Hyrum in Poland

Hyrum has been in Poland for a little over 3 weeks, so I thought I'd post an update of what they're doing.

Back in the fall, most of the division's equipment was loaded on trains to eventually make its way to Poland.  The first group of soldiers that left for this deployment went to Bremerhaven port in Germany to unload the nearly 3000 pieces of equipment (vehicles and containers) and get them to various parts of Poland by rail.

Most of these pictures are from the 4-10 Cav facebook page, where they post periodic updates.  One update explained the goal of their mission:  to enhance deterrence capabilities in the region, improve the U.S. ability to respond to potential crises and defend allies and partners in the European community.

Here is the equipment arriving in Poland.

Looks cold, huh?  Hyrum said they freeze every time they exercise outside.  But I think because they're in real buildings there's less suffering from the elements than existed in his Afghanistan deployment.  (They were in tent structures, with less reliable heating.)

While it might be warmer inside, the quarters are more cramped.  Hyrum is sharing a pretty small room with one other guy, and there's enough floor space to get from the door to their beds.  The rest is covered in Army gear.

This is where they're staying... it's the headquarters for the Polish 10th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Swietoszow, Poland.  Still not sure how to pronounce the town's name, and Hyrum isn't much help in that department.

On the weekends they do get some down time, although they're also working.  They're allowed to leave the base with permission, and often go to the nearest 'big city', Boleslewiec.  That's the place we went Polish pottery shopping back in 2014.  It's less than 30 minutes from their current base.  There are a few advantages to being stationed in Poland.  First, the cost of living is really low, so they're able to get a nice restaurant meal for about $5.  (And $4 haircuts!  Important for soldiers that cut their hair every 2-3 weeks.)  And second, the food is really good.  Every time Hyrum talks about buying pirogis my mouth waters.

On Sundays they have an LDS group that meets together.  Within a 30 mile radius there are a couple of other bases with US Soldiers, which translates to a handful of people meeting together for church.  Hyrum helps coordinate the meetings, and they've usually had 4-5 in attendance.  He said they'll be a ward soon. ha   [The closest LDS branch is in Wroclaw, which is 1.5 hrs away.... too far for them to attend.]

The soldiers have been busy getting equipment ready, working with the Polish Army, doing gunnery trainings, and getting all their systems in place.  I'm sure there's more to it, but that's the extent of what I understand.

They eat in a cafeteria with the Polish soldiers, so it's all very Polish food.  Hyrum said there's actually not much variety, but it's good food.  A lot of rice, potatoes, meat, etc.  And not much fruit.  I think Hyrum would really love a huge American breakfast occasionally, but he'll survive without.  They have internet that works moderately well, and he's still able to text with his phone.  So all in all, communication has been great and it's just the 8-hour time difference that requires some planning.

One of these days I'll have to get Hyrum on here to give his own update.  I'm sure it would be 1000 times more informative.

Life Lately - the good and the bad

Hyrum has been gone 2.5 weeks.  And I'm doing fine.

Hands down, the hardest part is church.  (My body had a physical reaction just typing that!).  Yesterday was particularly bad.  The 4 of us got squeezed onto 3 chairs and I was feeling claustrophobic the whole time, and on top of that I was in and out with the kids 3 times.  It should have been four, but when Siena started throwing a fit during the last talk that was already going over time, I figured it might send a signal to the speaker.  Then, Tiago refused to go to primary, but then wouldn't sit still in Sunday School with me, so we were back and forth between the two and I almost lost my mind.  Multiple people in the hallway asked if they could help me with something.  I probably had my eyes bulging out of my head or something.  Finally I had an hour of quiet time in Relief Society before the circus continued.

I feel really fortunate that one of the senior missionaries sits with us during Sacrament meeting.  Honestly, it's the biggest help.  She tries to entertain at least one of them for most of the meeting.

Another really huge blessing happened this past week.  I saw a random line in our neighborhood newsletter about a snow removal program for people with deployed spouses.  This was before the hurricane-wind-destruction, so the housing office was slammed for a few weeks, but I finally inquired about it on Friday and was signed up by the end of the day.  Basically, for on-post housing, they'll come shovel any snow that exceeds 1.5".  Me and my lower back pain are so so so so happy.  All of a sudden any tinge of regret about living on-post disappeared.

I also did my taxes, and am dreaming of the vacations I can take with our return.  Most of last year we were paying high taxes because Hyrum had only claimed 1 credit with payroll, and it hadn't been updated in years.  Towards the end of the year I discovered how to change it on my own, so hopefully this year we don't lend Uncle Sam quite so much money.  And as an added bonus, I hopefully won't feel so tight on money month-to-month, only to get an entire month's paycheck back as a tax return.

