Life's too Short

Life is really too short to let anything hold you back from doing something crazy. Money is a poor excuse for not doing something you really want to do. And time is an even worse excuse for not doing something you love.

I know that life gets crazy and we seem to get so busy. But the more I think about it the more I realized that I volunteered my open time to drive her is because if no one could come get me so I could come home for the holidays, I would appreciate someone helping me out. Everyone deserves to spend time with their family for the holidays. Now, I understand there are soldiers that are deployed and unable to come home. Their are duties that must be done that don't stop because of Christmas. But the amount of holidays that a child gets to spend with their parents are already too limited the way it is. Every opportunity should be taken advantage of when possible. 

I truly don't know what I would do without my parents. 

Earlier this week, I got the opportunity to cut the National Guard Birthday cake to represent the young soldiers that make up the guard. I was the youngest Nebraska National Guard member present at the celebration on Tuesday morning at the capital building. 

While I was sitting in the chair waiting for the ceremony to start, the Chaplin was sitting next to me, occasionally changing his view and looking around the state capital building. I looked over at him as he leaned over and pointed out the marble pillars and huge concrete blocks that made up the hall that we were in. He pointed out that the building was truly a product of its time. That it was. It was built in the 30s, where everything was made from stone, marble, and other various expensive building materials. It was beautiful. 

Later. Someone mentioned how much hope they had for the young generation of military. Which is definitely not heard all too often. My generation is weird. We are somewhat lazy. And fewer and fewer work hard for what they want. 

But the speakers at the ceremony pointed out how awesome it was that so many soldiers enlist at 17. 

I got to cut the birthday cake with the oldest air guard and army guardsmen present as well as the youngest air guard soldier, who was 18.

After the ceremony, I got to talk to Dave Heineman and Major General Bohac. Two of the commanders for the Nebraska National Guard. 

What an amazing experience! I can honestly say that these two men have worked their ass off in order to get to where they want to be. What great role models for military personal. Heineman talked about his experience as a veteran and Major General talked about everything that the military has given to him. 

I guess what I am trying to get at was to take some time this holiday season to thank a veteran. If you have the money, find an organization that is sending care packages to the deployed soldiers for the holidays. 

They do a lot more than we really give them credit for.

Bucket List

Okay. So I have slowly put together a grand bucket list of all the things I want to do before I graduate college. These are things that I may have already done, or things that I have never done, but that I want to take full advantage of how important my time in college when it comes to spending time with my friends.

Places I want to go:

• Colorado  Spring Break 2014
• spend a week camping 
• Disney world
• New Year's Eve in Times Square
• Niagara Falls
• Road Trip across country
• Tubing on the Niabrara
• Mall of America 
• Hershey, Pennsilvania
• Beach
• National Zoo
• Macy's Day Parade
• Montana
• Arizona  Spring Break 2014
• California
• Georgia
• Outside of the United States

Long Term Goals

• Read all of the books in my library
• Read 365 books in one year
• Adopt a puppy 
• Complete an entire coloring book
• Donate a good amount of money to charity
• Grow a square watermelon
• Put together a puzzle, frame it
• Plan out my dream wedding with no budgets
• Design my dream house
• Take a picture every day for a year.
• Plant a tree and watch it grow
• Have a "rockin" body
• Create holiday traditions
• Have my own indoor gym
• Weigh 120 lbs again
• Finish an entire knitting project

One Day Goals:

