Qatar

I'm back from my spring break trip to Doha, Qatar. I had quite a fun time, with plenty of relaxation and sun and a few beers mixed in as well. I was fortuante enough to take 3 different trips while I was in Qatar, including visits to a 4 story mall called the City Center (complete with ice skating rink and bowling alley), a trip to the Persian Gulf for an afternoon of sand and food by the ocean, drove SUVs through the sand dunes, ate lunch at an Iranian restraunt in downtown Doha, toured local shops and malls in Doha, enjoyed plenty of good food and slept in every day. All in all a very productive trip and a nice break from Iraq. I'll post a couple pictures for you all here, and I'll also include a link to my Facebook page which has about 60 additional pictures from my trip on it. Enjoy.

Feeding camels in Doha.
Enjoying a few cold ones with the guys.
This pearl is some big tourist attraction in Doha, so here is my touristy picture with the pearl.

Check here for a ton of other pictures from my trip.

Spring Break

March is a common time for colleges around the U.S. to give their students a mid-semester break to relax their minds and get away from classes for awhile. This time is usually referred to as spring break. For example, my girlfriend Nicki took a trip to Colorado last week, to spend time with her friends and get away from lovely Nebraska for awhile. You wouldn't think that I would be enjoying a spring break trip this year, knowing my current location and situation, but alas, you would be wrong. I'm leaving Iraq a few short days from now for my own spring break trip to exotic Qatar. The Army has this slick little pass program set up for soldiers in Iraq who need a few days away from it all. Soldiers are flown to an Army base in the country of Qatar for a 4 day pass. Soldiers are allowed to wear civilian clothes, sleep in, swim at the pool, take trips to tour the local countryside, and even drink real beer (limited to 3 drinks per night). Our Brigade wasn't planing on sending Soldiers on pass during our time in Iraq for various reasons, but after the news of the extension hit, they decided it might be a good idea to give some soldiers a break. Especially those who took their RR leave during the early months of the deployment. So long story short, my chance to take pass is here, and just happens to fall during the spring break time period, so I guess when everyone is remembering their trips to Cancun or Vegas or wherever, I can drop in that I flew to Qatar. Should be a good time. Hopefully I take lots of pictures while I'm gone, and I'll be sure to update you all upon my return.

(For more info on Qatar, check out here or here)

Moving on

Alright, I've finally come to grips with the fact that my R&R leave is over. I've decided I need to move on with my life and start looking forward to the end of this ordeal and quit focusing on the past. To mark this occasion I will post one final batch of R&R leave photos. Enjoy.

Nicki holding her newest sister, Emma. My time back on leave gave me the oppertunity to hang out with Emma for the first time. She seems pretty cool, except for when she drooled on my t-shirt when I was holding her. But that happens to all of us from time to time, so I won't hold it against her.

Another picture of my welcome home party, hosted by the Kools. My cousin Amanda was able to come, which was very cool. Looks like she is having a fun time.

Nicki and I at BW3s.

The sweetest thing

Nicki and I, keeping it real at the welcome home bash thrown by my grandparents, Bill and Nancy at their home, Fountain Glen.

Couples

Jamie came up to NE allll the way from Colorado State to attend my shin-ding and say hello. High five to Jamie for being a good friend and taking the time out of her busy summer to visit us all up North. In the picture below, from left to right, is myself, Nicki, Jamie and her boyfriend, Jake.

Brothers

Flanked by my two youngest brothers. Jacob on the left, James on the right. James will be a freshman at Hastings College and Jacob a senior at Seward High. Crazy.

homecoming

This picture was taken only hours after I had arrived in NE. Nicki picked me up at the airport in Omaha, and we had just arrived at her apartment. Notice two things: I'm still in partial Army uniform, and Nicki made an awesome shirt just for my return!

b dubs

Me and my boy Nate, at BW3s.

Boyd's are back in town

Tim and Zach Boyd made a pit stop on their way to Chicago to stop in Lincoln and say hi to me. They were on their way from Denver, CO up North to Chicago to see their brother David graduate from Navy basic training. Tim and Zach were only in town a couple days, but it was a fun time and I was stoked that they were able to stop and say hi before I left for my return trip to Iraq.

Saltdogs

This picture was taken at a Saltdogs game that Nicki and I attended. Being at the ballpark is always a good time, and I believe the Saltdogs won this game, which was an added bonus.

