Afghanistan: Number 12

So here we are, in week 16.

As you may know, a lot has been happening here in Afghanistan. Mostly, we have moved half of my unit from Kandahar to Bagram.  As the plans officer in my battalion, this movement was mostly collaborated by myself and my boss, the operations officer.  There have been a lot of moving pieces and a lot of effort by many people and my shop has been working to make sure all of those efforts are in line with what the commander wants, tailored to best accomodate the mission and tweaked to fit everyone's preferences.  It has been busy, but we are here and our mission never stopped despite the movement of half the battalion. 

The living conditions here are much different than they are in Kandahar.  Kandahar had lots of space and hot dry weather (talking 115 during this past week).  Bagram is a balmy 90 degrees during the day, humid, cool at night and everyone lives in relatively close proximity to each other. There isn't much for privacy here and you never really are alone.  And with the weather being better, more Soldiers spend their free time outside than they did at Kandahar.  But aside from that, Kandahar looked like a dessert.  Most days, we expereinced some degree of a sand storm and it was hot and dry and brown.  There wasn't any grass and very few trees and green things.  Bagram is practically an oasis by comparison.  We are surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains and there is grass and tress every where.  Everyone seems more light hearted here and I hope it lasts.

But on to my usual goal updating post:

Mental: My Lean Six Sigma projected is still going strong, but I am not so much.  I find it hard to get motivated right now as I am not entirely sure of my next steps.  I have measured all that I wanted to measure and need to have it run through minitab (program lean six sigma people use).  Our master black belt (instructor) did a first pass through my data, but we were in two locations and didn't talk before hand, so it doesn't accurately reflect what I am trying to measure.  But even still, analyzing the data will be much harder.  I know what my data is telling me, I just don't understand why.  For instance, if you are paying a contractor for a service and they fail to provide that service, you would expect that they wouldn't get paid, or they would only get paid for the service they provided.  But, from what I see in my data, they get paid about the same as if they had provided that service.  So I can tell there are things not happening the way I would assume that the would, I have to start explaining why.  And with almost 11,000 lines of data spanning about 50 columns worth of data, it is hard to start looking at individual pieces.  Probably because that sounds exhausting and I am feeling lazy. 

Emotional:  I find it hard to provide a solid update here, but I always feel that way.  I am finding better balance in my life here and am on a much better schedule work wise.  I am not working the crazy hours I was before and I have been trying to take more time to relax.  I feel better rested and at peace.  But on the other hand, I am hitting the slump of just wanting to go home.  I want to sleep in my own bed, with my husband's arms arround me and my puppies at my feet.  I want to eat the food I cook and wear the clothes I choose.  I have found that having more time to myself leads to more thoughts of home and I can tell by talking to Kevin, he is getting pretty burnt out on this whole deployment thing too.  We have been here for four months now with about five left to go.  I am definitely ready to see the half way point in the next couple of weeks and am hoping it goes fast after that.  I am trying very hard to live in the moment and not wish time away and have to remind myself of that pretty much every day.

Spiritual: So, I have been praying and reading my bible daily for over 100 days, almost 120.  I have found that this is the reason behind my joy and peace.  It is so relaxing to just stop and pray over my current situations, my family, my friends and my husband.  It keeps things in perspective to take the time each night to remember who God is, what He is capable of and what He has already done for me.  It is soothing to know that no matter where I go, I am never alone and no matter what I have or don't, I am never in need.  My cup overflowth and I find myself so blessed despite my circumstances.  I am blessed with a new found love for my Savior, a new appreciation for what he has done, a new perspective on my sin and a new joy that is based solely on him.  I am also blessed with good leadership, a hard working unit, and some pretty awesome new friends.

Financial: So, I currently don't own any stocks and haven't been doing any trading in the last couple of weeks.  Now that I am settled, I will probably start up again, but probably not with much vigor until the new iteration of earnings reports comes out.  I am currently sitting at a 20% profit on my intial investment, which is still pretty exciting.  I am wondering how much it will grow as I continue building it over time. 

