The Most Blessed

After a long call this weekend I was on cloud 9 all week. Just yesterday, I received two amazing letters from my kind, sweet, talented, adorable, courageous, brave, and.. ehmm... sexy husband.  So is there a cloud 10? Cause if so, I am SO there. So let me get to the letters, you guys aren't here to listen to me gush anyway! :)

So, letter 1 was... 12 pages long. Yes, 12 pages! :) He started writing it on October 10th, and mailed it on Sunday before he called me. Because he knows I'm such a visual girl, he drew me a picture of his bunk and a picture of the confidence course. I <3 it! :) He says, "My bed is one of the most squared away bunks in the platoon. Who would have thought?"

He says that he's changing a lot physically and doesn't quite believe the drill sergeants when they say that the whole platoon has gotten more discipline. He's just trying as hard as he can. His ACUs (Army Combat Uniform) are getting bigger on him. :) He also said that his voice is very scratchy from sounding off so loudly. The other platoons in his company are quiet, so his platoon has to make up the difference.

He says that people are calling him sharpshooter now! :) He drew a little diagram of his shot groupings and a little diagram of what is considered a good shot grouping. He's kicking some major tail end. There's apparently a contest and the platoon with the best shooting gets some sort of banner. He's pretty confident that his platoon is doing well enough in that area to take the banner. :)

His Dede is just like our Dede in that she, "takes a little coaxing to get her doing tricks. After that she's beautiful and a little hungry."

He was having a hard time zeroing his gun because his sight picture kept changing. The next day he put a piece of tape on the butt of the gun & he was able to zero her like a champ. He said that the middle of his target was pretty much gone by the time he left that day. :)

He says, "Oh yeah. I qualified on the grenade range. Easy mode. It's like throwing rocks that explode. Real grenades are loud loud LOUD. You have to wear ear protection and it's still loud. You can feel the shockwave. Think of the huge fireworks at 4th of July, but being right next to it."

He also said that he met the PT standards on his diagnostic PT test to graduate from basic, but he won't be happy until he meets AIT graduation standards. He is being careful though, he does not want to spend ANY time in sick call. He says too much is riding on his performance to let that happen.

He's craving milkshakes. :) We'll get him PLEEENTY of those at Christmas. No worries on that one.

Oh, here's something interesting, because we're technically in "peace time" now, the next basic cycle is only 7 weeks. He JUST missed the window. He is kind of thankful for that though, because he knows he'll be a better soldier.  He'll be a "Lean, green, fighting machine like the ninja turtles!" :)

He got my letters on Tuesday and after that it was mostly to me. I'll spare you the gushy details, but I will leave you with this:

"Please tell everyone that I miss them.
Tell the kids [nieces and nephews] that I miss playing with them.
Tell Mom and Dad that I miss their conversation and our meals together.
Tell Sam and Heather I miss BBQing with them.
Tell Brian and Katie I miss our couples nights.
Tell the guys on vent they work better as a team than my platoon.
Tell Lori & Dave I miss their smiles and laughter.
Tell my shower I miss how private it is.
Tell my puppies I miss their cuddles.
Tell Boob I miss talking with him."

He included a training newsletter in his letter. I have it scanned. I won't post it here because I don't want any sort of OPSEC violation or anything. However, if you would like to see it, leave me a comment and I'll email it to you.

Also, if you want his address, definitely leave me a comment and I'll get it mailed to you. I'm sure he would love any letters you guys have the time to send his way. :)

Also, we have all got to have a family/friends meal at Christmas time when he arrives. We won't really know his plans until he gets to AIT, but Christmas Exodus is going to be for two weeks in December. This is just conjecture, but if you guys could keep an open schedule on the evening of Sunday, Dec 19... I'm betting we can all get together for dinner somewhere! *hopes*

<3 ya
- Brie