sooooooooooo. im trying to do a better job of keeping up with this thing for a bit. we finished our mission segment, we started our 2 weeks of camp Fiji today. a good thing, no combat missions for the next 2 weeks wooh wooh. My back has been bothering me for the last week so I finally went to see a dr. today. My squad leader did not want me to have to work for other squads while we are doing camp fiji. i got a 2 week profile that says i cant run any combat missions (basically no wearing my gear), no pt for my back, and any other pt is at my own discretion. he gave me some heat pads and some naprocen for 2 weeks. im hoping it just got kinda irritated the other day when i did squats and that the rest will take it back to its normal annoyingness (im making up words now).
with everything that is going on with my back i am glad i didnt get moved to brigade. it stinks to say because at the time i really wanted to go but i know things would have been worse if i had. i miss lee a lot but its probably better for her to be there than for me. it stinks realizing every once in a while, what i want may not be the best thing for me. im trying to remember that and hold on to it through everything here.
were coming up on 2 months since weve been in country. seems like weve been here forever though. glad to say we still havent had any kind of incident in the company. i found out i will get my 2 weeks leave in september which im excited about. i wont know when in september until the middle of august but atleast its close to carrie and moms birthdays. and its my favorite time of the year at home... and of course... auburn has a home game every weekend in september ( not that this had anything to do with my decision but i was very excited when i saw that yesterday!!).
my classes are keeping me pretty busy, next week is the halfway point so i have midterm papers due in both classes. ill be glad to get these out of the way, its a lot of work but so far it has been manageable. i will have to decide afterwards if i can take more or not, depending on the classes and how much our schedule changes here soon.
im gonna lay down, i love you all!

soo carrie got mad at me for not posting anything recently... try and sum up a couple of weeks worth here. ummm been pretty busy the last week, lots of work time. the other day we were out for 15 hours because we had to escort a couple of guys from battalion to another camp and then do our mission and then go back pick them up and bring them back home. yesterday they had a company wide fun day where we all went over to the gym and they had a bunch of games goin on, basketball, softball, football, soccer, just different things to have some fun. i didnt feel good so i didnt play anything but most people had a good time.
Were finally settling into a set schedule, we will be going out about 3 times a week with 1 or 2 off days a week. other days will be filled with stupid, i mean.. important.. training. wasting our times teaching us stuff we already know just so if something goes wrong they can cover their own butts and blame it on us. never will we be out in sector and have something happen and be like "oh yeah, i remember this from that class, i will def. respond in this way." its just dumb, but whatever!
the shooting last week was weird. on our way to the gym for the games yesterday we walked over by combat stress, where the shootings occurred. everything is all roped off like a normal crime scene. just hit home a bit because it is really not fair for anyone to be told thats how their soldier got killed. especially the dr.s who worked there, how many psychiatrists do you see volunteering to come over to iraq to help soldiers in their transition? then the ones who do get shot and killed. crazy stuff
things in my squad havent been too bad recently. my team leader was on the list of approved promotions today so he will soon be pinned with his sergeant wooh wooh! very proud of him, he deserves it. he is also going up for the NCO of the quarter for battalion later this month. hes a very good guy and def. deserves it. im going to to try and prepare to put my packet in in july to try and get my sergeant. i have to take a pt test and knock out a bunch more correspondence courses before that though.
Ive been spending a lot of my downtime working on my classwork. weird to say that. so far i think im doing fairly well in my classes though. 2 weeks down, 6 more to go and ill be that much closer to finally being a sophomore haha.
so my best friend got moved to work for brigade. she doesnt live here anymore and she thought it was only going to be for a month but theyve changed it now. shell be there until brigade leaves in october and then she will be back with us until we leave in january. kinda depressing, shes one of the few people i talk to but now shes another person i have to talk to on skype just like everyone else. people are starting to go on leave, also kinda weird. weve been here for 6 weeks now. it all is so routine i seriously catch myself realizing this is iraq. sometimes you kinda forget, i mean there are so many worries and thoughts about coming over here during training. now that im here though like all of that is gone. yeah there is still a fear when we roll out on missions but it is so different now. looking forward to being home sometime soon though.
today is the last day in the 90s for atleast 10 more days. so were starting to get into the heat. obviously in july and august and those months we will be talking about 120 and 130 but its already pretty dang hot. i think i will stop eating meals during those months just so i dont have to go to the chow hall!
umm thats my short summary of life in iraq, thanks for reading. love yall!