Good-bye Dahlonega, Georgia... FOREVER!

Wow, I have been seriously slacking on my blogging. Not that anyone is reading, but maybe one day I will make this all public. Who knows.

So after 3 weeks of the Mountains phase, 3 weeks of recycle at Camp Frank Merrill, and another 3 weeks to re-do mountains phase, I am happy to report that NEVER again in my life will I address another letter to Dahlonega, Georgia! What a relief! Andrew had his 4 hour pass yesterday and called to give us the good news that he is moving onto the FINAL phase: Swamps.

Friday was a terribly stressful day. I keep telling people I'll be lucky to get through Ranger School without a heart attack or ulcer or something. Sitting at work just staring at my phone waiting for it to ring is not exactly the most relaxing way to pass the time. I hate how Ranger School works on pass days: If the guys get their GO and move onto the next phase they call home on that Friday to tell their families, but if they don't get their GO and have to recycle they don't get to call until the following day. I had no idea when to expect his call, but you better believe that my phone didn't leave my side. And as any military wife/girlfriend knows, you bet your butt it came with me to the bathroom... that is just a way of life now!

The morning and early afternoon went by with no word. I was talking to another girlfriend waiting for her Ranger to call too and she hadn't heard anything either which I was looking at as a good sign. Finally at 4:45 my phone rang with "unknown caller" and a 706 number on the caller ID! Thank God everyone had already left the office because I squealed and shrieked so loudly before I picked up! I jumped up from my desk and said "HONEY! HIIIIIIIIIII!" Andrew's giggle on the other end warmed my heart. I miss his laugh, his smile, his smell-- everything about him-- and that giggle just reminded me that he is still the Andrew I know and love. I started blabbing out everything I could think of and he said "Honey, slow down... I only have like 5 minutes". I was so sad, so we just covered the important things, mainly business but we squeezed in about a thousand "I love yous" before we finally had to hang up. Some highlights:

• Andrew got his GO for Mountains on the first night of the phase, but the RI's (Ranger Instructors) didn't tell them if they were a GO or no-GO until the last night of the phase. He was pretty confident that he was a GO though because one of the RIs told him that he "set the standard"! Seriously, I couldn't be more proud of my man!
• He said its a weird feeling to leave the mountains after nine weeks. He hated it there, but he was comfortable, so he almost didn't want to leave.
• The guys really looked up to him as a leader since he had done the phase before. Even when he wasn't in an assigned leadership position, he noticed that guys would mimic what he was doing.
• He told me "Its a weird feeling. For the past five or six years all I could think about or talk about was Ranger School and now I'm two weeks away from being completely done with it. There has been so much build up, I just can't believe it's finally happening!"

That's pretty much it. It was hard to say goodbye, because I wasn't prepared for such a short call, but it was so totally completely 100% worth it to talk to Andrew again. I forgot all of the things that I had wanted to tell him, but it didn't matter, I got to hear his voice (however tired he may have sounded- it was still him!) and hear "I love you" for the first time in three weeks.

Now we have less than three weeks to go until Ranger School Graduation! The plans are being made and everything is falling into place! I can't wait to wrap my arms around my ARMY RANGER!