Dog and Lamp post Vs. Kid! Stay tuned to see how this turns out!! lol

Man alive poor Michael and his face! lol. Over the last two years his lips have really had it rough.. 1st in 2006 he magically found the ONLY opening in a trampoline netting, skyrocketed out of it, caught his feet on the netting and slammed his face into the bars, putting all 4 front teeth, tops and bottoms through the out and inside of his bottom lip, causing saliva gland trauma and he had to have it surgically fixed, then at Christmas a dog loved on his face... and now....... lol... what a trooper.

Evidently you DO NOT run with a boxer on concrete! REALLY??? whoo woulda THUNK? lol.

He took Cupcake for her afternoon walk around the complex and was in a hustle to get back in the apartment to open a belated birthday gift from Oma that had arrived and he ran with her instead of walking. Dog went left around the lamp post, boy went right....gravity took over and the concrete and gravel won. So Michael busted open his lip really good, and chipped a tooth. pretty nicely. Off to the dentist we go. Worst of it was that his chin had gravel embedded in it, so once he settled down from the original shock he had to sit still for over 30 minutes while I dug out gravel pieces from his chin. 3 were shoved into the same tiny hole and really took some digging so I give that kid some pretty big kudos for sitting still as much as he could! Lets just hope he can make it through the weekend at Dad's without coming back with ANOTHER facial injury..lol our new household slogan is "Just say no to road rash" lol..Oi Vey!

just some videos to give you an idea of what basic is like

I don't know why the sound isn't working on the 1st video...so weird.the 1st video is a basic training one from Fort Leonardwood again and the 2nd is from someone who went through boot camp at Fort knox.

Weeks ONE and TWO are done!!! sorry this post is a bit long, it has letters from Matt in it.

Don't forget that ALL pictures and video were snagged off the net and are NOT Matt. Believe me if I had a picture of him or video I would let you know!! lol

RED PHASE:

so the 1st two weeks of basic training (which do NOT include the week of reception) is called red phase. Basic training is broken down into 3 phases. Red, White and Blue...duh!

Red phase is ALL about failure. Your recruit is being broken down from his/her civilian mind set and forced to begin becoming a "WE" not an "I". The Drill Sgts will give the platoons tasks that they HAVE to fail at. They are expected to MAKE it work, but when they fail the lesson is learned much faster. A lot of people call Red Phase the hardest phase because there is such a huge adjustment in the mentality of being a Soldier, and the rigorous routines. Most drop outs happen in this phase. Even though this is CONSIDERED the hardest phase, it isn't, at least not physically. The work outs, marches, runs and training actually become harder but at that point you are in better shape and it doesn't SEEM quite as hard as those first 2 weeks.

Here is a portion of Matt's last letter to me, only part of it, since the rest is so mushy you would barf!!! lol..and it's mine.. ALLLLLL mine! He's been gone 20 days, only 14 of which has been his training, the rest was travel and reception.

19 January 2009

"You probably think I've fallen off the face of the earth since you haven't received anything from me in days. Ever since we moved down range to begin OSUT we have had no personal time what so ever. We've been getting up at 4:00am and not going to bed until about 10:30 pm ( he had it written in military time but I changed that for those of you who aren't military). We got all of our gear on Friday and ever since then we have been putting it together and getting smoked (smoked is where they are forced to do push ups or other muscle failure drills because someone screwed up on something), then we go to classes and get smoked some more. We barely have time to pee let alone time to write letters. We got out M16-A4 rifles the other day. We have to sleep with them at night. The only time we don't have them on us is when we use the bathroom or are in the shower. My new unit for the next 4 months is Foxtrot Troop, 5th Squadron, 15th U.S. Cavalry, 3rd Platoon. We are the "DEATH DEALERS" We have a good platoon. A lot of older guys, but we have a few young dumb kids who keep getting us smoked. My body is so sore from all the push ups and conditioning drills we have to do, but I can already feel myself getting stronger. Today we got our first feel for what it is like as a Cav Scout to march in full battle rattle (full gear, packs, weapon and so on) and we did it in over 4 inches of snow that we got last night. Another reason I haven't had time to write is because my battle buddy and I have been made PG's (Platoon Guides), so basically , platoon leaders. I can't believe I ever wanted to be a platoon leader! HAHA! It's a lot of work and everything falls on us. My battle buddy is really cool though. His name is Matthew Mullins, he looks and acts IDENTICAL to Matt Waren (a friend of ours from here in Arizona). It's so funny. He is married and has 3 kids to. He's 28 years old so we both have a lot in common. I'm just glad I didn't get suck with some punk 18 year old. So now that you have my address you can hurry up and send me letters and pictures! Just don't send boxes!!! Or anything that is naughty. We have to open our mail up in front of our Drill Sgt. and they will take them away from me. If you could call my parents and give them my address I would appreciate it, you can also post it on the blog if you want. Just tell them not to send boxes either. "

