Update from Bobby

Hi Everyone!  This is Jen.  I just wanted to post some updates from Bobby.  We went to his mobilization ceremony yesterday and I have never been more proud to be his wife.  He is very happy and seems to be making a lot of friends.  I got to meet some of his tent mates as well yesterday which was nice to finally have some faces with names.  Here is a copy of his latest email:

Things are going well here believe it or not.  We’ve had some really cold days here and we’ve been outside everyday.  We’ve been at the range everyday.  Two days shooting and two days working the range passing out ammo.  I hate all the paperwork and briefings the army has, but shooting is what I enjoy.

It’s only been about a week but it’s really amazing what the Lord can do within a week.  I have found myself praying and communicating more then I was before.  I’ve also had some opportunities to let others know who I side with.  Last night one of my tent mates was asking me about my tattoos (Star of David & Cross) and how I went from Jewish to Christian.  So I was able to share with him and 6 others who didn’t even ask.  It was pretty cool to be able to do that.

Thank you all for your prayers and support and I look forward to Christmas Break.

I have also uploaded pictures from yesterday’s visit.  They can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=74282&l=ec661&id=557844883

counting the days

I just got done talking with my pastor and it’s hard to believe that this Sunday will be my last Sunday service at church before I head out.  This whole thing has been a roller coaster of emotions for me.  So many different thoughts and emotions that I haven’t really been able to process everything.  Next week Jen, her parents, and I head to Arkansas for Thanksgiving and drive straight back here on November 30th.  Then December 1st to head out to Fort Bragg until Christmas and at that time I’ll come home for about a week and then head out to Camp Shelby.

Friday I went to see the new James Bond flick with Jen and some friends.  I thought it was a pretty good movie.  I agree it was not as great as Casino Royal story wise, but it was an action packed movie.  The story was not as clear as the last movie, you had to pick it up as you went.  Granted the villain was named Mr. Green, not very scary, and he was an environmental villain, still not very scary.  Minor details I say, overall a decent movie.

Jen gave me something so amazing that I can only say fabutastic (I promise you this is a word…ok you caught me Jen and I combined fabulous and fantastic into one word (dorks I know)).  She made me a scrap book to take along with me.  She had all sorts of people send in letters and pictures. She had friends from my old job, my current boss, her family, and most of my family all write something.  Not just the scrapbook, but overall people have really stepped up beyond what I imagined to help Jen and I during this time.  I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.

Saturday was my farewell cookout.  We had a huge turnout, had to be over 50.  A bunch of people from our church and some friends, and plus my boss came out with his family.  Which by the way he brought me favorite soda/pop/soft drink, depending where you are in the US, Guarana.  I found out about Guarana on the mission trip to Brazil a few years ago.  He went to Brazil last month for a work trip and I asked him to pick med up a few if he could.

Other then that not much going on.  Work has been pretty slow…really slow, I’ve been slowly handing stuff over to the new guy.  So far he’s been kind of shaky, but he is only here temporary…hopefully he works out while I’m gone.

Till next time f0lks.

nothing new

Nothing really earth shattering.  I’m back at work and catching up.  The End

Back home (Florida) they had just had the Stuart Airshow and my brother had the privilege of playing taps during the Missing Man Formation.  Very Awesome.

negative musical abilities

Well we made it home Saturday from our world wind tour. Jen and I both didn’t realize this until later, but this was the longest vacation we’ve had ever. The longest we’ve been away from home was about 4 days, but 7 day is like a whole new world. It was great seeing family and taking a break, but it was also nice to return home.

First stop was Florida and it was great. We were able to see my family, even was able to get together with some of my former co-workers for lunch, and of course I had to go to the beach. We were there until Wednesday and then we headed to Ohio. Jen was finally able to meet my grandmother, plus all of our extended family. The last time I saw her was somewhere in the range of 2000 – 2001 and it was winter is what we have concluded. We spent much of the time catching up with my grandma and hearing old stories of her singing days, which I loved hearing about. Yes singing days and I’m not talking about hairbrush in front of a mirror singing days. There was once a group called The Chordettes  (Mr Sandman, Lollipop, Never on a Sunday) and she was ¼ of the group. Which by the way, I have learned that there are a lot of people with musical and singing abilities in my family and I missed every one of them, I actually have negative musical abilities. OH yea negative I actually throw people off. What in the world was I doing when this was being passed down? Anyways, Jen and I sat around looking at pictures and hearing stories of people she has met, her time on the Arthur Godfrey show, and stories about my dad.

