I haven't seen Megan since I joined the army so I'm excited to see her again. I'm hoping that people will be able to make time to see me with school going on. We'll see how it shakes out I guess. I did get tickets for a BYU game on the 22nd and I'm going to go down and meet Ashley and see it. Hopefully Nathan and Whitni will be able to go down, too, but it's their 1 year anniversary(Yay them!!)
Things have been pretty boring around here, just doing missions and counting the days till I'm home. Zach went to the TOC(our headquarters) when he got back from leave, so that sucks. He's already hating it which I told him he would, haha. Harry is doing good, as are all my other friends, so thank God for that. I'll have more stories for people when I'm home on leave, I don't like blogging about army things, or really talking about them at all, actually.
I remember when Children of Men was coming out a few years ago and Nathan and I were WAY excited for it, but for some reason we never saw it(I think Mom said it got bad reviews?) but I ended up FINALLY watching it the other day. WHY DID I NOT SEE IT WHEN IT CAME OUT!!??!! I thought it was awesome!It has some fantastic continuous shots of car chases and battlefields that blew my mind. They're the kind of shots that I want to be known for when I direct. Clive Owen did great, too, which reminded me of before MGM had cast Daniel Craig as James Bond(who is my favorite Bond, second being Timothy Dalton, FYI) and I really wanted Clive Owen to be Bond. It put me in a Bond mood, so now I've watching all the movies again which is good.
Anyway, with no hiccups in Afghanistan then I'll be home soon! yay! Hope you guys are all doing good.

Almost home!(Ish)

I'll be home for leave in just about a month, which is way exciting, even though I have almost nothing planned and have no idea how I'll fill my time. We'll figure it out though.

So, I've been exploring a lot of new music and I decided I like Mat Kearney and I re-realized how much I love Jack's Mannequin. Holiday for Real is one of my favorite albums of all time.

I read The Hunger Games since I kept hearing other people say how awesome it was and how they couldn't wait for the movie to come out. I LOVED the book but I don't like the movie idea. Lately the more I read books the more I see them as a movie in my head and the idea of someone else doing the movie annoys me because I'm afraid they'll mess it up*coughHarryPottercough*. Usually I can see how the book would work as a movie, but I don't see it with The Hunger Games. The next paragraph contains spoilers, so skip it if you plan on reading the book, which you should.


I think one of the biggest problems with making it into a movie is that in the book she is always thinking to herself about what Haymitch wants her to do and interprets things in her head and acts accordingly so that she survives and doesn't act because of how she feels often. Granted she does have feelings for Peeta, but she doesn't know how much those feelings are actually her feelings and how much of it is her just trying to survive, even after the games when the Capitol is angry at her. Also, there are too many names in the cast to make me happy. With the cast of characters from the book where the only REAL character you need is Katniss with Peeta and Rue playing the biggest supporting roles and other people like Haymitch and Gayle being important, but only in her head then you need to cast a group of nobodys to keep them off the screen. I just feel like with people like Woody Harelson as Haymitch then he won't be happy being out of the last 2/3 of the movie, so the camera will keep having to snap to some sort of "war room" with the mentors and him talking under his breath to Katniss about how she needs to act and such. It will help to project some of her inner monologue but it takes from the moment and I HATE that. I do like the cast of Foxface, and she was my favorite minor character, she was just crafty and awesome. Another problem I have is who they cast as Peeta and as Katniss. Its not that I dislike the actors, but when looking at their resumes then all I see is "rising stars" who have never done anything THAT good. Jennifer Lawrence was Raven in X Men First Class and I've already been citing as sayiing "I loved the movie, but didn't like Raven that much." Not a good sign. Also she had The Winter's Bone, which was good with critics, but not with fans and not a powerful performance, particualarly with such a complex and hard and singular role. Josh Hutcherson on the other hand I think is even worse off. First off, I dislike his look already. Not at all what I want in the role. Blech. Now to discect his resume. Where to start...He has been in plenty of movies, so good for the experience, but he hasn't had a single decent role, and I'm not saying he can't act, I'm saying he's never had to do anything hard. He was Robin Williams' kid in RV, he was in Zathura and that movie did not do well, he was in Bridge to Terabithia which is the only passable role but they really messed up that movie as well which could be signs for a bad showing in this movie. More recently he was in Journey to the Center of the Earth and that was nothing but a gimic movie for the growing 3D audience at the time and nothing good as far as acting goes, then he was in The Kids Are All Right which was yet another crappy comedy. Here's the REAL thing that scares me about him:He's in the new Red Dawn which will come out a few months before this movie is set to come out. This seems SOOO much like Hollywood politics for casting him because his status will be good if Red Dawn does good, which it will because everyone knows about the old one and will watch this one. Ugh, this is a waste of a cast spot to me. It really upsets me. Also, I think Rue needed to be cast VERY carefully because she is such a young girl and such a pivitol part of the book and Amandla Stenberg has almost literally NO acting experience at all. I like the look, but that's it. On to other prey:Liam Hemsworth as Gale. No, just no, please. No acting experience, which I like so we can hopefully push his character to memories and see him almost not at all, BUT he was considered for Thor and his brother IS Thor. Not good at all, I cannot have his character messing up the movie for me by flashbacks to him or showing him in District 12 while he cheers Katniss on. I don't have a problem with the case for Prim, but as with everyone else, stay out of the last 2/3 of the movie. The main case I'm making here is that once the games start then I think it is of critical importance to NEVER leave from Katniss, not to show concerned family, not to show Peeta, not to do ANYTHING. The only thing you can get away from is showing something that she can see, like Foxface stealing the supplies or Rue hiding in the tree, ect. I feel like my dream will not be realized, because the filmmakers will realize that they have all these great stars and will be trying to put them in more than they are in the book and that they have weak core actors and can't have the camera on them for 2 solid hours like they should. I do like that it was written by Gary Ross, I don't have any complaints with him, except that I don't think he's done anything at all in this scale as far as cast and action go, not to mention the subtlety that needs to be done to get the small things right and he also hasn't done an adaptation to my knowledge. Anyway, I'm done ranting, but I want response on this.

Ugh, after that rant I realized that I need to stop before I kill myself. My constant debating, even with myself, will kill me eventually. I think I did this blog mostly because I just finished the first book(I'm upset that there is more than one, I think the plot it only good for one book and after that it starts detracting from the awesomness of the original(Die Hard and Lethal Weapon ring a bell?)and I don't have anyone here to talk(argue) about it with and if you know me than you know how much that kills me.
Now that I'm done with that, how are all you? I'm good, just surviving, waiting on leave. I got blown up last week again and so I haven't been on many missions since, I don't know how long I'll be off mission, but its nice to know that I have almost no chance of dying till I go on leave as long as I stay off. I haven't been able to sleep since I got blown up(which is why I'm writing this at 230 AM) but they're going to give me some sleeping drugs that should help. Here's to hoping. As much as I like the idea of getting home safe, I feel better when I'm out there in the suck with my buddies, you know? Life isn't worth living without the risks right? That's why everyone has midlife crises and buy sports cars and date bimbos when they're in the 40's right?

