9 More Days!!!

Yes, today is the first single-digit day in the countdown to the day I get to see him again. We talked for about an hour on Sunday and he had some awesome stories to tell! The platoon did a 15K ruck march to the Forward Operating Base (FOB) and stayed there for a couple days. They got to apply the things they have learned to a role play type thing. My favorite story was the one Shaun told about being a bad guy, apparently he really enjoyed that ;). He and one of his battle buddies were sitting in the back of a truck headed toward one of the road blocks of the enemy (our soldiers). Shaun had a bomb and his partner had a pistol. Shaun quickly hid his bomb in an ice cooler underneath a couple bags of ice. The pistol was put in the man's back pocket and they were searched. The soldier who searched Shaun had him remove one bag of ice as the cooler was searched but not the other so the bomb remained in the vehicle. Somehow they missed the pistol in the guy's back pocket as well (scary huh?). Well just as too groups walked by the truck, Shaun blew them all up. Shortly after his battle buddy whipped out his pistol and shot a whole bunch of people. Shaun was captured and put in jail but the guards weren't paying attention so he just ran away. When he returns you need to ask him to tell the story. He had me laughing the whole time. I hope the soldiers are learning their lessons because we don't want the bad guys to win in real life. :) Shaun seems to be doing very well. There are just a couple more days of training this week. At the moment he's out in the field once again. But they will shortly be done and the next couple of days will just be devoted to returning their equipment and things. Then there's just waiting until family day and graduation. I'm glad I can stay busy instead of having to do nothing and just wait for the day I can see him. He said it'll be pretty hard but he has made a lot of friends so I'm sure he'll continue to have fun up until the end.

Our Sunday Conversation

I got to talk to Shaun for an hour Sunday. He is now in the blue phase, the highest one they are in during basic training. He was pretty excited about that. He got to shoot about five different types of machine guns this last week. One was his dream gun, the one he's been waiting to shoot for a long time. It's called the Saw. :) He loved it! It made me really happy to hear him talk about it too. I know we must have talked about quite a bit since we talked for an hour but I seriously can't remember much. Most of the time we just talked about some changes we need to make when he gets back. We have decided he's going to keep doing ROTC for sure because that way he won't have to be out there with the men that end up getting shot. His office job will be more boring but he'll get to do financial stuff like he's going to school for. He'll have to be in the national guard for a couple more years but he'll be safe. I would much rather have him be safe, than out of the guard faster. He seems to be doing really well. Besides missing family he's happy and healthy now. The rash he had isn't a problem anymore thank goodness. Our trip to Oklahoma is approaching fast and I can't wait! The only thing I'm worried about is saying goodbye to him again. The first time was hard but I didn't know what to expect. Now that I've been through it already and I know how much I'll miss him it'll be harder. But it is three weeks less than basic training so we'll survive. It sounds like it's going to be a lot easier though. Some men have internet access and cell phones all the time. Shaun will be living in a little apartment-like place with one roommate instead of the barracks with 60 men. He's pretty excited about that. ;) I'll be pretty busy throughout August and school starts the 24th so I should be able to get through it a little better than this time. i do so much better with a routine. I'll be starting a new job and a new program at school so hopefully my mind will be on those things more rather than how much I miss him. We are so blessed! Things have gone really well and time has gone by fairly quickly.

