Pie

My second favorite pie is pecan, following pumpkin by a thin margin.  The only reason pumpkin wins out is I can eat so much more of it than pecan.  The pecan pie was introduced to me, I don't know when, I have eaten a few pieces every year at Thanksgiving since before my memories begin.  So you may imagine that when I taste the sweet and chewy manna, I also taste many sweet memories.  I remember the days as a boy at my Grandma and Grandpa Robinson's; laying on the new carpet for the first thanksgiving, "post" orange shag carpet.  I remember riding in the elevator at Grandma Browns first apartment in LaGrande to pick her up and bring her over for diner.  The best thing about Thanksgiving and the holidays is that we are socially forced to spend time with our families and gather together the sweet ingredients that make the pie of our lives.  And each year we get to sit down and have a couple more pieces. This month; November, makes the 27th thanksgiving for me, the 6th with Sara, 5th with Olson, and 2nd with Deacon.  I love pie both the literal and the metaphorical, my own personal "pecan pie" is sweet and chewy, it is filled with love, joy, stress, happiness, and topped with nuts.

The Dog

Presley, is our new dog.  He is a Mutt, boxer/boarder collie, plus some more I am sure.  Olson and Deacon are in love, Sara maybe not so much but she is coming around.  We found him on craigslist about a month ago, went and looked at him, brought him home for a test run and he seems to be working out.  He is a good guard dog, protective of the kids and house.

Trick or Treat

What a fun filled sugar fest this year.  Yes we did our part this year to help keep grandpa's retirement coming.  To start the evening we brought Olson, Deacon, Kurtis and Kylie along to the ward Halloween party.  They had a blast at the cup cake walk, cookie decorating, and donut eating contest.  The fun was over there around 5:00 just in time to head out on town to get some free candy from strangers.  Interesting note Deacon started out the evening as a red Dragon (hand me down from last year) and ended as a pumpkin.  This was due to the shear amount of food, punch, and home brewed root beer he managed to get on his dragon suit.  We got done trick or treating in time to get home and put the boys in bed, and still catch a few Treater's.

Any Thoughts?

Even though there are only about 2 people who ever look at this blog I thought I would ask a question.  As some people know by now I am headed to Afghanistan.  I want to get a computer just in case we are able to have easy access to the inter-net (we did in Iraq and that was 5 years ago so hopefully Afghan. is about the same) so that I can communicate with home via skype, this blog, facebook, and regular email and what not.  So my question is what should I get?  I am thinking about a netbook,http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11489343&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|78453&N=4034819&Mo=9&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=78453&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav= this one from Costco seems like a good deal because it comes with a DVD drive and a mouse and all that.  But it has windows XP and I am used to Vista now and like it plus I would really like to have Window 7.  The other plus about the netbook is that it is so much more affordable than anything else. the downside is that I will have to have more external stuff, external hard drive, DVD drive and such.  But I think that I would be able to put most of my movies and such on an external hardrive.

So anyway this is what I am thinking about and as I don't know a lot about the situation in Afghan. or computers some help would be nice.  So if you read my blog and or have been on a deployment to Afghanistan let me know what you think.  Also if you know of any sweet deals or programs for deploying Marines that would be cool too. 

Halloween House

For FHE on Monday we had Anna, Kurtis, and Kylie over.  The evening started of with a prayer and song then we had a lesson on the Ten Commandments.  Anna and the kids couldn't stick around for the treat and activity and they missed out on a good time. We kicked the evening off by making a haunted ginger bread house. Then we started watching Coraline in 3D. About half way through the movie we took an intermission to eat the house. Then it was back to the movie and off to bed. So here are some pictures.

Tri-County

It occurred to me last night that I should take some shots of the Gun Club so that someday I can look back and reminisce about the days back in the states when I worked at Tri-County. I think that there are places in our lives were we have spent so much time that it is impossible for us to ever forget them. One of these places in my life is the Tri-County Gun Club; I have worked here for eight hours a day, five days a week, for the last three years. I thought that today I would pay a little tribute to this place that I Love and Hate so much. Well there are few places that I know more intimately; if there is something to know about the gun club chances are that I know it. Where are the pipes? I know. Who parks in the “no parking” spots? I know. Where does all this stuff come from? I know. Why do people leave their trash on the ground right next to the can? I have no idea. In the year ahead as I am freezing my rear off in Afghanistan I will look back at my time here and think with fondness of the beauty that is western Oregon; the deer, bobcat, and even the stupid ground squirrels will bring a smile to my face as I am sitting on the back of a truck driving around the mountains of the middle east.  So what do I love about this club?  The work is great, I get to be outside as much as I want, I also get to be inside as much as I want. The club is over 200 acres and has over eight buildings that I take care of.  There are some really nice places on the property I really love the sporting clays area it is so pretty with its old rusted truck and nice groves.  It is a real pleasure to come out here every morning and get to see some really great things.  Also I get a chance to see the seasons and time make their progression, I spend time thinking about the next season and what it will bring. Its going to be nice to know that there is such a place as the Club in the world and that I get to come back and work at that place will be a nice comfort that I didn't have on the last deployment, because unless my nightmare becomes true we will still have our gun rights and so the Club will still be in business.

