Quick update

Aaryk called again this morning after seeing the doctor. He's to take it easy, but was put back on full duty as of today. The ankle is quite bruised, but that's the extent of that. His knee just needs time to recover, and he should have that this week.

This means that he WILL ship on time, probably right after his graduation on Friday!

God is so good!

He'll graduate on Friday!

Aaryk just called me. The Lord is so good! Not only did he make it through this week and pass, they got back yesterday and were able to go to Church this morning!

That's the good news. The not so good news is that he goes in tomorrow for x-rays on his knee (and ankle I think). He passed his PT test with no problem, but by the time they were doing the march back his left knee finally gave out. In trying to catch himself he twisted and sprained his right ankle. After the 70 meter crawl during the infiltration/live fire course, he tried to march but his knee and ankle couldn't take it. The Drill sergeant ordered him into the truck for the rest of the way home. While better than trying to walk, it meant that he was soaking wet and freezing, instead of soaking wet and working up a sweat!

Thank you all for the prayers!

Alleluia! He is Risen Indeed!

Ok, changed my mind again!

Thanks to my family, my boss, and my co-workers, I'm going to Ft. Knox after all!

Now, I just hope he graduates on time! :) And doesn't kill me for spending the money on the plane ticket!

I fly into Chicago, and my folks and I will drive down (about a seven hour ride). We'll be down there for the Family Orientation Day, and for Graduation. I am so excited! This is how it always goes with me. I get worked up over something, finally let it go and really mean it when I say "your will be done Lord", and then things work themselves out. Not ALWAYS how I'd like them to be, but the anxiety is gone, in any case.

Please keep up the prayers and all for Aaryk. Now I can't wait to talk to him again!

Military ID!

I talked to Sgt. Ledesma (Aaryk's recruiter), and met him at the recruiting office this morning. He took me down to the National Guard post at Papago (in south Scottsdale, only a 15 minute drive) to get my ID. Whoot! I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it does!

It's even not a half bad picture!

Since we didn't have to go all the way out to Luke AFB (which would have been an all day affair), I was back in time to go to Church at noon for the Stations of the Cross. Very nice, reflective service on God's love for us. Even in the midst of our suffering, He is with us, and understands what we are going through, because in His love, He suffered for us.

We purchased 'The Passion of the Christ' when i came out last year, but I still haven't watched it. I'm planning on watching it this afternoon. Seems like a fitting time.

I'm at peace now about not being able to go see Aaryk at his WTC graduation next week. I'll make sure he gets some one to take pics though, and I'll post them here! ;)

So, I'm feeling better, all around, and continue to pray that Aaryk gets through these next couple of days without too much trouble. My thanks to Alicia who reminded me that being married makes us one, and so that even though Aaryk won't be able to be at Church on Easter Sunday, in a way he will be, through me.

Interesting link for today~http://www.loc.gov/vets//kit.html

What a week it's been!

The week of No News Is Good News

After talking to Aaryk twice last Sunday, I haven't heard from him all week. This is a good thing! Monday night I just sat around, jumping every time the phone rang, hoping and praying it wouldn't be him. The way I figure it is that he'd only call this week if his knees were hurt badly enough for him to not finish his training. Oh, and I guess the official title of his training program is Warrior Transition Course. Guess that's good to know, now that he's almost through!

Please keep those prayers coming!

Invited to the graduation

I got a letter in the mail today, inviting me to the family orientation and graduation for Charlie Company (that's the C co in Aaryk's address) next week. I cried all the way home. One of the few really emotional outbursts I've had since he's been gone. I would love to go see him, but there's just no way we can swing it. :(

Terri Schiavo

This whole situation has had me in knots all week as well. Let's just leave it at that. I have linked to her parent's site in my LINKS area on the left. That and www.blogsforterri.com are among the places I check daily for breaking news on her.

The Triduum

Here we are at the end of Holy Week. It's hard to believe that Easter is just around the corner! The Triduum, for those who don't know, is the three days before Easter Sunday. Lots of interesting stuff going on at Church. I took tomorrow off, as a 'mental health' day, and am going to be able to go to Good Friday afternoon services for the first time! Brian has to work Saturday night, so I probably won't be going to the Easter Vigil service, but we are planning on going to the Sunrise Service on Sunday, and then over to friend's for Easter dinner.

Easter without Aaryk will be...odd. It's his favorite religious holiday, and one of the high points of the year for him. I am thankful for all the folks who will be keeping me occupied on Sunday!

That's as much of an update as I have for the moment, but rest assured, the blog will be the first to know when anything new happens!

