HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!

Hi Blog Readers !

This is Jason's little sister Rachel - I've hijacked the blog for today! Its a very special day today - right now in Iraq it is Sunday, October 4th! And for those of you who may not know...

ITS JASON'S BIRTHDAY!!!

I love my big brother and am SO proud of him! I've taken over the blog to send Jason a very special birthday present. Thanks to everyone who helped me out!
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Hi Jason!

I thought long and hard about what to do for your birthday this year. I knew there was no way I'd get around to sending you something super cool to Iraq - and you'd kill me for spending the money. So, instead I cooked up this surprise instead. Hope you enjoy it!

(And yes, after today, you can go back to using your Facebook as well! )

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First, all of your family wanted to wish you a happy birthday! We are so proud of you and love you sooooo much!

Pawpaw insisted on being the first:




Mawmaw had to convince Annie that she wanted to be in the picture (to your disappointment, no cats were harmed in the making of this birthday present!).


You can imagine how much it took to get Mom included here - she had to figure out how to work a digital camera AND the computer!



Scully insisted on having her own picture - she was just thrilled to tell you Happy Birthday~

I braved a COLD day at Wrigley Field for you - but sadly it didn't really seem to help the Cubbies at all!

But I'm sure they'll get 'em next year - once you're back to cheer them on!




David and Rebecca really went the extra mile - they managed to get pictures with both Leah and Me for your birthday!


(Just in case you didn't recognize those grown up kids - its Gina and Grayson!)



You'd better hurry back soon so that you can join in all the cousins-bonding!



Melissa and Dusty sent this picture to remind you that not only do they wish you a Happy Birthday - they promise there will be many oysters once you get home!

Dad and Emma also say Happy Birthday and wish you were going to be home sooner!



And no worries - We couldn't leave out your other Mom and Dad!

Natalie's Dad was VERY excited to wish you another happy year~

But I'm not to sure her Mom was thrilled to be in the picture! We let her hold the sign though:






And Natalie practically had to tie down your nephews to get them in a picture -

But they did make you some pretty awesome signs!

But after all the family was in on the fun - there were more people who wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday.... SO STAY TUNED!!!

The Friends Join In....

Once people heard that it was your birthday - everyone wanted in on the fun!

Dad mananged to hunt down some people you haven't seen in quite a while:

And remember Jessica Long? From Jackson? She sent you this to remind you that just cause Iraq has lots of sand - doesn't make it the beach!

Natalie got her a whole lot of people from her office to wish you HAPPY B-DAY!

Joel felt the best way to wish you Happy Birthday was to reveal your love for Mr. Simmons...



A whole lot of your friends from Zion Lutheran Church wanted to wish you God's Blessings for your birthday too!

And Ben and Ashley joined in the fun -

I ran this one past Natalie and she assured me she was aware of this person...I'll just assume it falls under the "don't ask/don't tell" policy...

And my friend Gina is in the Witness Protection Program but wanted to be included:

Melanie joined me at that bitterly cold Cubs game!

And the Cubbies themselves sent a Happy Birthday email... well, an intern in their public relations office did anyhow!

And these guys didn't really know you.... but I'm sure they wanted to say Happy Birthday too!

Still more to come......

More friends!!!

The pictures just kept rolling in!

Your coworkers at the Northern Kentucky Health Department sent me some more birthday wishes:

And Tony proved that if you stay friends with someone long enough - they know enough to embarress you!

Tony also got Issac involved:

And Hannah is representing the Brasher crew for now!

Mom's whole class sent birthday wishes...

But one girl was extra excited - because its her birthday today too!

Nikki and her little guy send some love your way:

Over achieving friends....

Some people decided that pictures just wouldn't be good enough for a cool guy like you...

First Bethany got a "few" of her friends at college to help her wish you a Happy Birthday....

Then my friend Lisa and her adorable daughters joined in the fun...

And the Brashers wouldn't be outdone either - they joined the overachievers club with this video...

And Last but not Least

No - I didn't forget Natalie.... or your crazy dogs

(I have no idea how she got those dogs to all pose so well!)

I think we can safely say they miss you the most.

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So - I hope you enjoyed your Birthday Surprise!

We love you and can't wait until you are home safe and sound!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!

Love, Rachel

Before and After

So we just recently had a landscaper come out to regrade the backyard, add sod, and redo the back patio area. As I've complained about before, anytime it rains the backyard turns into a swamp and the dogs have a grand time tromping around and sharing the muddy goodness with my house. And since Jason left there hasn't been anyone to keep up with the yard work...because I am not really the yard work kind of gal. As a result this is what the patio area looked like before the landscaper began.



Yeah, that's pretty scary. And here's after the landscaper finished...



The little area under the stairs is super cute




Here's what the yard looked like before. There were green stakes in the ground from Jason's attempt to rope off the worst parts from the dogs...but they would just run under the fencing. We also had been throwing our grass clippings in the worst area in an effort to build it up and absorb some of the water, so we had a huge patch of dead rotting grass...very nice.



