1 Jun 08-Chris has graduated from his training finally and is now just hanging out in civilian clothes finally with his rent-a-car. LOL He’s a little lonely as can be expected. He was supposed to be home today for 10 days but they neglected to tell him that he had training in Kuwait too so he’s leaving this week for Kuwait for that training. There’s a little bit of confusion as to where he is going after that. They don’t really show him inbound so he’s not really sure what is going on but the big wigs are involved in it now so hopefully they will get to the bottom of it. He sent his card from the digital camera so hopefully I will be getting it in the mail tomorrow and I can post new pictures of what he’s been going through. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts as he’s about to take that long plane ride overseas!

10 Jun 08-This will be my last entry on this particular subject!  Chris is HOME!!  Can you believe it??  They canceled his deployment while he was on his way from Atlanta to Baltimore (his last stop before heading to Kuwait for more training).  I have no idea how something like that happens and I’m so upset that they put him through everything they did for nothing but it is so nice to have him home!!

3 May 08-Chris, from as far as I can tell, has been having a good time at his training. It seems like they are going through so much and I have a new found respect for him and what he’s having to go through. I will definitely say that it was nowhere near as hard for me to go do what I did. There was no training involved except for the training we did here on the base. His training, however, looks like so much fun. I have made him a deployment photo album and posted a ton of pictures that he e-mailed home to me.

4 May 08-Chris leaves Ft. McCoy tomorrow to go to another base close by where he is now to do some serious field training. They will be living in tents and it will really feel like he’s deployed then. He will be so happy if he’s got some mail waiting for him when he returns. I know first hand how frustrating it is to feel settled, have to pack your stuff and move again, only to pack one more time to come back to where you’ve been. Please think of him while he’s out playing wargames in the field.

7 May 08-Sorry I haven’t been posting much info. I cannot tell you about the training that he is currently going through but it’s brutal for sure. He’s been pretty wiped out most days. As for here, life goes on. I’ve been busy working and taking care of the kids and doing my daily errands/chores. It’s surely a busier life for me these days but thankfully I’m handling it well. It will be a busy weekend for us. I’m taking the kids to the fair at Harmony’s school on Friday and then Saturday, they are honoring military families at the base park. There will be food, crafts, bounce houses, petting zoo, etc. It should be a fun day out for the kids. We’ve found our routine well and I’m so thankful things are not as hard as I thought they may be.

18 May 08-Chris is finally back at the base and doing his normal training if you want to call it that. He was supposed to have the day off today but they had some more slots for medical training so he is going to learn life saving and he will be able to do IVs after his training for the next 4 days. They had some days of nice weather and last night it was cold and raining again. He’s got 2 weeks left of his training and he shared a nice surprise with me. It looks like he’s coming home after his training for a week and a half. We’re still waiting on confirmation but we’re not telling the kids. We’re going to just surprise them. I’m going to tell them I’m picking a friend up from the airport! It is going to be so fun for them!

22 May 08-Sorry for the delay in posting about Chris’ training.  Thankfully he is almost home and he is counting the days.  However, we do have some bad news.  He will not be returning as he was previously told.  He has more training to do closer to where he’ll be in Iraq so he goes straight from Wisconsin to there.    I am so thankful that we did not tell the kids.  Chris has been doing some medical training and can now give IVs.  He asked if he could practice on me to which I replied, “Hell no!”  LOL  I’d love to help my man out but I don’t even like them when they’re necessary!  He is doing well though and I am so proud of him!

25 Apr 08-Chris headed out this morning for Wisconsin for a month of training. He will be headed out to Iraq after that. As of 10 a.m. our time, he is waiting in Chicago for his connecting flight to Wisconsin. There are 4 of them traveling together and as they finished their lunch in the airport, they were waiting for the bill when the waitress approached them and pointed to a man across the way and told them that he had picked up their tab. It is so amazing when people respond to us in uniform that way. It’s the little things like that which makes us feel like we make a difference and people do really respect us for what we do.

Since Chris is not a chat/computer person, I will do my best to update here what I can that he tells me about his journey.