Dry Colorado Hurricane

Early (really early) Monday morning (practically still night) I woke up to super loud wind outside.  It wasn't a complete surprise, because we had wind back in December that blew our trampoline over the fence and 2 houses away.  But this was turned up a notch.  I got up in the dark to peek into the back yard and make sure the trampoline was still there.  (We got smart and tied it to the fence after the last storm.)  I watched in awe as the wind kept picking it up in the air, then it dropped back down to the ground.  I got back up 3 times to check the weather, because I was just sure everything would be blown away.  The trampoline stayed put, but I watched trashcans and garbage blowing away, as well as both neighbors' grills tip right over.

That was all before 5 am.

You know that feeling when you can't sleep, but you're still not coherent enough to understand what's going on?  I knew it was windy, but it wasn't until 7 am that I looked at my phone and saw Facebook comments from everyone at Fort Carson saying they'd been up for hours and everything was getting blown away--including their fences, windows breaking, etc.  I could visibly see shingles flying down the street.  The power even flashed on and off a few times.

Then it got worse.  The power went out... and stayed out...  I won't win a parenting award for saying this, but I was filled with terror at the prospect of entertaining my kids all day, inside the house, without electronics.

Unfortunately, my phone battery dies quickly, so I couldn't spend all day following along with what was happening.  But a few things I did catch:

• Cheyenne Mountain AFB (basically across the street from Fort Carson) recorded wind speeds of 101 mph.  That's the equivalent of a level 2 hurricane.  
• 21 semi trucks had tipped over around Colorado Springs.  By afternoon, the department of transportation had banned all high profile vehicles from driving.  Which meant no school buses to bring kids home from school (those few that actually made it there in the first place.)

Oddly, I don't think people knew how to respond to such weather.  They initially tried to go on with business as usual.  People reported for work, many went to school.  (Although after several students already arrived, they announced school wasn't mandatory that day.)  At noon, soldiers were put on lock down in their buildings because it wasn't safe to leave.  Eventually, it got a little better and everyone was sent home.  

Our power came back on for a few hours in the evening before staying off again for another 12 hours.  It makes you start thinking about heat sources and emergency plans.  (Most schools and all of Fort Carson was shut down Tuesday, primarily I think because many in the city were without power.  But also because they did such a poor job of shutting down the day before.)

Tuesday morning I had such bad cabin fever that we braved the minor wind to go to the gym.  Just outside the post, I saw half a dozen wooden power line poles broken in half like toothpicks.  Crazy.  Crews had to wait for the wind to die down before they could safely start repairing that kind of thing. 

Unfortunately, the wind got pretty bad the rest of Tuesday, so we stayed inside.  And continued on Wednesday.  Our house is well positioned for the direction the wind was blowing, but it's crazy to see the damage around town.  Every where I go there are huge sections of fencing missing, roof tiles missing (heck, whole roofs missing in some areas, although I haven't seen it specifically), our neighbors' car windows broke, another neighbor had their back door glass shatter, the park is filled with trash cans, and trees are down.  (The picture at the top is my bedroom view--a bit pine tree fell down across the street.)  We went to the park on Thursday and saw tons of branches down, along with other debris.  It will take a while for the city to clean up.

Our little trampoline stayed put, albeit bent.  And I was thankful that the kiddie pool blew right underneath it so I didn't have to go chasing it down the street again.

Hyrum's 2nd Deployment to Poland

Deployment #2 is one week underway.  So far, so good.

But to back up a bit.... the weeks leading up to Hyrum leaving were filled with a lot of family time.  During the holidays Hyrum had two 4-day weekends in a row, and on regular work days, they weren't required to go early for PT (exercise).  That meant he was around when the kids woke up, which is always a nice treat.  Mixed in with all the family time was all the packing!  Our guest room was taken over by camouflage, and it took Hyrum a few weeks to get everything in the right bags.  Not to mention the night before he left staying up till 3 am.  Some things don't change.  I need to learn to embrace it.  (But it's so hard!  So many people are self-proclaimed procrastinators; I am just not one of them.)

On Friday morning we took a quick family picture.  Then we dropped Hyrum off at work on our way to the gym, and said our 9- (10?) month goodbyes.  They were flying out to Poland later in the afternoon.  [Except of course he forgot something at home, so we actually swung by the office again later in the day.... and said goodbye again.]  Unlike last deployment, where I cried all the way home at 4 in the morning, this was way less emotional.  Maybe because I was less tired.  But I also have a clearer picture of how things will all work out, and I know we'll be fine.

But these kids are sure going to miss having the 'fun parent' around.

