Wow. I seriously suck at blogging!

Not really sure if anyone reads this or not, but if you do, I am so sorry! What can I say? yep, I totally suck at this!!! Maybe it's because I don't have anything interesting to say, or maybe it's because I feel like there's not much going on around here? IDK, but yeah. My blog needs work!!!!!

So, maybe you want an update??? Just in case, here goes! Andy graduated BCT in early December, with HONORS!!!! He was one of 20 honor graduates (out of about 250) and he was also one of 10 to receive a PROMOTION!!! I got to go on stage and pin him myself!!! (This is a military tradition, when an individual gets a promotion the Spouse gets to "pin" his new rank on). Proudest moment of my life so far!!! This moment was the first time we were face to face in 10 weeks, and it was AMAZING, to say the least!!!

Then, in the middle of December, we got to have Andy home for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!! That might not sound like much to you, but believe me, to us it was a lifetime! Simply awesome getting to spend so much time together. It will never be forgotten!!! Of course, Christmas happened during those two weeks as well and that was great, but as far as I was concerned having my Soldier home for awhile was all that mattered! Pretty sure my kids would agree with that, since they acted totally surprised that Santa had come. "but I thought Daddy was our present?" PRICELESS!!!!!

Andy is back where he needs to be, in training and doing great. We have 15 more weeks ahead of us before we are off on our new adventure together! We can't wait!!!! Hopefully by April we will know exactly where that might be!!!! Watch for updates!!! (I will try to get better at this, I swear! one can't suck forever, right?)

what else? hmm..... Shelbie's birthday is coming up and she is just beside herself with excitement!!! I can't believe my little girl is turning EIGHT!!!! Holy schmoly how did that happen? A fabulous little girl party is in the works, pretty sure Mama is just as excited as Shelbie is!!!!

I have been trying very hard to use my time wisely while Andy is gone. Most of my focus is on school (4.0, thank you very much!) and controlling my OCD tendencies on cleaning the house. Who am I kidding? I don't control it at all this place sparkles 99% of the time! I just can't help it!!! The kids are growing like little weeds and they surprise and amaze me with their beautiful little minds every single day. I have been very impressed by how quickly and easily they adapted to Military Life. They seem to "get it". They don't take things for granted and they are genuinely kind and concerned for other people. They understand the sacrifices that the men and women in our Armed Forces make for our Freedom and the other day while we were at the airport we saw an Airman and Owen and Shelbie approached him and told him thanks for serving our country!!! He shook their hands and looked at me like, "really?" and I just looked on, beaming with pride. What a blessing these little people are to me!!!! I thank the Good Lord every day for sending them to me! Without them I just don't know where I would be!

Ok, ok, enough gushing for one post!!!! Hopefully I will get better at keeping up with this, here's to trying, anyway!

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!!!!!

One week down, NINE to go!!!

As you all should know by now, Andy left home on the night of the 21st of September to enter Basic Training for the Army. That night I was incredibly sad (I think watching him walk away was the absolute WORST!) but I soon gathered myself and have been ok ever since. It helps a lot that he has been in contact every day since he left! (YAY for technology!!!) That first night he was gone, he stayed over at the Radisson Inn near the airport (which, oddly enough, is the very same hotel we stayed in on our wedding night!) the next morning all the new recruits were picked up and taken over to the MEPS station to be debriefed and who knows what all else! Next, he was taken to the airport where he and three others were on the same flight to Oklahoma City, OK. On arrival in the airport there they waited in the Military Welcome Center (run by volunteers from the local YMCA - thank you for supporting our troops!!!) until another group joined them so they could all be taken by bus to Ft. Sill - an hour and a half away. By the next day it was Wednesday already, and they began the long arduous task of being in-processed. Obviously I don't know everything that he has done while there, but I can give you the basics! They were vaccinated against 8 different diseases (I know, right? crazy!), issued ACU's (Army Combat Uniforms), boots, PT clothes (clothes to wear during fitness training) and shoes, they filled out a million different forms, including life and dental insurance forms, wills (yes really) and things of that nature. They also have been learning the various cadences they march to (some of them are downright hilarious!) and the protocols surrounding behavior and respect and such. During all this time (from last Tuesday evening to early this morning) they were at what is known as "reception". Even though they spent an entire week there, it is known as "week zero". I am proud to report that Andy made it through all this with flying colors and early this morning he embarked on "week one". He is officially in Basic Combat Training at this moment so my nightly phone updates will obviously end. I did get to speak with him last night and he said he would write to me instead, so at least I'll have that to look forward to! After the first two weeks his unit will have the opportunity to earn phone privileges so if his does he will most likely be able to phone us on Sundays, as that is their "free day". (sort-of!) So now you are all up to date! Know that he is well and really enjoying himself. He misses home but he is doing a great job of making the best of his situation! He has already made some friends so I think that helps as well!!!! I will update again as soon as I get new info!!!!

God Bless our Troops!!! It really hit me the other day, while I was watching a video designed for the families of new soldiers, how relatively young the men and women that are fighting for our freedom are. I mean, I just never thought about it before! I was watching this video and it hit me, most of the faces on there are only ten years older than my Shelbie!!! BABIES! and they are sacrificing their youth, and time with their families, and all of the other crazy fun stuff most of us did at their age to go and fight in two different conflicts, each a half a world away!!!! I would like to ask you all to take some time out of your busy day today, and say a small prayer for the men and women that are the true American Heroes!!!! May they always be in our hearts!!!!!

ok, I'll get off my soap box now!!! =)