2010/Winter of 2011

I spent part of the year on course.....again!lol but I was able to do Mountain Man and do a lot of things Ive been yearning to do!
Mountainman is a 52 km race with a Rucksack, incuding a 10km canoe portion.
I was able to skydive (not as much as i wanted to by time and money had a factor!)
Played Rugby.......almost a full season which I dont think Ive ever been able to do!
I took Caidence on our first hiking trip!! She loved it!! We went backcountry hiking for a couple days down in Jasper then I took her to Penticton for my Highschool reunion! I couldnt believe it! Lol It made me feel OLD!LMAO! I am no longer the 'spring chicken' I once was (yes Im laughing at myself for using that term!)! I had a blast! Then I went up to Kelowna, visited with Cadies and took her Skydiving!!I was so excited to do it for her! I told her that would be her grad present and its been overdue!! She jumped with no problems (typical first time queasiness of course) and said she loved it!!Bahhaaa another one in the family is a potential skydiver!!
Dads going to hate me!lmao
Then soon after I came back, Dad and Garnette came to visit me! I was so excited!
Garnette got her tattoo, we all got to take dad for a picnic a couple of times! I got a really good visit with my nieces! I had a blast! I have to admit that there were some tensions though. I love my family and that was the first time that I hosted them. My place isnt very big at all so it was congested, so it was good to have everyone out for picnics!

The next thing I need to boast about is my trip to Mexico! Money has been really tight so I really needed it! WOW! All inclusive adults only over christmas!
I partisipated in all the games, played volleyball a lot and danced around a lot!lol to sum it up
We started with going to the beach, went and played volleyball, had our volleyball game interrupted by a guy to ask us to join them on a yacht! Sure!!lol! The guy and his friends were canadians and it was escorted by the resort!So no we werent being careless!Regardless we definately didnt regret it!!It was a blast!!
We went to the Mayan Temples and went snorkeling, to the mexican nightclubs. Lol what a good time, with good company!!
I spent Christmas eve Snorkeling and hiking around an island! Christmas day dancing around the pool (to a dj) in a bakini bottom and a santa hat..... all day!lol Met so many awsome people, had this crazy pool party just too much fun!!!
We came back stuck around Toronto for a day or so! Toodled around Toronto Eaton Center and then flew home! I needed that!

i am now in Gagetown.....lmao Again! I am on my Tank commanders course and training for the deathrace (125km over 2 mountain peaks)!
So I go back to Edmonton in march then I will be back here at the end of march to assist with a training exercise! Meh not excited but I spent the last year doing what I wanted! THATS what I needed! A little bit of my own life!!! Chaos how I want it!
Its been a long couple of years!
This coming year, Im posted to wainwright, not sure exactly when but it will be this year, things are up in the air about me going to Afghanistan again! So there's a lot of possible things on my plate!
I hope to go overseas again. I dont think Id be able to give you a straight annswer why, but I do!

My friends said it so right in Mexico!

You know how people say that a persons dog is usually like its owner!LMAO its so true! She will hang out with anyone and she wont know where shes going or what shes doing but its like shes saying "OK"
Well thats me in a lot of ways, friends say hey lets make a road trip, "ok"! lol
the military asks me to do something, "ok"
I like to say I learned to be a yes man long before the movie came out!lol! I dont like the idea of missing out on any oportunities! So I say ok to anything that comes my way! (with having a head on my shoulders,lol, I dont say yes to just anything!)
Thats part of the reason I got burned out, So i have to learn to say no, to somethings!
was going to try and make a yes man reference, but not sure if it would come out right so noteven going to bother!

I was on top of the world a couple weeks ago!
I go back, and train and wait for my posting and move on! (i dont really want it but its my time to get posted, Ive already spent 9 yrs at the regiment its only fair)
So I am frusterated with coming back here (there was more on my plate until recently!)
I am not sure if ill be able to do the deathrace, but will see!

Anyways, I prefer lots on my plate..... but my way!! So the posting will give me down time in a sence where I can do that! I have a couple of girlfriends out that way and a close friend just moved to fort mac, so life is good in the total spectrum, but its hard to be motivated with a lot of the crap that comes with the choas i cant control!

So john, and anyone else that is wondering, the military still seems to be in my future, I just need to figure some things out with myself!
Im looking forward to teaching Leopard courses and going on feild exercises like we used to! We used to have fun! Old school army fun!