As of 1:30 p.m. our time, Chris made it to Wisconsin. They are really treating it like they’re in Iraq already. They are to be in uniform at all times, they’re living in Army barracks and that consists of an open bay with 14 people to each one. This is going to be very interesting for him not having lived that way since basic training 12 years ago so keep him in your thoughts. He will have his cell phone and be able to make calls the whole time he is there and he will try to find the computers on base today or tomorrow.

26 Apr 08-Chris finally got his luggage today thankfully because he had to march in the snow flurries this morning with no cold weather gear. This sure doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a fun experience for him. His classes are kind of sporadic so at least he gets some free time. He has a curfew there and everything. He did get his address today so for the next 4 weeks, you can send him mail at:

SSgt Christopher Naylor
602 TRG (P) Det 7 JSTO 08-3
1868 Regiment Avenue
Ft McCoy, WI 54656-5234

27 Apr 08-Chris sent me a picture of his tiny little space. Things will be like this for a while. He may have a little bit bigger space in Iraq but not much.

28 Apr 08-Today is Cody’s birthday and thankfully Chris was able to talk to him. We were also. I sent his mom an IM and asked her if he could call so the kids and I could wish him a happy birthday. Chris had most of the day off today and had training late in the day. They are doing training pretty sporadically. It isn’t making a whole lot of sense to me. He has to get up at 0500 for PT tomorrow and it has been snowing there so that is not going to be fun for him. He sounds like he’s in good spirits although it is very boring there.

We hope that all of you have a wonderful new year!  I know I have plans for myself for this new year.  I absolutely HAVE to make TSgt this year and I hope that Chris does as well.  We could sure use the raise.  I’ve come to learn that it seems like there is a black cloud constantly over me.  It seems that nothing goes right for me although I do have a good life.  I’m going to try not to play so much of the victim and just accept the things that do not go right in my life.  It’s going to be a hard change because it just gets so frustrating sometimes.  I am going to continue to work hard to keep the weight off me that I lost while I was deployed.  I feel that this year is OUR year and I’m going to do everything I can to keep that good attitude.  Hopefully this year we’ll be buying the house we’ve been renting.  I just pray that everything goes through with it.  We really do love that house and it would be nice to do what we want to it.  I want to paint and really make it our own.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to post an update but everyone should know by now that I am home.  Thank you so much for all of your love and support over the last almost 7 months.  I couldn’t have done it without you!!  Thank you!

15 Oct 07:  Today has been a LONG day.  We got off work at 0400 to take a nap before our outprocessing.  We got up at 0830 to go turn in our weapons which took forever.  The outprocessing that was supposedly scheduled for 1230 was never scheduled so we just ran around and did all of our stuff individually which ended up working better.  After we got done, we went over to Pizza Hut to grab lunch and it was so strange walking to the BX without a weapon on.  As it turns out, I’m kind of “famous” around here as the boys say.  I guess there’s some chief and captain running around here complaining about some girl that had the nerve to put butterflies on her weapon and they all just had to laugh because they knew that was me.  Oh well.  I didn’t think it was a big deal to make sure that I always knew my weapon from everyone else’s.  There is nothing that states that you can’t do that.  Oh well.  If they change the rule, I’ll be long gone so I could care less.  It just kills me how something silly like that can get people in an uproar.  It is so nice to know that we’re all done.  We have our tickets out of here and now we’re just waiting for our time to leave.  We’re still working which kind of sucks but I don’t have internet in my room anymore so that really makes for a boring day.  If it were up to me though, I’d just sleep the rest of the time away.

**Meal of the day was Pizza Hut for lunch and some chicken tenders for dinner.

19 Oct 07:  I don’t have much time but I just wanted to let whoever still reads this know that we’re out on our way out of here.  We’ll have to spend 3 days at a different location but then we’ll be back early next week!  Love you all and can’t wait to see you soon!!

