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Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Nov 16 2009

Back on the Blogging Wagon

Posted by Mugs @ 11:04 pm in Family Print This Post Print This Post

Thank you all for your complements on the blog. It was the one thing Dale asked of me while he was in Iraq. To be honest, I didn’t want to do it. I did it because I knew how much it meant to him. He would read the blog and grasp a hold of home. The sand and violence became a temporary existence for him. What I wrote assured him that there was another reality. Then he returned and I fell off the blogging wagon.

This past summer, I attended a writer’s conference which emphasized the benefits of blogging because you capture a story, idea, or thought as it happens. (Dale was so happy to hear that he was right.) They termed it banking your writing ( a new way of saying: keeping a journal). Later, you rework the writing for a specific purpose: devotional, teaching, article, book. “Book” was too overwhelming to me, so I started with “devotional.” With my mom and many others praying for me, I hope one day “book” may be possible.

For now, I am focused on blogging and devotionals during my writing time. Hopefully, I will not fall off the wagon again. It gives me great joy to know my writing has made someone laugh, ponder, or pray. I thank you for reading and I sincerely appreciate your encouragement and prayers.

May 19 2008

Red Punch

Posted by Mugs @ 5:18 am in Family Print This Post Print This Post

Last week was filled with art and music events at the school.  On Wednesday, Josiah and Abby played for their middle school band concert.  Josiah plays the baritone and Abby plays the flute.  They both started band 4 months ago and have improved greatly since.  Dale was able to hear the band play at chapel when he was home for R&R.  In fact the blog picture shows them wearing their band uniforms of white shirts and blue ties.  The band played Turkish March, March Militaire, Rock Island Express, and Jump Street Boogie.  For Jump Street Boogie, they donned gold satin vests, black shiny hats, and sunglasses.  I found it quite amusing.  I am now going to have them play Rock Island Express for halftime of Bears games to fire up the crowd.  The crowd, of course, is Zeke and I and the “Defense Defense” chant.  On Friday, I attended the Art Show with Abby and Gabe.  Gabe won a third place ribbon for 2nd grade with his colored paper flower pot and Abby won Honorable Mention for 6th grade with her drawing of an abandoned building.  The High School hosted the Art Show and the work of all the winners K-12 was displayed.  They had live music in each room.  A boy played piano in the main room and two girls played violin in the hallways.  Everyone was dressed up.  Gabe was happy to wear his tie.  Josiah, however, opted to stay home and watch Zeke rather than subject himself to another mandatory tie event.  The level of artwork was impressive.  One student’s scratch off artwork was phenomenal in the detail, some of the paintings were lovely, and the robot created out of junk was clever.  They served hors d’oeuvres and a lovely red punch.  Gabe in his crisp, clean white shirt wanted very much to have a glass of that tasty punch, but he was denied by his unfeeling Mother.

Mar 09 2008

Lunch in Amadiyah

Mugs commented on the surprising decor of the house I visited for lunch while in Amadiyah. It was definitely very Brady-esque. For a while now, I’ve been meaning to set up an image gallery on the blog. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get the image gallery running so that you can see some more photos of the house in Amadiyah. If you look closely at the flower rug, you might be able to see some muddy boot prints. Can you guess who tracked mud on the rug?

Let me know if you have any problems with the image gallery.

Mar 02 2008

Shopping in Dahuk

Posted by Dale @ 8:00 pm in Deployment,Outside the Wire Print This Post Print This Post

This week, Glenn and I went to Dahuk for a couple of days. After spending two days in Dahuk, we then went over to Erbil for another day. I know I need to get up to Dahuk and Erbil more frequently, and I always enjoy visiting my Resident Offices there. But I do feel guilty any time I go because of how safe and secure those areas are. I have numerous blog posts floating around in my head from this recent trip.

We had the chance to do some shopping while we were there. We wandered aimlessly through the bazaar in Dahuk with Gee. He kept asking us what we were looking to buy. We had no idea and just kept walking. I did walk in a scarf shop. I was quickly overwhelmed by the array of colors. The effect was almost dizzying!

Scarves

Glenn decided he wanted a couple of plants to make his CHU more homey. So Gee took us to a small nursery in the middle of Dahuk. There was a small, elderly Kurdish gentlemen who owned and operated this nursery. Glenn asked him to show us some indoor plants, but he wouldn’t go into the makeshift greenhouse with us because he was afraid of our guns. So we went in and started looking around. Glenn found one he liked that looks like aloe vera but with thorns. Of course, when he picked it up, he immediately pricked his thumb on a thorn and let out a yelp. Everyone got a kick out of that! Periodically throughout the rest of the day, one of the Peshmerga guards would pretend to prick his thumb, yelp, then point at Glenn and laugh. Glenn was a good sport about it and can take a little pickin’.

Nursery

I’m sure the kids miss my pickin’!

Feb 13 2008

Soldier Humor

Posted by Dale @ 9:02 pm in Deployment,FOB Life Print This Post Print This Post

Soldiers tend to have an odd sense of humor. Sometimes they’re amused by seemingly insignificant things. Since all of my security personnel have been in the military prior to becoming contractors, they act just like soldiers most of the time. On our vehicles, we have signs warning civilians to stay back. I noticed this “unauthorized” patch on one of the team member’s uniforms.

Warning Patch

I guess the custom patches attracted a little too much attention. Within a couple of hours after returning from the mission where I took that photo, then team leaders were reminding everyone that only official patches are authorized on their uniforms.

If you click on the photo above, you’ll notice that I’ve added an image popup tool to load a fullsize version of the image.

In an email today, I was reminded by the Editor that I haven’t posted in the last few days. I’ve started and deleted about 4 different posts today. This was the best I could come up with today.

I did get a new mattress today. Maybe I’ll blog about that tomorrow!

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