Wow!

I got a phone call from Bubba tonight. My fourth this week! Sunday, of course, and then they had a free day on Monday, so he found a payphone and called briefly. On Tuesday he called as a second soldier died at his base from meningitis and all soldiers were required to call home so the base did not have a flood of phone calls regarding individual soldiers. Tonight he called again. Apparently his platoon won a some kind of combat tournament (including Bubba, who took down a 275 pound former linebacker from Ohio State University, teehee!) and got 10 minutes on the phone tonight and they get 30 minutes tomorrow! That was exciting, but the real news? They named Platoon Leader today...and Bubba is the Platoon Leader! He's the leader for the 54 soldiers in his platoon. He was very excited, to say the least. He'll get a special patch for his uniform I guess, but the reward is the title and job itself. I'm very proud of him!

Happy Valentine's Day

We're doing our family thing.Lasagna in the oven, creme brulee and chocolate covered strawberries already made.

Mark and I went out last night and happened to be dining at the same time and place as his parents! It was fun to see them. They were finishing as we got there, so we chatted for a bit and then they went on their way and we enjoyed a lovely dinner.

Today, FE went over to work from Grandpa, Mark took the Princess to the park for hours and SB and I went to lunch, a movie, and shopping! It was fun!

Hope you're all having a great day!

25 Minutes!

I got 25 minutes on the phone with Bubba tonight! He sounds much better than last week and has made some friends, both of whom were with him while he was on the phone, yelling things to me. One of them is from South Carolina and has a great accent!lol!
He sounded good and said he wants to come home and misses us a lot, but he wasn't crying this time, so that was good for me!

Teehee

This was taken 3 days before Bubba left when we were getting ready for the party. I just LOVE this photo.

So Frustrated

Two weeks ago tomorrow, I got a postcard (a fill in the blanks type) from Bubba saying that he had arrived safely (which i already knew, thanks US Army) and that when they started Basic, we would get a postcard with a mailing address and graduation dates. That it would be sent within the following week. Also, when I talked to Bubba for my 2 minute allotment on Sunday, he asked if I had received his letters. Well, I got one. He said he had sent two. Neither of these things have arrived. I wait anxiously every day for the mail. I hate that he is there and not getting any mail, but there are very specific instructions for sending mail and I haven't received them yet. I can't stand it!

National Guard

Because I have had many people ask me what exactly the Army National Guard does:

U.S. militia. The militia is authorized by the Constitution of the United States, which also defines the militia's functions and the federal and state role. Article 1, Section 8 provides that Congress shall have the power to call forth "the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." Congress was entrusted with organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, but the appointment of officers and the training of the militia were reserved to the states. Further provisions were made in the Second Amendment. In peacetime the National Guard is placed under state jurisdiction and can be used by governors to quell local disturbances, as in Newark and Detroit riots in 1967, and to help in times of local disasters, such as floods and hurricanes. In times of war or other emergencies the National Guard is absorbed into the active service of the United States and the president is commander in chief. The National Guard has been partially mobilized during the Korean War, the Berlin crisis of 1961, and the Persian Gulf War and for peacekeeping in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The National Guard's equipment and personnel are standardized to conform with U.S. army regulations. Enlistment is voluntary; compensation, paid by the federal government, is given for periods of drill and field training.

Basically, the National Guard serves dual duty. The state Governor is their Commander in Chief most of the time, but they can also be called up by the Federal government. They are trained in exactly the same was as active duty army personnel and if called up, will do exactly the same jobs as someone in active duty military dependent on their specialty. Bubba's MOS is Military Police. That is what his advanced training will be in and when he is finished in June, he will have the same qualifications to serve as an MP as someone who is full-time Army. And he could choose to go active duty if he likes it enough, without any additional training.

Bi-Polar again

I may need medication if my emotions keep running this high to low gamut every freaking weekend!

Friday night was SB's birthday party with her friends. It was so much fun. We did a scavenger hunt at the mall and the girls had a BLAST. I highly recommend this once you have girls who are old enough to navigate and you are comfortable allowing them some freedom in a group. I think 14 was the perfect age. They are still young enough to think it's cool, but old enough that I wasn't worried about them. They were in two groups of 4, which also worked quite well. The girls all stayed overnight and had a great time. This party was a little bittersweet. Several of these girls had their first ever slumber party at our house when they were in 1st grade. Now they are all 8th graders and going off to different high schools next year. It's been so much fun watching all of them grow up.

Yesterday was the Super bowl, of course. My FE is not only the biggest football fan I know, and trust me I know some pretty major fans even in my own house, but the biggest Cardinals fan. He has been so stressed all week about this game. he couldn't even eat much yesterday. And last night he was heartbroken. He cried and cried and had a terrible headache for hours after the game. He's a very sensitive kiddo. He's much better this morning, and still in love with his team. He knows they played a great game, and played with honor. They are a great group of guys.

On top of that, Bubba called during the game last night. He said it's been hell. Bubba is a really smart guy, with very little tolerance for those who are, shall we say, not quite as intellectually gifted!lol! He apparently is living with several of those people now. The learning curve is a bit out of whack with these guys and Bubba says they keep screwing stuff up, so the entire unit gets woken in the middle of the night to go clean stuff and do menial tasks. it is not making him happy. He has, however, found that he LOVES the church there and has gone both Sundays. So that's very cool! The worst part of the call was the end. I could hear the drill sergeant yelling at them to get off the phone and Bubba was sobbing that he misses us so much. It broke my heart.

Back to non-party mode today. I think we're done with parties for a few months at least. Thank goodness!