Iraq

As of Thursday night (our time) and friday morning (kwait time) Rj is now moving into Iraq. There he will stay put with no more moving around, at least, not that we know of yet.

Pictures From Kwait

A few pictures Rj asked me to post...

Rj drinking his water

Rjs Cot with all his stuff on/under it

One Dinar (pronounced Dee-nar)

Rjs battle buddy

Subway...One of the MANY resturants

Thats it for now but there should be more to come

for all that think water is boreing

send me the cool aid singles i think singles to go is what their caalled i want lots of them water is boreing and just plan and ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh love you all

HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for tho who dont know me i am batman holy snikys is that a BIG HUGE FAT LIE!!!!! i am actully rj and i will be posting or tryng to post pic tonight on emilys and my blog i have battle biddy that has the samn cammra and cord as me yay for that it so hot i drink 5 1.5 litters of water day and i still feel dehdrated wow that a lot of water that so i drink 1 gallon 3.5 letters qlmost 2 gllons a day WOWY its hot not like like go wimming hot it slike you jump in the pool and the water is boiling hot well im gonig to go so i can get out of the heat love you all bye for now but not forever

Rjs First Deployment

Rj and i started the day in the worst possible way. NEITHER of us wanted to get up...AT ALL, we knew what was going to happen and we werent looking forward to it. After he went to 1st formation to get a head count he got me outta bed and made me get ready. Oh man, that was the hardest. Im sure you could have cut the tension with a knife. Rj was very hyped and i was stressed and he only made me run home 2-ish times to get stuff (including my mother)

Rj got on the bus at about 11 this morning. He then went to the Alexandria, La airport where they sat in an airplane hanger, played ps2's, shot pool, and ate food til 3pm. Then he got on a GINORMOUS plane (seat pattern is window3-5-3window). Rj flew to Maine where they sat in the airport for about 3 hours. Probly the sweetest thing ever, there were some people taking pictures of all the troops and they posted them on a website and gave all the soliders cards with the web address--added below). Also, as they were getting off the plane other passengers in the airport lined up to shake their hands as the soliders walked by, what respect. After Maine they will be flying to Germany then to Kuwait. After that we dont know when he will be arriving to the place he will be 'stationed' at. Could be 2 days to 2 weeks.

I will put his new address on the blog as soon as i know it. Probly about 2 weeks or so.

www.ourstopinmaine.smugmug.com
click on The Troops 2008
click on September
click on September 19th, 2008 (7:30pm)

Picture # 19, 20, 108, 189, 212(crying on the phone)
The number is above the picture shown. ___ of ___. You may have to click around and look at the numbers bc the number is not listed on the photo.

P.S. He forgot his deodorant!!! Send him some! Seriously!! He's gonna reek! (I say that with love of course)

Change of addresses

Fred mention about Justin addresses change as you notice..I change the address on the right which is take care of so reminder ECO not DCO anymore like Fred said!

Many thanks..

Also prayer continue for RJ!! Don't forget we have Emily who is more likely alone and would need to support and comfort for her.

Justin

Justin is going to a new company the Med Board has started. He will be able to do alot more, even have a cell phone. YEAH I will be sending him a phone to use tomorrow. So when he gets it he can take and make calls every day with NO TIME LIMIT YEAH.

Looks like he will be home for Christmas maybe Thanksgiving. YEAH

Yes I am excited. His injury is getting worse and may have some more things done to him. We can only hope that he starts to improve this will be a lifetime problem for him.

Almost forgot his new address, you can start to use it now.

Pfc Oom, Justin RN #334
ECO 30th ag wtrp
Fort Benning, GA
31905

The only differncwe is the company it is now echo (ECO) not delta (DCO)

Sure you all heard about RJ keep him in your prayes as he heads off in harms way

Do NOT under any circumstance write the day Rj and his unit are deploying on this blog!!!!!!!!!!

Rj can be court marshaled and goto jail.

DO NOT POST DEPLOYMENT DATES!!!!!

If you havent already been told please call!!

Blog Etiquette

I think that we should have a refresher on blog etiquette. As I posted in my comment earlier blogs are and were intended to be a journal or record of events. We need to keep in mind the differences of opinions. If there are personal issues then they should be dealt with in a personal matter. Not due to embarrassment but because that is the example that was set religiously. Our private family issues should remain private, not laundered over the Internet.