Physical: Since arriving at Bagam, I have decided to run the Army ten-miler.    Normally, it is a race run every year in D.C., normally around Columbus Day weekend.  Since we clearly can't go to that, Bagram is hosting there own.  Ten miles is too easy and I could probably do that now, but not very fast.  My guess is that I could do it between and 9 and a 9:30 min/ mile pace right now.  My goal is to get that down to 8 min/ mile.  My friend, Jeremiah, is helping me train in the evenings.  We have run a couple of times in the last week.  The first run was 4 miles in 34 minutes (8:30 min/ mile).  Whenever I am not sure where my run time is, I start by running four miles.  Army standard is 4 miles in under 36 minutes for both males and females.  So even though I jumped about 4,500 ft in elevation when I moved to Bagram, I am still meeting the Army standard, so the rest is gravy.  The second night, we ran 3 miles in 24 minutes (8:09 min/ mile).  Other than that, I have been doing more yoga to help stretch out my legs and hips.  We also hit the gym for about 15 min of abs and upper body after each run.  I am expecting to see a lot of improvement and am happy to have a solid goal in front of me.

Army: Afghanistan number 11

Post 11: Week 15
Ok, so I know, it is about dang time that I posted again.  Today, I want to start with a few shout outs of things I have missed back home in the states.  First off, I want to congratulate my sister on completing grad school and heading out to Wyoming to to be the assistant stage manager for a musical called South Pass  that my dad will also be staring in.  I also want to congratulate my brother on his high school graduation.  I know he is waiting expectantly on a couple of job offers and is also looking at going back to school in the fall.  Whatever he chooses to do does not matter to me, because I am very proud of him.  These are just two big moments in my siblings lives that I am unfortunately missing as I sit in the sand box.

But on another note, I am moving to a different base next week.  Our battalion is jumping locations and I am trying to plan/ manage a lot of moving pieces (with a lot of help of course).  But I just got back a couple of days ago from our leader's recon and am feeling pretty comfortable with the plan.  That being said, my next update will not be until I am settled in my new location.  So here is my update:

Physical: So, somewhere along the way, I have lost approximately five pounds in the past couple of weeks.  I am feeling really healthy and good, even though I am noticing several knots reappearing in my neck and shoulders (see old post for reference).  Kevin sent me some peppermint oil though, so hopefully that will help and I can avoid some very painful headaches.  As for PT, I have been mostly focused on push ups and situps but not nearly in the frequency with which I need to be. Now that the highs are in the 100's every day here, I feel like my desire to work out has diminished greatly.  Plus, I really need to get packing so that I am prepared to move next week. Hopefully while I am packing and unpacking, I can find my motivation to work out.  I am sure it is around here somewhere.. it is just a matter of finding it.

Mental: So, now that I am getting farther into Lean Six Sigma and I am understanding the class materials better, I am taking a second look at my data and doing a bit of recapturing.  The jist of what I am doing is trying to take as many trucks off the road as possible and creating efficiency in our movements.  Taking trucks off the roads takes Soldiers off the roads and I think everyone can understand why we would want to do that.  But aside from that, putting trucks on the road costs money, usually to the tune of several thousand dollars for each trip.  So what I am looking at is getting the right stuff, to the right location, the first time.  And I finally feel like all of that is starting to come together.

Emotional:  I don't even know where to start with this one.  Work has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but that is hardly surprising given our plate right now.  Relocating a battalion is no simple feat and this one looks like it will be taking a majority of my time for awhile. But at the same time, I have been relaxed.  I am really at a place of comfort in my job.  Nothing I am given feels challenging any more and I have confidence in my success.  I am ready for the next job or task the Army has for me and I look forward to it.  As far as being a wife goes, I am experiencing frustration at living a different life than my husband.  I normally cycle through this every now and again after I process the inevitability of the situation.  There are days when I am very ready to be home and there are days when I am really glad to be here.  I can say that there are a lot of people I look forward to meeting when I get home, to include families and babies.  There are new people in Kevin's life that I am very interested in meeting and some that I have only communicated with online.  And of course, babies are just babies and I look forward to holding them all!!!!

