Well I can't help but think how much different my oldest son is experiencing life about now. We dropped him off at the airport last Wednesday to head off to Air Force basic training. He would have gotten to the base at about 7 p.m. that evening and no doubt had a very rude awakening the next day in more ways than one. Josh joined the Air Force National Guard and he will be gone about 9 months between basic and tech school training. Once he finishes basic in San Antonio he will head off to his tech school training near Biloxi, MS. We already have our trip booked to go down and watch him graduate from basic in March.

Since I started writing this on Friday (it's now Monday) Josh got to make his first (supervised, I think) phone call home yesterday, and it even happened to be his birthday. While it did sound like he was reading from a script (including "please do not send gum, candy or care packages while I am in basic training"!) it didn't sound as bad as some of the things I read online while researching basic training. I read one article that said to not be surprised if it sounded like the trainee is close to tears or hear the sound of someone in the background yelling for them to hurry up! He sounded as good as could be expected for only having the time to read his long mailing address to us. It was nice that Birgit got to wish him a Happy Birthday and have him sound glad to hear it!