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Discouraged and just beat down

Aaryk woke me up again this morning with his Sunday morning phone call. I knew he was going to this time, so I kept the cordless phone in my room!

He is exhausted. As most of you know, he's not one to complain about himself. He ran out of Motrin for his knees and he said that he has been in more pain now than he can ever remember. It's chronic, and even with the Motrin he's having a difficult time with it. He told me this morning that the WTS program, while designed for returning servicemen, was designed for guys coming back in their mid to late 20's. The average age for their group is 32.

He has two main struggles (I've mentioned them before I believe). He has to pass his PT test on Monday, and has a Field Training Exercise (FTX) all of next week. He knows he can push and pass the run on the PT test, but is worried about what that will do to his knees. The FTX will be hard enough, they get dropped about 10K from the fort, and after a week or grueling work they have an 8K march back to Ft. Knox. The march is broken up with a live fire exercise in the middle, which is basically an obstacle course with bullets flying over your head. It's this march that concerns him.

If at any point this week they make him go to the sick call, he will at best be re-cycled through WTS, and probably end up at Ft. Benning GA for it, or worst case, they will give him a medical discharge and send him home. My dear husband does not deal well with failure, and this would be a terrible blow to him.

At this point he won't be getting any mail until they are back from the FTX, but I know he'd appreciate any encouragement from the folks 'back home'.

The other downer news is that they told the guys that they would miss 3 Sundays for Church. He just realized that one of them is Easter Sunday. No Easter Vigil, no sunrise service, nothing. That was just icing on the cake for his emotional wellbeing yesterday. He is stretched and exhausted in every possible way at this point, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Please pray with me, specifically for healing in his knees, strength during this next week, a boost to his morale, and peace with whatever the outcome of his WTS may be.

Got a package from Aaryk!

He's in the thick of WTS at this point, and asked me to let you all know how much he appreciates the prayers. He has called me every night this week! He won't be able to call me at all after Sunday for a week, so I think he's making up for that. He passed his BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) test yesterday, so he's only got two major hurdles left. On Monday he has his final PT test. He has to cut 40 seconds off his last time on the run to pass. Then they leave for their FTX (I think that's what he called it), Field Training Exercises. He's looking forward to that except for the 8K march back with the 'obstacle course' at the half-way point. Doesn't sound too hard until you consider that he's carrying 60+ pounds of gear the whole time!

He told me it was coming, but I finally got the package he sent this week! Along with a 12 page letter, he sent me a wonderful book titled, "Today's Military Wife: Meeting the Challenges of Service Life". It looks like it's going to be a terrific resource. I liked this part from the introduction~

Recipe for a Military Wife

1 1/2 cups patience

2 tablespoons elbow grease

1 pound courage

1 cup tolerance

dash of adventure

Marinate Frequently with salty tears and pour off excess fat. Sprinkle ever so lightly with money, kneading dough well until payday. Season with international spices. Bake for twenty years, or until done. Serve with pride.

~Author Unknown

Important Note~

When you write to him, please make sure that you address the envelope exactly as I have it listed here in the blog. If it's not, he gets to do pushups before he gets it! The drill sergeants don't do a lot of the 'head games' that you get in basic with these guys, but they DO still get reprimanded for the 'little things'. Not a huge deal, he said, but he did ask me to pass that along and to thank folks that have written to him. Also, after about Wednesday of this week, anything that gets mailed to him might miss him and have to get sent on to his next station in Aberdeen. So just be aware of that, but please keep the cards and letters coming!

Called again and a prayer request

I don't know if he just had more time this Sunday or was homesick, or a little bit of both, but Aaryk called me TWICE on Sunday! The first time he woke me up at 0630, and we talked until he had to leave to march to Church. The Church is about a mile from the barracks.

He called again about 1900 last night. He told me at that point that Saturday was the first day that he thought, "I really want to be at home". It's been incredibly hard work, physically and mentally, but he knew that would be the case. The little bit of homesickness though he didn't expect. I think I'm more of a basket case when I talk to him more frequently. Most of the time I can just keep busy with stuff, but when he calls it's much harder to not think about him. But, we deal with it. I knew this was going to be tough, but knowing it and actually experiencing it are very different. But don't worry about me, I'm just counting down the days until he's done! (19 until the end of WTS!)

Now the prayer request- Aaryk is concerned about his knee. It's giving him a lot of trouble and he's living on about 3200-4000mg of ibuprofen a day. He has to get through the next two weeks before he'll go see a doctor about it. He REALLY doesn't want to get re-cycled through WTS, and that's what would happen (he thinks) if he gets it looked at now. Would you please pray for guidance, strength and healing for him? I told him we'd storm the gates of heaven with our petitions on his behalf.

