so happy to be over halfway there!!!

posted by: emilie

hello from rainy, dreary, and cold afghanistan! not too much going on in these parts (no complaining here!). i am glad cris has been keeping track of our countdown, because i usually find it too depressing to see how many days i have left here....but i was VERY happy when we reached the halfway point!

i guess the big recent event was the previously mentioned 1/2 marathon. most people who know me in real life know i really, really don't enjoy running. those distance runner types (yes i am talking about you, matus gang!) seem a bit on the crazy side! however, the monotony of life here definately starts to set in, and i have actually been....get ready for it....enjoying running. so, when we found out the Miami Marathon and 1/2 marathon was coming our way, i put my name on the list, and kicked up my weekly mileage to start training. thankfully, my training partners are two grandma's (who work with me in the clinic...one is a nurse, and one is an occupational therapist), so our training schedule wasn't too terribly rigorous! But by the time the 1/2 marathon rolled around, we were ready to go, and we actually had a really good time!

oh yes, in case you were wondering where one might find 13 miles of road to run a 1/2 marathon on in afghanistan without getting shot or blown up by an IED......this is it....

the wall is what separates "us from them". it goes pretty much all the way around the flight line, except in some areas where is it just a barbed wire fence....but for the most part it is a pretty decent barrier from the bad guys.

There is a 3 mile road that circles around the landing strip, and so we ran the loop 4 times.

I have been lucky enough to have a couple of good skype connections that let me talk and play with the girls a bit. The other night cris took the computer down to bed so i could help tuck the girls in via skype. After we said goodnight, and the girls were tucked in, and cris was about to turn the lights off a tiny little nova voice said "excuse me daddy, i need to tell mommy something real quick. i love you mommy!" ummmm.......ADORABLE!!! recently i figured out a way to turn my skype picture into a fish that looks just like nemo, but it has my face (yes, i know that sounds absolutely ridiculous), i can also become a basketball player, superman, and a wolf. the girls thought that was pretty much the coolest thing on the planet, and kept begging me to "do another one! do another one!". cris, however, does not find it quite as entertaining when i insist on having our skype conversation in my nemo persona.

on a closing note, is it not amazing that this husband of mine has done 101 consecutive blog posts?! not sure how he finds time to take care of 2 (recently potty trained) toddlers, work full time, build a giant fence, and keep the house and cars in operating order? yes, it is indeed amazing. getting to see the girls' daily adventures on the blog is certainly the highlight of this deployed mama's day.