Saturday, July 14, 2012

Day of departure :(


So, I depart today for the U.S. and then Kabul, Afghanistan. Part of me is extremely excited for the adventure to begin and another part is extremely sad to be leaving my family behind once again. Not my favorite thing to do and one I hope I can limit as much as possible in the future.
So anyway, I downloaded a new program called "Day One" that reminds me to write daily. I figured I would give it a try and see how it works. When I am ready to post, I will just try copying and pasting into the blog so the whole world can see my day to day activities and thoughts..... or something like that :)

6:28 PM
So, today has been pretty tough. I went to the office for a little bit, finished up some last minute errands and for the most part, spent most of the day either packing or hanging out with the kids. I am heading out in about 2 hours or less and still have a lot to do. I am torn because I am excited to head out on a new adventure but sad and bummed out that I am once again leaving my family behind. This is seriously getting old.

7:44 PM
So, packing is done. Thanks to my amazing wife for helping me sort through the 20 pounds I was overweight in ONE suitcase. I think I definitely see the issue with super huge suitcases. If I was not leaving in 20 minutes, I would repack into a much smaller one.

9:55 PM
So, again, my amazing wife jumped to the rescue and repacked my super huge suitcase into a much smaller, reasonable one, which should keep me from overpacking on the remainder of my travels. No sooner was she done then the expediters arrived and I had a tearful farewell with Melissa and the kids.
The ride to the airport was fairly uneventful minus the tunnels out of Jerusalem being closed for an unknown reason so after a short detour, we made decent time to the airport, which is usually a good thing but again, dealing with the whole reverse abandonment issues at the moment so it has been tough.
I had a good conversation with another passenger who is flying to D.C. for training. He is a local that works for the Consulate. We arrived at the airport together and had the same expeditor but you would have thought he had two heads and a sign around his chest that said terrorist by how the Israelis treated him. See, Issa, (the gentleman that is traveling to the states) is Arab Israeli (and an American Citizen). His bags were completely searched, he was given a hard time through the entire process. Hard to believe and I think it is one of the many reasons I am looking forward to departing here. Just wish it was with the whole family.
Anyway, I made it through security with no issues. One of the nice things about having an expeditor for official travel is not having to wait in line but of course, I absolutely hate cutting hundreds of people like I am special….well, I guess I am :)
Looks like I have a wireless connection so i am going to send and email off to Melissa and get ready to board the airplane.

Prior to boarding, I would like to comment on Israeli Customer Service, or, the complete lack of said customer service. I had to get a receipt from the counter in order to eventually get reimbursed for baggage fees (Stupid United). Anyway, following the instructions I was given earlier when I paid the stupid baggage fees, I went to the counter at the gate to get a receipt and stood in line behind a couple of other people. It was 10:15 pm. There were three employee's behind the counter doing what appeared to be nothing who stated, "We will not be taking any seat change requests until 10:30 pm" so all of the people in front of me left. I walked up to the counter. I was promptly told, "Sir, we will not to any seat changes until 10:30 pm, like I just told everyone". I smiled and replied, "Thats good, I do not need a seat change (I liked the seat I had, I paid extra for it). I just need a receipt". The reply, "I told you, you can not get a seat until 10:30". "I am sorry, you misunderstood me. I do not want a seat. I would like a RECEIPT for baggage fees".  The reply, "We wont do anything until 10:30". I said, "Okay, I will wait here". The reply, "No you wont. Other people may have questions....Like you are going to answer them.

So, I stepped back away from the counter and waited until 10:30. A line formed again and now, they had 5 to 6 people behind the counter, talking about the weekend and what they were going to do and how we were all idiots standing their watching them (Okay, they were speaking in Hebrew and I do not speak Hebrew but now that it is well past 10:30, this is what I am imagining they are saying. 10:45 rolls around and we are all still standing in line when they start boarding the plane, completely ignoring the line of many people. Needless to say, I was not getting out of line until I got my receipt, which I eventually did  but it really was not like I needed another reminder to why I was so very excited to leave this place and why I wish my family was leaving with me.....

Anyway, I will try to start up fresh when I land.

Until next time.....

Monday, July 9, 2012

My First (6th or 7th) post in my own blog

Welcome to Dad of 5. This is my first blog and I figured I needed to at least start it off in style. Of course, while I type this, I am on hold with Apple trying to figure out if my kids' Christmas present is going to get here on time but that is an issue for another post.

