Lara's Veterans' Day Post

Here's an email that I wanted to share that I wrote following an wonderful experience I had on Veterans' Day. I originally wrote it to a friend whose boyfriend was deployed to Afghanistan, and thought it might show some of what deployment was like from this side of the pond:


Ok--my Veteran's Day--INCREDIBLE! I went to the Nixon Library to see the speakers they had lined up. There was a POW from WWII, Gary Miller, Nixon's pilot--Col. Gene Boyer, Clay Baxter from the Amer.Legion--who in speaking about supporting the troops vs. supporting the president/war said--"You cannot separate the troops from the mission, nor can you separate the war from the warrior." (Yes, I'm a dork and took notes.) When Sen. Miller asked the vets in the audience to stand and be honored, I am not exaggerating--HALF the room stood up. Frank Martinez read a beautiful poem on being a vet--and that same half of the audience was in tears. Gary Coletti spoke on the Vietnam Vet's experience, and then, the keynote speaker, Major Gen. Michael Lehnert spoke. Wow. He served at Guantanamo Bay, and commanded the Marines in Iraq--he gave a tribute to the Greatest Generation and the vets of the Forgotten War, he spoke briefly on Vietnam, and then he spoke about our active duty servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan today--he was talking about the differences in having an all volunteer force vs. the draft situation in previous wars, and went on to say that "They (those are our guys he's talking about!) are every bit as honorable and courageous as the Greatest Generation." He also said in regards to fighting the War on Terror, "We will not finish this war in my lifetime. But we will not fail you, and we will win with honor." It was a very moving speech.

So, after he spoke, almost everyone lined up to talk to him. I decided that I really wouldn't know what to say to him anyway, and the line was really long, so I left to tour the museum instead. A few hours later, I decided to head home, and as I was walking out the front door, I quite literally bumped into the Mjr. Gen. and his wife, who were also leaving. They noticed my sweatshirt (embroidered with OIF with an Iraqi and American flag) and asked about it, so we talked for a few minutes. Yes, I was actually talking to him--and it was really great. He asked all about Sean, and what he is doing over there, when he'll be home (he told me to tell my soldier that I "light up" when I talk about him. :) I asked him if he would write Sean a note on my program--and he did!

"Sean, We are so proud of you and what you are accomplishing over there. Keep your head down and your powder dry. Semper fidelis!" and then he signed it Michael Lehnert, Maj. General, USMC. How cool is that???

He was very kind and genuinely interested--and I know he'd been talking to people for quite some time at that point. We talked for about 15 minutes. His wife was really wonderful, too.

So, as they left, I was a bit dazed, and I decided to go and see the concert that was being offered. And, guess who showed up at the concert? Sean's parents! I dragged them into the seats next to me and babbled quickly (and I'm afraid rather incoherently!) at them before the concert started about my experience with meeting Mike Lehnert. The music was so beautiful at the concert--what a great way to end the day!

But--what a day! I just got to talk to Sean this morning, and he's heading back up to Fallujah--one more "last" mission? I think this is the 3rd "Last" mission he's had. Right. If they send him on anymore, I think they'll have to keep him longer, so hopefully that won't happen. He said not to expect him home now before the 20th of Dec. It had been the 15th. So, I think I'll just try to relax and go with whatever happens, and be grateful that he's coming home. Ok, trying to be patient....I'll just have to trust that things are unfolding as they should, but man that's hard! I just need to remember that God is in control, not the Army, right?

A Rabble of Butterflies

Did you know rabble is the collective noun pertaining to butterflies? According to this site, swarm also applies. Neither one quite fits, if you ask me. Hmm...a blessing of butterflies? A rustle of butterflies?

Whatever you call it, Dog Day Afternoons has it. She found some forty-odd monarch butterfly chrysalises (and correspondingly bare milkweed plants) outside her home yesterday. Neat pictures, especially the last one. Think we could make this happen in our backyard, Sean? :)

Backyard Challenges, Entrance Stage Right, the Ubiquitous Pocket Gopher

Pocket gophers are burrowing rodents that live underground almost all the time (come out come out so I can kill you). They are so named because of their large external fur-lined cheek pouches, one on either side of the head. These pouches or "pockets" are used for carrying food (they are really quite ugly). They are well equipped for a digging, tunneling lifestyle with powerfully built forequarters, large-clawed front paws, fine short fur that doesn't cake in wet soils, small eyes and small external ears, and highly sensitive facial whiskers to assist movements in the dark. An unusual adaptation is the gopher's lips, which can be closed behind the four large incisor teeth to keep dirt out of its mouth when it is using its teeth for digging (They would have been helpful in the Steve McQueen Movie, the Great Escape).

