feb...the second month of christmas.

TEXAS!

and fort sam houston. home sweet home away from home.

the majority of feb was consumed by the best vacation of my life... army medical department basic officer leadership course. this is pretty much exactly my month of february. 

"good morning. you are now officers. i will be spending the next 10 weeks destroying your will to live with power point." 

"weekend! lets go see the alamo!"

there were tons of missions and of course, the alamo! i have to say, the alamo was a little...built up. i mean after hearing the war stories of how they held up in this place against all odds, i imagined it to be a little more castle like. but it was cool all the same. 

"no worries. there's tons of cool stuff to check out
after work...like this old mission"

there was a running trail that passed by all these old missions. if it wasn't 98 degrees and humid by the middle of feb, we probably would have made it past the first one.

"he wasn't kidding. i'm starting to die a little inside"

legit mexican food.

legit pina coladas.

army food

i spent a lot of time eating food. mexican. american. bbq. southern. army. tex-mex. thai. and a few good fashioned MREs. 

Rudy's. Awesome

probably the best bbq i had

chuy's. the best tex mex in tx. 

"today we  will be doing MRT training. since you are the first class,
we are going to try and squeeze this in because it is not scheduled
and you need it. we're going to do it in a 10 hour block of ppt..."

**MRT (master resilience training) is designed to train
officers in dealing with the stresses of deployment,
work, life, etc...**

that 10 hour block didn't include bathroom breaks or lunch.

i think the thought was if the training didn't break you, nothing will

the rodeo! and miranda lambert!? and all that for just $14!

i made it to the rodeo and had a blast. i also walked into a country dance hall to find they
were doing pro bull riding. bonus! 

"bla. bla. bla. bla. bla....bla, take a ten minute break.
don't be back late because we have a 4 hour block of ppt
to get through before your next 10 minute break"

made my way to the capital of tx. austin.
it was pretty cool. lots of texas propaganda.
it works. 

"wait a sec, i thought only the grunts
had to do this kinda stuff"

and i quote, "Boom!"

"southern drawl...southern drawl...fast talking...America is awesome...bla bla...
more southern drawl...have a safe weekend!"


and after those words, we all got up, ran back to 1384 (aka home), threw on some civies, and headed out to soak up some more texas. and that, was february. 

The 12 Months of Christmas. JANUARY

This is the first of twelve posts meant to update you on the past year of my life. stay tuned. i hope you enjoy.

JANUARY 2011! 

The Move

january was the month of new beginnings for me. graduated college with my BSN and commissioning into active duty with the army just a month before, things really changed in january. first i'd like to put a shout out to all my friends who took the time to send me out in typical utah style...a stellar party! and especially to mat and lanie who did the leg work in organizing it. after the party came the road trip...utah to texas. me, my stuff, my car, and glendon. 

goodbye o-town and friends. be back soon

. 

here's a picture of my car the day i left for TX

and a few pictures of the trip...

ft collins co. thanks corie and ben! 

 

the open road somewhere between eastern co, ok, or northern tx.

 

pit stop

lunch at a legit diner

sunset on the road

dropping my travel buddy at the airport in san anton.
thanks g dawg! 

 to all my friends back in the 801, a year and 3 days later, i'll be back! jan 22nd. be ready!

 love you all

in the NARMY now!

Say goodbye to Walter Reed Army Medical Center!

here's to "the Reed"

For some years the new "Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda" has been under construction. i know this picture is small, but you can see quite a bit has been added to make this...

Walter Reed National Naval Center at Bethesda

I work on that building on the far right. 5th floor. top right corner side.

Now in other news...

this is just one picture of the devastating effects of the recent earthquake. and yes, i survived.

Seriously?! as if the earthquake wasn't enough.

now i know there were some

places that actually got hit, but

here in DC, this was how most

people reacted.

yet home depot still had signs up saying things like "out of water, flashlights, candles, generators, etc..." on the flip side, i think everybody and their mom who sells alcohol made a killing.

But it never hurts to be prepared. we all know its coming next...

so start preparing folks. its too late when zombies kick down your front door and all you've got is your bottled water, generators, candles, flashlights, and a kitchen knife.

fact.

atown, aville, ash-vegas, a...nother place i go on my weekends. and this is why.

Bele Chere! where you eat food, hang with cool people, drink good beer, listen to classy tunes, and best of all...people watch.

here are some of the good ones.

it doesn't get much classier than this...unless you check leahs blog. ben and na throw down some pretty rad moves.

thanks to ryan's friend mark, ben ended up with a rad hat, a light saber, and even a light saber holder, even darth vader didn't get one of those.

people doin their thing.

watching the dog jumping show.

there's dogs. they jump. its cool.

oh brother where art thou? never seen the flic, but i imagine

its a lot like this.

the kiddos.

other fun included finishing HP7, HP7 part 2 at the big screen, tubelo honey, 12 bones, family, friends, 5k with lara, a speeding ticket, good food with the Zs, church, and thats just a few...in no particular order.

so starts the backblogging

as you all are well aware, i have not blogged much of anything in a minute. so here starts backblogging. in no chronological order, no order of importance, no order of anything. im just going back through some memories and putting them up as they come.

stay tuned.

me casa es su casa

hey everybody this is my new house!