Pro-mask

or protective mask or gas-mask...a big black strappy thing we wear on our face to protect us from bio-chemical agents. It has several filters that make breathing a whole lot more challenging. You sound and look kind of like Darth Vader wearing this thing.

To clarify what Rachel just wrote about me running with a gas-mask on...since I think that is the first time that she has mentioned it. Since we have returned from mid-tour leave, where I got pneumonia, my run time has suffered getting over the crud. So to more fully engage my intercostals and diaphram I started running wearing this cruel, black, suffocating, face-octopus for my 2s and 3s and squats and chin-ups...brutal but effective. It did cut almost 90 seconds off of my run time.

Back when I was in the Marine Corps, PT or chores wearing a pro-mask was for special occasions like corrective training or group punishment. It was also used to boost an individual's, MY, motivation, which would seem counter-productive but I can assure you from intimate personal experience that it worked with wicked elegance.

Just a quick back-brief. "Squirrel!..."

Stasis

Hello everyone! It's my turn to blog again and I have no idea what to write about as nothing's really going on. Things are just slowly but surely winding down. I think the hardest part about this phase is waiting. All of these briefings, all of the forms to fill out, all of the online questionaires, etc. Everywhere you go it's "hurry up and wait." One very frustrating part of the Army is that aspect. Get everyone together super early and then wait for the main briefing only to realize half of the people gathered weren't even needed for the briefing. So you just waited an hour for something you didn't even have to go to in the first place. I'm also ready to be back so that I can keep continuing with my classes. I've got a bunch of science/lab courses I want to start once we're settled in. We're on the waitlist for a house on post, and I'm praying one will be ready by the time we get there so we don't have to be aimlessly waiting for one to open up.

It's been very cold here. Mike said January is the coldest month. What's strange is that it's only in the 40s and 50s, but it feels freezing because we've acclimated to 120 degree summers. It's been raining a lot, and rain over here brings about this mud that is indescribable. It's like clay and it makes a mess no matter how hard you try. If you step into it you'll sink to your mid-shins. It's that reason why they cover large areas with small rocks so that you don't sink into the mud.

I'm still researching up a storm and Mike and I spend our time watching lots of movies. Last night we watched "Time Traveler's Wife," which is based on a book. It's extremely sad near the end and so I was crying up a storm, and had to take some Mucinex D before bed so that I could breathe out of my nose while sleeping. My nose is still raw from all the tissues.

Michael's now wearing a long-sleeve PT shirt when he runs, which is incredible. Back at Lewis he was the guy running in summer PTs (short sleeve shirt and shorts) when there was three inches of snow on the ground and below freezing. They had to put a memo out about proper PT uniform in winter in Washington because of him. He's always the one who does something that makes people have to come up with a rule because they never thought someone would actually do what he pulled off.

He's also stopped running in his gas mask. And I quote his response to my question of if he was going to wear it for his run, "No! I will NOT be wearing that black, satanic object!" This from the guy who was thinking about running in a Lucha Libre mask. He's now officially stated he no longer wants one...of course this is ALWAYS subject to change.

All in all we're doing well. At least we're keeping each other in good humor despite the frustrations of getting out of here. Well, I need to get some stuff done, drink my tea, and relax on my day off. I hope all of you are happy, healthy, and safe. We love you. TTFN.

R.

Missions...

Rachel says that I am irritable lately...I think that it is just this specific mission...We are just as busy as ever and as we get closer to returning there is a sense of complacency that rises along with the urgency to not be complacent..uneasiness about what's next, what didn't we plan for and the anticipation. It is this annoying cautious vibe...We have all of these post-deployment assessments/hoops to clear and the endless checklists and redundant admin issues. The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, in this case it is admin section and operations... The missions seem to be longer for me some how? Like my gear has gotten heavier or something. I have become impervious to motion-sickness thanks to these jerkish hot shot show-off blackhawk pilots wanting to "...make the guy in back (me) puke". It is probably 30-40 degrees cooler now than summer too? So the locals are all bundled up when we are out circulating and it is nerve wracking seeing all these bulky clothes, people naturally keep their hands in their pockets...blah blah...I imagine that that all makes perfectly NO sense to you but I can tell you about it all once we return if you want. Just ask me what happened on Dec 5 2009.

I was down South over the marshes recently and saw something that Rachel's Granddad and I talked about during mid-tour leave, oil refineries. When I asked about these big fires out in the desert I was told that they burn off all the natural gas here rather than let the foreign oil companies use it. If that is true, what a waste. I seem to remember her Granddad telling me they burn some part of it as a safety/release valve, but here they had a fire going up on top of the tower and then out over the wells too.

We have been here for nearly a year and I have been to the IZ, international zone, a hundred times but I finally got a photo under the Saddam Sabers. So I can check that off of my "life-list", JK.

Rachel has been studying children's education. Several of our friends back home have recently had a baby or are in the last tri-mester and it has got Rachel pre-nesting HARD. We have a strategy, a plan that I am trying my level best to abide by. We agreed that she should get her nursing degree out of the way before we proceed with the piglet(s). She is a rational, civilized person about all of this until we get a photo or an ultrasound of some happy, sad, screaming, smiling, sleeping pre-adult. THEN Rachel becomes a cooing, treacherous, plotting, compromising, pre-nesting, baby needful, maternal creature...I told her that we can get a cat, dog, goat, fish, monkey...pet to appease the craving but please, SOMEBODY, talk some rational sense into her or you may find yourself shopping for baby-shower gifts sooner than you'd expect or desire. HA!