Picture time

Here is a picture of me chilling out with some of the guys at my welcome home party, hosted by the Kools. Clockwise from the top, starting with me: Nate, Ben, Alex, James and Ryan. Good times were had by all.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Recently, my awesome girlfriend Nicki sent me a CD chock full of sweet pictures from my time back in NE. I wanted to think of a creative way to share some of these pictures with you, my loyal readers, and I think I've found it. I will post one random picture a day (or as often as my schedule allows me), until I feel I've posted enough to give you all a good feel for how my leave went, and to give certain people or events the attention (for one day, at least) that they so richly deserve. This will also give me a reason to hold on even longer to the great memories I had while I was home, and take my mind off of the task at hand. I'll try and include a little caption under each picture, describing who was involved and what was going down. So here we go...


I would be remiss if I didn't kick this whole thing off without a picture of my better half, Nicki, and I. This picture was taken over at Nate, Ryan and Mitch's apartment one fine evening while I was home. I think this picture pretty much proves that we are are the best thing since sliced bread.

Flying Squirrel

While I was at home, a few friends and family members inquired about the story behind the black eye I was sporting for a week or so back in early June. (Read about it here) During the course of describing the entire incident in painstaking detail, I mentioned that our Squadron Executive Officer, MAJ Teegerstrom, had drawn up a sketch on a whiteboard next to my desk. The sketch is MAJ Teegerstrom's best effort to visually paint a picture of how my whole black eye incident went down. Well, upon my return from R&R leave, I found that my comrades here in the office had taken the sketch to another level. They had added mathematical equations and other numbers to add more detail to the original sketch. I decided I would capture this work of art by taking a picture, so as to record the event for historical purposes and record keeping. So without further adieu, here is the much talked about, much hyped sketch.

Cabela's Flag

About two months ago, I wrote a piece on this blog about my employer back home, Cabelas, and how they had genourously donated a Cabela's flag for me to fly over here in Iraq. (Read about it here) The flag had been flying in front of the Lincoln Cabela's office, and they took it down just to send me so I would have something to fly over here. I flew the flag and then when I went home on leave recently, I returned the flag to the kind folks at Cabelas, complete with a framed certificate documenting the event. They were very happy with how the whole thing turned out, as was I. Here is a pic of me and the Human Resources rep at the Cabela's Bank with the certificate that I delivered. Thanks again to Cabela's for all their help in making this happen!

Shenanigans

One of the highlights of my time spent back in NE had to have been the welcome home party that the Kool's threw for me. Nicki's mom Dianne and her husband Kent graciously hosted my friends and I in their back yard, allowing us to socialize and have some good times all night long. Nicki did a lot of the leg work, inviting what seemed like every friend I've had in the last 10 years to come say hello to their favorite guardsmen serving in Iraq, have a few drinks, and enjoy a warm summer night in Nebraska. Here are a couple of pics from the party.

Hanging out with some of "the guys" - Shaun, myself, K-Mart and Wags.

Two of my brothers made the trip from the farm to say hello, despite being in the midst of detasseling season. The scary thing about this picture is that I appear to possibly be the shortest Hanseling of the bunch. Yikes. Jacob, myself, Nicki and James.

Me with two lovely ladies - the hostess of my welcome home shin-ding, Mrs. Kool, and her daughter (and my g/f) Ms. Blazek.

Nicki and I with Wags and his girlfriend Hannah, whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time at the party.

Thanks again to the Kools for hosting, all my friends for showing up and saying hello, and most of all my lovely Nicki, for putting the whole thing together.

Back in the saddle again

Some of my readers may be wondering why it has been such a long time since my last update. Well, do not fear, all is well here with me, but I've been away for awhile and that is the reason behind my break in posting to this blog. The general rule of thumb in the military is that you can not discuss specific details of events to be held in the future, but once an event has passed, it is then acceptable to discuss what is now in the past. Therefore, I wasn't able to share with the world that I was returning to NE for a 2 week long break from this lovely desert home of mine, but now that I'm back from NE and enjoying the heat and sand once again, I can now say that I've been back home visiting family and friends. I had a lovely time (as always) and enjoyed every minute of my vacation. I was able to visit with tons of family and friends while I was back, but I'm sure I missed a few people that I would have liked to touch base with. Fear not, people who I missed - come spring of 07 I will be home for good and we can hang out as long as we want. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll find time to share with you all a few pictures and comments on things I was able to do while back in NE.