One of the early photo’s of the Chordettes.  Beautiful isn’t it.

By the way Dad, what’s this I hear about you and The Prince of Aruba and something about a meeting between your head and a tray?

I totally forgot to post this up.  A few pictures from Ohio and Florida.

I know I know

I know I’ve been really sporadic posting, but I have thought of doing it.  I’ve been out of my office for 3 weeks and been trying to catch up on all my work.  Majority of my post I am able to do at work.  Aren’t you supposed to be working at work?  Yes I am.  However, much of the time I am able to complete my task and have a bit of time to do postings.  But since Monday I’ve been catching up plus doing all of my other work and training the guy who will replace me when I deploy.  Speaking of the new guy, I’m a bit worried he’s not going to pick everything up that I do.  I’m creating a guide of everything I do, but something just doesn’t sit right with me.  He’s still new and maybe I just need to give him more time.  I have about 2 months left there and hopefully he’ll be up to speed on everything.

Last weekend Jen, Adlei, and I went to Crowder’s Mountain.  It was about a 3.5 mile hike with a little bit of climbing over rocks.  Let me say this real quick.  When we got Adlei the rescue home told us that Adlei has been known to jump fences.  After taking him hiking I believe it, this dog can jump.  He was climbing and jumping over everything.  The cats have accepted him as one of their own and he has no problems with them.  Not sure if all dogs do this, but Jen and I noticed that when we walk him he goes in a zig zag motion, almost like he’s skiing.  He also likes to chew things…not a lot of things, but some things.  For example, we had a towel in his cage…he ate some of it.  One of my flip flops….he ate the straps on it.  So needless to say somethings need to change.  Other then the towel and my flip flop he’s a great dog, very calm and relaxed and sweetest dog ever.  Doesn’t bark and only growls when the cats try to steal his food, but I don’t believe he has a mean bone in his body.  Anyways check out the pictures below from the weekends hike.

Crowders Mountain

Till next time..

Never Enough Time

Here we are again. A week and half has gone by and not one post. Even though I’m not traveling I’m playing catch up at the office and it leaves no time to slack off at work…imagine that actually working at work (kids these days). Anyways, mom and Mikey got in Friday afternoon and it was great to see them but not so great to see them go. Weekend went by too fast. Saturday (take a deep breath) mom, Mikey, Jen, Courtney, Greg, and I went to the Lazy 5 Ranch which is like Lion Country Safari, but without the lions and the Safari. Lazy 5 you’re able to drive through with the windows down or in our case the back of the pickup truck and feed the animals as you go. They did have a bear cub (in a cage) that the girls thought was the most adorable thing ever, but that’s where they get you. They look all cute and then wham! Sunday for Fathers day Mikey, Jen, Mike, and I went to play father’s day paintball. I was having a great time until my knee found the corner of rock hiding under leaves; needless to say I was done for the day. I cut it pretty good, but it’s healin up nice.

So one of the perks of being in the Guard is that I can fly free (Space-A travel) with the Air National Guard and I found this out when I was trying to get to Ohio. That didn’t pan out because there are no flights into the area I was going. Anyways, Jen and I are trying to plan a trip to Florida in August and I thought I would revisit that idea and research it a bit more. Space – A travel is free and it sounds great until you realize that you’re flying standby without a reservation and no guarantee that you will get a flight. The first part is you need to find the airport you want to fly out of and sign up and wait. Based on the order of date and time you sign up they call you and tell you when to show up to the airport to see if you made the cut. Second part, after you get the call you show up and wait and wait. Assuming they decide they have space available now you have to see if your name is on the list. There are six categories Cat I is top priority and Ct VI is the least, we would be 6. So if by some chance there was still room after CAT I – V then we would have a chance otherwise we go home and then repeat. As you can tell big headache, so now we are looking into catching a ride with truckers, actually we don’t know what we’re doing yet.

