Running Excercises

As all of you know by now, I've been promoted to Specialist. (The top picture is what specialist rank looks like on our ACUs, the bottom on our dress greens). Today we did a very informal ceremony with our company First Sergeant around Michael's Staff Sergeant promotion. He got it back in August, but there was all of these "paperwork inconsistencies." So our First Sergeant finds out about it and within 2 and a half days fixes it. Apparently he held the entire S1 shop hostage (that's our admin. office) until the situation got fixed. We're not too sure what he did, but he fixed it. So now Michael gets to wear his Staff Sergeant rank (third picture down).

Things are moving along over here. We're excited about leave. We had a briefing about it and decided to cut the big roadtrip we were planning in half so that we could spend more time in each of the places we wanted to. We get another opportunity for block leave when we return to Washington, and we'll use that time to go to California and what not.

I've been increasing my PT regimen steadily but surely. We run together more now. Lately it's been difficult trying to run every night or every other night, but as long as we run within a couple of days of the last run it's fine. One exercise we discovered was along our 2.2 mile route there's these pull up bars that Michael will run up ahead to and do 10 chin ups. There's three of these stops along our run. What's funny is I start speeding up and keep going until he catches me. He'll even make these crazy noises behind me as he's closing the gap. Well, I start speeding up even more as a result so we both get a good work out from it. He has to sprint for a good distance while I just keep a faster pace until he catches me and then go back to the original pace. It's kind of funny how this stuff works out.

So far I haven't done more than 3 miles, but I don't want to overwhelm myself too much in this process. Tomorrow I think we're doing 3.5 miles. Tonight I'm finishing my Psychology class. I've got a couple more chapter summaries to do and one more test. I don't want to worry about classes any more while I'm here and while I'm on leave. We're getting closer to the home stretch where our schedules get more and more hectic so I probably won't be able to do any more online classes until I get back to Washington. Then there's settling in. Hopefully by the fall I might be able to apply for the "Green to Gold" program and either start that fall semester or start the following spring semester. I need to get to the education center concerning it. I've decided to go for my Bachelors in Nursing so that way a little later down the road I can get my Nurse Practitioner. While I'm in the Army I'm probably going to specialize in emergency medicine and then move into something more nurturing like being a Midwife or pediatrics or something.

It's been awhile since we've posted up here. We're both pretty busy. Me adjusting back into the mission schedule and Michael with his EO (equal opportunity) class. It's draining him. He's napping right now and then he's going to do his massive dose of reading once we get back from chow. We're leaving in a few minutes. I'm so hungry!

My squad recently had a diagnostic PT test. They can't give a record PT test while in country unless you choose for your diagnostic to be your record. They are required to give a record 90 days after returning from country. But with our imminent return getting closer and closer our platoon/squad is starting to make sure we're doing PT and can pass a diagnostic. So want to hear something cool? Guess who was the only person that passed the PT test, AND is the only female in the squad? HAH! ME! I was pretty chuffed with myself concerning it. We have a platoon diagnostic PT test coming up soon. They haven't decided on a date yet, but hopefully I'll know about 2 days prior so I can rest up and store up my glycole so I can do well on it. I'd like to at least show some improvement. My end goal is to max out the thing, but I need to just take small steps to get there.

Well, it's almost time to wake Michael up for chow. I'll let everyone know how I do with my psychology class. I just got a 100 on the test I took prior to writing this. Anyway, we love and miss all of you and are looking forward to seeing everyone on this leave and the next one come March. We're pretty stoked. So stay healthy everyone! TTFN

~R.

Specialist Woolley

Well, it's official Rachel is a Specialist, E-4 68W10+. I was so pleased to see her promoted, she really deserves it. They, the chain of command, put in a waiver to promote her ahead of schedule, 6 months early. Hooah! Courage.

Promotion

Well, it's been awhile since I've written up here. The past couple of days our internet has been wonky and wouldn't let me access our blog...oh well. Anyway, things are going well. We've got some interesting developments. I'm now back on full duty and doing missions again. Mike and I are going on leave at the end of this month. We'll be sending out emails in the next few days to let all of you know what are plans are with our road trip across the states. Hopefully we'll be able to see everyone, and it doesn't conflict with any plans. We're pretty excited about it.

Some cool news for this month...I'm getting promoted to Specialist! I'm rather excited about it, and of course that means more $$, but it's also just nice not being a Private anymore. It means I'm one step closer to being an NCO. Right now I'm planning on getting my nursing degree sometime when we get back. I'd like to do it at University of Washington as they have one of the best programs in the country.

I finished my math class, and I got an A. I'm very excited about it. Now I just need to finish my Psychology class, and then possibly take a break for a little bit. Especially since we're going on leave in November. I can have my fourth class start up at the end of November, and leave Iraq with four completed college classes. That would be quite nice. I know with going to college again within the next year, I need to retake my SAT test. That should be interesting. I'm probably going to take a refresher course on it since the test has changed in the last few years. There are now a couple of additional sections to it. This all depends on the unit I get into back at Lewis.

My goal is to get into Madigan. I'd love to work at the ER there. I'm going to be contacting the career manager for medics about that, and see if there are any openings for a Specialist returning from Iraq, who has a modest amount of training in trauma from one of the local CSHs (Combat Support Hospital). So hopefully that'll work out, and they'll give me the time frame for when I can apply to the nursing program. OR they'll just sponsor me going. It just depends on what happens. In the mean time, working on more online classes, and maybe knock out a few of the basic science courses along with their labs at the education center back at Lewis.

I'm very ready to move forward with all of this. Michael and I are planning on getting a house on post for now. This could change, but for now that's what we're aiming for. I'm so excited to get home soon. We're at the home stretch. It's hard to believe that I'm almost finished with my first deployment. Only about four more months, and one of those months is leave. So that's pretty cool.

Michael and I are doing well. We're sassy and delightful as ever. I've put myself on a running program. My goal is to get to 30 miles a week...hopefully before we leave for the states. Tonight is sprint intervals. Yesterday was two miles. Tomorrow is three miles. Maybe after next week I'll start doing four miles at least once a week. My goal is about every two weeks to add another mile to the program. I'd like to do at least three miles a day except for sprint days. But we can still increase how many of those we do, or the length. I'm enjoying my running shoes. It's cool to start feeling the progress you're making. Like when you first start running, it REALLY hurts. But after a few weeks you get used to your heart rate speeding up and can breathe easier. As you practice more your stride gets better, and you're able to push off harder for longer distances. Once I get into the groove of running, I enjoy it. I just hate running after a break of not running. It really sucks trying to get it back. Especially after about a week of not running.

Michael's told me I'm not going to want to run while we're on leave...we'll see. I never want to run, but I do it anyway, and I really don't want to go through three weeks of no running and trying to get my groove back when we return. Not cool at all. I'd like to run a marathon in about a year. I'd also like to break 20 minutes for a 5K, and possibly do my PT test two mile run in under 12 minutes. Wouldn't that be cool? Anyway, I think that's it for now. Other than classes and being back on full duty, I'm pretty much boring at the moment. Michael would disagree, but he's a bit biased.

Anyway, I'm going to take a nap, finish my chapter summaries for my Psychology class, study for the test I'm going to take a little bit later today, go to a re-enlistment ceremony, and then come back and take my test. Results will be posted.

TTFN
~R.