My Mt. Fuji

Our friends Chelsea & George recently climbed Mt. Fuji in Japan.  Now considering I couldn't even make it to the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial I know without a doubt that I could not make it to the top of Mt. Fuji.  Could not, would not, don't want to.  Nothing about spending 7 hours climbing through the night, sucking on a can of oxygen, to see the sunrise followed by altitude sickness sounds fun to me.  God bless the people that do it though cause that sh*t sounds hard. 

That being said Em and I have been walking around Horn Pond.  It's a pretty good size lake near us that is surrounded by paths and trails.  There are tons of people there all the time so I feel pretty safe (although one day I wandered down a path alone and then was a nervous nelly walking back after it dead ended because I have watched too many Criminal Minds episodes).  Saturday I met a man there..he has 5 great grandchildren ranging in age from 7 months to 15 years (4 girls and 1 boy), is a retired police officer and prosecutor, AND goes to the gym 3 days a week and walks 3 days a week.  All I could think was "Gosh, I suck."  My eating is out of control and walking for an hour a day is really only stopping me from getting any heavier versus actually losing any weight.  I have not only fallen off the Weight Watchers wagon, but the wagon was struck by an ice cream truck and destroyed.  I am addicted to sugar as evidenced by my cavity.

Sunday my friend Danielle came with us and I wanted to look for an old reservoir that is there.  We found a trail heading straight up the side of a hill so off we went.  Five minutes into our hike and I am gasping for air.  I wished I had one of those cans of oxygen.  I wasn't aware that Emma weighs 80 lbs.  Up, up, up we go and I fall farther and farther behind Danielle.  Mostly I am hoping she will say we can turn around although I should've known that Danielle is much more athletic than me and that was not likely to happen.  At one point she went ahead and yelled back that it flattened out around the bend.  Um, BIG FAT LIAR.  It was flat for about 8 steps and then it was back up hill. 

On our journey up we passed a man who was RUNNING down.  He stopped and offered to push the stroller up because it was really steep.  Oh all that is holy, I was so tempted to take him up on his offer, but I reached deep into my heaving gut and manned up (remember I walked 60 miles in 3 days without training). 

Finally we made it to the top!

You can't really tell from this pic, but we could see downtown Boston

the reservoir

My eyes are shut tight because the sweat dripping into
them is burning my retinas--that's not a smile,
it's a grimace of pain

Horn Pond

Of course what goes up must come down and we spent what seemed like forever trying to determine if we could continue on the path we were on or we needed to go back the way we came.  Turns out the path we were on was not conducive to pushing a stroller down as evidenced by the fact that one part of it was sheer rock.  We headed back down the path we came up and who should pass but the man who offered to help us with the stroller.  Apparently he was just running up and down the mountain.  God love him.  This man passed us like 8 times.  I was just trying to keep the stroller from hurtling down the mountain.  Thank goodness for the wrist strap. 

After our hard work we took our sweaty bodies and headed to Orange Leaf for some fro yo.  I've been wanting to try it, it was good, I probably won't go back.  My night ended with a soak in the tub, praising God for giving us this tub.   

So I sit here watching Kate Plus 8 and I wonder the following:

How can I get Paul to pay for me to have lipo and breast implants like Kate?  She looks way skinny!

When and how did she become such a hateful person?

Gotta go.  Have a busy day tomorrow packing for Dallas and running errands. 

11-18 August (a Paul post)

August 11


Earlier this week a Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Thirty Americans lost their lives along with some Afghan commandoes. This was a sad event for our nation. I believe this moment touched a little closer to my wife’s heart because of how often I fly here. One thing that has helped relieve her and my fears is that I never take a Chinook. I have flown in a Blackhawk which is fast and has gunners on both sides for protection. But mostly I take a helicopter called a Presidential. I’m not sure why it is called that name. These helicopters are unarmed and mostly flown by civilians. Although not nearly as quick as a Blackhawk they are pretty maneuverable especially when compared to the Chinook. Those things are slow and mainly created to carry heavy cargo and lots of people. Although it would complete my tri-fecta of helicopters here, there is little chance that I’ll be on one.

Until today! I was supposed to board a Presidential as always. Then all those flights got delayed because someone loaded the wrong fuel in either the choppers or the tank they get fuel from. It grounded the whole fleet. There were a few of us trying to get to FOB Ghazni, so the people at the counter started looking for alternatives. They were able to acquire a Blackhawk. They went down the list and called off seven names. Although those seven were happy there was a pretty good size group of us that weren’t. Then someone had the idea of trying to get the Chinook to take us. Some strings were pulled and sweet talking done (none by me) and off our group of 15 were headed to the big helicopter. If you have never seen one of these they have two propellers on top and a drop down door in the back. It has two gunners also to provide some protection. We loaded up and after some time we started to get into the air.