Before I close I wanted to share with you my experience of sleeping. I do not remember the last time I slept without a cat nuzzling me for attention, climbing on me, or purring in my ear. So I stumble to my side of the bed in the dark because I do not want to wake Jen. I check for cats and move any cats that are in my spot and then I check for Jen because she likes to claim my spot for her as well and move her…very cluttered ad popular spot. I then ever so softly get into bed to now wake Jen and realize I missed a cat and the cat of course resists, but I prevail champion. It’s amazing how keen your senses become after taking one away and in this case hearing and sight. I can’t see the cat but I sure can hear her purring away sounds like a lawn mower. Of course a different cat needs to come investigate the situation and see if I need help and see’s it’s all under control so decides to lay on me purring.

Paintball Pictures

Lazy 5 Ranch I

Lazy 5 Ranch II

Getting Out of Debt

So for about 6 months now, actually probably even longer, we have been working really hard on getting ourselves out of debt. About 2months ago our Sunday school started watching the Dave Ramsey financial freedom series and that helped reinforce our goal of getting out of debt. Ramsey really just tells you how to really make the most out of every penny you have and do it by not borrowing money through loans or credit cards. How you can financially free. If you’ve never heard of this guy I recommend looking him up online, the guy went being worth about 4 millions dollars at the age of 26 to becoming completely broke and in debt. Now he’s reestablished himself financially without borrowing a penny.

Wanting to get out of debt and Dave Ramsey really helped us out (gosh that sounds like an infomercial) but seriously we were able to pay off all of our credit cards (and I personally cut them all up) and we’ve paid off one entire loan. We still have the foreclosure over our heads but lesson learned.

It’s really an amazing feeling. I can say that I have a different view about money now. Just this morning I was sitting at a red light watching all of these brand new cars drive by and all I see is dollar signs and I wonder how many of those people are in over there heads in debt just so they can have that brand new car. Do not get me wrong I’m not against people with new cars I wish I could have a brand new vehicle. I just think that people believe because that they still have checks that there must be money in the bank account. We weren’t like that but Jen and I could have really used this stuff after or even before we got married I think we would have made better decisions in our finical planning.

I find it funny that when we go shopping we’re offered some sort of credit card deal and we tell them that we don’t do credit cards anymore, we paid them all off and cut them up. This usually follows with a great job I hope I can do that one day. I find it funny that they applaud us for paying off our credit card after they just got done offering us one.

31 Days Until Summer

I think I told some of you that I suppose to be going up to New York in a couple weeks. Well as of now I do not think that is going to happen until later because of hold ups on the clients end. I keep meaning to add this story to my post and I keep forgetting. I work in a community style office building. There are several businesses on the floor where I work and we share the secretary and the kitchen area and such. There is one particular lady who takes smoke breaks throughout the day (outside of course). I’m not exactly sure what she smokes, but whatever it is it has flavoring. I know this because anytime I get in the elevator after she has been it, it smells like cloves…ham cloves. Anytime I smell where she has been I think of ham and honestly she kinda reminds me of a ham and that maybe because she smells like cloves.

So Chip got home safely, he was the one in Afghanistan with the Navy. He said in his e-mail that he has been working on his honey do list that she has been saving for 15 months. This week I have my drill weekend for the Guard. I’m looking forward to it and then again I am not. The only reason I am not is because I have two papers due this week. A 2-4 page paper on the destiny of the unevangelize and the nature of hell and the second paper is 5 page paper on the Canonization of the Bible, how and the councils. Both of them are due Monday, but Saturday and Sunday I will not be able to work on them and I have my regular class work….come on summer. Besides the class work, class is going well. Christianity history is definitely interesting and my theology class is as well. I’m really looking forward to summer for the time off from school. School has really been taking up a lot of time from things I would like to do and miss doing. One such thing is mtn. bike riding. I was able to get out and ride Friday but that is only like my 3^rd or 4^th time riding since the new year.

Some good news, at least I hope so, over the weekend Jen and I filled out the paper work to adopt a puppy. We were originally looking into getting a german shepard mixed with a pit, but because of the restricted dog breed policy we could not and now we are looking into getting a lab and hound mix. We are just waiting on the homeowner to tell us what the pet deposit would be, if any. This is a big thing for the Evans family because for some time now I have been lobbying for a dog and it’s officially happening. Once and if we get the dog I will let you all know.Until next time folks.

