Waiting

It's been quite a few days since my last post. I have received 2 more letters from Keith this week. It's been almost 3 weeks since I have had a phone call from him. That's to be expected especially that I was sent a general letter from his commander stating "expect only 2 phone calls that will last 5-10 minutes in these 10 weeks." Great...I actually missed Keith's phone call on Mother's Day. I could kick myself. In his last letter, he asked me to send him a care package of toilet paper and a combination lock. I sent him those things, plus a magazine and cards signed by my family. Earlier this week I was pretty depressed about him not being here, but I just kept my mind busy so I just don't think about it. I miss my husband so much.

This last week I have been working in my sister's salon to help her out. I make a little income so I have some spending money while Keith is away. We received his first paycheck which was a nice surprise. Luckily it arrived when it did because I just sold my car two days ago. Well the day I sold it, Keith's car decides not to start. The battery was dead and the contact with the starter was acting up...go figure.

This upcoming week I will be going to Universal with some of my closest friends. Since she works there, we can stay at the Portofino for a very cheap price. I will post pics in my next post.

Keith notified me that there is a facebook page called Alpha 2-47. It's great because the army takes pictures of all of the soldiers in boot camp. I have found a few pictures of Keith. There are some pics that I think might be him, but these guys all look the same.

Marching to Basic

Keith is the 2nd to last person in the line.

Climbing over the wall on the obstacle course.

He's the third person on the left with his head down.

Gigantic monkey bars.

As soon as more pictures are posted on facebook, I will post them on this blog.

A few letters

It's been a pretty crazy few days. I enjoyed staying at my friend Lesly's house for this last week. I went to his graduation ceremony on Friday and on Saturday I went to a graduation party. I'm so proud of my friends graduating and moving on to bigger things. I'm so glad to have these people in my life. I also attended a dinner for the scholarship students that sing at First United Methodist Church of Winter Park. These wonderful people invited us into their home and made an exquisite meal of Steak, potatoes, salad, and some homemade apple pie...delish! I'm glad I will be around this next year because I feel so blessed to sing with these people.

I finally got to my parents house in the early afternoon on Mother's Day. We went out to dinner and then celebrated my sister's and her mother-in-law's birthdays. Since I have not been home all week, I had three letters for me from Keith. Mostly everything that was written in them I knew about since we were able to talk on the phone most of his first week. He also sent an anniversary card which was so cute. I missed his call yesterday though. He left me a voicemail with his address and I accidentally deleted it. I'm such an idiot. I guess I will have to wait until I can speak to him again.

Between yesterday and today, I have done so much cleaning and organzing. My parents are not the most healthiest people and it seems they never have the energy to clean. Well since I have moved out almost 6 years ago, my mother filled my room with furniture that was left to her when my grandmother died. Also, some of my childhood things were never given away. Last night took me about 3 hours, but I went through and tried to clean and organize. Also, did I mention that I'm sharing a closet and some room space with my parents friend who has been staying at the house. Aye that has also been a challenge. When I moved everything in my room, I just threw my stuff anywhere until I could sort out everything. Well here is the before and after:

 

Today, one of biggest problems of clutter in my parents house is the garage/storage room. For years this room has built up with clutter from crap for yard sales and my mother's jewelry business.

My brother and I finished this in 8 hours. Don't mind the baking soda on the carpet.


I will be uploading Keith's letters momentarily.

1st Week

So much has happened within the last few weekends. Keith and I have been anxiously awaiting his departure. I decided to throw keith a going away party on Easter Sunday and it was so much easier to do it today rather than earlier. All of the family could attend and some Keith’s friends. Here are some pics:

Skipping ahead after my last post:

Tuesday 4/26

Well amazingly I slept through the entire night. I woke up around 8am and got breakfast at the hotel. Keith texted me and said I could come to MEPS around 9am to see him. It's kind of funny my hotel was located closer to MEPS then his hotel. When I arrived, I waited out front of the office.