Mounds of fresh soil are the best sign of gopher presence (Lara’s rose garden is a good example of a feast for this latest intruder into the yard as mounds have begun to spring up). These mounds are formed as the gopher digs its tunnel and pushes the loose dirt to the surface. Typically mounds are crescent or horseshoe-shaped when viewed from above. The hole, which is off to one side of the mound, is usually plugged. Mole mounds are sometimes mistaken for gopher mounds (No, this is an evil furry gopher). Mole mounds, however, appear circular and have a plug in the middle that may not be distinct; in profile they are volcano-shaped. Unlike gophers, moles commonly burrow just beneath the surface, leaving a raised ridge to mark their path (Are you coming out yet? I need to use my masochistic instincts to rid you of Lara’s garden).

One gopher may create several mounds in a day. In non-irrigated areas, mound building is most pronounced during spring or fall when the soil is moist and easy to dig (Yes it is Spring in California and the furry varmint is back to haunt the tasty garden). In irrigated areas such as lawns, flowerbeds, and gardens, digging conditions are usually optimal year round and mounds can appear at any time. In snowy regions, gophers create burrows in the snow, resulting in long, earthen cores on the surface when the snow melts.

Gophers feed on roots, stems, and leaves (and Lara’s roses). They prefer forbs to grasses, but they will eat both. Some preferred forbs include alfalfa, dandelion, and prickly pear cactus. They generally will move out of fields that are tilled annually because such places lack sufficient food (There is sufficient food here in this beautiful garden, Stay Away!).

Losses caused by gophers typically involve damage to or destruction of plants. Forage crops, such as alfalfa, can sustain heavy damage because of gopher feeding and mound-building. A single gopher moving down a garden row can inflict considerable damage in a very short time. Gophers also gnaw and damage plastic water lines and lawn sprinkler systems. Their tunnels can divert and carry off irrigation water and lead to soil erosion. Mounds on lawns interfere with mowing equipment and ruin the aesthetics of well-kept turf grass.
Kaput Gopher Bait, where this information on our furry varmint friends came from, will be applied and an update on these evil furries will be disseminated on the Backyard Challenges Blog, I mean Backyard Adventures Blog. Stay tuned!

The Gophers Are Back....

Yellow leaves EVERYWHERE! :(

This means war.

Sean’s 2005 Book Recommendations:

The J.K. Rowling Series, Harry Potter Series – favorites: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and/or the Half-Blood Prince
The Jon Krakauer Series - last book: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith - favorite book: Into Thin Air
The Dan Brown Series - last books: the Da Vinci Code, Deception Point, Digital Fortress - favorite: Angels and Demons
The Michael Crichton Series - last books: State of Fear, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Travels, Airframe, The Lost World, Disclosure, Rising Sun – favorite: the Great Train Robbery
The Nelson DeMille Series - last books: Night Fall, Lions Game, Plumb Island, May Day, General's Daughter – favorite: Up Country
Tom Clancy Series - older books: Red Storm Rising, Hunt for Red October, Debt of Honor, Without Remore, Executive Orders – favorite: the Sum of All Fears
Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem by Amir D. Aczel

Lara's Top Ten Book List

Ok, so my first official blog entry will be about a subject near and dear to my heart—books! Sean and I are both avid readers, and though we have different tastes in books, some of them overlap. (Vive la difference!)

I’m currently reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I recently realized that I hadn’t read that one! I enjoy mysteries, historical fiction and poetry the best, though I also read historical non-fiction, religion and the classics for a well-rounded diet—oh yes, and the occasional Nicholas Sparks for dessert. Some of my all-time favorites are The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Gifts from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and Trinity by Leon Uris. My students always ask me when I recommend a book if it is on my “Top Ten List.” Now, I haven’t actually complied and actual Top Ten, but these would be on it. I need to do that…maybe this blog will help me. Other favorite authors include Alice Hoffman, Maeve Binchy, Sarah Ban Breathnach, John O’Donohue, Jan Karon, Isabelle Allende, and poets David Whyte, and Billy Collins.

"Deployment: it's not just for the Few and the Proud anymore."

In my introduction I mentioned these two classic deployment e-mails I received from Lara when I was in the Middle East. For those pals that just got back, read them again and get a chuckle. I know a lot of the military blog sites have posted these on their pages as well. But they are timeless classics that remind me of what I went through and I periodically review them to share how good we have it back here in the USA. Additionally, I wanted to share these one more time with the pals that didn’t get to experience the mass e-mail from overseas when they were distributed. Enjoy!

