My man in uniform....and glasses

I was sitting in church today when I got a text message from Spencer, and this picture. They are not allowed to wear their own contacts at OCS, and issue any vision impaired candidate these awesome glasses. I laugh every time I see the picture.
He obviously looks a lot more normal in this picture, although that hat looks huge!

As far as updates with him goes, he is feeling much better, and should be starting class again this Tuesday. He'll have to do his physical fitness test again. The rest of the week is not going to be easy. It's still the "breaking in" class for him, because officially it's still his first week. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers in his behalf.

Here is another video with a sneak peak at what OCS is like.

Spencer's Address

We're hoping that his class letter/number will only be good for one more week. But for now, here's his address:

OC Spencer Christian
Officer Candidate School
Class H
Officer Training Command Newport
291 Kollmeyer St.
Newport, RI 02841-1641

ALSO, PLEASE DON'T SEND PACKAGES. ONLY LETTERS! HE WILL BE PUNISHED FOR RECEIVING PACKAGES.

This is MADNESS

I am by no means writing this to get anyone to feel sorry for us. Well, maybe you can feel sorry for Spencer a little. I just want to tell everyone how crazy our life is. In my previous post I wrote about how crazy Spencer's first few days were. Well, I forgot to mention that the day before he reported to OCS, he called me to tell me that his clutch broke on his car. We ended up having to arrange a way to get his car towed to a shop, and for him to catch a ride to OCS the following day.

Well, today, I got a phone call from the shop telling me that the bill would be over $1,000. I totally trust them too, so don't be thinking that they're taking advantage of me. They had to replace the clutch, bearings, and the main cylinder(I think). Anyways, they didn't charge us for some of the labor - and they were willing to hold it at their shop for as long as we needed them to. They were super nice - but $1,000!?!?! Holy COW! Then, in a couple hours, I get a call from Spencer. Yesterday he had told me he felt like he had a chest cold coming. Well when I talked to him today he said he had to go in to get a chest x-ray and that things weren't looking so good. About 30 minutes later he called again to tell me he had pneumonia! The poor guy! I feel so helpless. He couldn't even talk to me tonight because he was feeling so bad and had to get his roommate to call. He's been very weak all day, and his roommate had to move out so he didn't get sick. Since he was supposed to be starting his new class tomorrow - and is now sick, this means he will have to stay at least another week in the holding class. Possibly even 2 weeks, depending on how quickly he heals. THIS SUCKS!

Maybe you could possibly sneak him into your prayers sometime. It'd be appreciated. And if you REALLY love him, you could ask for his address and write him a letter. He will love you forever for it.

"The Real World is NOTHING"

That is what Spencer told me tonight, in comparing OCS with the real world. For all of you who care about Spencer, I'll go ahead and write out his update.

I wasn't expecting to get a phone call from Spencer for the first several weeks. But Tuesday night he ended up calling me. It took me forever to believe that it was him because his voice sounded SO different(from yelling at the drill sgts). Anyways, he told me he had bad news. During his PT test, he was doing push ups. The most they even allow you to do is 87. Spencer did 81. He totally killed it. The people who were in charge of administering the tests were also officer candidates, but they are just in their later part of training. Part of their training is to train the new guys that come in. Anyways, so whenever these guys typed Spencer's score into the computer and printed it out, it came out that he only did 18 push ups!!! The head guy there made the final decision. Spencer would be marked as failing the PT test and moved out to the "holding class" for an extra week, and then join the new class coming in this next Sunday. You might be thinking "WHAT? That's not fair!" Most people I told have said that. But Spencer explained that it is a lesson for the guys that made the typo. They have to realize that when they make a mistake, other people are affected by it. I asked Spencer if they'd get in trouble, and he assured me that they would be paying for it for the next 2 weeks. As much as it sucks that he has to stay an extra week - minimum - there are maybe a few perks. First of all, I have gotten to talk to him every day he's been in the holding class. Second of all, apparently his new drill instructor he'll have is super cool, and allows free time earlier and more often than the others. Third - everyone there knows that he got screwed, and he says everyone's on his side and rooting for him.

