Holy moly, I have been waiting for this day for what seems like an eternity. HONESTLY! It’s 10 pm on a Tuesday evening and I am so excited for tomorrow I can’t even fall asleep. It has been 8 long weeks of very limited communication with my best friend and tomorrow he will finally be reunited with his cell phone. Big deal right? Exactly! It’s a big HUGE deal to us! Not only does it mean no more waiting hours on end everyday for emails to pop up or hand written letters to arrive, no more anxiously waiting every Sunday morning for that Rhode Island phone number to light up on my screen, but it also means Landon has come an extremely long way in his training and he is getting very close to the finish line. I know I’m sure I sound extremely spoiled right now and trust me, you always think that handling the whole separation thing will be so much easier looking in on the situation. I mean I know I did. Although I knew we were capable of surviving it, and I even felt pretty confident about being by myself for a few months (I was entirely independent before being married so why not?!) but I never expected to feel so completely lost with him gone! You just never really know the feeling until you have actually experienced it yourself. Some days I sit and think about how long we have been apart (11 weeks total now) and I can’t believe we have actually made it this far. I remember during week 3 feeling like it would be ages before week 9 ever rolled around. And part of me feels like it literally has been centuries, but in another way it has seemed to fly right by, and I’m certainly not complaining about that. I totally think that our attitude has had a major influence on making this whole experience a good one.

It’s already been three years since Landon and I got married – CRAZY - and I can honestly say that in a way this time apart has been really cool. I have loved how we have taken the opportunity to evaluate our relationship and discuss certain aspects of our marriage that we could improve on together. With life as busy as it tends to always be, we haven’t faithfully set aside time to just chat about life. Between hundreds of letters and probably thousands of emails at this point, we have been able to talk back and forth about everything from short and long term goals to little struggles we have been facing in our marriage. Writing can be such a great route of communication especially for those more sensitive subjects. Written communication also tends to eliminate the emotion of a conversation which can help you to feel more open in these discussions and really organize your words instead of just spiting out whatever comes to mind next. So, yeah… I never thought I would ever say this, but overall I have been really grateful for this experience. And with that, I’m EXTREMELY excited to get on an airplane and be on my way to Newport. I don’t want to even think about how anxious I am going to be before the flight, let alone the day before graduation when I actually get to jump into his arms. Holy. It’s going to be here so quick, but I kinda sorta just wish I were leaving tomorrow. I definitely wouldn’t mind that at all.

SO TOMORROW. In case you haven’t heard yet, this week [week 9] is CANDIO WEEK, the week all of our sweet sailors move on from the Officer Candidate phase to the Candidate Officer (shortened to CANDIO) phase. I know classy right? Haha. The past 6 weeks as an officer candidate, Landon has been focusing mostly on academics. They spent a lot of time in briefings/lectures on a variety of naval subjects and then were tested each week on these different subjects. Landon did exceptionally well during this phase, and is currently sitting at the top of the 16-15 class for not only academics but physical fitness and overall performance as a candidate. Gosh he makes me so proud! But we all know he could be failing out on his exams and I would still be proud as ever… hello, I'm his wife, what more would you expect? Love that kid soooo much!!

Okay now to actually explain tomorrow. His class will be completing Capstone, which I understand is a type of field day involving all kinds of leadership and teamwork scenarios. There will be rope courses, flooding submarines, man overboard, strobe lights etc. Each scenario is modeled after an actual real life situation that other sailors have faced in the past. Everyone who has completed capstone before says that it is a very rewarding experience and is a great way to prepare for their time in the fleet. It will be a very long, busy, and tiring day, but once everything is all over and done, the candidates will then be having a big Candio Box opening par-tay! Remember that cute care package I sent last week? Well we actually sent two... He finally gets to open that puppy up and completely binge on all the goodies he has been missing out on for the past 8 weeks! Gosh I hope he doesn’t make himself sick, but he probably will. ☺ Oh well. Along with being able to open their boxes, the sailors should also be given their cell phones back! YAY! Landon told me that the first thing he plans on doing tomorrow night is calling me and going to buy a dozen donuts and celebrate by eating them all himself! I asked him if it was all right if I joined in and ate my own box of donuts! Haha!

From here on out, Landon will be fulfilling his billet as the Physical Training (PT) Body for the remainder of his time in Rhode Island. Despite having to wake up at 3:30 am every morning to set up for PT sessions, he says the job is pretty awesome and completely tolerable, especially since he is allowed to take a nice long nap following PT everyday. And that is basically it! He’s pretty much done! Halle-freakin-lujah! I’ve never felt so relieved in my life, and I’m not even the one in training! Life is so dang good for both of us! I will just be anxiously counting down the days, meanwhile staying super crazy busy with wedding photography and wrapping up things here. I have a bit of reboxing to do before the big move! See you soon sailor! I love you!