Update on Nicholas

It has been awhile so I thought that you all would like an update on Nicholas. He has finished with the first part of his training and is now in what is called AIT or Advanced Individual Training. He will finish with this and will have his graduation on May 25, 2007. His graduation is currently 23 days away and we are both looking forward to this day.

I was able to speak with him on the phone this past weekend and he is doing very well. He was positive and upbeat which is how he is every time I talk to him. I know several people that have been in the service and they all have said that Basic Training was the worst part of their training. My husband always talks about his training in a positive manner.

God is so good to us. I have been able to be an example to several of my co workers since Nicholas has been gone. They have come to me seeking advice and I was able to give them guidance from the Bible.

There will be several changes in our lives between now and July when Lord willing we will be together for awhile or until he would be sent somewhere that I was not able to go with him. While he continues with the next phase of his training after graduation I will be quitting my current job and volunteering at Circle C Baptist Ranch. This is a summer camp that is run by our local church and is located in Lancaster Kentucky. I am looking forward to serving Christ in this area this summer.

Please continue to pray for my husband as the days go by. He will be able to start updating the blog again soon. Which I know he is anxious to do.

Until Next Time

Diane

Letters from Basic# 12

February 21, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

I sure do miss you and love you. We have been to carry our M16 with us where ever we go, but I would much rather be wrapping my arms around you! I can’t wait to see your beautiful face again and to hold you in my arms. I am going to squeeze you so tight and hold you forever. I love you!

We had a great day today. We started out with another four mile march. This time we were full ruck sack and gear. It was a lot of fun. We also did some combat first aid simulations. We crawled through the mud and evaluated and treated casualties. When we were finished we were all covered with mud. We all had a lot of fun.

At the end of the day we took a class on NBC. We were issued our protective gas masks and taught how to use them and how to maintain them. We are being tested tomorrow on our ability to use it quickly and proficiently. Tomorrow is the gas chamber exercise.

I hope that everything is going well. I have not received any mail, but I am sure looking forward to it. I hope that you have been able to keep up with the bills. I hope that you are not stressing too much at work. I hope that you are getting plenty of sleep and that you are taking good care of yourself. Be sure to eat well and sleep well.

We have a drill sergeant who reminds me of Rex Hicks. He is built like him and he eats and talks like him. The other night he gave us a speech about army life and answered questions for us for a while. We have four drill instructors.

Some of the guys have been getting really discouraged, but my “Battle Buddy” and I have been doing a good job of helping each other maintain a strong positive attitude. We are the most unified set of “battle buddies” here. I will tell you more about him and the buddy system that we use in a future letter.

Well I need to draw this letter to a close. I love you and I miss you!

With all my heart,

Nicholas

Letters from Basic# 11

Dear Love,

I miss you a lot but I am so happy to doing what I am doing. Every day I seem to fall more in love with my new job. We went on a four mile march today in full uniform, body army, weapon, etc. There were a few of the guys that whined and fell down. You know me though; I didn’t think that it was too bad. I can’t wait to see you. I love you!

We have been taking a lot of classes. They have started with a lot of basic stuff like personal finances, uniforms, marching movements, hygiene, and stuff like that. Today we began more advanced classes. We took some first aid classes that covered the Heimlich, CPR, Combat first aid, and things like that.

We do a lot of PT and when we first got here my whole body was sore. I didn’t mind it though because I know that it makes me stronger. I feel good now though and I feel as though my muscles are already developing. I feel great….. And hungry. They make us eat really fast and we hardly even get to finish our plates. That’s alright though. Some of the guys get really discouraged whenever we get in trouble, but I’m sort of getting used to it. I have a lot of exciting training ahead of me. I hope that everything is going well for you. I pray for you everyday. I beg God to watch over you and to love you for me while I am gone. I love you!

All my love,

Nicholas

Letters from Basic #9

February 16, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

Today is the day that we ship “down range” to begin our basic training. I am writing this part of the letter this morning and will probably come to finish it tonight.

Our day started this morning at 0300, which is 3:00A.M. I did guard duty from 10:00P.M. until midnight, so I got very little sleep. Oh well. This is what I signed up for and I love it!

The weather here has been so cold. Every morning we all line up in formation and struggle to keep warm. Please pray that the weather would warm up soon. You know what a sissy I am when it comes to the cold.

Right now we are all sitting in the Johnston reception building waiting for the bus to haul us down to basic. When we get there and we dismiss for the night I will finish this letter. I love you and I miss you. Thanks again for your love and support. You mean the world to me! I love you!

Babe, I am not going to be able to finish this letter like I wanted. I love you!

