Good news - Mike

Yes, my turn. I don't know how much Brooke has shared with you. Breaking news is that we are going to Italy next September for a 3-year tour. My assignment officer is cutting the RFO (Request for Orders) next week. The one obligation I have is to serve as a battalion or brigade personnel officer (S-1) for one year before I would be eligible to take command of a company. Of course, when I get there the boss (read: BDE or BN Commander) could say no to the S-1 and stick me straight into command. We will see. But, as far as going to Italy, that is as locked into stone as you can get in the Army (Which means 93.33333 percent chance by the way). Vicenza, Italy is between Venice and Milan and is the home of the Army's 173d Airborne Brigade. So I will get to be a paratrooper company commander. They do jumps in Tunisia, Morocco, Czech and many other places in the region, not to mention the annual Normandy jumps. So we are pretty dang excited.

It is funny that the day I heard that I was locked in to Italia, 8th US Army e-mailed me to tell me I had been nominated to compete for the UN Honor Guard Company Command slot in Seoul based on my record. So... that was also good news and I felt honored to be considered but Brooke and I are much too excited about the Italy thing. The one nice thing about the Honor Guard Command is that it is a Command Sponsored assignment, so the family would have been able to come over in December to live in Seoul. That is, if I were to beat out the other 4-5 guys competing from the region for the job. So... not a lock, and Italy pretty much is...Winner=Italy. I am telling the 8th Army guy Wednesday to take me out of consideration.(93.33333 percent chance)

Life is getting better on the job here. It is a true desk job, I ain't gonna lie to you all. And, I really am not fond of it. Shootin' guuunnns is way more fun;) But, after having received no initial counseling as to what I was supposed to do (crappy leadership behavior, that), I am finally figuring it out on my own. And I have started to assert myself a lot this week (Not easy for a Captain in a division headquarters because Captain is pretty low on the totem pole at this level, just a bunch of Majors and LT Colonels that think they are geniuses)...BTW, for the less military literate, Divisions are very big, tens of thousands of soldiers...Anyway, it is going better.

More good news is that after 30 days of committing myself to 2-a-days and a moderate diet, I am finally losing some significant weight. I read an article in Runner's World on the plane over here on how to lose weight and keep it off and I just said "Dangn't, it is time to do it right!" so I am doing it and I feel great. My goal is 210 by the end of October and 190 by the end of the year. I will be happy to stay at 190. I am 218 right now, and left SEATAC around 235 so yes, it is working.

It is a simple diet for those that care: Cardio MTWF with an emphasis on sprints/ intervals/ fast runs....Heavy weight, low reps, alternating push and pull muscles every other night M-Sat...and eat three scheduled, moderate meals a day with no meal after 7:00PM and I have added in a bike ride on Saturday now. I also do some Cardio every night on the elliptical or stationary bike, just to get my heart rate up before lifting.

Did my first bike ride today. Rode to Seoul along the river. They have a really nice path built all the way from Uejongbu, where I live, to Seoul. It was 20 miles to the gate of Yongsan. I was pretty proud of myself, because using Google Earth as planning, I was able to navigate to Yongsan garrison in the middle of Seoul without a wrong turn. Patting myself on the back right now:) Korean bikers are hilarious. They must spend hundreds of dollars on looking like Lance Armstrong and then they bike about 5 miles per hour. So many people everywhere, so it was an interesting ride. Only ran into one guy. I took the bus back to here. I wasn't up to the whole 40 mile trip yet. Maybe next week. It isn't the physical strain as much as the mental stress of dodging everyone on the path, not to mention the part where I have to cut through downtown Seoul and dodge everything moving. To give you an idea of traffic here, I rode my bike to Yongsan 30 minutes faster than the bus made the same trip back.

I am very excited for Brooke to visit in 26 days (not counting:-) ) I picked up a webcam while I was in Seoul, so I was going to try to get that working with the girls tomorrow.

It is tough being away, that doesn't need to be said. We were actually seriously debating getting out of the Army, as some of you know. But we prayed about it, and received an answer which I will share sometime, or Brooke can. So we will drive on in the Army. The Lord will bless us.

By the way, they have a Korean ward in this city with a nice bulding, so although the English branch is small, we get to meet in nice circumstances.

One more story on that topic...the Military District rep (same as High Council I think) the first Sunday I attended looked very familiar. Long story short: He is an MD in the Air Force at Osan Airbase, he served in the Nagoya Mission and I was his Zone Leader when he was just getting to Japan as a "greeny", and he grew up with Brooke's friend Lisa from Fort Benning in Maryland and went to Medical School with her husband, as did another guy in the branch attending the same Sunday. I guess when you are military and LDS, the world gets very small.

Yes, for those that read the Sundry Seven, this is a copy of my post there. Too lazy to write basically the same thing twice. But, I wanted to feel included with my wacked half of the family too:) Love you guys, have fun.

Mike