In Brandon's Words: Answers to your questions Letter Dated Oct 18

October 18, 2012

Valerie,

There are two parts to this letter, the first being a letter to everyone on your blog, and you of course.  And then a personal (not private) one for you.  I love you.

First there have been a lot of people who have written me.  I really do appreciate and look forward to reading all their letters.  There have been a lot of people who have been very inspiring to me so I want to say thank you to everyone who has written me and sent me pictures and things - and spare paper, Noel.  I hope that I can find time to respond at least once to everyone, I am not very fast at writing and I can't promise anything, however . . . .

Some of you have asked me some questions so I am going to answer some - or most of them.

My blisters are healing!  My ankles still have that slight soreness and sometimes it doesn't feel to good on my heals, but all in all it is doing great.  I have a slight cough - sometimes I get a tiny sore throat, but I am doing great in that department.  I feel very healthy and I can keep up with most of the guys here.  I can run a 14.35 2 miles and ran two time on Monday morning and today (Tuesday) morning (today I didn't run it that fast).  Yes I do run in my army boots and believe it of not they are actually starting to feel comfortable - either that or my feet are getting number and number (can't feel them).  I think it is the latter reason.  But I run the two miles in tennis shoes so don't think I'm working out in Army Boots.

Does it rain a lot here? Often enough I guess.  It rains more there than in Utah, that is for sure.  Yes, Mel, it is hot, muggy and rainy.  However, the past couple of days it hasn't gotten that hot so I am actually enjoying the weather - that doesn't mean I don't sweat - I do a lot.  For some unknown reason the Drill Sergeants don't want us wearing deodorant.  Yeah, that's right.  I had to throw two brand new sticks of deodorant away when I got here.  So after a long day I, and everyone else in my platoon,stink.  Luckily, we do take showers - usually every day.  But sometimes it does get ripe in our bay.  We can also do laundry any time during the week at night so we try to stay smelling okay.

I have heard that the weather in Georgia during "fall time" can go from really hot to really cold quickly.  So I am gearing myself up for that.

Valerie, you are dressing as an "Army girl" for Halloween, and guess what, we are going to go matching because, in response to Caleb's question: Yes, I am dressing up like an Army Man for Halloween.  And when I get back home I will show anyone who wants to see my "costume", or better yet uniform.  I am going to be dressed up like an Army man all day long on Halloween which is fun because I always tried to do it before, but always looked dumb because I was missing one thing or another.  Now I definitely have every piece of that costume.  

Lindsey asked if I eat more than just the awful MRES.  The answer is yes, I do eat at the chow hall here by our barracks.  And I wouldn't call the food awful.  It is just a lot saltier than I am used to, and they don't strain the fat as much as I would.  Okay, they don't strain it at all.  And canned veggies are good, even though I like frozen cooked veggies. It really isn't that bad.  They give about 210 18-29(me) year olds 30 minutes to get our food and eat so there really isn't much time to taste it anyway. And MREs are good. They come with things we don't normally get, such as, snack foods.  But when you are hungry they are great!  Besides, as the drill sergeants tell us around here "food is not for tasting.  A machine needs fuel and so does a soldier.  That's all food is is fuel so fuel up men you have 1 minute left to eat 59 . . . 58 . . . etc"  It makes me laugh - on the inside.  Oh and my personal favorite told to us my one of our Drill Sergeants, DS C____, "If your not choking, your not eating fast enough."  Makes me crack up (on the inside) every time I think about it.

Speaking of Drill Sergeants.  I have to explain something to everyone:  Drill Sergeants are mean, but that's not who they are, it's what they do? (Does anyone know what movie that is from?) They are hilarious.  They tell us that their job is to mess us up and make us do stupid things.  For example: since everyone in our bay had a cough about two weeks ago they approved us to buy and have cough drops from the PX.  So everyone brought some.  Then, if that wasn't enough, a lot of the guys wrote home and told their parents and families to send cough drops which they gladly did - A LOT.  I found out I really didn't need any more so I never told anyone to send me any.  Almost everyone in our bay has received a package in the mail with cough drops.  DS S____ was on duty that night and he told everyone that they had to do a pushup for every cough drop that came in a package.  Pack of 50 = 50 push ups and so on.  I was way glad I didn't tell anyone about this because there were guys in my platoon that got the ultimate package of 100 drops - two packages  200 push ups.    I was standing next to my bed just laughing on the inside with a straight face.  DS S___ was laughing on the outside because he can.  Then one of the guys in our platoon received a huge package with about 600 unpackaged cough drops in it along with another package of about 4 packs of 50 - somewhere around 800 cough drops!  I along with everyone else was laughing out loud.  He had already done a lot of push ups for other things.  We did the math and DS S______ allowed everyone in the platoon to do about 50 pushups each so he could have the cough drops.  The guys asked DS S____ if he could just throw them away, to which he responded, "NO! You can't throw stuff away that your parents and family so lovingly sent you.  Start pushing everyone."  I was more than happy to help him out and do my share of the pushups.  He later shared the cough drops with us.  It is so funny what the Drill Sergeants do to us all the time.  I am constantly laughing inside around here.

I mentioned before that I am a good aim and can hit a target pretty well on center.  I think I also said that I got a compliment from DS R___ telling me I was a dang good shot along with a few of the other guys I was with.  Here is the reason I'm not very good at shooting though, I am not fast.  We have gone to pop up target ranges and I get pretty low scores because I am not a fast pointer.  It takes me a few seconds to line my sight up just how I want it.  I am getting better.  I am sure that I will get even better with more practice.  I can shoot the 300 meter targets though.  That is a long way off.  The guy I'm shooting at is smaller than my sight post.