So why a Blog? To be honest, I have no idea but my wife has done an amazing job with her blog and I am envious so I figured I would conquer my sins and have what she has....oh wait, thats not how that works.....

Anyway, I wrote the above two paragraphs back in December when I first started this blog and never actually got around to finishing it. Since then, I have had a couple of original posts and reposted some stuff I did on Melissa's Blog (Just US).

Since I just departed Jerusalem in preparation for my next assignment, I figured it would make sense to keep everyone up to date on what is going on in my life, because, well, I know everyone is dying to know my day to day activities and such. (So egotistical, I know).

Melissa and the kids have stayed in Jerusalem for the next year while I explore the world, or at least the part of the world containing Kabul, Afghanistan, which, by the way, you are all invited to come visit :)

I plan on doing two types of posts with this. I have started a new work out plan (About 6 months ago) and will probably keep a sort of "Work out Log" here. If you are not interested in that part, please feel free to not read it. It will basically be a list of my workouts for the week and is more for me to keep track in case I lose my written logbook.

I also want to do a regular update of events as well, which I have not done well at in the past but who knows, maybe I can change my nature, which is actually a pretty big challenge but to quote the infamous train, Charlie..... "I think I can, I think I can".

Until next time....



Operation Baghdad re-post #2

And continuing my theme of recycling old stuff (Been watching a lot of Hollywood remakes), here is my second (and only other) blog attempt documenting my time in Baghdad.



Well, I have not added as much to the blog as I had originally hoped to do but I wanted more pictures to add before I posted. Unfortunately, I need a permission slip to take pictures around the palace and the Embassy compound, which I am sure I will get eventually.

Starting from where I left off last time, the rest of my belongings arrived the day I did. Unfortunately for some in my group, there was a little mix up and one individual thought she had her stuff but it was mine. The belongings that were labeled mine belonged to a third individual and the stuff that was his actually was labled with the first person's info. I guess it ended up great for me cause I got my stuff quick. Everyone else got it straightened out pretty quickly and they got their stuff a few days later. My work gear arrived in two shipments, once I received a day or two after arrival and a second I received two weeks later.

I have quickly become accustomed to my surroundings and my work. Each day is usually an exact repeat of the day before. Maybe a better title for this post should have been "Groundhog Day". For those who have seen Bill Murray's rather humorous movie of the same title, you will understand the reference. In someways, this works out well because I have a fairly set routine that I just repeat on an hourly basis. One of the several downsides of this is that I have absolutely no idea what day it is...ever. On top of that, our "weekend" is Friday and Saturday. Of course, when working 7 days a week, there is not much of a weekend for us but hey, its only one year, which I have just completed one month of.


Overall, we are doing our best to stay safe and keep those that are detailed to us safe. Most people I work with do an outstanding job and for the most part, I am enjoying the experience although I would much rather be home with my family, whom I miss very much.

Until next time, have fun, enjoy life and be safe.

Chris


Operation Baghdad (Repost from Melissa's blog)

This is another repost. I figured since I am heading to Kabul and hope to document the experience better than I did the Baghdad nightmare experience, I would start off with my first and second writings in regards to the travel and first couple of weeks or so....




Well, This is my very first post on this blog but I figured it would be a good way to keep in touch with everyone and give Melissa a break from doing all of my updates for me. As most of you know, I was assigned to a one year tour of Baghdad with the state department. I will try to keep everyone updated on this blog as best as I can with the occasional photo (or 2)

To start, I should have labeled this post as "waiting" as I have done more waiting the past two days than I have done in a very long time. Until now, I never thought the Marine Corps "hurry up and wait" training would provide me with useful skills down the road. What little we know when we are young...

Melissa, Chrissy, and the kids drove me to the Boston Airport. I will never get used to departures like this and honestly, I hope I never do. Once I got to the terminal, I sat and waited for 1 1/2 hours, boarded the flight and flew for just over an hour to Dulles International. I then met up with three other colleagues who would be traveling with me. Two of them had been at the airport for 6 hours already and decided to have a few drinks to kill the time. That is another story for an entirely different time. We waited another hour and then hopped/staggered onto our flight to England. I remember, as a young college student, I loved flying. I am not sure why. The lady in front of me thought it was a great idea to put her seat back as far as it would go the second she was able and did not bring it back up until made to do so by a flight attendant.

