NEWS, NEWS, NEWS

Again, I'm behind. We just moved into our new house on teh next street over from the old house. It's naturally been a pain in the butt trying to get things together but we're happy, the kids are happy, and I'm pretty sure Spencer is happy. He is living in the basement that is a complete apartment with a kitchen and bathroom! He's working almost non-stop at American Eagle clothing store and Toy R US! We, on the other hand, are just working to clean the new house up and get everything put away where it should go. I've started duck hunting this year with Darrell Hall. He's in the Young Men's Presidency and Scout troop at church with me and pretty much a big country guy. The first day of duck season was horrible because it was 18 degrees and the pond was frozen. We only saw about 9 duck. The 2nd day I shot my first duck, a female Gadwall. As the hunts have gone on we have had good days and bad days. The better of days we have seen anywhere between 25 and 100+ duck! We have seen Geese fly 2-3 times out at one area, a swamp, and the first time we saw them I didn't know what they were from the distance. Darrell saw them, called them in closer with his goose call, and then we blasted them. I got a goose and that things was BIG! It's in my freezer waiting for a couple more to join him. Anyway, we're going out again tomorrow morning, what a crapy Christmas Eve some ducks and geese might have tomorrow!! Oh well, it's all inthe name of filling our freezers. Enough of this.

On December 10 the Army FINALLY called me. I was pretty nervous when I answered the phone and the lady on the other end told me they had reached a decision on my returning to active duty status. She said she had to red the letter, which was annoying because I just wanted to hear what the heck the verdict was! My medical exemption had been approved and I will be Honorably Discharged from my reserve duty this month. I will no longer have any obligations to the Military. So in short, I'm not going anywhere but back to school in the Spring!! I want to thank you all for you prayers and thoughts, etc, etc through out this stressful event. Enough of that stuff too.

NOW, Megan has been accpeted to the MEdical College of Georgia for the Occupational therapy Program starting in the Fall 2009!! I knew she would get in. She's very excited and can't wait to start. I'm very excited and can't wait for her to get started so she can get done and I can be a kept man!! ha ha Seriously, that'll be awesome, I'll have a "Sugar Mama"! Sweet...

Not much more going on then that. We're happy and things are going well. I'll post pictures sometime soon of the new house and such.

Slow on Blogging!

So we were in Toys R Us the Saturday after Thanksgiving and saw Jess Winn from church and he asked how the whole Army recall had turned out. He said he had read about it on our blog and that's when I realized I haven't updated this crazy thing in a LONG time. So here's the scoop: The medical exemption is still under review and they have postponed my report date until January 4, 2009. I don't really have any clue how this is going to pan out but many people I talk with speculate that they are just postponing it to see what President elect Obama has planned for the deployment of troops. I don't know. I just wish they would tell me I'm off the the recall and leave me be. That's the update, and that's enough of that. On to more interesting things.

We are moving again. It's on the next street over from where we live now and is a little bigger. It has a basement apartment with a kitchenette and full bathroom. Since having my younger brother, Spencer, move in with us in September it's started to get crowded in here and so we feel the need for a bigger house and this one fit the bill. This place will give Spencer the opportunity to have his own place away from us. He's currently been sleeping on our queen size air mattress in the old computer room. The computer has transferred to our room and the boys requested they all 3 be in the same room together again! The last room has once again become the play room for the boys. We are planning on being out of here on the 15th of December. Moving into the other house will hopefully begin on the 11th but we still haven't gotten the application from the property manager. The owner is in the military and stationed in the U.K. but actually called us this past week to chat with us about moving in. Nice guy. Sounded alot like our friend Thomas Oberman! If I hadn't known the guy was calling I would've thought it was Thomas when I answered the phone. School is school and I really hate Pre-Calculus. I hate it so much I'm retaking it in the Spring! That's some deep hate going on! Megan is naturally doing splendid, all A's, constantly worried about it, and stressing out more than anything over school. Silly lady. She's had her interview with MCG (Medical College of Georgia) for the O.T. (Occupational Therapy) program that starts in the Fall of 2009. She's very nervous about this and hopes that she will get in even though she was accepted for Fall 2008 but lacked 16 credit hours and opted to wait until 2009 to attend. For some reason they wanted her to reapply and go through the whole process again. I have faith she'll get in because I know she's tons smarter than she gives herself credit for. I may pester her about being naive and not street smart at times but that's only because I love to pick on her, or wait, no, it's because I love her! Yeah, that's right!!! The boys are having fun in school and Dylan sure misses them throughout the day. Ally and Paisley are the ones who are for sure NAIVE, but we don't tell them that. We were hoping to have Paisley bred for the holidays but she seems to have decided not to go that route this Winter. Maybe in the Spring she'll change her mind, she really wants puppies to cuddle. As for Ally, I think if Paisley disappeared she wouldn't lose any sleep. They really got excited when I brought home my first Duck of the season. I went out Duck hunting with my buddy Darrel and I got a duck. My first shot of the season and I took that thing right out of the sky. It was our 2nd day hunting. The first day, opening day, sucked. The 3rd day, I blasted one, he faked it, plunged to the water, and while I was focused on his buddy, got up and took off! Darrel saw it, I was to busy TRYING to shoot the other one. I breasted it out and ate it for Thanksgiving. It was really good. Alot like deer meat I guess. NOT GREASY, DIDN'T TASTE LIKE CHICKEN. Duck season closed yesterday and will open again on December 6th. We will be out blasting them out of the sky, and Spencer will hopefully be with us. I'll post pictures of my duck as soon as we download them off Spencers phone!