 We were excited to find great cell service in Poland!  Hyrum can send/receive text messages and connect easily to Skype, so despite the 8 hour time difference, communication will be a piece of cake.  What a blessing!

Hyrum said that when they flew into the airport in Wroclaw, there was a ton of press there to greet them.  Because he was traveling in his Stetson hat, a lot of parents wanted to take pictures of their kids with his hat on.  Imagine the difference between flying into Poland with such a warm reception and flying into Baghdad or Kandahar wondering who might be shooting at you.

So more information about his deployment, part of Atlantic Resolve, from ArmyTimes:  The Army has increased its presence in Europe – sending soldiers and equipment – in an effort to reassure its allies in the region and deter against an aggressive Russia. This is the first time, however, that it is dedicating an entire armored BCT to the region for nine months at a time.

They'll be moving around a bit in Eastern Europe, but the first third of the deployment will be spent in Poland.

We visited Poland in 2014 with Tiago in tow.  We stopped in Boleslawiec, where they sell Polish pottery.  Then we visited Krakow and saw Auschwitz before driving back home.  Coincidentally, Hyrum won't be far from Boleslawiec, but I'm sure his experiences there this time around will be very different.



I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of Poland, and just envisions a big country in Eastern Europe.... nothing else.  So I did a little research to find out more about Poland.

Famous Poles:
Marie Curie
Nicolas Capernicus
Pope John Paul II
Fryderyk Chopin

History
Poland has been around forever (it was an independent country over a milenia ago!) but in modern history has lacked independence.  In the 1700's it was taken over by Slovakia, Russia and Prussia and did not become an independent state again until after WWI.  That was short-lived; after WWII the Soviet Union instituted a communist government.  Poland finally re-gained it's Independence in 1990.

Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 is what started WWII.  During the war, 90% of the Jewish population was killed (almost 3 million) and nearly 3 million ethnic Poles were killed.  Between the extermination of the Jews and the re-aligned boundaries, Poland went from being a diverse country to one of the most ethnically homogeneous in the world-- 96% consider themselves Poles.

Popular food includes pierogis, sausage, cabbage.  (The few meals we had there in 2014 were delicious!  Hyrum will be eating meals in the same military cafeteria as the locals, so maybe he'll have sauerkraut for breakfast... ha)

Poland is a very flat country, geographically.

There aren't many young people, and birth rates are crazy low.

Polish is a slavik language.

It's one of the most religious countries in Europe.  85% of population is Roman Catholic. Pope John Paul II (Polish) was the first non-Italian Pope in 450 years.

Making the mission even more important, Poland actually shares a northern border with Russia, through their geographically independent province Kaliningrad.  (A month ago I would have been clueless that there was a piece of Russia floating by itself over there on the Baltic sea.)  It will be an interesting mission, since they're they're training with allies.  There's way less concern this time around on my end about his safety, although stuff happens everywhere.  I'm hoping it will be less stressful for Hyrum as well.

Good luck, 3rd brigade!

December recap

December was full of Christmas-y things, but not too full. We did a lot of relaxing.

A few months ago we found a girl in our ward who babysits, and have had her come several times.  We're so sad we didn't have a reliable babysitter sooner, because now that Hyrum's leaving it doesn't do us much good.  To take advantage of it, we went out to eat twice this month--once to a delicious German restaurant that brought back good memories, and once to Noodles & Co.  Both fun.

The first weekend in December we pulled out our decorations and bought a tree.  We weren't smart enough to buy a saw and cut off the bottom, so it started to dry out pretty quick.  It barely made it till Christmas, when we promptly took it down.  

I also showed Tiago this little smoker we got in Germany.  They're almost as common as Nutcrackers.  The person's body pulls in half, and you put a piece of burning incense inside; then smoke comes out the mouth.  Tiago loved it.  

Hyrum invited a coworker over for dinner, so I made the Pioneer Woman's rosemary pot roast.  It looked and smelled delicious all day. And then... they were required to work late due to some Army emergency.  Eventually, one (but not both) could leave, so Hyrum came home and enjoyed it.  But it was kind of a dinner-invite fail.  (And a LOT of food...)

Hyrum took Tiago a few different times this month to go play soccer.  It always involves them dressing in matching soccer clothes, and putting on their cleats ("guayos"), and running around.

One morning Hyrum wasn't able to come home for breakfast (he went to work quite early) so I sent him pictures of how cute the kids looked waking up in their Christmas pajamas.

Hyrum went to Japan for 8 days to watch a soccer team play.  More on that here.

This is how we felt about it:  (this is Mila, leaving the YMCA).  Their hair is getting so long!

While Hyrum was gone, Tiago got in the habit of sleeping in my bed.  It didn't always start out that way, but at some point in the middle of the night he would sneak in.  He is a DEEP sleeper.  

