Decisions

Why is it so hard to make a decision?

Peanut had a choice to make between two different sports.

I am excited about his choice, but still wonder...

Why is that?

He is a young boy with the world at his fingertips.  I hope I instill in him the confidence to take risks, make decisions and not second guess.

He has to go for it!

My Favorite Swab

Guess who we talked to?

Yep.  I started crying when I heard his voice.  He was laughing at me!

He is doing fine and I loved every minute of conversation with him.

We talked and we texted to save his voice as he is a bit hoarse, a common swab problem.

This picture was taken at the Mystic Flag Ceremony by another mom.  Very Grateful!

Sponsor Family

One advantage of being far away from the USCGA is that Pumpkin can have a sponsor family.  They are his home away from home.  He met them at a dinner on Thursday night.  They called us after dinner and sent us this picture.

This is the first picture I saw of Pumpkin in his "trop" uniform.  He looks great, but I am biased.  Apparently, they have an extra room ready for him and look forward to having him "home" in a few weeks.  It cracked me up.  Sponsor Mom told Pumpkin to eat his veggies.  He does not do veggies.  She quickly caught on that he likes bread.  I'm sure the kids were eating well as they could eat like normal and not have to square their meals.  The sponsor family's kids are grown and live in the state of Washington.  They have two bulldogs at the house.  Pumpkin will like that as we've heard a few times how much he misses Buddy.  Sponsor Dad works at the Academy teaching electrical engineering classes.

Very very grateful that folks would volunteer to take my son under their wing.

The last text I received that night from Sponsor Mom was her telling me she asked Pumpkin if there was anything he wanted to tell his mom and he said to tell me that he loved me.  Man!  He got me!  I sure do miss him, but am so very proud!

The Big Guy was quick to write him a letter the next morning teasing him about only loving his momma!

Unexpected Road Trip

My mom is not in the best of health.  This year is her year to battle one thing after another.  Last week, she was admitted into the hospital for a few days.  We hopped into the car, Buddy and all, and drove to Cincinnati.  Peanut tried to give Buddy some extra room.  Buddy weaseled his way right onto his lap.  It did not last long as Buddy gets very heavy.

Surprisingly, mom has developed a liking to Popeye's chicken.  She loves the drumsticks.  So, we brought her dinner.  Don't we look lovely as we head in to visit.

She enjoyed visiting with us.  It was good to see her.  I continue to pray for her health.

She was released from the hospital, but has a long road to recovery.  I will be back in the middle of August.

Another Driver in the Family

Look who got his permit!  This is his very first time behind the wheel of a car.  He was just about coasting in the parking lot getting the feel of driving.

Random Swab Summer Photos

I am very grateful that there is a photographer that has access to the Swab activities when they are outside.  He will post anywhere from 600-1000 pictures on a good day.  Yes.  I've spent more time looking at photos.  In addition to this spattering of pictures, we've received three letters to date.  His last one was from a variety of days.  It sounds hard.  He sounds tired, but still hanging in there.  He said that he has lots of stories - all to complicated and would take too long to write about.  He loves receiving letters.  He appreciates folks taking the time out of their day to write.

Here he is on the waterfront receiving some sort of instruction.

He signed up to sing at mass.  The protestant folks snapped a picture for me.  From his letters, it sounds like he is singing and getting to know the priest who he got a fist pump from during calisthenics one morning!

 Back to the water front and getting wet...

Running his 1.5 mile timed run for his physical fitness evaluation.  I speculated that he was doing just fine from the smirk on his face.  From the letter, we found out he was happy with his overall score.

As part of his "supply" list to report in, he needed tall white tube socks.  They were a bit of a challenge to find.  They end up using the sock as a pocket to hold things.

 Obstacle course...I only saw it from afar and it looked VERY challenging.

 Drill, last Friday...

If I was a betting person, I'd say this was "eyes right"

Fireworks in Boston

Once we decided to stay in Boston for a few days, we knew we wanted to go to the fireworks.  After all, we've spent years listening to the Boston Pops and watching the fireworks on TV.

