My New Yob!!!

No that is not my Halloween costume that is what I wear to work every day. I (Robert) recently got a job at Fort Riley, as I mentioned before that's the army base that is right next to the Junction. I am perform an essential duty in the the training process that our troops go through when they prepare to get deployed and go to Iraq and Afghanistan.  So you are probably asking yourself what is my job? Well, I get to play soldier every day. More especifially I get to play an Iraqi soldier. We basically go out on mission with the different teams preparing to deploy and act as Iraqi (or Afghani) soldiers who are out with the Americans on joint missions. If you didn't know what the army is doing now there is helping train the local armies on how to be soldiers. So they need people like to act as Iraqi and we get to lear a little of the language and pretend we dont speak english.  

There are also other people who get to dress up as civilians and they "live" in these faux Iraqi villages built out in the middle of nowhere in Fort Riley. So we go out to these villages in our Humvees and play out different scenarios, like getting shot at by insurgents hiding in a village, IED's exploding in the middle of the town, looking for information hidden in some one's house, or dealing with mobs protesting. So there it is in a nutshell that's my new job

Living with a Doctora

Now that we live in The Junction Kristi has taken on more responsabilities. While she was at KUMED she was just a 1st year resident, she was at the bottom of the food chain. Here at the Junction things are different, she is not just a second year resident, she is treated almost like a peer by the other doctors. She has had more hands on experience and better learning opportunities, and ever since people at church figured out she is a physician many of the church memebers have switched over to her to be their primary care physician. Everyone here has been very nice and they are all very thankful she is here. She has become a celebrity as well, they even published an article on her on the local news paper which was picked up by the paper in Yuma, where Kristi is from, and they decided to do an article on her as well.  Another great thing is that when she is on call it actually mean that she is on call, she gets to come home and take questions from nurses and other docs about patients over the phone and go in only if needed. The best one thus far happened a week or so ago when I overheard her take a call from nurse who had a question to which Kristi replied "is it fishy or cottage-cheesy" ...............don't really want to know what they were talking about.

My Turn

So up to now Kristi has been the official web logger of The Diaz Family, well now is my turn so buckle your seat belt and join me a long for te ride. Since we moved to Kansas life has been pretty interesting, especially since we have moved to Junction City or as I affectionately call it The Junction aka The Middle of Nowhere (See picture above).

The Junction is a small town of 18,000 and right next to it is an army base, Fort Riley. This makes for an interesting dynamic between civilians and members of the Army and their families. Thankfully Fort Riley helps The Junction by adding to its population and bringing jobs for the masses. The Junction is a tiny town with barely enough of the amenities We have grown used to, in fact the biggest shopping center in town is Wal-Mart. 

This is a picture of our beautiful Wal-Mart, you know you live in a small town when you go out on a date with your wife and after dinner you decide to go to Wal-Mart to see "whats new". I am glad to say that Kristi and I have done our best to contribute to the economy by spending our hard earned dollars, well her hard earned dollars, there. I am quite fond of Wal-Mart though, they have a lot of goodies there, and as the locals say "if you can't find it at Wal-Mart it doesn't exist".........at least not in The Junction.

Kansas

These are pictures from Kansas near Junction City. Believe it or not, it's quite beautiful here. The above picture is from Milford Lake. It's huge lake with beautiful sites.
Wild grass grows taller than Robert. We were hiking up a hill in between Junction City and Manhattan, KS.
Yup, we live in the sticks, but old work items make cool picture objects.
I bet you didn't know I am terribly ALLERGIC to these beautiful Sunflowers! They are killing me!

Our Roots

In Manhattan, KS we found this street corner. It's funny, I'm from Yuma, AZ and we were in Manhattan. Pretty cool.

Cutting the Grass

Robert tried every single excuse to try to get out of cutting our lawn... but as you can see, he finally gave in.

Kouji and Judy's Wedding

While on our vacationing trip, we also went to LA for Kouji and Judy's wedding. It was beautiful, up on the mountain top in Burbank.


Robert with his parents, two brothers and sister.

Dodgers Game

Robert and his cousin Karla organized a massive party to go to the Dodgers game. In fact, more than 40 family members attending the game with a few family friends. Can you imagine how crazy it was to get everyone in the cars and ready to go to the game? We had a great time though.
Robert and I with his aunt Loriel and her boyfriend Mario along with a family friend. While we were in LA for this trip, Loriel and Mario were nice enough to give us a place to sleep. We are very thankful for that.

Trip to Yuma

After moving to Junction City, we decided to take a trip back to my parent's house - here are some of those pictures. Above you will notice Robert shooting a rifle. This was one of the highlights for him and also one of the things he was most excited about. Now he wants to buy his own gun and take it hunting with dad for deer this October.

Dad took us both out to the desert in his new jeep (see it in the background?) and we also took the dogs out to run. It was fun.

My sister, Kate, and I. We look very similar. No confusing us as sisters. She has been doing so well in school she has taken pride, in fact, in being able to say that she is getting better grades that I ever did. Keep it up Kate.

My dad, sisters, mom and I.

Our Trip to Utah

In March Robert and I decided to take a road trip to see Cheryl, Robert's sister who lives in Utah with her husband. While we were there, we had fun exploring, shopping, and going four-wheeling at Josh's dad's house. Here are some of those pictures.

Rock Band Party

Robert invited some friends over for a Rock Band Party, and if you've never played this game you don't know how addicting it can be. These guys played until way past midnight, singing and playing.

Jesse James

This is the house where Jesse James got shot. He lived here for several years - in St. Joseph. Robert and I went to visit this landmark and had a fun time learning about the history. Can you see the bullet hole in the wall where the bullet passed through on the bottom picture?

Winter at Shawnee Mission Park in KC,KS

Robert knows he's hot - just look at him show it off.


When Robert's parents were here visiting, we went to the Shawnee Mission Park not too far from our house, and these are the wonderful views we saw. Christmas in Kansas City is very pretty and the funny thing is that even though there was snow on the ground, it really wasn't that cold.