Am I becoming my sisters(and mother?)

I've begun to blog due to boredom and realize that it actually makes me feel better. When I ramble on here I get it out without ACTUALLY telling anyone, even if people read it, which is what I need, I suppose. It floats my boat better than complaining in person.
I'm not really sure what to talk about, but I've had some LONG days recently. I can't tell specifics, but while dismounted in the last 6 days then I've been shot at alot, we had a vehicle hit with an IED with one of my best friends in the platoon in it(they're all ok though, thank god) and walked along way, gotten a lot of IVs and my feet and back are just sore and tore up. On the plus side, I got to go to Warrior and get my Gladiator poster for Ghazni and I finished Got Fight, the Forrest Griffin book, which was awesome. I got a Chuck Liddel book from Frank and read that in like a week, it was awesome.
I'm going to try running more often, I need to get cardio up, I eat like a fat kid and don't do enough cardio, thus becoming a fat kid. I decided to just do more cardio, rather than eat healthier. What's life without a pizza or two?
I caught up on most your blogs(that I know of) and they were all awesome. I love hearing about you guys and your lives and aspirations and even the stuff about Mel decorating her couches, which just proves to me how much of a single guy I am(My thoughts:That is such a comfy couch, just put it in a dark room with a TV if you don't want people to see it, duh)
Anyway, not sure what else to say. I'm getting frustrated a bit being here, but the last week I wasn't able to go to the gym(read:did not go because I did a LONG mission every day and dismounted causing me to sweat unholy amounts of smelly ooze) and I think going tomorrow will make me feel a bit better. Well, if you've read this far I'm obligating you to comment, just so I know who reads this without having to ask people I think do/should "Ohai, like, do you ummmm, read my blog?"
*enter foreign goodbye here*

Some things I don't say enough

Yes, I do love all of you. If you're reading this then I love you, in some way, shape, or form. While in my time being deployed, I've begun getting scared, particularly the closer I get to being out. I feel like I'll be that gunned down cop that's like "I was only two days from retirement. Tell my wife I always hatted her stuffing at Thanksgiving......" or something like that. So, I just wanted to make sure you all are aware of the fact that I can't wait to come home to you guys, even if we only get to see each other when you're home visiting for the Holidays. Even if I don't get to see you, just talking to you guys on Facebook pumps me up for days. If you ask anyone who I've talked with for more than 5 minutes, they'll tell you how much I miss Idaho and when I was younger and all my friends were still there. Anyway, now that's out of the way, I'll tell a funny story or two and then make a list of things I like or dislike, because my friend did it on her blog and I thought it was awesome.

When I was back to Fort Leonardwood after Christmas leave then I got bumped up to first class on my flight for being in the military(woot!). Anyway, I get on the plane and sit down next to this girl in ACUs and we naturally start talking about the military. Anyway, she seems so nice, doesn't swear, is in training to be a medic, she's sweet, she talks about back home and eventually she pulls out a Marvel(the comics for those of you who don't live under a rock like me) wallet. I am amazed that this really pretty, really sweet girl could also be really awesome(comics books and quirkiness DO make you awesome, sometimes) so we end up talking about superheroes and all that crap(ladykiller, thy name is Phillip). Anyway, the flight left at like 1 AM and we were both super tired and I got on the plane with the intention of sleeping through the flight, but instead we stayed up all 4 hours of it talking. At the end of the night I unwadded my panties and asked her for her number and we decided that if she got out of training before I deployed we'd hang out(she didn't) and I was pretty excited. Nothing ever came of it, we talk occasionally, but that's it. I don't really know why I'm telling you this, except for the fact that I'm glad I asked for her number even if we never hung out(yet?) and that I'm pretty proud of the fact I CAN get a girl's phone number. Bet you had no faith in my, right?(talking most directly to my sister's who love to give me grief)

I often times find myself torn on how I'll be when I get out of the military. Right now, I'm a good guy who isn't afraid to omit the occasion curse or 8 when I hammer my own hand and I have my vulgar streak but I still feel like a good guy. I still believe in the Church even if I am lax in my church activities. I still say I'm LDS to strangers and pray and read the scriptures(not every night, at all. I wish I did though). When I get out I wonder if I'll go to church every Sunday or just when there is no good football games on. I wonder if I'll go visit my army friends and just be stupid with them again. I think I WANT to do good. I want to pray and go to church and all the seminary answers, but I don't know if I will. Notice that word, 'will.' Not 'can.' Because I KNOW I can, but I don't know if I'm man enough to actually do it. That scares me alot. I think I've done manly things in my life. I've deployed twice, survived bombs and gunfire, I had a tax return, I've been broke and learned to save, I have my single chest hair(be jealous), and I can even go a few days without shaving and have people notice it. But a man isn't the sum of his past actions, a man is what he can do with today. I believe, and even preach, about good things like honor and kindness and integrity, but I feel like I have none of those qualities. In a book I read then it talks about driving down the road and you see dirt clods and rocks but they all look the same. Then you pick one up and you put pressure on it and the rock stays the same. If its a dirt clod then it breaks and turns to dust. I feel like a dirt clod more than a rock, and its something I've felt like for years now, but never been able to actually admit to anybody till now(if this counts as an admonition) I've never been able to do the REALLY hard right, or consistently do the hard right. I can do the hard right sometimes, but never the really hard ones. It's not hard for me to pray at night when nobody is bothering me, or to NOT curse when I get hurt, but I still do it, and that scares me. When I get faced like a real challenge then what will happen? I remember when I was about 15 and I was in ballroom class(it happened people) and one night then a girl needed some help learning the steps, so she asked me and the three other guys to come to her house with another girl to help them. Being polite gentlemen then we did and WOAH, the change in her from the class to her house was weird. She was swearing and vulgar and we were all polite(she wasn't a sailor or anything) and we went to her house and did the dance. When we were taking breaks though she was always hitting on the older guys(everyone there was like 17-19 except me) and I remember them just being gentlemen and not being fazed at all. I remember we were all wearing sunday clothes and she went to Jason and started to unbutton his second button while he was talking to her(top on was already undone) and without missing a beat he put his finger on the button so it wouldn't come undone and he just kept talking without any change. The sad thing about this story is that I remember when something similar happened to me a year or so later and I had no problem being like those guys who I looked up to, but if I were faced with the situation now, I don't think I could be like them anymore. I don't know, I'm rambling now, but you get the main fear I'm facing. I'll probably talk more about it in another post. On with the other stuff!


