Happy New Year

Arrival at FOB Connolly

I finally made it to FOB Conolly. Our last flight took us to JAF, where it just so happened 1PLT was conducting a resupply convoy. We hitched a ride back and got settled in. I will be working the night shift in the TOC for the duration of the deployment. I have posted my address on the blog again for anyone that would like to write a letter or send a package.

Christmas in Bagram

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family. This card is coming to you from Afghanistan where I woke up Christmas morning and thought of all of you while I made it sitting on my bunk in a tent at Bagram Air Base. I had a good Christmas breakfast with SSG P, and then we took the bus to the main section of the base where we watched a movie for the afternoon, and used the internet.

Thank you to everyone who has shared a kind word, time, or your home with Tricia and Jeffrey during this holiday season. I appreciate the love shown to us, and the compassionate service given. Merry Christmas to all of you.

Living Out of a Bag

Living out of a bag is OK when you are camping at Yellow Stone, or on a trip to Rothenburg, GE, but traveling across the world and staying in tents not so much. Fortunatly I have SSG Pennington to travel with. He was on Rear Detachment with me working as the platoon sergeant. He was hurt during his last deployment to Iraq and had to wait to be cleared by the doctors to make this trip.

Jet lag has been getting the better of me during this trip, but we have traveled a very long way in a very short time. To boot, staying in a tent all day makes it hard to get a sense of the time of day and its progression.

I have been watching the Romeo + Juliet movie that I purchased for my iPod shortly before leaving. I have also occupied my time with scriptures and The Lord of the Rings, both in Spanish.

Christmas Video

This is a preview of the pictures we took this year. We had a great Christmas!!

Christmas Sing-a-long

Jeffrey and I got into town just in time for the Christmas Sing-a-long at the former Delta Center...I don't care what it's called, in my mind it will always been the Delta Center. The trax ride downtown was kind of a joke, lots of inconsiderate people and their kids who took up too much space on the bench. But oh well. Some people right?
We were in the upper seats, and we didn't actually know all the words to the songs, so we just made them up or sang the same ones over. Jeffrey wasn't crazy about the whole thing (he's had his moments since we've been back here of not knowing what to do) but he enjoyed sitting on Aunt Paige's lap.

The twins loved it. (Lizzy loved the hot dogs too.)

Santa even stopped in for a visit. (I love my camera, this was zoom, zoom, zoomed, but still looks ok)

I had a good time, in spite of everything. I just love spending time with family during the holidays.

Home in Utah

So once a month Grandma Milich has dinner at her house and she plays bingo and gives out prizes. I won the blackout prize my first time. There was Caramels and pepperment bark inside. I'll send the caramel to Cory and share the other treats.
It was also the girls' birthday party with all the cousins. They were so excited all of Sunday and had a lot of fun.

This is one of my favorite new pictures. We in the MacNeil family enjoy naps. We do. Jeffrey and Cory took a nap together on one of their last days together. It was cute so I had to grab the camera for a picture.

Déjà Vu

I have been here before. I am sure of it. Was it a dream I had? Did I see a photo of the place in a magazine or on the news? Of course, I remember now. I came through here the last time I was on my way to Afghanistan. Our accommodations are rustic, but quite improved since the last time I came through here just six months ago.

Back at the airport in Maine, over a hundred veterans braved the snow and wind to come see us off at the airport. It is something that they do every time they hear of a military flight coming through their airport. I shook hands and had conversations with many, enjoyed a free doughnut and received some good Swiss chocolate before boarding the plane.

During the entire flight over here if I was not sleeping, I was reading the Spanish scriptures that Tricia gave me for our early family Christmas. I have had a good time highlighting, cross-referencing and reading the Spanish aloud.

I still have no idea what job I will be assigned when I make it back to FOB Connolly, but I feel confident that I can do anything given to me, and I do not feel any trepidation about making the journey. I was able to use a free phone card and call Tricia early in her morning back in UT. We talked for fifteen minutes and she told me about Jeffrey playing with the twins, and calling for me around the house. It may take a few days before he realizes I will be gone for a long time again. It is nice that he has the twins and other family gathering at Christmas time to occupy his day.

My Last Day in Colorado

ricia and I both woke up at about 0420 to get our day started. While she was dressing a half awake Jeffrey, I went down to the kitchen to make a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and biscuits. A few nights ago a group of youth from the church came by caroling and left us with a basket of goodies to make breakfast along with an assortment of Jams and syrup. We agreed to save it for today so that our last breakfast together could be more than a bowl of cereal. Jeffrey poked at his pancake, but perked up when we offered a biscuit.



Just before Christmas we took Jeffrey to the Build a Bear in the mall where he picked out a bear and had it stuffed. In the arm of the bear we had a recorded message placed of my voice telling Jeffrey that I love him and will be home soon. Soon after we left the mall he forgot about the bear and we put it up in the closet until last night when we pulled it out to give it to him. We explained several times throughout the night that he would be going to visit Sugar-Po (Grandma and Grandpa Brown), but Daddy would not be coming since he had to go to work far, far away. He hugged his bear all night, squeezing its arm occasionally to listen to the recording.




