Living in the Now & Eggs

Week one...

It seems a little weird to think that I've only been here in Mississippi for one week. The time has slowly passed. I find myself focused on my little day-to-day tasks and not so much as to what's going on at home, with the family, with friends, or too far in the future. I think, for the first time in my life, I'm actually living in the NOW. A strange, yet, comforting experience.

Since being here, I've had the opportunity to view the local wild life. On Kaua'i we have chickens. In Idaho, it's the field rats, elk, and occasional stray dog. In Mississippi, it's the skunks. Yes, dear friends, there are skunks galore. Strange indeed.

Unfortunately, the food has not gotten better - however, it's free right? So, I really shouldn't be complaining. BUT, let me tell you a little story about what happened at one of the"Breakfast Club" meetings. And as many of you know, I'm not a very good story teller, so you'll have to bear with me. I'll try to remember to add in the "applause", "laugh", etc... when appropriate. :)

So, the other morning, Allen, Sgt Wallace and I sat down to breakfast. **oohhh** ("The Breakfast Club" as Sgt Wallace indicated one morning.) We signed in on yet another roster, received our breakfast for the morning (trying to vary and change up the same breakfast for the past week is a little difficult), placed my tray down, went back for fruit, yogurt, and my liquids. There. I was ready to eat! **applause**

I made a comment that there was a lot of butter on my grits and proceeded to push the in-view cholesterol to the side. Hm, well, the eggs look a bit better- especially since I dolled it up with cheese! Glorious cheese! **applause** I dip my fork and bring the delightful looking contents to my lips. Chomp-chomp... spit! Ugh! **gasp** I spat out my eggs on my tray and the rest in my napkin. Allen and Sgt Wallace were staring at me with that... "um, that's a little rude" look. I began to smile and maybe even chuckled... I gave a quick light-hearted laugh and told them that I just ate stick of butter. **laugh, knee slap, applause, laugh harder**

"WHAT!", was the reply. Much to our amazement, I moved the remaining cheese to the side, and there you go- in my eggs there was an ever so slowly melting stick of butter! **laugh**

I knew that our eggs were imitation eggs, but I didn't think they'd make "butter" try to taste like eggs and then feed it to us! LOL!!!! Point being - these southern folk reaaallllyyyyy love their butter!

Moral of the story - eat hard boiled eggs!

Camp Shelby...

Landed in Mississippi safely. Slept off and on while on the plane and bus.

Getting settled in a little... the barracks are, well - barracks', and yeah. That's about it for that one.

Dining Facility- it's food.

And, yeah, that's about it.

Here's a friend. I'll let him type a little something: Hello Hope fans, This is your temporary fill in Allen, and let me tell you what I've been here for a few days down here in Mississippi and DANG its a hot muggy beast. I'm excited to work with Pili for the next year and maybe just maybe she will let me write on here again... :)

Ha ha ha! No, Allen- you can't write on here EVER again. Just kidding.

Allen is a great person. He helped me get on the internet so I'll be able to get on here periodically.

Alright friends... remember to write! The address is a couple of entries down. Please write.

One love, p~

Thoughts on Leaving

It's 4:27AM in the morning. Tuesday, 21 September 2010. I'm supposed to leave for deployment and report to the airport before 7AM... just hours away.

Obviously, I can't sleep.

Honestly, I haven't even started packing my gear.

Not quite sure what it is that makes me think - "No worries. I got this." However, that's where my brain is at currently. I'm pretty sure, at this point, I should be stressing out about not having my things done. But, instead, I am here... blogging my little brain away while multi-tasking the following:

-compressing the movies I've purchased online

-laundry

-transferring music from my cds to my iTunes

-occasionally transferring gear from downstairs to the living room

-organizing my electronics

-fighting the head nodding monster (I'm awake, I'm falling asleep, I'm awake, I'm falling asleep)

-eating a late night snack and

-packing my boxes that I am having sent to myself overseas (I know... I'm weird)

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These past few days I've had the opportunity to meet with some friends to say goodbye. And although it was soooo very nice to be with them again, it was also a little sad. Unfortunately, I haven't done my usual rounds of seeing EVERYONE and giving them all goodbye hugs. It's been a little difficult.