At about 9:30, I got inside and sat with Keith for a few minutes until he was called for processing. I did not see him again until an hour later.

Later, after some more waiting, Keith was called to "Swear In." I eventually was called to witness and I took some pics and videos:

 Finally, when the small ceremony was over, I gave Keith one last hug and kiss and then I left. I did not have much time to stick around since I had to work. The whole ride home was not too bad. I was able to talk to Keith for quite a while. He told me that they finally left MEPS around 3pm and then stopped to eat around 8pm. That was the last I had heard from him that night. I decided to hang out with my friends because they were well needed.

Wednesday 4/27

 I was sent a text from Keith at 3:36am that said:

"It looks like as if I am getting no sleep at all tonight. Yay! What's worse is there was a group in after my initial group got in. We atleast got to put our shit away. Here are some pics for the blog so far...

I woke up early and starting cleaning and moving what was the remainder of my apartment. My mother-in-law and cousin came over and helped me clean the entire place. I even left to go to rehearsal and when I came back, they finished a great deal of the job. 

Sally Joe had the carpet looking brand new. Afterwards, we went out to dinner and then I brought Phyllis home. Around 7pm, I talked to Keith for a little bit and he told me that he had been up for 41 hours. He was delirious on the phone. He only had 5 minutes to eat each meal. I don't know about you, but I would have horrible indigestion. Plus, they kept making the recruits drink water all night and only let them go to the bathroom twice. When people asked if they could go to the bathroom again, the drill sergeant said, "You will go when it is convenient in our schedule." After hearing this, drill sergeants started yelling in the background, so he had to get off the phone. I then got a text message about an hour later saying, "tornado." I was a little confused and I did not hear from him for the rest of the night. I talked with my aunt Laura for so long that it was 11:00 already. I was so exhausted that I just spent the night.

Thursday 4/28

I woke up at 8am and saw on the news that huge tornadoes had touched down in Alabama, Mississppi, Georgia, and North Carolina the night before. After being worried all day, not knowing if he was alright, Keith texted me:

" Hey my lovely wife. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk right now, but I wanted to let you know that I thought my phone was stolen. Turns out someone moved it. I miss you so much right now. I got 4 hours of sleep, straight with no stops. I'm doing ok. I will be trying to mail you asap. BTW you are covered on insurance now and should not pay co-pay."

I'm glad that he was alright. Apparently, he also heard tornado sirens and had to take shelter because the weather was getting bad. They had to move all their stuff from an upstairs bunker to downstairs. His phone got moved, so he thought someone stole it. 

On a happy note: Woohoo...I will have insurance. I can't wait to get my military ID so I can go down to Patrick Airforce Base.

Tonight will be the last night in the apartment by myself. Tomorrow will be busy with my last weekend of shows.

Friday 4/29

Well this begins my last weekend of shows. We moved to our 2nd venue which is the Darden theater at the Orlando Science Center. Here are some pics that I promised from my last posting.

This was my show "Everything Taboo." We did the opera Candide for Act 1 and Act 2 had various scenes from "Hello Dolly, Wicked, Spring Awakening" and more.


Once the shows finished the next day, I was finally able to relax...somewhat.


Over the next few days, Keith called me usually between 8-9. It seemed our conversations we becoming shorter since we seemed to not have as much to talk about. Reception seemed to be getting boring for him. Some nights he had to do some guard duty, but that was to the extent of his excitement.

Skipping ahead to...

Monday 5/2
Happy 2 year Anniversary to my hubby. I worked earlier today and then went with my friends to a voice studio party hosted by one of my professors. I was having a good time until I received a phone call from Keith. He was sobbing on the phone because he thought about me all day and when the drill sergeant ripped into him, he broke down. My heart sunk into my chest. I was so sad for him because he was not with me, but I couldn't let myself think about it, otherwise I would have made myself upset. I love him so much.

This was such a long post, but it was a good weeks worth of events.

Over these next few days, I finished working at Publix and after I take care of some things in Orlando, I will be moving home...Lucky me.