08 Oct 07:   Time keeps ticking by. I was realizing something the other day on the bus ride into work. For the longest time, there was no real conversation on the bus. It was like the ride to hell every day and we all put our earphones in so we didn’t have to hear each other any longer than our already long 12 hour shift. Now, I notice that our guys don’t do that as much and we all chat with the new guys. It sure is a different feeling around here these days. I’m being sent home early tonight because we have to go do our medical outprocessing but like most places, they don’t take into consideration those of us who work nights and the only time available to go is from 1100-1400. So, Kelly and I are getting up at noon to head over and then there’s a pizza party in Camp Cunningham for us folks from DM. People are just so excited and we’re not spending as much time at work anymore since there’s not too much for us to do anymore. We only do 30mm and flare these days. The guys from Seymour Johnson do the rest as they should since we’re outgoing.

**Meal of the day was chili mac and some chicken nuggets.

09 Oct 07:  So I’m now medically cleared to go and I was even able to turn in my ammo today.  Of course now I run around with a weapon but no ammo but oh well.  Not like we ever need it here.  My weapon is a lot lighter now.  Anyway, that was rough getting up so early but I was released to go back to my room for the day after chow so it’s not too bad.  I’ve been trying to think of all the stuff I need to do to get out of here.  I changed out my linen so I could wash my personal stuff and put the bases linen on so I could turn it in after I sleep in this horrible bed for the last night.  I consolidated some more stuff and started a “give away” pile.  I think the last thing I’ll do is take the pictures and cards down off my wall that have kept me company while I’ve been over here.  It really feels like this is finally almost over.

**Meal of the day was baked chicken and mashed potatoes. 

10 Oct 07:  Today has to be the worst day I’ve had since I’ve been here.  I’ve just had enough of this garbage.  People are in bad moods just Mt. Home was when they were leaving and we all thought that they should be happy since they were leaving.  I spilled coffee all over myself which obviously wasn’t the worst of things.  However, I was woken up at noon again today and I just need to get sleep and it’s driving me nuts.  Tomorrow is my night off so I’m to the point that if someone wakes me up on my day off, I will be giving them a piece of my mind.  I hate that it’s come down to that but I just can’t take it anymore.  I’m so sleep deprived, it’s not even funny.  We had a kid get in trouble the other night because the vice group commander found him asleep in his bobtail on the flightline.  It’s been a rough couple of days for us.  Anyway, as I was typing this, I got thirsty and remembered that I had put a Diet Coke in the freezer when I came in so it would be cold.  Well, I forgot about it and just my luck, it exploded.  However, because of that little thing, I ended up getting a good laugh.  BK decided to take a picture while I was out looking for an ice scraper (I’ll put the pic on the website later).  The Seymour guys that always mess with me came by and saw me scraping out the freezer and decided to make their comments about knowing my place and things of that nature.  They knew they could get away with it because I have a sense of humor but I don’t think they expected me to chase them.  It was hilarious to see 3 grown men running in different directions from me outside the building.  That kept up for quite a while.  I’d go back to scraping and one of them would be brave enough to come back in and make another comment and the chasing would start again.  That was just what I needed to put me in a better mood.

**Meal of the day was a burger and hot dog.

11 Oct 07:  Today was another milestone for Kelly and I.  It was our LAST day off!    We outprocess on Monday and get to turn in our weapons and it’s pretty much all downhill from there.  I feel like a zombie running around here lately but I know that sleep is around the corner.  Hopefully Chris doesn’t think I look like I’ve aged 10 years since I’ve been here because I feel like I have!

**Meal of the day was Pizza Hut.

12 Oct 07:  Nothing interesting to report today.  Tomorrow will be another nice day since we get to turn in our body armor.  They’re going to palletize it so we don’t have to carry it to Manas.  That stuff is heavy.  The customs inspection of our personal items went well yesterday and they didn’t have to take anything that was in with my stuff so that was good.  That was just one more thing down before we could get out of here.  The guys that replaced me in my shop were given the briefing that they need to get the letter done so they can start filing documents themselves instead of me doing it because we probably wouldn’t be working much longer.  It will be nice to have some time off to start getting all our personal stuff together.