This is so everyone knows what's going on right now. But like I said before, they really don't tell us much about our future training here.  we all want to know, but they keep us in the dark.  I think so we can just focus on training.  Drill Sergeant R___ (he is a Green Beret and is giving us additional training for our contract) has given us a couple clues as to what we should expect through the next couple months.  And he has let us look at a couple book he has that talk about special forces and what is going to happen to me is best summed up in a little diagram in one of the books.  I am going to try and write it so that you can post if on your blog easily.

Step 1.  Decide to be special forces
2. Enlist
3. Infantry Basic Training               18 weeks   (12 weeks for me - accelerated due to Christmas)
4. Airborne training                          3 weeks    (Probably at Fort Benning again)
5. Phase 1a SOPC1 SFAS prep     3 weeks   (Move to Ft Bragg)
6. Phase 1b SFAS                          3 weeks   MOS (Job) determination (choose from medic, engineer, etc)
7. SOPC2 (Phase II Prep)              3 weeks
8. PLDC and BNCOC                   3 weeks   (NCO development (Non-commissioned officer) )
9. SFQC Phase II                           7 weeks  (Small unit tactics)
10. SFQC Phase III                      12 weeks  MOS training
11. SFQC Phase IV                       7 weeks   UW Training
12. BMLC Phase V                16-24 weeks   Language training
13. SERE Phase VI                        3 weeks   Survival training
14. Special Forces Airborne
 (Promoted to Sergeant moved to assigned group)
Average time from enlisting to SF is 24-26 months.

I haven't been holding this back, I just found out about it this week.  Oh and I don't know what the acronyms mean.  Your guess is as good as mine.

There you go.  This is what I am going to be trying the the next few months.  I have heard a lot of people say, including our drill sergeant, that a lot of people do not make is though because it it going to be very difficult.  I'm okay with that.  I am going to try my hardest to do what I need to to get ready and start doing special forces.  If I can get through I will be super excited.  However, if not, I will become an infantryman - which is not that bad of an option either.  Our drill sergeant told us that infantrymen are respected and they are good to start out with.  He told us that most of the leaders in the army today started out as infantrymen.  And they grew up and got promoted and did amazing things.

 I also know this: that if I am in the infantry I can have a better chance of getting into the officer school.  And if I do that I might be able to go to Warrant Officer training.  Which means I could go to WOFT (Warrant Officer Flight Training) and learn to fly helicopters!   Either way, special forces or infantry, it will work out and I will do something cool for and in the Army.

This Army thing has been such a wonderful blessing to me and my little family.  Some of you may think I am crazy, but I know I made the right decision.  And a little side note, If I do go all the way through green beret training I will one day get out of the army and have enough money to buy my own flight time and get my licence that way.

You were curious what an average day here was like for me.  Well let me tell you.  On average:

0415 (4:15 am) First call, get up, shave, make bed, get dressed in exercise uniform, etc

0515 (5:15 am) First formation: come downstairs to stand in formation until the Drill Sergeants take us to exercise or whatever.
  
0530 (you get the point) PT Training
          We have to march to the track next to our barracks that has sand all throughout the middle of it.  We exercise on the sand and run on the track.  Before entering the track and field we have to do 25 pushups then put ourselves in formation with our company on the sand somewhere   We then extend the formation to the left (arms length between everyone) turn to the right and do it again so we are spread apart.  Then we do about 10 - 15 different exercises such as: the windmill, the power jump, forward lunge, rear lungs, the pushup, the powerjack, the bend and reach, the list goes on and on.
            We move back into formation then usually do a running exercise such as 2 mile timed run or 60:120s (run for 60 seconds, walk for 120 seconds) or 30:60s.  Or we just run in formation doing our exercises in a straight line with each other.  Then we reassemble and go back in the barracks.  We change into our ACUs (Army Combat Uniforms) and come back downstairs by 0645.

0700   Breakfast - I just told you about the food, but I didn't tell you what we ate: Our choices are usually eggs, bacon, sausage, or biscuits and gravy; and waffles, or pancakes, or french toast (depending on the day).  Bread or bagels; fruit/nuts; Gatorade, OJ, or milk; cereal; and/or a yogurt.  Not too bad.

0730  Breakfast over; we have to go back tot he barracks assembly area for formation and have to do pushups, sit ups, dips, and pull ups on the way back.
           Once in formation we get ready for the activity we are going to do during the day.  (This week we have gone to the shooting range every day and spent the whole day there)

0720-0745 We put on our gear: Bullet proof vest (very heavy), tactical vest, camel back (yes we drink a lot of water here), elbow and knee pads, and we wear our assault backpack.  Oh yeah we also get our rifles (M-4's for those who care) and take those with us too.

0800  Transit.  Go from our company area to the buses. (marching in formation like everywhere else).  Those buses take us all over the base and it is HUGE! It covers 3 counties and parts of two states.  Today we went to one of the many many many shooting ranges to do pop up targets.

0900 After the ride and reforming up in platoons (we are #3 of 4 platoons, and the coolest one of them all. of course) we are seated in a tiny section of bleachers.  We All squish onto about five rows and three average sections of aluminum bleachers and squish is the keyword. If there is not enough room for everyone on the bleachers they make us stand up, turn to the right or left, and walk until our toes touch the heels of the person in front of us.  Then they turn us back to the front and have us sit down. (Yes we are all still wearing all the gear I just listed except the pack). It is very squishy.

0900  (Roughly)  We start shooting.  They take people from the bottom row of bleachers and line them up to shoot. We have about 20 or so guys and they shoot roughly 15 at a time.  It takes all morning.

1200 Lunch time.  They have us assemble in formation and the second and fourth rows are supposed to turn around.  Everyone sits so you are back to back with the person behind you.  They pass MRE's down the line and whatever one you get is the one you have to hang onto. Then you eat it.  Throw trash away, etc.

