What keeps you sane while your sweetheart is away?

Home Alone (Phase) 3 After 78 days of playing this Ranger School game... I'm relatively settled in to a routine of living alone. From taking care of business all on my own to deciding that it's acceptable to wear leggings every day of the week, catch up on all the classic movies and Law & Order I can handle for the year, and eat roasted brussel sprouts for dinner... ok maybe it's not the most balanced routine, but it works! What...

Read More

Recycle Land

What?! Recycled? No, no, no, not him, he's too strong, he leads too well, his peers all like him.... Well, ladies, I don't care how strong or tough your men are... sometimes at Ranger School, it's all about numbers. If RI's need to have 30 men recycle, they're going to get those numbers. B. gave me the reasons he recycled -- and as luck has it, it was just a bad draw of RI graders. He got the same one twice -- and that fellow was PCS-ing to Hawaii after that, so he failed everyone he graded. B. then had 1 shot with a "fair"...

Read More

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

We, as Ranger School wives, girlfriends and fiances, are intimately acquainted with a tradition long out of practice - the art of writing love letters.  At this vantage point of Day 54 (36 to go! Hooah!) synthesizing all I would share about day-to-day life, our hopes and dreams, and how much I miss my other-half into a peppy little letter of encouragement has gotten quite natural.  But for me, it’s been a learning experience.  After...

Read More

Last Day of Mountain Phase

I really struggled with the title of this post. Maybe it's because I have zero information about what's going on over there, but I've become highly superstitious these past 40 days. Seriously, do you realize that God would have ended the flood in Noah's time by now? 40 days and 40 nights. Not saying that the Almighty-created flood compares to Ranger school, I'm just making a dramatic point. I didn't want to call this post what I did --...

Read More

Care Package Time!

Ok, for those of you class 11-12 procrastinators like me, you just might have one day left to send a care package. Maybe. With priority mail from Texas, this box of goodies is supposed to arrive Wednesday and only cost me a small arm and a leg to ship. It was about the size of 2 large flat rate boxes ($15/each) so for $30 flat rate would have actually cost me 40 cents more! Ha. I'm clearly out of touch with shipping rates. I just...

Read More

Ranger On

Hi Friends! How are y'all hanging in there? For those of us with guys in class 11-12, we've only got 23 days until the first graduation week pass! Yeah!!! Sorry to be so absent lately, but we've had one hellofa week.  In short, my dad-in-law had a medical emergency, in fact, his heart completely stopped, and we had some tough choices to make in regards to Ranger School.  I'm not usually keen on divulging personal details like...

Read More

Ranger Girl's Creed

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE ...

Read More

Class 11-12 Halfway Mark

I went back and forth between writing a post, and ignoring the halfway milestone of the class of 11-12. I don't want to jinx B. in particular, so I'm just going to say that his class is halfway through Ranger School. In 31 days, they will be lining up at Fort Benning to get their Ranger tab pinned on. In a way, it has felt way, way longer than a month. Because I just got a new phone, all of my saved voice mails from him were wiped! I have 3 letters from him that I re-read every time I want to talk to him, and I've written...

Read More

Themed Care Packages for Ranger School

Goooooood Wednesday morning, ladies and gents, it's a be-ee-ay-utiful day here in lovely Houston, where it's at 60 degrees with a high of 85. The trucks are revving and it's business as usual off of Beltway 8. While it is still a while away, the [mental] deadline for sending care packages for the end of Mountain Phase is approaching (and none too swiftly, if ya feel me on this). I plan on mailing mine on the Saturday or Monday before the phase is done. A few things to consider before mailing, though. Airborne: B. is airborne...

Read More

Day 3 of Mountain Phase

Howdy from Texas, y'all! (Please tell me you heard Paula Deen's voice in your head when you read that.) So it is the first of October (and my littlest sister's 19th birthday, happy birthday, Cheeser-Squeezer), and the third day of Mountain Phase up in Dahlonega, Georgia. According to my Accuweather app, our men are currently being pelted with about an inch of rain, in 63 degree weather. Sounds great, huh? However, assuming they're still working (safe assumption), they'll be on day 2 of 4 of mountaineering. Yesterday they...

