Okay, so I'm still recovering from the six week NCO course (more on that tomorrow and Friday) but it's nice that things are getting back to normal. I'm in the process of putting together a picture post, travelogue, and regular blog post for this weekend. In other news, creative juices are full flow and I'm about to start ticking a few names off of my Handmade Prompts list which (in two-three is months) will make some strangers very happy :-D

I'm incredibly tired, my left shoulder is still hairline-fractured, doesn't have the full range of motion, and is making clicking noises, and I'm fighting with the army for new glasses...however, by the by, things are going great.

Now...time to pass out. Much love

- M

p.s. comments on journals tomorrow, I've been keeping up with everyone's entries...it's just been hard to comment when reading on the fly or on the cell phone. Emails this weekend.

Well I finished the course (and passed!) so I'm now a Non-Commissioned Officer/Foreign Relations Specialist in the IDF. To answer some questions:

- I go back to doing the same exact work that I did before I went on the course.
- I return to the same position.
- No it doesn't increase my pay.
- Yes, it does extend my army service (by two months).
- Yes, I am now eligible to do reserve duty.

Mostly, it was an amazing and fantastic experience (and an incredibly intense, almost sleepless six weeks). I grew as a person, as a soldier, I learned a lot of new things, went hiking and on tours, and I made a lot of great new friends.

However, being gone for six weeks does come with a price...I'm in the process of adding pages of things that I have to get done to my To Do List, dealing with some mice who decided that my room was JUUUUUST right to move into, taking care of a hairline fracture in my left shoulder, and trying to catch up on my email in between organizing my sewing and craft projects and finding an organization system that works for my new supplies while trying to get my inventory ready for my online store launch in a few months. I'm also in the process of decorating my room on the Kibbutz and trying to work on some long term planning projects which I would like to get done soon so I can return to my usual state of not-quite-calm-but-at-least-incredibly-incredibly-obsessively-organized-and-prepared.

Lots to write about over the next few days...so stay tuned.

Oh, and anyone want to go on the Israel Trail with me for a month or so in 2012-ish? Shoot me an email, planning is starting now (it's a thirty day trip).