Life on the Vine

Wanted to post a blog just so everyone knows that I'm still here and doing well.  I've gotten back into the daily routine of a 7-day work week and have actually started a new routine too, a heart healthy one!  :) I'll get to the healthy one in a minute but one of my standing routines for the last 13 weeks has been facilitating a women's Bible study at the Combat Support Hospital chapel.  The study is called "Live Fearlessly: A study in the book of Joshua" by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose.  The study is the same one the ladies at Calvary Chapel O'Fallon, Mo., are doing right now.  If I hadn't deployed I would have been going through the study with them.   Well, I was praying before I came over about my desire to participate in a women's Bible study and maybe find a group of ladies interested in doing the Joshua study with me.  Tommy order copies of the study and had them sent over, and our chaplain, Daniel Middlebrooks, was all for the study,

Things couldn't have gone smoother with my return from R&R.  I arrived back in the IZ the morning of Palm Sunday, even got to attend service that evening.  We had a wonderful sunrise service yesterday for Easter.  I'll see if I can get some photos to share here.    As for my return from R&R probably the one thing I was looking the least forward to was the possibility of having to stay overnight in Kuwait.  Our flight landed in Kuwait at 5 p.m., and we were greeted by a local team that takes care of all the transportation of Gulf Region Division employees to and from the airport.  They also help get us manifested on the military flights that are traveling into Iraq. When the team picked us up they asked if we wanted to get out that night.  There was a midnight flight.  Well, we were all for that and after getting to the air base and picking up our protective gear, we only had to wait a few hours for our flight.nnThe flight was about an hour and a half and anothe

Just wanted to let everyone know I have started the lengthy process of returning to Iraq. With travel stretching across two days, taking things in steps is really the best way for me to get through the process. Step 1 is hardest particularly because it involves saying good-bye to Tom and getting mentally ready for the separation and returning to Iraq. Step 1 ends when I make it to D.C. Step 2 is my 12+ hour flight to Kuwait (fortunately traveling east is faster...my flight home on the 17th was 14 hours long) and then getting transportation to the air base. Step 3 is probably an over night in Kuwait and hopefully a flight into Baghdad the next day. Then once I get to Baghdad I still have to get transportation across town to the IZ...Step 4. My time home went by extremely fast. I took it easy and spent a lot of time at the house. It is the first time I've had this much time off and been home. Usually when I take leave it is because I'm traveling somewhere or there is