mcat

guys i got a 32R on the MCAT! That's pretty good. Let's feast on fruit bats and breakfast cereals and stuff!

Emily's reaction when I told her we were going to the Shaha reunion to meet all her aunts and uncles for the first time!

some pictures

So I'm finally putting up some pictures for everyone. i hope they are diggable. I'm wearing the hat in a few. Sorry it took me so long to post them Ben! the first three are at ding and dang canyon where I am posing as osama bin laden, holding a rock, and hanging out with wendy. The last one is at Bryce Canyon. pretty cool. I should get my mcat scores on tuesday. hooah. you guys are awesome. i think joe should post some pictures of his shoulder surgery!

Just a few more

Party Animal

I hope you don't mind all these pics, I couldn't help myself.  I call this Party Animal.  Looks like she has her mother's partying tendencies.  This is at my dad's 60th birthday celebration.  The other two girls are my nieces.

The latest of little Emmie

Pictures

Bethany just bought a really cool computer that has a camera with all sorts of weird functions. Here are just a few of the pictures we took. Great news about Ben. We're doing just fine - it's hotter than an Arab's armpit here in Utah right now. I'm pushing 210 pounds so we're trying to run a lot - I think the extra weight is in my head from all the junk I'm trying to memorize - I hope that's where it is. We have painters coming to make our place look good and are in the process of trying to figure out how to sell it on our own. Any tips, please share them.

great news

Hey all of you familia shahas and associates...Marinda wrote me this morning to say that Ben's change of command will be in August, over in Afghanistan of course, but his follow on assignment will be as the Rear Detachment Commander of his battalion...that means he'll come home to Ft. Campbell to take care of the families and soldiers there...Yippee! It will be a very challenging assignment for him, but he'll be able to come home at night and hopefully no one will be shooting at him...life is good! Take care. Mom/Nancy

Natalie's famous "arched back" sleeping pose!

She loves sleeping this way!

Pictures of Natalie Jane (rotated and brightness fixed)

Anyone who got an Afghan hat (pekhol) needs to post a pic with it on. Katie, chill out about the camel. You should worry more about other animals like the Bengal tiger. I saw a news story on Al Jazeera today that says they're going extinct because of poachers who sell the skins. And we all know that Al Jazeera has been voted the best 24 hours news channel and always strives for truth.

New Natalie Jane pics

I'm with Marinda. Does that mean the camel bought it? Camels and horses and cows always get the raw end of the deal. (Katie speaking)

Air Assault!

This is a pretty sweet picture of one of my platoons on a mission. A howitzer is inside the Chinook. About 3000 pounds of ammunition is in that cargo net hanging below. Pretty cool.

Guns

What's up peeps? I'm visiting my men out here in Wardak province Afghanistan. It's been great. The weather is not bad. The food stinks, but hey there's a war on. We shot some illumination the other night. I was helping the guys by carrying rounds from the ammo shack to the gun and handing it off to the #1 man. Good stuff. They guys haven't been attacked since I've been here. I'm sure my presence is enough to dissuade any of the dirtbags in the vicinity. That and large, unappreciated explosions that occurred near them just prior to my arrival.

About illumination rounds, when they explode, high in the air, an empty metal cannister that carried the payload tumbles to the ground while a light hanging from a parachute slowly descends. One of the guys from 82n ABN told me a funny story about one of their illumination missions. They fired some illumination near some bedouins and one of the cannisters tumbled to the ground and tagged a camel. The camel let out a loud bellow that confirmed the hit. I would make the bellow sound which makes this story funnier if I were telling you all in person. It sounds the same as when you see them bellowing in the movies only this one has a little more pain in it. Hilarious.

Well, I hope everyone's well. Marinda's up at her family cabin now with Emily. Girls are partying for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to Shea and Dad. The rest of you are weak loined! Later.

Greetings dear ones! Isn't Natalie's facial expression priceless in the photo where I'm meeting her? I'm sure she's thinking, "Wait a minute, wait a minute...this is my grandmother?! Help me!" I hope she's not as shocked the next time we meet. Marinda and Emily survived their long plane trip to SLC, and they will be staying in Price for a few weeks with Marinda's family...I guess Emily was wonderful until the plane landed in Salt Lake, and then she really let loose! We are surviving all of the violent weather so far...a lot of rain but no flooding as yet, at least not in our basement. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Happy Father's Day this Sunday to all of you wonderful fathers out there and to the prospective ones too. Take care everyone. Mom

Thanks for the hat Ben!

Ben, I feel bad I forgot to thank you for the AWESOME hat from Afghanistan.  It is way chic, dude! I just have a problem keeping Katie from stealing it from me!
Shea

Natalie meets her Grandma Shaha

The expression says it all!

oh yeah. i forgot to mention that our wedding colors are pink and sage green. I'll be wearing pink and wendy will be dressed in sage green. sweet. And i'll figure out the slideshow job too. Thanks for the hat ben. I wear it all the time.

So, this is Dave... posting up. The Celtics beat the stinking Lakers last night so it's 2-0 right now. I took the MCAT a few weeks ago and I think I did pretty well... I won't know for sure until July 1 or so. There were some great questions about ramps and friction and barf. What really matters is that I recently received a sweet afghan hat from Ben. I think it's called a kapol? I'm also borrowing Grandpa Shaha's truck since I destroyed the Mitsubishi in the lamest accident ever. Airbags are expensive... let me tell you. I hit a car and I was going about ten miles an hour but because I hit their side head on, both the airbags deployed and the car was instantly totalled. Doh! But I do have an Afghan hat and a couple of awesome nieces. I'll get some pictures to post of this sweet hike we went on through Ding and Dang canyon this weekend. I'll have to take you guys some day because it's incredible. There are parts where you have your back against one side and feet on the other. It was so cool. Plus we took pictures of people finding me with my Afghan hat like I was Osama bin Laden. Pretty sweet. I told you about the ring didn't I Ben? thanks for all of your advice and sorry I'm such a weenie with the blog. I'll repent. You rock. Let me know how it's all going down there. Party on,

dave

Check out those hands...we figure Natalie will be a pianist or a basketball player!

This group photo is significant because it's the only one out of several wherein Joe looks sort of normal...I can't believe how many pictures he's single-handedly destroyed with his Chris Farley imitations!

Darling Children, I just got back from SLC after a wild ride through Nebraska amid chronic tornado warnings, torrential rains, hail, winds...dogs and cats living together...a total "wrath of God" trip! But what a wonderful trip to be able to spend time with Katie and Shea and to meet darling little Natalie Jane...she's got Katie's eyes and Shaquille O'Neal's hands! I swear she'll be able to palm a basketball in no time! Here are a few of the photos we took...you can tell that Dad wasn't there to be the photographer. Anyway, take care, all of you and CTR. I love you. Mom

Dave, Post!

Dave,

Post something you homo. You said you were going to post about a month ago. What's going on? MCAT's over right? What're your colors? Chartruse? Mauve? Flower garden combo? Hey, while you're at it, can you figure out how to post a little slide show of pics where the Hurl thing is? I notice that Brian figured it out on 4thavenueathleticclub blog. Party on, Dave.

Ben

Guess who's pregnant? (Taken in late Feb 2008)