Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We put up a little Christmas tree and decorated it with paper-made decorations and the ribbons of the gifts everyone sent after we unwrapped everything. Michael strung up the Christmas cards we received and then made one of his famous snowflakes out of the thick, plastic wrapping of an IV bag. I think it looks pretty cool. Today is rather bittersweet for us. We both miss our families and it's nice to have each other here. I'm kind of sad as this isn't exactly the most fun place to be during a time when family and love are such a part of this season.

We've gotten a lot of good gifts. It was really wonderful to have wrapped gifts under a tree for a little bit. Very cheerful and fun. We got lots of edibles, which have thoroughly been devoured. I believe a particular favorite was the deluxe chocolate cookies and chocolate almonds that have fully fufilled our sweet tooths. Michael's in particular as he has a rather voracious sweet tooth.

We also got some lovely Christmas music to listen to and several books. And for a luxury factor we got some wonderful foot cream and Burts Bees! We're very thankful for the thoughtfulness of everyone while we've been here.

The quilt update is so far I've finished three blocks and am well on my way to finishing my fourth block. I'll be posting a picture of my first completed column of 8. I have to make 7 of these columns. I'm really excited to see how it's going to turn out. Michael calls it, "fetching."

I wound up finding this little box of about 200 pieces of 2"x2" origami paper and am folding them all into cranes to string up and make a kind of garland for our room and whatnot. I didn't realize how difficult it was to fold such small paper until I got a few done...turns out I only have the patience to do one or two every few hours as it really excersizes my fine motor skills.

So Merry Christmas everyone! Much love from the Washington Woolleys! XOXOXO

First Completed Quilt Block

As promised, here's the pictures of my first completed quilt block. As I don't have a sewing machine all of this is pieced by hand. The top picture is a close up of my stitching, the middle one is a full picture of the back and the bottom one is what the front looks like. Michael likes the back view better than the front just because it shows all of my hand stitching.

It's very different doing it all by hand. It's much slower, but more accurate in terms of getting everything to line up, and keep the triangles pointed, etc. Sometimes with the sewing machine it cuts the points off of the triangles due to the seam allowance. Crazy sounding, I know. I like doing it by hand just because it's very meditative, there's no rush to get to completion just because you can't, and I like the craftsmanship put into it by doing it by hand.

I'm using a "back stitch" to put the pieces together. I like it better than the "over under stitch" because you get extra reinforcement with the continuous loop that happens with the back stitch. So now I've completed one, and only 55 more to go. I'm already making good headway into my second block. Now that I've completed one the others should go a bit faster. It's actually a pretty complicated quilt block as there's so much that needs to be lined up properly. It's an interesting puzzle.

Well, Michael and I are doing well. He should be writing up here soon. He's been on this fitness research kick and will probably tell you all about it. I heard him mention something about writing a blog on all of his past running shoes. Anyway, I hope all of you have a good week, night, day, etc. We're coming home in only a couple of months! I'm very excited. I got the official day for me a couple of days ago, and we're working on getting Michael to come back on the same flight as me. I hope everyone's doing well. Stay healthy!

TTFN. R.

Wedding Plans and Quilts

Well, it's December already and Michael found this little three foot, fake, douglas fir Christmas tree. It's very sweet, and we haven't decorated it yet. I think we're going to scrounge up some white paper and some scraps of fabric from the quilt I'm working on and put something together for decorations. Our first Christmas!

It's hard to believe our year here is almost at an end with our return to Washington in February. While on leave I did some wedding planning and I've been brainstorming some in my spare time. The venue will be at my Aunt Mary's house. Here's a couple of pictures. Don't mind all the leaves. These will just cover the main areas of the wedding.

This patio is one of the areas where the reception will be. The food will be inside in a dining area and there's room to wander around indoors as well, but the outside is just beautiful so this is an idea of what it will look like.

This is the door I'll be coming down when going down the aisle. The porch and two areas of grass on either side of the walkway is where seating will be.

This picture is a side view of the house. Just to kind of give an idea as to the feel of the house.

This picture is where we'll be doing our vows and an idea of the view of the river during the vows.

Michael has a military school that ends in September so I think we'll be moving the date to October. These pictures were taken in November so the leaves will be turning these colors in October. I'm kind of using that as color inspiration for the wedding. Michael really wants blue as one of the colors so blue and then the bright colors of fall are going to be what we use.

