Thankful...

Most people have already received my email but for those that haven't here is the story of the accident I was in last week with some pictures to go with. Thanks to everyone who has already emailed and called to show their support!

On 5 Dec I was in a convoy of civilian vehicles heading to the Saudi Arabian border to check out our water well project at the border forts. I was in an armored Suburban with 4 other people. Around noon-thirty we heard a loud pop and the car started to pull. The rear driver-side tire had burst. The driver tried to correct but it's a 5 ton vehicle and we spun around out of control and started tumbling. We think we rolled 5-10 times, not really sure but it was it seemed like a lot.

When the car came to a stop, the other guy in the third row seating with me, Capt Craig Holder, and I were the only ones left in the car. The other three were thrown from the vehicle while it was rolling. They didn't make it. Craig and I got out alright and walked around taking care of the situation while the rest of the vehicles stopped to help. We spent that night in the ICW of the Al Asad hospital where they took very good care of us (other than missing my vein once while taking blood) and even gave us some ABU Christmas hats. Other than some scrapes, bumps and bruises we ended up being just fine.



Craig and I with our ABU Christmas hats at the Al Asad Hospital after our accident.

This is a view from the road above. I was sitting in the very back of the Suburban on this side. This was right after the crash so nothing had been moved. This is actually how the vehicle came to a stop.

Here is a close up of the passenger side with the chassis out in front.

Here you can see the engine is clearly no longer in the vehicle.

Another side view. We think the last time we rolled we went end over end but we're not really sure.

I hope no one was freaked out by these but rather realizes what a precious gift life is. I am thankful to be here to write this to all of you and can't wait to see everyone when I get home! Both Craig and I know that the Lord has something special planned for us and we are truly blessed to be here to accomplish whatever it may be. I am attaching my contact info below in case you would like to email or write or call (if you have DSN).

Please take care and God bless!

~Me

Lt Micki Smeeding

MNSTC-I J-7

Phoenix Base

APO AE 09348

amanda.smeeding@iraq.centcom.mil

asmeeding@gmail.com

DSN: 318-852-1062

Church Solo

As promised here is the video of my solo at church. Quality isn't great but it kind of helps the sound of the singing! I will write more later as there has been a lot going on in my life lately. I really thank God everyday for the opportunity He has given me by sending me here. I truly believe the the Lord puts you exactly where He knows you should be and the friendships I have made here so far are a testament to that! I hope to talk to everyone soon!

Time flies...or something like that.

It sure has been a while since I have updated this! I am about two months into my deployment and it sure has gone by fast. I stay very busy so it works out. Here are a few pics to let you all know what I have been up to.

This is a picture of me on a job site I went out to with the US Army. The building next to it was leveled by an IED a few weeks before to try to scare away our contractors but it didn't work! These guys are awesome! It started raining while I was there, really heavy. Unfortunately they were mixing/pouring concrete at the time and these guys don't use the type of stuff like the picture below! Luckily they tarped it over pretty quickly and the pour was alright.

Here is the Iraqi pizza/coffee place that we do a lot of going away and birthday parties at. This was a going away party for a couple guys last week. The mocha mellow latte is very yummy in case you are ever in the neighborhood!

This was a different going away party with a live Filipino band. They were pretty good. Did mostly American songs and I got to dance all night! I also got to teach a bunch of Iraqi's (our dining hall workers) the moves to Y.M.C.A! They had no idea why they were doing the arm movements but they followed me anyway!

Richard sent me a Lego Concrete Mixer so we decided to put it together today. It looks pretty awesome and we are thinking of getting the whole Lego land so keep that in mind for Christmas!

I guess that wraps up most of the important stuff. Still working long hours and singing in the choir for church. I have a solo this Sunday so I will let you know how that goes. I am nervous!

Keep sending me emails! I love hearing from you all! I need to stay current with all the juicy gossip so I am not lost when I get back!

Hope everyone is doing well! God bless!

Love, Me

Happy New Fiscal Year

One month down! We got through end of year without a hitch, awarding about 25 projects worth $150M in 2 weeks. I am throwing a "New Year's" party this Friday at the pool with traditional Iraqi food, PA system for music and water polo or volleyball since I am the morale officer. It should be fun!

So far I am getting use to living here and the pace of everything- but slowly. Work is busy but it makes the day go by quickly, which is nice. I go on site visits at least once a week so that helps too. I don't get as much free time as I would like to work out or anything else, but I guess that just makes me appreciate my half days even more.