"Deployment: it's not just for the Few and the Proud anymore."

Want to pretend you are deployed? Here is a list of things you can do right in the "comfort" of your own home to give you that deployed feeling.
· Sleep on a cot in the garage.
· Replace the garage door with a curtain.
· Two hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.
· When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.
· Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.
· Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.
· Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.
· Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.
· Have the paperboy give you a haircut.
· Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.
· Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in the other side of your bathtub.
· Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a saltine cracker.
· Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.
· Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.
· Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back together again.
· Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.
· Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes with them.
· Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.
· Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.
· Keep a roll of toilet paper on your nightstand and bring it to the bathroom with you along with your gun and a flashlight.
· Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every time.
· Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."
· Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.
· Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.
· Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.
· Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.
· Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.
· Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.
· While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.
· Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.
· Drink your milk and sodas warm.
· Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.
· Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in.
· Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.
· Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.
· When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son the gum.
· Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get cold/ hot.
· Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself to repeat this process for another six months to simulate the next deployment you've been ordered to support.

You know you have been in Iraq too long when.....
· Mortars land near your compound and you roll over in bed and think "still way off, I got another 5 minutes"
· You start humming with the Arabic song playing on the radio on the shuttle bus
· Every woman that reports to your unit starts looking attractive
· Every guy that reports to your unit starts looking attractive
· You walk an extra 6 blocks to eat at the KBR (contractor run) dining facility to have the exact same food they are serving in your dining facility because you think it tastes better
· You actually volunteer for convoy security duty because you still haven't seen the country yet
· You start picturing your wife in traditional Arab dress
· The contractors have more fire power than the military combat units. (This is true)
· You take the time to add your lines to this list
· You drink the water from the tap because you want to drop 20 pounds in two weeks
· Driving around in SUVs with weapons pointed out the windows and forcing cars off the road seems very normal to you
· You can put your body armor and helmet on in the dark in under 5 seconds
· When the organization you work for has changed its name more than 3 times
· When you can actually talk to people in the United States on a cell phone, yet you can't get people on their cell phone a block away
· When you actually spend more time writing e-mail about the dog in the compound versus how to conduct the fight in Najaf
· Your idea of a fun Thursday night is to go to the Palace pool to watch the State Department folks get drunk, naked and try to pick each other up
· When you actually get excited to get a package that contains 3 pair of socks, 12 bars of soap and a Victoria Secret Catalog
· When you start to enjoy the rocking of the trailer every time the MEDEVAC choppers fly over
· You memorized every episode from the 4th Season of Sex in the City
· You enjoy the audience commentary while watching a movie bought at Hajimart
· You see celebratory fire going over the compound at night and think, "wow the colors are so pretty" and want to fire back
· Your thinking of buying real estate in the green zone
· Your idea of sex is 20 minutes of Instant Messaging with your wife on the computer, OK, 10 minutes, who are you kidding?
· You wake up and think Baghdad, I am still in friggin Baghdad