The Quest for Assualt Weapons

So this is the deal, Tim at church is getting his FFL (Federal Firearms License) along with his Class 3 Licenses. I want either the first pictured SMG (Sub-Machine Gun) which is the famous Heckler and Koch MP5 or the second pictured Heckler and Koch UMP45. This is a very tough decision which I will need your help in considering. The MP5 fires a 9MM round and the UMP45 fires the 45 ACP. I will also need money! Don't know how much but they will probably run a few thousand dollars. This is where you all come in again. As much as you can spare, whatever loose change you have laying around, send it! You can have part ownership in a Sub-Machine Gun without all the headache of cleaning it, buying ammo for it, taking it out to the range to fire it, and maintaining it's beauty all together, I'll do that! I just need your help. Let me know. It's a tough decision and I need help...oh yes, and lastly because it's a Class 3 weapon it will fire in single, three round burst, and FULL AUTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Help make my dreams come true...and put fear into the hearts of the Democrats. hehehe

FOR POLAND!!

This is for my good Polish friend, Marcel. I met him in Iraq in the summer of 2004! We had some great times hanging out with the Poles. They made some killer soup one afternoon and we satyed to eat. Later that night I found myself with a shovel, roll of T.P., flashlight, and M-16 blowing my guts out hoping that Iraqi's couldn't hear me because Polish food didn't agree with my stomach. These Polish soldiers were the greatest bunch on guys to have around. Helps pass the time too. Anyway, here's me and Joe with Marcel in the Polish barracks.

Labor Day Trip to Alabama

(That's my Grandfather James Luney Warren in the middle of the picture on the Mule)

This Labor Day Weekend we went to Alabama for the Warren Family Reunion. They do it every year the Sunday before Labor Day. I took my laptop and scanner with me because I wanted to scan all the old pictures that my dad's sister had! She had a lot and some they weren't even sure of who they were. One picture was even on an old piece of metal!!! Awesome stuff. Got a bunch old pictures of my Grandpa James Luney Warren (that's my dad's dad). He died in 1959 so I've never met him. It's pretty cool to see pictures of him when he was young. I'll post so of the pictures because they are cool! Found some of my parents when they got married and a bunch of my dad when he was younger. I had a alot of fun. Next time I'm gonna hit up my dad's half sister's for some pictures. Zane and Carson had a great time, as they always do at Aunt Nell's house (my dad's older sister). She always make chocolate gravy for breakfast and Zane made sure to ask if it was gluten free and to his great excitement to was!! So he ate his breakfast EVERY morning. The drive home was crazy long but we stopped in Atlanta to hang out with Tyler (Uncle Tito) and Jessica (Aunt Cheeto). We left the dogs there because I had neglected to find someone here to watch them so Tyler's friend from church came and fed them on Sunday afternoon. We put the dogs in the back of Spencer's truck to ride home and Ally was mad at us while Paisley thought she was on top of the world! She's truly a dog!! Now we have a pile of dirty laundry and lots of pictures to sift through for Genealogy. Hopefully one day we will make a breakthrough in my dad's mother's side of the family. She was a South and we can't seem to find anything on her Grandfather expect 1 census report from 1890 or something like that. I don't remember exactly. One day I hope to get further with that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Crazy things can happen when you least expect.