**Meal of the day was breakfast.  I had a biscuit and gravy, bacon and some hard boiled eggs.

14 Oct 07:  I was going to post about yesterday but I seriously don’t remember yesterday.  Days are just a blur at this point but that’s good.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  We have weapons turn in and then our “Combat Push” which is our outprocessing.  It’s all downhill from there.  I had a busy evening today too which was great.  Kelly and I took the bosses home again and then went to the BX so I could get another foot locker to mail home.  When we got back, they were going to send poor Mike out to load 2 cans of 30mm brass into their tube carriers by himself.  So, Kelly and I went out to help him.  I got nice and dirty which was a nice change from sitting at my desk.  When we got back, I needed to take the butterflies and dragon off my weapon and get it cleaned to turn in tomorrow.  Then it was chow time and after that I had to cut some shipments for our stuff going back to DM.  It’s now 0300 so that killed most of my night.  Hopefully we can get some sleep before weapons turn in at 0930 and our Combat Push at 1230.  We come in a little after midnight tomorrow and then we’ll have Tuesday off and then start day shift on Wednesday.

**Meal of the day was veal and potatoes.

01 Oct 07: Whoo hoo! Today is finally October!!! We can officially say we’re leaving here THIS MONTH!! I cannot wait. I am sooooo ready to go! Anyway, we had a nice day today. It didn’t start out too nice but it ended up being just fine. I had to get up at 1430 this afternoon to go sing for the promotion ceremony. Well I got all the way down the flightline to where they said it was but they had changed the location and not told me so I had to walk all the way back down to the other end (it’s almost a mile each way). Anyway, I got there and found out that they were trying to make me sing the Air Force song at the end of the ceremony as well and I told them I would not do it. Normally, I’m not one to say no but it really irritated me that they just assumed I would do that. Had it been something I had done in the past, that would have been no problem but I’d never done it before and I like to practice. I used to practice all the time before singing the National Anthem. Anyway, I was up there and ready to sing and just as I started, the mic didn’t work. Thankfully I have “pipes” and didn’t have to worry about it. I just put the mic down at my side and kept on just like I did the first time that happened. They said they heard me in the back so it was all good. The general thanked me in his speech so that was nice to again be recognized by him even though I’m quite certain he does not remember me. Thankfully Colonel Sutterfield was there and I know that he remembers me because he waved at me when he came in the hangar. I still did well despite all of the extra crap that almost happened to me. Thank God I have that talent but it just made it all the more nerve wracking for me and I hate that. I’m nervous enough already before I sing. Anyway, once we got into work, Kelly and I drove the bosses home because we needed to go pick up foot lockers so we could pack some more stuff up and needed a truck to get them to our rooms. So, we went to the BX and picked up our stuff. I needed to get a long sleeve shirt to wear under my uniform because it is getting very cold here at night. We got pizza and coffee too while we were there and I picked up something I had made for the kids. We drove back to the “dorms” and dropped off our stuff and then went out to work. That took an hour and a half off my day. Then going to chow took another hour and a half and I will be leaving on the early truck again since I had to get up early for the ceremony. I am really tired at this point. If you haven’t checked out the pictures from “Mustache Madness” on my website gallery, you need to go see them. Silly boys!!

**Meal of the day was Pizza Hut and I actually ate twice and had some lasagna later at chow too!

02 Oct 07: Boy was today interesting. It is definitely time to go. It’s getting cold here and we don’t have a whole lot of cold weather gear. It is Ramadan over here so for those of you who don’t know what that is or what it means, check out this link: http://www.bagram.afnews.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070918-001.jpg It’s interesting reading.

**Meal of the day was some chicken and some bacon.

03 Oct 07: Thankfully, today was a quiet day. We needed that after the last couple of days. I’m more awake than normal since it’s the day before my day off. Also, we got to sign for our tickets home today so I know when I am leaving from “the hub” to head home and every one of us had a huge smile on our faces signing that piece of paperwork today. Kelly and I did our BX run already on Monday so we have no reason to get up tomorrow which is going to be nice. Hopefully the noisy girls in the room will keep it quiet for a change so I can actually enjoy sleeping in. I will be packing my foot locker up to go in the mobility bin as well so my room will be pretty much empty after tomorrow minus the stuff I’m either carrying or shipping. Oh what a great month this is!

