So on April 20 Josh had a REALLY GOOD DAY!!  We were so excited! I got a text message from him while I was on my way home from the garden club tour and I read it out loud to the group of ladies in the van. We clapped and cheered and I wore a stupid grin on my face the rest of the way home and hardly heard anything the other ladies were talking about. All I could think of was, "I want to get home fast and give my boy a hug!"

When we were almost home I texted him to get his butt outside, I couldn't wait. His reply...."Ok, I was going to pee but if you need me now, I guess I can come out." That was so sweet, Josh. Thanks for holding it for me.

I got to introduce him to the ladies in my car and gave him {{{big hugs}}} He asked me how much I had had to drink at lunch. Geesh.

Then we rushed home so he could give me the details!

Of course I grabbed my camera to mark this special day in his Marine Corps story... DUH! Hello...my name is Brenda, have we met? 

And of course, Josh made goofy faces instead of giving me a nice smile, because, well... DUH! Hello...my name is Josh, have we met?

Or maybe he still had to pee.

Umm....Josh, over here, bud. Yoo-hoo. Ugh, I give up.

Minnie will win this stare down, by the way. I know this from experience. So do you.

OH, SO YOU WANT JOSH'S NEWS? DO YOU?

REALLY?

Josh passed his First Class Physical Fitness Test or PFT.  This is something he's been training for for months He even took it 2 weeks ago as a 1st attempt and failed, it is so hard. So, he worked hard these past 2 weeks to gain more strength and on April 20 he passed!

Josh has lost 30 pounds (yay Joshie!) and made his weight goal for the Marine Corps. But because of his arm tattoo he was required by the Commanding Officer to pass a 1st class PFT (which no one else had to do) before he would sign a waiver for the tattoo I told him not to get, but we're not going into that now, therefore letting him officially enlist into the Marines.

The PFT has been a source of stress for Josh, but he really pulled it off and with flying colors to boot! 

Ah, yes, much better. This is happy, proud of himself Josh.

I love that face....and that smile. Oh don't let me get all weepy. OK ~ Here's the breakdown: 

Josh did~

18 pull ups

100 sit ups in 1 min, 32 secs

A 3-mile run in 18 mins, 10 secs

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He needed 225 points (every part of the test earned certain amount of points)

He got 284 points!!!

WAY TO GO JOSH!! We are so proud of you!!

And then Gunny thought he'd challenge Josh even more after the test and told him to do as many push ups as he could until he puked. (Marine speak, sorry) Josh did 212 push ups (and didn't puke!). Holy smokes, I do believe my son wants to be a hard core Marine. OOOoooh-RAH! We're behind you all the way, Son XOXO