Once airborne I learned something really quick. This thing is slow. We got high into the sky and the gunners were on full alert. I turned to look out the window and wondered what on earth are the gunners looking at? Imagine you are flying in an airplane. You are responsible for looking out the window for a bad guy pointing something at you. I wouldn’t be able to point the bad guy out. It would be worse than a “Where’s Waldo?” book. So we moseyed through the country side on our way to Ghazni. We only went past a few mountains and I definitely felt an eerie feeling knowing what had happened a few days earlier. I was comforted by the experts that said even though a Chinook is slow it was still a very lucky shot for the bad guys to hit it. I’m not going to say I was at peace during the flight, but I wasn’t worried either.

When we landed there was a large group surrounding the flight line with many taking pictures. FOB Ghazni doesn’t get a Chinook very often so I guess we were kind of celebrities for a few minutes. Like I have said before, it’s amazing how the little things excite you over here.

August 12

We are getting ready for a bi-monthly review over here. Our three person team has been gathering information, building a presentation, and doing a dry run to make sure we have everything ready. One of our guys is really responsible for this thing and it’s truly his moment to shine. Needless to say he is taking this very seriously. The other guy is a somewhat control freak, but he is getting our part together and doing a great job. Since I just landed I’m more of a reviewer and learning what’s going on so I can take care of the one in October. Stress seems high for two thirds of our team about this thing. Obviously I’m the third that isn’t stressed. As I told them before I have had to brief a 3-star general on who to award a $1billion contract to. This is important, but not nearly as stressful as that.

After a dry run and making some corrections I think we are ready to go. I only had to break up one shouting match between the other guys. Apparently one of them said something that made the other mad, so they argued. Both then looked at me to be the referee and I just looked at them and said “drop it so we can finish because this fat kid needs to get to lunch.” I’m just not one for being involved in some petty “he hurt my feelings” discussion.

So the day finished with the gym, Skyping, and reading “The Challenges of Leadership and Command” for my Professional Military Education (PME) test that I have to take in 10 days. I’m not much of a reader, but I have about 250 more pages. My reward for finishing and passing will be some Pizza Hut pizza and getting to start the next book of studies. Obviously no Pizza Hut on Ghazni, so I’ll have to make a trip to Bagram. After spending time at Ghazni, Bagram will look like New York City.

August 13

I went to sleep and was awoken by the sound of several helicopters outside. I have no idea what they are doing, why there are so many, and what is taking them so long to leave. The good news about this is that it reminded me that I needed to do my entry for today.

Today was a pretty normal day. Nothing too exciting happened which is probably why I almost forgot to do today’s entry. I did my normal workout and did some reading for my test next week. I tried to catch up on the Buccaneer’s preseason game. I did a little work. I Skyped with Jenn and Emma. So it was pretty much a basic day in the life of Paul in Ghazni.

The highlight of the day was attending a going away for the Army Sergeant Major that works along with us. He is an older gentleman about 60 years old. That may not be old in the civilian world but in the military that’s getting up there. This is his last deployment and he’ll retire about six months after he gets home. I jokingly asked him if he was going to miss deploying and he quickly answered “yes.” I have to be honest that I was taken back by that. What is there to miss? After putting some thought into it, I can understand. There is a certain level of purpose that we all feel here that is different, not necessarily greater, than what we feel working back home. The military has a lot of bureaucracy which probably doesn’t surprise anyone because it is a government entity. When you are deployed especially at a small FOB, the main goal of everyone is the mission. Get the mission done no matter how long it takes. It’s all about making sure your job is done. You don’t have people watching over your every move because everyone here has a job. It’s a nice feeling not to feel like the political games are happening around you. People always wonder how to increase the efficiency of the military back home. It’s simple, act like you are deployed. If you don’t need that person, position, review, briefing, etc when you are deployed then you don’t need it there either!

Well, the helicopters have finally left. It’s quiet and my CHU is no longer vibrating. I guess it is time to sleep. Tomorrow is Sunday which means laundry day and some relaxing (I know I do that most days).

August 14

Wow it is Sunday already. I can’t believe this week is already over. Since it was Sunday I had a relaxing day (like most aren’t). I knocked out some laundry, worked out, and just sat around watching some TV shows. Just like being at home.

A friend of mine sent me an Excel spreadsheet titled “Donut of Misery.” You enter in the day you left home and the day you should be back. It will then calculate exactly how long you have been gone and how long until you get home. It shows you the time in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. The reason for the donut portion of the title is that it has a round circle similar to a donut that fills in as your days tick by. As of today I am 22% done with my deployment. I don’t think I’ll check this daily, but it will help keep it in perspective. I guess I should do some work tomorrow since its Monday.