You see, I've learned, recently, that I really don't like saying "goodbye" to people. It seems I have a downfall- being social and knowing a lot of people.... waaaaay too many people to say "so long" to. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but the finality of it all is what tends to get me these days. Sometimes saying goodbye just... well, it sucks.

I've reflected back to my high school days of when I went to attend Kamehameha Schools, a private boarding school on O'ahu, and how it felt when I left my beautiful Kaua'i. Every time I returned home and visited with friends, it was if they moved on without me in their lives. (As it should be, because obviously, I wasn't there.) Or when my family had to leave because my dad was being stationed in a new area. It seems that I've grown up doing the leaving. And although it seems that my life has been based on this pattern of voyaging out on new adventures and after a period of time, I "leave"- I'm hoping this time will be a little different.

If I physically did not say goodbye to you or embrace you with a warm hug- please accept my apologies. It's not that I'm "trying" to be rude on purpose, I just needed to focus on what was ahead and not who or what I am leaving behind. Trust me, I would have loved to have thrown a huge party and have everyone there, but I didn't.

SO, if you are reading this, PLEASE know that I love you all very much. I truly do. I am thankful for the time I've had you in my life. I look forward to returning and hearing about all of your fun and exciting adventures too.

Be safe and stay well.

Much love, Pili girl~

Address for P in Mississippi

Hey friends and family!!!

Alrighty then, here's the address where I'll be while continuing my training state side. PLEASE feel free to send letters... even if it's just a smiley face on a piece of paper. :0) Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from you!

PFC Hope "Pili" Baclayon

B-BTRY, 1-148th FP, 116th CBCT

Bldg 2490, 25th Street

Camp Shelby, MS 39407

You can start sending mail now. *hint-hint*

Hawai'i No Ka 'Oe!!!

Today I was blessed to be able to come to beautiful Hawai'i Nei. Man alive, it's such a wonderful feeling to be home. Even if it's just for a few days & change... it was worth it. A good place to be to get ready to head out overseas.

Will blog more at a later date, and possibly put pictures on here of my nieces and family.

Love it!

"Beautiful"

Not exactly sure how much of myself I should be pouring into this blog, however, since I've been doing it for the past few years, I guess now would be a little too late to start thinking about that, huh?!? However, since we are in the age of technology, I guess I can use this to my advantage to have others get to know me. Not just the me that I portray on the outside, but the matters of the heart and mind.

I was once sitting in an ROTC class, and one of my instructors taught on time management, and what we do with our time... long story short- if we write in a journal, or write our thoughts down two things happen. 1. We can better manage and organize what's on our mind, and 2. We can see what is really important in our lives. Yes friends, what we write about is usually what is important to us. If not, then we wouldn't write about it.

I guess you all should be grateful that you get a bit of insight into my brain, heart, and life. (A bit scary to be so vulnerable, but, I think more scary that you'll actually read this! Ha!)

So here you go!

I'm sitting in the SLC airport, and randomly chose a song from my newly purchased and downloaded album of India.Aire, and the song "Beautiful" is perfect in every way.

The first little part of the song has a very simple and moving guitar intro. Then, the words piped in:

"The time is right, I'm gonna pack my bags

And take that journey down the road

Cause over the mountain I see the bright sunshine

And I want to live inside the glow"

How expressive it is of how I feel, especially since I booked last minute flights to see my family in California and then in Hawai'i. (And, especially embarking on my new upcoming military journey/adventure.)

But, when the lyrics about "...over the mountain I see the bright sunshine..." The sun just started to crest over the mountains on my left. Creeping, rising slowly- inviting everyone to greet the dawn, the magic, and the possibilities of a new day. A testament of God's love stating that all your cares and woes from the previous night's sunset can be washed away- a new slate to make your own new mistakes, hiccups, adventures, and to fall in love with the wishes, hopes, and dreams that God has for you/me/us to discover- today.

Yes, friends and family, if the soul is overtaken by the darkness and the long drawn out chill of the night- sometimes, you just have to wait it out, get through it, embrace it- for on the morrow, the sun certainly rises again. Ever ready to help you greet the new day. I'm sure if the Sun had a chance, it would pray that we would just hold on/hang in there until the morrow- so it can come "over the mountain so we can see the bright sunshine".

So breathe in, embrace the day, and know that the sun will always rise again. So Beautiful.

