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.