He says that OCS is so much harder and crazier than he ever expected. He got 2 hours of sleep the first night, and less than 4 hours the other nights. As of tonight, he said he's gotten 15 hours total sleep for the week. Not only that, he is doing workouts all day long. The food sucks. He has people screaming in his face that he is weak, and he doesn't belong there. The head marine drill sgt said that Navy OCS is the hardest OCS out of all the military branches. This is coming from a marine. It is because of the toughness both mentally AND physically that make it the hardest. On the positive side, he has already built great friendships in just a few days. This will definitely be one of Spencer's greatest life experiences.

Here is a link to a video that we found before he left. This is what the first day was like for him reporting to OCS. Think you could handle it?

The Time is HERE....

for me to be a lonely military wife :(

The reason I haven't posted in SO LONG is because I've basically been spending all my spare time with Spencer. He reports for OCS tomorrow morning. Please keep him in your prayers.... and keep me on your list of people to call and hang out with. Thanks.

The past several weeks have been insane. So busy. Let's see, I think the first thing to write about was our fantastic weekend trip to Clearwater, Florida with our good friends Dan and LaLona (congrats on making it on our blog)! We actually share the same anniversary, except we were married a year before them. Spencer and I decided that since he'll be gone for our anniversary this year (July 1), we would count this Florida trip as our celebration. Spencer's aunt and uncle live down in Clearwater, and we had such a great time visiting with them, laying on the beach, and just relaxing. I won't bore you with details, but maybe if LaLona posts some pictures she took of the trip, you can see them. So check out her blog HERE. Oh, and just to foreshadow some other events - I'll include the detail the we blew a tire on the way home. SO ANNOYING.

We got home from Florida on Sunday, and I had Monday to prepare to leave for Girl's Camp on Tuesday, and stay the rest of the week. I was at first very bitter that they asked me to go the week before Spencer left, but decided that Spencer still had to work anyways that week, so I might as well try to enjoy it. Tuesday I went with the 4th year girls to go rappelling and then later to Sliding Rock in Toccoa Falls. It was a fun yet exhausting day. The rest of the week I was supposed to supervise the 5th and 6th year girls to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to do. The camp was held at Lake Lanier Islands Campgrounds. So Thursday they took all 200 girls to the waterpark. I somehow convinced the leaders that they should let Spencer come, so he did, and we had a blast. You can imagine how much those 200 girls also enjoyed having him there. They were talking about him and how "yummy" he was the rest of the week. As one of the girls said, "Go Stacy!".

The last weekend we had together, we went to 3 different birthday parties. Honestly - have you EVER been to 3 birthday parties in 1 weekend? Crazy.

Our friends threw Spencer a going away sushi party on Tuesday. It was also a team party for us Warriors, who lost on Monday night. Anyways, the party was fun. We have great friends. Oh - on the way to the party, we got a flat tire in downtown Atlanta. Apparently we drove on it for too long, and it ruined the tire, so we bought a new one. Dang nails.

Spencer left Wednesday to drive up to Virginia. We actually woke up that morning, and when I went outside I noticed that he had ANOTHER FLAT TIRE! What the heck!? The new one that we just bought the day before was now flat. This time is was a staple. What are the chances? First the blown one, then 2 flats in less than 24 hours. I am still shocked by the chances of that happening. Anyways...while in VA, he stayed 2 nights with Rebecca, and spent some time with some other friends there. Now he is in Rhode Island, awaiting his time to report tomorrow morning. It's so weird that it's finally here. My life as a military wife. I still don't know what to think of it. At times I feel happy for all my independence, and doing whatever I want, but more often I feel sad that he's not here to hang out with me. I'm very proud of him and his decision to serve in the military, but I just hope that these next 3 months flies by!

Here are some pictures of Spencer saying goodbye to friends.