The best way to dig a ditch...

Have any of you had to do a hard labor-intensive task before and thought to yourself, "Self, there has got to be an easier way to do this?" Well, here on our little plot of real estate that we call home, we were helping out the electricians dig a trench to bury a new power supply line. The problem is that the surface is covered in gravel and underneath that the dirt is really hard. They even hooked up a backhoe to the Bobcat, but the hydraulics went out and we were back to shovels. So, here is what we did to "soften" up the dirt and make it easier to dig in...

Painting Playdate

VBS 2008

Nehemiah just completed his first year of VBS! I just put all the pictures and videos into a slide show so i wouldnt have to upload them one at a time.

The storm from a few nights ago...

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Take 1:

Take 2:

Just another day in the 'Stan...

Hello out there in America land! Well, I thought that i would drop you all a line to let you know that I am still posting here on this grand media extravaganza that we all know as the internet... you know, that thing that Al Gore invented. Well, here are a couple of pictures, one of which is of me out on the road. It isn't yet very apparent by the photos, but I assure you that my beard is coming in nicely, despite the gray hairs that are so clearly visible in person. Things are going well here. I learned that I can make free phone calls to Debra through Yahoo! Messenger on the computer. That is pretty cool. And once it gets here, I'll have a web cam, too, thanks to DK. I don't actually have much to write about today. Usually I like to write about the stuff I do from day to day, but right now, for security reasons, I don't get to. Maybe when I get home I'll tell you all my grand stories. Oh also, the second picture is just of the mountains around here, and the third picture is of Bill the Donkey... actually, I'm the only one that calls him Bill, but that doesn't really matter.

Birthday Update...

Nehemiah and Mommy made cupcakes together!

If you look closely at this pic you can see he didnt make all the water in the bowl.

After naptime, we put frosting on.

Nehemiah's is on the left and mine is on the right.

Happy Birthday Debra!!!

Yay! Today is Debra's Birthday, so I want everyone to leave a comment telling her to have a Happy Birthday. Then when you are done with that, send her an email wishing her a Happy Birthday, as well as a phone call if you know her number. Also, if you get on Facebook (you know, it Myspace for grown-ups) you can leave her a message on her wall.

Okay that is it.

Happy Birthday, Wife!!!

-me

You Are Amazing God

Little Einstiens

Nehemiah sings Daddy's favorite kid song

Its Really HOT Here, So We Got A Pool.

A few pictures...

Here are some photos from the last few weeks.




I'm not sure in which order they will actually post, but you will get the idea. First of all, their is Nehemiah helping me pack some of my gear the day we left. Actually, he was popping bubble wrap while I was packing and entertaining everyone else by talking about random stuff at the same time. Then there is the one of the sunset. It would probably be a beautiful sunset were it not for the dense layer of dust in the air that makes a SoCal summer afternoon with no wind seem like a breath of pure oxygen. They say that the dust in Afghanistan is approximately 20% fecal material. And then there is a picture of me, enjoying a tasty beverage at the Grean Bean here at Kandahar Airbase. Again, note the aforementioned drink that, if I were staying here my entire deployment, would cause me to be broke at $4.25 a piece. Also, just to point out, I am not staying at Kandahar Airbase for my entire deployment, and in fact should have been out of here a long time ago, but because of reasons that are no fault of my own and way out of my control, I am still here. I am actually quite bored and without much to do. I do have a lot of movies on my computer and some video games for my PSP, but you can only do that so much. Soon I may have to start reading books for entertainment again. I did buy a CD yesterday at the PX by a band call "Anberlin" put out by Tooth and Nail Records. I had heard them on the radio back home and liked the one song that the radio played, so I got it. It's pretty good. If you like bands like Keane, Snow Patrol, Watashi Wa, then you would probably like it. Interestingly enough, one of the band members, in his "thanks" section of the CD jacket, says hi to Seth Roberts... I say that because I thought it was cool and I like Seth's music and sometimes his wife reads this blog, although, more because of my wife than because of me.

Well, I guess that is enough rambling for now. Take care and don't forget to write.

casey

Hello out there...

If you read this blog, please feel free to respond... unless J. Cheatwood and Mrs. Thiebaud are the only readers out there, which in that case, never mind.

ck

The Do's and Don'ts of Fish Feeding

Do feed the fish FISH FOOD, Do NOT feed the fish chocolate milk!!

So evening time is hard at our house. There are a buch of things that need to get done all around the same time. Tonight i needed to put clean sheets on my bed (nehemiah threw up on them at nap time) and clean up the bathroom from bath time. I came out of the bathroom into the dining room to see Nehemiah standing on a chair at the fish tank, with his cup from dinner that was now empty. He looked at me and said "Mommy the fish were hungry, I just gave them my chocolate milk." I told him fish dont like chocolate milk they only eat fish food. I made him go in his room and read books while I cleaned the fish tank. He came out a little while later and said :Mommy, the fish, they don't like chocolate milk, they only like fish food." I hope he remembers this lesson, i really do.

Still no movement...

Well, hello again from the land of dust... no, the other land of dust. I am still writing from Kandahar, but we have still, as of yet, been unable to gain transportation to our final destination. Yes, we have been here for over a week; I think we got here on or about the 22nd? I don't remember. For those of you who unaware, I am in Afghanistan, and Kandahar Airbase is where we landed, but thank goodness, not where we are staying for our entire deployment. Sure there are amenities and such here that make it comfortable at Kandahar like the PX, the Green Bean (sort of like a Starbucks knockoff), and an assortment of fast food franchises (I had Subway the other day), but what I do is not in Kandahar. What I do is out and about, and is based out of a little base that is no where near here. Again, as of yet, we have not been able to get there because the organizational and logistical "processes" here are broken.

Okay, enough whining - let me tell you about someone with a real reason to whine. One of my guys on my team who we'll call Joe to save on confusion, got sick this week. Not just like sick with the sniffles, but really sick. At first he started with a sore throat which the docs diagnosed as strep throat. They gave him antibiotics and told him to check back if it didn't get better. Well, after a couple of days it got worse and he was having a hard time swallowing his spit, so he said. The part he left out to me at the time was that it was also harder to breath. Anyway, about three days after he originally went in, they took him to the hospital to have his throat x-rayed, and admitted him to the hospital. What we came to find out was that he had contracted mono from somewhere, but then got a sore throat that turned into both tonsilitis and pharyngitis, and they were about that close to giving him an emergency tracheotomy (see WebM.D., if you don't know what that is). Anyway, they kept him in the hospital for about three days, kept an eye on him, and pumped him with antibiotics just to make sure that he was okay. In addition to all that, they had all dozen or so of us who lived in the same room start taking penicillin for a week to make sure that we don't get mono too.

Other than that, not much going on here. I did see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and it was very good. I would recommend it to everyone.

Well, I am going to head out now. Take care and let me know if you need the address.

casey