-When I say "Howdy" I feel like Sam Elliot. Good feeling right there.
-I love talking to old friends like we still hang out on a weekly basis even if we haven't talked in months.
-I always liked this girl, Ashley Hunter, some of you probably know her. She's pretty awesome, and I'd love to go on a date with her sometime, but I'll never get the guts to. The only reason I say this is because if I die then I want someone to know. Also, I'm pretty confident she doesn't read my blog.
-I like making time to talk to people and when people make time to talk to me.
-There is a draft right by my bed where the AC goes and filters to every other room. It kills me at night, I'm shivering while writing this. Sure beats being hot though.
-I hate having people who don't already know me know that I'm in the army because of WWII. When people think of the army they think of the 101st and those guys when I can't even compare to what they've done. Don't lump me with them.
-IF I get blown up again, I'll probably cry
-I secretly hope that my anti Harry Potter book 5 speech has become the stuff of legend in the Shelly area.
-When I slip then I say things like "wee!" and "Yahoo!" on the way down, even if I don't fall, just because it makes it feel a little better when I do hit the ground.
-I don't like keeping pennies, so instead I drop them as I walk so somebody can pick them up and get good luck.
-Another Mormon thing:I don't want to die, because I haven't gone to the temple yet, or done a mission, or even been as kind as I want to. I can be rude to people pretty easily, just because I'm witty and use it for evil(trash talking) and even if I don't think its mean, it is usually thought of as mean. Also, I'm incredibly bitter to people who I don't already know. Not sure why, but it's also part of the reason I hate crowds. One of these days I'm hoping to just be nice again. I'm pretty sure it will be easy when I'm out of the army, I'm not a naturally mean person, its not second nature to say mean things, you know? When somebody falls then I don't laugh, I help them up. I guess that's a good sign, right?
-It's 145 AM and I have to get up for mission in 3 hours. Ugh. Let's do this again sometime.

This one time I was in Afghanistan

And I didn't post a blog update for months. Anyway, that time is now. I've been here for about 4 months now and this is blog update #2, so sorry about that. Anyway, I'm still alive, Harry is still doing good. Nobody has died or been seriously injured yet. My buddy Corey Bahn did get hit and hurt his leg, but he's alright now and is in the US with his wife and son, so that's good. I did end up getting hit twice in June, but everyone was fine in both hits. I was with some good buddies both times, so we got to laugh about it afterwards. I've decided I'm going to get out of the army when my ETS comes in June and I'll probably go to BYU-I. I know how much crap I talk about it and how I never want to go there, but the fact is, I'm getting out to be near my family, and my family is in Idaho, and I'm not going to ISU. Anyway, I think I still want to do film, but I'll do the basic classes in BYU-I and then transfer once my family has driven me crazy again. I like the idea of transferring schools to get away from them better than joining the army.
Now that my days in the army are numbered(on my desktop)I've been thinking about how awesome the army is and how much I've grown from being in it and how much I'll miss the friends I've made. I remember getting out of basic and living with two buddies, Silvia and Cotting, from basic and then deploying with Cotting. I'll always remember Iraq with the Dirty Deuce and the friends I made there, especially Frank and Tavis who I still consider some of my best friends today. I remember the ramp ceremony after Cotting died and how sad I was. I remember redeploying and hanging out with Mike during work hours watching Power Rangers all day and sports all night. I'm always going to remember going with Harry to Springfield almost every weekend and getting gummy worms and monsters for the drive there and talking about the most random things(real life pokemon wars) or singing music at the top of our lungs. I'm going to remember hanging out here and taping Zach to his bed and Tucker to Zach when he tried to cut him out.
Looking back on this post, I've decided I don't like it, but because I can't think of what else to do I won't delete it.
Anyway, more on me getting out. I'm pretty dang excited for it. I do feel like I've 4 years removed from the world though, particularly the LDS world. I don't really know how to behave around girls, for example, which makes it awkward just being around them, haha. I'm so used to some things being a certain way that it will be weird when they aren't. I'm afraid of becoming a recluse that goes to familiar places occasionally but mostly just stays in playing games and watching sports(this is a very real fear)or that all of my old friends who I'm hoping will hang out with me and keep me from being the recluse will all have their routines and be too busy to hang out with me much, thus causing me to recluse further. I'm not sure how it will work out, but I'm sure it will.
Anyway, I'll try and post more, but we've seen how that works. TTFN, everybody.

So, I may be a bit behind in my posting.

And even though I feel bad about that, I also feel slightly apathetic about it, because I'm BEAT. Holy crap. Anyway, quick update on the last few weeks, getting CoIST up and running for my company which is frustrating. It really kills me, I'd much rather be in a normal platoon with my friends, but such is life or so I've been told. I'm trying to go out more often, but I hate talking about army crap, as you all should know by now.

Um, got a new roommate, that's pretty cool. he's kinda a weird dude, and not weird like me(awesome) but weird like....Hmmm, how to say this nicely. I'll just let you fill in the blank:he is wierd like _____.

Man, once you blacklist army things to talk about then I really run out of stuff to talk about. I've recently decided I like Finch for all you young music listeners. I've been watching Dexter's Lab which is a lot of fun, it reminds me of being young, which I always miss. Herm....Oh, I know, let's talk about my crushed helmet.

Its been a while since its happened, so I forgot a few specifics, but basically this is the story:In Kuwait then we had all our weapons in cases so when they got moved from the FoB to the flight then we needed two escorts so my buddy, Gutoski, and I volunteered. We needed all our gear aka helmet and body armor. Not a big deal. What we also needed was our IDs which our XO(executive officer) had taken from us. So, we got halfway to the gate, got told we needed them, and the guy driving stops and I run back to get them. I run there and the XO and all the other guys are gone, so no IDs. I run back and the new driver is a girl now instead of a guy, not a big deal to me, EXCEPT while I was gone then they had actually switched from one truck to its identical twin, so we decide to take off without our IDs we'll get them at the flight. We start moving and there is a loud thud as we go over a 'bump' in the road. The girl is like "Oh no, did I hit something?" Do you think? Well, Guto had moved the gear, but my helmet had fallen and landed under a tire. There was this HUGE dent in the back of it, I wish I had pictures, but I can't upload here. Anyway, my awful day wasn't over. We get to the flight which means leaving one FoB(base) and going to another and at the other FoB then we had an ID check outside the front gate. Well, me and Guto don't have IDs so we get left OUTSIDE the gate while she goes to get our IDs. Holy crap, we were stuck outside of US protection without weapons for like an hour. It was lame. Anyway, we got on the flight, eventually, and made it here(wooo?)

And that's one story for you.

Lots to talk about, but not much motivation to do it.

