Here are some skiing pictures of the family. We had a fabulous blue-sky day on the mountain. It was the kids' 2nd time skiing and they did great. They want to go again soon. It's still cold here, but the snow is slowly melting. The kids are growing up too fast! Ike lost his first tooth today, and he "likes" a girl in his kindergarten class. He asked if he could kiss her, or if he should wait until marraige. I told him to wait, of course.
Went back to work this week. I missed being there. I had students my first two days, so I didn't actually "work" until yesterday, and it was nice to do anesthesia again. A lot of people at work do a double-take when they see me, and then realize I am back, then they hug me. Heather is throwing me a welcome home party in a few weeks, with a 70's/80's theme, complete with DJ and disco ball. I will have to post pictures later.
Going away this weekend for our anniversary--snowmobiling in Idaho.
Well, thanks again for reading.........

home

Back to the real world

I don't know if anyone is reading this anymore now that I am home, but I guess I will write for the sake of writing. It is strange being home, and hard to believe where I was just a few weeks ago. I am back to helping the kids do homework, cooking, laundry (sure missed that!), cub scouts, etc. I bought some home gym equipment so I can attempt to keep up with all the working out I did while I was gone. It's easy to do when you don't work. I start back to work on Monday. Work for two weeks, then go to Utah, then I have Jury Duty for two weeks! I am so lucky. I was just wishing I could do more service for my country, and then I got a summons for Jury Duty.
This morning I was working out, and I heard a scream and little footsteps running around frantically. Dillon was hysterical because one of the cats had vomitted all over him and his bed; I had never seen so much emesis come out of a cat! Never a dull moment here, and it gave me more laundry to do--yipee! I am glad to be home and I am looking forward to going back to work. We are taking the kids skiing this weekend, should be fun. Well, comment if you still read this, and thanks for reading.

Home sweet Home

As most of you know, I am home, in Spokane. In my house, with my family! I slept in my own bed for the first time last night. Brian said, "what should we have for dinner?", and it took me a minute to realize we actually had to cook something, instead of just walking to the DFAC. He cooked for us, and it was very nice to have a home-cooked meal, even if I had to do the dishes. This morning, my cute boys brought me coffee in bed, and Dillon cooked me eggs and toast--I have missed that weekend room service while I was gone. Today, I finally got to do something I have been dying to do for months: I soaked in my new tub, with candles going, a glass of wine, and the jets on. The kids even let me have the tub to myself for 15 minutes of pure heaven. Funny how you learn to appreciate the smallest things. I am learning to do laundry again already--isn't that terrific? Still good to be home again. Love, ali

Valentine's Day

I have not had internet for the past week, traveling and all. I am now at Ft. Benning, GA, and I hope to be on a flight home to Spokane tonight or tomorrow. We have had a very long week. We left our CHU's in Al Asad last Friday afternoon, spent hours and hours trying to get on a flight to Kuwait, but the AirForce kept telling us we had too many of us, and too many duffle bags. Finally got to Kuwait after midnight, and we had to be up at 5am to start customs for our flight back to the USA. Well, after minimal sleep, we got up and hauled our duffles out, only to be told our flight had been pushed back, and we had to report at 2100hrs instead (9pm). So that night, we actually had to start moving bags at 7pm, then stood around in lines, going through customs all night until we finally boarded a plane, which took off at 8am Sunday! Then we flew to various countries, finally arriving in Georgia after 24 hours. We arrived here around 2am, and had to be up at 5am, but also had to rearrange all of our equipment for turn-in before that time. Therefore, we didn't get to sleep at all that night either, so we were all going on several days of minimal sleep. We have spent the past few days getting processed out of here, and we all hope to go home soon. I can't wait. I will let you know when I make it. Thanks for your thoughts and concerns.

Day 90

Well, here we are winding down. The superbowl party was fun for all, and we stayed up all night for the big upset. (lots of Patriots fans here) Been packing up stuff and mailing stuff home. It's amazing how much stuff one can acquire in just a few months. We are all very excited to get out of here, and head to our respective homes. I can't wait to see all the snow! It warmed up here again this week and I was able to sit outside in the sun once more. Our replacements are due in very soon, and we will get to leave shortly thereafter. Funny, how we have had nearly no cases for a while, but since we are trying to leave, we are here in the OR working away. I will report back in when we are on home soil again. Thank you all for your love and support to me and my family during this time. Lots of love, ali

Read this superbowl poster--the game starts at 2:30 AM! That is crazy, especially since we don't even have real beer here. They are serving hamburgers too, but I don't know if I can eat a burger at 4AM. Don't you feel sorry for us, having to stay up and party all night? ha-ha. I will let you know how it goes.
I thought you would all get a chuckle out of this speed bumps sign. And, no, I was not the one who decorated the sign.
Well, keep in touch. Miss you all. sending love.....

