Blog Catch Up Time!

I know it has been awhile since I have updated my blog so it is catch up time! Here is a summary of the last few months.. Caution it's a work in progress right now

JANUARY: R&R

I went home for leave on December 30^th and was actually in the air on New Year’s  Eve. The pilots just let us sleep, no announcement was given that it had hit midnight. Since we were flying no one knew what time zone we were in at the time New Year’s occurred.  When we landed in Germany for our layover it was 0100 and found out then that most everyone on the plane slept through the clocking ticking to midnight.  I landed in Texas on New Year ’s Day and was in San Antonio by lunch.

I came home for leave at this specific time to celebrate my triplet sister’s wedding!  I was the maid of honor.  My sister married her Aussie soul mate on January 8^th.  She had a beautiful wedding at San Fernando Cathedral.  20 Australians came for the wedding, family and friends of the groom.  It was great to spend a little bit of time with family and friends who were visiting for the wedding!   Of course the Australians made it a lot of fun too!  I also was able to celebrate my little brothers birthday in Austin while I was visiting!

If you tilt your head to the side you can see this is my official Eucharistic Minister Certificate to serve the Eucharist in Iraq.  The priest here made us official!

Stopped in Houston on the way to Galveston to have lunch with my grandparents at Brennans.

Made it to Galveston

Couldn't help but grab a picture of this while in Galveston.

Finally made it to my parents house for leave!  That's my dog on the right.

When you live in the country in Texas..there are a lot of deer...and sometimes they get caught up in traps made for bores not deers.

We had dinner with all the Aussies at an Italian restaurant by my parents house.  This is me and my brother.

My siblings and I at the rehearsal before the wedding.

At the Rehearsal dinner.

Getting our hair done for the wedding.

Putting on the finishes touches.

Congratulations to the Hills!

My family and grandparents.

When one marries an Australian, a kangaroo cake is a must.

The wedding cake.

Enjoying some mini-burgers.

My Dad's boss treated my mom and I to a spa day! It was amazing, thanks Mark!

Celebrating my brother's birthday and Dave and Busters

FEBRUARY: The Rain and Austin Shadow ½ Marathon

It doesn’t rain very often in Iraq but when it does it can rain on and off for days.  This can pose a problem when you live on a base with no paved roads and one sidewalk.  Shoes get muddy, clothes get muddy, buildings get muddy…everything gets muddy.  It’s not the mud we are used to either.  Mix some rain and sand together and you get more of a mud soup or stew.   I learned to watch where I step.  If you don’t know how deep the mud is your whole leg can get drenched in the mud soup.

My boyfriend and I tried to do a long run around the base in preparation for the Austin ½ marathon.  We thought most of the mud had dried up…we thought wrong.  Around the back side of the base mud was waiting for us.  I kept thinking it would let up, but the further we ran the more the mud caked on our shoes.  We finally reached a point where the mud was so bad we would have sunk in…so turned around instead.  That run was cut short that day.  Our shoes were so weight down by this point it made it hard to even keep our shoes on.

AUSTIN ½ Marathon:  My doctor friends, boyfriend, lawyer friend and myself all ran in COS Kalsu’s Austin Shadow half marathon.  Our base isn’t very big…and mostly made up of gravel or pot hole laden dirt roads.  This made for an interesting race as we ran the same loop 3 times dodging potholes, a giant bulldozer, and MRAPs getting ready to go on convoys.  I ended up running the race with my lawyer friend.  In the end we received the same medals and t-shirts the runners received at the actual Austin Marathon and ½ Marathon!  What was really special about this day is that my brothers and Dad ran the FULL MARATHON in Austin on the same day.  It was my brothers 1^st marathons.  They placed my name and picture on the back of their shirts during the run.  Amidst 1000s of runners a Lieutenant from COS Kalsu that happened to be on R&R and happened to be running in the Austin ½ marathon saw their shirts.  She realized they were talking about me and ended up meeting my dad and family on the run.  Pretty crazy to run into a person’s family of someone you work with on your current deployment to IRAQ…while your participating in a run in Austin.

