Lisa earns her Gray Belt

Part of being a Marine is participation in the Marine Corp Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). The initial Tan Belt belt is earned during boot camp. The second belt is the Gray Belt which is what Lisa was awarded today. She is "modeling" it in the picture. I believe the Gray Belt requires 40-50 hours of instruction. Lisa has been arriving to classes at 5 am for most of this month. She hurt her ankle on the second day but toughed it out. I think she went to get it checked out after her final exam this morning. Hopefully it is only a bad sprain.

Sand and Scorpions

Lisa went riding quads out in the desert Saturday evening. Said it was a pain trying to get all the sand off afterward. As I glanced through the readers digest I saw this and it gave me a laugh.

"When asked to describe what it's like to serve in the desert at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, California, my son replied 'It's one big ashtray, and our butts are sitting in it.'"

It is amazingly dusty there.

Below is a picture that lisa sent of one of the large scorpions that are around there. One day one of the guys slid under the truck he was working on and came fact-to-face with one. Gave everyone a good laugh.

1998 Mustang

Lisa's new car.

Road Trip

OK, I guess I'm a little late with an update. After getting Lisa's car all serviced I headed south over the Labor Day weekend. Stopped in Sunday and caught a Dodger's game.



Then it was a quick trip inland to pick up Lisa Monday.



We spent the day and night in Palm Springs at a nice Marriott Courtyard (Thanks Kerry!) and then took care of some business and headed west to Ontario where I would be flying out early the next morning. Via FaceBook we discovered that our former pastor's and friends, Don and Jodi Detrick, were also in Ontario for a few days to we got together for dinner at a really cool restaurant that is part of a huge Bass Pro store. It was great to catch up with them. Lisa of course had salmon and I had noodles and shrimp in a white sauce. For appetizers we had fried alligator.




Lisa and Jodi

After much repetition and training on the GPS (I'm sure considered much redundancy by Lisa), she headed on the 110 mile trip back to her base. Always sad to send her off but it was great to have a couple days to hang out.

Road Trip

I'll be heading down to visit Lisa over this Labor Day weekend and delivering her car in the process. I've put together a small emergency kit for her trunk from Dad. I was also thinking of getting her a GPS unit too. She is afraid of getting lost when away from the base.

So anyway, if any one wants to contribute to that let me know and I'll add you to the card I'll include. No obligation but I know some of you have said you don't know what to get her. I know she would be thrilled.

Corporal

Lisa mentioned tonight that she was told that she is on pace to pick
up Corporal rank around March of next year based on her physical
fitness test scores, monthly reviews and MCI training progress.

Iphone email sent courtsey of Zeke

School

Lisa mentioned that the course work she has been doing is equivalent of 40 credit hours. While they won't accept them as credit at Oregon or Oregon State they do accept them at several of the Californian state colleges. The school she is currently looking at is San Diego State which will accept the credits and also has online courses that she can take in working towards a degree.

She also has Advanced Spanish materials on the way. After that she would like to take German. She was looking forward to going to church again tonight and having dinner with friends there afterward.