Just a bunch of random pictures of the girls, because I think their hair is so wild sometimes.

Mila

Siena

Mila, doing a "Siena" face

Mila and Siena were so miserable after their nap on Sunday.  I kept taking pictures because their faces were just so sad.  (Siena is in the plaid dress).  

We had a few warm-ish days, so we ventured to the park.  I forgot how much we'd missed it!  In the summer we spent most afternoons there, but now whenever we go, it's completely empty.

After the warm weather, things took a turn for the worst.  We had a day of insane wind.  I got up like normal in the morning and went to the wind.  While I was there, I got an email from our housing complex about securing loose items from the wind.  I just knew I was in for trouble when I got home.  Sure enough, our kid swimming pool and trampoline flew over the fence in our backyard and had to be dragged home.  (The trampoline was all in pieces, and about 3 yards away.  I'm sure I looked awkward dragging it across rocks and bushes.  It ended up in the garage until Hyrum got home.)

But that wasn't the worst of the weather.  The next day, there was a huge snow storm.  I went out to shovel during the girls' nap and it took almost an hour.  The whole time, I was thinking how much I'd rather be at the gym.  For all the work of shoveling, it didn't feel like a great work out.  Just rough on the body.  Our driveway doesn't get any sun, so if it's not shoveled off, it will turn to ice.  Even though I invited Tiago to come outside with me, he told me he wanted to stay inside.  As soon as I came in after shoveling, and took all my winter gear off, Tiago came running to the door carrying his snow boots.  "I want to shovel!!"  Perfect timing.  I put his stuff on and watched him from inside.

Hyrum got home on a Monday night, just before the kids went to bed.  He brought them fun toys that they enjoyed, like a squeaky samurai sword.

At the YMCA, the little kids put on a holiday concert.  It was adorable, although most of the kids didn't sing.  They had bells to shake.  Tiago is definitely not a performer and didn't crack a smile the whole time.  Siena did slightly better, and Mila, probably worse. 

My family came for Christmas.  More about all of that in this post.  

New Years Eve was a big food fail.  At least in the kids' opinion.  I made crepes with strawberries and nutella for breakfast.  They wouldn't even try it.  And for dinner we tried doing fondue (what's not to like about bread and sausage dipped in cheese?!)  The kids didn't touch that either.  They're crazy.  The rest of the night Hyrum and I enjoyed a TV marathon.

I'll end with a food success from New Years day.. so technically not December.  I found a sushi-like recipe online and had to try it.  It required several random ingredients I'd never bought before (nori seaweed sheets, crab, sticky rice, and sweet chili sauce, to name a few) but they were all relatively cheap.  It ended up delicious!  This could fill my future desire for sushi when I can't go buy some.

A few other random things I want to remember about December.

• I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls again this year.  The beauty of it, is the recipe makes about 9 pans.  So I buy a bunch of tin foil containers and it's super easy to give away to people.  Plus, it's hard to mess up too bad.  
• For some reason, I ended up with SO much laundry to do one week.  Maybe I put it off for too long?  It was load after load after load.  I'm always glad for that feeling of satisfaction after everything is finally folded and put away. 
• We bought new shelves for our pantry.  The pantry is actually the space under the stairs, and had two flimsy (random) shelving units in it previously.  Amazon had great ones, for a great price, so I bit the bullet.  And I'm so glad I did!  Sturdy, organized shelves make me even more happy than put-away laundry.  To make things better, I decided to fill the shelves with a bunch of stuff to cut down on the shopping I'd need to do while Hyrum was gone.  I spent a small fortune and Costco and my regular grocery store, but hope I have enough sugar and toilet paper to last the year.  
• Our branch Christmas party got passed off to the Relief Society, and a lot of the delegation assignments we thought would happen fell through.  So the whole week leading up to it there was a big question mark about how everything would turn out.  (We were doing a pancake breakfast with Santa.)  For example, we didn't have a Santa, and had no idea how much food we'd need or how many would attend.  By a stroke of luck, it all worked out.  Not perfectly (egg casseroles and bacon showed up 45 min late, the room we were in was over-crowded, and there were no decorations) but we found a Santa suit and a willing person to go in it, and people got fed.  I'm a little embarrassed when I look at pictures from other ward parties and they're beautiful and elaborate.  But that's just not the stage our branch is in... 
• Lastly, December was a month filled with amazon and target boxes showing up on the doorstep.  Most were last minute stocking stuffers, and just random great deals I couldn't pass up.  (I probably ought to stay off the internet in the month of December.)  But really Target... free shipping on any amount!  I truly enjoyed that offer and wish it lasted year round.