I have about 20 projects or so, most of them being police stations. Some are Forensics labs though. Some of them are pretty nice looking, but some are just piles of bricks and form work right now. It is nice to see the construction start from scratch and have a project in each phase to see how it goes up.

I just updated my photobucket site so check that out. I am not putting any pictures on here since I just put them all there. I will be sure to have more after this weekend though! If anyone didn't get my email I sent this week with pictures please let me know because some got sent back to me.

I hope all is well with everyone and I miss you all! 1 month down, 5 to go!

Take care and God Bless!

Another week down...

Hey all! I have been here for another week so I thought I would post a few more pictures.

Here is a picture of our cats that live outside our work building. I guess they were just born when I got here. There are 4 total but I took this because I thought they were cute. Our maintenance guys feed them so they stick around

This picture is of one of our Ugandan gate gurads, John. His real name is Sekanjako, but I am grateful he lets me call him John. This was his last day at our base, and he has left us since then. He is still in the IZ for a couple months. He writes me emails in broken english so I can keep track of him when he heads home.

This was a birthday party/dinner. Our office went to an Iraqi pizza place to eat one night. It was really good. We played cards while we ate and after we ate and I won at hearts. It was a pretty fun night. We are on their patio in this picture because after we were done eating the power went out for about 30 minutes (we have a lot of power bumps here) so we went down there to use the emergency lighting to keep playing cards

Here is a picture of the beginning of a 4 day sandstorm at 3 in the afternoon. It looked like we were on Mars. The people in the picture are people I work with. We were coming out of a meeting and it was just insane outside. The sand just kind of lingered in the air for a while and now it's gone. Now everyone is sick though. Not sure what was in the sand...

Below is a picture of me at my first site visit. It's a (blue) Police Station in the IZ. Not what I expected, but it sure is pretty. I stop and see this one every Monday. It should be done within a few weeks though.

Ok that is all for now. I think the pictures have said just about everything that I have been doing here lately. I will talk to you all soon. Don't forget to comment or write me at asmeeding@gmail.com or amanda.smeeding@iraq.centcom.mil and I will talk to you then too.

Take care and God Bless!

Love, Me

This is a test

I can't get the big blog from today to show up when I pull up the site without clicking on September on the Archive list at the right. Thought I would see if this shows up.

Update

It's official! I have been here for over a week now. All I have really done is work since I got here so I don't have any cool stoires yet. Our hours are from 0830-2030 but Ihave been leaving the office closer to 2300. I guess it is just taking me longer to accomplish tasks since I am learning. I have gone on one site visit so far and three more to come in the next few weeks. Attached are some pictures from around Baghdad.

The US Emabassy/Palace about a 10 minute walk from my trailer

Monument to the Unknown Soldier- inspired by the glorification of a martyr from the Iran-Iraq War. The flying sacuer looking structure represents a shield dropping from dying grasp of an Iraqi warrior.

"Hands of Victory Arches" also known as Crossed Swords- As the entrance to the parade grounds you have probably seen these on tv when Saddam Hussein would hold rallies there. He built it to celebrate his "victory" over Iran. They were made from the guns of dead Iraqi soldiers that were melted and recast as the 24-ton blades. The hands holding the swords are replicas of Saddam's own hands. Additionally, an impression of one of Saddam's thumbprints was taken and added to the mold for one of the arch's thumbs

Al Quds Gate- modeled after the Dome of the Rock of Jerusalem. Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, which is where the Dome of the Rock is Located.

My first sand storm. Not too bad just annoying enough to keep people from going outside unless necessary.

Well that is all for now. I will update again when I get some awesome info. Feel free to email me at amanda.smeeding@iraq.centcom.mil if you get bored.

Later!

~Micki

Pictures

This one is from the plane leaving Norfolk, VA.
This one is from the plane when we were landing in Ireland at 7am their time.











































This one is at the airport in Ireland. Since we were only supposed to be there an hour, we were allowed one drink. I choose Smithwick's. Not too light, not too dark. I am not really a Guiness girl, so I decided to pass on the country's most famous product (other than potatoes :). Hopefully my husband still loves me...


TSgtNguyen and I were pretty excited to be there.




Here is a picture of a castle-like tower from the courtyard of our hotel.











