A Week in the Life of Randy courtesy of "Flat Macy"

I am sure a few you, like I, often wonder what Randy's life is like over there in Afghanistan, we now know courtesy of "Flat Macy"!  Randy excitedly agreed to show "Flat Macy" around Afghanistan as a project for a co-worker's daughther who is in 2nd grade.  She was beyond thrilled he agreed showing "her" around such a far away place for her school project.

Here is Randy's letter and photos to Macy. I have to say Randy went all out on this and I know there will be a pretty excited 2nd grader when she gets her letter/photos from him this week! Enjoy!
(Christmas photos to follow later this week)

15 December 2010

Dear Macy,

I think that Flat Macy has been on quite an adventure; she has been to a very dangerous place, very far from Iowa.  Macy traveled to Afghanistan.  Afghanistan is 10.5 hours or time zones from Iowa, so when it is 10:00 in the morning in Iowa it is 8:30 at night  in Afghanistan.  I tried to take a lot of pictures with Macy in various places; a couple times I forgot to get her out, but most of the time I remembered.

Macy spent about a week in Afghanistan with the US Army, so some of the pictures have guns in them.  I want to ensure you that Macy did not touch any guns because they are very dangerous and should only be handled by adults that are properly trained on how to use them.

Macy flew into Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan which is located in the Northeast portion of Afghanistan.  I will try to explain the pictures I took in the order in which they happened.

 

 Office- is at my desk in my office, this is where I first met Macy.  I have about 90 Soldiers that work for me.  This means I have to spend a lot of time at my desk; Macy helped me get some work done so we could go out on a mission the next day.

 

Dinner- is Macy having dinner, we only have one place to eat so we eat all of our meals there; I’m sure it is like the lunch room where you eat at school only larger and with more food.  This day we had homemade pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza and a little prime rib with Cranberry juice to drink.

 

Ping pong- is Macy playing a little ping pong.  Soldiers have to have time to relax and I like to do that playing a little ping pong.

Bed time- is Macy on the top bunk getting ready for bed.  This day we had to stay in a large room that sleeps 50 people, it get kind of crowded sometimes and there is not much privacy, but we only sleep like that if we are visiting a new place.

Driving- is Macy behind the wheel of a vehicle called an MATV, it is very large and very safe, it protects us from explosions.

Rudolph- is Macy with a Rudolph the red nosed reindeer that is on the front of an MATV.

Turret- is Macy in a gunner’s turret; Afghanistan is dangerous so we have to have a Soldier ride in the turret to protect us while we drive.

 MATV riding- is Macy in the seat of an MATV getting ready to leave Bagram Airfield and visit some small  towns.

Sia Sang- is a picture if a town named Sia Sang, as you can see Afghanistan is very hilly and has lots of rocks and sand.  The houses are made very different than the houses in America

Afgh1- is a picture of a local Afghan in a small town with a couple of kids in the background.  It also shows that Afghanistan can be very pretty.

Kids2- is some local village kids that like to walk around with us when we are in town.  They are fascinated  by Americans.  We always give them candy, but they really like it when we give them ink pens.  Pens are very hard for them to get so we try to give them pens when we have extras.  Even though it looks nice here, it is getting cold and is almost winter; Afghan children do not go to school in the winter because they have to walk, sometimes 2 miles because they do not have cars to drive

Dandar- is a picture of the country side in Afghanistan.  There are lots of hills, but not very many roads, most Afghan people cannot afford cars and the roads that they do have are not very good.

 Kids1- is a picture of Army Soldiers and Afghan police handing out supplies to local children and adults.  We get lots of packages full of supplies to hand out to the local people, many people here are very poor so everything we give them really helps them to live a better life

Cave 1 and 2- is a picture if Macy hanging out in a cave.  With all of the hills and mountains in Afghanistan there are a lot of caves throughout the country.

 Kabul- is a picture of Macy driving into the capital city of Afghanistan, Kabul.

  Patrol- is Macy out in some very rugged terrain in Afghanistan with some of my Soldiers.

Poly is a picture of me when I forgot Macy, sorry..  I wanted to show this picture so you can see that Afghanistan is not all rocks and sand.  You can see the river behind me and the mountains in the distance.  Afghanistan is very green with trees in places that have a water source like a river or lake in the area, if there is no water then all you see is dirt and rocks.

I know I wrote a lot but since Macy traveled so far from home I wanted to make sure you knew what she was up to.  We were very busy and had a safe and fun time.

                                                                                         

Another article featuring Randy!!

Here is another article released thru an on-line military magazine featuring Randy!!
We are really hoping all this "press" isn't going to his head!!  This article gives a little glimpse on what Randy is doing over in Afghanistan.
http://www.cjtf101.com/en/regional-command-east-news-mainmenu-401/3823-bravo-strengthens-relationship-with-afghan-people-.html

We are published!!

The Stanford Family has made their publishing debut!!  Randy's Alma Mater, Grand View University, here in Des Moines, wrote a nice story about our family, how we handle deployments and how Grand View has helped Randy in his military career.  The article is featured in the Grand View magazine that gets sent out to all alumni.

Please check it out:

http://public.grandview.edu/marketing/GV_mag_fall_10/index.htm

The Christmas Picture

Since Randy and I have been married (which will be 7 years this month!) we attempt to do a family picture Holiday card.  I will be the first to admit we have missed a year here or there for one reason or another, but I made a promise to myself that once we had kids we would always have a picture Holiday card.  As receiving other family's picture cards in the mail always brings a smile to my face and I figure our card does the same to those who receive it.

This year, however, the Stanford card was in jeopardy of not having a "Christmas Leighton" picture on it.  It is not often I get frustrated with my little princess, however, her refusal of being a "pretty princess" for the our card lead to a lot of frustration for her Mommy.  It took multiple attempts on 2 days and A LOT of candy to get our picture which will be coming soon to a mailbox close to you.  Mind you, it wasn't the picture I dreamed of, but it was one I was satisfied enough with to share with all our family and friends.
Here are a few that made the reject pile...

 Yep...this side won't work...all L wants to do is turn the tree on and off

 Maybe a cute shot outside...Nope...Rocks are too distracting

 Consulting "Flat Daddy" about how difficult Mommy is being

 Bribing with food...working...at least L looks happy and at the camera 

 Maybe chocolate covered pretzels not such a good idea....

Confirmed...L is officially messy but happy...

As I told Randy, this had to be one of my more challenging tasks as a "single parent"!  I know I brought most of stress on myself, as I wanted that "perfect picture" but it made me think to next year's card and having to get 3 little ones to cooperate for the camera!!  I can only imagine how that is going to go!!

Our First Blog

Welcome to the Stanford Family Blog!! 

I figured this will be an easier (and cheaper) way for all of you to keep up with our busy lives than using the BabyJellyBeans website.  Please feel free to share our site as I will likely be not only posting updates on Leighton, the "boys" progress into the world but also how Randy is doing in Afghanistan.  I might even try to talk him into writing a blog, but don't hold your breath on that happening!

This will be a work in progress...so please bare with me as I figure the ins and outs of how to run this site.

Hope you enjoy and be looking for our first real post soon!!