Christmas in Iraq

Decorating for Christmas
Christmas in Iraq was a unique experience.  We had several events to keep us in the holiday spirits.  All 3 Squadrons on Kalsu decorated their perspective headquarters.  Tiger Squadron put a sleigh on their roof pulled by Tigers... of course.  Muleskinner posted a cut out Hett on their roof with a trailer pulling the sleigh with gifts.    Regimental Headquarters managed to procure a "Christmas Tree" and decorate it for the holidays.   My tech and I continued to fine tune our decorations for our clinic.  We had a CHU decorating contest which helped to make us feel a little bit like we were back home.   Thank you to everyone who sent Christmas Decorations.  It really put us in the holiday spirit!!

Christmas Packages
I was overwhelmed with the amount of packages sent during the holidays.  A special thanks to Sharon Moynihan and St Ediths for the 20 plus boxes sent to my troop for Christmas.  Also thanks to Rebecca Creek Elementary for the great boxes they sent to Medical Troop.  A big shout out to Mrs. Hall's class for the great Christmas banner.  Thank to all the family and friends that sent individual boxes for the holidays.  Everything went to good use.  I put 2 little XMAS trees in my clinic, posted one outside my Chu and when inside my Chu.  The decorations were used for the clinic and my chu and fun holiday toys/food/candy/gifts were given out and enjoyed.

Christmas Festivities
My squadron played in a softball tournament XMAS Eve morning.  It was fun to play softball but it had been awhile.  I had one issue, I ended up hurting my back trying to stretch too far for a ball.  I was fine as long as I kept moving.  Once the games were over I went to eat lunch, the time sitting caused my back to spasm.  Lets just say the rest of the day I didn't do much and had to be medicated on pain killers and mm relaxants.  It took about a week for my  back to start feeling normal again.  Also on Christmas Eve my boyfriend and I attended "Midnight Mass" at the Chapel on Kalsu. The mass was held at...2100.  I felt very blessed to be able to celebrate a Christmas mass in Iraq when the rest of the country was suspending Christmas celebrations in fear of violence breaking out against Christians.  On Christmas day there was an XMAS 10k...but I opted to sleep in instead.  In the evening I got on skype with my boyfriend and we wished each others families Merry Christmas. To end our holidays we had a Christmas party on the 26th with the "Captain Mafia".  An eclectic group of CPTs (and an LT , MAJ or 2).  We range from health care providers, to Armor officers, to lawyers.  We had a white elephant exchange and played some holiday games.  My troop also had a holiday party.  We had a BBQ in which the firefighters cooked and ended with a Secret Santa gift exchange.  


Right now I'm on the back end of my R&R leave which will be the topic of my next post.

What medics do for fun at XMAS! Thanks Jamie for the Ginger Bread train.

Here's the outside of my CHU decorated for XMAS

The LIVE tree I was sent in the mail from my cousins in Austin!

One of our docs went all out with her decorations

Here is the Hett pulling the sleigh on top of our Squadron TOC.

Showing off the KU snuggy I got for Christmas from my boyfriend.

An example of the DFAC decorations for Christmas



Enjoying a Christmas meal...that looks like wine but it's really just sparkling grape juice



The CPT Mafia on Christmas Day

My neighbors CHU

Another XMAS tree!

Here are some of pictures of the inside of my CHU. The tree is from my grandmother, nativity from my parents, and stocking from CO-Workers at FT Hood.  Thanks everyone!

A family tradition every year.  Posting XMAS cards around the doorway.

Some XMAS notes I received and posted outside my office.

This is all the candy received from Rebecca Creek Elementary!

When u live in the desert Christmas trees are scarce.  This is a rod iron XMAS tree outside our Squadron TOC