More Letters!

"Dear Mom & Dad,
Basic is ok, still. I honestly can't say I love it but I can't say I'm not having fun. The days drag, but the weekds fly. We only have 6 Sundays left.
"We did land nav in the woods yesterday and next week start BRM (rifle shooting). The woods were calm and relaxing. We saw a tree that had been gored by a boar. It looked like someone well, a beaver got a hold of it. Needless to say the five-man team was on guard after that.
Today we started BRM. We just did a simulator and tried to group our shots. Other than that, we did nothing much. I've been trying to stay busy cleaning and stuff.
I've been praying every night, mostly for the soldiers next to us and their family and friends. I also pray for y'all, Cat and the movie nighters.
My platoon is coming together. We're not fighting as much as we used to . We should be in White phase soon.
We had some soldiers imitate drill sergeants today. We almost got smoked.
We have an Eric in our platoon. His name is Pauly and he's 39. He makes the comments like Eric would. Just now (reason I'm writing about him) is we had a guy start coughing and Pauly said, "Don't push on his head or he'll start choking." Is that not like Eric? (side note: Eric is our next door neighbor who's a total ass, but the nicest ass you'll ever meet!)
I've been getting letters from Cat. I didn't get a phone call last week, so I haven't gotten a chance to let you know. Still no letters from anyone else. just you, Mabry and Cat. I've been keeping them all.
It's time for lights out, and we lost 2 hours of sleep last night. I love y'all and miss y'all.
With Love,
PFC Peter Nelson"

"Dear Mom & Dad,
We started shooting our weapons yesterday. It was fun. We zeriod, and then most everyone that was done got to go back to the bay. I didn't because I missed the first transport by two minutes, and while I:) was waiting for the second (around two o'clock)I was put on range duty. I had to stay out on the range for an extra three hours for roughly twenty people that couldn't shoot.
Today we shot at targets rom 200m & 300m. The Company COmmander said I was one heck of a shot. I had excellent grouping almost every time (3/4).
I almost felt like I was going to collapse today. I had to carry double the gear everyone else did because my battle buddy got really sick. I drank four camel backs of water, and a powerade today. I couldn't breathe! I feel alot better now though. We do hand grenades Monday after next!
I might have an article fifteen (ask Dad what it is). It's not good...apparently, the military doesn't like you destroying their property Who would have guessed? I probably should have worn sunscreen because getting a sunburn is destruction of military propery!
Still no letters from Cameron or anyone, although I got stuff from Mrs. Eaves and Miranda in Cat's letter tonight.
Anyways, it's bed time and I have to shoot again tomorrow. I love you and miss you.
With Love,,
PFT Peter Nelson"

Fun Stuff!

"Hey Mom & Dad,
We got stuck with IVs today. We had to get trained on how to do IVs and stick our battle buddy. I got stuck twice because my vein disappeared as soon as the needle was put in.
"We went on our first road march today. We walked 4 miles with 40-50 lbs on our back. I was drenched in sweat by the end. It was really difficult. I've got huge blisters because someone stole my inserts out of my boots.
"Tomorrow is another obstacle course. It's got to do with medical bullcrap. I'm gonna hate it.
"I've got two good battle buddies. One's name is Joseph Nishimiga, from Hawaii, and the otehr is Morgan. I can't seem to recall his first name. Every time I get a letter, they always ask if there is good news, then we swap stories and tell jokes about anything and everything. They make sure I stay focused on what I need to be focused on, just like I do for them.
"Thre's not many people I don't like. THere's one who I can't stand (he's SO much worse than Ryan) but everyone else is cool. We haven't gotten past the immature stage yet. Most people keep messing around, and the other people get caught trying to hush them, which is why we're in transparent phase still.
"Well, anyways, things are same old same old. I miss everyone. 7 more Sundays!
With love,
PFC Peter Nelson"

Letters from Pete

I thought it'd be fun to document Pete's adventures in Basic as he writes to us. So I'm going to either post whole letters, or excerpts from his letters. He Never dates them so we have no idea when they were written, or even in what order. Some times 2 letters may arrive the same day.

"Dear Mom & Dad,
I'm doing pretty well. It's still challenging. IT's hot too. The humidity is killing everyone. We spent all day today out in the field, in the sun, with an extra 35 pounds with us. We had to run around and do all these different things.
We march Everywhere!
So far, I've done 2 obstacle courses, received my rifle, gone across a single, double and triple rope bridge, repelled from a 65 foot tower, climbed a 60 foot fort, walked across it and climbed down on cargo net, I've been through the gas chamber and made some really cool buddies (even one from Savannah!)
We had to build our own harness for the repel tower. "If you tied it, you ride it," is what the drill sergeants said.
The gas chamber was terrible. I never want to do it again. It all burned. It burned my face, hands, eyes, throat, nose, ears. I had snot all over my face. I had a string running from my nose to my helmet, from my helmet to my chin, and a dangler. It was disgusting.
But so far everything is fun. I've become more confident in my abilities and myself.
I still miss everyone. Please send pictures. It really helps.
I'll see you Sept 30!
With love,
PFC Nelson"