My moto these days, Work Hard Play Harder!
I gotta lay off the booze though and just train! Will see how it goes!!!lol

life back in edmonton

For a long time i thought no one was reading these things, meh who knew!lol!
well life since ive been back from overseas has been crazy.
I got back in Oct and starting Jan i was on course. First it was my LAV 3, then I was on my PLQ which is a leadership course,then my ARCC.
I was burned out even more than i realized! by the time i got to my ARCC i just didnt care anymore, and it showed.
Ive been playing it mellow since ive been back, analizing my friendships and my next move in life. It feels like ive finished a chapter in life and its time to move on to the next one. Its been very frusterating trying to figure out what it is! Ive only wanted to be in the military my whole life, what if it isnt for me anymore, should i just change trades or get out all together!? I dont know right now.
Ive had my baby girl in my life, Caidence! Yes she is my dog who i care very much about.
If it wasnt for her, id be running off to they skyhawks, the military skydive team.
Im still working towards getting courses and freefall time. Only cause i absolutely love it, its better than sex!lol!
I am still renovating and probably spending my christmas doing renos! Im looking forward to getting it done thats for sure! I havent had much for leave yet, so i cant wait to just chill out and work on my place.
I have slowly been doing what i wanted with my eating area, ive made it a bit of a gym. i have a treadmill and hopefully soon i will have more stuff so i can work at home! Ive been training Caidence on the treadmill, so far so good!lol
Ive been on the road to becoming a girl!lol had my first pedicure,manicure and waxing my eye brows this year (all at different times too), lol its been a slow road, but its been bound to happen!lmao!
Naw, ive just been concentrating on trying to be the person i want to be. To actually do stuff for myself! I look after myself now. lol i used to say, creams and lotions are for girly girls, vitamins are for old people!lol wow was i wrong.
now my bathroom looks like a girls bathroom, imagine that! im proud of my tastes on how i decorated my home. and im looking forward to seeing this place when its done!!!
yeah and as soon as its done, ill be selling it though.
Im very very excited about the idea of owning a house outside of town, a cozy bungalow for me and caidence and maybe my next victim....... i mean boyfriend.lol
Im afraid to buy anything else in edm, it seems like ive put my time in and im done with this life!
Ive got a new adventure coming to me. I thought i was a lifer! maybe it is the skyhawks, or maybe firefighting with the military! Whatever it is, i want my next move to give me flexibility to explore what life has to offer. Ive even thought about going into realistate!hmmmm who will see where life takes me!
For now, im working during the olympics. Our regiment is assisting the RCMP with security. It should be interesting, but im looking forward to going to BC!!!
I miss it so much! The mountains, the nature! Alberta just started recycling milk jugs!!! WTF?! lol

anyways thats just a quick recap of my year, its been pretty basic, course, more course and chilling out and enjoying as much of my home as i can!lol

lol for you Lauren!

south africa

I dont even know how to describe such an amazing vacation! there was numerous times where i sat there in disbelief that not only was on vacation in south africa, but it was just me and my twin sister!
it started off with giggle fits in vancouver, we were so excited to get started on our trip!!! had sushi ( my first time since i left that i had sushi) and set off for our trip. Garnettes first international flight, OMG! lol i was ready to just zone out, sleep, think, read. She wanted to talk..... lol! it was a lot of waiting and long hours flying! 3 days later we arrived in south africa!
Even now i think back, wow! We caught a bus to Shelly beach and arrived at our hotel.
We had a room right off the water! We struggled to make it till 8!lol! i woke up at 5am and just sat outside enjoying the sunrise, the water, watching the waves role in!
the first day was meeting our instructor Karen, and swimming in the pool. going threw the basics, of course. naturally we went to a fish restaurant and ate nothing but fish the whole trip!

We bickered a fair bit in the beginning but we were good after that!
we were in the pool for 3 days before we went to alowoa shoal for our first dive!! woop woop!
well we did everything we needed to and we dropped down to 18m with no problems. within seconds we had our first encounter with a shark! It was really only a grey nurse shark ( sand tiger shark, raggae shark) with tons of teeth coming out of its mouth. Really they are harmless as any fish. you bump into them, they just swim away! There were so much fish, sharks, and a large turtle,It was a great start to our trip!
our second dive was the same place which was alright, more grey nurse sharks.

our 3rd day of diving was the best! We started with a wreck dive! It was amazing, we saw brindle bass, one was the size of 2 people! HUGE! We got to coast along the wreck, went inside a bit, enjoy the change of senery!! We had another dive that day, our first actual drift dive!! woop woop! it was a gorgeous day and we just coasted along, the areas that we moved over, so many scenery! we saw a hammerhead in the distance tooo!!!! another massive turtle! Garnette and I ( besides the baited dive) dubbed this dive as our favourite!

