Since we knew DS wouldn't have a lot of time to write, we sent him letters that were prefilled and all he had to do was check boxes and fill in blanks. He got a kick out of them. Here is an example of one of the letters we sent him to fill out:
_____________________________________________________
Hi Mom/Dad/Sister/Sister/Dog/Dog,
I am doing:
o Fabulous
o Pretty good
o Just OK
o Terrible
o The Hokey Pokey
I miss:
o My Xbox
o Net Flix Rentals
o My mommy, daddy and sisters
o My man cave
o Chicken Kiev
o The dogs
o Doing the dishes
Please send:
o Clothes : ________________________________________
o Toiletries :_______________________________________
o Hugs & Kisses
o Home baked goods :_______________________________
o Gatorade/Protein Bars_____________________________
o Other :__________________________________________
I’m having:
o Fun
o Achy muscles
o A hard time
o A hoarse voice from yelling
o Tinnitus (ringing in my ears)
My favorite thing I’ve done recently______________________
My least favorite thing I’ve done recently___________________
I just want to say________________________
___________________________________________________
We also sent him jokes, such as military jokes that I found online. He requested these as occasionally the plebes had to tell the detailers jokes. We also sent him photos of the family, homemade cookies (we baked them and then sealed them in food saver bags and send them in the plastic shoebox containers), protein bars, compression shorts, a small flag with a small stand to put on their desk (DS mentioned something about this protecting them from a "mutiny"). I remember at the second phone call DS requesting a Swiffer Duster, which seemed so funny to DH and I that DS was requesting cleaning supplies!
We wrote frequently to DS. He said that he didn't always have time to read them, but knowing that he had letters was very comforting. He said he liked the shorter letters better because he could read them quicker, but when he did have time he enjoyed reading the longer letters.
I remember last summer when forum and listserve parents started reporting how many letters they were getting from their DS/DD. Some got only the 1 mandatory letter that all plebes had to write at the beginning of PS. Some got A LOT of letters, and others were somewhere in between. Our DS wrote some very short letters written on tiny pieces of paper from his small notebook, some of them were the check list letters as above, and other letters were several full pages long. They all were great! If you think that you guys spent a lot of time waiting for the mail carrier for news on appointments, just wait until you are stalking the mail carrier for letters from your plebe!
Good luck to everyone! I can't believe that it was only a year ago that we were getting ready for DS to leave! It has been an amazing year!