25 January 2009

......."Things have been so busy the last week and a half since we got to OSUT. It kinda makes me mad because we haven't had any personal time yet to do anything ! That means letter writing especially. The only reason I was ale to write that first letter was because I did it after lights out in bed which is not allowed. I'm writing this letter in church. So if we don't start getting our personal time at night then I am only going to be able to write a letter once a week on Sunday and mail it out on Monday. I wish I could write to you every day like I did in reception. But like I was saying this week has been really busy. Our Platoon doesn't get smoked as often as the other three do, but when we do, they smoke the crap out of us. We did do a lot of fun things this week, making sure we had all our gear in working order and then we got in the full battle rattle and went down the pit and learned how to use out bayonet and fighting techniques. On Friday we did the conditioning obstacle course. It wasn't all that hard but I had a ton of fun doing it. Yesterday we did the teamwork development course which was really cool. We had to do different obstacles as a team like building a bridge with only 3 planks of wood and getting our whole team plus supplies across without hitting the ground. We had a lot of fun. Especially on the four mile march in full battle rattle with out M16's. I was even in full battle rattle when I called you the other night. It was hard squeezing into that phone booth with everything on! LOL. This week should be pretty fun too. Tomorrow we are doing pugil stick fighting and then basic rifle marksmanship on Tuesday. I think we doing the gas chamber later in the week too. We had to do a whole 4-5 hour long class on CBRN (Chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear)earlier this week to get ready for that. I can't wait for the pugil stick fighting though. There are a few young bucks in our platoon who need a good ass whipping for getting us smoked every night! HA HA!! A few of us over heard our Drill Sgt.s talking last night about our platoon. They were talking about moving us up to white phase at the end of this week if we can work on a few of the smaller things that have been problems this past week and a half. I hope they do move us up. We just have to get some of the younger guys to be a little more disciplined. "................

Letter goes on...but then once again...thats all for me.

If you want his address feel free to email me or leave a message on here and ' I will get it to you. His Mom and Dad now have it too. He REALLY would LOVEEEE any letters you can send, also so far the only thing we can really send him is stamps. I'm working on finding out if he can have calling cards too, but since I've gotten 2 calls, one about the bank and one less than a minute long...a calling card doesn't seem practical just yet but I'll let you know. With all this rappelling and so on I bet he is really thankful he was an Eagle Scout..lol. I bet it helps a lot!!! just email me. cute_sassafrass@yahoo.com

Week 1
As you adjust to Army life, you begin to learn the importance of Army Values and learn how they shape you as a Soldier. You will take your first diagnostic Army Physical Fitness Test, learn how to march and prepare your barracks for inspection. You will practice Drill and Ceremony, learn your Special and General Orders and the Military Justice System. You will also learn how to disassemble, reassemble, clean and sight your M-16A rifle. This knowledge provides you the foundation for good soldiering.

Week 2
You'll be taught unarmed combat skills, learn first aid, map reading and land navigation. Your confidence will be put to the test at Victory Tower - where you'll rappel from a 30-foot platform. You'll learn the Army value of Loyalty and the importance of teamwork.

RECEPTION

A bunch of my friends have been asking for more indepth info on what Matt is and has been up too since he left. For those of you who aren't Army.....this is what happens during the 1st week of Reception. This video is obviously NOT Matt's troop, but was shot at Ft. Leonardwood. It gives you a basic idea of what they do the 1st week there. Not the 1st week of actual training. I will blog about that next week.

CupCakes new Bling

Just a few silly pictures of my puppies new collars and leashes. I found the greatest dog site! http://www.artfullpup.com/ it has such cute stuff! One collar is black pattent leather with crystals spelling out cupcake and a hot pink heart! lol..YAY...and the second with matching leash is brown with pink ribbon and little cupcakes all over it!~

Happy Birthday!!!!