1245  Shooting. We assemble as before and then we go through the whole shooting thing again.  Again we have everything on.

1500 (3:00 pm for those who don't know)  Everyone assembles and goes back to the shooting range and collects all of the ammo - or cartrages or whatever is left and puts all of them in the ammo can to be refilled.

1530 Assemble to wait for transit.

1600 Transit back to barracks and we run back to the CTA (Place under our bays where we assemble in the morning) Assemble, drop all our gear, and wait for chow.

1630-1700 Go to chow or have chow brought to us in big green bins to serve and eat ourselves.  Sometimes we are the platoon assigned to go get the bins and serve the food.  We happened to do this today. After we eat we water down and sweep all dirt, food, etc to the grass.

1830 After chow and clean up we had mail call YEAH!  I got a lot of letters so thank you everyone.
1900 Bay maintenance, we come to our bay and clean it up, wipe it down, wash and sweep and mop.
2000 Personal time: Write letters, exercise, or read, or do whatever. I happen to need to do laundry tonight.
2100 Lights out - everyone in bed asleep or falling asleep. Unless laundry is still in the works.  Usually you sleep all night.  Unless:
2200 Fireguard   We have to have a battle buddy team assigned for every hour of the night to stay awake and keep an eye on things.  My turn tonight happened to be at 2200.  I have had it way late at night and way early in the night.  It's just another fun thing we have to do.

That's the end of the part of the letter that is for all of you.  I'm sick of typing right now so I'll wait to post the other half until tomorrow-ish.  Thank you all for writing Brandon! 
    

Week Seven: Several Birthday Parties

My girls are still obsessed with the Hulk.  They've progressed to being able to point to Bruce Banner and say "Hulk, Hulk, Hulk."  But we actually watched my wedding video more than The Avengers this week.  The girls will point to the TV and ask, "Daddy?"  And then I say, "do you want to watch the Daddy movie."  They nod their heads and I turn it on for them.  They love to see their Daddy.   

Of course we've done a lot more than just watch the wedding video over and over and over.  (But we did do that A LOT)  Here's the run down.  

We had our movie night on Wednesday night this week because we had plans for every other night.  We watched Enchanted the girls loved the songs.  They also loved the Mother's cookies that we had for our treat.  (They each pooped pink the next day.)

 My cousin Melissa slept over on Thursday.  This is the third year that her, Hillary and I have had a sleepover during UEA weekend.  Melissa remarked that I have more kids every time she sleeps over.  (First year I was pregnant with the twins, second year the twins were almost 1, and this year we had Derrick too)  Melissa was great and watched the kids for me while I ran some errands.  We had so much fun with her that I forgot to take any pictures.

On Friday we went to Ogden to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday.  We were the first to arrive and the kids had fun having the run of my in-laws tiny rental cottage. (It really is a cottage)

 Soon cousins arrived and the girls shrieked with delight.  They started jumping up and down and running around.  So we sent them outside to play.

 We had dinner.  The girls were supposed to be eating at the coffee table, but they wanted to be big kids like their cousins.

 Derrick was happy at the table.  He is sitting so well.  I don't have to worry about him tipping over anymore.

 After dinner we went to the Tree House Museum in Ogden.  I knew the girls would be running around having tons of fun and I did not want to slow them down by lugging around Derrick.  So I bought this little umbrella stroller to keep him in.

Well, I was all ready to pay for our admission when the ticket lady told me I could park my stroller by the door because they didn't allow strollers in the museum.  That was a HUGE DEAL BREAKER! I was ready to take my kids and leave when she told me that.  When she saw that I was serious she asked me if there was a medical reason that I needed my kid in a stroller.  I told her, "Um, only that he weighs 20 lbs and I have toddler twins to chase around."  She allowed me to take the stroller in "just this once."

I'm glad she let us in because the girls really did have a great time.  They probably could have spent the whole 2 hours in each area.

 They loved the little play house.  They had so much fun taking everything out of the fridge and setting the table.  And Charlotte insisted on putting everything back before we moved on.  

 The other favorite place was a little hospital nursery. Here is a picture of Charlotte and Lydia and their cousins Oakley and Annalynn.  These 4 cousins were all born within the same 12 months.

 The girls loved "weighing" the babies.

 And they made sure all the babies were back in bed before we moved on.

 Then they played in the music room.

 They loved that they could touch EVERYTHING.

 Derrick actually fell asleep while we were playing.  It would have been impossible to carry him around without the stroller.  After we'd been there almost 2 hours he woke up and needed a bottle which was in the car.  I asked the girls if they were ready to go and they stopped what they were doing and started walking down the stairs toward the exit.  Sometimes I seriously have the best kids!

 We went back to my in-laws house.  Brandon's dad hadn't come to the party because he was working on building his house.  He was home by now and so was Brandon's grandpa who had been helping him.  He and Derrick met for the first time.

 The girls played with Legos.

 Everyone arrived and we had cake and ice cream.  We were also celebrating Annalynn's first birthday.  The girls ate mostly ice cream.  I'm thinking we're just going to have ice cream cakes for their birthday next week. 

 On Saturday night we went to yet another birthday party.  My friend Debbie celebrated her 60th birthday, and her family threw her a surprise party.  During nap times and evenings I put together a photo book for her (its on facebook if you are interested). Debbie was one of my young women leaders and a great friend.  I was so happy I could be there for her party.   And I got to see a lot of my friends from the good old 5th ward.

 The girls loved the party too.  Lydia has started collecting the confetti on tables at parties.  Last week she had a whole cup full of "Happy Anniversary" confetti.  This week she collected all the star shaped confetti.