Well, I'm here in Afghanistan on the advance party. Its really great, I'm missing harry though, our inside jokes are just me being retarded when he's not around to laugh with me. We've all been pretty busy getting ready, and I'm really excited for the next year. I'm not sure what's going to happen once I get out for sure. I felt like I had a clearer picture a few weeks ago, but now Brock is most likely joining the military(good for him, be sure to support him) so without a wingman for WV or Co then I don't know what I'll do, might go hang out with Harry and Joe for a bit. We'll see. Megan had her baby, Doc had his birthday, so that's awesome for both of them. I'm hoping to talk to them soon, so I can say hi. I'm really missing family and friends already, which is kinda pathetic, but everyone needs somebody to lean on(*cue musical number).
At any rate, I feel like there are lots to talk about, but I'll give you cliff notes of things I HOPE to blog about later in more depth, right now I feel really tired and beat.
-Getting stranded outside of a US FOB in Kuwait.
-Getting my helmet run over
-Being commo and my thoughts on it
-missing a line platoon
-Random hopes for how awesome my future wife/robot overlord will be
-That other stuff.

For now, take care, love you all, be sure to comment, I hate not getting comments or only ones from my family(It doesn't mean I don't love you, family)
Goodbye from the middle east,
Phillip

How long has it been again?

Yes, I've been lax in my posting, but in all fairness I'm expecting to deploy sometime in the next 6 to 8 years. Yeah, that seems like a good time frame. While we're on the subject of deploying, if I die then I'm going to start making funeral wishes. Yes, that's right, I'm planning my funeral, and it's going to be an awesome party, with me at the center. I'll do one a post for the next however long. Today's request is that it needs to be in North Carolina. Not only is it an awesome state, but Harry hates it and the only way he'll go back there is if I die or get married there(future wife, our wedding is in North Carolina, I hope you're OK with that).

Anyway, I'm getting really excited to deploy but these last few days I've been thinking of the awesome fun things I'm going to miss when I'm over there. This weekend was a great weekend to have near the end of this run in the US. On Friday I had some friends over and we had out Mac N Cheese/Cheddar Brat concoction and watched stand up comedy, so that was great. The next day, I did very little of anything all day, which was fun and not abnormal and last night Baxter, Ned, Harry and I went to Miller's Grill and ate. Looking back on last night and the last two years, Harry and I are some of the WORST people for strangers to be near because we are loud, are prone to laughing uncontrollably so hard we want to vomit, have way too many inside jokes, and it just gets worse throughout the night. All night(and today, too) Baxter's catch phrase was "I can't take you guys anywhere" because we laughing so much and so loudly which just made us laugh harder and louder.
Today the same group of us left to Springfield for no real reason at all, which is usually the best reason to do something fun. All the way there Harry and I were in the back seat talking and laughing about the dumbest stuff. I've realized that my favorite time EVER is spent in cars talking to people I like. With Harry or Frank or Old Man or ANYBODY then it's the best time in the world to be driving around, jamming out, and yelling at random people out your windows and just being happy(yes, you might ask "but how can you be happy when you're yelling at people?" Well, we don't yell mean things, but we do yell. EX:"Hey! You in the bug! Are you hot?" *she turns around to see who's yelling* "HOLY CRAP! You're gorgeous!" Yeah, bit obnoxious, but we're young and its alot of fun. Someone needs to do it, right?). Anyway, we went to Barnes and Noble and I finished buying the rest of the Y the Last Man series, and Harry got some headphones at Best Buy and we ate our favorite restaurant. We went to Pet World and played with their hamsters and rabbits and that was fun. We ended the night going to Bass Pro shop, which was HUGE and this got a bit out of hand.
Harry and I have no desire to be there except to play and the store is SOO big and Baxter went off and Ned just followed us, so with Harry and I leading the way we decided to go stare at their turtles swimming around and all the stuff animals. Yeah, this store is so big they have creeks and all sorts of stuff everywhere! After so long we found LIVE ducks swimming around, so we tried to sneak up on them and touch them before they could swim away and I was the only one to BARELY touch a tail in time. We found a stuffed bear and Harry got this picture. He likes taking pictures of stand ups and stuffed things, but I like this one alot.

Anyway, we wandered for a bit longer and were pretty bored and couldn't find Baxter, but we did find an ATV. Ned jumped in the driver seat and Harry jumped in the passenger seat and I said "What? Are we recreating that scene from Jurassic Park?" Harry said yeah so I jumped in the back and looked as hurt as I could. "Faster, faster, must go faster!" and we rocked it back and forth and there was an employee probably only 40 meters away, but luckily he wasn't paying attention. THEN(this is where it may have gotten a bit out of hand) we decided we should put it in neutral and push it away. So we did. Only about 10 feet away and onto a ramp so nobody could go up or down it.
We found Baxter and came back. It has been such an awesome weekend and I can't wait to deploy, but I'm going to miss things like this every day that I'm deployed I'm sure. And I don't want to go back to work tomorrow, that's for sure.

Late Night Reminiscing and Resolution Update

Or early morning, depending on how you look at it.

Regardless of the time, I was feeling productive and I had just finished the last lego I had(once I make them I don't unmake them) and I needed something fairly quiet to keep my occupied because my roommate was sleeping. So I headed over to my closet and pulled down these old blue bins I had with stuff I had packed before I was in the army. So, this was kind of like opening a time capsule of three years or so and the old me showed. And even though I like who I am now, it helped me recognize how much I've changed in the last few years, going from a young man into an adult(I don't throw the term man about loosely) but it did still point out the things that I miss about my old life and the old me. I ran across alot of old books, things like Garfield and Charlie Brown, but also ones like Great Expectations which is probably one of my favorite books and I remember Ben got it for me when I turned 17. I also found some old posters of plays I was in and that made me really miss doing plays and being around fun people all the time. Its a really hard feeling to describe what I'm missing, but its something more than the play and the people, not to belittle my friends and the people who are here. I do miss that I've gotten out of contact with alot of my old friends though, I feel like I always had great great friends, but I always kept them sidelined for the "cooler" crowd and that makes me sad because now all the great people have moved on without me it feels. I know that I get in these mopey moods alot, I guess that's something I should have expected when I joined the army at a young age, all well. No changing it now.
In other news, I'm officially 1 week sober on mountain dew and when my roommate came home tonight he grabbed one(I still have PLENTY in my fridge for social events) and I could smell it from across the room. It was a very "Come to meeeeee......" moment where I wanted to go and get one, but I guess this is the first step in losing my Mt Dew belly.
I haven't done real well on scriptures, mostly because I have no set bedtime, maybe I should try and set one to regulate my life a bit more? The teeth thing I've been doing good on, but again, the no bedtime thing affects it.
The gym I've been good on, considering I've been on leave, I haven't been going to the gym, but I'll do SOMETHING, a few days a week. I need to get better still though, baby steps though(Thanks, Dr. Leo Marvin!)

Life is good today

It's a trend I'd like to keep going. Harry got home yesterday, and even though I like to think of myself as an independent person, I'm not, and I got to missing him, so it was awesome to hang out with him last night. Harry, Old Man, and Baxter came over and we ordered pizza and watched Once Upon A Time In Mexico, which I love. I love random action films like that, the ones you can make fun of but still watch the action. If you feel like watching a comedy or an action film it has you covered.
Anyway, my friend Lauren is always making these awesome lists of awesome things, so I think I'll give it a try.

