Another year gone and new one full of surprises is here.  Wow, seems like only a week ago it was still 2005.  Oh, yeah, it was.  Anyway, as far as New Years resolutions go, I do not believe them.  Now don't get me wrong, I believe that you should set achievable goals for yourself in the new year, but don't go out and make a resolution to scale the Empire State Building by February when you're deathly afraid of heights.  My friend it will not happen.  Let's be realistic and not allow ourselves to become our own worst enemies this year.  My goals this year are cut and dry.  All I want is to be promotable, have half of my credits toward my degree complete, find a man or men(hey, I did say be reasonable), and be with my family and friends for Christmas.  That's it!  This year will hold surprises for me, I'm sure of it, but at least I'm not setting myself up.

So, raise your glasses high in celebration and be blessed this year, love one another and worship in fellowship, and finally, follow God and Jesus on the path of righteousness.

God bless you and your families this year and many more.

Jen

Hello all! Wow, has it been an awful long time since I wrote. I hope that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father has blessed you and your families as They have mine.  Well, since I last wrote I have been to PLDC and passed. Now it is official, I am a SGT. I went to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort last month, and had a lot of fun. I went to a concentration camp and will never be the same. What happened to those poor people is indescribable and despicable! I passed English 101 with a B+ and am now taking Biology 101, and I am now a Combat Lifesaver. Needless to say I have been busy.

Christmas is finally here and I am filled with great happiness and hopes for the coming year. God has blessed me so much this year and I am eternally grateful. I have the best family and friends I could ever ask for and my unit is a God send. I survived Iraq and got promoted to SGT. My life is truly blessed!

I am a little upset with some people wanting to take God and Christ out of our earthly realm. First the Pledge of Allegiance and now off our money and out of Christmas. America does so well because it was founded on God's word and the love of His Son. When we take God and Christ out of lives Satan wins. All Satan wants is death and destruction for all. Satan despises happiness, grace, and mercy for your fellowman. And, those who follow him will only end up in a lake of fire. God loves us and wants us to be happy. He is merciful to us and sacrificed His only begotten Son for our sins. Christ died for us. He died for something He didn't do, so we can go to Heaven and not perish in hell. God and Christ have a love so big that no one can understand it. If Christ appeared before us we would die, because He loves so much that a mortal man cannot take it. Let's not allow unbelievers to take God and Christ out of our world, but reel them in to the unconditional love they cannot see or feel. Instead of fighting this year let's have compassion and love for our neighbors. Talk to your neighbors about the love of our God and Christ's sacrifice for us. Maybe then they will be able see without the blinders on, and be saved by His grace.

Merry Christmas to all this year and many blessings for the new year. May God and Christ be with you and your loved ones.

Jen

25 June: Had guard duty in the morning and walked over there in a thunder/lightning storm scared out of my wits of being struck down.  God comforted me and gave me the courage to continue my brave march and when I got there all was well and not to mention it was a nice cool day.  Sunday, it got hot again.

"She who walks in the face of danger gets a cool day out of it."

That evening I went to a 70's party.  It was great fun!!!

Today: My 1SG called me at 0600 to tell me that SPC C. is late for guard duty.  I had to wake him up and coordinate with SGT W to give him a ride.  SPC C.'s excuse for being late: "I didn't know."  Hmmm... The duty roster has been out since 13 June 05.  So, after pulling guard duty, SPC C. will have to report to our 1SG with his supervisor.  Our 1SG is a real "stickler" for regulations and I know since we began guard duty she's been reading the reg covering it.  Asides from being a walking regualtion, she is one of the coolest high ranking NCOs I have the pleasure of being appointed under.  I got to see the fun side of her that most don't get to see.  She was with me through the board competitions.  She's hard but fair and whatever she dishes out to SPC C., he'll deserve it.

ENG 101: My prelimenary grade averages out to be an "B"

That's all I have for now. 

God bless and take care,

Jen

Here are some pics from the party.

                   The Classy hosts

                        Foxy Brown

                                          Me as a hippie

                    Mr and Mrs Kool

             Somewhere there is a clown missing his hair

                                        Miss Gloria Gaynor

                    Aren't they just the cutest engagies?