 The girls had taken really late naps on Saturday.  So when we got home from the party they were still wide awake.  I let them stay up and they watched my wedding video about 20 times while I cleaned up the apartment for Sunday.  They went to bed around 11:00 pm.

 Despite the late bedtime they were up early on Sunday.  I mentioned to Charlotte that we were going to church and she could go to nursery.  Immediately she wanted to get dressed.  Then she put on boots.  She kept asking "church? church?"  I told her it was only 8:50 am and that church wouldn't start until 1:00.  She wasn't very happy about that.

 When we finally did go to church she and Lydia were very good during Sacrament meeting. As soon as the closing prayer was over they made a beeline for the door.  They zipped right down the hall and made it to nursery before the leaders were there.  I think they've missed playing with the toys.  After church we had dinner and then I took the kids on a long walk with the jogger.  I gave Charlotte this weed/flower and she loved it!

 Today I woke up with a major weekend hang over.  I was very grumpy.  We ALL took 2 hour naps and then the day was much better.  We even went out to play in the leaves for a little while.

 Derrick loved the leaves.  He is such a good sitter.  Charlotte and Lydia never really sat.  They would always fall over and start scooting.  Derrick is just content to sit and play with everything.

 Tonight the girls were worn out from all the partying we did during the weekend.  This is how they looked at 7:15 tonight.

 I put them to bed and then started prepping for my trip to Logan tomorrow.  The party continues!

In Brandon's Words: Letter Dated Oct 14, 2012

I received this letter on Friday, but I've been rather busy so this is the first chance I've had to type it up.  Brandon has a kind of frustrated tone in this letter.  I think he would really appreciate if you all could write him an encouraging letter.  His address is on the top left of this page.   

October 14, 2012

Valerie,

Hay Baby, funny thing happened to day.  Drill Sergeant wanted us to check our account balances to find out if we were getting paid the full amount we were supposed to have.  I thought to myself, I don't need to do that I already know that Valerie has it covered and I don't need to worry myself.

Anyway, a little later we went to the store - yes they make us go to the store, and do laundry, and work like crazy cleaning around here on Sunday - that is the worst part of being in basic training.  I can handle everything else, but I want my day of rest.  Oh well I just keep remembering that it is what I signed up for and it will only get better. Anyway, while we were there the platoon leader (a really cool guy from Jamaica yeah Jamaica - accent and all) asked everyone if they had checked their account at the ATM.  I raised my hand because I hadn't - I'm always inclineded to tell the truth - so I went.  Time to get away from everyone else for a minute.  While I was there a guy got his balance of $0.00 in his account and was pretty upset about it and now needs to find out what's going on.

When I got my account balance of $0.00 I thought to myself (and told everyone else who asked about it) "My account is perfect.  No money in checking."  They asked if my wife took it all and spent it.  I told them, "No, my wife is awesome and did exactly what I knew she would do - distribute it to all of our other accounts. [We have several sub-savings accounts that I keep our money in until we actually need to use it] They seemed a bit confused, but that's okay.  I told them how awesome you are!  Thanks for being awesome!

While at the PX we got to buy leathermans or gerbers which is a different brand.  I ran out of money on my money card so I used my debit card for the first time since August.  It felt so nice.  Anyway apparently banks think that a random purchase halfway or more across the country is identity theft so I'm warning you that you might get some notification or something.

Oh by the way, don't feel bad that I don't get to buy anything that I want with that money, because I have bought plenty of new stuff since being here.  I have a lot of new stuff to play around with . . .

Let's see what else is new with me?  I passed my BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship).  I don't know my score, but I got a Go!  Drill Sergeant S___ was at the table with the scores and he yelled to me (like he yells with everyone)  GO!  I think if meant two things - 1. You got a go on your shooting instead of a no-go, and 2. get out if my face.  So I did.

Then I got to shoot again.  I thin it was for the official riflemanship contest between the platoons.  I don't know.  No one tells me anything around here.   I think the drill sergeants were supposed to pick their two best shots and the two that weren't that good to compete.  I was one of the ones that wasn't so good.  And I really sucked it up this time, but it was not my fault.  I really believe in no excuses, but the overhead intercom system quit working so I didn't even know when to start.  I just saw targets pop up and had to shoot at them because the speakers weren't working.  I hadn't loaded my rounds yet and was way behind doing that.  And on top of that one of the targets was way too low and another quit working in the popped up position while I was there.  But with all the odds against me I still got a 22 which is one below passing, and I helped, I guess.  Our platoon won the contest - yeah we rock at everything.  But I was still upset that it happened like that.  Not to mention we haven't have a ton of practice shooting with our rifles.  

All I really care about is that I got a "go" and passed it.  Now we are going to start ARM (Advanced Rifle Marksmanship)  Luckily enough we don't have to pass anything for that - well that's at least what the rumors are saying.

October 16 2012 (very early am)

I was going to continue this letter on Monday, but I didn't get the chance.  It is now 12:30 am and I haven't gone to bed yet because we went to the shooting range all day today from about 8:30 am -11:00pm.  I am so tired.  We also did our PT test this morning.  Pushups and Sit ups were pretty normal for me.  I couldn't make it past 40 for either.  But on a very positive note I ran a 14:35 minute 2 miles this morning.  8 times around the track!  I was duly impressed with myself.

After that we came back and had a really quick breakfast.  I was scarfing my food (like I always do here) and I still had to throw some of it away. I couldn't catch my breath from running.  When we eat here we either go to the chow hall and have a half hour to feed our company (215 + guys)  so they make us scarf our food fast - usually I don't even taste it.  Or we eat MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) Military Rations that we have usually around 20 to 25 minutes to eat on a good day.  Or they have pre-prepared food that is portable and they serve to us.  That's what breakfast was today. It is really frustrating when I don't get enough to eat all day long.  Usually I can get enough to sustain me - but today wasn't one of those days.

