A Week Out

So as of today I am a week away from departure.

Of course there is still plenty to do. As I mentioned in my last post, the packing is coming along. There are still some things that I am gathering up. For example, just to be safe as far as what documents the Army is going to want, I am getting copies of my medical and dental records which is in addition to what they already gathered for the MEPS physical.

We also had a pretty good snow this morning. It started melting and then of course started freezing as the sun went down. Caleb slipped on some ice and scratched himself up a little bit, but he is OK.

Tomorrow we are going to go to Boondocks, a local amusement place with video games and laser tag. It should be a blast. Then we are headed to a friend's house to watch the BSU game, or at least part of it.

Have a great night.

The Packing Begins

So I have now started packing in earnest.

If you look back at the November 27th post you will see the exhaustive version of the packing list. It is so exhaustive that there are items duplicated on it. Just to be safe. :-)

I am of course not taking all of that stuff, but it at least made me consider each item. I also had to decide which things to take and which things to purchase along the way. I have been told that we will not have a great deal of free time in the first 3 weeks or so, so planning appropriately has been a bit of a challenge.

It is similar to packing for the China trip I took last year. We had to pack with the understanding that we were not going to be able to "pop" down to the local Wal-Mart and pick stuff up. As it turns out, they do have some Wal-Marts over there, but we really did not have the free time to go shopping for that kind of stuff. It was much more fun to go into "normal" Chinese grocery stores and try to figure out what you were buying.

Thus far I am putting three bags together and then will be picking up quite a bit of additional goods in MN while visiting family. It should work out to where I will be able to spend New Years with my folks, sister, brother-in-law, and nephews and neice. It is only my neice's second New Year's (but she'll probably sleep through it again).

In any case, I will try to keep this site somewhat updated, and I am going to start shooting for a near daily update rate.

So have a great Christmas,
Corey

First snow of the Season

OK. It is not really the first snow of the year. We actually had some in October, but it did not last long.

This is the first snow of any amount here in Boise that has lasted for any length. At least it was enough that they sent out the snowplows.

Tonight we went to an event with the Marines. They were hosting a toy drive for "toys for tots." If you brought a new toy down to the local baseball stadium you got in free for a fireworks display that was synchronized to some Christmas music. It was pretty cool, and very cold. The hot chocolate and multiple layers of clothes helped a little bit.

In any case, it was a nice event. Something we have not really done before. We hope everyone's planning is coming together well for Christmas. Be safe.

Merry Christmas