Financial: So, I just sold off another stock today at a 15% profit.  Unfortunately, that leaves me currently stock-less and between trying to get ahead on my Lean Six Sigma project while also preparing to move, I don't think I will be picking any new ones up in the next couple weeks.  But, since earnings reports have lulled, I am not too worried about it.  My overall gain since starting just over 6 weeks ago has averaged to 20% or so and I am good with that.

Spiritual: So, I have been praying and reading my bible every night for the last three months and I am very grateful for how much growth I have seen.  When I look at my prayers from when I first got here, I can see a lot more selfishness and a general brevity.  Along the way, God has taught me to spend more time thinking about him and less time thinking about myself.  And I have learned  a lot of humility in praying for forgiveness of my sins, my shortfalls and my weaknesses.  It has given me a new found love for other people as I realize how much Christ has saved me from myself.  He is made perfect in my weaknesses so why I am not willing to admit all the more that I have so many of them.

Army: Afghanistan Number 9

Well, here we are.  Week 11 post 9.  It has been an interesting week here in Afghanistan.  As we move into the warmer months, the spring offensive is coming under way, which means more rocket attacks in general.  The alarms having been sounding more frequently here and has been interrupting my (and other's) much needed sleep.  That probably the biggest change between my last couple of weeks.  So I shall continue this post in my normal style.

How I feel most of my time in class! (Not really true though)

Mental: So I have moved into the data collecting phase of my lean six sigma project.  I am really going to two directions; how long does it take to move a container from the time of first request to first movement and what types of containers end up at the yard.  The second part is hard to explain, but basically, containers are packed in all sorts of ways before they are sent.  One option is that our teams pack it properly so it moves out of country faster.  The second is that the unit packs it as nicely  as they can, but still don't get it quite right. And the third is basically the unit just throws a ton of stuff in containers and sends it off to close a base quickly.  The second two involve time unpacking, repacking and resending stuff.  So I am looking at processing times for each.  I will be spending time pouring over spreadsheets this week as well as spending time seeing how the containers are processed.  It will be a large amount of work, but I am just glad to actually feel like I am actioning something now. 

Emotional: So, I am still confunded by the idea of how to be a good wife and still be so far away from my husband.  It's not that I think I am a bad wife or anything like that.  But what I don't think people understand about me is the fact that even when I am stateside, I am constantly trying to improve myself.  And I am always looking at how I can be a better wife.  The frustrating part is not feeling like I can do much here.  I have been trying to just speak more openly with Kevin.  Specifically about how I spend my time here.  I talk to Kevin in the mornings and after sleeping, I can barely remember the previous day or distinguish it from any of the others before that.  Plus, since I have already lived through it once, I don't much feel like living through it again.  Whatever irritated me the day before doesn't matter after a good night's sleep and isn't worth bringing up.  This is on top of the fact that I work in a classified environment and most of my day is spent dealing with secret documents, so I can't even explain what I am working on.  But, I finally realized that I wasn't sharing some key life events with Kevin because I had already dismissed them.  I wasn't letting him know how both my professional and my work relationships were progressing.  Relationships that he thought were still damaged had been repaired and relationships he thought were good had been damaged.  The problem with me not sharing this is that it doesn't help him in his praying for me.  He would pray for things that had long since past and wasn't praying for things I currently need.  So, at night, I try to consider what happened during the day that I need to share with Kevin in the morning, regardless of how I wake up feeling about them.  I think of these updates as prayer requests and then I share them with my loving husband. 

Another piece of my emotional well being here in Afghanistan has been an unexpected friend I found in one of the other lieutenants here.  He is the only other married lieutenant in my unit, has five children back at home (the fifth being born last month) and is almost 9 years older than me.  But honestly, I think the thing that draws us together the most is Christianity.  He is one of the very few people here who uses the scripture as his foundation for action.  He gives biblical advice and I think we both challenge each other to do better and be more Christ-like.  I don't get much free time here, but what I have that isn't spent in my room sleeping is probably being spent with him.  I greatly appreciate his friendship and so does Kevin, as it gives me someone to talk to since it can rarely be him.  But, while co-gender friendships have been a regular part of my life for a long time (kind of expected in the army), there is a degree of caution that has to be exercised.  I would never want the appearance of impropriety in my actions and want to avoid rumors where they can be avoided.  It is a delicate balance and one that irritates me frequently.  Regardless, I share this only to share the prayer request that goes along with it: that our friendship would remain pure, drama free, would be above reproach and not subject to any rumors that pervert the truth. 

