Aug. 19, 2009

A wave of bombs and violence occurred today in Baghdad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8209608.stm

Kyle is ok.

Leave: Army lingo for VACA!

Looks like Kyle's leave will be in mid-October. Dates are not rock solid but he hopes to be home for our friends, Tony and Gillian's wedding. Leave is two weeks long and we have ALOT planned for that amount of time.

I added a new countdown to the approximate date he will be home:) 52 days and counting!! It can't get here fast enough.

The Shack

Kyle and I like to read very different kinds of books. I am more of a Nicholas Sparks, romantic novel, type reader and he is more of a heavy, non-fictional, nerdy, historical type reader. Needless to say we rarely share books.

It can be difficult when Kyle and I are living two very different day to day lives and experience very different things. I thought if Kyle and I were reading the same book at the same time it would be something (as small as it is) that we could share even with 6,375 miles between us (Yes, I looked up that little factoid).

The challenge was finding a book that we would both would like. I sent out an email to the family and The Shack seemed to overlap on several suggestion lists. A quick trip to the book store and then to the post office and off to reading.

The book was GREAT, I highly recommend it. Our experiment worked too. I sent Kyle an email asking what he thought of the book and if he was writing anything down as he was reading. His response:

"I finished the Shack. I didn't take any notes. I didn't know there was going to be a quiz later, but I did dog-ear some pages in case you tried to make me talk about my feelings."

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie was in Iraq for a UN Goodwill trip. It was her third visit to the war-torn country. AND KYLE GOT TO MEET HER!! He said she was really nice and cordial. He also said she was really skinny...and that he wanted to go get her a sandwich! Sad but true, Kyle didn't have his camera with him AND even though I remain TEAM ANISTON, this was a major celebrity meeting. And,I'm way jealous!

I wanted to add a link about her visit from a credible news site but truly all the links that came up were from celebrity gossip sites. So, I decided People was the most reliable of them:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20293364,00.html

Editor's Note

RETRACTION: The blog writer of the previous entry (that would be me) would like to apologize for posted false information. I was informed that I had reported a HUGE mistake (by Kyle, of course). Kyle's half marathon time was not 1 hour and 50 mins. The correct finishing time was 1:49:42. HUGE difference!

Kyle News

The blog has been a little neglected lately. New post coming soon:)

In recent news on Kyle's location:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32299895/ns/world_news-conflict_in_iraq/


In Kyle personal news: He finished the Baghdad half marathon in a personal best at 1 hour and fifty minutes. CONGRATS, KYLE!!

Less than 200

Another month down and over 50% of the way through Kyle's mobilization. I have countdowns all over the place: on my computer, on my fridge and even on this blog. For some reason I kept telling myself that the number of days would look less daunting once it was below 200 days. Well...its 184 days today and it still seems like a long time away.
Kyle's getting a little punchy too. Photographed here with his night vision equipment on, indoors and during daylight:)