Weekend of the Fourth

I have been slacking on my blog updates. I'm now done with summer school so I don't spend time in the school computer labs anymore. Time is flying by and I love it!!! Shaun scored "sharpshooter" for his marksmenship. Third is marksmen, second is sharpshooter, and first is expert. Shaun was a high sharpshooter. He scored 34 out of 40 targets. He placed fourth in his platoon. He was very proud of himself because they say the range he shot at is the hardest at Fort Sill, possibly one of the hardest in our nation. :) I'm really proud of him. He loves shooting! He is enjoying all the obstacle courses they have them do. They look and sound really hard but he says he likes doing them. "At least it's something to do" he told me. He's been getting frustrated because it's always "hurry up and wait" in the army. He says they'll march out to the range, stand there for a couple hours in the 100 degree weather, have 15 minutes of training, and then stand there for a couple more hours. When I told my dad that he said, "No wonder it takes ten weeks to complete the training!" I agree. :) Shaun said he'd much rather work really hard for a short amount of time than only have a few minutes of training a day. He's made a few friends and has a lot of fun with them. They tease him at church about looking at pictures of me. Yesterday he received a package that included the Oreos his sister Megan sent him. He bribed one of his non-member friends to come to church by telling him he'd share the Oreos with him. What a way to be a missionary. ;) Shaun has a heat rash that's getting pretty bad. It's irritating him and there's really nothing he can do about it since they have to be in the boiling hot weather all the time. So my family and his family fasted and prayed for him yesterday. Hopefully he'll be better soon. They did find out what was wrong with him finally. He kept getting more and more sick. He went in to sick call and at first they gave him allergy medicine. He took it even though he knew he didn't have allergies. It didn't work, so he went in again and they said he had strep throat. So they gave him pain killers and a penicillin (sp?) shot. He did have strep throat but he kept getting even sicker so he went in once more. Then they finally found out he had a lung infection. He had to stay in quarters for a couple days but he said the antibiotic they gave him did wonders. Now all he has to do is get rid of that heat rash and he'll be wonderful. I'm taking two months off from the daycare because they didn't really need me there for the summer. I'm in Utah being a nanny for my aunt once more. The count down is now at 24 days and I'm already getting so excited! I loved this 4th of July because Shaun got a day off and got to talk to me for two and a half hours. It was awesome! And then he told me he probably wouldn't get to talk to me on Sunday because of his chance to talk on Saturday but he got to call. We talked for another hour. He is doing really well. He has already reached the half way mark so he's starting to get tired of it but he promised me he'd stick to it and stay positive. He's doing really well with building up his spiritual side. He reads the Book of Mormon three times a day, he just finished it so he's starting the Pearl of Great Price. He's been a terrific example to those there and he's working on being a missionary. He has also been able to avoid swearing. That's a huge challenge being in an envirornment like that where almost everyone uses three swearwords in each sentence. I'm extremely proud of him. Things are going very well. He has now lost a total of 27 lbs! Boy am I excited to see him! ;)

Hearing His Voice Again!

I finally got a phone call yesterday! It was wonderful to hear his voice again! He seems to be happy and he still sounds like his goofy self. :) He told me about his gas chamber experience which sounded awful! You can see what it does to the soldiers at steelrainsoldiers.blogspot.com. They have a couple pictures and the men are slobbering all over themselves. Shaun was laughing about it even though he said it was the worst thing he has experienced in his life. I love his positive attitude! The marksmenship certification stuff is for the next two or three weeks. Shaun absolutely loves guns so I think he'll enjoy this part a lot. He does have a cough that is stopping him from getting his sleep but the cold that he has had this entire time is finally going away. He has lost 12 lbs!!! I thought that was pretty incredible. :) The count down is now at 45 days! I'll get to see him then when his family and I drive down to Oklahoma. It'll only be a total of about 18 hours with him (maybe more if he doesn't get shipped out until later) but I'm happy to take what I can get. It'll be a fun trip even though it takes four days to get there both ways. He's already been gone 29 days so time is going by fast enough for now. :)

A Weekend Break?

Shaun didn't get to call me tonight like the commander said so I was pretty sad about it. one of his platoon members must have been dumb and asked the drill sergeant about it. If they do that their phone privileges get taken away as punishment. I emailed the commander yesterday asking if he knew if Shaun would have a weekend break between graduation and his shipment to AIT. He said the soldiers start getting shipped Saturday and the shipments go through Monday but he can't tell me anything until the shipment orders get in and they won't come until the last week before graduation. Well that doesn't help us make travel plans... whatever. I was frustrated so I said, "why don't they schedule it so that the soldiers who don't have family visiting them go early and the ones that have family that traveled two days to see them get to spend the whole weekend with them!" :) That would be very nice. I miss him so much. It's been three weeks now. 7 more until I get to see him, 14 more until he comes home.

A Blog About Shaun's Platoon

There's a commander that keeps in touch with the soldiers in Shaun's platoon and a few others. He has created a blog that talks about what they do almost every day. From what I've read things are going pretty good with the soldiers. I've been worried because I've heard stories from my dad and grandpa about basic training and the way the sergeants treat them is not pleasant. Shaun told me that their not allowed to lay a hand on the soldiers anymore, but what I didn't know is that they are not allowed to verbally abuse the soldiers either. They're not supposed to curse at them. They are trying to encourage them. I think that's a much better tactic anyway. :) They should have started that long ago. No one feels good about themselves and tries much harder when someone's yelling degrading remarks in their ear. So I'm very grateful that has changed. I'm not so worried about it now. This commander is assuring us that the soldiers are safe. It's kind of fun to read about some of the things they are doing. He has also posted a few pictures so I've been trying to see if Shaun's in any of them. not yet... in the post the commander put up yesterday he said we'd hear from Shaun this weekend! I wasn't expecting that so I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to talk to him, it's been a week. Time is going faster than I thought it would, at least when I stay busy. Thanks for all your support and the help you've given me.