The landscaper evened everything out and resodded it.




In the end the yard looks much better. I'm a little apprehensive though. It's been raining here for about a week straight...and the yard is very smooshy. Very smooshy indeed...

Happy Ramadan - The Eid is Near

Greetings once more from the land of Allah, and I hope you’re having a happy Ramadan season. Soon all your fasting and sufferings will be over and you will be free to enjoy three days of raucous celebration during the Eid.

Well, while most of the Iraqi’s are exercising shorter work days and more time off in the afternoon and evenings (due to no drinking or eating during daylight – and then pigging out at night) we are still quite hard at work here and even catching up on a little “Army Training” as well.

Let’s start off with the courthouse I was at in the last blog. These few photos are from the follow-up trip to insure that the work is finally completed. Progress had been slow coming on this project, but I’m happy to report that it is finally done and by the time you read this the ribbon cutting will be over with (I type these blogs in Word at night – they copy & paste once online.) While doing the inspection we happened upon a unique opportunity for some impromptu assistance for the judge, and for one of the prisoners. You see, the prisoner featured in the first photo below here doesn’t speak Arabic. He doesn’t even speak Farsi, the language of neighboring Iran. He actually speaks Urdu since he is from the Kashmir region of Pakistan. Apparently he is a poor only son who was trying to support his mother by working jobs in Iran and sending money back home. While traveling Iran in search of jobs, he actually ended up at the border crossing with Iraq near the town we were in. The story goes that he was working as pure labor off loading Iranian trucks with goods onto Iraqi trucks. The story further goes that he strayed into the Iraqi side of the border and was arrested. Now I know there are two sides to every story…but that’s not the point. The courthouse where we were didn’t have anyone who spoke Urdu, so this guy has been in prison for about 2 months without even a hearing because of the language barrier. Well, Dr. Khan (the guy with his back to the camera) is an American citizen who is an immigrant from India and speaks Urdu. So in this photo Dr. Khan is translating what the Pakistani is saying into English during an impromptu hearing that was arranged while we were doing our tour.



And in this next picture, our local engineer translates what Dr. Khan is saying into Arabic for the local judge. Hence, we basically had a 3 language hearing conducted with the assistance of a local Iraqi translator and one of our own principals.

In the end it was decided by the judge to have this prisoner sent to our town of Kut where they can arrange a translator and a trial. The judge even said that he put in a recommendation that the judge try the case soon and recommended release of the prisoner based on the testimony at the hearing. It’s those random incidents like this that separate Civil Affairs from the rest of the military. No one else that I know of other than Special Forces even has the opportunity for this kind of interaction with the local populace and the ability to do so much good when the opportunity presents itself. We may have only helped one person – but I can guarantee that he’ll have a favorable opinion of the U.S. from now on.

OK, on to more pictures. I said that we got some Army training done this week, so here we go.

This first photo is of us at the Special Forces shooting range. Since Civil Affairs is part of the Special Ops community we have an “in” with the “snake eaters” and are permitted to not only use their range (which is a lot more informal than a normal Army run range) but also had a couple of their shooters out giving our guys (and gal) some instruction on how to actually employ a weapon in real-world situations instead of just on a rifle range – something that, sad to say, the conventional military seems to keep forgetting that it needs to keep its Soldiers proficient on. This is actually the shooting that I teach at my home unit so for me the practice is mainly refresher, yet still invaluable. But for my new Sergeant and especially for our Air Force personnel who typically only shoot once per year (maybe) they have been having a blast (pun intended) with all the ammo they have been able to put down-range in their time with us.

This photo is of Justin and I lining up for some repetitions of controlled pairs.

And this one is of me pumping lead into some poor defenseless piece of paper two rounds at a time in rapid succession. Really, that poor piece of paper never had a chance!

Next, nothing like scorching heat to motivate folks to practice their skills at starting an I.V. drip. Not only do you get to practice how to help a potential casualty from fatal blood loss and/or shock. But once you get the I.V. yourself, then you can just go ahead and “drink up” the whole bag of fluid and get really well hydrated for the rest of the day. This photo is of C.J. practicing his skills on Justin.

Well, in all seriousness, the last two days have actually been downright chilly. We were talking about starting a pool to see what the first day would be that we didn't hit 100 degrees. And truth be told, it may very well end up being today the way things are going. It's a sign of the environment when you walk outside and say, "man, it's pretty cool outside" only to realize it's 88 degrees at midnight. But it's a lot better than saying, "I think it's going to be over 120 again today" like we were almost ever day last month. Ah - the time is ticking by and the season are starting to change. Pretty soon - that little counter on the Blog won't start with a 2 anymore.

For now - enjoy some fine fall air over whereever you are, and just know that when they start talking snow on your news chanel - I'll be nice and toasty at around 70-degrees!

TTFN

- Hoyt