-I have a bedroom that looks like it could belong to a very smart collected person, but he shares the room with a 9 year old from the 80s, and I'm ok with it.
-On my days off then I can play 16 hours of video games and not consider it a waste.
-I like to drop any pennies I have in change, because I'll never use them and maybe someone will pick one up and get good luck from it.
-I could drive for hours with a person I like and never get bored or have to stop.
-You can tell I really trust you when you suggest a song I should hear and I buy it on iTunes instead of just looking for it on youtube.
-Sometimes my habit of not lying about stupid things gets me in trouble a lot and sometimes when I tell people my reason for doing some things then they think its so funny that they just sit and stare at me for a minute then walk away laughing.
-I think Twitter is retarded. It's only Facebook status updates. I don't want to get updated that often on what people are doing. Isn't it bad enough we already have people that abuse their status to tell us stupid things? "I ate a bologna sandwhich, yum!"
-When the Jazz lose then it ruins my night.
-When the Jazz win then I can do no wrong. I'm going to start buying scratch tickets and saving them till a night they win.
-I can't go to sleep without listening to something.
-I'm so nerdy, I watch other people play Starcraft 2.
-The movies I really love, I don't watch with anybody that has never seen them before because if they don't like it then it will taint my view of them forever.
-I'd rather go out of my way to avoid talking to a stranger than ask them the tiniest questions or interact with them at all.
-I really miss my friends, but I'm not sure if I want to go back to Idaho to live.
-I really want to be the "cool uncle" that all my nephews and nieces want to hang out with.
-I have more fun with kids than I have with adults most of the time.
-I have no idea how to end this post.

Frank's Visit

Ok, I meant to have posted again much sooner than this, but I refuse to accept that it's Tuesday already. At any rate, pretty normal work week, on Friday then I was helping in the arms room for a while and that night we all got called in and told a weapon was missing and because I had been in there I had to have my room searched. Sgt Will(my old squad leader from Iraq) searched it and after a while they found where the weapon was, it was a clerical error and a civilian company had it, they just didn't realize it at first, but that was fairly nerve racking.
On Saturday then I ended up going with my buddy, Frank, who I had deployed with. He was in town visited for the first time since the summer, and he got a fight in Osage Beach and me and him drove down there for it and got to catch up on the ride there. When we got there we met up with his sister, Jen, and we went to eat before the fight. We ended up meeting a few more people at the fight there to support him and he was fight 10 out of 14, so he had a long wait, and none of the fights were that great, it was fun to hang out with Jen and Britney that were both sober and watch Daniel, who was not sober, hit on Jen and Russ, also not sober, sink more and more into the stages of his drunkenness.
When it came to Frank's fight then he was up against a slightly older person who looked pretty strong(Frank said he was) and it was a really good fight. The first round was pretty lopsided for the other guy, he took Frank to the ground and Frank panicked(standard for Frank in the first round) and Frank got saved by the bell at the end of the round. The second round went to the ground again and Frank began to get some composure again and it was a pretty even round with a few good hits. The third round then Frank almost got a lock when the guy speared, but the guys' neck basically dissapeared(he was a really good grappler) and it ended up going to desicion. Frank lost 30-27, but he was happy. He said he was worried about his first loss and now he knows he's not going to be depressed he's happy with it.
After the fight we stayed for the last few which were all really good and then left to various bars(no worried, Jen, Britney and I were all DDs) and went back to a condo that we had reserved earlier and we ended up being up till about 5 or 6. The bars closed at 2, and then we went back and I left to get food and Frank and I went to Dennys and got back around 330 and he went to bed and I saw Britney getting hit on by Duke and Master P, two people I don't know really well, but I could tell she didn't like it, so I stayed up and sat with them till those two went to bed. I was SOOO tired and Frank ended up getting me up at 10 and we left. Jen, Britney, Frank and I went to Denny's and the service was awful, its put me off from Denny's for awhile, but we ended up splitting up afterwards. Me and Frank talked again on the ride back, which is way more fun that I can put into words on here, and I'm not going to try and recreate an hour and a half of conversation to show you, but he's one of my favorite people, I really missed him, I look up to him alot. On Sunday night then I was at home and Frank texted me saying they were playing beer pong at JCs so I took Old Man and Lurch over there to play for a while. Me and Lurch almost beat JC and his wife, who had a monopoly(don't worry Lurch drank for me) and after a few hours we left again.
On Monday then Frank and I left to Jeff City to visit a friend of ours Becky, who neither of us had seen in about 8 months, so that was nice to see her again. I stayed at my house with Old Man and Lurch last night and this morning, Frank had to leave today in the afternoon, which was sad, but it was a really fun day. Lurch, Old Man and I watched old video game reviews by Angry Video Game Nerd, who is hilarious(parental advisory:swearing. Don't say I didn't warn you) and then Lurch left and Old Man and I just played games and watched TV and hung out. Not I'm here. This weekend was a really great weekend, I'm sad I probably won't see Frank for over a year unless we get to see eachother when I'm on midtour leave, but its OK, I suppose. He did mention that when Tavis(our buddy from Iraq) gets back from his next tour(around when I get out) then they were planning on doing the appalacian trail and he said I should get down on it, which I think would be a great way to celebrate being a free man again. I guess for now then I'll just have to keep doing what I'm doing and let life happen.

Pressure makes diamonds?

True statement, yes? Yes. However, its not an instant thing, it takes time, time is fleeting, so pressure will just make us rubble. True statement? Probably not, but that's just how I feel sometimes. Today I just felt down for some reason. Old Man, Hammy(roommate) and I were all up way too late watching movies and playing games and just being dumb, so I woke up at noon when Old Man came over again and me and him played more games and we really just sat around all day. When I say that, it always sounds depressing, but the fact is, we don't drink, and there is VERY little to do around here without drinking, so we play games and enjoy our own company and that's how we have fun. Last night then Ned and Kevin and Archie come over and all of us watched The Fighter, they all liked it, I love it, and then they left and we kept fooling around, that's a typical day for us. I'm not sure HOW happy I am with that, but I can live with it for now. There are some things I'd like to do, but can't right now. Relearn piano, learn guitar, learn a foreign language, I just don't. Not yet. Also, today was Old Man's birthday, but he didn't want to do anything, and he enjoyed himself, so good.
Anyway, back to rubble. Sometimes I feel just like a pile of crap, I'm not sure why. I felt that way for a bit before I realized what it was. I feel like I'm stuck. I feel like this alot, it usually is this when I'm depressed in some way or another. Today I felt like I'm no longer part of a family, and won't be for a while. I talked with Whitni about it for a while, and I suppose I felt better, but it boiled down to this:My parents are gone from my home state, where I want to be for a few years, I think. All my siblings in that home state(Seth aside, he...Well, he's another issue for me) have made their families and are doing their thing. My family is gone and made their own. Now I'm not a member, I'm an accessory to theirs. I'm always Uncle Phillip or the brother in law, and that's just how it is. I'm not where near getting married and making my own family(not willing to rush into that just yet) and you're probably saying "Hey, stop being silly, plenty of people are in the same boat as you" but here's the difference, in my mind: They all have their good friends, their niche, their place of belonging. I have friends sure, but I have no good friends anywhere it seems. I'll be leaving Harry and Andrew is going to be heading to college and in the time since I joined the army he's found new guys to hang out with. He and I are still really great friends, the best of friends, but we are anything but a support structure for the other. I mean, we CAN support eachother, but we don't. Not unless we need to. Its hard to explain. I mean, we still are best friends, but I feel like he replaced me. He can be my best friend and we'll still find time to hang out, but we don't just have the time like we used to. Not a time issue, if that's what you're thinking, but it used to be "I invite Andrew and Phillip is coming. I invite Phillip and Andrew is coming" I mean, we were a pair, but now its not that way. Every coin has two sides and I won't have mine. Nathan went and got married(Not a negative thing in the least) and now he's either with Whitni or working, and even if he hadn't gotten married then he'd be in the same category as Andrew.
I'm not really sure how to resolve this feeling I have or this post, so I'll just do one of those challenge things and call it a night.
Day 16 - Your celebrity crush. This is a good question. Herm.....Tonight I think we'll go with Yvonne Strahovski. She's Sarah in Chuck, she was born in Australia, and she was Miranda in Mass Effect. Other than that she hasn't done much, but she hasn't done anything negative and I just kinda like her. Hey, look! There she is now!