Thank you!

Talked to him again...Finally!

I stayed home from our Church Lenten Tent Revival tonight, because I had a feeling Aaryk would try and call again. He did!

He's still sick, and bruised and just dead tired, but he's almost to the halfway point!

Just to give you an idea of what his days are like, here's what he told me tonight:

0500 reveille
0530-0630 PT
0630 chow
0700-1000 class
1000-1130 cleaning, straightening up barracks, inspections
1130 chow
1200-1500 class
1500-1800 class
1800 chow
1830-2100 class
2100 get ready for next day
2200 lights out

Classes consist of everything from bayonet training to troop leadership and tactics. He said that for him it was mostly review and it was all coming back to him. For some of the guys whose prior service was Air Force or Navy, a lot of this is new and the pace at which they are expected to learn it means that on average about 1/3 of each platoon won't finish.

The only thing that concerns Aaryk is the possibility of being injured. If he gets hurt he'll get held over to the next group and have to go through all of this again. As a result he is being careful, but still has to push pretty hard. His knee is bothering him quite a bit still, but he is confident that he'll get through this part of his training with no problem.

He said that he managed to not get made a squad leader, but this week he would probably get roped into being a fire team leader. Each squad is made up of 9 guys, consisting of two fire teams and a squad leader. He would be in charge of three other guys in the squad. Which means that if they screw up, he gets to pay for it!

Let's see, I think that's about it for our conversation tonight...Well, at least for the parts I'm going to share! I hadn't realized how much I miss just hearing his voice. Every day is one day closer to being together again though.

Hey, thanks to everyone who has been praying for us, writing to him, and generally looking after us. I may not say it often enough, but we really do appreciate it!

Hitch and the Missed Call

So, of course, the one night I go out with some friends IS the night Aaryk calls....sigh. At least Brian got to talk to him for a bit. Apparently he is fighting the 'creeping crud' that Brian and I both had last month. Lots of coughing. No fun. Last week when I talked to him, he thought he might be having some reactions from the flu (and many other) shots they all got. Hopefully he's on the mend. He told Brian that he is tired and sore, but having a good time (that's my sweetie, only HE could have a good time in WTS!).

Jill (my boss), Angela (one of the other supervisors), and I went out to the movies tonight. We saw the new Will Smith film, Hitch. It was delightfully fun. Funny and romantic and an all around nice movie. Refreshingly nice even. I would recommend it to anyone, and everyone!

I'll leave you with this link, cool and definitely falls in the 'too much time on his hands' category~http://www.thebricktestament.com/

23 days and counting until the end of WTS!

We have an address!!!

Aaryk just called (boy is he tired!). He is running on about about 2 hours sleep again. They have a few more liberties than he previously thought, such as phone calls, and he can even have a cell phone. As soon as we can afford it, he's going to get one, because the pay phone is just terrible. I can hardly hear him on it.

Here is his address~

PV2 Drake, Aaryk
C co 1-46th IN
3rd Platoon Scorpions
Ft. Knox, KY 40121

Please feel free to write and as often as you can. Mail call is truly the high point of the day, but please just send letters. At this point care packages of any kind are frowned upon. When he gets to his AIT in Maryland, that will change I think.

29 days and counting until he's through with Warrior Training School!

The hard stuff starts for Aaryk, and The Kid gets a job!

Warrior Training School

Aaryk called me Wednesday night, and after a week of in-processing they were finally being assigned to their units to begin WTS. He called me from the barracks, from a buddy's cell phone. He explained that several guys had cell phones with them, some even brought laptops and DVD players. They were allowed to use all these 'luxuries' until they were actually assigned to their units. Beginning yesterday there were allowed no liberty, no free time, no privileges at all until they earned them. Aaryk didn't mind not having some of these toys, because at 0400 yesterday they all got to carry everything the brought as well as everything they were issued on the 2 mile hike to their new barracks!

I probably won't hear from him again for at least a couple of weeks, but he did say he would be writing with his address in the next couple of days.

The Kid is employed!

While he IS still struggling to get through school and graduate, he did pick up a part-time job this week. He starts on Monday at Golfland. And yes, he has to get his hair cut! (if you haven't seen a recent picture of him, his hair had gotten down well past his collar. This job is VERY part-time which is good. He has Spring Break in just a couple of weeks, so hopefully he can get some hours then and have time to get everything done that he needs to for this last quarter in school.

Fun link for today, a high tech twist on a favorite game~ http://simonadv.powzone.com/