Weekend Wrap-Up (Independence Day 4-Day) - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 26 - 29

Just starting to get dark and the fireworks are starting to begin

This 4-day weekend was the 4th of July. We spent the 4th with my family at my grandma's house on the water. It was the first time that I've been able to see a lot of my extended family since I joined the army. It was awesome just hanging out, eating and having a few beers, and just "being" with my family. This is the stuff I really missed while being stationed so far away from my home.

For the rest of the long weekend we hung out at my in-laws quite a bit. We still don't have any furniture or utensils, so we do most of our eating at their house. They had some new furniture that was delivered and we were able to make use of some of the old furniture at our house. Now we actually have a place to sit inside our house while we wait for our furniture to arrive.

I was also able to spend time with my more immediate family at my sisters house. The holiday weekend was pretty awesome…I'm so glad to be back home!

Independence Day (2-Day Holiday) - (Germany) Day 191 & 192

A view of the setup at PHV for the 4th of July...lots of vendors and lots of people

Wednesday: We were not able to sleep in as much as we thought we would be able to. The kids are still a little off because of the jet lag and were all up pretty early. In fact they had already had cereal for breakfast and were watching TV by the time we got up.

We hung out and took it easy for a while before making a run to the commissary, then off to SPC Whirlwind's house for a BBQ. We then headed off the the center of PHV to check out the setup for the 4th of July. At the center there was a stage with a band playing and vendors all around the outside. Across the road in the bowling alley parking lot there were a number of games and rides that you see at your normal town fairs. The weather was a bit hot and my kids were still a bit jet lagged, so we headed back to the house to let them rest until it was closer to fireworks time.

We headed back out to see the action near dusk and watched the fireworks show along with some guys from my shop. It was a decent show along with music, which had to be selected by a Star Wars fan…because there several selections were from Star Wars movies during the show.

Thursday: We again took it easy today. My wife had to work, and the rest of us basically just stayed in. The weather was too hot and melted my kid's desire to head outside. We just stayed in and watched some movies. "Iron Man" and "Drillbit Taylor" were the selections as well as some home made movies we made from our previous vacations…always fun to look back on.

We headed over to the skate park on post and watched my son scoot around on his razor, then headed back to the house for dinner and a family movie…"Jumper".

The two days off were nice and it leaves just one day of work left before the weekend!

Independence Day (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 17

Last night (very late) two of our roommates came back after a night out on the town. They just turned Phase V so they now can go off base and drink. They came back pretty lit up with stories of milfs, chunky women, girls from our platoon and much more. It sounded like they had a pretty interesting night to say the least. After they settled down I was able to take a short nap before my hall guard shift at midnight. The guy who was supposed to be with me never showed up. I did my two hours and then woke up the next shift and slept in until 8:00 AM.

We celebrated Independence day with a crap load of formations. We had formations at 8:30, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00, and 18:00. Are you kidding me? It really sucks when we have to keep coming back and forming up over and over again. We had a mandatory BBQ at 14:00. During this time they fired up the BBQ and some soldiers manned it. The rest of us were required to stay outside or in the day room only. I decided not to partake and went with another guy to the DFAC. I've had enough cheeseburgers and hotdogs lately and just wasn't feeling it. We were also required to wear ACUs the whole time and it was warm, so eating dinner in the air conditioned DFAC sounded nice.

The guy I went with to the DFAC is having some issues here and being in the army in general. He's really depressed and wants to leave. He is 27 and has a child at home. I spent the whole time talking with him about these issues. I don't think he'll make it, just because he has no desire to be here. He actually hates it here. I think he feels like I felt a few days ago when I had a bad day, except his never get better. I feel for him. He's also having a tough time grasping all the concepts and stuff in class. He doesn't have any background with computers and he's falling behind in the class. Basic training and AIT can be a tough and lonely place. Especially if you don’t have a very good support system.

I had hall guard duty again at 18:00 and this time I had a guy actually show up to do it with me. We had to do a bunch a cleaning earlier, so everything was already done. We both just sat on the floor of the hall with our laptops "guarding it". My butt eventually went numb…the dangers of guarding a hall!

Overheard Quote: "What should I think when my husband tells me I love you like a stripper loves dollar bills?" (One of the female privates talking to another)