Letter From Basic # 1

It has been about three weeks since my husband left for Basic Combat Training(BCT).I have received several letters from him and apologize for the delay in getting them posted for all of you to enjoy.

The first letter that I received was dated February 8,2007 and this is what he wrote:

Dear Sweetheart,

I am having the time of my life. I arrived at Ft. Benning last night at midnight and that was when the fun really began. We began processing immeadiately: signing documents, dental checks, uniforms, and a thousand other things. They decided not to let us go to the barracks to sleep. Instead, they kept us processing. Needless to say, I am quite tired and yet I am still having lots of fun!

We went to the PX today, which is basically a mini-military style Wal-mart. We had to buy new running shoes and a whole bunch of other things. I can hardly believe the amount of money that I spent, but all of the items were required. They said the money would be deducted from my first paycheck.

The guys love to complain. Everything that we do, someone is complaining or whining about something. I also got my immunization shots today. I received two shots in each arm and one in my posterior. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I sure miss you a lot and I can’t wait to see you at the end of May. My level of respect for Christians in the military has gone up a notch. No one has said anything negative in the slightest to me about praying before meals and about reading my Bible. Maybe it is too early to tell.

With all my heart,

Nicholas

My Final Good-Byes

The church service last night was the last service that I will be attending here for a long time. Last night in church my pastor recognized me in front of the church. He had me to stand and asked everyone to be praying for me. He was very kind and his words were very encouraging.

After the service, having heard pastor’s announcement about me, several veterans approached me to wish me luck and to relate some of their stories with me. Attending a large church like I do, I have yet to meet everyone who is a member here. Several of these men I had not previously met, but I was very glad to meet them and to hear them share their testimonies of service with me. They all wanted to know where I was headed to and what I wanted to do. Their faces lit up with smiles as they shook my hand, wished me luck, and promised to pray for me. It was very encouraging.

I am told that during Basic Training, soldiers wait in hopeful anticipation during mail call. I know that I will be encouraged by any mail that I might get, and I have therefore been trying to rally all of my friends and loved ones to write to me while I am gone. Many of my friends have promised to write to me at least once or twice. Some of my friends have agreed to sit down with their girlfriends and write me a letter together with them. My wife has told me that she plans to write me several times per week. I believe her and I hope that she does.

I do extend my invitation for letters to anyone who may read this blog. Some of you are friends and family that I am able to keep in contact with via this blog. Others of you I met through this blog and I now count you among my friends. Whatever category you may fall in, I hope that you will write to me. I will receive my address when I arrive at my receiving station in Fort Benning, GA. I will call my wife with the address and she will make it available to you all.

My letters home will be posted on this blog for the world to see. I will not be able to respond personally to every letter that I receive and have therefore decided to post on the blog all of my letters back home. My wife will copy my letters verbatim (minus anything that is personal between us, of course) and post them on this site. I will respond to letters through this avenue of communication.

Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I and several friends watched the movie “Flyboys.” It was only produced very recently and is a fantastic tribute to the flying soldiers of World War I. It is based on the book of the same name by James Bradley. It is the true story of a squadron of American airmen who went to Europe to join the war even before America joined the war. If you are interested in military history and have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it.

My wife and I want to extend our thanks to every one of you for your kindness and support of us. She will probably be very lonely over the days to come and needs all of the prayer she can get. I know that I have probably sounded like a broken record on this point over the past few days, but I don’t think that I can emphasize enough how important prayer is in the life of a Christian. Please pray.

I will probably not be posting anything tomorrow before I leave so this is going to be my final post and my final farewell. After this post, only letters to and from Boot Camp will be posted.

Thank You and God Bless You All!


In Christ,

Nicholas Cardot

Only Three Days Remaining!

The countdown is getting lower every day! I leave on Tuesday!

I have chosen not to post any Watchman Awards today. I will not be able to post any for the next several months so I decided to just cut them short today. My blog will, however, be updated with letters and updates as to my training status. Just because I am headed off for training doesn't mean that you all need to be strangers around here.

I have also been very excited to learn that I have been promoted on the Google page rank system from a zero all the way up to a one. In case you are wondering, the Google page rank is a system that Google uses to determine how valuable a website is. It is a scale from zero to ten based on the number of inbound links and the number of visitors. When a Google search is performed, the sites with the highest page rank will probably appear at the top of the results list. I am very excited that Google actually recognizes my website. That is 100% thanks to my readers and supporters.