· You make the new guy show you his count down timer just to make you feel better about your time you have left in country
· You're in the Army and you start saying Ooorah
· You're in the Marines and you start saying Hooah
· You're in the Navy and you realize you are in the middle of the desert, the exact opposite of being in the middle of the ocean, where one might normally find the Navy.
· You're in the Air Force, and you're on the plane home because an Air Forcetour is too short to have been a long Iraq tour. Ignore this list, zoomie, you won't get it.
· You only notice the stench of Haji funk when its not there
· You plan on removing all trees and grass in your yard when you get home soit will look more natural
· You forget there are other colors than brown that can be found in placesother than power point slides
· The temp drops down to 102 degrees and you shiver while reaching for yourGortex jacket
· You have noticed a change of season, from long, hot and dry to short, coldand wet.
· When you call home and your kids ask, "Who is this?"
· You call home and your wife says hello Bill (your name is Sam)
· When you go on R&R, you duct tape your child to the roof of your car, hand him a pellet rifle, and assign him a sector of fire for the ride to "The Olive Garden."
· When you can comfortably shave and brush your teeth using bottled water, but don't mind showering in the "non-potable" local water.
· While on R&R, you look out the window and find Nature, which leads you to wonder who stole your sandbags.
· When some of the contractors wear their DCUs (Desert pattern camouflage uniform) more properly than some of your soldiers.
· When 12 hours is a short work day
· When, During the BUA, "DIV asked MNSTC-I for the FRAGO that MNC-I was supposed to publish, but couldn't because MNF-I hadn't weighed in, since they were too inundated with MOD and MOI war-gaming the JCCs within the ISF to square us away!" is a valid comment and generates no questions.
· When you start using words like G'day mate, Cheers, and Bloody hell as part of your normal vocabulary
· When you have your opinions printed in the STARS and STRIPES more than 3 times
· When the palace catches fire and instead of helping to put it out you grab a bag of marshmallows and start roasting
· When you step into any office and there are 6 colonels, 12 lieutenant colonels, 15 majors, and 8 captains supervising the work of 1 sergeant
· When you end every phone conversation with "Out"
· When you're ordered to get an air mission together on short notice because it's a "Hot priority" only to have the Major call back once he is in the air to ask "Does anyone know where I am going?"
· When the weapon buyback program has become so successful that you have issued the same AK-47 to the Iraqi army 3 times
· When you can actually tell the difference between the sound of an exploding car and an exploding mortar
· When on R & R you tell your wife that your weapon status is Red and your looking for the clearing barrel
· When on R&R you go to Church and wonder why no one is wearing body armor or carrying an automatic weapon to the service
· You see an indirect fire attack take out a generator and get angry at the enemy for not hitting the one that powers your computer
· You see an indirect fire attack take out an air conditioner and your vigor to fight is renewed
· You yell at the FNG for shouting "Incoming!" when the rounds don't impact close enough to hit your tent with dirt
· You know that you need to run inside immediately after any win of an Iraqi sports team to keep from being hit by celebratory fire
· You decide for that for grins - lets take a run around Lost Lake at Camp Victory to see if we can get shot at by the sniper
· You never worry about oversleeping because if the morning call to prayers doesn't wake you, the daily 0430 mortar attack will (most mornings)
· The highlight of your shopping experience at the PX is to see that they got in a new shipment of Schick Tracer razor blades
· When you send out your laundry and your whites become grayer, your blacks become grayer and your DCU's become grayer - makes it easier to sort loads...
· You get offended by people wearing clean, pressed DCU's
· You decide that it is a better course of action to pull your blankets over your head than put on your body armor during a mortar attack - the woobee will save you and at least you are comfortable
· You make a contest out of seeing who can wear their uniform for more days before becoming entirely disgusted with themselves
· You wonder if the fish served at dinner really was carp caught out of the Tigris or Camp Victory's lake
· You find it completely acceptable to pick your nose while talking to a complete stranger or member of the opposite sex
· A rocket or a mortar really isn't a big deal until the crater it leaves is big enough to trip over in the dark on the way to the latrine
· You go to a social gathering and intermittent gun fire or explosions don't even cause a pause in the conversation