Isn't this just a coinky dink(yeah, that just happened)

Westerns, Kung Fu and Pokemon

As you can tell by my title, this has been a good weekend for me. My roommate was pretty sick all week, and he and I have a dynasty on NCAA 11 we play, so I spent alot of time in his room and on Thursday and Friday I woke up feeling like I was beaten with a bag of quarters. So, I thought it would be good to not mess with the status quo and stay in my room this weekend. Old Man(Also known as Janes or Chris)'s wife and daughter left early on Friday so he came over Friday night and he and I played games and hung out for the night. I decided to break out my old Pokemon game this morning(its still Saturday, for the record) and made it past the spot I was stuck at and have been playing on and off all day. I spent the morning playing that and watching college basketball and then Old Man came over in the afternoon and we played some games online with Ned and Will and that was pretty fun. We ended the night watching some westerns and kung fu movies, something I plan on doing again tomorrow and Monday. He hadn't seen The Quick and The Dead, so we're finishing that up right now. I forgot how dated this movie is, but I still enjoy it.

Oh, I had the strangest dream last night. Mom, Doc, and I were traveling and pulled into some strange town and they had something they had to do without me, so they just dropped me at some corner. For some reason that didn't bother me much, I feel like in real life I'd at least have them drop me off at the movies or something, but this was just the curb at a residential area. After a few minutes I noticed this girl staring at me and I guess I must have said hi or something, because the next thing I knew we were going on a date at this nice restaurant. I can't really remember talking about anything, but it seemed like it was enjoyable and after a while then I paid and we magically teleported to her house and I left and I got to the end of her street and had a "OH CRAP!" moment, again I have no idea what over, but it suddenly became VERY important that I got back to her(I'm pretty sure I loved her) so I started running back and I had the enlongating hallway trick played on me (curse you, mind! You win this round) and never got there, but instead woke up. Even though I have no idea who this girl was(the one thing I remember discussing with her was that her name was Charlene), what we talked about, or why I suddenly needed to run after her, this dream bothered me all morning. The really weird thing about this dream is that for my dreams its pretty tame. Ex:Once Seth got bull rushed and killed by a large female Wal Mart employee. Like, she wanted to find us, and got us corned in an isle with one opening, bent over and made bull horns with her fingers and charged at his. I was able to burrow out of the way in time through some cereal boxes, but Seth died. Yes, I have strange dreams.

I know its no longer a daily thing, but I don't care, I just want to do them all for the sake of finishing.
Day 15 - Something you don't leave the house without:I'm not the dependent on anything, to be honest. I'll leave my phone at the house just because I feel like I'm being bothered to often, so that's out. I'd like to say I take my wallet, but I forget it plenty enough. I don't wear glasses. I usually take my iPod, but not all the time, again. Oh, I do wear pants and a shirt though. Needless to say, I'm white enough to make paper look like Westley Snipes and I remain that way by never showing any skin whatsoever. It keeps people from mocking my ridiculous whiteness.

Anyway, it is nearing that time where I sleep, so I'll probably be posting again in a while. Till then.

Lazy weekend

This has been a nice weekend, just what the doctor ordered in fact. I've just sat around for all of it. On Friday night then Harry and Bret came over and we made Macaroni and cheese with brats in it(one of our traditional meals) and watched Alpha Dog, which we had heard was good. It was pretty good, not a favorite or anything, but worth watching. Then they went home and we all got on xbox live and played CoD together until early morning, so that was fun. Saturday then I woke up nice early, went on a run, and then slept again till about 2. But the important thing is I DID wake up early and run. Chris came over in the afternoon and surprised me with a pizza, so he stayed most the day and we just played games and watched TV, so it was relaxing. Last night then Harry and I were playing games and Andrew got online so I got on with him and spent all night playing games with him. I'm SOOOO tired now, all well. I feel like it was a mistake to stay up all night, but we rarely get to play together, so I'm ok with it.
Harry leaves for two weeks tomorrow, I'm really sad about that, but I'm glad he gets to go to school, I do feel like it snuck up on us though, we never really got to do any goodbye hurrah hangout thing like we normally do and I feel bad about that. I don't think he's upset by it, but I feel like a good friend would have done something, rather than nothing.
Today then Chris and his family came over this morning before they leave next weekend for the deployment. Chris is just going to have his wife live with her mom while he's gone, so its too bad she and the kid are leaving already, their kid is a sweetheart, she's awesome. Me and her played all day with MMs and jumping on the bed and all sorts of fun things, so I guess she's worn out. Random awesome fact:me and her were sitting on the bed playing and she was sitting in my lap and Chris said "Cripe, you look like a dad" and I was like (in my head) "YOU ARE FRICKING RIGHT I DO!!! I'M GONNA BE AN AWESOME DAD!!!"
Anyway, this next week is supposed to be a LONG week, so I might not post again till next week.

While we're here:Day 14 - A TV show you're currently addicted to. Hmmm, I'm watching The Big Bang Theory, and its pretty good, I'm not addicted. I'm also watching this anime Tangen Toppa Gurren Lagann that I got from Harry, it's one of his favorites of all time and I really like that one. I guess those will do for this question.
Oh, btw:Lauren made it to North Carolina fine and safe and she's so happy that it actually makes me jealous. Yes, I'm a bad friend, but I'm jealous of her happiness, haha.

Who has two thumbs and feels pretty good?