Today at the shooting range we practiced shooting behind a barrier. It was actually really lame for how much they made us work to get there like this morning.  I shot twice.  The first time they had us shoot both left and right handed.  I sucked on my left handed.  I can barely hold it steady right handed.  The second time we used night vision goggles.  Yes, they made us wait and do absolutely nothing all afternoon and evening until it was dark enough to shoot with night vision.  You are supposed to see the infrared laser through the googles and point it on the target and shoot.  But the display sucked.  And by the time they got to me they just told us to empty the magazines into the dark while looking at the laser through the display.  Needless to say, I was pretty mad that I waited all day to do nothing.  But I need to keep remembering that this is what I signed up for.

I tell you though, I cannot wait to be finished with this.  We only have about 2 months left.  A little less actually.  I am very excited for that. . .

Well I better close this up and mail it.  However, I want you to know that I love you dearly and I miss you immensely.  I want to see you every day. I miss Charlotte, and Lydia, and Derrick too!  I want to see ALL of you.  I am doing this for you guys, and I am going to keep doing it for you guys.  I so want you to be happy.  Please continue to write me as often as you can.  I look forward to hearing from you.

I love you tons,

Brandon

In Brandon's Words: Letter Dated Oct 10

Here is the latest letter from Brandon. It was written after our phone conversation last week, but before he got my most recent letter.  So that is why he mentions the jeep's brakes but not the starter.  And here is a little video of a game the girls and I play.

October 10, 2012
Hi Beautiful,

I love you, and I am thinking about you all the time.  Don't worry I still compartmentalize and forget about you when I have to focus on other things, but you do cross my mind more than once per day.

I am so glad that you were able to buy the girls and Derrick some socks and other clothes.  I am so glad that it almost made you cry.  Knowing that make me very happy.  I am very happy to be doing this difficult thing for you and them.  It is very rewarding and worth it to hear things like you don't have to worry about spending too much money.  I am glad that you bought things that we have wanted and needed for a long time.  Don't worry about me - I am not jealous in any way.  I get to go on daily adventures and get paid for it.  I get to work out and get paid for it.  I get to play with guns and get paid for it.

The drill sergeants are funny, mean, knowledgeable, and willing to teach.  It sucks waaaaaaay more than USU - but at least I'm getting paid for it.  And the suckiness has an end time.  So don't worry about me not being able to buy things I want and/or need right now.  There will be a time and a place for that later.

Thanks so much for fixing the jeep and getting the brakes fixed - be sure to tell _____ thanks for working on it too.  I am so glad I don't have to worry about not being able to get the car fixed.  And I am so glad that Heavenly Father blessed us for so long with the brakes.  I'm curious how it runs now, any different? any better?

***
I am still doing pretty good here at Basic Training.  This week we were qualifying with our weapon (M4 Carbine).  Which means we have to not only be a pretty good shot, but be able to hit random pop-up targets.  We have to hit at least 23 out of 40 to qualify and I am slightly worried after today.  Last week I hit 15 out of 20 which I equated to 30 out of 40 which I didn't think was so bad.  But today I had to wear my full "Battle Rattle" suit.  Which is my bullet proof vest, tactical vest (the one with all the pockets and crap all over it), helmet with very crappy straps on it, and our eye protection and knee pads and elbow pads.  All of this on me makes me a lot heavier than normal and it is very hard to twist my body in the right direction to shoot.

Today I shot 3 times 40 targets.  And my two best scores were 19 and 22.  I don't even remember what the lowest score was.  But I felt pretty dumb. I just need to remember that everyone (including me) is praying for me and I can do it.

Today on the last time I shot I realized that I needed to get rid of some things that were distracting me.  All of the stuff I listed I have to have on to qualify, but the sling for the rifle (webbing that you hang it on your shoulder with) is not necessary and was irritating me beyond all belief.  So I took that off.  For the first 30 shots I am laying on my stomach and I have the chest plates and vest pressing into my chest.  That's not so bad, but when you have dog tags on it gets a little irritating.  So I took them off and put them in my pocket.  That seemed to help a lot.

After doing this I got my high score of 22 which is almost qualifying.  I figured a long hot day out in the sun with that equipment on was taking its toll and I was just too tired to get a better score. I do think that tomorrow I will do a lot better, and I will be able to get a better score.  We'll see.

You were worried that I would be mad about _______.  I told you, you are in charge.  Thank you for letting me know.  And I fully support your best decisions with everything.

One of the main reasons I married you was because you were smart and could make really good decisions.  I'm glad that this is true.  I'm also glad that you did ______.  So no worries.

I love you Valerie for writing to me and keeping me informed on what you are doing.  And telling me great and exciting stories - and funny stories- about home.  It means a lot to me that you are there and I can count on you the way I do.

On that note be sure to thank everyone who has written me.  I love letters and hearing about what is going on with everyone.  Because of all the [letter writing] effort - everyone's relatives in my bay included - we are getting mail pretty regularly.  We got mail last night and tonight.  It's fun to have lots of letters.

I better let you go sweetie.  I love you and will still keep in touch.

Love,

Brandon  

Week Six: A very favorite movie, murder, and more

This post could also be titled, "the week we watched the last 20 minutes of the Avengers at least 3 times a day."  But that's a long title.  Still it would be a very actuate title.  Lydia has fallen in love with the Hulk.  One of the first things she asks me every morning is, "Hulk?"  Followed by saying "RRRRRAAAAHHHH" and pointing to the TV.  