We have Jesus Christ to look at as an example as we reconcile our offenses.

1 - Be not easily offended (Hyperlink leads to a wonderful talk by Perry M. Christenson.

2- Reconcile in private: D&C 42:88 : And if thy brother or sister offend thee, thou shalt take him or her between him or her between him or her and thee alone; and if her or she confess though shalt be reconciled.

3- Forgive even as I have. { D&C 98:40, D&C 64:10}


Obviously offenses were given and taken. Let's solve them privately, via face to face, phone or email, not publicly.

Things that we should keep in mind:
- we don't know who is reading this.
- personal information should not be posted
- be sensitive to the information being posted, ask yourself will it offend, hurt, or cause pain to another? Some things are better left un-posted.
- Comments should not be offensive. When being sarcastic signify with a smiley face or mention. Words can be interpreted in many ways other than the intended.

We are a family. Let's act like adults and be a family. Let's try and read these and all posts and comments through the eyes of the author and how it was intended to be understood.

honor the soldiers who have died and lived to protect are country past and present they all need to be honored and saluted enlisted to officer it dont matter their the bravest people of them all even the bravet people have a weakness but at are weakes hour is when were the bravest of them all U.S. soldiers te best in the world

dypolment

hello eeveryone this is rj from wht i understand emily sent out an email to everyone syig you guys cn come visit me on my leave before i fly out well i understand only 2 people sid they cant go that was mom and dad well i undersstand justin cant but i understand that noone asid anything to her and tht really hurt her she was trying to do something nice for me on my first dyploment were i happend to be scared more then i have ever been nd i dont get the commen curtisy of my family even eckowledging it i that how its going to be when i say werre pregent your gonig to ignore tht too and yes im hurt noone has ever called me to see how i was feeling thanks i apprecate it i guess when i got mrried and moved to fort polk i droped off the face of the earth to all of you who didnt answer at least i know my wife was thinking about me and not only that she was thinking about you giving you all a chance too see me before i leve on my first dypolment so i will let you all know now i have never been more scared in my life thank for wondering how i fell

R.J.

Business Man

I decided to open up my own business in my bay. I call it "The Trust". It has been open for business for about 3 weeks and so far has been extremely profitable. With my business booming I have even hired 3 others to help me out. Iknow what your thinking... that i'm crazy and what kind of business could I possibly have here with my limited privileges? Well let me explain... the first thing I started to sell is cough drops (something we are allowed to have), I buy a bag of the good tasting cough drops for a dollar a bag containing about 30 drops and sell them for a quarter a peice, 750% the cost. I know smart huh? Next I started selling singles, we have a gatorade machine that accepts ones and everyone here loves gatorade but don't have singles, thats where "The Trust" comes in. I sell 3 or 4 ones for a 5$, depending on my supply (currently I have 76 ones and $20 in quarters). I also offer to go get there gatorade for them if they dont feel like putting on their uniforms and walking there for $1.25. These things bring in money but are not the big money makers. With all my appointments I miss chow alot so I am given a pre-packed meal containing pringles, cookies, a mint, fruit, a main course and and side course. I then sell these items off, cookies are $10, pringles $7, the rest is for best offer. I can make $30 a meal (yes I still eat, I get to order out on my detail everyday =D ). The most profitable thing is firegaurd. Firegaurd is a one hour shift at night where you make sure nobody leaves or enters the bay. There are usually 7 shifts a night and 2 people per shift, weekends have 9 shifts per night. I offer the all coveted sleep for a mere $10, I usually make $80 a night doing this. This is why I had to hire people, some shifts are the same time frame and I need some sleep too, however I take a cut off the top. In all my business brings in around $600 a week before paying my employees. I use this money to fund my passes, I splurge and get anything and everything like a PSP with lots of things to go with it costing around$400, it also funds my take out while im on detail at the rec center and my time spent on the internet because I have to pay $7 an hour which adds up very very fast. Now why name it "The Trust"? Well I take credit so I am very trusting and they need to trust me to get up for there fireguard because if I dont they get in a ton of trouble. Eventually I will learn to save the money I make but for right now I'm gunna spend it!

HI!!!

I'm here.