I tried on dresses while we went on leave and I've gotten my wedding dress. It's beautiful, but I'm trying to keep it a surprise for Michael so no pictures right now. It's got an old feel to it that goes really well with the house.

Iraq is still Iraq. The work load has been lessening and I've been filling my spare time up with quilting. I'm making a "Storm at Sea" quilt. It's made of blues, aquas, and greens. When I finish my first block I'll put it up.

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/42392/2682945230044399772S425x425Q85.jpg

That link leads to a picture that's pretty close to how I'll be making mine. The color scheme is pretty similar and the wave pattern going on is what I'll be doing for mine as well.

I don't have a sewing machine here so I've been hand stitching everything. It really makes you appreciate how things used to be made. I kind of cycle through sewing and cutting because it helps the "boredom." When you have a mountain of cutting and sewing to do it can get really frustrating when you're just doing one and you feel like it's never going to end. So I cut for a little bit, and then sew together what I've been cutting. I haven't even begun ironing seams yet. I'll do that once I feel like I've sewn a pile and I'm not sewing one thing and then ironing one seam, which can get redundant. In only the couple of weeks Michael and I have been back I've been making steady progress. So far I've had a little bit of time to do at least something on it every day, which is nice.

Quilting is very soothing and meditative for me. Michael told me it's fascinating to watch me quilt because all these emotions cross over my face one after the other. I didn't know it was that easy to notice, but when I'm quilting I just think about everything. I really like that I can contemplate the inner workings of the universe while doing something simple like cutting fabric or sewing a triangle and square together. Sounds rather poetic.

Anyway, my stomach is about ready to eat itself so I need to get lunch. I also want to check out our new pirated DVDs shop right by the chow hall as I need some new movies to watch while I quilt. I hope everyone's doing well. We're looking forward to being home in only two months! Very groovy as Michael would say. Soo...TTFN.

~R.

Leave

We went to VA on leave..."and I saw an aardvaark in Arkansas, a bear in Bismarck, a crayfish in Caladonia".... and had a blast. Rachel's Helwig family are a wild bunch of firecrackers. Now I have faces and personalities to go with all of her stories.

Getting there was a travel hassle, which you figure I'd be used to by now, but I can honestly say that it was worth it. After trying to get out of Baghdad for 3 days we finally flew the coop and it was pretty smooth from there to VA. Rachel's Helwig family had a welcoming party at the Richmond airport like the ones that you see on TV, a sign," We wove wou Woolleys", flowers...a big colorful tribal enclave... all smiles and HUGS galore. I had forgotten that I was a "hugger" but have since this visit been reintroduced to this friendly tactile tradition. The weather and trees were all so nice, Ken and K-Dog's,(Katherine's thug name), backyard was my sanctuary with the squirrels, lush grass and oak leaves, mint and flowers.

So then I got the flu and a nice dose of pneumonia and went into seclusion/hiding in the K&K basement and got caught up on all the History channel, true crime and various mandatory TV for several days (5 or 6 I think). This cut into our plans to drive to IN and see my family there, but it was unavoidable. Rachel tended me as best she could and Ken and Katherine kept me well medicated and well fed. I had my share of coffee, chocolate and watermelon. They got me to the clinic and I was healed, Amen.

I literally LOST COUNT of the number of family dinners that we all had together, all good and lively...one minute we are all getting together and the next it is midnight and we are playing some board-game or eating a second dessert and pretending to be "corn-on-the-cob". Everyone opened thier homes and hearts to us and it was almost too much for me.

Rachel's Granddad and I talked about squirrel hunting, trees, leaded gas, Ethyl, petroleum distillation and physical fitness among other things...I can't remember not seeing him in pressed slacks or without a dinner jacket on. That's class. Rachel's Grandma tried killing me with this "chocolate coma cake" and singlehandedly re-taught me the art of hugging. Her house smelled so good that last night over there too. I met Ken's father, John, who served in WWII, Korea AND Vietnam.

We got back here to Baghdad lastnight. we were in Kuwait less than 24 hours. I held Rachel as she cried herself to sleep missing her family holding onto this family picture her Granddad made for us. I miss them too.

Just a few more months here and we will be back stateside and see everyone again AND I get to meet the Baader side of her clan.

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.