Friday, September 12, 2008

Out to sea...

I'm hopping on a plane today to fly south to Panama, jump aboard a beautiful sail boat, and sail the open seas for the next 16 days. Woohoo!! So, if you need me, I'm out to sea, underway, and having the time of my life. Smile... Pretty exciting!!
So, this last week has been interesting. Tuesady morning I was headed to the medical clinic at 6:30 with 7 others for a flight physical. That process continued until after noon. The medical personnel here are fun overall, so I enjoyed myself. I was treated to a large cup of coffee since I had to wait and be the last to see the doctor for the final portion of my physical exam. Yummy!! You can imagine I was pretty satisfied since coffee isn't on our "privileges" list at the moment. Anyway, I passed every area of the physical and am just waiting on blood tests and such to return healthy and normal. PTL!!! I had been a bit concerned about my eyes not being good enough or them finding something wrong with my teeth, but continued to trust the Lord through that and He opened the door once again. Pretty excited about that to be honest! I just love to see the Lord at work. Continuing to pray for complete healing of my eyes though, as they are still 20/50 which is cutting it close tot he cut-off line...besides, I'd love to quite wearing contacts or glasses... Anyway...to continue on.

Wednesday was career day. They referred to it as STRAND day, but whatever that means. Smile... On this day, we spent ALL day (other than lunch breaks) sitting in a classroom listening to various coasties from different career paths tell us a bit about the different areas of service we can pursue and allowing us to ask lots of questions. Some were very interesting, others were okay, and still others where fairly boring (I think I wrote letters during some of them...grin). Learned a lot though and especially loved hearing from the HH-60 helo pilot since that is my dream or career goal in the CG. Good times.. Well, because we had so many guest speakers and then a dinner social in the evening with all the officers and guest speakers so we could ask more questions, we were required to dress up a bit. Fun times. I enjoyed wearing the little moehawk-like blue hat and dress pants (for a while at least)... Smile.. I did take pics, but because this is a military computer, I am unable to hook up my camera to the computer and therefore cannot get pictures off of it yet to send or post here.. Oh well. Someday before graduation maybe they'll be some way. Wednesday evening ended with the dinner social, which was more like a cocktail party with tastey little food samples (grin). Had a good time visiting with the officers though, learning lots, asking lots of questions, and being able to talk to them on a normal human level.

Thursday was eventful as well as I had to make 3 trips to the clinic. One was to get fitted for glasses, so I have a back up when I don't want to wear contacts, or whatever other reason I need them. Then, back for a visit with the doc on blood results from my check-in physical, and finally back to the doc (along with about 37 others) to pick up some dramamine for the trip incase of sea sickness. Hoping and praying that won't be a problem for me, but want to be prepared and not stupid. Smile..




So, today, Friday...we are up at 4:30am and off in shifts to Panama. My flight isn't until 10am, so I have all morning to sit around, get ready, write this, etc... Looking forward to this trip. I've been assigned a small leadership position with 7 others under me or working on my team. Should be exciting. Looking forward to learning a lot about sailing, as this is a large 295ft sail boat. Woohoo.. I'll post a pic.

I'd love to hear from you all.. You can post notes to this or email me.. I'd better not post my email addy here though.. So, just shoot me a note and I'll email you back if able.. God bless you all.. Really appreciate all the prayers.. THANKS

Saturday, September 6, 2008

hello from Jonna...

Surprise surprise.... I have finally been given the privilege of using the internet. Woohoo... Things are going well here. Learning lots, regularly challenged (to the point of frustration at times), feeling overwhelmed on many occasions, and more... It's good and fits who the Lord has made me. I'm enjoying survival a sea swim classes, diving into water blind folded from a 8ft (approx.) diving board (the high dive). At one point I was being shoved underwater by others wh were in the same boat. Smile, but it was interesting. Enjoyed diving for 10lb bricks in 12.5 ft water. That was something I was concerned about. But I overcame it!! Woohoo...

So, I know that Mom has been updating this a bit for me. Bless her heart. I really appreciate my family. They are a HUGE blessing, even when they mail me like a dozen homemade cookies that I'm not allowed to eat. Grin...

So, I'm off to Panama in about 5 days and really excited about it. This is hurricane season and we will be sailing a ship back from there over a 15 day period. So, saying that, please keep us in your prayers. I'm so excited about it and hoping that it will be a lovely trip with many nice sunsets and sunrises and starry nights. Smile...

There are a lot of things that I'm learning here, but it's also a challenge. Please continue to keep me in your prayers. There are a few believers here and we do have a church to attend on base, which isn't like home, but is a blessing none the less....

Well, this will have to be all for now, because I'm suposed to be in my bed.. Love to all.