Forward All Mail to Texas....

I have decided I must get these last letter fragments on the blog before I get completely wrapped up in my Texas vacation! 

Its been great, these first 3 days have flown by and I see myself on the plane returning home in far too short a time! 

Lou is in the mountains, meanwhile, braving the elements as I hang out with T, Betsy and their 5 little stinkers, eating good food, sleeping far more than necessary, staying up past midnight (hence the need for sleep) and coming up with all sorts of messy crafts and games to play with Kate, May-May, Ashlynne and Debo. 

Back to the trenches! This is Lou's letter #3 that reached me while he was still in Crawl Phase. 

Hey Baby! Hope all is well! Its Tuesday and we got 2 more days! There is a lot of anticipation about "Go"s cause they don't tell you. I'm nervous but confident. (lol-love his way of putting this!) We started platoon OPS yesterday and it went very badly! We got smoked, yelled at and berated. When you go from 12 guys to working together to 53, things go badly and then the RIs have fun! We got smoked all through our patrol last night. We didn't hit the sack til 03:30 for a 04:30 wake up. Things compounded themselves cause no one got up and the PL (platoon leader) missed his brief-BAD NEWS!!! Another long day! Missing you terribly! Oh yah, last night we had fun in a swamp. The RI made us inplace in a swamp. Horrible. The smell was horrendous! But the spiders!!! The spiders were huge, big wolf spiders crawling on you! (Did you know these can have a 4" leg span? At least, unlike the widows and recluse they are not poisonous.)

 Saw a black widow on a buddy's ruck. Saw about 10 brown recluse spiders (check out the link if you have a strong stomach and want to see the damage a recluse bite can cause) and about a billion other creepy crawling, biting, stinging monsters. Ants, centipedes, and RIs yelling about how to watch out for snakes. Fun times. My body is still crawling. 
My leg is healing nicely and like I said, 2 days Baby! Then RIs are handing out a million spot reports (Ranger School demerits) If you get 3 you could get recycled. If you don't clean your M4 (type of gun-for the weapon letter/# identification illiterate) or fall asleep or just about anything really. CC's (friend) whole platoon got one for not cleaning up after themselves. 
Wednesday, June 2nd
Hey Baby! One more day! What a night, we did our mission and moved out back to camp but it was black out! I literally had to hold on to the rucksack of the guy in front of me. We went into a swamp then into a huge gorge 60-70 foot on each side. We literally crawled up the sides. We had rucks, weapons, radios, and tons of other special equipment. It was hysterical! Then we moved too slow cause you can't see and if you fall with all that stuff its bad, not to mention the huge drops and dips. The RIs started yelling and screaming. Definitely one of those "what did I get myself into" nights. Went to bed at 3am, up at 04:30 and am now sitting in an op-order brief, trying not to pass out. Tehe tehe.
I got 2 of your letters last night. It is always wonderful to get a letter. They hand them out at around 02:00 and morale is pretty low..............Sorry I haven't been able to write you. But I didn't have a lot of time and I gave away some of my envelopes. I will try to send some more once I get into mountains.........You never really know what you have until you have nothing....................................................
Another fragment:
I'm sitting here at L____ Army Airfield waiting for the guys to land the C-17 (this time the letter/# combo is a plane!) and jump. Its cool out and I'm in the shade. The RIs are busy with jumpers and I'm thinking of you! Life is good. Well, I still want to run down Dixie Road and see you!!! Oops, the gate just closed. I wish I was with those guys. I hope they don't get hurt but it looks really motivating to be jumping. Anyway, I'm airing out my leg and it looks much better. Its gotten some big puss filled pimples on and around my wound (This is gross and I'm a nurse!) so I'm having fun cleaning those.............. I'm sitting in a 3 hour briefing for Platoon OPS which started today. Hope everything is going well. I'm doing just fine! Counting the minutes! We may have some guys who need a ride or what not but we'll have plenty of time! I hope this gets to you by the time Friday rolls around. (And it did, but after we had already started the pass. :) So much for all the equipment lists he included that I could pick up prior to Friday!)
And now back to life in Texas! 

T and Betsy's youngest, Rebekah (Bekah) is the happiest little baby ever! But, she has this tendency to smile, start giggling and immediately douse you or some nearby victim with a bit of baby spit. In her case, a bit is a fountain worth! (Check out Betsy's noteworthy pic of her and Uncle David on Facebook if you have any doubts!) I have reservations about getting her too excited because of the flood that just might follow! I've been told (many) times by my mom about my own "projectile" episodes as a baby, so I just can't hold it against Bekah. Besides, she has the sweetest personality. You can't help but love her!

She loves to get around on the floor by "scooching" and in her case, it involves her head! She is amazing-and should totally apply to be featured in the infant Guiness Book of World Records for her flexibility and maneuvering!
We finish up a normal day of "kidland" here with Mommy reading to the girls and or movie/popcorn time!

I'm missing my Lou, but being in Texas with family is the next best thing! Thanks T & Betsy for letting me camp out with you!