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Good Friday morning to you all!!!!~ It is nice to be writing this to you all after The Crucible is over with and we are now in the final week of BC......I will admitt that there were times I never thought that this day would get here!!!!
I have to start this off by saying that this forum was a saving grace for me!!!~ A place where I could express my feelings and speak freely on all the emotions that I had and share all the "goodies" I learned from Marquis' letters.....A place where I knew my thoughts would be read and possibly understood.....Never in a million years did I anticipate meeting such AMAZING people to share this journey with!!!!

Brenda, you were my first "friend" on here that I got to know and later realized that our sons were bunk mates and good friends.... I feel as if Aaron was the "OLDER" brother that Marquis never had as he is the older brother in this family...I feel so close to Aaron and I am looking forward to meeting the young man that was there beside Marquis!!!~You grabbed a hold of my heart and we shared so much with each other.....you were here to offer me support and words of encouragment, you were here to listen and lift me up when I was feeling down. We have traveled this journey from day one together and I am so blessed to have met you and to now call you MY FRIEND, MY FAMILY!!!!~ Thank you so much for keeping me "aprised' of some of the things I DID NOT KNOW and for always HAVING MY BACK!!!~ I am so happy for you and your family and I am so proud of Aaron for all of his accomplishments throughout BC....I am so grateful that he was there for Marquis and that they were with one another to go through the good, the bad, the impossible and share in the pride and joys of their journey!!!! I am looking forward to finaly meeting you in person and giving you a HUGE HUG and carrying on  our friendship for the rest of our lives!!!!! I love ya girl!!!!!!

Amanda, it has been such a pleasure getting to know you and sharing in all of YOUR VERY OWN accomplishments and joys throughout this journey......from you finishing your semester in school, to surviving your interview and landing a new job, to hearing about all of Stevens success throughout BC (EXPERT!!! WOOHOOO), and knowing that our young men shared some common likes that hopefully got them through some pretty rancid times!!!! Your upbeat and positive attitude has been a blessing for me and your heart is amazing!!!! I feel so honored to be able to call you my friend and I hope that we have many years of friendship and hope only the best for you and Steven and that your future is BRIGHT and WONDERFUL just like you!!!! I am so happy for you and your family and for Stevens family!!!~  Thank you for always being here for me and for sharing your thoughts and feelings on here as well!!!!  Much love to you Amanda!!!!!!I look forward to meeting you in 6 days and also giving you a HUGE HUG!!!!!!~  

Karin, (and Gary who occasionaly snuck in here....LOL)~ It was a pleasure getting to know you and find that Will and Marquis had shared some "quality" moments together and also formed a bond throughout BC.....Thank you for being here and for sharing  all of Wills successes throughout BC and for sharing all of your thoughts and feelings as well!!!  Thank you for sharing "news" and putting my heart at ease on more than a few occasions. That was a blessing more than you could ever know!!! I feel as if I have known Will my entire life and I am so proud of him for what he has done and will continue to do throughout his life as a son and as a Marine. I KNOW how very proud of him you are Karin and THANK YOU for sharing so much of him and you with me!!! Congratualtions to YOU and to your family and to Will!!!! I am so proud of him for all he has accomplished!!!~ It has been an honor getting to know you and share some "candid" moments with one another!!! I look forward to a lifetime of friendship and meeting you in person next week!!!!~ Much Love to you Karin!!!! HUGS to come!!!!

Lynette, although Zach is in Plt. 2161 it was awesome having you STALK our forum!!!!!! ::.....You remind me so much of myself with your sense of humor and the way you thought about things throughout this entire 13 weeks!!!!! It has been awesome getting to know you and share in Zach's journey!!!~ Thank you for sharing this with me, thank you for the friendship and for your positive and upbeat words and encouragement!!!!!! It has been a pleasure getting to know you!!! It is an honor to call you my friend and I look forward to a lifetime of friendship with you as well!!!!!  Congratulations to YOU and to your family and to Zach for this amazing accomplishement!!!~When you get to SD, just look for the "Mom in the chamies being hauled off by the MP for stalking".......Bwahahahahaha.......and make sure you explain to Marquis that it was all YOUR IDEA and YOUR FAULT!!!!!!! ::.......