And being the great mother that I am, I tell her "no, that's a PG-13 movie.  You can't watch that."  Ha ha nope. In reality  I que up the movie to the part right before Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk and smashes the Leviathan monster thingy.  I always tell myself that I can at least get something done while the kids are distracted  but inevitably I find myself sucked into watching the movie too.  Hey, it's a good movie, and it's nice to have a break from the dribble on PBS. 

Anyway, despite memorizing all the dialog in the movie (I don't see how that's a party./ Dr Banner now would be a really good time to get angry./ That's my secret Cap, I'm always angry/ etc)  I've been doing other things as well.  Here's a recap:

Derrick's high chair arrived on Tuesday.  He is very happy to finally have a chair with a tray.  He loves to bang his hands on the tray.  

 This is how breakfast looks at our house now.  I'm keeping Derrick on the counter for now because, quite frankly, it's easier to feed him while he's up there.  I alternate taking bites from my cereal while feeding him his baby cereal.  Somehow I have never mixed the two up.

 And this is what dinner looks like.  Like I said, Derrick is so happy to have a real chair at dinner now.  Now that he has that I might even get around to getting him some less girly bibs (highly unlikely).

 The other night I told the girls it was almost bed time.  Charlotte started putting books and toys into her bed.  She always stays up later than Lydia and I guess she was sick of being bored in her bed.  I could hear her playing in her bed for a long time after bedtime.  This is how I found her when I checked on her later that night.  She'd taken care to arrange her pillows the way I always put them and you can see that she even tried to put the blanket over herself. It melted my heart.

 Friday we went to my friend Lindsay's house.  I've known Lindsay since I was twelve.  We went to Jr high, High school, and Snow college together. In my mind it hadn't been that long since I saw Lindsay.  We are very good facebook friends and so we've kept in touch.  I was shocked to figure out that the last time I saw her IN PERSON was my bridal shower!  Way too long.  Our kids all had a good time playing together.

Saturday was a busy day.  We cleaned in the morning and then all took naps.  Then I woke the kids up and got them into the car.  Our first stop was a bridal shower for my friend Jennifer.  She was my visiting teaching companion when the girls were born.  The girls were as good as gold at the shower.

We had to leave early because we had a family get together going on at the same time.  Brandon's (for simplicity's sake we'll call them) Aunt and Uncle celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  The girls had a fun time playing with their cousins.

 And eating cake.

 And Derrick was happy to be among so many people.

After the Anniversary Party I took my kids to my parents.  I got ready for a Super Hero Murder Mystery Dinner. I had been assigned the character, "Blue Blaze." I'd thrown my costume together the night before.

 My sister Hillary did my hair.  Some of you may recognize my headband from a prior Halloween costume.

Erin, one of my high school friends put the party together.  She and one other girl were the only people I knew.  It was really fun to interact with everyone "in character."

 We had to socialize with each other and spread rumors and gossip about each character.  We were all given papers with instruction on what sorts of things to say.  We'd all check our papers frequently to make sure we were saying and doing the right things.

 Then the murder happened and we had to put all the clues together to figure out "who done it?"  Here I am sitting next to the victim.  I'd just barely read my instructions for round 3 and found out I was the murderer!

 At the very end all the other superheros defeated me and I had to "die a dramatic death."  It was so much fun!  The only downside is I made some new friends, but I still don't know them because we were all in character.

Back in the real word I had to tap into my super mom powers and take the kids to Stake Conference.  Luckily I have really awesome neighbors that sat with me the whole time.  Melody handled all of Derrick's needs, and Caleb and I tag teamed the girls.  In some ways SC is easier than real church because it's held in the Bountiful Regional Center.  The chairs are theater chairs which means the girls can't escape to other rows by going under them.  I just brought a lot of activities and kept them busy on the floor.  At one point I put blankets over the chairs in front of us and the seats on our row and made a little "tent" for the girls.  They played in there for at least 20 minutes.

But alas the meeting was 2 hours long and so by the end the girls were literally climbing the walls.  We'd sat in the very back of the hall - right in front of the lighting booth.  The girls figured out that if they stood on the back of the chairs they could see into the booth.  And as if that wasn't embarrassing enough they started to try to climb into the booth by using my shoulder as an extra step.  I'm sure we provided great entertainment for everyone sitting on the stand.

Anyway, overall it had been a good meeting, but I was out of entertainment resources for the rest of the day.  I didn't even have the energy to take the kids for a long walk.  So I called my Aunt Vera and asked it we could come over to her house.  She was happy to have us come over.

The girls had a great time playing with all her toys in her little "toy cave" - which ironically was my "bedroom" when I lived with Vera during two semesters of college.    

Today, we've been digging out from the crazy weekend.  (This morning there was no evidence that the house had been clean on Saturday morning)  It's been a fun day full of new discoveries.

The girls learned a new way to play with laundry baskets.

 Lydia showed off her favorite thing to do with Derrick's swaddling blanket. She calls it her "hat."

 Charlotte did the same thing, but added something extra.

 Derrick fussed when I got out the camera to take those two pictures.  So I turned the camera to him and he immediately smiled.  This boy hate being left out!

 Then a little bit later he started fussing for real.  So I swaddled him up and put him to bed.

The girls started swaddling their babies and then they wanted to put them to "sleepy."  So I made two cribs out of boxes.  The girls would put their babies to bed.  Then say "sleepy" and leave the room. Then they would say "wakey" and come back in the room to pick up the babies.  It was so cute.  

Then they wanted to get into the beds as well.  Charlotte only stayed in her's for a second.  

 But Lydia was in her's for a long time.  I'm honestly surprised she didn't ask to sleep in it at nap time.

Anyway, that was our week.  And here is our plant that is now 2 weeks old.  We got it down and looked at it for a minute during family home evening.  The girls looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how tall it will be and that it will have big flowers.  