The 2 next days we couldnt dive because of the weather. We spent a lot of the first day walking a long the beach! It was such an amazing view! We ate fish at a recommended restaurant that was just down the beach! We didnt mind the walk at all. Mind you we had to be carefull walking when there was no one else on the beach, made us a bit more vulnerable, but we did alright, and we would be so content afterwards, at least i was! Garnette taught me backgammon a long the way so we would have wine, play backgammon and look out along the beach at night! Lol makes me sigh just thinking about it!
Our second day off we went to Oribi Gorge! We went to the biggest swing in the world!!!! its more or less bunji jumping! lol ha ha i got garnette to go first! she was asking if people didnt go if they would push her off! lol so when the guy did the count down he pushed her right off! lol too funny! i took my camera down with me i was taking all these pics on the way up!lol Wow it felt like i fell forever! In the beginning it was like OMG, then the next moment, i didnt want it to end!

The day we could dive was awsome, we spent 2 dives at 30-40m drift dives along reefs and looking for sharks. well...... being new we used up our air fairly quickly so we misse a SCHOOL OF HAMMERHEADS!!!! damn, that would of been nice to see! Contrairy to popular belief, hammerhead sharks are not very dangerous! look at where there eyes and mouth is situated!!!
Anyways we both had good dives and couldnt wait till the baited dive!

DAY OF OUR BAITED DIVE!!!!!
We woke up to a beautiful day and couldnt wait to get out there!!!
On the way out i felt so relaxed and happy i said, what a beautiful day! lol i guess the way i said it was pretty funny and they were making fun for it!LOL
first dive was more or less checking things out, another drift dive! The current was a little strong so as i was waiting for people that were diving 40m at the reef, my weight belt fell off!!!! Thats how you get the benze! Without the weight belt, i would of shot to the surface, from 30m thats a very very bad thing!!! Al and and roland (Al was an experienced diver there that i became friends with, Roland was the dive master) grabbed on to me, i got the belt around me, Al, tightened it on. fwwwww a close call!
So we waited a couple hours then did the baited dive! COULDNT WAIT! We went out to the spot, threw the bait in with fish oil and blood and coasted along spreading the bait threw the water to attract the sharks!
Mark, one of the guys that worked there dove down and came up with excitment, there was a massive tiger shark and to get in ASAP! Damn germans that were all disorganized but we got in there eventually! i got so close to the Tiger shark it was amazing! Soon we looked below us and there were tons of zambizis below us! WOW! eventually they got closer and closer to the point that they almost hit my fins they came so close!!!! OMG!lol! the tiger left for a bit then came back and repeatedly attacked the bait bucket and the wire it was attached too! OMG it was the most amazing feeling in the world, i was amazed at how close it came! Really, if it would attack i wire bucket full of small fish, what would stop it from attacking us! Thats what made it so excilerating!!!! Garnette was the first up, and when i went up, she said she was almost in tears, she felt like screaming, crying she didnt know what to do she was so excited! It was an unbelievable feeling to do that for someone! To watch the sharks, to watch her so happy, thats what made my trip in the end!
The trip was for her, she knew she deserved and i had probably as much fun in the end! It really was the trip of a life time! I will never forget it!
So we waited a couple hours then did our baited dive!

end of yet another tour!

Im back in KAF, its been almost 7 months now!

This tour has been different, thats for sure. like ive written before, there was bunkers with A/C and fresh meals plus we didnt go out every other day like we did before.
I was in SHQ again, gunner for the BC and i have a total of 19 rounds fired from the 120 cannon. may or may not seem like a lot. For starters you only need one shot to take down half a grape hut.
I didnt have the same capasion for the locals that i did last time, i cant explain why though.
I worked in the CP if i wasnt going out. There was some bitterness in the troops because SHQ didnt have to do a lot of the shit jobs but well.... they will get over it. In the same aspect i cant complain!
Its been a long tour for all of us. Fuchko (he was a reservist driver when his tank blew up behind me from an IED attack and lost both his legs below the knee) is alive and well and doing a marathon soon. we lost some good guys as well. Mcpl Doyle was a really good guy and will be missed. As well John Snyder (who i graduated with) will be missed.
There were some long Ops thats for sure, sometimes 20 hrs in the gunners seat and well i cant deny that i would start to get a little squirly near the end.
Ive also grown to be bitter about the politics and the media. Unfortunately theres a lot that we cant say. In return it may take away from anyones defense, making them or the military look bad. As well its yet another tactic for the taliban, to turn anyone they can about our mission here.
Do i think we will be here longer..... definately! I will find out soon enough, anyways.
Theres alot of accomplishments. The ANA, AUP,ANP are all looking a lot better. doing a better job, no matter what the media says. It doesnt mean that there isnt work still to be done, but there are definate improvements.
anyways my time is running out and im going into a subject that is better left unsaid!

im still alive!

lol yeah i dont have much time to write, but i thought iwould let everyone know im still alive and well.
Ive had a good tour as good as it can get anyways. I work out 2x a day (when i can) do my shifts and blow shit up when i can. I am taking garnette my twin on a trip to S africa when i get back and im also going on a rugby tour to trinidad as well! So very much looking forward to getting back!
on that note i might be coming back yet again, will see no way of knowing at this point!