I got a letter from my Mom, living up just inside the artic circle at minus 35, who thinks the internet is a passing fad and too much of a hassle. Like not being able to salt the icy roads because the bears and moose come out to quench their salt cravings isn't...Like having to tote a highpowered rifle around to fend of bear, wolf and wayward moose isn't a hassle or having to bundle up in several layers of clothing so you don't FREEZE to DEATH walking across the street to work isn't a hassle...or having to "import" everyday necessities like hygiene items and food, along intermittant internet and phone service. I think that we have it better here in Iraqistan sometimes, I have never shot a wolf that was scavenging in our dumpster here. She is amazing to me. She cracks me up. I love her.

Anyway, we hope to see and chat with you all soon, MIKE

Lazy Sunday

Not too much going on right now. We got our first day off together that we haven't had in awhile, which was really nice. Sunday at the chow hall is ribs, and so we got lunch and then went to the local movie store to get some new DVDs. Right now we're watching "The Book of Eli," and so far it's pretty interesting. Another post-apocolyptic, dysotopian future type movie, but it's got an interesting twist to it.

Lately I've been all caught up in researching homeschool and education methods. It's fascinating. I've read a lot about it and the education method I've really come to love is Charlotte Mason. I found a curriculum through a website called Ambleside Online, and a lot of my time has been taken up reading about it. I guess until I'm doing classes again, the energy I'd normally focus on getting my assignments done is now being used for these random research projects. Fun times. Except this project isn't quite so random because it's about educating our future kids.

I've been quilting a little bit, but it's calmed down for right now. In the next week my schedule should decrease significantly, but until then it's been rather hectic. So I'm just using my downtime to rest and recharge.

Anyway, we're doing well, and we love you all and are looking forward to being home soon. TTFN.

-R.

Twitter!

Just a quick little update. If you scroll down below our picture on the right hand side, you will see a box that connects to my Twitter account. I created this account several months ago with the hope of linking it to this blog, but could not for the life of me figure it out. Well, guess who finally figured it out? That's right, me. So! Now you can see what Michael or I am up to on (hopefully) a daily basis. I'll do my best to put up one sentence every day. We're trying to blog up here more (or at least I am) as things are calming down, but sometimes the writing muse refuses to wake up from her nap!

This is just a little bit of fun for all of you to enjoy. Anyway, we love all of you. TTFN.
R.

January 2010

We are now in the year 2010! So far January has been rather uneventful. Our New Year's Eve was brought in by a mortar attack. This one was probably the worst one we've been through yet. We were on our way to chow and all of a sudden the siren goes off and BOOM! We had to run into one of the bomb shelters around here. Once it settled down we continue our way to chow and there were a few cars along the road that put on their flashers and stopped. The people in the car had also run to some of the bomb shelters along the way. Then we get to the chow hall and everyone's joking, "They were off by about four hours! They could've at least waited until midnight!"

Other than that it's been extremely uneventful. I won't be starting online classes again until I'm back in the states so I've been taking it pretty easy. I've been quilting (on block 6!), and I finished my 150 some odd cranes out of 2" origami paper. That was fun. Michael calls them "swans" or "doves" and sometimes when I hold one up infront of his face to look at he'll grab it with his mouth like he's going to eat it. It's pretty funny.

One thing I've noticed about Iraq are the crows. I've never seen such big, healthy crows before. They're beautiful here as well as quite bountiful. My favorite part of the missions I'm on are when we're on our way back and we're driving to the drop off point on post and there's this particular stretch of road where there's HUNDREDS of these crows. I've noticed the peak time for them is around 7-8 AM. They're all lined up along the street lights and fence posts angrily cawing like little black feathered hecklers. Some of the trees along the way will have 20-30 of them all making a ruckus in its branches. It's wild. There's also been a few sightings of the elusive "hooded crow" which is what the picture is of. They're usually a sign of something dead nearby as they're like vultures in their eating habits.

A couple of weeks ago Michael and I were on our way to evening chow and two of these crows were eating something someone dropped and it was the closest I'd been to them. They're HUGE. Easily around 12-15 inches. Almost as big as Ravens.

Anyway, we're doing well. We're working on getting a house on post, figuring out our plan for the next year, and getting ready to leave. It's kind of exciting and sad at the same time. This little place has been our first home for our first year of marriage and we've grown rather fond of it. We've downsized a lot of the stuff in it. So even though we'll be missing this place, we're looking forward to being in a house soon.

SIDE NOTE: Please stop sending packages as we're hitting the 30-60 days until departure and we don't want anything getting lost out here. We've been extremely thankful for all of the thoughtfulness and appreciate all that everyone has done for us. It's made this stay here more bearable. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

We hope all of you had a great New Years and that 2010 will be filled with many blessings and wonders. We love you all. TTFN.

R.

Well...

We are in the last QTR of our deployment and the first stages of fixing to return.
Paperwork and packing things, I watched Rachel pack and unpack and then pack and then inventory several bags and a large toughbox. I wrote down the various contents as she called them out..." box of colored pencils, Prisma-color, 120...notebooks, 2...books, 37!...green, strappy thing we never used, 1..." She had done the same for me earlier, teamwork, Hooah...

It is about time we return, they have been having a watermelon blight here at the VBC Chowhall.

Rachel will most likely be home a week or three before me. Hopefully our vehicles are not vandalized or anything unpleasant...while we were away the guy watching them all LOST the keys to the entire lot of vehicles, neat huh?

It was solemn as I took down our free, humble little 3 foot Charlie Brown tree, but it fit in one of our boxes so I will be importing our 1st Xmas tree to the US for future Woolley Christmases to come. I regret that there will not be room however for the orange 5 gallon drink dispensing cooler that I found, or the 6 sets of plastic chest of drawers we used for all our various medical supplies and food-things.

Rachel is quilting up a storm, 5 squares down, 51 to go...all by hand! Her stitches are exquisite, she can suture my face anytime.
We are looking forward to getting back and starting a home together. Cheer for us.