With all my heart,

Nicholas

Letter from Basic# 8

February 15, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

It has almost been a day since I wrote you last. I tried to call you on Sunday and found out that cell phones do not accept collect calls. I was disappointed when I didn’t get to talk to you. I can’t wait until I can talk to you everyday. I love you and I miss you!

Today was freezing cold. We had to wait in formation for over an hour and a half. Even with my long johns and my overcoat, I was unable to stay warm. They have us get in formation at 4:15 A.M. for a meal that begins at 5:30 A.M. It was very cold!

We got our dog tags today. SWEET. My dog tags are the only necklace that I ever had and probably will every will wear. I like this particular necklace though, because of what it represents!

We have a guy here who has been trying to get out of the military. First he tried to get a medical discharge by saying that his arm hurt. Then he tried to get out by saying that he was gay. He reminds me of Klinger from the old show called M.A.S.H. Klinger would wear dresses and everything else to try to get kicked out.

Another man simply said that he wanted to quit. The drill Sergeant made him stand up in front of everyone and shout that he was a quitter. I can’t quit, unless there is a major emergency or death in the family, I can’t quit. I love you and I thank you for your wonderful love and support. Thank you!

With all my heart,

Nicholas

P.S. I love you!

Letters from Basic#7

February 14, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

Happy Valentines Day! I love you very much and I am so glad that you are my valentine even if we are a long distance away from each other. You are most definitely the sweetest girl in the world. I hope that your valentines day is wonderful even though we are apart. I wish and pray that you would be happy. I love you!

I slept great last night. I didn’t have to get up for an hour of guard duty last night, so I got to sleep straight through the night. Granted I had to get up at 3:30 A.M. to start my day, I still feel great.

I should get a good night of sleep again tonight. I was supposed to have guard duty buy my shift got canceled. A bunch of guys decided to show up late to formation this morning. Their punishment was to perform fire duty for at least two hours tonight. Their extra hours bumped my schedule off the list. I like that!

I got my warm weather boots replaced today. They were cutting into my heel, the top of my foot and the outside of my foot. The man gave me a new set and now they fit great! Now I have a good pair of warm weather boots and cold weather boots.

Honey I look awesome in a uniform. When I stand up straight with nice ACU uniforms on and the words US Army across my heart, I look awesome! I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you see me. I love you!

With all my heart,

Nicholas

I am sorry that I didn’t post his address on the last two letters. His address is:

(RN#208) PVT2 Cardot Nicholas
D Company 3/330^th INF
5550 Leonard Ave
Fort Benning GA 31905

Letters from Basic # 6

February 13, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

I hope you know that I love you so much and that I pray for you everyday. I think of you all day and I miss you so much. When you see my on family day and graduation day, I will be in awesome shape. AWESOME!

We took pictures our pictures yesterday in our uniforms. I may have already told you. I ordered some items that came along with it. I ordered a photo CD, a year book for our class, a DVD of our class, and a few other things. Soon I will have pictures of me by the Flag just like Jarod has.

Speaking of Jarod, I have been bragging about him. If he reads this, I hope that he doesn’t get mad about that. I would like to know what medals he received when he was in the service.

Last night one of the drill Sergeants gave a motivating speech about the extremists. We were all shouting and cheering by the end of it. It is amazing the lever of hatred that some extremists have for America and Americans.

I have been memorizing a lot of material lately. I have memorized the Three General Orders, the Soldier’s Creed, and some other things.

I thought of something else that I would like for you to send me when I get my address. I would like a small New Testament that I can carry in my uniform with me.

Well as I draw this letter to a close. I want you know that I am having a wonderful time and I love you very much. I can’t wait to see you!

With all my love,

Nicholas

Letter From Basic #5

Nick and I would like to thank all of you that have been praying for us. It is a blessing. I have watched God bless in the past month. There are days that it seems so rough and I feel that we will never be together again but, then I get a letter from my husband and I almost feel that we are together.

I hope that you all enjoy reading his letters. At the end of these letters I will post his address. If any of you would like to write him he would welcome the letters. Please include your return address on them or else they will not be received. May God bless you all.

February 12, 2007

Dear Sweetheart,

I love you more today than I ever have. You are so wonderful and beautiful. I love you more than you could imagine. I think of you all day, everyday. The thought of seeing you on graduation day drives me to do more and to do better.

I am having a great time today. After our day was over, we came back to the barracks to shower and to hit the rack. A few of us decided to do a few pt exercises before we go to bed. We then tried to do some square pushups. A square pushup is where four men get into the shape of a square by placing their feet on the upper back of the other guy. We were setting up for it when Swanson accidentally kicked me in the jaw and gave me a bloody lip. It was pretty funny. Don’t worry honey, I’m fine!

