Me and Zach at the State Fair
A couple of fellow soldiers from my Army unit, the 343rd MPAD, inspired me to start my own blog. I’m sure I won’t be as funny or eloquent as they are, but mad props go to SGT Tigers aka “The Sorority Soldier” and SPC….not sure what his nickname is right now….he’s a TCU Horned Frogs fan, so maybe I should call him SPC Froggie or something.
We are all on Thanksgiving vacation right now after a couple of months of rigorous training. We started with 20 soldiers and have dropped 3 along the way, including one just the other day. We have replacements coming though, and I’m hoping they are able to blend with those of us who have been learning, growing, joking, and struggling together already to become a cohesive team.
We go back to Fort Dix in a couple of weeks for more training, then get 10 days off for Christmas. After that, the countdown starts in earnest for our departure to The Sandbox.
Being home these past few days has been a blessing for a few reasons. One, I needed a break from all of the Army stuff. I’m going to eat, sleep and breathe it for the next year, so I want to enjoy this break while it lasts. Two, I need the time with my wife and son. Zachary is only 3 months old, but he’s already learning so much. I will miss many of the firsts in his life over the next year, such as crawling, talking, walking and eating real food. However, I did get to see one first last night. He looked at me and laughed OUT LOUD! It was awesome! I can’t wait to hear that sound again.
Before I leave, I am going to videotape myself reading stories to him. Hopefully hearing and seeing these will help him to not forget me while I’m gone. If it doesn’t, at least I’ll feel better THINKING it did!
I took Gloria to Hot Springs overnight (without Zachary) on Friday for a little bonding time between us. We left Zach with his grandparents here in Batesville and stayed the night at the same hotel we spent the first night of our honeymoon at. The Arlington in Hot Springs is a quaint old hotel that is actually quite large. And by “quaint old” I mean basically crappy and devoid of most modern conveniences you can find at your average Super 8 these days. They use real keys to enter the rooms, and you have to have some kind of engineering degree to figure out how to spring the lock on those 150 year-old doors. There is no wireless internet in the rooms, and the tv was a 19″ Zenith like the one my parents sold for $20 in a garage sale back in 1987. The remote didn’t work either!
Ah, but the trip was well-worth it. Gloria and I went to see Saw V at the theater that night, which may seem like an odd choice for a date-night movie. Not for us! We fell in love with each other the night we saw The Grudge together at the theater! She and I have always bonded over horror movies, and though I really can’t explain it, I do often ponder why it took a gross, bloody movie to get a girl to fall in love with me! Kidding. 
Saturday we made our way SLOOOOOOWLY home by hitting nearly every store in Little Rock and North Little Rock on our way through to Batesville. As our apartment is actually on the way to her parents’ house where Zach was staying, we decided to stop off at home to unload the car before going to pick him up. We got a call from Gloria’s mom while we were doing this and she let us know that Zach had just fallen asleep for the first time all day. We decided to hang out at the house and catch some supper before going to get him so that he could rest. While we ate, we played Phase 10 Dice. Phase 10 is the other bonding thing we have, and we have so much fun playing while we eat. We usually split the wins on those games, but yours truly came out on top this time!
Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s late and time for bed. More to come later!
Tags: Batesville, Gloria, honeymoon, Hot Springs, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Phase 10, The Arlington, Zachary