New Blog Title

Yes friends and family, the new title of my blog will be "Finding Hope"... well, the new title at least for the next year. It definitely holds a double meaning... if anyone can figure it out. ;)

Just finished AT a few days ago, and what an adventure that was. So many ups and downs with life, and learning about my strengths and weaknesses both inside and outside of the Army. At times I think the phrase "growing pains" is not used as often as it should. No matter what age in life you are, "growing pains" is exactly that... "pains". Never-the-less, with life, we learn things, and we grow, and we become a beautiful phoenix rising up from the ash filled earth to fly and soar through the breathtaking skies.

I've realized, in the Army, that sometimes I can get lost in all the hooah-hooah day-to-day things, that I forget about what's really important to me, and what my focus should be. Soooooooooooo, this coming year, deployment year, it's going to be spent rediscovering me. All the goods, bads, rights, and wrongs. I'm excited and nervous, at the same time, for this "re"self-discovery process. It should definitely give me the ride of my life!

And for all who still read this, I am contemplating closing my Facebook account for the deployment year. For sure, my phone will be shut off beginning December. (Won't be using it overseas.) I'm just taking personal security precautions, since I'll be in semi-safe/unsafe territory.

So, having said that, I'll blog as much as I can while in Mississippi, and then overseas. One love to all, and God bless. Make good choices~

Future Adventures

Don't know if anyone is reading this... but if you still are - thanks for following still.

Just a little update on my life:

... I've been working at the Rexburg Armory for the past three weeks. It first started off with getting a bunch of online training done, before deployment. Now, it's turned into office work. Of which, I don't mind at all. :)

... I'm currently in Boise, with the Advanced Party for "AT" (annual training), and am having the opportunity to just chill and relax a bit. We moved all of our vehicles from MATES out to the FOB "Lowe - almost all day. No lunch. Felt a little weak from no food, but dinner was DIVINE! Had Subway for supper, then went to Albertsons and got some food to last these next couple of days. Sad thing is... I've been munching on it almost all night.

... Let's face it packing for deployment, for a whole year, sucks - not fun. If you had half a duffel bag and a small footlocker to pack anything fun, or "extra", with you overseas... what would you take? Since this is my first deployment, I'm a little egg-brained with what I should and should not bring. Thank goodness for friends though. Some friends have been kind enough to let me in on some good tips, and ideas.

... Letting go of love. Man alive - what do I blog about that. Lol!!! I've learned that opening the heart is a beautiful risk that can sometimes be painful. But a lovely pain worth going through. I've been lucky enough to fall in love twice in my life. So lucky indeed. I fear - this one will be harder to let go. And that's okay. I am definitely a better person because of him.

... Overseas - don't know an address yet, however, I'll post it on here once I know what it is.

Okay folks, it's late, and I have an early morning. One love~

Welcome Home & See ya Later!!!

Well, I got back to Idaho late Saturday night. It's been an adventurous ride.

I'm going to keep this brief:

Got back from BCT & AIT - and....

I'm shipping back out.

I get to deploy with my unit in September, and will be overseas for a year.

I love you all heaps, and hope you all the best. Hopefully I'll be able to write more while overseas.

Until then- Much love, Pili girl~

The Adventures Continue...

Well friends and family, I am here, in humid Missouri. BCT was definitely a difficult one. Not so much the training, but the people. It's amazing how the people can either make or break the experience that you're having.

The physicality of it all wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Granted, there were about 2 ruck marches that I felt definitely inadequate, but I trudged through all of them, and never left a soldier behind.

AIT is another story. We have a lot of down time here, and I almost don't know what to do with myself. It's unfortunate that we have to do deep cleaning on Sundays, making church attendance difficult. Not to mention, especially when church is from 10 - 1pm, and then trying to find someone to go with you, when you're the only member in the entire company! Blah. Oh well.

This weekend I've been pretty sick. Right now I am medicated, :) , and was able to make it to the USO. (Trying to find out information on registering for this coming semester.) But, still, would rather have been at church.

More than anything, I just wanted to wish all of my father friends, and father figures a very Happy Father's Day. I hope this is the best Father's Day ever. You all deserve it, and wish I could be there to spend it with you. (Well, some of you anyway... like- my brothers and dad.) ha ha ha ha

One love, p~