We arrived in England slightly cramped but alive at 10 am. We then waited for for about 3 1/2 hours, having a wonderful little breakfast, and then boarded the next flight for Amman, Jordan. This was by far, one of the best flights I have had in a very long time. Although crammed in coach, we had leg room, really good food, and very helpful flight attendants who went out of their way to get people what they needed. We arrived in Amman and were expedited much faster than I thought possible through customs. In fact, I walked into the terminal and there were multiple people holding up signs with our names on them. They walked us through customs which took all of 30 seconds per person. They walked us out of the main airport area where we were met by multiple people with signs that had our names on them. My group of four were then driven to our hotel for the night. The city of Amman is kind of neat to see, even at night. It appears to be a fairly modern area, smack dab in the middle of an ancient city. From Pizza Hut to McDonald's, there are no lack of modern conveniences but around all of it, are really old homes and Mosques. I think Amman would be a great place to spend some time.

We arrived at the hotel and I was greeted by a very good friend of my, Daniel Erz, who had been my roommate in Kosovo. He is currently assigned to the German Embassy in Amman. It was awesome to run into him and have an opportunity to sit and talk for about an hour. I would have loved to spend more time talking but it had been a very long day and I was fast asleep by midnight. I woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and met up with my three travel companions, checked out and were driven back to the airport. Driving through Amman during the day time was much more cooler than at night. It was just an awesome city to see. To top it off, we were pulled over for speeding about 5 minutes from the airport. The driver took care of whatever he needed to and dropped us off at the airport without further incident. We were ushered into the main seating area of the airport where we say for about an hour. We then got in line and went throught the first security checkpoint inside the airport, dropped off our bags, got our ticket and then moved to the outer terminal area where we sat. After about an 1 1/2 hours, we went got in line again, went through our second checkpoint and yup, you guessed it, sat and waited for another hour or so. We boarded a bus and drove out onto the tarmac to the Air Force C-17 where our bags had already been placed on a pallet and was sitting on the plane. We boarded the plane and sat on the incredibly comfortable (read thick sarcasm) seats and were told the flight would take one hour. An hour and a half later, we took off. At about 3 pm, we landed at the Baghdad International Airport. We walked off the plane and a group of us were escorted into a small room where role call was taken and then we waited a bit. We then walked to were our bags were being delivered, waited for them to show up, got protective gear for the flight to the Embassy and then went and waited on the flight line. I guess there was a little scheduling screw up because there were no helicopters for us....yet. At about 7 pm, the Helicopters arrived and we took a short ride to the Embassy compound, where a few of our friends were waiting for us to take us to get room keys and to EAT.... After eating, I walked my gear to my new apartment. I was able to meet my roommate, call home, and unpack the little bit of stuff I have. It is now midnight and I have to get up in 6 hours but I wanted to post this, say hi to everyone and tell Melissa and the kids that I love them and miss them very much.









Until next time, be safe, have fun, and I will talk with you all later

Chris


My first Diving experience (Re-post from Melissa's blog)

Since I have started my own blog, I figured I would repost some previous posts I posted in Melissa's blog (Ok, a little over the top with the word "post") Sorry bout that....






Normally, I let my wonderful wife do all of the posting on our blog. She does an amazing job, has an incredible way with words and 99 % of the time, the stories or postings that she writes are very enjoyable to read. Why mess with a good thing? Well, since she was more than awesome once again by hanging out with the 5 children for 5 days in Eilat, Israel while I took a Scuba course, I figured the least I could do was to document the experience.
Before I begin, I would like to thank Melissa for giving me the opportunity to have this amazing experience. Without her support and willingness to be ditched a large portion of each day, I could not have done this. Also, I would like to thank a good friend of mine, Sam Murr, for giving me the diving bug over 4 ½ years ago in a pool during training. While we were living in Brunswick, Georgia for 12 weeks, I walked to the pool to find Sam reading a book. Not really all that remarkable if you stop to think about it. What got me was the fact Sam was reading the book at the bottom of the pool. He had a Scuba tank and all of the equipment and was lying on the bottom, enjoying his book. Sam took a break from reading to give me a quick lesson on the use of the regulator and mask and let me have a go at it. Fast forward to present time and Melissa, the kids, and I are living in Israel, just a few hours drive from some great diving. I figured if I could not get motivated to dive here, it probably wasn’t meant to be. I had a ton of questions and once again, Sam stepped up and gave me enough info to put Wikipedia to shame. He explained the different organizations that provided certification, courses that I needed to take, should take, and courses that are a waste of money or can be done with other certifications. He explained gear and what I needed at a minimum and what I should buy if I was single with no kids. (more than$1000 for a fancy watch? Really?) He also told me what courses I needed to take so that he could fly out to Israel and go diving with me. So, thank you Melissa and thank you Sam.
On to what I came here to write about