August 15

There are certain difficulties that everyone expects when they deploy. People know they are going to miss their families, miss their beds, good food, going on vacations, and many other things. One of the interesting things about deploying are dealing with the things you never thought of. For me the two biggest have been boredom and the limited people to interact with. The team I work on is three people. One of the guys is nice but antisocial. So that leaves my one coworker that I socialize with most of the time. He’s a nice guy, but we don’t have a ton in common. It took us a month and a half, but I think we have done all the small talk we can do. It’s gotten to where stories are being repeated and the same discussions are being done again. We’re on a small FOB with only so much to do each month and we do the same things month after month. So there isn’t much hope for new conversations. Maybe we’ll be saved by football season when I comes around.

August 16

Facebook is an amazing thing. We all know how it has changed the way people connect. We also (at least those with a Facebook) know that it connects us to people we would have never spoken to again. But you get a whole additional perspective of Facebook when you are deployed. I have so many people such as friends, family, and acquaintances that like to know if I’m doing ok and for that I am blessed. I think back to the old days (preFacebook) and think how many letters, precious phonecalls, and news spreading it would have taken to quell everyone’s curiosity. With Facebook all it takes is a quick status update or comment on someone’s wall and everyone knows I’m ok.

On most of these FOBs there is an internet café for people to use. For example the FOB Ghazni café probably has about 20 computers on the American side and another batch on the Polish side. I’ve sat there waiting for a computer and noticed that at any one time there can be 18 or 19 computers on Facebook. It’s the first and many times only site that people go to when they sit down. Even on the Polish side most are on Facebook.

When I first got a Facebook account I was working on a college campus. It was the easiest way to get a hold of my cadets. Very few of my friends and none of my family had an account. Heck most of the “social networkers” were on Myspace…haha That was about five years ago. Now it is strange for someone NOT to have an account. I wonder what will be the hot thing five years from now.

POINT TO PONDER: Today is the 9th anniversary of me being commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. I’ve been in the Air Force more than 13 years, but on this day in 2002 I switched to the dark side. Although I may have changed a couple things if I could go back, going to Officer Training School (OTS) was definitely one of the smartest decisions of my life. That being said, I do miss enlisted life because it was a whole lot more fun!

August 17

I completed a couple audits today, so officially my work for the month is done. Even though it creates a lot of downtime, I like that I know on the first of the month everything I need to get done. I can choose to relax and do a little here and there or I can go all out and finish early giving me days of nothing to do. This will pay great dividends when it comes to getting my professional military education course done.

I definitely did something to my left shoulder when I was working out a couple weeks ago. It only hurts when I lift weights or try to turn on the light switch. There is a sick-call clinic here that I need to go to and get checked out. I’m lucky that if it is something bad there is an orthopedic surgeon at the trauma unit, but hopefully I don’t need that. I’m sure the diagnosis will be taking some Motrin and rest it. I don’t want this to get in the way of my workout progress, but I’m sure it is only a minor setback.

Tonight at dinner there wasn’t any water to drink, all the milk was gone, and the Gatorade had been used up. The only thing left was soda. So for the first time in a month and a half I had a Mountain Dew. This is the drink I routinely called the nectar of gods. I haven’t really missed soda since I have been here. I had a few times that I looked and thought about getting one but resisted the few temptations. So now I didn’t have a choice. So I got one and to be honest it just wasn’t that good. In fact I could only drink about half of it before I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. We’ll have to see if I feel this way once I get back home.

UPDATE: I’m having some problems getting to sleep tonight. I’m not really sure why. A lot of the time I’m just thinking about Emma and how much she is growing. She is starting to get a personality. She and Jenn will lie on the floor when we Skype and she’ll just stare into the computer at me. And when Jenn talks she turns to look at her in the cutest way. She’ll role around smiling and laughing. She loves to grab her toys and sling them around and bang on stuff including the computer if it is close enough. Her newest thing is taking her pacifier out and putting it back in her mouth the right way. When you are a new parent these small things seem like such a huge deal. I’m very lucky to be able to see Emma on Skype just about every day and see her growing. It’s just amazing how much I miss hugging her especially now that she is actually starting to hug back. When I get home I’m going to hug her so hard, but I’ll try not to break her in half.

August 18

According to my “Donut of Misery” spreadsheet, I am 24% done with my deployment. I have been good and have written every day, but I’m starting to feel my days are very monotonous. There is no way I’ll be able to keep these posts interesting for approximately 150 more days. I will do my best to try…haha

Jenn called me this morning (it was about 1am her time) because Emma had a fever and wasn’t feeling good. It saddens me to know my baby was hurting and I couldn’t do anything about it, but it helps a lot to know Jenn is a great mom. By the time we Skyped this evening Emma was back to herself laughing and rolling around.