After a family prayer on the stairs, we put Jeffrey in his car seat with his Daddy bear, a blanket, a and a bag of toys that he would not let out of his hands. Tricia and I said our goodbye's and I watched her drive off toward South Jordan where she will be spending the holiday with our families.





Tricia has named this rock formation, "Foam Finger," as in the foam fingers waved by sports fans in stadiums cheering on their team as number one.

With my bags already packed, I took part of the morning to clean the house room by room. I do not want Tricia to have to worry about a messy house when she comes back, and it was a prime opportunity to clean thoroughly without Jeffrey. Tricia has observed that cleaning the house with a toddler present is like shoveling the side walk while it is still snowing.

I did not want to sit in the house and just wait for the time to expire. I grabbed my camera, jumped in the neon, and headed for the Garden of the Gods. It is a wonderful place to shoot, and is just a short drive away. I had my entire day planned out down to the half hour, so I knew just how much time I had to spend on each thing I did this morning.
Several years ago as the 91st Engineer Battalion was preparing to deploy our battalion commander took every opportunity to talk about lasts, and not taking them too far. He was referring specifically to things such as a last beer, a last night at the club, or the last drive in your fast car. His point was to not get wrapped around the theme of last and go overboard on activities, trying to live a year of fun and adventure in one weekend.

I thought about that a lot during these last two weeks. I was certainly going to enjoy all of the moments I had with family, the simple things around the house, some photography and reading, but I did not feel that I needed to live a year in two weeks. If you neglect brushing your teeth for a year and try and make it up in one morning before your schedule checkup, no matter how much you brush, floss, swish and gargle, you cannot fool the dentist. On the other hand, if you faithfully care for your teeth each day, and happen to forget to brush in the morning before you meet the dentist, you may have some bad over night breath, but under the lights he is going to see that you have done your work.

Doing the important things daily is what puts life in the right direction and puts you on the correct azimuth in the big picture. Here are a few things I find important.

Bath time with Jeffrey
Making dinner with Tricia
Watching Ghost Adventures with Tricia
Driving Tricia to dance
Reading the scriptures after breakfast
Family prayer before I go to work and just before we all go to bed
Taking Jeffrey for a walk
Reading a good book
Admiring Tricia's handy work with paper and material
Chest bump with Jeffrey ten times in a row

A Selection of Tricia's Favorites

Now Cory posted some of the cute pictures that the primary kids made for him. This is the Director's Cut of pictures (aka Tricia posting the true gems of the bunch!).

Exhibit A. This little gem came out of nowhere and when we first looked at it we all about wet ourselves, but it was just so priceless.

I mean awesomeness right? Brother MacNeil gets wounded, finds a "juish" guy and baptizes him. Nice.

This one you need sound effects for...peeps in the Brown family will get it more.

Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, OW! Darn that circle shaped tank!

This one, I don't even have words for...but I think it's supposed to say "Your Fortune". And applies to someone who's had their pupils dilated after seeing the eye doctor.

Friends, Nothing warms my heart more than seeing my husband with blue hair next to a bow-legged cowboy with pink hair helping him to the "texses" hospital.

A whole series of them called him Captain Moroni. Cory says that he's really only SGT Moroni...I told him to take the promotion, it pays better!

From the mouths of babes right? "Get well soon your tuff" Reminds me of the office quote "It is your birthday."

And I don't know what a deranged looking Spongebob has to do with Cory's recovery. Maybe they knew that laughter was the best medicine.

It was so sweet of the primary kids to do this, especially since most of them hadn't met Cory or "Bother Makneil" as he was referred to but it was so cute and we enjoyed them so much!

An Ordinary Day

Get Well Cards from Primary Children

Soon after I had been injured in Afghanistan back in September, the primary children of our ward wrote get well cards to me. Each of the classes must have contributed because I have a very thick stack of them to hold onto. These are a few examples of what I received.

While I have been at home preparing to go back to Afghanistan it has been wonderful to be with Tricia and Jeffrey. We have had a few adventures together, such as our trip to Mesa Verde, but over all it has been a pleasure to do the ordinary things, like making dinner or going to church together that has been the best.

Our ward friends have been wonderful to us. Many people have made sincere offers to help Tricia while I am away.

When I worked at the NCO Academy in Germany I was exhausted after a thirty day cycle of working 14 hours a day. During the three months that I have been away from Afghanistan those that I left behind have been working 18 hour days with no weekends or any real break to speak about. My time since I left the surgery table has been a vacation. It is time to get back now.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So this is our digital christmas card for anyone who didn't get one, or if you got one of the handmade kind that we worked on last week. We're thinking of all our friends and family during this time of year and missing you all! We wish you all the best for a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Now for the shameless plug time...this was made using Stampin' Up!'s digital scrapbooking software My Digital Studio. If you haven't gotten into Digital Scrapbooking, trust me I was a skeptic too...how fun can that be right? But it's great and I've used it for TONS of projects already! It has lots of the great Stampin' Up! images and papers and embellishments that you can use to coordinate with your existing products (it's called Hybrid Scrapbooking!) If you're interested in seeing a demonstration or ordering it, let me know, you will not regret it!