"Hey Family,
Today was our first actual PT test. I did about 42 pushups, but only 27 of them counted. I did 32 situps, and I ran 2 miles 18:38. I only need to drop 2 minutes and I'll be good. Needles to say, I failed overall, but I feel good about the run.
We did the leadership reaction course yesterday. That was fun. There were severn different missions that each squad had to accomplish within 20 minutes (each station was 20 minutes). All seven had to do wit hgetting a box across water, but the "bridge" was always blown and we had random object that we had to use. 3rd squad, mine, was the only one to complete all seven missions. We also had to get most of our people across.
We got our red phase guideon taken away yesterday. We're in transparent phase now. I don't know when we'll be in red again, but I hope it's soon.
Tell Mabry I said to stay strong and I love her. Tell Ryan that if he wants to beat me when I get home, he better start working. Tell Dad that he better watch out too. Tell Mom that the guys down here are anxious to meet her.
I love you all.
PFC Peter Nelson"

Move-In Day!

A week ago today we moved Mabry into the dorms at MS State University. To say she was excited would be an understatement. Anyone who knows Mabry can imagine what it was like; remember the little dog that bounced around the big bulldog in the cartoons, saying, "Can we? Huh? Huh? Can we,Spike? Can we, huh? Huh?"
Her room in TINY! I didn't realize how spoiled she had become in her last 4 years living away from home. At MS School of the Arts (her high school), she shared a suite; 2 dorm rooms connected by a bathroom shared by 4 girls. At Northwest, her "dorm" was really a 2 bedroom apartment, complete with living room, kitchen and huge bathroom. For the last 4 years, she's had to share a bathroom with 4 girls only.
Enter Hathorne Hall, her new domicile. It kinda makes me giggle just thinking about it. Her dorm room is tiny, and the bathroom and shower are down the hall. It's also a co-ed dorm, which didn't concern me until I went to use the facilities. I walked into the only bathroom on the hall, and there were exactly 3 bathroom stalls....and a urinal! (Insert freaked-out gasp here!) I quickly walked out of the restroom and back into the hallway to check the doors. "Restroom" was only on one door, and that was the one I'd just come out of! Having to use the facilities really badly, I quickly locked myself into a stall and prayed like crazy that a guy wouldn't come in to do his business!
When I walked back out of the restroom, I decided I'd check the showers, just a couple doors down. Same scenario (minus the urinal)....4 shower stalls with curtains. I'd heard of co-ed dorms but always assumed they'd have seperate bathrooms! I was seriously freaking out, but also thinking it's gonna be pretty funny when Mabry finds THIS out!
Well, Mabry was already in the know, and the laugh was on ME. Turns out her dorm IS co-ed, but there are 2 wings in the building; the boys have one wing and the girls have 2. Last year the entire dorm was a boys' dorm, and the bathrooms haven't been re-done to remove the urinal and add another toilet. Whew! But I do wonder how they expect 3 toilets to be enough for about 40 girls!

The 13th One!

The media room stank really badly after they left all that teen-funk in there!


Last night was our 13th annual back-to-school ice cream party. We first started having ice cream for dinner on Mabry's very first day of Kindergarten. We went to Baskin Robbins and ordered anything we wanted and called it dinner. :) When we moved to Holly Springs, though, there was no Baskin Robbins. Well, just having ice cream at the house wasn't special, so we decided to have ice cream at the house, and invite a whole bunch of people over! That started Mabry's first day of 2nd grade, and Pete's first day of Kindergarten. We've been doing it ever since, and I don't believe attendance has ever dipped below 30.
We missed Pete this year, but most of his friends still came so it was almost like having him here! :)