Today was filled with procrastinating on a homework assignment and binge eating. I have been so good watching what I eat, but today I fell completely off the wagon. I couldn’t get full and finally broke into the snacks that Jenn sent me. I offset some of it by playing basketball, but due to a meeting I had to attend at my regular gym time I was easily in the red when it came to calories for today. Well, I’ll have to get back to the routine tomorrow.

As I write this I am about to go to bed and there are explosions happening. I’m not really sure if they are incoming or outgoing. I didn’t hear an announcement to warn of outgoing shots. I’m listening for people heading to the bunkers and there isn’t any noise from outside. I guess I’ll do what any normal person would do in this situation. I’ll turn off my light and go to bed.

Mom of the Year Moment

Em and I took a field trip to Sports Authority today to pick up some wrist strap things for Paul.  He had asked for them last week, but seeing as I was house-bound last week with the worst summer cold today was really the first day I felt good enough to get out of the house.  Despite the torrential downpour we braved the rain and headed to Panera Bread for lunch and Sports Authority. 

I quickly found what we were looking for and decided to check out the women's work out clothes as they were having a huge sale.  Ya know since I got the jogging stroller and all.  So I gave Em the smaller box of wrist straps to play with and started to look through the clothes. 

I was only half paying attention to what Em was doing so imagine my surprise when I looked down and found this:

Much like a mouse, Em had chewed a hole in the box.  Keep in mind she has no teeth and as she smiled her gummy smile up at me I could see little bits of gummed up cardboard on her tongue.  She was quite dismayed when I took the box from her and proceeded to use my finger to clean the cardboard out of her mouth.  She let me know how displeased she was by my actions by screaming her fool head off.  I can already see she is going to be quite the handful as she gets older, but she makes me laugh.  Oh, does she make me laugh! 

I am going to assume the dye used to make this box wasn't toxic in any way.  Fingers crossed! 

What do you do when your husband's deployed?

Why you redecorate of course!  Paul has been gone a little over a month and I've wasted no time getting the house clean and organized.  I've come to realize who the messy one of us is and his name begins with P.  I do say it is nice to donate tons of stuff to Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation (and they even come pick it up!) as well as donating books to my local library which also has a dumpster out front for recycling paper as a fundraiser. 

Luckily I had a couple of strong men (David & Mat) to come over and move furniture which I am sure they were excited about (especially since David had just moved into a new apartment the day before lol). 




The living room got a new rug for Emma and no more recliner

The master bedroom used to have a dresser on this wall



which got moved to this wall along with the dresser from the guest room

the dresser from this wall got moved to the guest room



the guest room bed got rotated to a new position



along with the dresser from the master bedroom

the upstairs guest room finally has curtains and the bed was moved (these are the curtains from the nursery which now has white panel curtains instead)

no more junk in the corner!

and the man cave (with the recliner)

notice the lack of crap on the desk

So, I've had a great time throwing out crap, de-cluttering, organizing, and decorating.  I come from a long line of hoarders (ahem) so it is difficult for us to get rid of stuff, but it sure feels good to have more room in the house and finally get rid of boxes of old papers and what not that I've been carrying around for years.  Now if I can just get Paul to throw away receipts!

Cereal

Since I've been sick I haven't felt much like posting so this is a few days past due.  I was planning on holding out on giving Em cereal until she turned 6 months old, but I got so excited to give her solids that Paul and I decided to just go for it!  I think I succumbed to a little bit of self imposed peer pressure because all the other babies in my breastfeeding group that are around Em's age had started solids and I wanted to be in on the fun. 

Of course the day after we started cereal I came down with this awful cold so pumping is the last thing I feel like doing and yet at the same time I have to pump to keep up my supply because I had to take decongestants.  Its a viscous circle I tell ya!  But I do need the pumped milk to mix with the cereal so its all working out.  I've also been drinking Mother's Milk tea to keep supply up.  It's actually pretty good and I like tea and tea is good for your cold...again a circle. 

We started cereal at a time when we knew Paul would be able to be on skype and watch Emma.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it more...Emma or Paul and I! 

Skyping with Daddy

Hey, what's going on?  Why am I on the table?

Hmmmm....

I don't know about this.

I think I like it.

I do like it!

In other big Em news...she is getting BIG!  I think she is going to weigh 17 or 18lbs at her 6 month well baby.  She is rolling all over the floor resulting in the purchase of a new area rug for the living room.  She's also figured out that it is super fun to snap mommy's bra strap while she nurses. 

