I'm still here

My Psych teacher, good grief. My Psych teacher wanted me to call him about some of the assignments for the class. What happens when I call? He wants to know where I am, what the weather's like (um, it's Iraq and it's summer.........hot is an understatement), etc......

So I am still here, which is ok, I guess. My teacher was asking me why I am so eager to get all of my classwork done early, and to be quite honest, it keeps my mind off the fact I'm in Iraq. Movies, books, all of it, tend to make you forget, even for a small amount of time, that you are in a combat zone and that the people outside the base wish you would die or leave. So, anything to distract me, I consider a good thing.

It seems like people back in the States are oblivious to the fact that the armed forces are actually getting shot at over here. It's not as though it's not all over the news every day, insurgent attacks and convoys getting attacked. So why do people think we're over here on summer vacation or something? Believe me, Iraq is NOT where I'd be spending my summer vacation if it was my choice.........somewhere a good bit less hostile, me and Vin Diesel........you get the idea......NOT IRAQ.

So I am still missing Ziggy and the kids........I am so ready to go home.

Monday Monday

Well, my body finally shut down and went to sleep for a good bit, and now it seems like I am back on the routine of sleeplessness. What joy is mine.

Ziggy is back in Virginia, at home, so it's not so hard calling him now. Being able to talk to him every day really makes this better.

I talked to my mom this morning and MiniZiggy has started walking while holding onto the furniture. I hate that I'm missing it, but atleast I'm getting told about it.

Scout's baseball team won the championship and he was so thrilled to hear about it! He'll get his trophy after he gets home, and I know he is excited about that.

Well, I am going to go for now........be safe guys!

I just can't get any sleep

Life in a war zone sucks. I haven't been able to get a good days' sleep in a few days. Even the energy supplements that I bought are starting not to work. One day it's a fire alarm that wakes me up, and then I can't go back to sleep. Then, yesterday, mortars landed behind my dorm, and of course I heard that and was awake for a while and couldn't go back to sleep. Damn the insurgents............they're cutting into my sleep!!!!

MiniZiggy said Mama finally......IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Also, my mother reports that he is also getting brave with the walking bit and has started to let go of the couch and try to take a step or two.....it's so neat, but sucks that I am so far away and missing it.

Called Ziggy the other night and he was out with his class for dinner, and was trying to talk to them, me and drive all at the same time. And we all know that men are not the best multitaskers, and Ziggy is no exception. So when his phone lost the signal, I didn't bother calling back. It kinda bugs me that he was sort of blowing me off to try to talk to people in the car. Yea, I'm a bit peeved about that. To the point I really don't feel like calling him today.

Baby fever is getting a bit worse. One of my coworkers and I were talking about our kids tonight, and he mentioned that he wanted another child, and would like a girl, since he has 2 boys already. Well, that just added fuel to my little fire of wanting another baby......or atleast to be home and be able to play with my babies!!!

Ok, that's about all I have for now. I am tired, hungry, and I need a shower.
Have a good one guys....

Baby fever and I am a bit depressed, 2 weeks down

Ok, let's do the bit depressed bit first. Get it out of the way. As I have mentioned before, AFN TV runs alot of shows that just depress me to no end. To the point that I can't even think about my kids without fearing that something terrible is going to happen to them while I am over here. As if that's not enough, Ziggy calls my mom and she asks him if we all go to church - now let me give you a little background. My parents are Southern Baptists. They are at church every time the doors open. Now, right before Ziggy and I got married, my mother gets this crazy(from Ziggy, yes, it's crazy) promise from Ziggy that he will get me and Scout to church every Sunday. Yeah. Anyone who knows Ziggy knows that Ziggy doesn't go to church. Ziggy doesn't believe in God, he believes in reincarnation. Or atleast that's the way he explained it to me. ANYWHO....Ziggy calls my mom the other day, and is telling Ziggy about Scout going to Bible school and how impressed the teachers were with how well Scout knows his bible verses. She asks Ziggy if we've all been going to church........and the conversation went downhill from there. My mother starts giving Ziggy one of her famous guilt trips about his promise to her (he never should have made it, I could have told him that she's never going to let him live it down). Well, then I get to hear about it when I talk to Ziggy this morning. Religion has never been an easy topic in my house, because Ziggy and I differ so much in our beliefs. So Ziggy wanted to know why I hadn't been taking Scout to church, and so I had to explain........see, the way I was raised, women keep the peace in their houses with their husbands, and I explained to him that in order to keep peace in my house, I don't mention church, and we don't go because I was raised that church is a family thing, and it's not the whole family without him. Now, to try and dart himself out of this whole little schpeel, Ziggy says that he has always considered both of us to be the heads of the house. I told him that he wasn't going to be able to talk himself out of that one. He trys, I'll give him that much. So the whole conversation just depressed me.

Baby fever.......I have a friend who just had her second child, a pretty little girl. 3 months after her older child turned 1. Now, I can't say that I'd want my kids to be that close in age, but it makes me want another child in a bad way. Trying to keep focus on finishing my degree is really hard when there are little babies to play with and cuddle and love on. And I just love babies. I mentioned adopting a baby to Ziggy and I got this weird reaction from him, and that upset me, too. Talking to Ziggy hasn't been the happiest experience here of late, I end up getting sad and crying.

Well, 2 weeks down, 14 more to go, and I think I'm going to go absolutely nuts in this place. Work bores me to death, and you can only check the email and surf Ebay so much.

Talk to you guys later.....

