thankful... i am.

ya know even without a family present for thanksgiving, i still had the pleasure of experiencing thanksgiving with a group of incredible people who gave their own resources to bring us one step closer to home by stuffing our faces with turkey. :)
so very thankful that i even get to breathe today and see the clouds against the mountains... each fighting to reveal their beauty in front of the other.
thankful for music with its power to engage the deepest part of me and tug at the strongest of my heart's strings. and not only hear it, but play and sing it too...amazing.
so very grateful that my body is capable of fighting for the freedom of this country...for the freedom of all the American people...for you.
thankful that God helps me through every second of the day, with every blink of an eye He brings me strength. He delivers me. He fights for me when I'm not capable of fighting for myself.
So happy that I've been placed in such a great unit filled with amazing people.
So stinking thankful for my awesome family who loves me. They will always be the light behind my eyes inspiring me to move forward, but always keeping arms open if I ever want to come back home.
So grateful for unnamed friends-you know who you are-who make me laugh when i feel like crying, who know how to listen...sometimes even when i'm not talking, who showed me how laughter heals the deepest aches and laughed with me till we couldn't laugh anymore, who don't forget me...no matter how long i'm away
but most of all, I'm thankful that God is...and that is enough for me.
Happy Thanksgiving

My address at Ft. Bliss

I know some people had asked what my address was while I'm here in Texas, so I will tell you evry-ting!!

...but for security reasons, just email me at bethany.n.davis@gmail.com and I will gladly send you my address.

Thank you so much for all your support!

stupid dreams

dreams for me have always meant nightmares...
ever since i was little, the only dreams i recall were of drive-by shootings,
or wanting to run and feeling like my legs were heavier than iron,
or falling off of a tall something and free falling...sometimes hitting the ground, sometimes waking up just before my face hit the pavement.

lately i've been having good dreams when i'm in sweet slumber... 'sweet dreams' if you will. but now that i've had these amazing dreams about amazing people in amazing times and places...i almost would rather keep the nightmares.

stupid dreams showing me people i can't see right now and things that possibly will never happen or, if they do, wont happen for a very long time.
stupid dreams waiting till i'm away from the ones i love most to rear their ugly heads. stupid dreams to show me up close in sleep what i cannot touch when i'm awake. let me intimately hear things in sleep i'm not able to hear when i open my eyes. give me details of faces in sleep i can only remember and not even see once the day breaks. stupid dreams. how bout another drive by...at least that's not realistic and it's easily shake-off-able once my eyelids open. stupid sweet dreams...stupid

farewell, Nebraskee

First of all, I just want to thank everybody-all of my WONDERFUL family and friends-who came to my farewell ceremony! I was very blessed to have you guys there to support me. It meant much more to me than you know! I wish I had pictures of everybody who came. These are just a few My wonderful family!!

Awesome friends!!

more stupendous family!! ...and thank you, Aunt Michele, for taking pictures during the ceremony :) Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

have you ever...

Have you,

experienced a miracle-one day you're one way-the next day so different

The only thing known before was sadness and shame

The only thing known now is laughter and quite frankly...

You just can't explain.

Have you,

wanted something to last forever

Have you,

wanted one thing to just GO AWAY

Have you,

ever wanted to break the hand of time

to never move again...wanting to stay in one moment forever

Have you,

laughed so hard till it hurt

realizing for the first time that the laughter just might be healing that part deep down inside that has been mangled for so very long

Have you,

stood underneath a weeping willow and felt so incredibly happy,

so inconceivably content

---Oh, my God...

how I've wanted to love

But I didn't know it could sting till it burns

burns till it kills

kills till I cant breathe

I can't breathe...

Then I come crawling to You...and that's right where You want me---

Have you,

wanted something so badly

but had your hands tied behind your back and a blindfold over your eyes.

No matter how much you try to do something

you just can't do anything

so helpless...but this time you think it might be okay

Have you ever?

I have.

I just wanted to know if anyone else had too

sneak peek

We should be done after one more go-around. I'm really liking the way it's turning out!

just what i promised...

some hardcore army photos for your enjoyment from my training in Ft. McCoy Wisconsin:

thas looking down the barrel of a .50 caliber machine gun...this one is used to engage LARGE enemy targets
...and this is me SHOOTING some large enemy targets with the .50cal

...and THESE, my friends, are the rounds (aka bullets) for the .50 cal. Freakin bigger than my hands!

The other, smaller, linked ammo is for the 240B machine gun.

This picture to the right is me shooting the 240B. Pa-reeetttty beefy weapon

We were also subject to 15 hours of combatives. We did anything and everything from "rolling"--more on-the-ground type fighting which consists of trying to choke the other person out or get them to "tap"--to practicing punching and kicking and practicing prison cell extractions. Boy was this training fun! But BOY did I get beat up! haha. I learned quite a bit and feel much more confident that I could kick the snot outta somebody if I really needed to...so remember that. If you were gonna jump me to steal my m&ms...I'd think twice about it. That is, if you want to live for a while! haha

Well, these were probably the most exciting things we did while in Ft. McCoy, WI, but we did do a lot more. The last couple of days we did a lot of room and house clearing. This is pretty intense and requires a lot of split second judgment calls! Our last day we had a huge convoy operation that we conducted. It was pretty fun and super realistic. At one point an "IED" went off and it "hit" my vehicle and I got "injured." What did this mean?? Only that they flew in a REAL bird (helicopter) and flew me out of there!! That made the whole entire trip worth it!

So all-in-all... good training. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Back to Nebraska life

hey folks.
Back from Wisconsin and it is very nice to be "home." I came back to Norfolk for the weekend and saying last goodbyes to friends...which sucks...really a lot. I've found I'm horrible at them. I'd like to avoid them altogether, the goodbyes that is. I'm having a going away party tonight. Just tryin to get everyone together that I love and hopefully see a lot of people before I get on up outta here! I DO so very much want to post pictures from when I was in Wisconsin, but I'm gonna have to scat and get this partay-girl ready to say goodbye to everyone! So pictures will have to wait for another day! Whatta sad day. I have a feeling that this will definitely NOT be the last of 'em...