Physical: So, I would like to say that I have been working out recently... but I really haven't.  More important to my physical health recently is my desire to just get some sleep.  And since I have been getting off slightly earlier, I have been trying to take advantage the opportunity.  But, as I am currently reflecting on the workouts I have not been doing, I acknowledge that I need to make time for it so that I will do it.  Honestly, the largest part of any change you want to make, is changing your schedule to make it fit.

Financial: So last week I started investing.  I bought and sold my first stocks at a profit of about 16%.  I had bought into the company Yandex (YNDX: Russia's google) and sold it shortly after their earnings report came out.  I also bought Arlington Asset Investment (AI) at the advice of someone else, bought in late and likely won't make anything on it.  I will sell it it likely at no profit eventually.  I have also bought into Apollo Global Management (APO) and am currently up about 4%.  Their earnings report comes out next week and it is expected to have some good news.  Truth be told, my methods mostly involve watching earnings report dates compared to EPS and then looking at the last 1-3 years to see if I think it will likely rise and by how much. 

Spiritual: So apart from praying and reading regularly, I have realized this week it is about time to start another spiritual discipline: memorization.  Last week, I realized how much of an effect sarcasm can have.  Constantly joking about certain things in a negative light not only makes others think I am serious, but becomes more of a reality the more I ay it.  So if I start joking negatively about something and keep repeating it, I start to have a more negative attitude.  So I started reading more of what the bible says about being careful with our words.  And this led me to realize that memorizing these verses would not only help me remember, but might also changed my actions as I recalled the verses in more tense situations.  So my first memory verse was Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger".  My second memory verse was Proverbs 21:23 "Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble" and today's verse is Proverbs 12:18 "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." On my wall at work is a list of verses and each day, I read them all, pick the one that speaks to me the most that day and then start memorizing it. As I memorize it, I go back over the verses I learned the previous day. So we will see how long this list ends up.

Wife: Preparing for Deployment (Part 1)

So, as I am preparing to leave for Afghanistan in less than a month, there are many things that bog down my mind.  There are the regular thoughts about how life will be down-range, and wondering if the time will go by fast. But probably my biggest question is "How am I going to be a good wife when I am in Afghanistan?"  "How do I not feel like I am single when I am living on my own?" and "How do I make my husband feel like he has a wife that loves him from the other side of the world?"

The answer to this question isn't singular.  The first answer is prayer.  I am slowly learning that the best way to love my husband, is to spend time each day praying for him.  Though I will be able to call him frequently, I am already realizing that no matter how much we talk it will never be enough.  I can't talk to him about everything in the time we will have, so the best way to love him, is to pray that God will take care of him and comfort him every moment I am not there.  The joy and peace that brings unity is only going to come from God.

The second answer is to spend time each day dedicated to thinking about my husband and reveling in the man who stole my heart.  It's about taking the time to remember who my husband is and all he's done for me.  I am sure some of the moments in my life I will revisit often include the day he proposed, our wedding day, the trips we have taken and the things we have done together.  Spending time remembering the wonderful things my husband has done for me is going to help remind me not only why I fell in love with him, but also why I will always love him.

The third answer is doing a bible study or marital study together.  Hopefully it will not only strengthen our marriage, but also give us something in common.  That way not only will we always have something to talk about, but we can be connected by something even when we can't talk.

And the fourth answer I have come up with is the reason for why this blog is Part 1.  I recently was inspired to make Kevin as many meals as I could before I go. This all started on Sunday afternoon.  I had recently started canning my own salsas, which Kevin has loved.  I gave a jar to my Dad for Christmas and on Sunday, he was telling us that he didn't have tomatoes to make chili, so he added what was left of my jar of salsa and that it turned out really well.  So I started thinking that instead of just salsa, I could can a chili mix.  I added all of the spices, tomato, onion, and peppers.  So now all my husband has to do is brown a pound of hamburger, a can of beans and a can of chili mix.  He can make it in a crockpot or on the stove.  So it is really simple, and he can still have a homemade meal.  (For the record, my husband is a terrible cook :-) )  Plus, I already made a pot of chili to make sure the mix is good and it turned out great!