Toys for Tots

I went down to Eugene on Monday and Tuesday to do my time helping out with Toys for Tots. If you don't know what that is I will explain. Toys for Tots is a program that the Marine Corps Reserves does, in connection with local fire departments, to gather new unused toys and give them to kids who may otherwise not get presents. It is a lot of fun to be involved in the community and help kids out like that. Being in the Marines has really opened me up to a lot of experiences that I would otherwise never have had. I didn't really do much this year for TforT because there wasn't much that needed done this early; we put out a few collection boxes and organized some posters and such. I have had years where I got to actually help give toys out and that is neat. So now that TforT is out of the way we're just getting ready for November drill, Sara and I will be going down to Eugene for classes and briefs on the deployment. And then of course the Marine Corps Ball is this drill so we will go "cut a rug" and have a good time celebrating the Marine Corps Birthday.

New Word

Hey to anyone out there, it is the first time I have blogged in a while. I started this blog about a year ago so that I could document and keep in touch during a deployment that was supposed to come in Jan. Well the timing was a little early instead of Jan. 09 it looks like we are going in 2010. We just got warning orders and are headed out early next year for Afghanistan. More blogs will follow as I try to document all the comings and goings of the next few months as Sara and I try to prepare for whats coming.

Run of the House

Deacon seems to think that he is the boss of our house. A fact that is disputed by Olson and myself. But when given the opportunity, he will assert himself by walking around the room and claiming control disputed territory. For example the other day he decided that the remote was his sceptre. It is funny how different two kids can be; Deacon will look at you and give you a knowing grin saying "I am about to attempt this what are you going to do about it?" Where Olson will just do something and hope that you don't catch him. Of course when Olson is caught he will do his best to blame Deacon for the miss deed. Also Deacon walks around looking for trouble where Olson just seems to find it by accident. We hear it a lot and I tend to agree Deacon is a tank, or a bruiser, he is going to be a lot like his Grandpa I think. Sara and I are seeing a lot more of Dad in him lately. Of course both boys are having a blast playing with all of Olson's new toys and fighting over who's turn it is to play with the Bat Copter.

ER

Deacon has joined the ranks of "Robinson boys who went to the ER for an injury before they were two." Last night as Sara and I were getting ready for diner he decided it would be a good idea to climb up onto the dining room chair (this is not a new idea for him he likes to spend the bulk of his time climbing on things) which usually works out in his favor as he is able to reach food and other things of interest. Well last night gravity won and he slipped off of the chair knocking the back of his head on the way down. Sara was there right away to asses the damage; once it was determined that there was blood coming from the back of his head she lost control of her scenes and was going strait to the hospital without further discussion. Enter stage left "Me." I grabbed a rag and tried to calm Sara down "lets have a look at it before we head off to the hospital sure enough there was quite the gouge in the back of his head, so we loaded all the kids up and headed to the ER. (We are currently watching our niece for a couple weeks) For anyone who wants to know it is much better to go to the ER at 6:00 p.m. then 2:00 a.m. as you get through much faster. It took less than a half hour and he was stapled up and ready to go home. Deacon was back to normal and trying to climb the chair again that night. This is the second time Deacon has been to the ER (first was for whooping cough) and only time will tell how many more he has in his future. My bet is that he will stay ahead of Olson in the competition.

Birthday

Olson had his fourth birthday party last weekend. It was a week late because his Dad was off gallivanting with the Marine Corps. He had a blast, a big thank you goes out to everyone who came. And there was a lot of you, Sara and I figured it was about 40. Now Olson is four going on 25 and he loves Batman, and robots. He pretends to be either one or the other about 60% of the day. Rarely does he go by Olson, if you try and call him Olson you get the response "..I..AM..NOT..OLSON...I..AM...A...ROBOT.." "oh sorry; Robot, will you please pick up your toys." Anyway he is having a blast being four.