October 2003

Lack of updates Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2003, 8:30 PM, CST by Hank Been busy lately. I'll have time to add pictures or something this weekend. I've been studying to pass the test for Technical Sergeant (E-6) which I take in 4 months. I've got myself on a strict study program of 1 hour and 30 min of reading a night during the week and 3 hours of self testing on the weekends. It's a hard test so to pass I gotta study hard.

Uhhhh.... Posted Monday, October 20, 2003, 6:30 PM, CDT by Hank Like, "Happy Birthday and stuff", Aunt Mary.

Pierced Posted Saturday, October 18, 2003, 8:27 PM, CDT by Hank Got Ashlyn's ears pierced yesterday. She only cried for about a minute after it was totally finished, but it took the both of us to get the second ear done--poor kid. They look good though. We'll have some pics up soon.

Excellent! Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2003, 11:49 PM, CDT by Hank Found out the results of our base inspection--We were given a rating of "excellent". The only thing better would have been "outstanding", but our commander seemed pretty thrilled with excellent. The base had a huge "picnic" with free food and a local band "Atomic Eye" for entertainment. They had little carnival games for the kids (Jordan was at school) and Alyssa had a really good time winning prizes and jumping in the "Dinosuar Bouncer".

Birthdays Posted Monday, October 13, 2003, 3:27 PM, CDT by Hank Happy Birthday to Uncle Emmett and Bradley Scott Jr. (Belated).

Naha Tug-of-War Festival Posted Monday, October 13, 2003, 7:56 AM, CDT by Hank We went to the city of Naha yesterday, saw and participated in the largest tug-of-war in the world (according to Guiness). It's an annual event in Okinawa called the Naha O Tsunahiki. The rope is 196 meters long, 1.56 meters wide and weighs over 40 tons. Thousands of people pull and it usually ends in a tie. This year the east side one (Jordan and I were on the west side). After the rope pull, the rope is hacked up and you get to take pieces as souvenirs. I hacked off a 4 foot piece with my pocket knife. Having a piece of the rope is supposed to be good luck. We took lots of pictures so go check them out. To read more about the Tsunahiki, click here.

Michelle's pictures are up Posted Friday, October 10, 2003, 3:32 PM, CDT by Hank My sis' took some pictures of Mom, Dad, my nephew, and my niece at the beach. Sorry it took so long to post them...haven't had much time this past week. :)

The exercise is OVER. Posted Friday, October 10, 2003, 3:04 PM, CDT by Hank The PACAF IG inspection is finished--FINALLY. I think the base did really well, so hopefully we won't have to do this again for a couple years. The exercise was ended by the command post (where I work) playing "Proud to be an American" over the base PA system--really loud. A patriotic end to a week if hell. The inspectors have to work on their final evaluation and we should have that by next Wednesday. For me, this exercise marks the end of shiftwork and the start of a back office job. This is a rare opportunity for my job at this early in my career. I'll be crunching numbers and generating reports to pass operational and training status of units on Kadena up to headquarters starting on Monday. For the first time in 9 years, I'll have regular hours, (0730 - 1630, Monday - Friday, holidays off). Dawn is thrilled the exercise is over--no more siren to wake the baby up at all hours, and she's very excited to be able to count on me being home at a standard time everyday. I'll be able to spend more time with the kids and maybe start a college class or two. Well, I just realized that I do not have to work--I still had my alarm set, but got a call last night saying I didn't have to come in. I'm going back to bed!

Alyssa's Birthday Pictures are up Posted Thursday, October 2, 2003, 7:29 AM, CDT by Hank Finally got them posted. Check out the cake! I made it. It was my first one. I made the pattern from a scanned Strawberry Shortcake book, shaped the cake, mixed the colors and iced it all by myself. It took about two days! (Dawn was a big help, she baked the cake and made the icing.) I've been really busy preparing for our last base exercise. Our final Air Force-level evaluation starts this Saturday and runs through next saturday. It starts on my birthday--happy freekin' birthday! I work 12-14 hour days shifts every day of it. It's gonna be hell but at least we won't have to do any more week-long exercises for another year or two.