M&M's Home Blog

I apologize for not giving more details about my recent phase of training sooner, so I'll try to catch everybody up.

I've been at Fort Riley for a little over a week. My crew from Fort Lee arrived via limo (10 person stretch, actually) the evening of February 17th and spent the first 3.5 days at Fort Riley drawing gear and uniforms, and getting paperwork out of the way. Thursday, I officially joined Team 10 of the Multi-National Security Transition Team - Iraq (MNSTC-I, or pronounced "Min sticky"). Since then, I've gotten to know my team and I've done some drivers and convoy training, communications and global positioning training, and wandered around a lot in my body armor with my weapons. I haven't quite figured out how to upload pictures at the right size, so you'll have to harass Mike about doing that for me...

...Which leads me to my next point: my husband. Mike has been my rock through this as I've bounced from post to post and dealt with the uncertainty of tomorrow. We appreciate all your support through this endeavor; we're now 7.5% complete with this separation!

I'm sending Mike some pictures tonight so hopefully he'll upload some relevant ones to my more recent blogs. So, until next time, dear friends and family; I miss you tons!!

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pictures added 2/26/07 2200 hrs.

Marissa in full battle rattle - (click image for full size picture)

This is my actual barracks room here at Ft. Riley

Army Insignia 101: A brief explanation of the insignia and patches found on Marissa's Army uniforms.

Alright, some of you have asked me questions about some of the pins, patches and other insignia you've seen on some of Marissa's Army uniforms in photos, etc. I'll give a little primer here explaining some of these.

Disclaimer: I've always been a big military history buff and my explanations here are those of a layman. I'm sure Marissa will come along and correct me should I misinform you.

US Army Captain's Rank Insignia

This is Marissa's rank. She is a commissioned officer, charged with leading Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) like Corporals & Sergeants and other enlisted solders, such as Privates, PFC's, and Specialists.

=> Read more!

Hello everyone. Mike here. I noticed that Marissa's post are lacking in pictures and I have decided that I need to step up and help her out. Marissa's computer access is somewhat limited right now, but I've been able to talk to her on the phone pretty regularly in the evenings. She's been taking lots of pictures since she arrived at Ft. Riley and she assures me that she'll post them as soon as she can.

So in order to add a little spice to Marissa's side of the blog, I offer these two photos. The first, is just a sign at the entrance to the post at Ft. Riley. The second is an example of the living quarters Marissa has been assigned.

An example of the small room Marissa is currently living out of. The room is private and has a closet, but shares a bathroom with another soldier.

Also, I want to mention a word about registering and "subscribing" to the site here. If you are a regular visitor or just want to keep up-to-date on the latest postings here, I recommend that you click the "Register" link over at the right hand side (toward the bottom) of the page. Fill out a quick form (choosing a login, such as your name, a password and your email address.) The website will send you a verification email to confirm that you are who you say you are and after that is complete, you can 'login' to the site. Logging in will allow you to do two things: First, you will be able to comment on a post without having to always enter your name and email address. Second, it will allow you to "Subscribe" to our blogs and receive automatic emails anytime Marissa or I post new content.

To subscribe, first make sure you have registered and are logged in. Next click on the 'subscribe' link near the bottom of the right sidebar. Check the boxes marked "Mike: Posts" and "Marissa: Posts" and click "update". This will sign you up and ensure that you will receive an email anytime Marissa or I post something new. You will be able to read our posts from your email or it will let you link back to the website if you want to leave a comment. You may always unsubscribe from this feature in the future by logging back in the site, clicking on "subscribe" again and then unchecking the appropriate boxes.

Ok, that's all I have. Marissa will have a laptop in hand (and internet connection) very soon and I hope we'll be hearing from her more regularly. (Well, she's already got a better posting record than me!!!)

-Mike

This will be quick, because I haven't learned much....

I've learned....

• This is much easier than I thought...
• This is much much harder than I thought...
• When in doubt, Marissa is right...
• My things are now her things...and her things are still her things...
• I can either be right, or I can be happy.
• When we move into our house, my boy stuff (posters, wall decorations, etc.) will all be replaced by girl stuff.
• I shouldn't blog anything negative about my wife.

Today is February 23, 2007. Its been two months since my life endedI got married and just over one month that I've been on my own again. Marissa and I tied the knot on December 23, 2006...a full six months to the day before the date we had originally chosen. Of course all of you reading this already know about the wedding and you also know that we moved up our plans because of Marissa's mobilization back into the Active Army. But I guess for the sake of thouroughness if I intend to do better with my side of the blog and keep things up-to-date, I need to start back at the beginning.

=> Read more!

I got into Fort Riley, KS last night and will be here for awhile. You can contact Mike for my mailing address. Sorry I can't give more details yet but I'm only getting about 15 minutes on the computer every four or five days...

Ok everyone, I apologize for not taking the time to update this thing regularly. Everyone I know, my family, my friends, and even people I don't know have been giving me grief for having to look at the same blog entry for almost two months. Unfortunately, I don't have time at this moment to get 100% caught up seeing as how I'm running late to have dinner with the "in-laws", so I thought I'd give you a little primer of things to come.

The last few months have just blow by....everything happening so quickly. But I've experienced alot of things in such a short time and so I think I have enough material to entertain and amuse you for at least two minutes. (Once I am able to update this thing...)

Some topics that I'll be posting about:

- Marriage Update #1: What I've learned.
- "Mini" Honeymoon to Gatlinburg
- DHS Training in Alabama
- Funny calls from work
- My personal psychoanalysis of my wife
- My father

So please stay tuned in.....updates will be coming, starting this week.

Mike sends me flowers without a reason.

Mike and I had a terrific weekend. We spent some time in Richmond, colonial Williamsburg, and watched the Colts win the Super Bowl! It was the best Valentine's Day present ever, and I'm counting on him to write more about it...

Mike has an internal map and compass; he can navigate easily around any city he's been to only once.

I know I haven't written quite as many details about our training as many of you might have liked, so check out my friend Jason's blog:

http://jasonirrdeployment.blogspot.com/

Jason and I were at our officer basic course and Fort Drum together and now are also going through all the phases of this deployment together, to include our final unit and destination. In many cases, he puts more description into his blogs (probably because he has his own computer with wireless internet and I have to rely on the five minute breaks between classes here in Virginia).

So, support my 10th Mountain Divison brother and read a bit!!