Halfway done!!!!!!

As of last night, we are officially halfway to graduation!!! I am so excited, I just hope the second half goes by as fast as the first! I'm sure it will, what with Halloween and Thanksgiving going on between now and then! Andy graduates on the 4h of December and I get to spend all day on the 3rd and the 4th with him! Can't wait!!!!!

He does have a new battle buddy now, which is great news! The other guy got "recycled" back to reception and will probably start again with the next group. All he wanted to do was go home but now it will take him twice as long. Kind-of sad! All the guys have been fighting colds due to the nasty weather in Oklahoma and all the stress on their bodies, I'm sure! They average about 4 hours of sleep a night and spend most of their days marching in the wet cold. They are halfway through week 4 now, and have spent all this week and last week at the range practicing firing their weapons. Andy has been excelling at everything thus far and spends most of his time helping to coach the others in his platoon. I'm so proud of him!!!!! He is a natural leader and his Drill Sargents have taken notice!!! Way to go, Soldier!!!

In family news, Drew had his preschool Halloween Party today and had a great time! Shelbie and Owen have a parade at their school tomorrow and I hope the little ones and I don't freeze to death, as it is outside so we'll see how that goes! We are getting really excited for Halloween, we always have "mummy dogs" for dinner and hot chocolate when we get home while we watch our "scary" movies! Can't wait! Hopefully the weather cooperates!!! We continue to mark our days off the calendar and make the most of each one! Can't wait to have our Soldier home!!!!!!

4 letters!!!!!

Ok, so I feel really terrible about my bad attitude on Monday! On Tuesday, I had FOUR letters waiting for me in my mailbox!!!! YAY!!!! The only thing that's got me down now is that as of Friday, Andy hasn't received a single ONE of mine!!! Now I'm freaking out! Do I have his address wrong? So imagine how he feels, isolated from his family and friends, and thinking that his wife is not writing to him! If I felt that crappy on Monday after only 3 days of no letters, well I bet he feels pretty bad!!! I'm just really hoping at least one has shown up by now. There's nothing else I can do, so I just keep writing and sending every single day!!! Cross your fingers for me he is getting them by now!!!!!
In news, let's see. They were issued their weapons and a bunch of gear, including a gas mask to use in an actual gas chamber. No, I am not making this up! Apparently they have to remove them in the chamber too. Crazy!!!! They have taken a ton of classes, including buddy aid, which is a basic first aid course so they all will know how to take care of each other out in the field. That's a relief!!! Andy is having some trouble with his battle buddy, though. Apparently out of 59 guys, the guy he has to be within 5 feet of at all times is a head case. He has been trying to get sent home since the second day of reception and I was told last Monday (the 5th) that he was receiving a discharge for misconduct, but as of Friday (the 9th) he was still there and was having to do Psychiatric evaluations, which means Andy has to go with him because they are not allowed to let each other out of sight! Poor Andy! He really just shouldn't have to deal with that right now! So I am hoping and praying that this guy will get sent home before he does something drastic to where they have no choice (like hurt someone! He really does sound that unstable!). More news on that later! As of now, Andy is keeping a great attitude and is pressing forward! He is now on Week 3 which is the last week of Phase 1 so he's doing great!!!!!
We, the family, are hanging in there too! I took my first Language Arts Final yesterday, and I'm pretty sure I did a great job!!!! I also got my military ID and finished up our enrollment in the healthcare and dental programs. It feels good to have all that taken care of!!! The people at the National Guard Headquarters were really great to work with!!! I also took the kids to the pumpkin patch on Monday, and on Friday we are going to carve some punkins! Wish me luck, it may take me until Christmas to get them all done, LOL!!!!! Other than that, we are just having fun marking the days off the calendar and gearing up for Halloween!!!!!

BLAH!!!

7 weeks to go, or if you prefer, 50 days. Haven't received a phone call since the 4th of October. Hopefully I get a letter today, or I might just crawl under the bed and hide for awhile. Sorry for the bad attitude, but Andy's been gone three weeks and the air has definitely been let out of my tires. Yes I will survive this, but today I just can't make myself enjoy anything! 'nuff said! Oh great. I forgot it's Columbus Day. Awesome. Thanks for "discovering" America Columbus but seriously, my kids don't even get the day off school so why, oh why can't I just receive my mail? The universe is just not smiling on me today!!!!!

Oct 5th. A letter!!!!! TWO letters!!!

So, as the title implies, I received not one but two letters from Andy today! (well, technically one was for me and one was for the kids!) He is doing really well. It is much, much harder than I think he anticipated, but in his letter he specifically said: "most of us knew what we were getting into when we enlisted. The Army only wants soldiers that are mentally tough enough to deal with the stressful situations they put us in. It's only 9 weeks of my life!" So as you can see his attitude is great and he knows it is just a temporary situation. The Drill Sargent's really put it to them. Apparently he was assigned to the toughest battalion but he said to me that he's glad because his Unit has become very close because of it and he has confidence that if he ever did have to go to war (God Forbid!) the guys he is with now would know what they were doing. So that's good, I guess! The great news is he's almost on to week 2, which means one more to check off my calendar!!! I can't wait to see him at his graduation!!!!! Well, as always, I will update more as I know more!!!

Military Wives' Prayer

Lord,

Give me the strength of heart to see

The difference in duty and his love for me;

Give me the understanding to know

That when duty calls, he must go;

Give me the patience to know in my heart

That he is serving his country and doing his part;

Give me the strength to carry on

When he's working late or must be gone;

Give me a task to do each day,

To fill the time while he is away;

Give me others who can share

The ups and downs and who'll really care;

Give me the wisdom to get me through

When I'm not quite sure of what to do;

And Lord, while our family is here

Keep us healthy, safe and full of cheer.

AMEN!!!!!