So, I've really been a slacker on writing on this thing but lately I have good reasons. My mind has been pre-occupied with other things, new semester at school starting, Zane starting a full day pre-k class, getting orders to go back on Active duty and deploy to Afghanistan, Carson starting his half day pre-k program...Oh yeah, I guess I should talk a little about the Army thing. Well, to start, for those of you out there that aren't aware of this, and most aren't, when you enlist in the Army you HAVE to enlist for a minimum of 8 years. Now these 8 years can be spent in any number of way and combinations. Most, like me, spend 4 years on Active duty and 4 years in the IRR (Individual Ready Reserves). Now IRR soldiers do not have to go and do the 1 weekend a month drill or anything like that. They are sometimes called to Muster Duty for 1 day and are paid for it. I was mustered in April of 2007 and 2008. In great time of need the government can call you back into Active duty if they need to. Well, on August 9, 2008 after I returned home from several hours of service work with the Boy Scout Troop, there was a nice little FedEx package waiting for me. When I looked and saw that it was from the Department of the Army Human Resorce Command in St. Louis I thought that it may be a revised DD214 (that's the piece of paper they give you when you get out saying you were a good soldier and here's all the awrads you earned while you served) because I had a couple of awards added to that after I got out. I realized that this package was entirely to thick and had been FedEx ed to be something of that small importance to the Army. I than realized that this was probably the ever dreaded and IMPOSSIBLE recall orders!! I never thought in all my years that it would actually happen. So, with great hesitation I opened it and on the very first sheet read this, "Pursuant to Presidential Executive order of 14 Sep 2001, you are relieved from you present reserve component status and are ordered to report for a period of active duty not to exceed 25 days for mobilization processing." As I read on it says that the 25 days is just for processing and that they want me to report to Fort Jackson, SC on Sept 14 for a period "not to exceed 0400 days UNLESS EXTENDED OR TERMINATED by proper authority." Purpose line reads: Partial Mobilization - Operation Enduring Freedom. Well, that's probably Afghanistan. This is just great. Anyway, I read onward and realized that I can apply for a medical exemption, so, I submitted my packet and got a call from a SFC McGrath telling my not to report to Fort Jackson on the 14th of September but to wait for a call from them on the decision of the Commander once he has reviewed my paperwork. Now I only hope that they left the same message at Fort Jackson or else I'm gonna be up the creek without a paddle! They send you to jail for not reporting! I DON"T WANT THAT. So now we play the wonderful Army waiting game. I hope that I don't have to go but if the medical exemption is rejected than, in my mind, I have no other choice but to return to Active duty and serve once again for the a short time in the sandbox. Other than that, things seem to be going pretty good!!

In the Beginning.

So I've finally decide to join the rest of the Internet savvy world and make one of these Blog spots that I graciously detest, just like myspace and facebook! Anyway, these things are actually really cool because you can just post your life for all your family and friends to read and then tell them to read it if they want to know what's going on! It makes life easier and less people mad because you "didn't call them and tell them what was happening!" Like we don't' have lives of our own and things going on. We can just drop everything pick up the address book and call everyone we know to tell them that we breezed through the 4 week Public Speaking Class and got an A or that we started a Biology 1108 Class that's only going to be 4 weeks so don't be disappointed if I don't call, write, email, or IM you because this thing is INTENSE!! See, blog spot is already getting on my good side. Awesome stuff this Internet is. Just glad they have it in Iraq. Nice to see those people have priorities! No running water indoors or bathrooms but they've got their Internet. No washer and dryer like us but they've got Internet. Oh, they do have an AK-47 and RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) with their Internet! Got to love them.

Enough rambling. Megan will start MCG in the Fall of 2009 because she just has a few other classes to finish up before then and she doesn't want to burn herself out this summer and then try to start in the fall and do mediocre. She'll be hitting Physics in July and then doing a easier classes the rest of Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters until Fall '09.

The boys are doing great. Zane will be 5 in November but not starting school until next year because he won't make the cut off. He's always trying to help me and Megan. Earlier I looked out the window and he was using the pruning shears to prune the bushes! Great helper but my fear was that Carson would get a little close and then I'd be sitting in the ER with fingers and LOTS 'O' BLOOD! Not a wonderful thought so I had him put them away.

Carson just turned 3 on the 31st of May and is sort of growing up but you can't tell by looking at him. He's just like Megan, small fry. Talks so good sometimes you wonder how he can only be 3 years old. He LOVES to jump off of stuff. He and Zane will probably want to become Paratroopers too. Zane says he does but Carson's the one showing it!

Dylan has started to finally take steps on his own. Grandpa was over the other day and Dylan took about 5 steps!! I had only seen him take about 2 or maybe 3 at most but it was at least 5! They all love Grandpa too (and Granna of course, cause she's got the candy stash!)

Ally and Paisley are just dirty, dirty, dirty. They never stay clean, even after we've bathed them. They stink, they poop, and they ALWAYS want to eat! Go figure. We still love them and Dylan gets excited when they come into the room! Crazy beasts. Just wish we had a pasture to let run in. One day...