It's such a blessing that she's such an easy baby because not feeling well has left me not up to par.  I give mad props to single mom's everywhere because it is exhausting!  Of course I was thinking today how weird it is to be a stay at home mom with no husband to take care of!  I'm sure not many single mommies have that luxury.

In one month Em and I will be heading down to Cape Cod for a family vacation with my dad, his lady friend, aunt, uncle, friend Emily, and her son Gavin.  And then Em and I head to Florida for the rest of the year.  Time is flying by. 

8-10 August

August 8


I finished my work for this trip by lunch time, so the rest of the day was mine to enjoy. How did I spend it you ask? Well I did a two hour cardio workout. Did the elliptical for 45 minutes, followed by the bike for 20 minutes, back to the elliptical for 45, and finished on the bike with 10 minutes to make an even two hours. It surprised to me that I felt pretty good after it.

The evening was spent Skyping with Jenn and watching her feed Emma with a spoon for the first time. It was just watered down rice cereal, but the face Emma had was priceless. She seemed so confused, but yet intrigued by the whole experience. She’s our little chubby baby, so I’m sure she will enjoy eating real food. It was awesome to get to be a part of such a milestone. I don’t know who invented Skype, but I will give them a huge hug if I ever meet them.

I’m heading to bed with the hopes of getting a flight tomorrow. If my master plan works as I hope I will be eating lunch back at FOB Ghazni.

August 9

All good plans seem to disappoint. A helicopter didn’t show as planned so I spent an extra day here. To be honest I don’t mind spending some extra time at this FOB. It may be small, but I always seem to have great workouts. I went to the gym twice today. This morning I did weights and then another marathon cardio workout in the afternoon. Two more hours split between the bike and elliptical machine.

I got a lesson in cricket from the local Afghanies that stay on the FOB. It’s very similar to baseball with some interesting twists. I was going to try and do a little batting practice tomorrow, but I’m hoping to get a flight in the morning. If not that gives me something to look forward to.

One thing I noticed today is that it seems mandatory for Army soldiers to have tattoos. I know they are popular for people of all walks of life, but every single soldier seems to have multiple. And to be quite honest, some of them are just stupid. One guy has “Death” written on his forearm. That wouldn’t disturb me so much except he is one of the cooks. I don’t want someone so fond of death cooking my food. Another guy is from Boston and has the Red Sox “B” tattooed on his neck. That may be great as a soldier, but good luck getting a good job when you get out. I’ve seen praying hands, pictures of people’s mothers, and some that I just don’t even know what they are. Maybe I’m missing something, but I think I’ll stay tatooless for a little while longer.

August 10

Have you ever jumped on a bus, train, subway, exit ramp, etc and wondered “I hope this gets me to where I’m going”? Well, today was like that. There was one helicopter coming to the FOB where I was staying. When these helicopters come they basically touch the ground, a guy hops out the back and you follow him onto the chopper and you are in the air. The helicopter is on the ground for less than three minutes. This helicopter landed, I jumped on and away we went. Once we were in the air I asked the guy if we were heading to FOB Ghazni which is of course my temporary home. He looked at me and said “Nope.” So here I am on a helicopter flying over Afghanistan and NOT going to where I want. So I looked at him again and said “where are we going?” His response was simply “A few places.” I followed up with “What’s the biggest FOB we are going to?” When he said FOB Sharana I simply replied “Close enough.”

So here I now sit at another FOB hoping to get on a flight tomorrow. I arrived in just enough time to make the schedule for tomorrow. And since this is more of a hub than my other places I am pretty confident I’ll get to Ghazni tomorrow. But until then I will enjoy the luxury that is FOB Sharana.

The first thing I did was have lunch which included salad. Back in the states Jenn always made salad with dinner. We would disagree if salad was a vegetable or not. But being in the remote FOBs that I stay at we don’t get salad mainly because the lettuce never survives the trip. So I loaded up with a bunch of salad and did the same thing at dinner too. It’s amazing how you find enjoyment in joys as small as salad.

I was also able to go to the PX/BX which for those that don’t know is a store. It’s not very big here but we don’t have any American stores on Ghazni. All we have are “hajji shops” which are run by Afghanies and have limited selection and are overpriced. There isn’t much I need, but I did load up on some nutritional supplements. Heck if I’m going to work out this much I’m going to make sure I produce results.

Next was the gym. I know I go to the gym almost every day, but this gym is so much bigger and nicer. Since I had the whole afternoon I did some weights and then another two hour cardio session. But this gym had treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and a row machine. I was able to really mix it up compared to normal. I’ll tell you that after 30 minutes on a row machine, when you are not used to it, will make muscles that you didn’t know you had sore. So I did 35 minutes running on the treadmill, 35 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes of fast ab work, 30 minutes on the row machine, and capped it off with 10 more minutes on the elliptical so I could brag about two hours total. If I don’t look good when I get back home then there is no hope for me.

