The Week of Anticipation.

So I stopped checking the mail box every day around Day13. It was turning me into a psycho person. I have seriously never checked the mail that many times. The problem was that there were several days that I could not remember if I had checked it or not, so I checked it twice. Absurd. So I just stopped checking everyday. Tuesday, day 16, I checked the mail and got 2 letters from James! I was so excited I literally couldn't contain myself.

Seriously, the two best words I had read in 2.5 weeks. The first letter he wrote after RAP week. He said he was exhausted and hungry. That he did not get any of his push-ups counted off, ran his 5 miler in 35min, and finished the Land Navigation with 1.5hrs left. Awesome. The second letter said that most of the time he felt like he was learning a lot, but at the same time it he wasn't because of the lack of sleep and food. Needless to say, I kept the letters with me and read them all time. He even asked me to go make sure I had a pair of boots for him at home and to fix one of the pairs of boots he had at home. There was a twist. He wanted a certain pair of shoes, and then he wanted the plastic toe and heel cups taken out and a different sole placed on. Demanding :) The trick was that the shoes usually took a couple of days to get fixed, so I definitely needed to buy them and drop them off by the end of that day...it was Tuesday...So I got the letter at 3:00 and was out the door at 3:30 to find the shoes. I went to Commando's-no go, Ranger Joe's- no go, Extreme Outfitters- no go, and Combat Foot Wear- no go. This was ridiculous. Luckily, I still had the one pair that I could get fixed for him, but couldn't find another pair.

After a crazy Tuesday, my anticipation grew. Would he pass? Would I find out before I went to pick him up at the gate? Is this 8 hour pass going to be wonderful? Awful? What if we didn't get everything done? What if he slept the whole time?

Thursday. I went to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, found out that Fawn and Meredith both found out that their hubby's passed and my stomach is now constantly in knots. It was weird- while I was so excited for Fawn and Meredith I was so jealous. I feel like I am always the last one to know, to hear from him, etc...and this just added to it. And then of course came the thoughts that if they found out and I haven't then it must be bad news. Luckily, Fawn- being the amazing friend that she is- told me this, "We don't work on luck, we work on the Lord Almighty!" She was so encouraging. I started calling the staff duty officer, and ultimately ended up talking to 5 different people to only get half of an answer. I was still unsettled, but gave up talking to people on the phone. Apparently, my patient level drops when I talk to Army people.

Then...I decided to wash the car. Wanted it to look nice. And got water on my phone. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. Not good. I immediately put my phone in a bag of rice and had it off. Only to find out later than night- circa 10pm- that my Boy had been trying to call me all day. The house phone rang at 10:26. I had just crawled in bed. My stomach dropped. I knew it would be from him. And the caller ID said...PAY PHONE!!!! SO glad he took a calling card and SO glad that his parents had saved our home number and could give it to him. His calling card of course only had a minute left on because he had been trying to call me all day and he let all of his buddies use. Typical. This time around, I am sending him 2 calling cards. One for me and one for his friends. Lesson's learned. And he told me he PASSED.  Praise the Lord!

8 hr pass coming up.