WWW 3

The third annual "Wild Women's Weekend" took place at Gulf Shores from July 14-19 this year. Yes, I realize that's longer than a "weekend"; can we help it if Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday got in the way?
There were 12 attendees this year from 8 different states: MI, OH, MO, IN, KY, TX, TN & MS. It's amazing that we all met online. Most people, when hearing we met online, don't wish to know the story. I think they're afraid to find out that we're all a bunch of crazed lesbo-lover mass murderers....or they're afraid that we're not! The imagination, most times, is SO much better than reality, isn't it?
In fact, what brought us women together is Dave Ramsey's website, The Total Money Makeover. The tie that binds is money; we all want more! Actually, we really just want to learn to be better stewards of the money we already have. But it was through this website that we found more than money advice; we found true friends. Women who, had we met on the street, probably never would've given one another a second glance (ok, some of us probably would've made catty remarks about the others!). The Internet's an amazing tool, though; it forces one to get to know a person's heart before seeing the person's body. I LOVE that, and I LOVE my TMMO girls!
I suppose the highlight of the week was The Sailboat Cruise with Captain BJ. Patrick and I had been on this boat when we went to the beach in June, but for some reason, it because a whole different place when I went on it with my 11 girls! There was another family with young children on the boat with us, and you could just hear the parents whispering (hissing!) to their children, "You stay away from the back of this boat! No! Don't you even LOOK back there!"
Most late afternoons were spent in the Gulf, relaxing, talking, and Tracie teaching us that it's ok to pee in the water. The days were spent either shopping, at the pool, on the beach....the beautiful thing about it was that everyone could do exactly what they wanted! There was no pressure from anyone to do anything; everyone was on their own vacation!
We spent one evening at the Hangout. If y'all haven't been there, it's such a FUN place to go! There were kids in strollers and 100 year old people...the Hangout's for everyone. Kids and adults were on the dance floor; heck, there was even an 8 year old playing the accordian in the band! I will warn you, though; if you go and dance, you might want to wear shoes. The "dance floor" is concrete, and though I'm from MS and used to being barefoot, I came home with bloody, peeling, blistered feet. In fact, it was over a week before I was able to wear shoes again (I was forced to wear flip flops to work; I hate it when that happens!).
Perhaps because we were at the beach, this year's WWW actually lived up to it's name. I won't go into detail (what happens at WWW stays at WWW!), but Lena summed it up well in her deep TN drawl, "I tell y'all, trying to keep up with y'all (at the Hangout) was like herding cats! I might as well've been trying to nail jello to a tree!"

Time Gets Away From Us!

Last post was in May, and it's now August 1. Holy Smokes, time really does have wings!
So what's happened lately? I suppose the biggest news is that Pete's gone to Basic Camp at Ft. Benning. I can't believe how much I miss him! He left on Tuesday 7/21. He wasn't supposed to leave 'til Wednesday, and he had everything planned out. Going-away party Monday night, Tuesday would be spent with his friends that couldn't make it to the party, Tuesday night would be with us and his girlfriend,Cat, on Beale St in Memphis, then he'd leave Wed. I'd go to work as planned Wed morning so I woulnd't make a fool of myself, and Patrick would drive him to the Recruiting Center.
Then he got the call Monday, in typical Army fashion, that he had to leave Tuesday afternoon. Pete tracked me down at work and he was so upset; we both cried over his plans gone awry. I stayed teary-eyed all day long, my heart breaking because he wasn't going to see some of his friends as planned.
We had the party Monday night as planned, and it was well-attended. Pete's got TONS of friends and they can all eat TONS! In the first 1/2 hour we'd gone through 25 pounds of hamburgers!!!! Evidently Pete was expecting them all to eat tons, though, because I made the mistake of sending him to the store to buy the food. I gave him a list and said, "Add whatever else you want." Tip for the future: don't ever say those words to a teen! The boy ended up getting 2 huge containers of mustard, 2 huge bottles of ketchup, and a GALLON of pickles, as well as a 5 lb bag of mini Reese's and a 5 lb bag of M&Ms. I had "chips & dip" on the list, so he got the dip and about 8 containers of various flavors of Pringles. Ok, son.....Pringles aren't exactly the kind of "dippin' chips" I had in mind, but since I didn't specify I'll take the hit! LOL
The party "ended" at 10, at least at our house. They carried it to Huddle House 'til around 2am. Lucky folks at Huddle House! :)
Tuesday morning we took him (with Cat) to Huddle House for brunch. I'm pretty sure we were better behaved than Pete & his buddies the night before! Around 11, I decided to take the cowardly way out, though, and Mabry and I left them to go shopping. I just couldn't sit there and pretend life was just ducky anymore, and I didn't wanna make a blubblering idiot out of myself in public! So we said our goodbyes at Huddle House, and I haven't seen him since.
He doesn't have an address yet, but we did get a letter from him earlier this week. His letter sounded upbeat, and it almost sounds like he finds his Drill Instructors amusing. He's been "smoked" twice, and in the telling of it he made it sound pretty funny. He's such a great writer, and I can't wait to hear from him again. Of course, Cat has had THREE letters (that I'm aware of) and one phone call (which she missed). I told Pete before he left that if time would only allow him to call one person, he should call Cat if that's who he wants to call. Then Cat is to call me and let me know how he is. I remember what it's like to be the girlfriend! :)
One thing we did at his party was have everyone write him a note/letter in a notebook. MY plan was to mail him one every day (which would kinda take the heat off of me in figuring out what to write him!). But the boy found the notebook, took all the letters out and took them with him. Now I'm glad he did that, as I imagine they're getting him through these first couple weeks while he waits to get an address.
So...now we wait to hear from him. Hopefully he'll call soon with an address so we can start writing him. I'll let everyone know when we hear in case anyone else is interested in writing him! :)