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!

Spokane!

Mom and I are in Spokane, WA, for her National Rural Letter Carriers' Association conference. While Mom is sitting through meetings I am exploring the nearby campuses of Gonzaga and Eastern Washington--research for grad school, you know--hanging out in the park with the geese, reading soooo much, and playing the Xbox. It is a pretty sweet little place. Although more than one person has told me that Spokane is the place to find Meth, I don't think I'm going to let that ruin my experience here. I haven't seen any drug deals go down right in front of me, so I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist for the week. Thanks, friends, for all the meth updates. Sheesh. Anyway, we have been finding some interesting little stores and watched Inception in IMAX. There is another IMAX theater that is playing an Everest movie that I would love to go see. We'll be here until this Saturday and then back to MT.

Home!

I made it!

Of course saying goodbye on Friday morning was sad--I was doing ok until I hugged Gary Brown goodbye. Then it went down from there, and I cried saying bye to everyone else.

The bus ride was ok. We had one girl throw up--I always have a puker on my bus. At least she made it in the little bag I gave her. Then when we got to Long Island the car service came to pick us up. 14 bags--8 of that big suitcases--for 5 people and one black sedan. You do the math. I wasn't about to sit there and wait for another ride to the airport, though, so I made sure everything fit. We didn't have leg room--Katie up front was sitting cross-legged, and the 3 of us in the back weren't doing too much better. And then the driver took us straight through Manhatten, through China Town, and into the Holland Tunnel. It took forever.

I stayed in a hotel at Newark that night and then went to the airport at 5:30 in the morning for my 7:50 flight. I of course went to the wrong air carrier to check in. I thought I was flying Northwest but I was flying United instead. Suckiness! That didn't make me miss my flight, but it did mean I didn't get breakfast. I popped some Dramamine because I didn't want a repeat of the flight over and that put me to sleep for the entire 3 hours until Denver. Then I took more Dramamine and slept from Denver to Great Falls.

I also sat next to 3 military guys in civilian clothes that were headed to Montana for the first time. They asked me if I was stationed in Great Falls, to which I kind of laughed, because I clearly do not look like I am in the military. Do I? Anyway, the guy next to me called in on his cell phone before we took off and said he was Agent something-or-other. That was intriguing. He had a military backpack and a Marine tattoo on his arm. I wonder just what they were doing...

And then I arrived and proceeded to switch cell phone carriers to Verizon and to buy a new cell phone. I didn't really want internet on my phone, but after seeing the other cell phone options I went with the Ally Android smartphone--it was the only one that wasn't a step down from my current cell phone. And so now I have unlimited text, 5 friends, and unlimited data. It is so strange to have Gmail on my phone and to be able to Facebook. But I totally dig my star charts and all my GPS capabilities.

Mom and I are off to Spokane, Washington, for the week.

Ciao!