I can't believe how fast time goes. 367 days ago I arrived at Ft Lewis. Crazy. It was a year ago yesterday that I hung out with Luke in Seattle for the first time. Unreal. And I only remember that because I was wearing a poppy in my pics on facebook.
Do you remember when xanga used to tell you, "you have been on xanga for '432' days, maybe it's time to go premium". I wish they still did that. I think it's been 4 or 5 years now that I've been blogging, and I still love it. I can remember times of going through and reading all my old posts, but now that would take an incredible commitment of time, maybe when I go home for christmas I'll set aside a day for that.
Me and Chap split up last night for the first time. He had another place to go and visit another chaplain we work for, and I opted to stay and run the wed night service we always have. We had 9 people, and I just played a Rob Bell video and planned on group discussion afterwards. Well we had 9 people, good turn out for discussion, right? Not really, two soldiers and the rest Ugandan contractors. Their English is super limited, I don't think they had a clue what was going on. But it was a blessed time none the less. So today has been nice. I've just been reading, worked out once so far, and am still hanging out in my PT's (which stands for physical training uniform, but might as well be called PJs cuz they're so doggone comfy). We talked on the phone about a half hour ago, he gets on and goes "wazuuuuuuuuuuuuuup", which was awesome because that was exactly what I was gonna do. The Hurt Locker is a terrific movie, I watched it yesterday for the first time, really good stuff.

What an amazing day I had yesterday! Where do I begin? With letters from home? Or heart sharing to the upmost? Or prairie reminiscing? It all happpened! Here we go:

Mail truck pulls up and asked if I'll help unload it- there's a huge package for you. Oh yeah, now I'm pumped. It was huge, $38 to send to me, isn't that out of control? From people I've never heard of. They are a group from my gramma's town in Montana that sends christmas packages to hometown heroes, turns out because I spent three months there during my internship I qualified. I have a Christmas tree and 15 wrapped presents to put underneath it. Doesn't that just bless your heart? THEN, about 4 hours later I walked by the mailroom again and they said hey you got another one too. OH YEAH! Erin, you rule. It took 29 days to get my halloween package from New Brunswick, but it was awesome. The candy is already gone. And she sent these awesome spock ears for a costume, which was incredible because just two days ago I found out one of my best buddies is a total trekkie nerd and I passed it along. He loved it. And it was good timing too because his football team had just lost, 15 minutes later I saw him and those ears totally cheered him up. He's from IOWA (idiots out walking around), so I make a point to reach out to him.

Next: did you hear about the shooting at Ft Hood? Some crazy psychiatrist opened fire on a group of soldiers. Wanna know what really blessed my heart as a result? Well my sister is stationed down in Texas, not at Hood because she's in the Air Force. But still, it got people wondering. Marcy Peterson called my mom to ask if Jenny is all right. Do you all remember her? Sweet old lady who moved from Minnesota to 3hills back in the 60s, so sweet of her to call. Mom said she sounds as spunky as ever.

Then I was reading the paper, The Stars and Stripes. They had an AP story about a hurricane hitting Nicaragua, so I read on. Tasbapauni is where the hurricane came to shore, that is the town we bulit a church at 3 or 4 years ago. Isn't that amazing. Here I am in Baghdad and I can specifically pray for individual faces and names I know from this remote place on the globe. Man God is big, and our world is so small.

Then later that night I was in my office sharing hearts with my friend Richard. You can guess what I call him. Anyway, it amazes me how conversations begin and change directions. So for some reason he says to me, "you ever seen the movie Goonies?" Duh, get to know me, right? Well I feel like I have a cool story about that movie so I say, "oh yeah, I have a really good friend who had her first kiss in a house that is in that movie". So then he tells me about his first kiss, he felt cool because he was in 5th grade and she was in 6th. Then I tell mine, and I get to thinking and I'm like, wait a minute, I bet it was around this time of year. Grab my Man Journal, and sure enough, did some math, one year ago. To the day, isn't that nuts? God is funny when we have memories come to mind, as if that conversation happened on THE day. I call my friend Sergeant, that's his rank.