This guy! Not sure why, I just showered and I feel awesome for some reason. We'll get one of these things crossed off the list and then we'll go into my day.
Day 13 - Your favorite musician and why?
This is a hard question for me, I like SOOO many bands and musicians, but I'm going to go with The Hush Sound. The Hush Sound is a band that Nathan showed me when I was in junior high, and I love their songs(you can find a few on youtube, if you want)and I've never had a time when I haven't felt like not listening to them. More that that, it reminds me of when I was younger and it was just me, Nathan, and Andrew hanging out all the time, which was a good time for me.

This week at work was really long and hectic, they split up my platoon and folded us into the other platoons and I ended up in Ops, which is really don't like. I feel separated from all my friends and like I'm useless, but hopefully I'll be reintigrated soon. With this week being hectic though, it also means we are getting VERY close to this deployment, which is really sad but also REALLY exciting, as soon as I'm done with this deployment then I'm OUT OF THE MILITARY!! I know it shouldn't make me so happy to be out, but I hate getting older without going to school or going on my mission. I'm becoming socially retarded as far as girls are, since I'm so rarely around them, and all knowledge that was once crammed in my head has been slowly leaking out the last few years, I don't want to have to gather it all again. I'm excited to be around my family for a long time again and not feel pressed for time or anything. It will be nice to be dictated by myself for a few months or so. Until then all I have to do is survive. Piece of cake.

Can't sleep and I feel reform coming.

