Sorry for the delay. A lot has happened since I've last posted. For starter I went and returned from leave. Before I go further I use the term "ish" alot, the definishion of "ish" is plus or minute a few hours, days, years...it's my process, you'll learn to love it; ask Scarlett.
The process...
Waited 12 hours to get on a flight that lasted 22 minutes from JAF -> BAF - waited another 11 hours to get on another flight that lasted 4.5 hours from BAF -> KUWAIT - attended brief after brief and waited 23 hours to get on a flight that lasted 6.5 hours from KUWAIT -> GERMANY waited 1.5 hours before the aircraft was serviced to fly another 7 hours from GERMANY -> ATLANTA arriving on memorial day weekend to wait another 10 hours before my next connecting flight from ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH; not... Thru the Army a curve ball and didn't wait for anymore flights and rented a car with another three soldiers to make a 3.5 hour drive HOME.
The Vacation...
Scarlett and Strider met me at a gas station a few minutes from the home and everything fell into place as if I hadn't left. Of coarse as I walked into the house, Tucker (our cat) seen me and had that OH S#$t look in his eyes but after a few extra bites of food in his bowl I was once again his main man. At least until my brother in law showed up and put more food in his bowl. Travelled to Savannah to do a little bit of baby shopping but must say Savannah has the beaches, has the nice River Walk, Great Tours, even Emma Dean, but has crap for baby stores. Dropped by Amber (Scarlett's siter), Mark, and Helen's house to see for the first time and then back to the house.
The Ultra Sound...
Amazing the technology these days. Just so happened I arrived home on the perfect time to see the good ultra sound were the doctor does a in detailed ultra sound going over ever body part twice, measureing, and ensuring us everything was normal. Let's just say, IT'S DEFINETLY A BOY... October 25ish we will all be welcoming "Raffe David Graham" to the world.
Sis's....
While Scarlett went to work the following day I drove Sally over to see my sister in Agusta, GA (few hour drive when not getting lost - the big navigator without his GPS's isn't much of a navigator) My sister Dawn welcomed me at the door as beautiful as ever with her little (2-ish year old) daughter Emma (which is not a morning person like her mother) Took emma a few hours to get used to me, actually once she saw I was eating doritos and wanted some we bonded; IT WAS MAGICAL... Dawn (if I haven't mentioned is a perfessional shopper) so took advantage of that and we hit a few stores. I put down a few ground rules 1.) no more than two baby outfitts per store 2.) Had to be good baby stores no WALMARTS 3.) We were in and out with no delays or side tracks. Heath (her husband would have been so proud) she only stopped one place on her own to get some lotion. Well two hours later, two calls to HOUSE HOLD 6 for approval, and $650 later shopping was complete. My parents arrived at her place a hours later for a surprise visit and we settled down for a very good dinner of Salad, Lazanga, and Lemon Marang Pie; all my favorite. I had to leave shortly after to get home before Scarlett arrived home from work, after a few short cuts (got lost bigger than S$%$) but in my defense, reading Map Quest backwards can be a challenge (I get side tracked so easy). Plus, the Gallon Size Sugar Free Red Bull my sister gave me out the door didn't help. Arrived home 15-ish minutes after Scarlett like a well planned mission.
The Beach...
Spent a few days home and the proceded to drive to Myrtle Beach for another 3-4 days to meet with all the family members. Scarlett managed to pick out awesome Condos with three bedrooms on the beach. My favorite thing was the view of the ocean out our bedroom window/balcony and of course the Lazy River (basically a pool that goes in a large circle with a good current-just sit back and float all day in the sun) Now if we just had a bartender asking by each turn what drink I wanted next! :-) While Scarlett had her baby shower, the guys went on what was planned to be a 12 hour deep sea fishing trip that ended up becoming an 8 hour puke fest and yes we were popping "Dramamine" like they were skittles; notta.... I will give Scarlett koodo's, The boat was supposed to be the best boat with air conditioning, had the best captain "Larry", and produced most fish in three years however actually the air conditioning had been broke for over a month, the captain was changed to "Kevin", and we didnt' catch a thing...
The drive back....
Mom, Dad, and I drove back to the house to stay for a day which was a blessing because of all the nice thngs the family got her from the shower; we needed dads truck since mine was full and managed to fill dads as well. Well, guess the last statement should be Mom and I drove back as Dad slept the whole way to Savannah to get the boy out of prison (Dog Sweet-poor boy). Once we arrived back Home dad and I unpacked everything and then ofcoarse with all dads sleep he was ready to concor my honey do list; of course he didn't like anything on the list so decided to get Sally (my super dooper Cheve Aveo - which dad and I did get to drive back from Alaska (7 day trip)) and go to lowes to pick up a few items(you should really look up cheve aveo now.) Few items included of course mom, dad, and I (600 pounds of Lime, 100 pounds of cow manuer, and one big pull behind spreader for the lime) Scarlett is sending me all the pictures from vacation so will post those at a later date, but if you've seen those forwards of email where someone car is so overloaded and they've either been pooled over or in a car accident with stuff all over the place and your like why the heck would they do that - Yep, that was us. Mom and Dad left the following morning to get back to their country living and I began to knock out the honey du list with a LITTLE yard work on the side.
Before I knew it I wasa getting back on the plane for the reverse route back to JAF. Seven monthds down Five-ish to go.
The man, myth, and legend; yes, it's "me". I would like to tell you I'm hard at work but pretty much know if I'm located at that computer I'm playing "Plants vs Zombies" the undefeated champion, Scarlett is soooo proud
My hut is the first one on the right all us see basically is the air conditioner. This pictures just lets you know how close we are located to the run way with the black hawk landing in the background along with C130 and UAV every 5 minutes( it seems)
Now why would someone want to shoot at us exspecially with big brother watching out behind us.
Boys will be Boys. Notice the hand below the 9mm
Afghan Helicopter that landed a little hard and needed it's big brother (us) to give it a towe.
Arriving to our destination. Notice the little parachute (drone chute) basical in forward flight the drone catches the air and helps stabilize the item in towe. Usually used when slinging anthing that is somewhat aerodinamic in nature. (I.E. helicopters, planes, jets, ect.)
Yes it's a couch and yes it's in the back of a chinook. What can I say we men HAVE to have our couches.
Some special people, more importantly, check out the dog... He actually has hearing protection on; who would have thunk it.
This is a big Gernerator being dragged by some hoggie truck for us to sling load out.
A mortar team preparing to fire...
Mortar team firing...
Arms Room (safe/closet)
Master Bedroom
3 Star View
The dining area
The Kitchen
Upper view of the water purification Center, those blue things are 12oz plastic water bottles
Water Purifications Center
Highway 23 for you all Ohio people or 16 for Savannah Brats
This looks easy but when you weigh in facts it's pretty difficult. That's little black water bladder weighs about 2,500 pounds and holds 800 gallons of water. The landing area is about 4.5 feet wide on top of a hill so the pilots have very little if any references to catch drift when dropping this load. So the pilots rely completely on not only the crewmmeber in the hole (hole cut out in the center of the aircraft so crewmember can hook up and call the load) but also the crewmembers on the right gun, left gun, and ramp for obstical avoidance. This load is dangling about 30 feet below the aircraft on one line and the crewmember is telling the pilot which way to position the 98 feet 10.7 inch by 60 feet wide aircraft overtop. By releasing the load to early or not in the propper spot could have the load roll down the hill into the FOB below or Aghan city below. 