After researching public transportation, we stumbled on gottapark.com.  They offered discounted parking, but you reserve your spot online.  We went for it and found a garage fairly close.

You can imagine that security was very high.  We brought our few things in and scoped out a spot - all before noon as we heard they can close the entrances to the park once it reaches max capacity.

I think I mentioned in the last post that we brought the Memphis weather with us.  The trek from the parking garage was enough to wear Peanut out.

Our original plan was to spend the day doing the Freedom Trail.  After walking two blocks, we realized we weren't going to be able to do it.  We felt very guilty not taking in all the history in Boston. When we came to the realization that we will be back, all the guilt abated.

We headed down toward the marathon finish.

And, ended up spending lots of time walking around stores near Copley plaza.  So much for local, good food.  We grabbed chowder from a place at the food court.  It wasn't too bad.

About 4pm, we ventured back to our blanket.  Waiting in line to go through security, a woman in front of us collapsed.  Fortunately, there was aid all around.  I think it was about 95 and just no way to cool off.  More folks had arrived by our spot.  If you look closely, you can see a Coast Guard boat.

We spent the next half hour miserable trying to find a breeze, trying to find shade, and trying to figure out how we were gonna stick it out.  Eventually, we came to a wonderful decision.  We decided to bag it all, grab dinner and watch the fireworks on TV.

 If we had known it wasn't going to be that crowded, we would have come down later.  But, we don't have any regrets.  We had a lovely dinner and found a local ice cream spot, Bubbling Brook, near our hotel.  The ice cream was wonderful and the setting was divine.  It made the night.

In Pumpkin's second letter written on day 5, he said that they did not see fireworks on July 4th.  I felt even better about our decision.

Harvard Pilgrim 5K at Patriot Place

The boys registered for a 5k at Patriot Place.  There was a 10k option.  We are so glad they did not do that.  It was so hot.  Again, we brought the Memphis weather with us this summer!

Anyway, the venue was very cool.  Peanut doesn't look too thrilled!

Here is another picture.  It is so interesting.  The stadium is built right next to an entertainment center.  There are shops, restaurants and even a hotel.  I mentioned it was hot, but the open venue made me wonder how cold it gets in the winter.

 The race started outside the stadium, made its way in winding up the ramps, around the upper level, down the ramps and back in to finish on the 50 yard line.

There was some smack talking going on before the run.  Normally, Peanut would put to the Big Guy.  On this day, the Big Guy just about beat Peanut!!  Peanut's knees were bothering him.  He toughed it out and finished strong.  Peanut does like to run on grass more than blacktop.  They both were sweaty from head to two.

 We hung around, grabbed some dinner, and enjoyed the fire works.

It was a nice evening until I sat on the curb in my white shorts and did not realize I sat on gum!  It was nasty.  No worries, though.  It all came out in the wash!

Boston

After saying goodbye, we headed back to the hotel to dry off and change our wet clothes.  When we headed back out to the car, it would not start.  It wasn't the best timing, but what if it had been that morning?  The 800 number for the rental car company was a horrible experience.  Fortunately, the local location was very helpful.  We go the car changed out and enjoyed dinner in Mystic.  I know we will be up there more and I look forward to getting to know the area.

The next day, we headed in to Boston.  We were so lucky.  We found a metered parking spot right on the street.  Who does that?  We did a walk through of Faneuil Hall and listened to a Ranger.

 We made our way down to Boston Commons.

We got tickets to Blue Man Group and had some time to kill.  We walked around some more.  This is the hotel that the Big Guy and I stayed at the last time we were in Boston.  It was pre-kids, many years ago.

We grabbed an iced tea from Dunkin Donuts.  It was great iced tea.  There is a DD on every corner in Boston.  We were thrilled to find a place to get our tea fix!

Pumpkin has been to Blue Man Group three times in three different cities.  He wasn't sure we'd enjoy it.  He was wrong.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  We all laughed.  What a great show on such a simple premise.  We were grateful for the time to relax.

