Josh passed his Army Flight Physical!

Yesterday was a (another) big day for our Josh ~ and this was also the FINAL step in his Army recruiting process...He went back to Ft. Meade for an over night trip to take his Airborne (flight) physical and guess what?!?

HE PASSED!!

Now don't say, "Well, why wouldn't he have passed Brenda?" because I will tell ya....7 kids did NOT pass. Apparently, you have to be able to pop your ears on command while the Dr. is looking inside with an endoscope and it's harder than you think ~ plugging your nose, wiggling your throat muscles, and applying pressure. I can't do it. When I tried I had an ear ache for 20 minutes. The Dr. told Josh that some people practice for months and still fail; you can either do it or you can't. Thank God Josh can.

Also, I had NO idea that had he not passed he would've lost his Airborne slot aaaaand he wouldn't have had the chance to be a Ranger. He'd have lost that slot too!!

Had I known I would've (1) freaked out the whole day before the physical (2) then freaked out all night (3) not have slept much due to the aforementioned freaking out session (4) freaked out aaaalllll morning long, meaning even Johnny would't have gotten any sleep (5) not eaten much or fed my family because it takes a lot of time to pace the floor and text....which brings me to.... (6) I would've left 438 text messages on Josh's phone asking him WELL?!?!?!? ANY NEWS?!?!?!?! (7) freaked out some more....

Yeah, Josh said that's exactly why Josh didn't tell me and Johnny was probably in on it too. Those men of mine...

When I picked him up he looked so cute. He had a sticker on his chest like a kid on his first day of school, with his name on it and every time they moved him to a new room they scan the tag so they know where the recruits are at all times. (It's so my baby won't get lost, awwww, how cute is that?!?) When I got there I wanted to run up and hug him. (But NO. I did not, so stop rolling your eyes at me). Instead I was glad to hear that he had finished all of his lunch and I took this cell phone pic while he turned beet red and gave the soldier behind the desk he was looking at that face: the one that says PLEASE HELP ME.

The precious thing is that the night before he texted me, "I've been gone less than a day and I already want to come home, lol. Shipping is gonna suck."

Yes, it will. I agreed with him then texted him that no one in the world loves him more than I do and that I will always be here. I'm not going anywhere. Then I gave him a pep talk to remind him of all of the great things that he is going to experience and learn and how brave he is and how much we will miss him and how proud of him we are....he read then said Goodnight. Let me just say that there are nights when I think my chest has been cracked wide open and I don't know what to do with the pain.

I guess I'll learn.

So that was the final step in his recruiting process; they said SEE YOU NOVEMBER 2!! We get to go up to Ft. Meade with him. They have a patriotic room to take pictures and we get to wave bye to the bus then Johnny will slip me into my pretty pink straight jacket and put me in the back of his car with a bottle of whiskey. Ok. Maybe I'm a bit dramatic. Leave me alone.

The good news is that Josh gets vacation (leave) for Christmas! How wonderful is that? They actually shut down boot camp for 10 days, ha! Not sure what the protocol is or if he can even leave the base, but you can rest assured, wherever he is that's where you'll find me and Johnny this Christmas & New Years! There aren't enough wild horses that can hold this Mama back. 

So.....it's time to plan the party. THAT party. The one I've been dreading. I ordered 100 of these "save the date" cards that I'll pick up this afternoon. He didn't want anything over the top (of course I was going to do a whole Army themed card...haha). We'll get his favorite BBQ place Red, Hot & Blue to cater the food; we used them for Johnny's retirement (house) party and it was delicious! We'll probably rent the pool house across the street because it will be "drop-in open house style;" just come by, eat, take pictures and say Fare Thee Well. 

I have to go now. My eyes are too leaky to see the screen. Just wanted to give you that cool update. See you on Monday!