7-Hour Trip To Iraq Turns Into 12

This Article Came from the Daily Press in Hampton Roads, Virginia, by Stephanie Heinatz, 5 October 2004. I wanted to include this in our blog as it brings back my Middle East experience and it discusses a lot of what our unit went through over there. Some of the names are familiar to this day and I hope our troops that have taken our place are as resilient and motivated with the mission as we were. There is always stuff to transport up north. Enjoy!

7-Hour Trip To Iraq Turns Into 12 As Convoy Hits Delays. There Were No Firefights On The First Leg Of The Journey, But Lots Of Excitement Just The Same.

MAIN SUPPLY ROUTE TAMPA, IRAQ -- Early Monday afternoon, for the third time that day, Spc. Steven Webb climbed out from behind the wheel of his Humvee to stand guard over a convoy of dozens of trucks that had come to a stop.A flatbed truck driven by a contracted civilian driver was getting ready to lose its load. The convoy had just passed through a 20-mile stretch of unpaved, bumpy highway - pure desert driving, Webb called it - and it almost bounced a pallet over the side. The convoy had to wait until everything was secured.That morning, Webb and more than a dozen other soldiers from the Fort Eustis-based 7th Transportation Group left Navistar, a military base in Kuwait that serves as the border crossing and staging area for convoys headed to Iraq. Webb's convoy was bound for Camp Anaconda, a supply distribution hub north of Baghdad.It was the first time since arriving in the desert a month ago that the group's soldiers had the chance to hit the road."This stuff makes you feel like you are really in the Army," Capt. Thomas Crane had said at Navistar as he pored over last-minute reports of roadside bombs and ambushes happening along the way. Crane is one of the group's intelligence officers along for the ride to get a feel for the dangers on the roads."It's what we train for. Not that I joined the Army for this stuff, but it's better than sitting back at Camp Arifjan in a cubicle."The soldiers travel in gun truck Humvees outfitted with armor and a .50-caliber machine gun to protect the Iraqi Express convoy. The Army dubbed it the express because it runs up and down Iraq, delivering supplies to troops stationed in the heart of the country. The express doesn't haul tanks or fighting materials. Monday it was hauling everything from water to bubble wrap.While stopped, other than the nearly half-mile-long stretch of trucks sitting on MSR Tampa, the military's main supply route, Webb surveyed terrain that was nothing but desert.The desert turns a bit greener as you travel north into Iraq. Southern Iraq is dusty and barren other than the occasional shepherd and flocks of sheep, camels and goats.But once you get past Camp Cedar, the first truck stop for convoys near Nasiriya, you see palm trees, bright green bushes, larger flocks of farm animals and fewer children begging for water.On the surface it seemed almost silly for Webb and other soldiers to pace back and forth with loaded automatic weapons.Then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, dozens of Iraqis appeared on the side of the road.Webb looked one way, then another, looking for one of the hundreds of mud huts or tattered tents he passed up to this point.But there was nothing."I was just wondering that myself," Col. Jeff Miser, the group's commanding officer, said to Webb. "Where in the world did they come from?"Men walked up wearing red and white checkered head scarves, full length white gowns and tattered sandals.Women approached almost completely covered, showing only portions of their blank dusty faces.Children, running hand in hand, wore little more than a smile as they greeted the soldiers with peace signs."Look at their feet," Webb said, still holding his weapon, ready to fire if a threat emerged. "Those kids don't even have any shoes. I'll tell you one thing: Anyone in the States who thinks they have it bad at home needs to just take one trip over here and they will realize how good they have it."Minutes later the convoy moved again. No threat had come out of the crowd. In fact, from Navistar to Scania, a truck stop near Babylon, the group encountered no one who wanted to do them harm.
"And that's just fine with me," said Sgt. Brian Melson, the gunner atop one of the Humvees.The only things that kept them from making good time on their 300-or-so-mile first leg were issues within their convoy and convoys ahead of them.First, one of the group's Humvees had to be sent back down to Kuwait after they reached Cedar. The batteries weren't keeping a charge, and the truck was losing communications.It took an hour to regroup the soldiers and assign new trucks.That pallet that Webb helped guard as it was pushed back onto the flatbed nearly fell off three times. Each time, the entire convoy had to stop and the tow truck in the group had to hook a chain to the pallet and pull it back into place.Then, less than 15 minutes after the third time the load was secured, two trucks driven by civilians in one of the convoys ahead were involved in a head-on collision.A Black Hawk helicopter was called in to evacuate the injured. The group silently watched the helicopter blades kick up dust, pick up the drivers and then fly away."Makes you realize that there are other dangers out here," Webb said as he drove past the crumpled trucks.Shortly after 6 p.m., having been on the road for nearly 12 hours on what should have been a seven-hour drive, the group pulled into Scania.They refueled, set up cots next to their Humvees determined to sleep under the stars, grabbed a quick bite to eat and settled in for a short rest.This morning they begin the next leg of the trip, the one that runs through Baghdad. Even if no maintenance issues come up, Webb said, it's bound to be exciting.

Sean and Lara’s Backyard Adventures

About Us:

Sean’s First Thoughts - Although new to the Blog scene, I have had WebPages, e-mail discussion groups on IRC, and have sent tons of junk via e-mail to the pals, which I am sure they truly appreciate. I wanted to create a blog while I was serving in Kuwait and Iraq, while serving in the Army Reserves in Operation Iraqi Freedom last year. I could have written stories about my wayward adventures, Lara could have told me how the weeds and drip irrigation system in the back yard are doing, if the roses are blooming or being taken over by aphids, and we could have shared our ideas on the deployment more closely.

So here is my chance to put my thoughts and ideas to ink (or keyboard) so the pals won’t get the “You know you have been in Iraq too long when…”and “Deployment--not just for the Few and the Proud anymore!” e-mails as often. The pals and family can log on and see what our latest backyard ideas and adventures are, our latest thoughts on the pals still in Iraq and Kuwait, and our future adventures in the wilderness or having mint juleps out on the veranda under the palm trees. I hope you enjoy our page.

Lara’s First Thoughts - I’m new to the Blog scene, too, though I’ve been a lurker for quite some time, and made some good supportive friends who helped me through the above-mentioned deployment. It was wonderful to find out that the stuff I was going through was normal—especially since the military is such a foreign land to me.
I’m excited about keeping in touch with family and friends near and far through this medium and learning more about what exactly lurks in the dark corners the mind of this boy I’ve come to love, as well as exploring my own thoughts via writing—a pastime I’ve long neglected.