                                   So happy together

                      She's stylin'

                                  This picture is "pimpin'"

                                 Quartermaster Angels

 Well, I got promoted on the 1st of June!!!  Finally, after two years of blood, sweat, tears, and bullcrap I now get to join the ranks of the great Non-Commissioned Officer.  There is nothing more honoring than being called a Leader.  Only those that know me best know the sacfrice it took to be where I am today, and I personally thank everyone involved for putting up with me and motivating me when I thought "Hope" was lost.  Thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

 

Reciting the NCO Creed after being pinned

 As my first task as a NCO I got to teach and grade first aid for annual CTT requirement.  I had blast as did the tested.  Here are some pics.  The blood spurting is a mixture of water and washable "children's" paint.  The device used to simulate "arterial bleeding" is a travel size shampoo bottle taped to my arm.  As you can see it has a high projection.  Funny thing about the whole ordeal is only four people knew what I was up to including me.  So, the first time I screamed and shot the blood up, everyone was looking at me and one grader started calling for help on his cell phone. 

The things I put people through

"Oh, the AGONY!!!"

 We had a "Sport's Day" on the 3rd and it was great fun.  We played soccer and I think I may have developed some skills, thank-you 59th.  Lisa can tell you all, we played soccer just about every week!!!  To top things off, as much as we played: WE SUCKED!!! 

Here are some pics from the day.  We won the tournament and they even got me to dance.

"We're #1!"

My very first medal for a sport

"How low can you go?"

That's all I have so until next time:

God bless and take care,

Jen

WARNING: The following entry may be long and not make a lot of sense but when do I make a whole lot of sense anyway?

What's up with you all?  Here's the latest scoop on my life.  Once again I am the primary BOSS Representative.  I get to make single soldiers's lives a little more exciting so to speak, but like the saying goes "I can only help you if you let me help you". 

On 01 June 2005 I will retire my SPC rank and be inducted into the Non-Commissioned Corps.  YIPPIE!!!  My first task: 02 June 2005 CTT Testing.  I'm not sure of a PLDC date yet, but know it will be two weeks long since 1400 soldiers need to get through.

Only Lisa can appreciate this: They're sending me to Hazmat.  "A hazard to a preventive hazard school."  Could be worse, it could be Safety.

A song that has eluded me for some time has finally been located on the Google search engine.  "The Most Beautiful Song" by Lunik has been purchased by yours truly and will be playing sometime soon in her cd player.  Why is this significant?  Allow me to break it down.  I do not listen to AFN radio, so the broadcasts are all in German(a language I don't speak).  Well this song has recieved loads of air play and each time I didn't understand who the personalities were saying the artists were, and worse I really suck at getting lyrics correct when I listen to anything and the only lyrics I knew for sure was the chorus which was "du du du".  Do you have any idea how many songs have "du du du" in them?  Frustrated I came up with a plan, the next time the song was played I would listen real closely and get to the bottom of this song.  It has taken me four months to get one sentence and the lucky sentence: "The most beautiful song."  I put the sentence in the trusted Google search engine and(drum roll please) came up with "The Most Beautiful Song" by Lunik.  Now I purchase all my music from MSN and love it, but MSN didn't have it.  Did I cheat on my beloved MSN?  Yes, but not to worry we reconciled.  I had to go to the Songsearch CD Store, and this website is great also.  This site carries the "hard to find" music.  The only thing I don't like is it doesn't have downloads so you have to wait for your music to come in by mail.  Other than that it's cool. 

I am four months free of smoking!!!  But now have another addiction to combat: frozen CoolWhip with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.

Amazon.Com now has become my new Walmart.  I love shopping so much more now.  To think no lines, no babies crying, no parking, no hassles, and most importantly NO PRICE CHECKS!!!  Seriously, Amazon rocks!!!

No man in my life yet, but I do have my eye on three potential gentlemen.  Who will win?  Who knows?  I might not date either of them.  We'll see as time goes on.

