And One More Door Closes

I am officially through with Precision Prosthetics & Orthotics. I first started in 07 and minus summers have been there ever since. And while I love the people I work with--they are truly lovely--I have never been more excited to close one door in my life.

On Friday we had my goodbye lunch, which due to an overload of patients meant that we pretty much ate in shifts and only overlapped by about 10 or 15 minutes. Oh well. We went to Wonderful House, which has the BEST chicken fried rice you will ever eat. However, do not get too attached because I plan on marrying it. If I ever decide to settle down and commit, that is. Who knows.

Anyway, I have more news. I was asked to adopt another soldier--and because I truly feel down to my bones that this program is a good one and because I feel that I have the time and energy to devote to yet another--I said yes. And now I have a CPL, in the Army, in Taskforce Spartan at FOB Ramrod in Afghanistan. Yep, I have my first soldier from Afghanistan and that means I will worry twice as much. Anyway, I emailed him and got my first response! I have his first care package all ready to send out--although it was hard to choose because he is fairly remote. Not so remote that he doesn't have internet access, obviously, but I don't know how often he gets to use it. And no one I knew could tell me about FOB Ramrod. So we shall see.

And that makes 4 in my family of Soldiers!

So now I will be cleaning, organizing, and packing in the coming week to get ready to head back to PA and my 6th summer at Bryn Mawr. Soooooo excited to be there and to be able to have 4 Soldiers to share it with--it really isn't fair because they are like a hostage throughout this! They will be forced to listen to all my camp stories. And because I am making the move to Senior Camp I am sure they will listen to all my fears and frustrations too. I feel a little bad about that--not enough not to write though!

On a happy note, it very much looks like my boys will be coming with me to Montana so I won't have to say goodbye just yet.

Freaking Terrorists!

I know that everyone is thinking that...so I don't feel bad for titling my blog this way! As my friend Dan says, if you don't want jumper cables on your jumblies then stop blowing up civilians! Ok, so that had to do with the conversation we had about waterboarding and other torture means. This was in response to an article about whether we had received information on bin Laden's whereabouts through torture, but really the same applies. If you don't want to be called a freaking terrorist stop bombing people! But I digress.

The real point of this blog is to express my concern about what is happening to our ladies and gents in uniform in Iraq--and probably Afghanistan, too, actually, but I don't know for sure. Due to the adoption of my Soldiers I know much much more about what is going on over in Iraq than I previously did. And for reasons of OPSEC I will not post names or locations.

I was always hearing from my SSG in the SF that they were getting hit by IDF--indirect fire for those of you not in the military lingo know. That included me until I adopted my Soldiers. Anyway, he would say that he would be sleeping and bam--they would get mortars dropped on them. He would be so casual about telling me this too--just drop it into conversation. I was appalled! I mean, I know that they aren't vacationing over there but I didn't think that while they were on Base there would be any issues--not now that it is supposed to be better in Iraq. I knew that once he left on missions there was danger but not while he was back at the FOB--Forward Operating Base.

My SPC told me that they have been getting mortared a lot lately. He is at a different location than my SSG in the SF but it apparently happens everywhere. Anyway, what really bothered me this time was hearing that during a Toto concert--yes, that band that sings that Africa song!--they were hit and they had to pull the show early. It is bad enough that they have to randomly bomb our troops but to do it during Toto! Come on!

But seriously. It makes me angry and it makes me sad and it really makes me worry for my Soldiers--and yes, all our troops, but when you personally know someone it makes it harder. And the bad thing is that they are just randomly sending mortars over in the hopes of hitting something critical and injuring or killing our Soldiers. And so I say, freaking terrorists! Get another hobby!

Crazy Thing Called Life

It has been a crazy couple of months. I will list the main points.

Grandma Lena passed away in January--I know she is at peace now but it was really hard to say goodbye. We all came home for the funeral in Montana.

Our Soldier, the SSG in the SF, disappeared on a mission in February--for the ENTIRE month. I developed an ulcer and was having trouble sleeping. (I didn't really develop an ulcer but it sure felt like it!) But he emailed me in March to say that he was ok!!!

I adopted a second Soldier the end of February. SPC, also in the Army, also in Iraq. He has become a good friend by this point.

I decided that I did not want to pursue Criminology and in my quest for a grad school stumbled upon one that I absolutely fell in love with. Forensic Psychology! However, I do not have any psych in my background so after much debating I decided to go back to school to get a second BA in Psychology and from there to go into Forensic Psych with a Graduate degree. Soooooo by this point the only school that would take me was U of M. I will be heading there in the Fall and I am super-excited about this opportunity! Also, as a consequence of my Soldiers, I want to explore post-traumatic stress and perhaps get into counseling for that.