Tackle Box and AFN radio

First, Tackle Box......Tackle Box is an Army contractor over here that does the same job that I do, only is here for a LOT longer, and gets paid WAY more. He has facial piercings, thus the name Tackle Box....

AFN radio.....Ah yes.....ever wonder what happens to all those requests that people call in to radio stations and they never get played? They get played on AFN radio. AFN radio is the Armed Forces Network, and no matter what station it is(there are only 2 here), they play the same 3 or 4 country songs......over and over and over.....and they are the saddest songs they can find, I swear. No wonder there's so many suicides.......and AFN television isn't much better. All the cop/murder investigation shows that are so good to watch back home are REALLY depressing over here. All murder and gore and such.....and the odd Will & Grace episode.

Oh, here's something to tickle the funny bone.......I went to bed at 10AM, right? Since I work nights, I have to go to bed in the morning. So, I crash into the bed, and 15 minutes(no shit, I looked at the clock), someone knocks on the door and says we have to evacuate because EOD(the ammo/explosives guys) has brought the bomb sniffing dog to check out a suspicious package. Joy.......so we all troop outside into the 100 degree heat, half asleep(cause we all work nights) and gather up. We aren't out there a full 2 mintues when we are told that we can go back inside, the dog didn't get anything boom-worthy. Yea.........it took longer for us to get outside than it did for the dog to clear us to go back in. Military intelligence, folks.......

Tough classes and a story

School while deployed is NOT going well. I try to email my teachers from my school email addy, and I get virus reports in response, so I am pretty sure that my teachers aren't getting any of my emails. SO I tried form my work email addy. We'll see if I have any better luck.

So I get to call Ziggy, via morale calls on DSN numbers(government phone numbers for those who don't know) pretty much every day. Which really helps with my morale, as being away from my best friend(aka Ziggy) just sucks. So getting to talk to him for a half hour or so helps alot. Plus we email regularly. I call my Mom twice a week so I can talk to Scout and get regular updates on MiniZiggy. She's sending me some of her WONDERFUL turtle cookies, and I can hardly wait for the box to get here.

Work absolutley bit last night. I set up the new armored battery boxes for the trucks, and I also put the foldaway mirrors on the cabs, and once my job is done, I am pretty much bored out of my mind, as I have nothing to do. So last night it seemed like nothing I could do was right. Even the simplest thing was a major hassle. And this one guy kept bringing it all right back to me. I wanted to slap him silly. I mean hard enough to make his ancestors hurt.

I really appreciate the responses I have gotten from folks about my being over here. Thanks for stopping by!!

I have an idiot story for you all, and you're going to love it.........on my night off, the fire alarm goes off in my dorm. I leave shortly after it starts, and not in too much of a hurry, since there was a sandstorm happening at the time. Anyways, I get back from work the next night, and there are a couple of girls talking about the alarm going off, fire department coming, etc. I asked them if they'd found out what had set it off, and here's the story that's bound to crack anyone up that's been in the Air Force...........come to find out, as everyone is standing outside while the fire department does their thing, one of the Army chicks(that JUST moved into the dorm a day or 2 before) pipes up and says that they were treating their uniforms with some bug repellant, and it smelled so badly that they opened their windows......IN THE MIDDLE OF A SANDSTORM!!! Thus, setting the fire alarm off...........I tell ya, there's idiots everywhere, even in a war zone!!!

1 week down, 15 to go

Well, I have lived through my first week in Iraq. I've lived through a few mortar attacks, and managed to sleep through them more than anything. Not bad for the first week.

Work is already becoming monotonous and boring. We do the same thing over and over again. We add armor onto the 5 ton trucks that roll through here on convoy. We work 6 days a week, 12 hour shifts, and we work in teams. Every team member has a job that is done on every vehicle, and mine is to prep the armored cab and the battery box. Yippee. Takes all of 6 hours, if I take my time. We are working nights right now, and halfway through our deployment, we are supposed to shift to days. I don't really care, except it's hotter on days than it is on nights.

The setup over here isn't so bad. Good food in the chow hall, movies and TV's and a free laundry, a gym, phone center and library all in the area of the housing, so that's nice. There are shuttle buses that take us around to the Post Office, BX, Pool, things like that. Honestly, if this is supposed to be awful, it's not that bad. Not that I'd want to stay here any longer than I absolutely have to, but for the time I'm here, it's ok.

School is proving to be more of a challenge, since the time difference is 8 hours ahead of the East Coast in the States. But it's getting worked out, so I will probably be on a schedule sometime soon.

My parents currently have the kids, since Ziggy is in training out in California and I'm in Iraq. My mom was telling me that Scout is being a really big help to her with MiniZiggy. She also says that MiniZiggy has started pulling himself up on furniture to a stand. I hate that I'm not there to see it, but my mom is a decent substitute. She promises to send me pictures and plenty of cookies. She told Ziggy that MiniZiggy is the easiest baby that she's ever taken care of. And my mother has taken care of a LOT of children, seeing as she was a foster mother for a good long time. She says that MiniZiggy is a happy little boy, and that he will let her know when he needs something. She also said that he got passed around the nursery at church, and they put a sticker on his back saying that he'd had lots of hugs. I miss my kids so much.

Speaking of missing the family, it's not as bad as I had anticpated. Yes, it sucks being away, but I get regular emails from Ziggy and I can call my mom pretty regularly and talk to Scout and get updates on the kids, so that helps.

Well, I think that's all I have for now. Take care........