Keith's leaving for a bit.

I have to take him to the airport here really soon. We need to leave in the next 5 minutes actually...He's going to SERE Training, which stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape... Its a Special Forces Prisoner of War training at Ft. Rutger, Alabama...
This is what I found online when I looked up what it is:
You'll learn what plants are safe to eat, how to do things like construct shelter, build a fire, make rudimentary tools to help you do things like hunt, fish and defend yourself. You'll learn a lot about human anatomy and how cold, heat, wind and weather will affect your chances for survival and rescue. You'll learn how to signal your rescuers and how to leave natural signs that the enemy wont recognize, but a satellite or a reconnaissance aircraft will, so they know your alive. You'll learn how to conduct yourself if you become a prisoner of war, methods for withstanding mental and physical interrogation and how to communicate with your fellow POWs if the opportunity arises.

Our friends that have gone to this course before him said this:
*You'll be locked in solitary confinement for around 3 days, in a box or small room thats so dark you can't see your own hand.
*You'll be starved and lose an average of 25 lbs in this 3 weeks.
*You'll eat bugs, snakes, plants and have to evade and survive in the wilderness for as long as you can.
*You can't have any contact with your family for 3 weeks (which is in fact 2 weeks longer than Keith and I have ever had to go with no contact...)
*You'll be abused, mentally and physically and pushed to a limit you didn't even know you had....

I'm scared for him and scared for me...I don't want to be this alone. Of course I have Kate & Adam and my wonderful roomates but still, when he's gone, I feel alone anyways...

Marie

I'm still here. :)
I'm finishing the pictures this morning and will post after that. Love you Marie!!

Oh January...

Lets see, whats new?

I'm trying to post more often, can you tell? I love that we can keep in touch on this site from all over the country and love that I get to know what is going on with my kick@$$ family even though we live a life that moves and moves and moves!!
We are getting roommates. A good friend of ours and his wife are moving in with us either until they find a place of their own near us or until they go to his training class in Virginia in July. He works with Keith and she is a lawyer who is licenced in Oregon but is taking the bar for Washington in February. We're excited to get to spend more time with them. They're really good people and it will help all involved out to share rent and save some dough!! They've been bringing stuff out to our house for a week or so and are most likely going to be there full time either today or tomorrow as they have to be out of their place by Thursday!

I got a random interview call last week and have had 2 interviews for the job since then. I'm hoping to hear today if I got the job and am really hoping I did because it would be awesome!! It's a job on post with a Medical Brigade that just redeployed to the states. Its a Family Readiness Support Assistant position at the Brigade level, which is basically what I do for Keith's unit as a volunteer but at a higher level. It's a Government job, which means great pay, benefits and hours and its at a unit that's only 2 or so streets over from Keith's compound so we would still be able to see each other and such. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high but I also know I'm totally qualified and have tons of experience in this and they'd be crazy not to hire me. :) We shall see. If not it's okay because I'll continue on with Keith's unit so either way I'm sure I'll survive.

Katie and Adam have gotten pretty much settled I think. It's so cool to have them close by. I'm at the Ft Lewis library now and have been texting with Katie all morning and just decided to go over there after the meeting I have today and visit her and I'm still giddy that I can do that! She lives just down the freeway from here and its soo cool!

Keith and I (and possibly our roommates) will be gone this weekend to another Marriage Retreat put on by his unit. We're going back to the same place the last one was, Skamania Lodge in Stevenson Washington. You can check it out at http://www.skamania.com/. I'm excited, even though we've already been to this location its a great place so it doesn't hurt at all to go back and its all free so who in their right mind would complain?!

Katie and I just signed up for a day trip to the Seattle Premium Outlets in February so it will be a lot of fun to go, just the 2 of us, and shop shop shop. The guys will be working so we don't even have to feel bad for leaving them home. Of course we'll have to pretend we feel bad that they have to work but our husbands are pretty smart and will probably see through us anyways!!

Ok I'm off to run errands and go to my meeting and then I'm headed home to clean the house and put together our unit newsletter!! Joy of joys.

I'm also going to finish editing our Elko Trip/Christmas/New Years photos by this weekend so I'll post the walmart link on here when they're uploaded. Be prepared...there are literally hundreds...

xoxo.

I did it!!!

This morning I reached my first goal in my weight loss journey!! I've officially lost 20 lbs!!!!!! I can't believe it. Wow. Ok, next goal...to hit 240 and get horse back riding lessons...cuz I'll be light enough to ride!!! Ok, 10 lbs to go!!

Rain rain, go away unless I don't have to go anywhere...

It's raining...again...or still...ugh. I don't mean ugh like I hate the rain, I just hate going out in it instead of sitting at home with cocoa watching it happen outside!
December was a fun month for us. Keith did a jump early in the month and it was awesome. He did a tailgate jump from a Chinook helicopter. The weather was horrible but it cleared up at the last minute and he got to jump after all.
A friend of ours was turning 21 while we were all going to be gone for Christmas leave so we had a suprise party for her before we all left. We used it as a Christmas gift exchange and had a banner up and had another friend do a cake for her. She was really surprised and loved it!
We went home to Elko for Christmas and my birthday and had a blast. We hung out with a ton of family, did a birthday party for me (hosted by my amazing mother!!), Christmas Eve with my parents and mom's side of the family and then Christmas with Keith's family. We did a sledding day with my kick-ass cousins and spent lots of "play time" with our niece & nephew. All in all it was awesome!
We drove down to Elko from Yelm and what an experience. Dunno if you've noticed by the northwest got its butt kicked by Mother Nature the entire 2nd half of December. Oregon was terrible to drive through and we were headed off the road more than we were on it. It was terrifying and I hated it! The first day of travel we ended up stopped in Baker City Oregon for the night because they were closing the highway. We were exhausted so it wasn't a bad thing. We got to Elko in good time the next day so it all ended well!
The trip home went a lot smoother. We headed home on New Years Eve and stopped in Boise to have lunch and exchange gifts with Keith's sister Jennifer. We headed on and after the weather turned against us we stopped for the night in adorable Pendleton Oregon. Its a great little town that was an Oregon Trail stop. We got a room at a Rustic Motel that called itself a Lodge...lavender sprigs on the bed and all. We went to a local bar called Crabbys for dinner and a couple games of pool and called it an early night.
Katie & Adam got all moved in up here and are having fun settling in and exploring. Keith and I are LOVING it!! Its so cool to have them close.
I'm off to clean the house and do wifey stuff. :) Happy New Year!

I'll post the link to December's pictures when I get them all done & uploaded.