Scuba Diving…
I know Melissa is currently writing a post about our trip to Eilat so I will not cover the drive down (which was awesome), the hotel (which was expensive and not awesome) or the dinner we ate our last night in Eilat (which was expensive but so very worth it.). I will cover the 5 days of diving, which by itself, was way cool. :)

Picking a dive school…
I will be the first to admit, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to picking a dive school. I typed into Google “Dive schools Eilat” and came up with a ton of choices. I started checking each one and really had no idea what I was looking at. The website I liked best was very simple and professional looking and basically described the courses I would be taking or could be taking. I sent an email to the company (U-Dive) and received a very informative reply from the office manager. She patiently answered all of my questions and was incredibly helpful so, without calling or emailing any other company, I scheduled a class with U-Dive. When Melissa, the kids, and I drove by the school our second day in Eilat, I wondered if I made the right choice. Of course, as I saw all of the other schools, I realized that I could not base my decision off of the looks of the school. (One school looked like it was in a tin hut with most of the tin falling off). I figured I would have to wait and see.

Day 1….
I was supposed to arrive by 9 am to start my first day but being the overachiever that I am, I was up by 6:30 am and Melissa, the kids, and I walked out the door of our ridiculously overpriced hotel room at 8 am. After the 8-minute drive to the school, I realized we (I) might have been a little over anxious. We sat in the van for a little while talking and laughing as we watched the employees arrive and set up the school. Melissa left with the kids and I went and met the office manager, Claire, who was very friendly. She took me into the classroom and had me watch a video about diving. I covered three chapters and then met my instructor, Tamar. At this point, I also found out I would be the only student for the open water class. I was excited I would get one on one instruction and figured I would have an even better experience because of it (and I was not disappointed). I was issued my gear, which included fins, mask, and snorkel, a wet suit, weights, tank, regulator, and BCD (Buoyancy Control Device). At this point, I had no idea if I was being issued good gear or not but I was impressed with the quality of everything and I found out later that the gear was fairly top of the line and the school let me try out different types of gear as the course progressed so I could decide what I liked better. Tamar showed me how to set the gear up and then she had me do it. She then had me take it all apart and then set it up again. She then told me to go get the wet suit on.
I do not know how many of you have had the experience of putting on a wet suit but for me, this was the very first time and if I could have been a fly on the wall watching myself, I would have fallen off the wall from laughing so hard. They make it look so easy in the movies. I managed to get both legs in (in the right leg holes even) without falling over and was working on getting my arms in at what seemed like a snail’s pace when Tamar came in and said, “good, your almost dressed”. She told me she has had many students take an hour to get the wetsuit on the first time. She gave me some pointers, which mostly involved taking a shower while getting the wet suit on (It really works). After I managed to squirm into the wetsuit and get it zipped up, we had a pre-dive brief where we talked about what we were going to do. Because I had paid attention to the video I watched earlier, I was able to answer all of her questions correctly. We got our gear on and headed down to the beach. I failed to mention previously that it was a very windy day and as we walked into the water, I was immediately knocked down by the waves. Then, I tried to put my fins on. I ended up drinking a lot of salt water and that was before we even started swimming. I got everything on right (to include my mask) and we waded the rest of the way into the water. The section of beach we were at was waist deep at like 3 feet from the shore and then dropped dramatically after that. I was now underwater and breathing.
I was a SCUBA Diver. (Ok, not yet but that was what if felt like by this point. I mean, I had on a wet suit for crying out loud and it only took me 15 minutes or so to get it on). The water life in the Red Sea was absolutely amazing. As we swam to depth (about 12 meters), I had the opportunity to see so many different fish. I saw some lionfish, I watched clown fish swimming around their sea anemone (thank you “Finding Nemo”) and saw several “Dory” fish (later identified as Surgeon fish). There was beautiful coral, colorful parrotfish and many large fish that looked as tasty as they did scary.