• Fry an egg on the sidewalk
• Complete a "food challenge" ie. 20 days without..
• Make breakfast in bed for family
• Run a Color Run
• Fill balloons with paint and throw darts at them
• Try vodka gummy bears (someday...)
• Send a soldier a care package
• Complete a Zombie walk
• Have a real Christmas Tree in my home
• Take pictures in a photo booth
• Take pictures in the leaves
• Paint pumpkins for the dorms 10/16/2013
• Ride a horse on the beach
• Eat Smores by the fire 
• Play in the Rain
• Make an entire 3 course meal 
• Go to Lincoln Stars Game  1/11/2014 and  2/14/2014, 11/11/2014, 11/21/2014
• Have a Silly String War
• Have Girls Sleepover
• Send Letter to a random address
• Throw a surprise party
• Win a Radio Contest
• Grow my Hair out
• Run a 5k
• Run a 10k
• Run a half
• Run a Marathon 
• Hot air balloon ride
• Paint fight
• Sleep under the Stars
• Sleep in the back of a pickup
• Pick strawberries
• Spend an afternoon in bed
• Have a snowball fight
• Make snow angels
• Build a snow fort
• Go to a Husker game
• Go to a concert  Dec 11 2014 (Shime Moore)
• Spend a Holiday volunteering
• Have a picnic in the park  
• Bake cookies
• Have a water balloon fight
• Karaoke 
• Have a bon fire 10/10/2014
• Eat at a 5 star restaurant 
• Spend and entire day watching movies
• Take Crazy pictures all the time with Matt
• Go Mini Golfing 
• Volunteer at an Animal Shelter Spring break 2014
• Have a backyard pool party
• Go to oceans of fun
• Go to Worlds of Fun
• Go to Adventureland
• Go to Country Stampeed 
• Be in every state once
• Pull an all nighter with friends
• Ride in a limo
• Dye my hair a wild color
• Kiss under fireworks
• Buy a polaroid camera
• Donate blood 10/1/2013
• Pay for a stranger's groceries
• Go on a no budget shopping spree
• Get a tattoo with my mom
• Bake everything in a cookbook
• Kiss under the mistletoe
• Watch sunrise and sunset on a beach
• Carve crazy pumpkins
• Celebrate a birthday in Vegas
• Splatter paint a room
• Make gingerbread cookies/ houses
• Build/ Sleep in a blanket fort
• Go to an apple orchard
• Plant a garden
• Go bowling
• Go fishing
• Make personalized Stepping stones
• Make homemade ice cream  16 April 2014 (With TeamMate)

There are all the things that I want to do before I graduate. Of course, not everything I want to do is here, but I want to have accomplished most of these before that day comes in May of 2017

With Time, Comes Change.

HOLY COW.

Life.
Is.
Crazy.

Since my last blog, the year has completely taken a 180.
Relationships end. Relationships begin.
AIT is over. College has begun. (actually.. I am 2 weeks away from being done with my first semester)
Finals week is coming up.
I am back working at McDonald's in Lincoln. Living in the Dorms.


Life. Has. Been. Crazy.

Being a college student and living in the dorms, I am not really spending all that much time worrying about ways to save money. I am more focused on making it through the week and living life to the very fullest with the experiences that I can.

I have begun my bucket list (for college) and I am attempting to work on it as much as I can.
One thing on my bucket list is having my dream body and because I plan to go see my roommate, who is moving back to Texas, for spring break. I am working hard to have it as soon as I can. I also want to have a super great PT score by the end of this school year so I can go to Warriors Leadership Course this summer if my unit chooses to send me.

I am changing my blog and hoping to try to write more about being healthy, college life, and military life.
I am in the process of setting up a plan for working out more, eating healthier, and doing all of the stuff that I want to do before graduating college.

In a following post, I will include my bucket list and in another post I will include my fitness plan.
I hope to keep my readers/ get some of them back even with the changes I have decided to make to my post!

Thanks for Reading as always!

3 weeks til I get Home!

Holy cow! I am so excited. I have 21 days and a wake up left. I passed my PT test, I'm done with academic tests. I have a 96% average on my tests. I am ready to be at home.

We have been doing a lot of simple stuff to finish up the week. Last week, we finished up CBRN Room Operations and Rad. We started decontamination and this week we have CDTF (which is a live nerve agent chamber. It is going to be a crazy week.

The week after that we will have our field training exercise and after we get back we will be out processing to graduate and come home!! I ended up getting a 215 on my PT test, which is a lot better than I thought I was going to do. After doing PT two times a day for 3 weeks, I am glad that I passed. Now I am pretty much done and we just have a couple things to finish up on..

I am so ready to be home.. Being away from home really makes me realize what I have. It makes me think a lot. I haven't ever had to worry about my parents finances, my neighborhood or walking to school. I have never had to worry about any of these things because Beatrice, Nebraska is safe. There is no shootings on the street, there are job opportunities for us and I have received a good education from our public school system. I am thankful for everything my parents have given me and all of the knowledge they have set me up with.

I am thankful that I am going into college knowing what I want to do and where I want to be in life. As soon as I get home, I want to go thru the training in order to become a teammates mentor. I want to help someone and become their friend. I would love to have a little girl to show her how to respect herself as a woman as my mother taught me. I see some of my battle buddies here that don't have pride in being a female. Or they think they need a male to make them complete. It kinda makes me sad to know that they didn't have a strong female role model as I did.

Things like these are the reasons that I am so thankful for the environment that I grew up in. I am ready to come home and start college. I am so ready to be with all of my family and friends.

I miss you Mom, Dad, Luke, and Sean. Thank you for all of the support you have given me through all of this.

Thank you to everyone else who has supported me and my family through the long months of me being away from home.