Its not that I feel reform coming, but that I've felt bad about certain things in my life for a long time and rather than change them I just let them sit. Not sure why I do that, but I do. I guess until I'm unhappy with my overall life then I don't mess with anything. But I feel like I need changes. One of those changes is just with this blog. Right now, even I'm bored with it. That's not a good thing. I made it so that I could keep in touch with everyone, but I rarely talk about anything that really matters, how I feel about anything, I just post some short paragraph and get off of it. Worst of all, when I read it then it feels very juvenile, like something that would be read as a narrative to a crappy teen movie, not even a good one. So, I guess I'm going to try and do better on here about all that, even if it means devoting some actual time and effort to this.
The other day then my plane was delayed and while I was waiting then I decided to make a list of New Years Resolutions. Not that I buy into the "Once a year self improvement" I generally have some goals in mind but I never dedicate them to paper(or in this case, phone memory) so maybe having written them down will help me keep track of them and make some good progress. We'll see. At any rate, I'll share a few of my goals with you, and why they're goals of mine.
1)Go to the gym 5 days a week, including Saturday. This is in addition to the normal army stuff in the mornings, but I need to improve my fitness for this deployment and just so I can be happier about when I pig out.
2)Stop sleeping in till noon or later on days off. This just makes me feel like a slug and then I get into the habbit of it, and I miss out on precious time that I could be doing something important, or just slacking off awake, so I don't slack off later when something important comes up. I'm really bad about that, and if you don't know what "that" is allow me to explain. Sometimes I'll sleep till noon, wake up and play some games and then I'll get a call from someone who isn't a great friend, but still a friend, and he might say something semi fun we could do and rather than go out and hang out then I'll think to myself "Well, I haven't played this game or watched this episode and I could do that now" and I end up not going out. So, if I wake up at say nine-ish then I can watch TV and shower and play games and then when someone calls then I can be like "Heck yeah! Let's go do that mediocre thing I normally wouldn't enjoy doing but am going to do now out of boredom!"
3)Be more hygenic on days off. Again, I'm notorious for just lounging, and on lounge days then I just don't do ANYTHING. I mean wake up, cereal, games and tv all day, sleep. No shower, deodorant, ect. because I just think "Meh, I'm not planning on leaving today, what's the point." so I should change that. Good habbits, people, stay with me.
4)Ok, this next one is a bit more personal, but I was trying to get one of my good friends of mine(or I felt like we were good friends) to talk to me, because I had a semi important question that needed answering and I felt like she would know something good to say about it, and EVERY time I would call then I'd get no answer and then a text back saying "Hey, can't talk now, what's up?" or something to that extent, and that's gone on for a pretty long time, but I never thought much of it, but this time I told her I really wanted to talk and she wouldn't find the time to answer, so after a bit of talking(texting) then I got her to say that she was intimidated by me, and felt like every time we talked on the phone or in person then she didn't like it because she didn't have time to think about what she was going to say, so she always avoided it. We talked for a bit, but the point it this, I need to let the people who I care about in my life KNOW that I care about them and how I think they're awesome. I might be quick to poke fun at someone for something stupid they've done or said, but I never say a mean thing with the purpose of making someone feel bad, just providing everyone else with something to laugh at, does that makes sense? I mean, I'll make fun of myself if I do or say something stupid, too. Anyway, another bullet for working on.
5)Read scriptures and pray 6 nights a week. Again, hard habbit to build, easy to lose. I lost it, and I need it back. Going alongside this one is going to church every sunday possible. I often make up lame excuses for not going AKA too tired, football game on, ect. I still feel like a good spiritual person, but these things will help me. I REALLY do want to go on a mission after I'm out of the army, and there are a few things that make me not want to, but at my core then I NEED to go on one. When I was younger than it was all I wanted to do, and I honestly could never feel like a complete man unless I can someday tell my kids about where I did my mission and bore all my family members with pictures. I guess that comes down to wanting to be an example, and I think I could get away with saying "Oh, no I was in the army instead of doing a mission" and I'd feel fine to every adult I'd talk to about it, but when it comes to a)dating girls and b)one day raising kids then there is no reason to NOT go on a mission. I always feel like crap when I meet a really awesome new LDS girl and at some point then they think "I wonder where he went on his mission" and I have to say that I haven't gone yet, I could not take it if I was older and trying to date and I just said I didn't go. I wouldn't feel right raising a boy and telling him about how important a mission is and then saying "Oh, but I didn't go, I had better things to do." Even if he was only 8 the first time we talked about it, I'm sure he'd always remember that I didn't go, and it doesn't make him want to go, like seeing Ben go made me want to go. So, even though I want to be a good person to make my family, future wife and kids, the Utah Jazz, and all those other important people proud then I want to do it for me, so I can feel good about myself.
Yeah, that's about all of that I can think of right now. But, its up to you guys to keep pestering me about how I'm doing with them and making sure I'm staying on top of things.
I'm still not tired so let's talk about leave some.
Well, I got in town on the 18th or so and didn't do much that first night, just kinda hung out but the next day at church I ran into Andrew and me and him and we hung out for the next couple of days, not doing anything really exciting, but just lazing around and playing games like we used to do. Me and Andrew have this rare superpower that no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, as soon as we see each other again than it's like we just saw each other yesterday. It's pretty awesome, because there is never any awkward goodbyes or hellos.
One Monday after I came then Andrew and I decided to go to lunch at Lazy D's, my friend Devvon's eatery, in Shelly and then go see Tron. We both got philly cheese steaks and were going to split a family fry. For those of you that don't know what a family fry is there are only two things you need to know:1)Go to Lazy D's, its amazing and 2)Its a giant monstrosity of fries made for large families, and almost no families actually finish it. Anyway, about halfway through my PCS I decided that it was important for us to finish that family fry. About 5 fries after that, Andrew decided he was done....We were only about 100 fries into this 700 fry project. I did the only thing I could do. The thing a real man would do. I ate fry after fry until it hurt. Then I continued to shove fries down my throat at the blazing fast pace of about 1 fry per minute. My epic struggle went on in this fashion for about another 40 minutes, and with about 100 fries left then I heard the fat lady warming her voice up and wanted to cry. I unbuttoned my pants and continued to drearily eat the fries. 50 left and I wanted to vomit with each fry. For the last hour or so people were telling me that I was crazy and to stop and that they didn't understand why I was doing it and all I could say was "I told myself I'd finish" between sobs. About 30 fries to go, and I did the unthinkable. I gave up. I could hardly move anymore I was so full and my legs had begun to fill in with fries. I may not have won this round, but I'll be back again....In several years.
Other fun things from leave. Well, I had wanted to see Lindsey Nelson at some point, but she was busy until after Christmas, and so was Lauren and Nathan was busy working and so on and so on. So, up until Christmas then I just lazed around and watched TV, but I'm ok with that, it was fun.
On Christmas Eve then I ended up coercing Ben into playing some basketball with me on the X-box and ended up losing track of time, but it was fun, and the next thing I knew it was 11 PM and I had to be at Mel's and Danny's house for the night, so I went over there. Doc was asleep downstairs in the same room I was going to be in, so I could snuggle with him on the couch(HA!) or sleep on their love seat. The love seat didn't seem like a bad idea at the time, so I got up on it and got ready to get to bed and then I realized that it didn't recline so I'd have to sleep on it sideways and put my head on the arms. Then I found out that both the arms seem to have had all their stuffing surgically removed by small child sized hands and were now just a layer of clothe over wood. That wasn't going to work. So, I sadly slunk down to the floor and curled up cat style and only got stepped on about 10 times as Leto walked over me. I swear he hit me with each of his four feet every time he walked by. I was woken far earlier than I'd prefer(noon, remember?) by Tristan who was saying I needed to come up to open presents and I told him I'd be up soon, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. Around 30 seconds later then Alex was there. And then Tristan again. Seeing I couldn't win this battle, I got up and went upstairs with them and we did the whole Christmas thing. It was pretty nice, I ate far too much candy, but I regret nothing, except the next morning chocolate hang over. We ended up going to Ben and Linda's for dinner and the next day the family, including Haley, Dallin, Hunter, Chris and two of his boys, all got together at Mel's and Danny's for a Christmas get together and that was nice to see everyone. I ended up going downstairs with the kids and we made a blanket fort that went OVER the TV and watched Stewart Little in there. Feel free to be in awe of my fort making prowess.
The next day I hung out with Nathan and Whitni in the morning, and Lindsey in the night and that was fun. The next day Lindsey and I went on a date, and that was pretty fun, too. The next week or so was just hanging out with various people like Devvon and Nathan and Whitni.
One night I was hanging out with Devvon and we were on our way to Subway when I got a phone call from Lauren, who I had been trying to hang out with for a while but she's ALWAYS busy since she's moving and trying to say goodbye to everyone, and she had a squirrel in her house and needed to me come and get it out. So, I went over there and met her and Courtney Williams there and they said the squirrel was in the family room, so I opened the door to the outside and tried to chase him out, and after about a half hour of searching for him to no avail I decided that he must have run out, but she kept a trap on her table, just in case. Even though it was to chase a squirrel out and we didn't get to hang out much, I was glad to see her. In case you were wondering, she ended up getting the squirrel in the trap the next day, I felt very immasculated by it, but at least she got it.
I ended up eventually convincing Lauren to go on a date with me, since that seemed the only way I could hang out with her and this just so happened to be the day that Ben needed help moving ALOT of crap out of an old house. A few days earlier he had been told that if he moved it he could keep whatever he wanted, and I had agreed to help him. We started moving and it was WAY more stuff than we had imagined. I had showered that morning, but after moving stuff all day and playing with the dust bunnies than my deoderant didn't stand a chance. We eventually got done at 5 and I had just enough time to shower again in time for the date(cutting it a bit close) and since I had spent all day moving that then I had put absolutely NO thought into the date, except to worry that I had one that evening. As such, I had no idea what do to or where to go, so I last minute checked Fandango and got tickets for How Do You Know and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, just in case she didn't want to see How Do You Know because of its rating. We ended up going to TGIF and eating and then seeing HDYK(guess the extra tickets were moot, all well) and even though it was a good date then I felt bad. The last time I took her on a date then I was sixteen and Curtis had proposed a double date to the sand dunes and we organized the date in about 45 minutes for a fire out there with hot dogs and smores and it turned out badly planned. Curtis forgot the fire started or any fire source, so he went and got that with his date while Lauren and I played frisbee. Then he remember that hot dogs need condiments and left to get that while Lauren lit everything she could fit into the fire on fire. Eventually the date came together, and it actually turned out a good date, as did this one, but the moral is the same, I am incapable of planning a date out well as long as she's involved.
The next few days were basically just the goodbyes and nothing else REALLY exciting. It was a good leave break, I wish I had another.
I was really sad on Sunday to be leaving and the plane ended up getting delayed(remember that story?) which made me irritated, but it turned out to be a small blessing in a disguise. I ended up talking to this cute girl who was in the army while we were delayed and about 3 hours after were were supposed to have landed then the finally boarded the plane and it turns out that we had been seated next to each other, which was awesome. We ended up talking the whole flight even though we were both way tired, but she was just amazing, and I was enjoying talking too much to sleep. We ended up exchanging phone numbers at the end of the flight and she's here are FLW for a while, so that made a real crap day into a great day.
After getting my bags I met up with Harry and Kevin and we left STL. Kevin went to sleep in the back and me and Harry caught up with the last few weeks events and talked the whole way back and just jammed out so music we love. We got back this morning at 6 and my leave was officially over.
Now its 1 AM and I need to be at work at 630, so I guess I should go to sleep. Hopefully I can keep up with good posts like this, keep pestering me when I don't.

Hello, Champion City....

Daddy is home......

If you don't know what that quote is from then go rent Mystery Men and watch it. And wait for me to come and watch it with you, its an awesome movie. Anyway, I'm back in Fort Leonardwood, not sure how I feel about that. Well, no, I don't like it, but I'm going to try and make the best of it, although I feel like I could use another week with a few people(week for each) but all well, I suppose.

Back to the list, I must finish it.
Day 12 - A photograph of the town you live in.

Again, I don't take photos that much, but here is a photo of 'Jim and his kids in 1996' in Idaho Falls. I found it online and I like it better than a normal picture of the temple, which is what most pictures are of Idaho Falls. Now this post has some character and if it ever makes it big then that guy can sue me for putting his image on here.