**Meal of the day was baked chicken and mashed potatoes.

04 Oct 07: So I thought I was going to be able to sleep on my day off but no suck luck. I finally had to get up and put a note on my door that said something along the lines of that I do not slam the door when they’re in there sleeping and that I would appreciate the same respect. The door slamming finally stopped. I still didn’t sleep very well though since I was woken up many, many times. Anyway, I did have something good happen and that I was able to use the restroom 3 times without having to flush first! It’s amazing how that has become such a treat for me. That definitely means it’s time to go. I got my footlocker packed and it just amazes me how much junk I can acquire over a 6 month period. I have no idea where all this stuff comes from but if it happens like it did last time, my stuff will make it back before I do and Chris is going to wonder the same thing.

**Meal of the day was coffee and pizza.

05 Oct 07:  Another day down.  You can definitely feel the excitement in the air with talk of packing, how many loads of laundry we have left to turn in, outprocessing, what we’re going to do when we get home, etc.  What was once a group of people who walked around barely looking up dreading every day, now is a group that smiles and waves at each other and wishes each other a good morning.  We’re happy to see each other again because we know the end is near.

**Meal of the day was chicken nuggets and a baked potato. 

06 Oct 07:  Today was my yearly walk for the Vasa Previa Foundation.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, I had a rare condition when I was pregnant with Miles.  He is what they consider to be a very lucky survivor and every year, we celebrate him by participating in a 5K walk.  Chris and the kids went on there walk in Tucson this morning and I will be walking home from work for my part.  It will be exciting to be walking this year in Afghanistan of all places and also very strange that I will be walking in PT uniform carrying a weapon.  What a neat opportunity though for me to be able to do that.  It will also be sad at the same time to be walking without Miles.  I’ve walked every year since he’s been born with him and it will be hard this year doing it without him.  The pictures from the kids walk are on the website and mine will be up when I get back to my room in the morning.

**Meal of the day was Pizza Hut.  We all chipped in and had a shift pizza party.

07 Oct 07:  Today has been an okay day.  It was nice to walk home from work and then back to work again.  I forgot how much I liked that release of all the days garbage on the way home.  It’s just too cold here to do that as often.  Anyway, the trip home was interesting.  They are still doing demining operations here and on the walk, we heard a huge explosion which we got a kick out of.  That’s when you know you’ve been here too long.  When the sound of something blowing up doesn’t even frighten you at all anymore, it’s pretty much time to go.  I had quite a few of the guys walk with me which was nice.  It’s only ever been me and my family that has walked.  I was amazed this evening at chow when I ran into one of the guys that walked with us.  He showed me that he still had his bracelet on and I thought that was a sweet gesture.  He mentioned that it was for such a great cause that he didn’t want to take it off.  The pictures are on our website and should be posted on www.ivpf.org in the next day or two.  I was woken up early today by someone turning the lights in my room.  I still have no idea who or why but I was too tired and irritated to get out of bed to investigate.  I just put my sleeping mask on and went back to sleep for the 45 minutes I had left of sleep.  Stupid girls!  LOL  They had an interesting article in the news today about Bagram.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071007/ap_on_re_as/afghan_six_years_later

**Meal of the day was a burger and I actually splurged a little and had a piece of cake.  It was so good but ugh, I felt so bad after eating it.

24 Sep 07:  We are almost into October and I am getting so excited I can barely stand it.  I’ve been getting to take it easy the last few days and I’m sure it will continue like this.  I have been able to go on the early bus after my report is done.  Soon the new guys will be able to QC their own stuff and I won’t have very much left to do.  I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy that but I think it’s going to be a nice break.  I was able to get 10 hours of sleep last night that I didn’t realize I desperately needed until I woke up this morning completely refreshed and raring to go!