Before I get too far ahead, I should mention that most conventional dive schools carry out the first three days of the open water certification course in a pool. I was getting to do this in the Red Sea and cannot begin to express how awesome it was.
When we touched down on the bottom, we did a bunch of drills that included filling my mask half way with water and clearing it out, taking out my regulator (which means no more life giving oxygen to breathe), and practiced using an alternate air source, which in this case, means taking the secondary regulator (called an octopus) from my instructor and breathing with that. One of the things I struggled with initially was kicking up sand from the bottom. At one point, my instructor pointed out the cloud of silt I had accidently kicked up. She then pointed out the Moray Eel that was ticked off at me for kicking up all the sand. He was a beautiful green color and very unhappy with me. All I could think of was the old dude who comes out of his house and yells, “Get off my lawn you crazy kids.”

After approximately 30 minutes of bottom time we swam back up to the surface and exited the water. The surface was still very rough and actually ripped my face mask and snorkel out of my hand as well as knocked my instructor face first into the rocks. Even after eating gravel, she managed to find my snorkel and mask for me. We went back to the school; I eventually wiggled out of my wet suit, got dressed, and debriefed. It was a fun and exciting first day and I could not wait to get back in the water. Of course, I had to read three chapters of my SCUBA book before the next class so water would have to wait.

Day 2…
Melissa and the kids dropped me off at this school at 8:30 am, only half an hour early this time. It was good though as I was given a quiz to start off the morning with. Actually, it was three quizzes covering the three chapters I read the night before (Yes, I actually studied). After the quizzes, I suited up and it was off to the water again. I entered the water a bit more gracefully this time and seemed to get better at adjusting my buoyancy and did not kick up nearly as much sand while I was on the bottom. In fact, we had an observer with us (a guy from Dublin, Ireland who was becoming a dive instructor), who kicked up a ton of silt and got the same, “What are you doing” look from Tamar that I got the day before. We completed several of the required drills, such as taking the mask completely off while underwater and another drill where the instructor has you watch your air supply on the gauges and slowly shuts off your tank of air. The reason for this drill is so the diver gets to experience running out of air in a controlled situation and will be able to recognize an issue before it becomes an issue. I watched the gauge drop to zero and did not like the experience of not being able to breath while 30 feet or so under water. When I gave the “out of air” signal, which does not involve waiving my arms frantically around, Tamar turned my air back on so I could breath again. We finished a few other drills and returned to the surface after about 40 minutes or so. We debriefed the dive and I headed back to the hotel so I could read the next two chapters of the book.

Day 3…
I arrived at the school at 8:30 today and had no tests or quizzes to take. I discussed dive charts with Tamar and learned how to figure out dive planning. We then suited up and headed out to the water. We had several drills to do so we wanted to get started on them as soon as possible. We dove to about 12 meters (36 feet) and started working on the drills. Our first drill was dropping the dive weights while on the bottom. I dropped the 10-kilo weights and almost floated to the top. After a struggle, I got them back on again. The next drill involved taking off the BCD with attached tank and then putting it back on again. While Tamar demonstrated the drill and I watched, I saw something large and grey swimming at us at a very fast speed. I quickly turned my head to see what it was while my heart stopped beating. I initially thought it was a shark but it was a bottlenose dolphin. He swam past us so close he almost bumped my right shoulder. Tamar, who could not see him until he passed her was really excited after getting over the heart attack she almost had when she too thought it was a shark. About 15 minutes later, Tamar was demonstrating another drill, which involved taking off the mask when the dolphin came back. The timing was perfect, as Tamar had just taken off her mask. The dolphin swam past my left shoulder, again almost hitting me, and then cut between Tamar and I (we were only about 3 feet apart). I think I heard the dolphin laughing as he swam out of sight.