In Brandon's Words: Letter Dated October 7

Brandon wants me to let you know that he is very grateful for all the letters you have sent him.  He has a request.  One of his good friends hasn't received ANY letters from anyone. His roommate doesn't really have any family.  It would be great if you could take a minute and write an encouraging letter to Chris King.  Tell him how proud you are of his decision to join the army and protect our country.  Anything would be appreciated.   Here's his address. 

333 King, Christopher
Bravo Company, 2-19th Infantry
198th Infantry Brigade
9050 Kinsman Dr
Fort Benning, GA 31905    

I received another phone call from Brandon on Monday night.  We talked for about 20 minutes.  He is doing well.   We were so happy to talk to each other.  This letter was written before the phone call.  The first half of it was mainly just housekeeping items.  I've typed up the second half that is more interesting to everyone.  

October 7, 2012

Valerie,

First off, we are no longer in Red Phase!!! Red Phase is the first phase of Basic Training and it's the sucky phase.  It is the phase where your drill sergeants yell at you and are constantly there and are training you to know how to operate in basic training.

Now we are in white phase!  This is the next best phase.  It is where we get a little less supervision during our day - we can march ourselves to and from places like the chow hall without the drill sergeants.  And instead of leaving at 9:00 pm at lights out they leave at around 5:30-6:00 pm and we are on our own to learn stuff we need to.  I am kind of excited about that.

***

Thank you to everyone for writing me letters it has been nice to hear from everyone.  I loving having something from home to read.

A couple days ago we went to the hundred meter shooting range and tested our skills there.  When I shot I got 25 shots in a magazine to finish the task.  I shot the first five and they marked the targets so we could see the bullet holes.  Most - or all- of mine were in the middle. And so was the rest of the 10 guys I was shooting with.  The we shot the next 5 rounds and everyone had them in the middle again.  Our drill sergeants told us that we were all great shots - they actually gave us a complement.  They told us just to fire the rest of the rounds and we all got in the middle again.  It was great.

It was funny because I am a very quiet guy especially when I haven't used my voice for a long time (a couple hours).  A drill sergeant came to talk to me.  He asked me a question, and I answered.  But I had just ran and was a little shakey - not to mention that the drill sergeants make me nervous.  I was talking to him and a group of drill sergeants happened to form around a couple of feet away.  One asked me how old I was. I told him 29 and they were all pretty surprised.

My drill sergeant who was talking to me told me, "you are as timid as f***."  I didn't know what to say so I just replied, "Yes, Drill Sergeant."  He told me that I needed to get some confidence.  I told him that is why I joined the army.  And then he basically told me that I didn't need to be nervous around the drill sergeants.  He said, "Private (we are all privates until we graduate to the drill sergeants), do I put my pants on one leg at a time every morning?" I replied, "Yes, drill sergeant."  He told me to remember that.  It was definitely an interesting experience and I am getting more confident in what I can do.

Monday October 8 2012

Like I said long letter.  I live with a bunch of guys, and Valerie, you have trained me too well to be sensitive to noises because I am constantly hearing snorting, sniffing, spitting and other gross body noises that used to not bother me.  But now a days I hear it and it makes me want to nauseous   I am getting pretty good at ignoring it though.

Today has been a fun day.  Normally we get up at 4-4:30 am, but because it is a holiday - Columbus Day we got to sleep in until 5:30.  After breakfast we started to do combatives - hand to hand combat.  It was really fun.  We learned a few new exercises that wore me out.  Then we learned some holds and blocks and how to get out of the position where someone is kneeling around your chest.  A lot of people said that it was one of the funniest things we have done all the time we have been here.  I would say it is definitely one of them.

There are a lot of guys around here that have had pretty hard lives and since coming to basic they have started thinking about religion a lot.  I have told everyone that I am very religious and love to talk about it.  I have had a lot of missionary opportunities here just in basic training.  Yesterday I actually brought a friend to church with me.  I told him a little about the church beforehand.  And he had a few questions about it.  I tried to answer them the best I could.  But during church he went to the "first time" class.  When he got out he was stoked.  I got him a Book of Mormon and he got a bible.  He told me was we marched back home how much sense the church made with the apostasy and everything.  I felt inspired to tell him that If he kept getting involved with the LDS Church his life would never be the same, and he would have a lot of great things happen to him.  He seemed pretty excited about it.

Last night I had the opportunity to talk to one of my roommates (a different guy) about the church too.  I got him a Book of Mormon and he was asking me lots of questions about heaven and hell and the Mormon thoughts on that.  I tried to explain the best I could about the beginning basics of the plan of salvation.  I told him about my wife and he talked about his girlfriend.  We talked about relationships.  He liked a lot of things I had to say.

I still love you more and more every day!  And I love hearing from you.  So I looking forward to your next letter.  I have some other things I was thinking about telling you, but I will tell you later.  This letter is long enough.

I love you tons,

Valerie

Car Care Adventures

We all know that Brandon is learning to do new and hard things right now.  He's growing stronger and more confident as he is tested in ways he didn't think possible.  He isn't the only one.

Thanks to the fact that I never owned a car until I was married, I've never had to take a car to a repair shop.  Brandon always took care of it.  And it's not just repair shops.  I've never taken the car to get registered or to even to get an oil change.  I just always let Brandon handle that kind of stuff.  In fact, Brandon was surprised I even knew how to put gas in the car.  

Well those innocent days ended this week.  

You may remember that I dropped Brandon off at a hotel the night before he was sworn into the army.  And you may recall that I couldn't get the car to start after he said goodbye.  Fortunately, I only had to go through a few panic inducing minutes before the car started again and I was able to go home.  