**Meal of the day was some Easy Mac.

25 Sep 07:  Today is another fun learning day with the new guys.  I’m hoping they figure it all out soon.  I’m still just kind of hanging back.  I’m here for questions but that’s about it.  I’m not ready to give up my computer yet though.  If I didn’t have people to chat with, time would slowly tick by.  We had a briefing today about the customs requirements for packing our stuff out of here and I’m excited to think that I can start packing those things away that I am not using and most likely won’t the rest of my time here!  It’s getting closer.  We were in the news again.  http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123069381

**Meal of the day was a burger.

27 Sep 07:  Sorry, I’m a few days behind.  I haven’t had much to post about.  There hasn’t been much going on at all.  I’m officially not even at my desk anymore.  I packed a bag to go home in the mobility bin last night too so I’ve got a lot of stuff cleared out of my room and that felt so good to do.  I enjoyed my day off but my back is sore again from all the packing and laying in bed watching movies.  I haven’t been getting much sleep either.  Oh well.  Three more weeks and I won’t have to even think about this place again.

**Meal of the day was Pizza Hut.

28 Sep 07:  Today was a good day.  I’m not needed in my office anymore so I took an extended lunch this evening and went to chow with Kelly (she doesn’t normally go but it’s Leah’s night off and I said we were going LOL).  Anyway, after that, she had to get something from her room so we stopped by the dorms and then even made a little detour on the way back to get some coffee.  We were gone almost 2 hours and it was a nice break from sitting around at work doing nothing.  We are in the middle of our 100% inventory so that’s not fun at all and I was playing a little bit of catch up but after that, I was all done.  I’m just trying to stay away from all these sick people.  All the new guys have the same “Bagram crud” like we did when we got here and I’m just hoping not to catch it and bring it home with me.  If I do, hopefully I can just drink it away!  LOL  Just kidding.  Anyway, that’s about all for now.  Hopefully I’ll have something interesting to post about soon.

**Meal of the day was shrimp.

29 Sep 07:  Another boring day in the land of Afghanistan.  I did a few things at work today but not much.  I did however clean out my desk and I’m taking everything back to my room to pack up.  The only thing I’ve left is my food.  I figure nothing is sacred around here and someone took something out of my desk that I needed so that was the last straw.  Oh well.  I’ll be happy to pack up one more storage container to send home.  The less I have to carry home, the better!    Most importantly, today, Happy Birthday Mom!!!!  I am so glad I got to talk to you!!  They’re vacationing in Pismo Beach right now and I am jealous!!  I’m so glad you had such a great day and that I was able to call you.  Enjoy your dinner!

**Meal of the day was baked chicken and mac and cheese.

30 Sep 07:  Today was a busy day.  We’re playing clean up after our 100% inventory and it’s not fun but it did make my night go by fast.  We had some excitement at work tonight.  Unfortunately, as usual, I can’t talk about it but eventually when I get home I can.  I have to sing for a promotion ceremony tomorrow so I’m leaving early so I can get some sleep.  I have to get up at 1430.

**Meal of the day was chili mac and fries.

17 Sep 07:  Today was a bit of a rough day.  It’s always so hard to say goodbye to those great friends you meet along the way.  Seeing all of them go today just put me in a mood.  I got over it but that is my biggest heartache with the military is making friends and then having to go separate ways.  I made some more great friends and I know that we’ll still keep in touch but just like everyone else, they have left footprints in my heart as well.  Ah the life of a military member.

**Meal of the day was a hot dog. 

18 Sep 07:  Things are starting to fall into their groove here with the new base.  They’ve got a lot of funny people so that might speed things up for a few days.  I miss the Lakenheath guys though that’s for sure.  Four months is a long time to spend with them for them to just up and leave.  Other than that, that’s all I have for today.  I’m so ready for my day off again so I can lay in bed and do nothing.