I can't wait to see all of you soon.
Until later (:


The pictures are things that keep me sane through these crazy days here. I am ready to be home. (The fortune was from my lunch today (: ) And thanks Olson, (If you read this) for helping me realize that not everything is about everyone else. Sometimes I just gotta do what I want to do. Thank you.

2 LLLONNNG WEEEKS!

Holy cow! It has been an absolutely crazy long week here yet again.. Well, actually 2 weeks.

   Last week we finished up our HAZMAT operations. I got a 92! Wooo! (No, It wasn't as high as I wanted, but it was good enough for as hard as it was. there was so much information to it.)
   Then we got to do our "missions" on Tuesday. WE dressed out in our bright blue level B suits and walked around the training site making barriers for mock trials. We wore SCBAs (Self contained breathing apparatuses), which are crazy uncomfortable. Its like a scuba tank on your back. Overall it was actually pretty cool as far as something I probably won't do again in my military career.
    Wednesday was our PT test. It was awful, for me. I wish I didn't struggle with PT. Honestly, if I didn't struggle with it, or didn't have it, I could breeze by in this stuff. Well I failed my pt test by 6 push ups and a little over a minute on my run. Our next PT test is July 27, (less than two weeks from now!) Crazy to think I only have about 35 days left here. This summer has really gone by pretty fast.
    4th of July weekend on a military base was humbling. It was an awesome reminder of why we celebrate the 4th.

    On the 4th we go to go over to the field where there were food vendors and tents and a stage set up for all of us to enjoy. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, fried oreos, funnel cakes, pop, energy drinks, corn dogs, and all of the other vendor/fair food that none of us should have eaten. By the end of the night, I was feeling a little sick. But not having fair food 2 summers in a row is sad. Last summer I was at basic, so I didn't get to enjoy any of that stuff.
    There was a concert in the field area, called A soldier show. It is a bunch of soldiers that sing and dance. I am pretty sure they perform all over and some of them go over seas for the deployed. It was really cool.
     Then, there were amazing fireworks after the concert. Some of my battle buddies and I were joking around that we wouldn't need budget cuts if they wouldn't have had fireworks. But it is a different set of funding. The entire night was set up by the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation). This is the same people who set up the gyms and other fun activities on post.
     For the next 3 of my 4 day weekend, we hung out, went to the px. I got a new pair of acu's and a new digital camo laptop case for school.
    On Saturday, a bunch of us decided to cookout. We went to the commisary and got hot dogs, chips and pop. There was a little charcoal grill in the middle of the barracks area. It was so fun and I was so excited for a grilled hot dog.
   It's surprising what little things I miss about summer and being at home. Mostly, I miss shorts and a t-shirt in the heat instead of long sleeve s and long pants. (Mom, I now think I could have survived detasseling all those years ago). Sometimes being gone makes me think McD wasn't so bad. Then I really remember how bad it was.
   One of our Sergeants, that is always with us, treats us like his kids. He is pretty fond of me, but he makes me out to be much more innocent than I am. The other day we were all joking around and he made some reference to alcohol (that I didn't understand) and a bunch of us said "Hooah" (The term the army uses for yes, or I agree) Well, he came running thru the formation and asked me what I knew about the reference. I started laughing and said I have no idea. He is like EXACTLY!
     Then he was talking about how they had to put tape on the barracks windows on the first floor because people were sneaking out of the windows at night. I turned the the person next to me and said "Holy cow, I am so oblivious to life!!" Somehow, from across the room, he heard me and said, "Lyons, its because your parents taught you right from wrong and pounded it into you." I, of course, just laughed because I was still in shock that he heard me. He kinda makes fun of me because I am completely oblivious to the things people do/get away with around here.
    We finished all of our close book tests this week and all we have is open book ones left. It really is all down hill from here. We have Rad, Decon, and CDTF left. Then we will have a week for our ftx. Then we will be cleaning up and coming home!! WOO! (:
    The people who failed their pt test have been having PT two times a day. We have it with everyone else in the morning, then we have right after we finish training for the day. It has made for some really long days here, but we only have 13 days until our PT test.. NERVOUS!! /: but I think I will be fine. I just need to stay focused and not mess anything up. If I pass in two weeks, I will be able to wear civilian clothing and wear my hair down, on the weekends. I think my hair is the most exciting part about all of that.

   Well, I had a lot to catch you all up on!! Graduation Day is getting close!! Write me and let me know how all of you are. I am dying to hear from everyone! Thank you all for all of the support and I will try to write again next weekend.