Bloopers

So Saturday night was the first night of our Church’s Easter production and within a few weeks I will get the family a copy of it. Over the years I have gotten over my fear of getting in front of big groups and speaking, but not acting. So needless to say I was a bit nervous Saturday night. For the most part I remembered my lines, but there were some bloopers. Blooper one, there is a scene when Mary (Jen) realizes Jesus (Me) has resurrected. After the scene I was walking backyards through a curtain and lights went out. I turn to go right to get ready for the next scene and I slammed my toe into a black wooden box. It was so loud people in the audience not only heard it some of them thought I fell. Jen was still on stage getting ready to sing her solo and wasn’t sure what to do. Before I talk about blooper two I have a quick side story. Ann, the writer of the play, her husband owns a machine shop and he actually built an ascension machine. Picture a one platform escalator. Anyways, we nicknamed it the Jesus Coaster. So blooper two, during the ascension scene before getting on the Jesus coaster I was to go and shake hands with the disciples and give hugs. Well I was in such a hurry because I had to change costumes and get mic’d up again I forgot my fake hair. I walked onto stage where everyone could see me, which some people did. Fortunately, Gary cut me off before I was on stage for too long and I went back and got my hair. Saturday morning Jen, her dad, and bunch from church went and played paintball.

Mike, Jen’s dad, loved paintball so much that afternoon when he got home he bought a paintball gun. Mike is already talking about going to his land and playing paintball there. So I think a paintball gun purchase for me and Jen are in the future.

So remembering social obligations are not really my thing…actually without Jen I would be lost. One reason I have my Blackberry is to remember these obligations. However these planned events do not always make into my Blackberry. One such event I am horrible at remembering are birthdays. Birthdays are really the worse for me, they just never tend to pop up on my radar. Simply ask my mom, my dad, my sister, or anyone really in my family because I have forgotten them all at least once. Who knows why, maybe because I tend not to make a big deal out of mine. What I do know is that I suck as a son because I have once again ladies and gentlemen forgotten my mother’s birthday. It’s not in the Bible, but I am pretty sure God will judge me and others like me differently for forgetting our mom’s birthdays. So my day is pretty much ruined and if you need me I will be playing in traffic.

The American Way

We are winding down till our Orlando trip so Jen can take her engineering exam and she is really hitting the books. Lately it’s been pretty busy: finished a class and starting another one next week in addition to my math class, work is getting busy, Heroes (another show we’ve gotten sucked into), mountain biking, and of course Halo 3.

The other day I was talking with Jen about the amount it’s costing us for me to go to school. I made the comment in passing, “if we don’t pay my school loan back will the government take back my diploma”. She said “no, but they will sue you”. Then it dawned on me that the American way is to sue, sue no matter the cost.

If someone seriously cannot make the payments for whatever legit reason, why is it ok for companies to sue for everything some working class family has? Jen shared a story with me that her boss shared with her. An engineer made a bad design and his company was sued. Which is understand but what is not understand is that because they weren’t satisfied with what they got from his company they decide to go after him personally, took his children’s college fund, savings, vehicles, house, and who knows what else. Jen said this was a big company suing and they did not need the money they took from him. So when is enough enough? They guy ended up either killing himself or having a heart attack Jen said. Which made me start thinking about the conversation I had with good ol Bank of America a couple weeks back asking about the foreclosure process, which is they would sell the house and whatever they do not get from the sell they’ll bleed me dry. Actually, she didn’t say that, but she did say that they could come after us. Eh…news flash lady if I couldn’t make my mortgage payment what makes you think you’ll get the rest of the money from me…magic money tree

My sister and I are at odds and what really ticks me off about the whole thing is that she feel for some reason she feel entitled to things. Where in world was I when that lecture was going on in school…oh at the “what we are not entitled to in life” lecture. Last time I checked the only thing we’re entitled to is death. On top of that, she justifies it by saying because she has a single income not double income it’s ok. Because I have a double income my life is like, well, the rich and the famous. I will say this she is absolutely brilliant when it comes to book smarts, but common sense is a whole another story.

Funny story. Apparently one our cats finds pleasure in opening my sock and undergarments drawer and pulling everything out of it and onto the floor.

Something I created for Jen: