Sunday, June 20, 2010
And the Name is...........
Kevin!!!!!!! Brian finally settled on a name for the hawk. Since he doesn't know if it's a girl or boy, he decided Kevin was good. If you have no clue why, go watch the movie "Up". LOL
Half Way Home
WE'RE HALF-WAY THERE!!!!!!!!! Brian has been in Afghanistan for 3 weeks now. His contract is for 42 days. We're going on when he arrived not when he left home so he officially has 3 weeks left of the contract. Whether he is asked to extend a bit or not has not been determined.
He's a bit frustrated with how things work over there. His electrical equipment is sitting at Kandahar Air Field (KAF). It was supposed to reach Leatherneck on Thursday. It took 16 hours and who knows how many phone calls to find out that the truck drivers had been bribed to take someone else's load first. So Brian's equipment is sitting, waiting to be picked up. No word yet on how long the wait will be. But the broken down insulation blowing machine will keep him plenty busy until the equipment arrives. He's already fixed it once and is having to fix it again.
And then there are the new friends he's made who invite him to go out target shooting with them. He's still a really good shot!!!!!
He let the virus protection lapse on his computer. When I talked to him, he was running a scan. It hadn't gotten very far through and had already found over 3000 viruses. He wasn't sure that his computer would be salvageable but has managed. Thank heaven for Skype!! I can actually call his cell phone from my computer for about $.35/minute. We don't talk for long but until his computer is fixed, it's all we have.
Here's a photo from his target shooting. He has an M4 carbine. If you look really carefully, you can see he's actually standing.
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A couple of posts ago I stated that moving to the Middle East was NOT an option. I'm reconsidering.
He's a bit frustrated with how things work over there. His electrical equipment is sitting at Kandahar Air Field (KAF). It was supposed to reach Leatherneck on Thursday. It took 16 hours and who knows how many phone calls to find out that the truck drivers had been bribed to take someone else's load first. So Brian's equipment is sitting, waiting to be picked up. No word yet on how long the wait will be. But the broken down insulation blowing machine will keep him plenty busy until the equipment arrives. He's already fixed it once and is having to fix it again.
And then there are the new friends he's made who invite him to go out target shooting with them. He's still a really good shot!!!!!
He let the virus protection lapse on his computer. When I talked to him, he was running a scan. It hadn't gotten very far through and had already found over 3000 viruses. He wasn't sure that his computer would be salvageable but has managed. Thank heaven for Skype!! I can actually call his cell phone from my computer for about $.35/minute. We don't talk for long but until his computer is fixed, it's all we have.
Here's a photo from his target shooting. He has an M4 carbine. If you look really carefully, you can see he's actually standing.
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A couple of posts ago I stated that moving to the Middle East was NOT an option. I'm reconsidering.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Saying Good-bye
The hardest part of being a host family for an exchange student is saying good-bye. Lukas left yesterday and went home to Germany. He had just as hard of a time as we did. It will take time for us to adjust to him not being here. It will take time for him to adjust being back home. We really hope to get to Europe one of these days to see all of our exchange children!!!!
I hadn't looked at the arrival photo for awhile. It's amazing how much all of the children have grown in the past year!!! Just look at their heights compared to me (I haven't grown any in 20 years or so). Jonah is leaning over so you can't really tell but he is almost as tall as me now!!!
The photos- At the airport when Lukas arrived in August. Brandon, Lukas and Jonah at the restaurant in the airport waiting for our food. Us. The smiles are fake. Lukas trying to find his gate.
I hadn't looked at the arrival photo for awhile. It's amazing how much all of the children have grown in the past year!!! Just look at their heights compared to me (I haven't grown any in 20 years or so). Jonah is leaning over so you can't really tell but he is almost as tall as me now!!!
The photos- At the airport when Lukas arrived in August. Brandon, Lukas and Jonah at the restaurant in the airport waiting for our food. Us. The smiles are fake. Lukas trying to find his gate.
Not Much New
Brian is still in Afghanistan. He's still doing well. There's still a LOT of sand in the desert. And military food is still not all that great.
He's working from sun-up to sun-down most days. Other days he's not working much at all. The company has made a tentative offer for Brian to work for them permanently. We're not so sure about that as it would be 3 months on, 2 weeks off. That's really not going to work for me unless it was somewhere we could move to, also. And that's not going to happen since most of the work they have is in the Middle East and (as I was corrected) Asia (Afghanistan is technically in Asia). We'll see what happens.
We are able to talk on Skype most days. Some days the internet isn't being cooperative for him.
These 2 weeks have been going okay for us as a family here at home. We're used to Brian being gone this long since he's been doing it for the past 5 years. This coming week is new territory, though. The longest he's been gone before is between 2 and 3 weeks. Just breathe. It will be fine.
We found out today that Brandon has pneumonia. He's been coughing for a week or so. We went to the doctor last week and he didn't hear anything suspicious. When the cough didn't really respond to OTC drugs, I took him back. This time, the doctor heard rattling in Brandon's lungs and sent him for an x-ray. We caught it fairly early so he should respond quickly. Everyone else is healthy!!! For now.
He's working from sun-up to sun-down most days. Other days he's not working much at all. The company has made a tentative offer for Brian to work for them permanently. We're not so sure about that as it would be 3 months on, 2 weeks off. That's really not going to work for me unless it was somewhere we could move to, also. And that's not going to happen since most of the work they have is in the Middle East and (as I was corrected) Asia (Afghanistan is technically in Asia). We'll see what happens.
We are able to talk on Skype most days. Some days the internet isn't being cooperative for him.
These 2 weeks have been going okay for us as a family here at home. We're used to Brian being gone this long since he's been doing it for the past 5 years. This coming week is new territory, though. The longest he's been gone before is between 2 and 3 weeks. Just breathe. It will be fine.
We found out today that Brandon has pneumonia. He's been coughing for a week or so. We went to the doctor last week and he didn't hear anything suspicious. When the cough didn't really respond to OTC drugs, I took him back. This time, the doctor heard rattling in Brandon's lungs and sent him for an x-ray. We caught it fairly early so he should respond quickly. Everyone else is healthy!!! For now.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
New Friends
Brian has begun to make many new friends in Afghanistan. Some are Afghani, some are British, some are hawks!!! He was given a hawk by his friend, Wahidi. It's around 3-4 months old and will stay tame as long as Brian feeds it. It doesn't have a name yet. I suggested Affie (short for Afghani) but Brian rejected that immediately!! :-)
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