Unfortunately, it takes a very long time to downlaod pictures here so that is all you get for now. I will have more pictures on my facebook account, if you want to see them there when I cna since it take less time to download. The website to start your own account (if you don't already have one) is http://www.facebook.com/ and you can just search for me and should be able to see my pictures. Let me (or Richard) know if you have questions. I will try to download pics to a more common forum (like Snapfish or Photbucket) when I have time.

Talk to you soon!

Love, Micki

Made it!

Well, after 6 full days of traveling, I finally made it to Baghdad and my home for the next 6 months. We took a C-130 out of Al Udeid just as 3 USAF member were being deported from the country (long story-not their fault) so we had to wait to unload the pallet and load their luggage. It went alright and we made it our only about 30 minutes behind schedule, but by then, schedules don't really matter anyway.

Once we got to BIAP I was truly lost. I ended up catching an Army helicopter (which was awesome) over to the IZ and convicning a Lt Col to tote me around until I found my home. He got in touch with my co-workers and they took care of me from there. It took three people to help carry luggage. You can bet I am sending most of the crap through the mail when I go home! Anywho, I got my permanent room, and it is going to take some getting use to. I have a shower and toilet in my room so that rocks. No internet though so most email will probably go through my work email once that is up and running. My roomate is an Army Capt and seems pretty nice. I only met her for a little while as she scooted out the door to get to a function.

All in all I think I will get use to this after a little while. I do need lots of sleep and lots of water to keep me going.

I think that is about enough for now. I hope all is well. Happy Birthday, dad!

Love you guys!

~Me

Sandbox Arrival

I made it successfully to Qatar. I leave here tomorrow (supposedly) to head to Iraq but not sure on any times. Wish I could stay here though. They have a pool, Dairy Queen, coffee shop and more! Oh well, on to Baghdad it is.

Also, if any of you get Skype accounts, please let me know your log in names. I have had a lot of time to talk but can't call on the phone and only have internet access and could call that way. Mine is amanda.smeeding.

Talk to you soon I hope!

~Me

Layover in Ireland tonight!

Well today didn't end up like I planned. I started out in Norfolk and left late from there. When we finally got to Ireland (after skipping Bangor where we were supposed to stop-we thought this was awesome cause that meant we would shave 2 hours off our trip) we had to get off the plane for an hour to refuel. 2 hours later we noticed that they had the to engine pulled apart becuase they were having thrust problems. They told us another hour and it would be fine.

8 hours later they told us that they needed a part and that it was in another country and would take 12 hours to fix when it got here. Hence my blog. I am now in a hotel in Ireland with everyone (300+) , the Charter company is about to feed us dinner and we get to sleep here and hang out until the plane is fixed. The only bad part is that we are not in the city (we landed in Shannon) so we can't go visit any castles, pubs, or shops because we don't know when we need to be checked out and back to the terminal.

It is amazing here though and I am enjoying every second I can before I end up in Iraq. It is so green here! Hopefully I will get to the IZ Tuesday night/Wednesday morning since I was supposed to be there Tuesday. I will write when I get there.

Take care and God bless!
~Micki

On my way

Well I am now at Norfolk Naval Station waiting for my flight later today. We (me and 3 other people from my base) flew in last night and checked our baggage into the terminal then went to our billeting rooms. I fly out of Norfolk at 5:30pm and from there go to Bangor, ME, and then Ireland before landing at Al Udeid, Qatar. We take a chartered plane to Al Udeid and have to stay on it for quite a while. I hear it kind of sucks.

Anyway, from Al Udeid I will fly over to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) and then take a Rhino (up-armored bus-like vehicle) or something similar to my base in the International Zone (IZ). I will email or update this again when I get there on the 2nd if I can. Hopefully everyone is figuring out Skype so we can talk over the internet. If you have questions, just call Richard.

Take care while I am gone and God bless!

Love, Micki

Webcams

Well we finally got our webcams up and running. We are using Skype to communicate for now. May switch to Yahoo Messenger or others at some point. My user name is amanda.smeeding (clever huh?) and his is Nukeproof2k. Try giving us a call some time! You don't need a webcam to call, but it is more fun that way! Later...

Preparations

So this is the first post and you may need to bare with me. Richard is off in Colorado being a guy- camping, hiking, 4-wheeling, going to a wedding.. Ok maybe not that last one (even though he is going to one today). I am at home trying to help get stuff ready for my deployment. This is as far as I got besides napping today. I love Sundays! Probably won't write again till I get there but now you know this exists.

~Micki