Well, Michael turned 9 yesterday, and no matter how hard I tried, it was a Murphey's Law kind of day. The night before his birthday (Tuesday night) I blew up over 200 balloons by myself and filled his room with a sea of them. I put up a "Happy Birthday" banner and even tossed streamers around, both Michael and Cody slept right through it...lol. YAY for heavy sleepers. On and off during all this Matthew was up with fever and coughing, getting in and out of my bed and needing snuggles. I finally get him off to sleep for a few minutes around 1:50 am and I drift off. I wake to..."THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP".....my neighbor upstairs is stomping on the floor...HARD, in what seems to be her trying to get my attention...hmm....I sit up and look at the clock....2:00 am....I'm thinking...what??..is the apartment on fire or something??

..and then I hear it.

Glee! Joy and Happiness coming from the other room.

I sudenly felt like Mrs. Hannigan from Annie! lol . I go STOMPING down the hall, peeved as I can be. There I find Michael and Cody jumping up and down on their beds tossing balloons back and forth, and CRACKING up when some of them hit the ceiling or other pointy objects and the balloons burst with a loud CRACK!!!!!.....ok..normally...I would have thought...how cute...but at 2:00 am and sleep deprived with angry neighbors....cute was NOT what I was thinking! I quickly slam on the lights and threaten them with loss of thier personal freedoms until adulthood and storm out. Guess I scared them pretty good because they went RIGHT back to sleep...until 5 am...ARG when evidently the "birthday-ness" was just too much for them to take. Mean while Matthew was still up on and off all night so I gave up and let everyone get up for the day. Michael was really happy that I had taken so much time to decorate his room and was really apologetic for the loudness at 2 am. He waited until 8 am right before the bus was to come and he and Cody had to take two cupcakes upstairs to the neighbors and apologize...lol..

Once off to school Matthew starts showing signs of fatigue and I jumped at the opportunity to get him to take a nap, I snuggle down and drift off and get a WHOPPING 10 mins when Codys school nurse calls and has him sent home with a fever and inflamed tonsil...so off to the Dr. we went. We spent the morning there. I then have two kids home sick, I'm finishing frosting 50 cupcakes for Mikeys class at school and his friends here for after school and Cleaning like mad because my apartment complex decided that I was the LUCKY one to be picked to have them come in and use my apartment as their yearly inspection for structural damage right when we are supposed to be having the birthday party. Some begging and sweet talking and our apartment manager finally caved at the last minute and switched it to another apartment.! Phew.

I de-stressed a bit, got the cupcakes off to school, came home and got his party ready. He had chosen a small family thing so we had some good friends come over. Erik and Leah and their son Adam came over. They just recently moved back to town, they were joint friends of both Jon and I the 1st time we were stationed here, so it was awesome to have them back here to hang out with! YAY!

We had a nice time! Michael got to open gifts and have cake and ice cream. He even helped clean up his own trash. After everyone left we called Nana to thank her for her gifts and....she mentioned a gift card.....gift card?? I didn't see one...then she said where it was and I knew immediately that it had gotten thrown out and was sitting in the giant complex dumpster. Michael FREAKED. On went the shoes for a tour of dumpster diving! EW! YAY me..I knew right where it was and it was sitting in the box right on top of everything...lol..minamal dumpster touching!

So Tomorrow Michael gets to go shopping at wally world and pick out his own toys, which is his favorite thing to do! So thanks everyone for the cards and gifts and thanks Leah and Erik for coming over and keeping Jon entertained while he was here so I didn't have too..lol. We had a great day despite all that Murphey threw at us! Happy Birthday to my boy!!