All in all ladies, it has been my pleasure walking this journey with each and every one of you.....It has been a pleasure sheding tears with you, comparing notes as to what is going on through BC,  being sad together, being worried, sending off those questionares to get some damn answers, being pissed off together and mostly cheering on our young men!!!!!!!! I feel like I have known each and every one of you forever and I feel like I have known your sons and your BF forever!!! I will worry about them, I will pray for them, I will be just as proud of all of them as I am of my own son!!!  There is nothing better than having a ton of support for our guys and knowing that they all have a piece of everyones heart!!!!!!! The love and  support that we have all shown one another during the past 13 weeks is irreplaceable in my eyes and in my heart!!! I couldn't have asked for a better group of women to share my heart with, to share my son with, and to share myself with!!!!!! YOU ALL hold a HUGE PIECE of my heart and always will!!!!! I love you all dearly and I thank you all for coming into my life when you did!!!! Without all of you, this journey would have been even harder for me!!!!!!! We are less than a week away from seeing our MARINES!!!!! Less than a week away from seeing each other!!!!!! I am so excited and I can honestly say I am looking forward to meeting you all!!!!! THANK YOU AGAIN for the last 13 weeks!!!!!! You are all SIMPLY THE BEST and my VERY VERY DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!!!!
Until we meet again!!!!~ Oorraahh Plt. 2166 & 2161......and all who have been apart of this!!!!!

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Apryl! Oh goodness where do I even start?? First of all THANK YOU sooo much for the nice words you wrote me, it was a great way to start my day :]

You have been the founder and the rock of this forum since day 1, I know I can always count on you to have posted something to make me laugh or cry or both! You have always had the most upbeat and positive attitude even when those boys didn't answer our questions!! It made this process so much easier coming here and feeling like I can breathe because someone else knew how I was feeling, people just don't seem to get it if they haven't gone through it before.
I absolutely love ALL your exclamation points and animated emoticons!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha they automatically put a smile on my face because it made me feel YOUR excitement which in turn put me at ease knowing I wasn't alone.
Anyone who reads even HALF of one your posts can tell what an amazing, thoughtful and kind person you are, not to mention one of THE proudest momma's EVER! I could never thank you enough for being YOU and for being an awesome travel partner through this ridiculously long and sometimes crazy ride. That goes for you too BRENDA, Lynette, Karin and all the other people who pass on through here!
It was so nice getting to piece our guys' boot camp experience together through each other's mail, we'd be so lost as to what the hell goes on down there if it were not for our collaborating! You ladies have made this journey bearable and I will never be able to thank you enough, I'm so proud of our guys but also so proud of US! Together we made it!! You all are amazing people (you'd have to be to raise a Marine!) and I'm so glad I can call you my friends. I can't wait to see where our journey's take us next but I'm excited to stay in touch and compare some more stories!!
5 DAYS til travel, 6 DAYS til we meet OUR MARINES AND EACHOTHER!, 7 DAYS til graduation!
Let's gooooooooo! Ooooraaaahhh Plt 2166 & 2161!! :]]

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Amanda.........WOW!!!!!!~ What beautiful words you spoke!!!!!! THANK YOU so much for your kindness!!!!!!! All I can say to that is I NEVER could have gotten through all of this without YOU!!!!!!! We all have so much to look forward to and Im sure plenty more tears and plenty more reasons to be pissed off and excited!!!!!! I hope that we can all stay connected and continue to share in this journey no matter where our buys end up!!!!! It would mean the world to me to know that Aaron, Steven, Will, Zach and Marquis all have extra love and attention from each and every one of us!!!!! To know that they have support and lots of prayers from all of us!!!!! This part of the journey may almost be over, but depending on what path in the Marines each of our young men take and persue it could be a very very long book with many chapters to get through.....Who better than all of us to write the chapters and the final ending??!!!!!!! Thank you again Amanda for those very heartfelt words!!!!!

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All I got to say is THANK YOU Apryl for being the creator of our Platoon's forum!!   When I first hit the forum and clicked on our platoon it was YOU who had posted first as I recall and posting back was the start of an amazing journey for both of us that lead to a beautiful relationship between two mothers. We will always cherish how our story unfolded with our sons being rack-mates and best buds even before we knew it!!
When I tell people the story how it started, they all say its amazing to have connected like we did and its grown into a lifelong friendship! I'm glad we could share our feelings and vent when we needed and joked on personal issues!! I'm leaving a compartment to the MH totally empty just for you and the bathtub is still yours if you need it   Oh, and a visit to Tejas is always welcomed!! I can not wait to meet you in person either! Just 4, I said 4 more days!! (its Sat now)  I feel once we do, tears are going to flow, I just know it!!  The positive energy you have is what I love about you. I can't wait to see what you have posted on the forum or my personal page itself!! It really helped me get through some days I felt I couldn't get through.  I wish I had the words to flow like you do. They are uplifting and just makes my day by golly!
I can't wait to meet Marquis on Family Day and give him a big hug  and tell him what a special mother he has although I know he already does!! I can't wait to meet  Steven, Will, Pierce, and your son Zach, as well Lynette. We all made this journey together ladies, just as our Marines did!! OUR MARINES...doesn't that sound GRAND!!