Last nigt I had a date with my wife. It was our going away date and it is going to be our last date for quite a few months. We had a great time at Applebees and a five star hotel. We had a lot of fun! The photos attached to this post are of the hotel where we stayed. We stayed up pretty late talking and goofing off. The only downside was that there was no hot water in the shower at the hotel. Because of this we just decided to wait until we got home to shower. We only live about ten miles or so from the hotel so it wasn't a very big deal.

Wow. Only three days left. I can hardly believe it. I have been working hard and am as well prepared as I think I could be. I've spent time praying, talking to veterans, reading books, excercising, and anything I could think of to prepare myself. I have a lot of friends who have promised to write to me while I am in Basic. I hope that they all do and I hope that some of you who I have met through the blogosphere will be kind enough to write me a letter while I am in.

I can't say enough how much my wife and I will be needing your prayers. I don't know what its like to be away from her for this period of time, but I know that it will not be pleasant. Please especially pray for her. I know that this will be especially difficult on her. She is a tough one. She's built as emotionally strong as they make girls these days but its still going to be hard on her. And understandably so. I told her that my biggest apprehension about joining the military was her wellbeing while I was gone. I told her that I would not join unless she completely believed in it. We prayed and we both agreed. Please just pray.

Thank you and God bless each and every one of you!

In Christ,

Nicholas Z. Cardot

Only Four Days Remaining and The Friday Funnies

Wow! The countdown is getting extremely low!

Today my wife and I are going out on a very hot date! We are headed out to Applebees (her absolute favorite resaraunt), and then we are headed off to the Four Points Sheritan (a five star hotel) for a nice relaxing night away from home. I have really been looking forward to today.

Lately I have been working on some correspondence courses via the internet. These correspondence courses are free through the military and, who knows, they might even give me a few promotion points some day down the road. I have taken several leadership courses and have tested out of some Math and English courses. Last night I completed the Self-Aid/Buddy-Aid course and am now working on another advanced Military English course. The picture at the right is of me sitting at the computer in our bedroom while working on these courses.

Beginning late Wednesday night, the comments link on this blog began to not work. I assumed that blogger might be having some troubles and decided that I would just wait until morning. I figured that by then they would have it fixed. They didn't. I sent an email to blogger support and within about six hours they had replied to my email and fixed the problem. For a free service, I am pretty happy with their customer support. I said all that to say this...I apologize to anyone who may have tried to access the comments page anytime during Wednesday night or the first half of yesterday. I'm sorry and thank you for sticking with us!

And now for the Friday Funnies! The following is a brief explanation as to why Men are happier than women!

1. We keep our last name.

2. The garage is all ours.

3. Wedding plans take care of themselves.

4. Chocolate is just another snack.

5. We can be president.

6. We can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives, on December 24, in 45 minutes.

7. Car mechanics tell us the truth.

8. We have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

9. We never have to drive to another gas station because this one's just too icky.

10. Same work, more pay.

11. Wrinkles add character.

12. Wedding dress - $5000; tux rental - $100.

13. We can "do" our nails with a pocket-knife.

14. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

15. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle our feet.

16. One mood, ALL the time.

17. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

18. We know stuff about tanks.

19. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.

20. We can open all our own jars.

21. We get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

22. If someone forgets to invite us, he or she can still be our friend.

23. One wallet and one pair of shoes, one color, all seasons.

24. Everything on our face stays its original color.

25. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

26. We don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

27. The same hair style lasts for years, maybe decades.

28. We are unable to see wrinkles in our clothes.

P.S. #6 totally sums up my Christmas shopping experience!

Only Five Days Remaining!

There are now only five days remaining until I leave for Basic Combat Training. Life as I know it will be turned completely upside down. Don't run away from our blog, however. I will not be abandoning it. My wife will be posting the letters that we send back and forth. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and bought a box of envelopes and some loose leaf paper. My wife and I addressed all of the envelopes with her name and address and then inserted a peice of paper into each one. This way I will have less items to store and it will be a little bit easier to be able to write a letter back home. I hope to write at least one or two letters per week while I am in Basic.

This morning my wife is making me french toast for breakfast. My wife has got to be the best wife on this planet. She is the most smart, intelligent, loving, caring, and stubborn person that I have ever met. She is all of those qualities wrapped up into one beautiful package! I want to publicly state how thankful I am for having her in my life. Please pray for her while I am gone. She will need it. We got a bumper sticker that says, "Army Wife: Toughest Job In The Army!" That statement is probably true so please pray for her.

Its hard to believe that there are only five days remaining until I leave. I am very excited. I added another new header to reflect this new avenue of my life. You all will have to let me know what you think. I enjoy doing different things with graphic design and digital art.

God bless you all. Thank you for your support and prayers and don't be a stranger to us over here at The Watchman.