MANDATORY Fun!

Hey Mom,

I got your letter.  I'm glad things are going great!  You'll have to tell everyone hi for me.  I'm still having a blast here.  Last night we had "mandatory fun" where we had to go to the big 4th of July celebration on post.  It was really funny because they have us on a pretty strict diet at the Defact (chow hall) and it was a carnival food free for all at the fair.  Haha  I was able to get a Mtn. Dew fix for the first time since leaving home, but after one of those nothing was better than some ICE water!  Cold drinks are extremely hard to come by here, so I was really enjoying the ice water!  Then after all the junk food, oh I had a DEEP FRIED SNICKERS!!  Almost as amazing as an ice cream Snickers would be right now.  We're in the middle of a heat front, which really makes shooting in full battle gear suck.  We did a 6 mile ruck march in that gear two days ago that was rough on a lot of guys.  But, anyways, back to what I was saying before...the celebration was cool.  They had fireworks at the end, but they didn't have anything on some of the firework shows back home!  The only thing that sucked about the fair is that we didn't get to sleep til 0130 and wake up was at 0530.  It was the first time ina  long time that I've almost fallen asleep in church, but so was everyone else around me.  And we have a PT test tomorrow morning at 0300.  Anybody back home wanna have a pushup contest at midnight?!

We are getting our Dress Blues for graduation this week!  We're all super stoked here!  I can't wait to see how I look in that uniform.  I just can't seem to imagine it.  We have one more day of qualifying for BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) and then we get to start ARM (Advanced R.. M..) which is all the tactical fun stuff like shooting while moving and grenade launchers and throwing live grenades!  I'm so stoked for the grenades!  I think cause it's like being allowed to throw a really big firework!  Ha ha!  I can't wait!!  It's almost as exciting as football season!! Speaking of which, we're totally in the dark here on sports.  Most of the guys didn't even know about the Olympics.  I'm really excited to hear how the U.S. does since we're all "American athletes" now.  Except my gold medal is gonna be being able to make it back home in one piece.  (OKAY...I don't know that this mom even wanted to think about that!!!  But good to know coming home in one piece is on his mind!! :s )

I can't believe graduation is just one month away!  Everyone here keeps talking about how awesome it will be. I just can't wait to see ya'll and I'm sure ya'll can't wait to come see Georgia.  I'm still not used to the heat yet and I swear I sweat more than anyone else.  My ACU's always look like I jumped in a pool by the end of the day.  Mom, how did YOUR shooting go?  That's something I want to hear all about!!!  Ha ha  What else is new back home?  Anything new and exciting?  I miss all ya'll a friggin ton.  I can't wait to see ya'll in a few weeks!  Is there anything specific that you guys want from me?  And was Tanner able to get his dog tag that I sent?  I friggin miss that kid.  Some days I sit and think about what all we'd be talking about right now.  Probably making a joke about Nicki's pausing in mid sentence, or Hunter's latest girlfriend, or something ridiculous that "Nerm" just said..or even just sitting down and talking sports or something like that with Dennis.  I really hope I can see all ya'll come graduation, but if not I understand.  And I should have some time come Christmas!!!

I friggin love ya'll a ton and miss ya.

Love, Lance