Amanda, it was nice getting to know you!! I wish you and Steven all the best in the world and to have a beautiful future. You have alot going for the both of you. Aaron and Megan are in the same boat sort of speak. May Steven and Aaron stay in touch after they go their seperate ways. I
know they both are good friends with Sargeant, who I don't know much about, just that he hails from San Antonio, TX. Hopefully they will all stay in touch. Can't wait to meet you on FD and give ya a giant hug!

Its going to be a joyous day when we all meet...IN 5 DAYS!!! Until then Oohrah 2166 & 2161!!

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Brenda! Thank you soo soo much for the well wishes for Steven and I! That was so very sweet and very much appreciated, I wish the same for Aaron and Meg! I'm a sucker for happy endings/beginnings :]] I hope our guys stay in touch as well, I'm sure they will, they've formed lifelong bonds as we have and we're SO close to starting our own new chapters in this great big book of life! I can't wait to finally meet you all either, soooo many hugs are in order!! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! <3

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You have a great 4th of July Weekend!! We will be scurrying around getting stuff for our trip. Slim Jims, Monsters, popcorn, Reese's pieces are just the start of the long food list just for Aaron! LOL I better not forget the TUMS!!

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Awww Brenda......nothing like making me cry first thing in the morning!!!!!! I think the fact that we didn't know the connection that our sons had yet we had formed one already makes this so incredibly unique as well!!!! To be two mothers from two different sides of the country connected like this is sureal and amazing!!!!!! A begining I will NEVER FORGET!!!!!!!! I am so glad that you chose to come into this forum so that we could meet and share in everything!!!!! It has been an amazing ride and I know that we are in for a whole lot more!!!!! Hopefully not as bumpy as this first part, but if it is we got it!!!!!!
:: at leaving a compartment EMPTY in the MH just for me........DONT TEMPT me as you know WHAT/WHO might end up in it!!!!!!!!!!!! Bwahahahahaha.........and that bathtub, well we shall see if I am going to have to bring some padding along with me......::........STILL don't know if she is coming with us as now she is not answering my calls........I think to myself..."Really??? It's a simple question!!!!!!!!! YES OR NO????".....Grrrrrrrr
A visit to Texas is definitely going to have to be in the works!!!!! That is NO JOKE!!!!!~ The same goes for you, ANYTIME you are in my neck of the woods, you always have a place to stay!!!!!! As you said today is Saturday, we only have 4 more days until we travel and see one another!!!! I can see us acting like HIGH SCHOOL girls staying up all night "catchiing up"............I am beyond excited.
YES, DONT FORGET THE TUMS Brenda!!!!!!!!! ::........they are going to need it for sure.....hell I might need it from the pain Im going to have in my stomach from seeing Marquis after so long!!!!!!!!  

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OH!!!!!!!!!!! And......I hope everyone has a GREAT 4th of July!!!!~ Stay safe and relish in the celebration!!!!!!!! Oorraahh Plt. 2166 & Plt. 2161!!!~

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Oh oh, I am lurking again!!!  And look what I stumble upon!  You guys are all making me cry!  And here I thought I was done with that (AS IF!!)!  I knew when my son called me on the phone and said, "Mom, I am going to buy an Xbox and I am joining the Marines" that I was beginning a long unknown journey and a long road with a lot of ups and downs. Bootcamp was only the beginning of that ride and what a wild ride it has been! I can only imagine what the next five years are going to be like.

Lucky for me I stumbled into this forum and I was welcomed with open arms. That I have to thank each of you for. Yet if it wasn't for Apryl posting in the 2161 forum, I probaby wouldn't have made it over here. Afterall my son was from a rival platoon. LOL Now I think of all of you as part of my
extended family, because, well, you are. My son didn't enlist by himself, I enlisted with him. And because of all of you, my wild ride wasn't as bad
as it could have been. We still have a long stretch of highway in front of us. There will be a lot more joy, a lot more laugher, a lot more jokes, a lot
more worry, and hopefully not a lot of sadness.

I am soo grateful to be able to call of you friends! And I am grateful to have had all of you share your journey with me. However, this is just the
beginning!!  So don't be going anywhere!! I know I will need a place I can whine and complain in the coming months and possibly years-heaven help
me! Much love to all of you!!

Until Wednesday...Oohrah 2166 and 2161!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Semper Fi until I die!! LOL