Read More

The Infamous 8 Hour Pass

I am still reeling from the emotional roller coaster that was the infamous 8 hour pass. Theory: A blissful moment to break up the monotony of missing my to-be Ranger, a happy re-union between phases, an opportunity for me to shower him with love and nourishment and for him to catch up on some much needed rest... Reality: I woke up at 3 in the morning a FULL WEEK before the pass panicking that I only have one opportunity to re-fuel my other half, to give him enough energy to make it through the next 40 days, to relay all...

Read More

Day of Phone Calls and Visits

Ladies, I am absolutely green with envy for those of you who were able to see your men today. I wish Texas was much closer to Georgia than it was... but if wishes were kisses, I'd be diabetic. So, for those of you who got to see your strapping lads in uniform, good on you! I hope you got plenty of hugs and smiles. To say this was an emotional day would be like saying that Hurricane Katrina had a little bit of wind and rain. Work was hectic -- of course the excrement hits the oscillating blades on the day that they get their...

Read More

Ranger School Gets a Facelift

On the IBOLC Dagger Co Facebook page, one of the leaders (cadre) posted this article: Army Revamps Ranger School, Leadership Courses. For those of you who notoriously read the Clif Notes version of the great American novels in school (shame on you!), I'll give some backstory and summarize. In the past, when men when out on patrol, they'd have a pretty set objective. "Knock out a bunker," and "set up an ambush" and "respond to an ambush" were the ones I heard the most from B's time in ROTC. I heard about them so often I sometimes...

Read More

MAJOR MESS UP

Okay ladies, I messed up big time. I ordered some caffeine gum to stick in letters for B to help stay awake... MAJOR NO-NO. The Ranger packing list specifically says "nothing with caffeine." Awesome. So that last post about the caffeine gum is moot -- do not buy it! I will have to return the stuff I was planning on sending to B. Just worried about those Arnold Palmer drinks I sent him... Anyone know when they get their care packages? I'm praying hard that it's not when they can get into trouble for having caffeine.... Moral...

Read More

If You Give a Ranger a Cookie...

He's going to ask for a glass of milk! Or he's just going to take it, wolf it down, and run to the next Ranger game. I got B's letter yesterday after coming home from Ft. Worth/Dallas (had an awesome time, too, but that's another story). Aside from telling me what he was doing, he said it was amazing how tired and hungry he had gotten in a couple of days. And how it was hard to focus on the page when he was writing (I winced at that). But he also said that in their sleep deprived state, they are taught class after class after...

Read More

Some Ideas

Hello ladies, I first want to thank you for letting me be apart of this blog. Communication is the biggest element in my life, and this blog will help me while D is away. Now, I want to share with you ladies what I have done for D that he said it was a great way to lift his spirit. I read about Ranger School before hand and saw that RI’s like to make the soldiers feel unloved, unwanted, and isolated for their love ones by holding their...

Read More

Voting in the Woods

Ready to totally nerd out with me? Today I suddenly realized that our guys will be gone for the entirety of this year's voting process. (Unless they have a break in Ranger School to vote....HA! dream on.) As the political science nerds that my husband and I are, whether our votes statistically count worth a darn or not, being part of the process is still pretty important. As long as I've known him, I don't think he's ever gone a day without checking to "see what's going on in the world," as he puts it, so I've been sending...

Read More

7 Weeks to Go!

That's right! In exactly 7 weeks, we will be heading to Ft. Benning to see our men graduate (knock on wood). And, in 1 week, they will be getting their 8 hour pass! Really, if you look at this time as 3 separate 3 week chunks, it's much easier to digest than "oh my gosh, 9 weeks?!" Does anyone have any plans for this weekend to take their mind off of the lonely time? I'm planning on going to Fort Worth/Dallas to hang out with some old college girlfriends, and I am so excited about it! I haven't seen these ladies in nearly...

Read More

Hello! Here is what I know. All of it.

Hey all! I’m loving the direction this little community is taking.  Thanks for taking the lead, Courtney!     I’m Katy, a newlywed army wife lost here in the piney woods of Fort Benning.  My husband M and I met in college (through Model United Nations, no joke!) and got married right after graduation in December.  In fact, we were crazy enough to graduate, have his commissioning ceremony and have a wedding all in one weekend! It was fun. I’m a traveler at heart.  My blog, The Rambling...

Read More