AND NOW FOR YOU'RE ENJOYMENT AN INSTALLMENT OF JEN'S INCREDIBLY DUMB MOMENTS PT 1

10.  Putting JOY dishwashing liquid in the dishwasher because the label said "dishwashing detergent"  Yes, the floor and dishes both got cleaned.

09.  Carrying more than I could handle and falling down the stairs.  This resulted in a grade 2 inversion ankle sprain.

08.  Yelling out the punch line at a comedy show.

07.  Making popcorn and after not hearing any popping noticing my popcorn bag was on top of the microwave.  The bag had printed instructions.

06.  Damn near killed myself when I thought I had the ultimate cleaning combination of Clorox and Ammonia.

05.  Plugging in a $150 picture printer that was 110V-120V into a 220V socket.  Good thing the camera came with an USB cable.

04.  In High School Chemistry my partner and I had to restart our project so I rinsed out our cauldron that had Mercury in it.  Water+Mercury=HEAT!!! 

03.  Thinking I could balance my then six year-old brother on my then seven-year old shoulders and carry him from the kitchen to the living room.  We made it to the kitchen table.

02.  Making glue out of flour and water and a mess too in hopes to glue a plastic hook back together. 

01.  Saying I know exactly where something is and getting everyone lost.

Well that's all I got for now. 

God bless and take care,

Jen

I went to Brigrade and came out as 1st runner up.  Not too bad.  Now, I can comment on sites and get caught up on all yunz's lives.  I'll be starting college after PLDC.  I haven't an idea when I'll be pinned.  Gotta wait for those points to drop.  Well that's all I got for now.

God bless and take care,

Jen

Here's a board pic

 

I am now the Battalion Soldier of the Year.  Next is brigrade.

Take care and God bless,

Jen

It was a physically challenging three days competing against myself, but I am now the Soldier of the Year in my company.  Next month it'll be four days of competion for the BN Soldier of the Year.

PT went well except I slipped on an ice patch in front of the whole formation.  How embarrassing.  My freakin' shin was bruised for like a week.  To make matters worse was my NCOIC was acting 1SG and I had to go up to him to take over the formation.  He regained some of his composure, but he was smirking.  Our actual 1SG was out that day, and I should thank my lucky stars, because she would never leave me live that down!!!  The woman is a nut.  She's cool, but nuts.  And LOUD!!!  I thought my family was loud, oh no, no one and I mean no one has nothing on this woman.  But, at least she cares and takes good care of us.  She goes to bat for a lot of people and some of these people if they were in another unit would be labled "dirt bags."  I respect her a lot for that.  Many people in the unit dislike her, but not me, not yet anyway. 

Well that's all I have for now.  Hope you all have a Happy Easter.

God bless you all and take care,

Jen

To my readers I apologize for not commenting.  I have been very busy and it finally paid off.  I am the 'Soldier of the Quarter' and now must buckle down to compete in the 'Soldier of the Year' competion.  Studying for the board at the same time as gearing up for three arms room inspections isn't easy, but I believe I have finally mastered this thing called 'time management'. 

I give PT tomorrow and have a great routine set up.  I can barely contain my excitement!!! 

I have been smoke free since the 11th of February and still going strong.  I'm not even wearing my patches anymore.

Well that is all I got for now.

As always God bless and take care,

Jen

 

  I know it has been a very long time since I wrote last but so much has been going on.  I'm back from Individual Deployment Training and it was fun in some parts.  They said I'm a little too violent, but I can't help it.  They told me to react as if it were real, and the person I was checking had a gun, so I threw on her the ground and almost broke her arm.  We both laughed after the scenario was over, but for the rest of the exercise, I wasn't allowed to handle the "enemy".

  I'm now in armorer school to learn Europe's way of taking care of arsenals.  It's a very fun course and I'm enjoying myself and the base I'm on.  I haven't spoken to or hung out with anyone, but it's only two weeks long, so I really don't care.  I'm just looking forward to getting back to home station to take care of my work areas and get prepped for my CIP.

  In other news my company decided on a way to get me out of my "shy" shell, by making me the commander of our Class A inspection.  Joy!!!  I'm really not looking forward to this and everytime I think about it my stomach churns.

 Gotta go. As always,

 God bless and take care,

 Jen