I have been showing off your picture to my buddies, and a couple of the guys have been showing me pictures of their wives and girlfriends. One guy showed us a picture of a girl that he claimed was his girlfriend. The picture was cut out with scissors from a year book. She was the prom queen in their school, and he is less than desirable. I guess what I’m saying is…..that we didn’t believe him.

I can’t wait to introduce you to some of the guys. Some of them are real swell. I sure love you and look forward to holding you again soon.

With all my heart,

Nicholas

Letters from Basic #4

Dear Sweetheart, February 11, 2007

Today is my first Sunday in the military. They offer religious services, but none of them are Baptist. They have a protestant service that I will be attending,

We got to sleep in today until almost 5:00 a.m. I had guard duty from 3:00 a.m. until 4:00 a.m. and then went back to bed for about an hour. Even with guard duty I got more sleep last night than any other night so far. So far, everything is very fun and I am making a bunch of friends.

We have been taking it easy today even more than yesterday. Valentine’s Day is coming up in just a few days and we are going to be apart. I love you and I miss you.

So far it seems like I am gaining the respect of most of the guys. Besides, I’m the one that got a ninety-eight on the ASVAB. I have the highest ASVAB score in my platoon.

We have been doing some crazy stuff during our free time. Some of the guys did upside down pushups. We did some two minute sit-ups and pushups drills. We sat around telling funny stories for awhile. I laughed until it hurt.

I just got back from the chapel services. They played some music that I didn’t really care for, but otherwise it was a great service. It made me really miss our church which then caused me to really miss you! A few of my platoon mates went with me and we all had a good time.

I tried to call you today, but it didn’t work out. I tried to use a phone card but is said that the PIN was invalid. I then tried to call collect but I know now that cell phones do not accept collect phone calls. I then tried to call Jim but their phone doesn’t accept collect calls either. Oh well, God know and he can take care of us.

Remember not to write me at this address. Save up your letters and mail them to the address that I give you later. I love you!

Well Baby, I love you. I know that I am writing you a lot, but I really do miss you. I love you and I miss you. I am reading my Bible and praying everyday. Don’t forget to send all your letters to me when I get my address. Please send me a phone card with a ton of minutes. Thanks babe, I love you!

With all my love,

Nicholas

Letters from Basic 2 & 3

Dear Sweetheart, February 9, 2007

I have not yet mailed my letter from yesterday so you will probably get them on or around the same time. I am dying of homesickness. I miss you and your loving touch so much. Being away from you only causes me to love you more tenderly. You are the greatest thing in life to me. I love you dearly.

When you receive my address there are a few things that I would like you to send me. If you would send me about five more zebra pens and more pictures of you. The pictures would be nice because I miss you a lot.

Basic is going great. Rather I should say that reception is going great. I got another shot today. I took a hearing and a vision test today. Oh yeah I also got my boots today which complete my uniform. I now have a nice United Stares Army uniform with my name on it. I wish you could see me know.

I’ve decided to start writing the date on the envelope so that we will know the chronological order of the letters as we save them.

So far I love it here but I love you more and I miss you a great deal. I look forward to getting some letters from you. I love you!

With all my love,

Nicholas

Dear Sweetheart, February 10, 2007

We have been relaxing for most of today. Today is Saturday and the Drill Sergeant said that we may be able to call home today. Please send me a phone card, please. One hour will probably be long enough to last me through basic.

During the week, breakfast is at 0500, that’s 5:00 a.m. to my beautiful civilian wife. Every day I have been eating a big plate full of eggs and bacon. I know that bacon is a pork product so don’t tell Jim! The food here is great. I have been eating eggs, jello, bacon, toast, pickled cucumber (they were really good), chili mac, fried chicken, hamburgers, spaghetti, French toast and a whole bunch of fruit. I have no complaints about the food.

There is a thirty-nine year old man who is joining the military and going through basic with us. He is probably going to have the hardest time of anyone here and yet he has the best attitude of anyone here. If he can do it without whining, then so can I.

I have been making a lot of friends. There are also a few guys that are not so friendly. Most of us are already developing a deep sense of friendship.

Last night, I had night watch for the first time. I had guard duty from midnight until one a.m. I slept on top of my covers because I didn’t want to have to make my bed in the morning. It would’ve worked except for one thing, I used my coat as a blanket. By morning it was very cold and I woke up all curled up in the fetal position trying to stay under the coat to keep warm. It was quite a sight!

We’ve been working on a lot lately on the Soldiers Creed. I like it so I will include it for you to read. I have to be able to quote it word for word.

I am an American Soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States and live by the Army values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically, and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.

I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.

I am an expert and a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Babe, I miss you and I love you! I am praying for you everyday and thinking of you always.