Our Early Christmas

Christmas came early for us this year. We celebrated on Saturday, December 12. Jeffrey woke up at his usual time and had me come down stairs to get him a bowl of cereal. Once Tricia came down stairs we began to open presents.

At the last General Conference the new Spanish Bible was announced. Tricia got me a new pair of Spanish scriptures as my gift.

Of course we started the opening with out stockings. Santa brought us some candy, funny glasses, puzzles and coloring books. We all put on our traditional new set of pajamas the night before.

While my parents were in town a few weeks ago we all went to see the double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Jeffrey enjoyed the movies so well that we bought him a Buzz Lightyear figure as his gift this year.

This is the first year that Jeffrey seems to fully understand the idea of opening presents.

Tricia had asked for two games for the Nintendo Wii, which we ended up playing for part of the morning.

Jeffrey was a little disturbed at Mom's nose job and took immediate action to correct it.

Jeffrey offered me a slice of his mandarin that was at the toe of his stocking.

After the gifts were all opened we had a full Christmas breakfast with eggs, bacon and muffins.

I had heard about a German Christmas market taking place in down town Denver. When we arrived we were a little disappointed. After attending the Nuremberg Christmas market, the largest in the world, it is not easy for Denver, CO to keep up. We did have a good time and realized just how much we enjoyed out Christmas times in Germany.

Getting Ready for an Early Christmas

We have planned on celebrating Christmas early in our family this year so that I have a chance to be here while we celebrate. All week long we have been watching our favorite Christmas movies such as Elf, A Muppet Christmas, A White Christmas and Harry Potter. Harry Potter? Yeah, it's a family time thing. Last Monday our family home evening lesson was about the birth of the Savior.



Tricia convinced me that we need some lighting on the house. We have just a touch accent for our front porch, but it is fun to turn on at night. Since the lights are LED they are tough in the weather and draw very little electricity.

Thanksgiving and Getting Ready for Christmas

When we first arrived in Colorado Springs several months ago we met the Tuft family invited us over for Easter dinner at their home. Once again we were invited to their warm home where we had an excellent Thanksgiving dinner with several others of their family that had come into town. It is wonderful to be surrounded by friends during holidays. During desert we played two rounds of charades, which is a Tuft family tradition. Tricia did not know how to act out, "keep the lighting consistent," but neither did anyone else.

I took Jeffrey to Manitou Springs Indian Cave Dwellings for the morning to give Tricia a much deserved break. The best part about the Manitou Cave Dwellings is being able to go inside of them. I had a delightful time following Jeffrey around as he explored the rooms. I let him lead the way most of the time and hung back to let him play, but stayed close enough to keep him out of mischief.

Since I may not be here to celebrate Christmas on the 25th we got a jump on the holiday season and put up the tree. I had to get the tree and decorations out of the crawls space and return the Thanksgiving ones in their place. Tricia put on Christmas music while I helped Jeffrey hand some ornaments. I do not think he ever quite figured out that we were using wires to hold the ornaments in place. He kept setting ornaments on branches and seemed confused when they did not stick like Velcro, but he never gave up and stayed with us while Tricia and I decorated the tree.

Now that the Christmas tree is up in the corner of the living room and dressed in its array of ornaments collected over the years, most being from Germany, Jeffrey has appointed himself as the light man. He does and army style low crawl under the branches to reach the dangling light cord and plug it into the wall.

I have noticed that lately Jeffrey has begun to eat with greater dexterity when using a spoon or fork. Not long ago he would hold the utensil at its and loose more food on his lap than he put in his mouth. Just a few mornings ago he ate two bowls of cereal without dropping a single corn puff on the floor.

Tricia purchased a gingerbread train for us to put together for family night. Jeffrey was pretty excited to help us and kept making choo choo sounds all night. He even jumped out of bed and ran down stairs to get one last look at the train before going to sleep.

I have started to read the scriptures in a new way that I am finding is making my daily study very interesting. I have gone back to reading in Spanish and start each chapter I read by highlighting in the heading the events from the chapter that are most outstanding, or the types of things that I would likely return to later to look for. Next I read the chapter in its entirety and then go back and read each reference given in the footnotes. This sends me to all places in the standard works from any single chapter in any book. I am finding the references I look up in the Guide to the Scriptures or Bible Dictionary very helpful in explaining unfamiliar terms, clarifying doctrine, or better defining a term that I thought I already knew. I use the church website to look up talks and articles about the main themes that I am finding in each chapter. I conclude the study of the chapter by reading it in its entirety once again. This is of course a slow method, but it takes me deep into the meaning and significance of each chapter.

Tricia and I took some time this evening to talk about our future goals as a family. Our conversation covered our monthly finances, what we want to save for in the future, reenlistment, officer candidate school, my bachelors degree, Irish dance and the pursuit of a photography business. By the end of the discussion we each had a cemented idea about our goals that we all want to work toward together.