Michael's 9th birthday part 1

Well, my boy is turning Nine this week! On Wednesday. I wanted to offer him a few options for his birthday instead of just throwing at him some generic birthday party. He was offered Chucke Cheese (eww...I so crossed my fingers that he didn't want that..lol) , a birthday party at home with the neighbor kids, going to the "Game Zone" in Tucson, or Kartchner Caverns Arizona State Park and Discovery Zone. YAY he chose the Caverns!!! What a smart boy! I mean..how often does an almost 9 year old boy turn down candy and arcade games for a dark wet science-ish field trip into a cave??? lol..Not often enough in my opinion but man am I proud. I had one of those Proud Momma moments, like...gee..I MIGHT actually be doing SOMETHING right here..lol. Since it takes a few hours to do we had to do it this weekend before his actual birthday but he doesn't mind since Wednesday we will also be having a small family party and so on. He was even kind enough to invite Cody to come along. Matthew was too young, no one under 7 is allowed in, there are too many jutting rocks, slippery walkways, and darkness galore that can be frightening, not to mention there is a STRICT no touching ANYTHING policy ( can you imagine a 3 year old in the dark NOT reaching out to touch things...lol ..no!) and MAN I mean NOTHING they have 3 rangers per each guided tour of 20 people. One in front, one in the middle and one at the end. I don't blame them though, it's AMAZING and because it's a "live wet-cave" the grease and bacteria just on your finger tip could change the way that cave grows for 500 years! Jon had the boys this weekend so I went to pick up Michael and Cody this morning around 9 and headed towards the caverns' about a 30 minute drive. The boys oooooooooooooooo'd and Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! the entire time. You take trams up the side of a hill to one of 2 enterances and it looks like you are entering Fort Knox! LOL. HUGE metal doors, walking down long dark EXTREMELY humid hall ways carved from limestone, and wait in a hall, then the door is shut behind you, you wait until the humidity is back to normal and proceed through ANOTHER door...wait again....ANOTHER door,...and then darkness........................
Then lights slowly start coming up, showing some of the most amazing things I've seen. I am so glad Michael wanted to go!! It was a great experience. We saw all sorts of fantastic things, and the rooms themselves were ENORMOUS, very awe inspiring. There is a huge formation they named Kubla Khan, it's 5 stories tall. In the slide show you can see a man in the bottom near Kubla Khan, he's so tiny! It was so cool, they had a light and music show at the end and it was so cool! I absolutely loved it, I wish it weren't so costly or I would go back every week! I am really hoping to save up another $60 and take them back to see what they call "The Big Room", it's only open 6 months of the year because it can flood with water and make a giant under ground lake inside, it's also more expensive. I couldn't afford to do both tours in one day, so they are really excited about possibly getting to go back again! I would suggest to anyone who lives in the area to really take the opportunity to come see them. It's well worth it. It's 1 of the top 10 caverns for color, and the only one of those top ten that is open to the public. I am SO excited that my son chose knowledge instead of arcade games..!! YAY!!!! seeing his face was so worth it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

Update on my hunny

Well, I have heard from Matt, a few times since he left and have yet to update because his letters and calls right now are more love letters than an update, so reading between all the mushy stuff (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read...) I will try and give you a general idea of what the 1 st has been like. It's been over a week since he left, but he has only been AT Fort Knox for a week as of yesterday.
The 1st day they got there was technically 1 am on the 9th. They ( a small group of recruits who had been on the same flight) were picked up by bus and driven to the base. Because wake up call is at 4 in the blessed AM, these poor guys didn't get to go to bed at all that night, rather they got to stay awake and be in processed. Basically a lot of paper work, showing them their temporary housing for the week of "reception" . Reception is a week of teaching them Drill and Ceremonies, general orientation, uniform issue and fitting, personal records processing (medical, financial, and personnel), Army core values card issue, eye and dental checks, immunizations, initial pay (they pre-pay a chunk of their 1st pay check early so the Soldier can go to the PX and purchase the additional hygiene items they will need while in training...ie shampoo, soaps, shaving cream....paper and envelopes and stamps!!!
They also have "Fire Guard Duty" which is rather self explanatory. In his down time he SLEEPS, and writes letters. I don't know much else about the day to day part of it right now. The only things he really says is that it's COOOOLLLLDDDDDDD......haha he's a true Florida boy, and that he's bored with all the "hurry up and wait". He wants to get going! He's all ready to start the hard stuff and really get this kicked off. He's not one for just sitting and waiting for it to start..lol. .
He also said he has a Drill Sgt. who says "HOOAH" at the end of EVERY sentence..hehe. He really seems to like him, at least he has one Drill Sgt who he gets along with well, however I'm sure the others like him too, Matt really easy to get along with.
I still don't have an address to write back to him yet, which is frustrating, so I have a pile of letters ready to go as soon as I get one. Please remember folks, you are his ONLY form of entertainment, even your mundane day to day shopping trips will motivate him in a letter so please don't forget to write, ANYTHING. He will love it regardless! Matt said that today (Friday) he would be shipping "down range" which means moving down to the bay's where he will begin his week 1 of actual boot camp. I know he's so excited, not to mention once there that means he can send me his return address and THAT is very motivating! I won't be posting his address right here on the blog, however, once I do get it, feel free to send me an email and I will send you the address! Don't forget when sending things, no explicate materials, no food items..NOTHING for now other than pen to paper..lol I am not even sure yet if I can send pictures. I have a big stack waiting to go but who knows. As soon as I get the O.K. I will let everyone know what you can and can't send. For now just letters of encouragement and what you are up to is what he needs the most right now!
I will update each week on the things he is doing at Basic and so on.