Counting down

Here is a picture of the snow on the BBQ that belongs to our neighbors. Our neighbors are 6 Airborne guys who have BBQ's and parties on occasion. Some Rangers live next door to them. Sunday weather was warmer and we played volleyball again. Sunday night was the Patriot's game, and there are a lot of Patriot's fans here in our group. Most of the TV we get here is delayed broadcasting, but occasionally we get things live, like playoff games. Unfortunately, when thePatriots game was live here, it meant it didn't start until 11pm. So we had a football party in the clinic waiting room Sunday night on the big screen TV. The Packers game followed, at 3am--only a few brave souls stayed up all night for both games. I guess the Superbowl will start in the middle of the night sometime.
Here is a picture of the 5 CRNA's here. We sent in this picture to the AANA website for deployed CRNA's. The two women are my CHU'mates, and all 4 of them are terrific to work with. I am glad to have met and worked with them.
I got brave and went swimming in the pool here. It's indoors, but it isn't heated. The water temperature was 68 degrees. It was cold, and without a wetsuit, I didn't last long. It was still enjoyable. It is a very nice pool. It would be nice in the 140 degree summer, but the water temp gets up into the 80's in the summer.
Thanks to everyone for warm wishes. Love you all.

Sunday Volleyball

Hello everyone. Here are some pictures of us playing volleyball. We got a few of us out to play, despite the bitter cold. Everyone who played had fun, and we will try it again next Sunday. It has been cold here, and it actually snowed a skiff last week--see the bottom picture. It turned the fine powdery sand into thick, clay-like mud that sticks to your shoes like cement. Yeesh!
We had a mass casualty drill yesterday at the CSH. They are practicing
their hazmat/decon plan for radiation exposure too. It was your typical army-style Charlie-Foxtrot (C.F.) We had such a fun time, we get to do it again next week!
Well, we are all whining about the cold here. It seems colder here than at home, although the temperature is the same. Might be the dry wind that is always blowing, or perhaps that we have to walk everywhere that makes it seem colder. I thought I would get to miss winter by being here, but apparently not. At least we are not here when it is 140 degrees. The cold is definitely better, plus no camel spiders.
Down to a few more weeks to go, 3+ I think. I hope to be home in about a month. Hard to believe the time has passed so quickly. Thanks again to everyone for checking on my family. Thanks for comments on the blog--I love to read them. Love ya'll

More pictures

Hi there. I thought I would put up some more pictures so you all had something to see. Nothing really new here. I did three OR cases yesterday, and today we had four. We see some trauma, but most is extremity injuries. Had a hot appy the other day, which is always exciting. I miss my boys like crazy, and they have lots of snow. It's cold here, but no snow. I posted the weather for Baghdad, but we are a little colder than them. So, on to pictures. This first one is a picture of me in a Cobra helicopter, the day we went to the flightline. The second picture
was taken New Year's Eve, as we huddled outside and watched the Eagles in concert on a laptop outside. It was cold, so we didn't last too long. The last one is just scenery. I took this at sunrise, as the moon was setting, it looked pretty. Funny how my definition of "pretty scenery" has morphed over time, when all I have to view here is flat, brown, and sandy.


I tried to make the text of this posting cooperate, but it insists on jumping in between these pictures. So I apologize for the choppy presentation. :-)
Please write, love to all
-ali

Monday Blahs

It's Monday, which really doesn't matter here because it's like Groundhog Day everyday--it's all the same. Sundays are the only day we get to sleep in, and they offer a "late riser's breakfast", so we can eat waffles and powdered eggs at noon. I can't wait to get home and have real eggs. There are no real eggs here, no egg salad, no hard boiled eggs, only fake-eggs. They do have Baskin-Robbins ice cream, so it's a good thing we go to the gym a lot. Other than Sunday, every day seems the same. On Sundays at home, Dillon makes me eggs and brings me coffee and the newspaper in bed. I sure miss my boys. I keep asking my CHU-mates to bring me the paper and coffee in bed, but they haven't complied yet.
We rotate call, so every 5th day I am number 1. Today I am 3, tomorrow 2, and so on. We have been doing more cases lately, but nothing very exciting. Iraqi's keep shooting themselves in their legs--I heard a rumor that they get some financial benefit from us. Duh, maybe if we quit paying them, they will quit inflicting GSW's upon themselves. It is cold here now, 20 in the morning and 40's during the day. It actually rained for about an hour the other day. Only the 3rd time we have seen rain since we got here--and this is the "rainy season"!
Well, nothing else is news. We hear our replacements should be here in a month. Keep reading and emailing me. Thanks again for everyone who sends wishes. Love, ali

Happy New Year

Hello, and happy new year. All is well here. Just counting down the days. Not much longer here, and it is really surprising how quickly it has gone. We had four OR cases today, and things have been busier--still extremely slow compared to normal life, but busier than we have been. I have been reading a lot, sitting in the sunshine in the afternoons, although it is a lot colder than it was a month ago. We watch a lot of movies together, and still go to the gym and dance lessons. The pool is not heated, so I haven't dared swim, although they offer water aerobics several times a week. We went to the flight line last week and had a tour of the Cobra and Huey helicopters. We all got to climb into the Cobra and take pictures. We tried our best to party on New Years Eve, with our fake beer and real cuban cigars. Kind of ironic, since if we were home we would have real beer and fake cigars. My family is back from Mexico, which is a relief, as I was worried about them. ( More irony: I am in the war zone feeling perfectly safe, yet I worry about my family traveling to Mexico for Christmas. )
Well, I will keep writing, if you all keep reading. Hope you all had nice holidays. Write to me when you can. love, ali