In April our first Soldier, SSG in the SF, came home!!!!! It was sad to not be supporting him anymore but we all wanted to stay in touch still. The boys and I miss hearing from him but we know that at least he is safe now. Alas, he disappeared yet again for training purposes. :(

I adopted a NEW second Soldier--our 3rd if you are going cumulative. SMSgt, in the Air Force, also in Iraq. We have yet to hear a word from him--but we are still writing letters and sending care packages! I hope that they are brightening his day somewhat.

Through a series of miscommunications and errors we were led to believe that we no longer had our first Soldier so we adopted a new second Soldier--our 4th cumulative. Well, that turned out to be wrong information so now we have THREE Soldiers! SSG(P), also in Iraq. We have been communicating for a little over 2 weeks now and he is a very nice person.

All in all our experience with adopting Soldiers has been a positive one! The boys and I love to send them things and to hear how their days are going over there. And although all 3 that we have left are in Iraq, they are all at different bases so we get to hear about life from different perspectives and different areas of the country.

I will be done with Precision Prosthetics & Orthotics in May and off to Bryn Mawr for my 6th summer in June. And upon my return I will be moving back to Montana and living in Missoula once more. I am excited.

Holidays Over--New Year Begins

Hey there!

I am back in Casper and have really begun my Grad school application process. The place I really want to go, San Diego State, extended their deadline to March! That was cool but I think I will have everything done before then. Or I should. Sheesh. It just takes forever for your transcripts to make it by snail-mail, apparently.

We had a good Holiday in Montana. Grandma Lena opted to not have chemo after all, so on Christmas Eve they moved her to a nursing home for extended care. She is hanging in there...I think she will have her good days and her bad. We spent a lot of time visiting her and Kaelan drew her lots of pictures for her walls.

We got so much snow!!! It was my fondest wish to have 7 feet--that didn't happen, but some of our snow drifts are piled that high!

All is well with our soldier, too. I worry about him now--I didn't expect to get so attached! The boys are just enjoying having a penpal I think and they like to draw him pictures. We try not to get them worried when he writes that something is going on over there--going on a mission, mortars, etc. I just tell them the good stuff from the letters.

And as nice as it is to be back in my own bed, I miss being home! We got to hang out with Brandt and Ashlie and little Will a lot, which was good. And of course, my parents.

A Little Sooner

We are back in Montana. Originally the plan was to head here on the 23rd so we could be home for Christmas Eve and spend time with Brandt and Ash and little Will and mom and dad and everyone else. We left on the 18th instead.
Grandma Lena is in the hospital. She is looking much better after numerous blood transfusions but we all needed to be here right now. I don't foresee them letting her out in the immediate future. She has leukemia. They have not started any treatment yet because her kidneys weren't up to it and now I am not sure if they will. The chances of the chemo working are not good.
And then I got bad news from our soldier in Iraq. He is fine and everything is fine over there, but his family in the States was in a car accident and hospitalized.
This is shaping up to be quite the holiday, isn't it?

There And Back Again

Ok, I just actually watched The Lord of the Rings and that was stuck in my head--it has nothing whatsoever to do with this very long-overdue blog. Or maybe it does!

I took the GREs and got my score--my math sucked!!! But I got an excellent verbal and written. Good enough to get me into the schools I want, I think. As for that, I have applied for San Diego State for Criminology. BUT I recently developed a crush on a grad school in Phoenix--global affairs and management. Here is a bit about that: geo-political economy, international relations and foreign-language study needed to make a positive difference in regard to international conflict resolution, sustainable economic development, humanitarian relief and human rights. RIGHT??? I know, I have a total and complete crush. Sigh. I just have to make up my mind now.

As for the rest of life, the boys and I have just recently adopted a soldier. He is in the Special Forces over in Iraq right now and we are very much enjoying sending him messages, mail, and care packages. We email every day and he responds on the days he is on base and not out on a mission somewhere. We are very proud of our soldier and would like to encourage any of you to adopt one yourself! They need all the support they can get. Our soldier has been away from home for the past 4 birthdays and 3 Christmases--just an example of what they are giving up for all of us. We are very proud of our soldier--he's our hero!

It is the Holiday Season and I hope that everyone has found Christmas because trust me, it is already out there!

And Here We Go

I have been back at work since the first of September--and yes, I am finally on my last legs at Precision Prosthetics & Orthotics. I am taking the GREs on October 23rd, and keeping my fingers crossed that I get a decent score so that I can get into grad school for next fall. Criminology! After which, I want to join the FBI.

There you have it.

I have been studying like a mad woman, all while working 9 to 5 and playing with my boys in my down-time. Busy busy busy!