But of course, that got me thinking of other recipes I could do this with where Kevin just has to cook some meat and add a mix or sauce.  And the more that I thought about it, the more I realized the implications.  I could make a bunch of pre-made meals so that meals that take longer to cook won't take as long.  Or when I eventually I become pregnant, I could pre-make some of my favorite meals so I need to worry about cooking after the baby comes.  Life will only get busier, so pre-making meals just keeps sounding better and better.

So, again, there will be multiple parts to this blog that will include recipes that I try and enjoy, as well as at least one post of how you can do your own canning at home easily!

Health & Exercise: Learning to Read Your Body

So, this is an odd blog post, but it was something Kevin and I were talking about and he suggested I blog about it.

The photo that brought Vietnam into American homes.

I have always been amazed by some of the worlds most exclusive societies.  Mostly, that of devote monks.  I'm sure you've heard stories of them: those that can control their heartbeat down to almost deathly levels, those that can control their body temperature regardless of the temperature outside, those that walk on hot coals, those that can withstand any pain, etc.  The most infamous in our time would be Thich Quang Duc who set himself on fire (also called self-immolation) to protest the treatment of Buddhist's in South Vietnam by the Catholic government in the middle of a busy town square.

The amount of self-control these people have generated and the degree to which they are in tune with their bodies has always fascinated me.  The ability to manipulate the body with the mind is astounding.  Even something as simple as the placebo effect shows how much power the mind has over the body.

But I am actually starting to learn that this is far from the realm of only achievable for the extremely devote, it's for anyone. Maybe not at the "set yourself on fire in protest" level, but at the very basic one.  My bouts into massage therapy and yoga have started me on this journey without me realizing.  I'm not going to go into my reasons for needing trigger point massage since I blogged it before (see My Journey into Alternative Therapies) and I know I have blogged a couple of times about my journey into yoga (see Yoga Daily and Yoga Update), but ultimately, these two things have helped me become more in tune with my body and how it feels.  Because of the massage therapy, I am starting to be able to identify which muscles are tight and causing me problems.  I don't know these muscles by name, but i know where they are and where they go (like the muscle that is currently giving me trouble starts in the back of the leg and comes up around my hip towards my abdomen, which, by the way, is very difficult to stretch).  The yoga also helps in this.  While I am stretching, I can actually feel when my muscles aren't opening up and creating circulation properly.  My flexibility has improved, but I am still not fully able to reach each yoga position.  Yet even still, I can tell when my circulation has increased properly in certain muscles, when I need to spend more time in a position and when the stretch needs to go deeper.

I was talking to my massage therapist about this and she told me that this is actually the natural progression for those doing yoga.  (If you are doing yoga and are becoming more flexible  but you aren't more in tune with your body, you are probably doing something wrong.)  But the odd thing was what she told me next.  Parker told me that next I need to work on sending my breath to the areas where I know I need more oxygen rich blood.  Now this is still weird to me, but it is basically identifying which muscles I want to send my breath to, really considering as I breath in and then think about that breath as it enters my body and sort of push it to the area I want.

This is still really odd to me and I haven't really figured it out at all yet, if I even can, but I figured I would give another update and share how far things have come for me.   I will write another update if I manage to figure out how to really direct my breaths and hopefully then I might be able to explain it better.

Health & Exercise: Climbing Pikes Peak

So, we finally did it! We hiked Pike's Peak.  And it was... it just was.  It was awesome and difficult and long and crazy and so much more.
Let me explain, Pike's Peak is one of many Colorado 14-ers (A mountain over 14,000 ft).  The difficulty with Pikes Peak is that it is the greatest altitude change in Colorado.  It gains ~7,300 ft in elevation from the start of Barr Trail and is almost 13 miles up.  The average person takes around 8 hours to complete it.

It is broken down by most hikers into fourths.  The first fourth is the second most difficult which sucks since that is the start of your hike. We started at 5:50 a.m.  (before the sun was up) and made it a point to stop and take breaks even though we had energy.  We didn't want to burn out.

