Halfway There!

Sorry this post is a couple days late - with the Holiday Weekend it was difficult to talk myself into sitting down at the computer.  The last week has flown by, thanks to taking on a couple of house projects that were desperately needing to be done. 

The folks at BCT with D this week all hit the firearm range to work on sighting and shooting their beloved M16s.  D reported that he did relatively well, although he had been selected to shoot first, which meant that after he finished he got to sit around and wait for everyone else to finish.  This potential boredom had him volunteering for every job that needed to be done until he was scolded by a DS for not letting anyone else work!

He was able to call on Sunday, his normal calling day, when I was, of course, in Wal-Mart.  It's strange how my whole world stands still when he calls.  If I was driving, I would pull over.  If I was at a friend's house, I would begin acting very rudely by ignoring everyone else.  And if I'm in Wal-Mart, I stop dead in my tracks (in this case I was in the craft aisle) and stand still for 20 minutes.

Then, on Monday, while I was at his parents' house eating lunch, I got a text message:  "I love you."  My in-laws were laughing at me because I was grinning and squealing and bouncing in my seat - D's platoon had gotten phone privileges for the entire afternoon!  He had to wait until their cleaning was finished to call, but I got about an hour and a half of talk-time in between calling and texts.

I know that last week I had mentioned that it was weirdly hard to talk to him on the phone for 20 minutes a week, but I was glad that particular phenomenon seemed to vanish in yesterday's call.  He was still a somewhat subdued version of the D I know and love, but we were able to really talk, like we hadn't been able to in weeks.  It was so nice.

Monday also marked our halfway point - he's been gone for 5 weeks, and we've got 5 more weeks to go.  It was also a milestone for D in another way - the last training event is taking place one month from Monday, marking the end of the training portion of BCT.  The rest of the time is cleaning up and getting ready to come home (in D's case, anyway.  Most soldiers move directly on to AIT - I'm so thankful we're not doing that).

We've made it halfway, folks!  Five weeks to go - I can do it!