New Tools

I bought some Conte drawing pencils today at Michael's. I'm creating a gesture portfolio and I wanted it to look a little more colorful and lively than just straight graphite.

Toby Is Cold

So Funny! Toby usually goes outside to piddle and once he's done his business, he likes to romp and bark at the neighbors doggies. Since it's been really cold this week, as in SNOW and ICE and FREEZING TEMPS, he pees quick and runs back inside no time to waste! lol I wanted to capture a little pic to show how cute he is. Kind of unrelated, but I'll get a video of him up soon.

Chris

Zune HD 32

Today we recieved the New Zune HD media player. We've been waiting a long time for it to come out and when we finally were able to order it we wanted to customize it too. So on the back we put a quote that means something to Becky and I...

"Keep Moving Forward"

I thought the packaging was done very well. It was an eye appealing experience from the start.

Back to School

So August 31st was my first day back to school. Chris has been going to school nonstop since he got home from deployment. So far he is kicking butt in all of his classes. And i must say his homework looks way more fun than mine does. Its so funny to walk into our office and see him drawling and when i ask him what hes doing he says "homework". I wish i could doodle and turn it in for a grade.

So if most of you dont know, i started the paramedic program here at MSU-COT. My first week is done and now i have an idea of what my year is going to look like. One word describes the 12 months i have to look forward to: Hell.

They definitly dont waste time jumping in. I already have 2 tests scheduled for next week and on Friday i learned how to intubate! My biggest fear of being a paramedic is being a leader and intubating someone. But i got the skills down and i intubated a dummy 6 or 7 times. I must say though i have the best tutor ever! 3 hours of tutoring felt like 20 mins. I learned so much. So now im ready to be tested on intubations (youtube it if you dont know what im talking about) and then i start my shifts in the OR. Before i graduate i have to successfully intubate 15 patients!! I have to do alot more but for this semester i have to knock out intubations.

There are 7 people in my class and i have a feeling that were spending Thanksgiving together because of how much bonding were going to be doing.

Nothing else new in the Wood house. Were both trying to take life one step at a time. But one thing we both can say is that we love you guys!

California

Hey guys! Sorry its been a while since Ive blogged. Alot has happened since March and one of the main thing is my trip solo to California. I was supposed to be there for 7days and then something happened with the booking of the plane so i stayed 10 days! Heres a picture diary of the things i did. Not all the things but some fun parts of my trip

One thing that i did when i was there was go to San Francisco with one of my best friends, Christie. We of course went shopping and then we drove around town. We went and saw the mission Delores but couldnt find a way in so we drove through Castro St which apperently is a very popular street and im not going to say why. We also saw some really large and expensive house which for some reason were only found on top of the steepest streets. Theres a picture of one of the streets i was scared to go up on. Thankfully Miss Christie was driving which gave me the liberty to scream all the way up:) Of course after that we went to Peir 39 were all the main attractions are and had Keras cupcakes and bubba gump!

I spent alot of time with Christie while i was in Cali and most of those times were the funnest.

There are also some pictures with one set of cousins. For most of you that dont know, on one side of the family i have over 40 cousins. I only saw 10 of them.

On July13(?) Harry Potter came out and all the movie theaters in sac were sold out so me, anna, and ruth road tripped it an hour and a half to stockton and watched it there. Youll see a sweaty dark photo of me, anna, and ruth in a movie theatre. We were sweaty because even at midnight in Cali it was 95 out side(YUK)

I also spent alot of time with my family which was my main reason for going. Theres a picture with me and my dad outside in his orchard by a plum tree. Thats were he wanted the picture taken. It was so bright outside that i squinted chinese style:)

Hope you guys liked the pictures. I promise ill be better about blogging in the future.

Here are another few things that has happened to me this summer:

I no longer have a gallbladder

I again didnt ger excepted into the nursing program so i start the paramedic program in 3 weeks

I finally went camping American style and it rained the whole time.

James is living with me again and is going to be with us a year because he starts bible collge in a month

As you saw we have a new car

After this trip, i really miss my maiden name; Toderean.

Toby is the cutest dog ever!

New Car

The Lude (1991 Honda Prelude 2.0 Si) finally ended its long time stint as my little coupe. It was my second car I've ever bought and owned outright (the first being my 1980 Volvo 240 DL, lovingly named Gretl). But sadly the timing belt broke and messed up a couple valves along with it. So instead of paying more than its worth to get it fixed, Becky and I thought and prayed about what to do. We looked around all over town at several dealers and we both saw this car that looked really nice. When we found out the price and mileage (and test drove it and checked it under the hood, etc.), we ended up buying this 2000 Honda Accord EX. It's my first car I've ever bought that I have to make payments on, but it should last me longer and be more reliable than the Prelude or Volvo was. It's charming and clean and fast and leather! What shall we call her?

FUEGO

I went to Glacier Bible Camp a little bit ago and got to use my new camera a lot. It was nice getting used to the controls and settings. I have a few friends that use Nikon's and a couple that use Canons. I really like the ease of use on the Nikon. Here are a few pictures that I found quite nice.

"Dude, you've got a gnarly booger in your nose.."

So close, but just because your tongue is out, doesn't mean you can dunk like Jordan...

"Triple culicidae-cide."

Pie-eating contest with a suprise filling.. oysters and anchovies.

The dreaded PLUNGE was reserved for those with cabin cleaning skills needing a little TLC:

(Total Liqification Cleansing)

...idk

aw what a cutie.