I forgot it was halloween. I knew it was coming, but forgot the day of. I was gonna buy an air force uniform and return it the next day, I was bummed I forgot. But I was pumped because I got calls in to both my sets of grandparents. The ones in Montana that some of you know, the crazy ones, oh man. My gramma asked me what she should send in my package, but then we got sidetracked and she asked me about the food here. Well let me tell you, it's not condusive to losing weight, the food is awesome. So she says, "well should I send diet pills?" And also whether or not I've met any cute girls I might be bringing to MT anytime soon. Hilarious. Then the day before I had gotten a card from my other grandparents in Minnesota, so talking to them was great. I handed halloween candy out with them 3 years ago, and her card said she wished I was doing it again. They didn't know yet that I'll be home at christmas so they were pretty pumped, and me and grampa talked army for a good 15 minutes, it was really strange to connect with him on that level, pretty cool. I hope he meets the Lord, times running out.

Then I talked to my mom, I could not believe that conversation. I had planned on not talking to her about this, then she says, "I just got a call from Ft Lewis saying that 5 guys in your unit were wounded yesterday." Whoa. I was shocked to know the Army informs the next of kin when it's just in the unit. But yeah, we had a truck get hit, no deaths Thank God. It has made for a few really long nights. Please pray for our safety. This was a big wake-up call for all of us that haven't been over here before.

I was just in our aid station having a little sing a long with the chaplain and PA. On the shelf I saw "Where There is No Doctor". Can I tell you how much this place reminds me of Prairie? I never took missionary medicine but I totally recognized the textbook. I miss le trois hills.

I have a sweet little mix of music on my ipod that I downloaded from Mars Hill. I don't know the band, but there's this song, blessed are the forgiven. And like the big climax of the chorus sings, "Our sins are no longer hidden". Oh my word do I LOVE that line. I'll tell you why. So often I think that though we receive forgivness, we still keep our sins hidden. Isn't that our nature, keep what embarrasses us from showing who we really are? I've just been thinking so much about Jesus' words "the Truth will set you free". I'm sick of lying to myself thinking my sin is mine, I don't want it to be hidden. I started a book last night, Ordering Your Private World (or life I can't remember). It sounds pretty sweet. But I heard a SUPER wack thing about the author. So we'll see, but I figure if Solomon wrote God's word, this guys stuff can still be helpful to the right reader.

I smoked my first cigar tonight in forever. It was really relaxing. Right outside the aid station and then went in to a jam session in progress. Jack Johnson makes some good sing alongs! It's been way too long since I've jammed to him.

*This is an administration note. My cousin wrote asking me if I've been watching the office, and she would have caught me up to speed I think but she hasn't gotten through all of last season yet. I say this to tell all of you, DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING HAPPENING. We don't have it here yet. I'm sure haji will have it stolen and sold to us for $1 in no time, but for now please don't mention anything anywhere I might see it. Thank you.

I'll be home for Christmas,
You can count on me,
I'll be home for Christmas,
unless I hit an IED.

I changed the words a bit, but I found out yesterday it's true. So we all get two weeks RnR this year, and I was hoping to hold out until the summer, but they needed to fill the slot and I'm getting home for christmas. This rules! And I hear they had snow super early this year in MN, so I should for sure be able to ice fish when I get there, Holla! Don't tell my brother but I'm getting him brass knuckles for Christmas. And my Dad a shirt that says, "My Daughter kicks ass in Iraq, what does yours do?" Jenny is deploying in january, so it'll be sweet. Pink of course.

Last week I got to watch MOST of the vikings game. No kidding, I had to leave the office to roll out during the 2 minute warning. What a disappointment. At least my team is still 6-0.

Carrying my gun is like carrying a purse. I'm glad I won't have to do either after this year, it's getting old lugging this thing around everywhere.