The same thing happened to me two more times over the next few weeks.  It was a little disconcerting, but I was busy, I didn't have time to take the car in to be looked at.  And I really didn't know where to begin. 

Last week one of Brandon's best friends asked how the car was running.  I mentioned the rare not-starting issue, and Friday he came down from Logan to check it out.  He'd promised Brandon that he would keep and eye on the car for me.  He followed through with that promise.  In addition to checking the battery and alternator, he changed the oil, gapped the spark plugs, filled up the tires, bought me a whole tank of gas, and probably did a whole bunch of other things too.  He's basically the nicest guy on the planet.  I can't print his name here because that would ruin the whole "bad guy" reputation that he likes to maintain.    

I was thrilled with the work he did.  Especially since I figured I could continue in my car care ignorance.   However, after he left I noticed that the brakes were acting funny and the brake warning light was on.  I asked Brandon's friend about it and he said he hadn't done anything to the brakes.  

My initial plan of "ignoring the problem until it went away" didn't work. On Monday I told myself I was a big girl and took the jeep into Midas to get the brakes inspected. (I picked Midas because that's where Brandon took the car.) I was able to handle the whole thing like an adult.  However the diagnosis on the jeep came back grim.  All four brake pads were worn down to almost nothing.  The front two were below the passing inspection limit, and the back two were close.  And there were some other brake problems that concerned the mechanic as well.

Now this may seem like a terrible problem.  However, I view it as a miracle.  Here's why:  Back when the Jeep was inspected for safety in January of 2011 the mechanics warned Brandon that the front pads were low.  They still passed, but we figured they probably wouldn't pass again.  So when Brandon took the Jeep in for safety at the beginning of this year we held our breath.  We had just survived 4 months of unemployment and we didn't have money to replace the brakes.  Miraculously, the jeep passed inspection on the first try.  And miraculously the brakes worked through all the things we did in the last 10 months.  

Now that Brandon makes more money this actually was the perfect time for the brakes to give out.  I had more than enough money in savings to cover the cost of replacing all four brakes.  And with another pay check coming in a few days I didn't have to work about being left with nothing in savings.  

I was feeling pretty proud of myself.  I'd successfully taken the car to the repair shop, and now all my car problems would be solved.  However, I should have waited before patting myself on the back.  Not only were the brakes bad, but the brake cylinder also needed to be replaced.  The mechanics didn't find that problem until just about closing time.  I had to leave the jeep with them overnight.  

They finished up the jeep on Tuesday.  As luck would have it, all my kids were sleeping when the shop called to tell me they were done.  I called a neighbor who came and sat on my couch while I walked the short distance though the neighborhood to the shop.  I paid for the repairs with my debit card (Dave Ramsey would be so proud) and came home.  

But I wasn't done growing up yet.  Last night I noticed a grinding noise coming from the brakes while I drove. I tried my ignoring plan again, but, surprise-surprise, by this morning the problem hadn't gone away.  I called up Midas and told them the problem.  The mechanic who worked on the jeep happened to be the one who answered the phone.  He immediately remembered that he'd forgot to snap something into place (or something like that.)  He told me that I could bring the jeep in and he would fix it right away in the parking lot.  

Charlotte and Lydia were asleep so I called my upstairs neighbor and told her she was in charge of them, but she could stay upstairs.  I would be back in less than 15 minutes. I loaded Derrick up into the car and we drove over to Midas.  

I parked in front of the building and turned off the engine.  Jay, the mechanic, came out (he heard me pull up) and crawled under the car.  In two seconds he was back out.  He'd fixed the problem.  He told me to back the car up and drive forward again to see if the noise was gone.  I tried, but there was one little problem - the car wouldn't start!

My first reaction was embarrassment.  My car was making me look bad in front of a mechanic.  But then I realized that this was the best place to be with a car that wouldn't start.  Jay had been a mechanic for 41 years.  Both of us figured he could get the problem solved in a jiffy.  I popped the hood and he told me and Derrick stories while he worked.  First he cleaned the connector thingies.  When that didn't work he checked the battery.  When that didn't work he changed the battery. And when that didn't work he tracked the electricity and found that the starter had gone out.  

The whole process had taken almost two hours. During that time Jay and I had become great friends.  He'd shown me that mechanics aren't scary. They are actually really fun.  At one point I totally bought into a major BS story he told me.  I told him he could tell me all the BS he wanted as long as it wasn't about the car.  I would have loved to stick around and continue talking to him.  However, by this point my amazing upstairs neighbor was feeling the girls lunch at home, and Derrick needed to take a nap.  So I left the keys with Jay and hitched a ride home in the courtesy car.  (I would have walked, but Derrick is freakin' heavy.)

Once again this may seem like a terrible problem.  But you have to remember the car not starting was my original issue.  I'm so glad that the starter decided to seize up right in front of a repair shop.  I was at least able to save on the cost of a tow truck.  And I'm so glad it didn't happen to me while I had three crazy kids with me.  (I don't even want to think about how bad of a situation that could have been.)

Midas gave me a good deal to replace the starter and within a few hours I was able to pick up my jeep for (hopefully) the last time.  Once again I was able to pay for the repairs with my debit card - though I will add that I am VERY grateful that all our bills are already paid for the month.  

So what's the moral of this story?  There are several.  

1.  Always pay your tithing.  I am convinced that we were spared major car trouble until the time we could afford it because we paid our tithing.  

2. Make sure you have savings.  I could have gone nuts with Brandon's first pay check and bought a lot of fun things. I also could have gone ahead and made a double payment on the student loans.  But I felt it was important to have money in our savings account.  

3.  Face your fears.  Hoping the problem goes away is no way to get things done.  

4.  Pay attention to what your husband does.  'Nuff Said