**Meal of the day was Burger King.

19 Sep 07:  It’s another day where I’m so looking forward to my day off.  Things have just been rough and I need some good solid sleep.  Things have been so hard worrying about Chris is handling things with the death of Mel.  He went to the memorial ceremony yesterday and that was hard for him and also hard for me.  I don’t want him to have to go through anything else without me there.  That poor man has had enough.  Today, I went down the street where we used to go hang out on “the roof” and raided their movies so I have something to do tomorrow on my day off.  We’re supposed to be meeting Smitty and Johnny and grabbing coffee with them before they finally get out of this place.  I’m really going to miss those two.  They were a riot and if you saw the pictures in the gallery, you can see it just looking at those.  Now that the next base is here and getting settled, it’s definitely time to go.  It’s making us that much more anxious because we’re training them and phasing ourselves out.  Thankfully that will be more time off for us because there won’t be as big of a need to be around once we get them trained.  I don’t have too much to train them on so it won’t take too long to get my guys up to speed.

**Meal of the day was pizza (I have GOT to stop eating like this!  LOL).

20 Sep 07:  I had another nice relaxing day off.  I did the same thing I’ve been doing and that’s laying in bed and watching movies after doing our running around.  I had to try to sleep during the night because I went to the Bazaar with BK that next morning to get some goodies for his wife.  He told me I “had” to go with him because I sent her pictures of the stuff they have there and she sent him a shopping list.  Ha ha!  He wasn’t really mad, it was just fun for him to tease me.  It was nice to get out and do something different.

**Meal of the day was some Ramen.

21 Sep 07:  This was, by far, the busiest day that I’ve had here yet.  I worked from the time I came in until 0630 (almost my entire 12 hour shift).  It was nice to be busy but Seymour Johnson has some ridiculous practices and it’s going to get really old, really fast.  They’re doing the same thing that Lakenheath did when they got in here and it’s a complete knee jerk reaction and I hope they realize that it doesn’t work just like they did.  The way we have been doing things for the last 5 + months has worked just fine.  It’s going to be interesting for the next week or so until they get settled.  Also, one of the guys that left early took home a tool in his pocket so all of us that stayed to work a full shift got stuck until almost 0900 looking for the stupid thing that we knew was in his pocket.  Day shift supervision would not let us leave.  So, you had me, Control (office job), supervision (office job) and the gate guards, all people who rarely go in the bomb dump, running around in the bomb dump trying to find a tool that we knew wasn’t there.Right now, Michelle has me training our guys and then we’re phasing ourselves out.  It’s going to make for a boring last month but at least we’re on the down hill slide!

**Meal of the day was steak and a baked potato.

22 Sep 07:  It was another lovely day in the land of Afghanistan.  Ha ha!  Just kidding.  I actually went to the DFAC to eat today for the first time in 3 months.  Normally someone brings food back for me but I absolutely have nothing going on so I went myself.  Also, I guess the new guys were pretty much told to leave us (as in DM, not the girls) alone so Leah had to eat by herself the other night and I didn’t want that to happen to her again so I will be going with her from now on.  It was a nice change to get a break and get out of the shop.  When I came in toady, Michelle told me that the new guys day shift was going to pass on to the night shift and that I was just to stand back and chat with her while they did it.  Thankfully this means that I can start leaving a little early and get in more gym time.  It will be nice to kind of step back and get to enjoy some down time.  I am pretty sure I need it after the day I had yesterday.  Hopefully I can surpass my weight loss goal because of them being here and taking over.  I have 3 pounds to go!!

**Meal of the day was some bacon and eggs.

23 Sep 07:  I saw the coolest thing today and it made my night!  Leah and I were headed to chow and she stopped in the middle of the road and told me to look back at the fence.  There was a huge owl sitting there and I just watched in awe.  Those that know me, know how much I enjoy birds and I could have sat there all night and just watched it sitting there.  She backed up so we could try to get a better look at it but it flew away and even with my bad eyesight, I could see it for quite a ways as it flew.  What a beautiful creature!  On our way back from chow, we saw it again further down the road.  We came back to the shop to grab my camera in case it didn’t spook so easy that time but still, it flew away so I was unable to get a picture but it made both of our nights to get to see it.  It was massive!!  I looked it up online and I’m guessing that it was a Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo Bubo) but I’m not sure since it was dark.  I can only hope it’s still out when it’s a little lighter out.

**Meal of the day was veal and potatoes.