To see the blog this commander has created about Shaun's platoon go to this website: :)
http://steelrainsoldiers.blogspot.com/

On To The Real Thing

There are times in life when things get difficult and there's no way to change the circumstances, but that doesn't mean things can't be done to make it a little more bearable. This is where my gratitude for my Father in Heaven comes in. Things could always be worse. I have a testimony. I have a God to pray to. I have many books of council that I can go to for help. I have a Brother who bled and died for me. I have someone who knows EXACTLY how I feel. I know who to go to for help. So with all that why do I try to do things on my own? Why do I wait until I've come unraveled to go to my Father? It's not like I've avoided Him. I pray every morning and night and a few times during the day. I still read my scriptures and the conference talks. I just haven't totally humbled myself and asked what I should do. I have prayed for strength but I haven't really prayed for it. So now's the time to get down on my knees, apologize for trying to putt along without Him, and really listen to what advice He has for me. I never would have imagined it would be this hard. A couple days after our first date Shaun asked me a question... "Do you think you could handle being a guard wife?" Of course at this time I was thrilled he'd even think of marrying me so I had to say yes. If I didn't he might change his mind and boy did I want to belong to him forever! I thought about it a little more and then sent my reply. "It'd be very hard but I'm pretty sure I could do it." Well the answer still hasn't changed, but I can't do it, not alone, not without my Heavenly Father by me EVERY step of the way. There are so many things I've been trying to absorb myself in since he's been gone. I'm trying to be healthier by eating right and exercising lots, I'm working hard in my classes (I have high "A"s so it's really paying off), and I'm working. Now that I look back on these past days I realize the thing I should be most concerned about is my spiritual well-being. I can succeed in the other areas and still not be happy, but I can work on bringing myself closer to God and feel more fulfilled. I have had a heck of a time keeping my tears back. I feel ridiculous for crying more than ten times a day, but I know I will be able to handle it better with the Lord on my side. I'm ashamed I haven't started trying earlier.

Now that I'm off my soapbox... the reason for those is to help me relieve my feelings (I do it best through writing)... I'll tell you about Shaun. We have been unbelievably blessed to have been able to talk at least a half an hour 8 out of the 10 days he's been gone. Today it's different. He was "shipped" (actually just a ten minute drive) to the real basic training this morning. He texted me saying he was so scared but I know he'll do great. It won't be easy but I know everything will be fine. All this other stuff he did was called reception and basically they did a lot of tests like medical ones. They did dental records that they will keep in their files forever, they loaded them up with gear, they gave them a few shots including one in the bum that Shaun had fun complaining about, and they cleaned the baracks spotless a few times (they cleaned places that no one had been using ;). Shaun had a hard time this last week too. They'd hurry to places and then have to sit in line for hours. He said the guys started begging for push-ups, but in reception they don't make them do many push-ups. Because of the memorial day holiday they did nothing at all on Monday except eat and hang out in their baracks. That was very hard for him. I would have died in that situation because I crumble whenever I have too much time to think now. :) I loved talking to him on the phone! He made a really great friend there, Boyle, that he was sad to report is in a different platoon now. But he's going to meet up with him later. He's trying to convince me to let him be a cop in Fremont county because that's what Boyle does. ;) We'll just have to see about that. To entertain themselves the guys had exercise competitions during their free time. Leg lifts, push-ups, wall sits... I loved hearing Shaun yell out his accomplishments to the others and then get eager to try again when someone beat him. The record on wall sits one night we talked was 1min 15sec. I was having so much fun listening to them I decided to try it. Shaun timed me and I tried not to think about my shaky legs or the timer as I talked to him. I heard guys in the background, "She's still going?!" It just made me want to go longer so I did until I buckled and slid to the floor. "Done," I informed Shaun. 3 minutes and 37 seconds!!! He bragged about me to the guys and I laughed. Of course they had to say girls have stronger legs and it's easier for them to do wall sits because their upper torso is smaller but Shaun and I have a deal now. There's a very desirable prize for the one who can do wall sits the longest when he returns. ;)