i would walk 2,282 miles

Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I recently was in contact with a high school friend who has served in the Marines. He told me that when he was deployed, his stateside company members logged the miles they ran in an effort to equal the number of miles between the states and Iraq. I thought that that was a pretty cool idea and found a neato program through google that calulates distances. I discovered the distance between where I'm living and where I suspect Jerry will be stationed in Iraq. One of our favorite songs is I'm Gonna Be (500 miles). And I would walk 500 miles to be with Jerry. But would I walk 2,282 miles? You bet! So...over the course of the next year, I plan to cover 2,282 miles through my Walk Away the Pounds DVDs, the treadmill, and the elliptical machine. If I were to exercise every day, I'd need to cover over 6 miles a day, which would be a pretty big challenge. With that in mind, I'm going to allow myself to cover some 'ground' using stationary bicycles. I'm pretty excited about doing this and think it would be a pretty big accomplishment!



This morning I attended a Battlemind Training class with another spouse. The class was really informative and was based on a big study of soldiers and their spouses during deployment. Today's class focused on the effects of being in a combat area on soldiers. There's another class that focuses on changes in spouses when their soldiers are deployed. The class was taught by a woman whose spouse has been deployed four times, so she was able to provide examples from her own experience which was really helpful. A lot of the stuff was what I expected to hear. But I learned quite a bit too and I think that this class will have prepared me a bit better for some changes I might be seeing in Jerry over the course of the year. And it will help me be more tolerant or understanding of behavior that might otherwise piss me off. One of the interesting things she said that we could probably expect to see is some habitual checking for weapons. Downrange, our soldiers carry a heavy weapon with them at all times. So when they return home, they often make a movement to pick up their weapon when getting out of a car or leaving a restaurant because in Iraq the weapon would have been on the ground at their side when driving or eating. She said that her husband would often keep checking his pockets, wallet, etc. every time he left the house after a deployment. And he would say that he thought he had everything, but it felt like something was missing. It all makes sense, but it was something I had never really considered. I'm very glad that I took the class and plan to take the opportunity to attend more classes offered by Army Community Service.



I had been debating getting a Christmas tree this year. Though we've been getting plenty of beautiful snow to get me into the Christmas spirit, I've had a hard time feeling it. With no Jerry and no family here, I'm facing the first Christmas alone in my entire life. And part of me felt like it might be better to just pretend like it wasn't even happening. But I'm a Christmas girl and I opted to get a live small planted tree and I'm very glad that I did. And I bought a candle with the scent "holiday cheer." You may wonder what holiday cheer smells like. It smells quite good and way better than "holiday sparkle"! Here's my little bit o' Christmas:

The pair of pants usually tops the tree, but with such a small tree the pants would've caused the tree to topple over! The pair of pants tree-topper was made for the first Christmas that Jerry and I spent together. Each year, we add the new year to the pants in some way. This year I plan to sew yellow ribbon around the bottom of one of the pantlegs and put the year on the ribbon. And I can't help but think ahead to my next Christmas, which I will be sharing with my husband with a fullsized Christmas tree and fullsized Christmas cheer!