Stroller Strides

Last Friday Em and I decided to check out Stroller Strides.  For those of you not familiar with Stroller Strides first let me tell you what it is NOT.  I had no idea what to expect and had envisioned a group of women serenely (okay, maybe at a fast pace) walking around the park, chatting, while pushing their strollers.  Boy, was I ever so wrong!

We started off with warm ups that included placing the strollers in a circle so we could side shuffle around them and jog as we sang a song.  Of course I didn't know the words so I could concentrate on breathing and moving fast enough so that the person behind me didn't crash into me. 

We then pushed the strollers to the next station.  This involved squats and lunges while singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm."  Let me just tell you that Old McDonald almost had someone pushing up daisies on  his farm after the song was over.  I was so out of breath!  I hate squats and lunges anyways so doing them while singing and focusing on not keeling over was a little beyond me. 

The next station involved arm work.  Okay, that doesn't seem so bad until there was more running around the strollers in the form of musical chairs or in this case musical strollers and the loser had to do 10 jumping jacks.  Don't think I lost because I would've knocked a biatch down to avoid jumping jacks.  Again, all this occurs while singing, but luckily I don't know the words.

We then head onto the baseball field and are told to run around the bases 4 times.  If you know me you know I can't run 4 feet, but I can't not do it.  I start jogging and tell the woman behind me to feel free to pass me.  The whole time I'm hoping she doesn't step on me when I fall over.  Thank goodness there was no singing because all my energy was going into breathing and staying upright.  Surprisingly the woman never passes me so I at least beat one person. Of course a skinny mother of 2 almost lapped me, but at least I finished without walking, throwing up, crying, or passing out.

Then came jumping jacks...while singing the Hokey Pokey.  Do y'all realize how incredibly long that song is?  I am already drenched in sweat at this point and out of breath.  I'm sure some people wondered if I was having a seizure as my jacks were..well, sloppy may have been an understatement 

Finally, it's on to push ups...on bleachers.  While singing.  Kill me now. 

We finished up with sit ups.  I can rock some crunches.  I don't have 6 pack abs...I have a keg.

Of course I then rushed home to shower and meet a friend for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  lol  So much for those calories burned. 

It was a lot of work out...much more than I expected.  We will be going back.  I have a slight cold so we'll see how I feel at the end of the week.  And this time I will be better prepared mentally.  Those women are tough!

1-7 August (Paul's post)

August 1


Very early this morning I was awoken by the sound of a dog chasing… and sadly catching a cat outside my door. The military has a thing called General Order #1 which basically outlines things that are prohibited. Those things include gambling, alcohol, sex, porn, and having pets among others. I know everyone has seen stories of Army or Marine units bringing back a dog or even donkey that became the unit pet. This cat was a stray, but an Army guy that has been gone for a little while had adopted it and raised it from a kitten. When he left his replacement started to take care of her. And she recently had two kittens. The guy taking care of all three of them is older and leaving next week. Sadly the momma cat didn’t survive to say goodbye. A stray dog came by and attacked and killed her. In fact the guy tried to step in and almost got attacked himself. The kittens are old enough to survive without their momma, but when their keeper leaves they probably won’t be around much longer.

When I think about it I wonder why someone would risk their career to violate an order just to have a cat. After being here a little while I am starting to understand. I would pay big bucks to have one of my dogs over here with me. It’s that quest for companionship that a pet can bring.

Today I spent the morning setting up my schedule for the month. If everything goes as planned I should have a productive, but not overly busy month. I then worked out and played some more basketball. I should have known not to play today, because my legs were so tired before I even started. I then jammed my finger. Not a good basketball day. I think I’ll lay off a little tomorrow to allow my body to recover.

August 2

This morning at breakfast a guy came up to chat with me and my coworker. He was telling us that he got an email from his daughter’s boyfriend asking permission to marry his daughter. His daughter and her boyfriend are both in the Army and stationed in Germany. Neither he nor his wife has ever met him. His daughter is 21 years old. I think he gave the best answer which was “I believe I raised my daughter right and I trust her judgment, so if she says yes than I approve.”

That got me to thinking about my Emma. I know she is only 5 months old and we have a long time to go before this conversation is happening, but time moves quick. One of my best friends has a daughter and when we first met she was about 7 years old. She is now moving into her teenage years. It seems like only yesterday that she was seven. So I know one day I will look back and think “wow it feels like yesterday that Emma was 5 months old.”