Phone calls and Bishop

Once again no one bothered to tell us (wives and family members) that you are allowed to be there when they swear in the 2nd time around. So after Matt left here on the 6th, he was at a hotel in Phoenix for 2 days, and on the 8th had to re-swear in at the MEPS center. Fortunately another Soldier's mother was better informed and was there to take pictures. Thank you random Soldier A's Mother! The other gentlemen in the pictures are just going to be refereed to as Soldiers A, B and C...lol

Yesterday I was surprised by a call that came in. I don't normally answer the phone if I don't recognize the phone number but I took a chance and did this time....here is how the phone call went.

ring ring

ring ring

"Hello?"

" Is this Mrs. Rachael Morris?"

"um....yes.."

"Mrs. Rachael Morris, married to Matthew C. Morris?"

"...yaaa....??"

"Hi, this is Bishop so-and-so, calling from the ward here on base at Fort Knox, Ky. We had the pleasure of having Mr. Morris in our church services today, and he as asked me to call and give you a message."

* me in full giggles at this point* "okkkk..lol"

*Bishop So-and-So clears his throat, you can practically hear him blushing....

"ahem,......Baby, I love you so so much, I miss you like crazy baby, I can't wait until I get to see you again! Tell the boys I love and miss them too! " *clears his throat again*

"Thank you so so much!! That was such a surprise!"

"You're welcome..have a great day, bye"

"Bye"

Bishop-so-and-so's true name has been with-held to protect the guilty party, as he is NOT to be sneaking messages out..hahahahaha

I was way to stunned to even ask if I could sneak a message back to him, since I had no idea when I would get to talk to him again. Oh well! I didn't have to wait long! It's inevitable that whenever I feel under the weather and Matthew is being good and taking a nap, and I lay down to rest as well, that EVERYONE and their dog will call me and keep me on the brink of blissful unconsciousness! 1st an old friend I'd lost with called, I so ignored it...lol..I was too tired, brat knows I nap when I can, and called 3x in a row! Then a bill collector, then again with another number I don't recognize, and this time I'm ready to bark off the head of whom ever dares to disturb my sleep....when all of the sudden I hear him

~sigh~

It's always amazing to me how much hearing the voice of your loved one unexpectedly can make a gal swoon! He sounded really happy! He lucked out and had some issues with the bank he had set up for direct deposit, was forced to switch to a new bank on post, and was allowed to call me to tell me that the money would NOT be showing up in the account I expected but that he would be taking care of it to make sure we had the money in time to pay the bills and so on. Who knew that bank issues could bring me joy! lol

He said it's FREEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZING there everyday and he's not used to it but that it's not what he expected this experience to be but that he's loving it. He misses everyone! And once again passed on his love to the boys.

YAY!

GATORSSSSSSSSSS and sugar galore! sugar sugarshhhhuuuugggaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr&@#^$!@#$

1st
is a picture of Cody, his best friend Avery, Matty and Michael having a "movie night" where I completely irresponsibly loaded them chock full of sugar and treats,.. and then let them watch movies until they staggered off to bed....mmwwhahahahah. the other two pictures are of Mikey and Cody, who immediately ran to Matt's draws and pillaged them in search of his gator's t-shirts and jerseys as soon as they saw kick off! Can't tell who they were hoping would win can you???? lol

Just some silly pictures of the boys being all hopped up about the Gator Vs. OU game. THANK YOU NANA for the glow board you got Cody for Christmas. He loves it!~