On the road to Glacier National Park.

In Glacier National Park.

It Fits!!

Chris asked for a cheesy smile. Think this was too cheesy:)

Chris caught me doing my homework in my dress. A little emabarressing im not gonna lie.

Ah ha! Proof it still fits! I love my dress! Playing dress up was fun!

Hey guys! So when Chris and I moved to Great Falls, we both left some things in Cali. One thing that i wished i would've made sure i packed was my wedding dress. Its been 2 years since our wedding and i havent seen my dress since then. Well yesterday a friend dropped off my dress! I was actually nervous to open the bag that my dress was in. It was like meeting an old friend (cheesy i know). I put it on and had Chris zip me up and miracles of all miracles, it still fit!! So i had a blast wearing it for a few minutes. Hope you like the pictures!

Napoleon Dynamitesque

Becky was at the Paramedic station from 0600 until 10:00pm. I was cleaning up a lot of stuff around the house and I was left to fend for myself to eat. No problem. I've done this for the last 8 months. No wife. No one telling me when to eat. Although, there were time limits. The chow hall has operating hours so if I missed those, I was done for! So anyways I was out doing a lot of errends today and had Toby with me. We ate at McDonalds. Not healthy in any way but satisfying nonetheless. And for dinner I wanted to make tacos or burritos or something Mexican, but we don't have ground beef. So I opted for simple, and cosmically delicious! Corn dogs, chips and Dr Pepper. Yea! Who can argue? 

My dinner reminds me of the opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite

I do know how to cook by the way. I just wanted a quick fix. I sure appreciate how much my wife cooks though. =) I love you Beck.

where everybody knows your name

I'm finally home after 8months away from Great Falls. It's been a long time for me since I've posted. I know Becky has added a few updates. Now that I'm home and can sit at a nice desk with a really cool computer, rather than in my twin size top bunk in Kuwait with a 5 year old laptop, I'll be posting more regularly, for those who keep up with the Wood's. =)

Becky and Toby met me at the airport. Jon and Ellen came too! It was a warm greeting. 

So a couple things I noticed right a way:

1. Becky cut seven inches off her hair!! And boy does she look good! I mean, she told me she was going to cut it and I had some reservations about how I'd feel about that. I mean I love her no matter what. It's like buying a hardtop convertible and then someone steals your hardtop: It still looks good, but when you want to drive in the rain, its almost impossible. So when Beck wants to style her hair, she has less options, and if I want to play with her hair, i have less to play with. But you know what, I'm being silly. She looks great!
2. It's a lot colder in Great Falls that in Kuwait or Iraq. I can hear a lot of you saying to yourselves, "Duh!" But I was overseas during the cold season. I had the end of summer heat up to and including 120 degrees F, colds getting down to the 30s with ice and snow on the ground, very windy days, very sandy-windy days, rain, hail, thunder, and lightening. But Great Falls is COLD! Woo! I guess I'll get acclimated again.

The plane ride took almost the whole day. We left Kuwait International at 0200 local time and landed in Baltimore at 1530 ET. We stopped first at Ramstein AB in Germany to drop off a couple guys who are stationed there. We all de-planed and waited in the terminal for a few minutes. I didn't see anything spectacular except it was very green there compared to the sands of the desert. Then we got back on and proceded to Shannon, Ireland where we all had our first alcoholic beverage in over half a year! For me, I had a Guinness of course. Straight from the tap into my pint glass. It was delectable! 

Our commanding officer who flew with us told the bar tender, "No shots." But that didn't stop a lot of people from buying bottles of vodka and whisky from the gift shop. 

The Wood Family Crest amd information.

I wanted something to remember the experience by, so I found a little family crest, proving that my heritage is Irish. =) I bought it in Ireland so anytime I see it I can remember I was there. Mental note: take a vacation in Ireland! It's so beautiful there. As we were landing I was looking out the window to see what it looked like, and like many parts of the U.S., it's cloudy and damp. But it made everything look so GREEN and lush. There were herds of sheep, cottages spread apart by acres of land, and I even saw an old castle covered in moss! Beauty.

After that it was a long boring flight across the Atlantic Ocean. I slept through the in-flight movie. 

When I woke up, we were landing in Baltimore. It was a nice feeling being in the U.S. again. It almost felt like a foreign country because I hadn't been to that city before, and I've been away from America since August last year. But sure enough, that feeling passed, and everything became familiar: heavy traffic, bums, thug-wannabees, clean(er) air. I was home. It was nice to be greeted by a lot of strangers who knew we were coming home from a deployment. They shook our hands and patted us on the back with a "welcome home" and a "thank you." One lady gave hugs. They handed out bags with granola bars and bottled water and other snacks. I just wanted to change my flight to an earlier one so I could hurry and get home to Montana. The majority of us were already home, being stationed on the east coast. After all that, I walked outside to await the shuttle to my hotel and I gave my bag o' goodies to a homeless man who greatly appreciated it. No biggie. I wasn't hungry.

After an early flight the next day to Denver, I ate some nachos at a mexi-bar. They were good. It was short flight to Great Falls. It looked so different. Snow along the edges of things made me smile because Denver, the mile-high city, was dry. I've been caught up on the news of Great Falls since I've been away: December was really cold. And now I look forward to summer time, BBQs, and time spent with my family and friends. Hopefully I won't have to deploy for a while. And if I do, it's somewhere besides Iraq. But beggers can't be choosers. So instead, I'll pray.