I hope that when that day comes, that some guy thinks he deserves the opportunity to marry my little girl, that I know she was raised to where I can trust her judgment. Of course if I can’t there is a good chance the guy will become fertilizer in my backyard.

August 3

Today was a rough day. I had trouble getting to sleep last night, because I had a million things running through my mind. There wasn’t anything troubling me, but just a lot of thoughts. It was well past midnight when I finally stopped looking at my watch. This late night led me to sleep late and miss breakfast. From that point my day was just a wreck. I did get an audit done, so I was productive.

I forced myself to go workout, but my heart just wasn’t into it. I’m really planning to chalk this up to a blah day. It was very similar to a Saturday back home to where you just don’t want to get off the couch. Nothing to worry about now, but definitely something that I don’t want two days in a row.

August 4

I got back on track today. I got some work done and got a pretty decent workout in. Sadly my weight loss has stopped, but I think it’s because I’m starting to put on more muscle. That is all well and good but my main goal is to get rid of my non-beer belly. I have five more months, so I’m sure I’ll get there.

We got a message today that our FOB has two aggressive dogs running around and attacking people. One is responsible for killing the cat the other night. I guess I’ll have to take my gun with me when I go to the bathroom at night. These are stray, wild dogs so who knows what diseases they are carrying. It’s bad enough when I have to wake up in complete darkness and walk to the bathroom, but now I have to worry about a dog jumping out of the night.

The month of August is also the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. It’s an interesting time because they must fast throughout the day and are not supposed to work. Of course with all this free time many choose to plan attacks and make bombs. So there has been more than the normal sirens going off and I’ve had to spend some time in a bunker due to possible incoming rockets. We’ll be on higher alert this month, but we should still be pretty safe. Like I’ve said since I’ve been here, if there is a rocket/mortar with my name on it then it must be my time to go. Of course I’m not tempting fate so the body armor is nearby, I know where my nearest bunker is, and I’m also not afraid to sleep on my floor if needed. Let’s just hope August goes by as fast as or faster than July did!

August 5

Well, it took a little over a month but this deployment has finally gotten to me. Today has been a day filled with sadness and loneliness. I had a pretty good routine going in the past weeks of working out and eating right, but the last couple days I haven’t been able to really motivate myself to do anything besides sit in my room. I knew this would happen. I’ve heard from multiple people that at the beginning you are so pumped up with getting settled in to your new environment that you don’t think about home. Then you get to the point that all you can imagine is being back home. The good news is that once I push through this it should be pretty smooth until about 4.5 months. At that point you are close enough to done that you just think about the finish line.

Jenn and I have a good routine of Skyping each day before I go to bed and before she goes to lunch. Today she was meeting a friend for lunch so our Skype date was postponed until later. That was perfectly fine with me because I want Jenn out of the house being social as much as possible. The sad part of the evening came when I waited up late to Skype and then it wouldn’t work. I keep reminding myself that I’m super lucky to have the capability to call and Skype with her each night from the comfort of my room. Even though I realize how lucky I am (maybe even spoiled) it sucks when I miss out on that one happy moment each day that keeps me going. That 30 minutes of me, Jenn, and Emma being a family and just hanging out is the goal of each day. I’m happy that I have that moment most days and it just sucks when I miss out on it. Here’s to hoping the internet cooperates tomorrow night and that I get through this rough patch quickly.

August 6

I’m powering through this wall of loneliness. As if my wife knew I was feeling this way I got two packages from her. It was just nice to read her cards that she included. I didn’t get to the gym because of work, but I did make it back to the basketball court. It was nice to play and take my mind off of things.

Tomorrow I am trying to fly back to the other FOB. Hopefully they honor my reservation and the flight goes off. There are all kinds of news about a helicopter that got shot down in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The stories talk about the dangers and in this case 31 American died along with some Afghanies. It’s a strange feeling to hear those stories the day before I am planning to board a helicopter and fly through the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Mine is only a 20 minute flight so I should be safe. Let’s just hope I can keep my schedule.

August 7

Today was a good day. I actually had a flight that showed up as scheduled and took me to the other FOB. I was able to get to work and although I have found a few things this is a really well run place. The guys that work here are also a good group of people. I made it here in time for brunch (that’s what they have on Sunday) and the food was pretty good.

There are a few really good benefits of this FOB even though it is in the middle of nowhere. First, since it has an Army combat kitchen instead of a contractor’s chow hall I can get over-medium eggs. I miss that so much. A contractor has to cook everything well done including eggs, steak, etc. Second, the Skype is so much better here even though it’s free. It kind of sucks to be paying $80 a month back at Ghazni and can barely stay connected. Third, the laundry setup is also good, so I actually only packed dirty clothes. I washed them as part of my laundry audit to test that the washer and dryer works…haha

I also had ice cream today. I had made a vow that I would not eat any sweets like that until I got under 200lbs, but I have decided that I need to let myself have a treat now and then. It was the greatest ice cream ever! I couldn’t tell you what kind it was but it was delicious.