my life since i left for afghanistan

well i only have about 15 min to write so i will make this quick.
I got to afghanistan and it was like i never left. hmmm surprise surprise there. well when i got out to the old FOB i was really surprised how much it built up, it was crazy! ac, fridges and microwaves, i never thought i would have those luxuries out there. I got pretty sick twice! the first time i was still in KAF and had to run off the parade square ( we were getting ready for a ramp ceremony) for the nearest bathroom! fun fun.... not exactly. Anyways things are pretty good considering out there. Im fairly happy and there is a gym as well. trying to get back in to shape anyways. So its been good and to top it off theres fresh meals 2x a day! so things have really looked up since i left.
I am currently at the drop zone in costa brava. I arrived in spain on the 16th was down in tosse de mar and now im in empuriabrava. I am doing my AFF course. It is amazing!!! It is my qualification course to free fall sky diving. It has gotten windy but hopefully tonight i will be doing my last jump! wooo hooo then bring on the beers! lol! naw its been crazy, you start with a tandom jump and you work yourself up to doing roles in the air. I attempted it earlier but well as my sgt major would put it, looked like a monkey humping a football! So my final jump and i am doing it solo, wow the transition of going from someone holding on to you to no one, was crazy. big difference but its so much better, the thrill is there that much more! Well tomorrow may be more jumps or kayaking to where theres caves, then biking around to all the fishing towns. Will see, I have 5 more days then i move on to seville, so lots of time to go see the sights!
anyways just thought i would let everyone know im still alive and getting the best view of spain!!!!

down to the dirt about me going

well theres been a few frustrations about the mission to go to afghanistan. There's a lot of people that dont seem to know a lot about the history of afghanistan or the war thats going on today. Yet everyone seems to have an opinion about why we shouldnt be there! Well im not going to rant even though it would be too easy to do! On a different note, im lucky my family is so supportive. Even though i have to ask them to get a passport ready incase something happens to me, they know (or i think they do) its just a procaution.
Its funny to me, but i wrote what i call a death letter. a letter that i kept for my family incase something happened to me. I was cracking jokes threwout it all. Not that i think my death would be amusing but because i needed it to be light hearted. I love my family very much, i hope they take the same approach i took when i lost my mother. I feel so lucky to have her with me as long as i did. There is never a right time to die, but i believe when its your time, its your time! I think anyone thats been to afghanistan, if they didnt believe that before they probably do now. How many flukes there have been when people seem to cheat death and then theres freak accidents.
Anyways on that note my friends better have a party in my honor if i die! make it a huge party and have a shot for me, or 2 or however many,lol! My family, be happy because its probably a painles death and you'll have another angel looking over you (well i know im far from an angel now, but you know what i mean)!

I am going back so quickly but i have long ago accepted how the military works. Its hard to maintain friendships and for a lot of people to maintain relationships! (glad to say that i dont have to worry about that kind of dramma this time around)!

This time is going to be different though! I cant explain what i mean by that but what i can tell you is that it probably means i wont be able to say much!

Its so sad, both sanora and justice have said in there little voices..... dont die! Im not worried about dying over there, but i hate the thought of kids that are still so innocent feel that they have to say that. Know what i mean?

my fav part about parcels are getting drawings or pictures from the little ones! plus healthy food! i imagine if you read my earlier blogs you would understand why.

anyways thats all i can say for now, ill give more updates as i go on!

sorry its been a while, but im going back over again, however im going to start with a blurb on my training

hey,
i got back in April as you could probably all tell, i went to miami, whitehorse, regina, brooks, kimberly, jasper and banff. I bought a condo and a car!lol so i was a busy girl on my 2m of leave! nevermind the neverending events with rugby!
i got back to work june 11. and by the end of june i was gone to start training to go back over again! so its been pretty crazy!!!
i played rugby yet again this year and had a blast doing it! plus (since my condo was an appt conversion and in dire need of renos) i spent the summer painting and renovating.
I spent 2m in wainwright for more work up training in the fall. 2 weeks later i was on a plane to germany!
WOW is all i gotta say. The gunnery system is fairly simular to the system in the c2 plus the germans were used to training conscripts. so it was pretty max relax and a lot of beer and food tasting!!! i became friends with an awsome group of girls!!!! we met almost every night at the sunset bar and shared toooo many rounds of 1 euro shots!!!! it was crazy and i got a beer gut in result (lol im still trying to get rid of it!)! the food was good, the scenery was awsome and the people were even better! so i cant wait to go around europe with my sister, gena!!!!

now i am back in Canada, spent a really good christmas with my dad, gramma, pat and her family!
now im back to work and back to preping to go to afghanistan.

As you may tell its been really busy and with very little time in edm! Well thats a small summery of my time back in canada!