When we finished everything and explored for a while, we headed back to the dive school to tell everyone about the dolphin. Tamar was really excited about it, as was I.
We dropped our gear and Tamar told me we would head back to the water with our fins, mask, and snorkel to do some drills on top of the water. We got into the water and Tamar told me to give her my mask, fins and snorkel. After I complied, she told me to swim to a buoy that was about 15 meters away. I swam out to the buoy, not liking the heavy waves one bit. When I got there, she told me to swim back. I went back to where I had started only to find Tamar was at the buoy. I had to swim back to her. She gave me my fins and told my I had to tread water for 2 minutes. After finishing, I had to tread water for another two minutes, this time with my hands over my head. I started thinking that if this was a swim test, I probably should have done it on day 1 but I was too tired to actually say that. Tamar then gave me my snorkel and told me I had to dive down to the bottom, which was about 15 feet away. Trust me, it was a lot harder than it sounds. After finishing, we went back to the school and then took quiz number 4 and my final test. I passed everything with flying colors.
Tamar had arranged a special tour of the underwater aquarium just up the street. The aquarium gave the tour free to dive students so that the divers could learn about reef conservation and about the fish in the area. It was an incredible tour and I learned a ton about fish. For instance, did you know that clown fish (yes, the fish in Finding Nemo) are very interesting fish. A male and a female clown fish live in a sea anemone. The female is the bigger of the two fish and the more aggressive of the two. It is the female’s job to protect the anemone and drive away other fish. Because of this, the female gets eaten a lot. In the likely event the female gets eaten, the male fish changes sex and becomes female. Sometimes, there is a third fish that lives with the male and female but it is always a much smaller clown fish and never grows until the female dies. When the male turns into a female, the smaller fish grows to full size and takes over the role as the male fish. I don’t know how this information is actually useful but someday, it might be a question on Jeopardy.



Day 4…
Today, we started the portion of the course that would start in open water for those who take a conventional course that has the first three days in the pool. Our first dive of the day was to the deepest depth I have been to. We dove to 18 meters (about 60 feet). It was awesome going that deep and I look forward to going much deeper in the future. There was a military ship that had been sunk (hence it being 18 meters underwater).

We swam around it and through it and I enjoyed the experience immensely. It was a lot of fun seeing the fish living in an area so man made yet still be in nature, if that makes any sense.


As we left the area, we came across a puffer fish that refused to hold still for a picture but Tamar finally got a few of it.

We went back to the school, debriefed and rested for a bit prior to our next dive. Melissa stopped by to see if we were done yet just prior to departure. She and the kids enjoyed seeing me all suited up and I think they only laughed a little bit at the sight of me in a wetsuit…not the most flattering style of clothing.

We then went to a different area and Tamar had me do a drill that would have made everyone laugh at me. The idea is to remain floating on the surface and remove your gear, holding on to it and bringing it to the front of you. The idea is to be able to fix something or, as Tamar told me, sometimes a boat will be too small to put your gear on while on the boat. After taking it off, you have to put it back on, which is easier said than done. I did a lot of flopping around in the water, very ungraceful like. After she finished laughing at me, she told me all drills were completed and we swam around at about 12 meters, checking out the fish and the coral. It was another awesome day in the water.

Day 5…
I showed up this morning at about 0830, got my gear and we headed to a new location to dive. There was a University Dive spot where they had coral farms which was a lot of fun to see. Prior to diving, Tamar was kind enough to let me do the drill I did so miserable at the day before and I managed to pull it off really well. I was pleased. We swam around the coral and I finally started getting my buoyancy under control so I felt like I knew what I was doing. We finished up the first dive of the day after about 40 minutes or so and took a lunch/rest break. Our final dive of the day and my final dive of the course was uneventful but still a ton of fun as we swam around a bunch of coral formations and through a coral cave. Tamar pointed out the largest moray eel I have ever seen. Granted, at this point, I had seen two but this guy was curled up in a coral and he was as thick as my thigh. We swam wide around the coral and we saw what looked like a field of snakes. There were hundreds of them floating straight up out of the sand. As we got closer they all sunk back into the sand (straight down). We moved away and they all came back again. I was not that crazy about swimming through their little snake farm so I was okay with them not hanging around to say hi to us. We finished the dive and I signed some papers and officially became a certified open water diver.

The course was fantastic and the Red Sea was awesome. I will be heading back in March to do the Advanced Open Water course as well as a Deep Diver course and a Nitrox course (which is an air mixture that helps diving be a bit easier).
I will make sure I blog about those experiences as well when they happen. Until then, please continue to enjoy Melissa’s posts and I will stop in later. :)