With all my love,

Nicholas

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.

Only Six Days Remaining!

Friends and Fellow Bloggers,

There are now only six days left until I leave for Basic Combat Training. I am very excited. I have been taking and completing several military coresspondence courses via the internet over the course of thse past few days. As a result of some of the work that I have done and the score I received on my PT (Physical Training) test, I have recieved my first promotion prior to even shipping for Basic. I am now an E-2 which is a PV2 or Private Second Class. This means that I will get an extra $254 per month for having completed that work.

Neither my wife nor myself have to work between now and next week. We are taking the time to go on some extra dates and spend some extra time together before I leave. On Saturday night we went to T.G.I. Fridays and yesterday we went to Golden Corral. We are going out to Applebees this Friday night and one of my friends will be taking us out to the Longhorn Steakhouse on Saturday night. Also, another friend gave us a gift certificate to stay one night at the Four Points Sheritan, a five-star hotel. We are extremely excited about that!

Most of our friends have been extremely supportive and are going far beyond what we would have imagined to encourage us and support us. There is a small group of people in our church who have been very unsupportive almost to the degree of being hurtful. I mean to tell you some people here have said some extremely disheartening things.

To each his own!

Well, may I express a great big thank you to all of those who have been supportive and prayful for my situation. Thank you!

In Christ,

Nicholas Z. Cardot

The Watchman Awards #7 - The Best of 2007

This week's first place article is written by a college student named Jamie Kiley and is entitled "Don't Give Us The Vote." I have never found or read any article speaking of the anti-suffrage movement in the early 1900's until this one and was absolutely amazed that someone would tackle the subject. Although I figured they existed, I never knew about any female organizations that opposed suffrage. It was an eye opener and I highly recemmend the article!

In last week's post, I told you all that I had an announcement coming up in the near future. I then made that announcement in Monday's post entitled The Greatly Anticipated Announcement. I let you all know on that day that I would be leaving for Basic Training for the United States Army in early February. The responses to that post were so overwhelming. Everyone has been so eager to lend their support, prayers, and advice. The response has been much more positive than I could have ever expected. Thank you!

Please continue to be in prayer for my wife and I as we prepare for military life. I am working out almost everyday. I used to run and bicycle a lot in High School and was in awesome physical shape at that time. I have been working very hard to get back into shape in preparation for the military. I am up to running between five and six miles per day without being sore. I am also working aggressively on increasing my ability to do push-ups and sit-ups. I am open to any recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of my work-outs. Again, thank you to everyone!

While I am in Basic Training, I will not personally be able to update my blog. That, I think, is obvious. My blog will, however, get updated. My wife has agreed to post the letters that I send to her. I hope to send her at least one or two letters per week. Minus anything of a personal nature, my wife will post the letters verbatim so that all of our friends and family will be able to keep up with my training.

I will, however, be unable to maintain my Watchman Awards though I would like to. I have decided to offer an open ended invitation to anyone who might be willing to post a list of three great blog articles on my blog for me once per week. You would be welcome to write some information before the list as I often do, but you certainly wouldn't have to. If anyone would be interested in doing this please let me know and I will add you to the list of people who are allowed to post on this blog. If you are interested, either leave my a comment below or send me a personal message via my email which can be found on my profile at the side. Thank you all and God bless you!

And now for our feature presentation...The Watchman Awards!

1st. Jamie Kiley: Don't Give Us The Vote - "'What?' you say. 'There were women who actively fought against suffrage for themselves?!' Yep. And the movement wasn’t an insignificant one, either. In fact, the Antis, as they were known, enjoyed a high rate of success up until 1917, when suffragists starting pushing for a federal amendment to the Constitution instead of working on a state-by-state basis."

2nd. Missionary Insights: How Is Your Vision Of God? - "Today, many see God wearing a Hawaiian shirt and wearing flip flops. As one popular preacher described him in a book, "They see the 'man upstairs,' or their 'buddy.'" How we view God is very important because it is directly tied to how we serve God. Yes that’s right...your view of God does determine how you will serve God. The devil has done a good job at painting a distorted picture of God, and it has affected Christianity today."

3rd. Maranatha: Love and Reverence - "Marriage does not bring with it a 'bed of roses.' This cliche has been used so much but have we ever thought about its meaning? Roses need to be planted in just the right soil, have just the right amount of watering and sunshine, and continually need pruning if they are to grow healthy. One can see the difference between neglected roses and a rose bush which has been meticulously cared for. A good marriage takes years of nurturing by both husband and wife. Starting marriage off equally yoked with a desire to serve the Lord together is a wonderful start. But the key to a good and successful marriage begins with Eph. 5:33...Love and Reverence."