After the show, we grabbed appetizers at P F Chang's.  We don't normally hit the chain places.  This trip was different.  We were mentally spent and went with the flow.  Again, we had so much fun trying a few appetizers.  Peanut loved it too.  It was quite chilly that night.  Little did we know the heat was coming...

R-Day USCGA Class of 2017

As I type this, Pumpkin has been gone for two weeks.  My heart still aches.  I am so imcredibly proud, but I miss him so!

This was the infamous morning.  They went down for breakfast.  I was not hungry at all.  In retrospect, the Big Guy said that Pumpkin ate next to nothing.  There was very little conversation.

To lighten the atmosphere, I kept pulling out my camera.  I was not deterred by Pumpkin's rolling of his eyes.  In the hotel elevator...

We got a pretty close parking spot at the Academy.  If you look down the hill, there is a charter bus.  We found out the swabs were loaded on the bus and driven up the hill.  There is lots of significance to the bus.

 Pumpkin reported to a field house type building in the second wave.

 If you look closely, we were the USCGA family.  All of us but Pumpkin were in our spiritwear.

He was so strong.  He was nervous, but he put up a good front.  At the socials the night before, he did not meet his roommate.  To this day, I know very little about the boy who shares a room with my Pumpkin.

It was tough waiting for them to call his company.  Every where you looked there were red eyes, grown men wiping away tears.  It makes it even harder for me when I see others emotional.

So, we got our hugs and he got in line.  All he took with him was his old swim bag and the required paperwork.  To sign in, he needed his passport.

 Next in line...

 Signing in...

 The world as he's known it has now changed.

They had to line up and wait for the rest of his company to report in.

Then, he was gone.  There were activities for parents for the rest of the day until the swearing in ceremony later in the afternoon.  The weather was misty, drizzle, to steady rain in the morning.  It all stopped and the ceremony was held outside.  If you zoom in, he is to the left of the flag.  His company commander has the sword.

 He appeared very focused during the entire ceremony.  Here is a close up from another parent.

After the ceremony, the swabs have a class picture taken.  At that point, the clouds opened and it poured down rain.  We had jackets, but were soaked from head to toe.  After the pic, the swabs were released for 15 minutes to say their goodbyes.  We got a sneak peak at his hair - all the curls were gone:-(

I asked what his roomies name was.  He did not know.  They had no free time.  He said lunch was wonderful as it was quiet.  He savored that after all the yelling.  It is lots of shock and awe.

Yes.  We were soaked.  I heard the swabs were going to alter their schedules to go back and change their clothes.  If you look closely in the distance, all the cadre (older cadets who are training the swabs) are at the fence line.  It was a nice gesture to give the kids space to say their goodbyes.

I ended up doing pretty well.  The hardest part was his facial expressions, or lack there of.  He was already focused and in the zone.  Here is my sweet boy that is morphing into a responsible man.  I can only imagine what he will be like the next time I see him.

And, without further adieu, then they were gone...

They lined up, counted off, and headed forward into the toughest 7 weeks of their lives.

I am so grateful that kids want to serve their country.  Yes.  These weeks will be tough.  But, they will learn so much.  They will make lifelong friends.  And, the opportunities that await are amazing.

This is very hard as a parent.  The technology age is ingrained in us.  As of July 1, Pumpkin was off all social media and he handed in his cell phone.  We are living by "no news is good news."  I have received two letters from him.  One more than I expected the entire seven weeks!  He is doing ok.  I've got more pictures and am patiently waiting until our first phone call on 7/27.  I hope I can carry on a sensible conversation.

There is an amazing parent network.  I know we've only scratched the surface of this USCGA experience.  Each day gets easier.  I still tend to roll over at 4:30 cst when Pumpkin is waking up.  And, say a short prayer at 9 cst knowing he's made it one more day.

As you would expect, there will be more posts on this swab summer experience.

If you have 15 minutes and want to get somewhat of an idea of what he went through that first day, give this youtube video a watch.  A parent compiled it.  Pumpkin makes quite a few appearances after about the 8 minute mark.