The second third is like just walking through woods, super easy and it comes out at the halfway point, called Barr Camp.  This was where we did our fastest miles was really enjoyable.  We spent much of our time enjoying the beautiful White Aspens and their brightly colored leaves.  It was a perfect first day of fall.

The third fourth is the third most difficult.  It doesn't involve much climbing over rocks, but it was a steady grade up the whole time.  By that point, all you want is to hit the tree line and feel like you are close to the top, since you know you are only halfway.  The White Aspens started becoming more scarce, but we could look down the valleys at them.

 

The fourth part of the journey was just terrible.  We
still had over 2,000 ft in elevation to gain and it was all climbing over rocks and staring down gorges.

But once we got to the top, we decided that are joints wouldn't handle the decent well, plus it would take hours more.  Doing a marathon length hike sounded awful and we were already tired. So we decided to take the Cog Railway down to the bottom.

  

Ultimately, we hiked 13 miles up in 7 hours 23 minutes and burned somewhere over 3,000 calories.

Health & Exercise: Yoga Update

So, after a week of doing yoga, I thought I would give a brief update.

I am already finding my flexibility improving.  Aside from missing a couple of sessions, I have been pretty good about staying consistent and I am already noticing an improvement.  Now, obviously, it hasn't been miraculous and the splits are still totally out of the question, but I can already feel myself being able to reach farther and stretch more.  I am also at a point of having both the Sun Salutation and Moon Salutation completely memorized.  Last week, I did 2 Sun Salutations and 1 Moon Salutation daily.  This week, I will do 3 Sun Salutations and 2 Moon Salutations daily and see how that goes.

After more work with my Parker, my massage therapist who does my trigger point massage, she says that my muscles are much shorter than they should be in some places.  That happens after lactic acid builds up (from improper stretching after exercise) and then calcifies.  This pushes muscles fibers out of the way and causes them to shorten from the tension.  As those muscles shorten and pull, it is going to pull on the opposite muscles too.  So, for instance, likely my issues started in my pectorals (the muscles in your chest).  As they shortened, they pulled my shoulders forward causing my aforementioned shoulder pain.  My shoulders no being properly aligned pulled on my back muscles and my back muscles pulled on my hips and neck.  

Thus, part of my therapy needs to be not only breaking up the lactic acid and increase circulation, but also stretching and lengthening my muscles.  This is going to make it so that my recovery lasts longer and my body heals properly.  There are many forms of exercise that increase flexibility and give a good stretch but I chose yoga for one reason. It's all stretching! I work out to build muscle and increase endurance but what I really needed was a good stretch and so that is what I am going to focus on.  And so far... so good!

Health & Exercise: A Journey to St. Mary's Falls

Today, Kevin and I decided to hike St. Mary's Falls.  Originally, we wanted to do Mt. Rosa which is about 11,500ft and a 12 mile total hike.  Unfortunately, dehydration and a lack of sleep last night had me waking with an unfortunate headache.  (I have noticed that it is more likely for me to have a headache with this combination of dehydration and not enough sleep.)  I went back to bed and when I woke up my headache was much more subdued.  It wasn't as bad as some of my headaches have been, but it was definitely enough to give us a later start and change our plans.



We decided to take the same route but only go half way up.  One of the reasons we chose to hike this mountain is that at the halfway mark you will find yourself in a beautiful canyon with a very peaceful waterfall.  Today, it was where we stopped for lunch and took a nice break.  We were still debating at that point if we would try to keep going up, but we decided that we were already tired from rushing the first three miles and we really didn't have time to climb up three more and then go 6 back down.

So I guess it just means we will have to make some adjustments to our plans.  Next week we will probably try Mt. Rosa again and then Pikes Peak in the next couple of weeks.  You never know when the weather on Pikes Peak is going to turn on you, so we need to try to hike it before October.  The high at the peak this time of year is in the low 50's.  So they really aren't too far from some serious snows.  After we hike Pikes Peak, we will probably go back to hiking the canyons while the leaves start turning pretty colors until the snow becomes really thick and then we will starting skiing again! I love Colorado!