I’ll be here for at least another day. Jenn and I are going to take advantage of this good Skype so I can watch Emma try to eat some rice cereal with a spoon. This is my baby’s first step to solid foods. I can’t wait to get back and sneak her some goodies when Mommy isn’t looking. J

The Big Latch On 2011

I have had my moments with breastfeeding.  For sure Erin, our new parent support person and lactation consultant, on the base knows all about it as I think I saw her 8 times when we first brought Emma home.  Let's not even mention the 1500 phone calls I've made to her some of which I was crying when she answered the phone.  Although I had always told people I planned to breastfeed a year I wasn't convinced myself that it would actually occur. 

When I was gritting my teeth in excruciating pain because Emma had a terrible latch I was pretty sure we were going to get nowhere close to a year.  God bless Janice the LC from my nursing mom's group for getting me through that.

When I first started breastfeeding I never would have pictured myself breastfeeding in public and now I do it with hardly another thought about it.  I don't even use the cover anymore unless I'm at a restaurant or something equally as public.  I did breastfeed at the Buffalo Zoo without the cover because it was just too darn hot and let me just say that no one even noticed me sitting there with my nipple hanging out.  I do try to be discreet and covered as much as possible even without the dreaded cover. 

And I for sure never would have pictured myself attending an event like The Big Latch On to help try and break the world record for most women breastfeeding simultaneously. 

But that is just what I did today.  Stinky and I picked up our friend's Liz and Caleb and headed to Isis Parenting to get our latch on.  There was a very diverse group of women there and a diverse age range of children including some toddlers.  I started to think that it might be okay to breastfeed a little longer than one year. 

Obviously Stinky had a good time playing with Caleb.

We weren't doing anything!

Hey, whatcha doin over there?

Ok, I'm gonna play with this and you watch me.

Here Caleb.  You can have this one, too.

I do love the cuddle time I get with Stinky when she is nursing.  For example, today she actually took an afternoon nap in her crib and I used that opportunity to lay down, too.  Of course she still doesn't sleep very long and it seemed like I was more tired when she was ready to get up.  I brought her in bed with me and let her side nurse and before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was waking up an hour later.  I think she fell asleep while nursing, too, which allowed her to have a longer nap. 

So, I have no idea whether or not we broke the world record, but it was a good time. 

Wow, I didn't realize it was so late!  (haha who knew I'd someday think 9:30pm was late)  I need to finish up my wine and head to be. 

1 Month Down...5 more to go

We have survived our first month of Paul's deployment.  Scratch that.  I think we are thriving which I didn't expect.  When I was 9 months pregnant and Paul came home and told me he was getting deployed I just had these visions of myself curled up in the fetal position at the airport as he boarded the plane...TSA coming to whisk me away to the loony bin.  Or crying all the time. 

Well, we avoided that whole airport fetal position thing by having a friend drive him and staying home with Emma really didn't allow me too much crying or feeling sorry for myself. 

Since then I've had a few days in which I've felt really blue, but I always try to keep life in perspective and I refuse to feel sorry for myself when so many others are in situations that I cannot imagine, situations that I actively pray God never makes me experience.  A 6 month deployment seems like a cake walk.  (I've never actually done a cake walk and I'm not 100% sure what it is, but it sounds fun...I do love cake). 

Other than the hot flashes, hair falling out, and lack of sleep I think we are all doing pretty well.  Paul is doing pretty much what he did at home (watching tv and playing on the internet except now he only gets 4 channels and watches a lot more movies) and our life is similar as well. 

We went to our first infant playgroup today and Emma was the youngest baby there.  Even though she isn't crawling yet I think we'll keep going if only to expose her to some kid germs.  Plus I like to get out of the house each day and going out to lunch every day is getting expensive.  Emma was so good (as usual) and fell asleep at the end as it occurs during her usual nap time. 

Although I have noticed an increase in the emotional eating.  I am starting to feel less blue (my increased dosage of my meds must be kicking in) and now need to (once again) get on track with WW and working out.  My work outs have suffered b/c Em and I have been running around so much that we are usually out during her afternoon nap time and its next to impossible to work out if she's awake.  And I'm much too lazy to work out when she goes to sleep at 7pm.  That's my dinner time. 

So, my next project is getting the house organized.  In lieu of getting new furniture I've settled for re-arranging some furniture and Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation is coming on Monday to pick up a bunch of stuff for donation. 

And in other random news I watched 4 episodes of Jerseylicious today and I hate myself for it just a little.  lol