Army Graduation Day!

It's official - Cody has graduated from boot camp! Check out my handsome young soldier! I have never been so proud of him! I have got to spend the last 2 days with him and it has been so incredible. As a mother to see the changes in him - I have never been so proud! He is well on his way to awesome things - I am sure of that! The last 2 days have been really cool. The first day we got to see demonstrations of some of the training exercises etc. that the kids have had to do. We got to see where our kids have lived for the last 10 weeks and all of that. The base is gigantic (70 square miles - Wow!) but for the most part they have been confined to their barracks and training area. Some of the kids got passes at different times and were able to go around on the base but not off of the base. Cody got a pass one day and I remember talking to him and he had been so excited about eating at Taco Bell.

So yesterday was Cody's first time off the base since he arrived here at the start of January. He was like a kid at Christmas. He has a list of things he wants to eat right away. The first thing he got yesterday was a huge juicy steak! He vacuumed down a 20 ounce steak in like 5 minutes! Then today he had the Nestle Chocolate Chip and Vanilla ice cream cookie. He had a big smile on his face the whole time he was eating it - like he had never tasted anything like it! Sure made me giggle.

Tonight he has to pack up his stuff and move to the next phase which is AIT. That's the school where they study their "specialty" that they have picked. He'll be there for 5-6 weeks and then he will be coming to California for home town recruiting then to Idaho for his leave. After that he'll either be going to Japan or Germany. Great choices! He's pretty sure he wants to go to Germany but I am not sure he's completely made up his mind.

Well I am going to close for now. I will post some more news and some more pictures from my trip here soon - so stay tuned!

Hope everyone has a hopping good Easter!

For some more funny cats pics ... see the link below!

http://www.xmission.com/~emailbox/funnyphotos30.htm

First Picture of GI Cody

Hey there - well I finally have a shot of GI Cody in uniform! What a handsome devil huh? I can't believe my little baby is so grown up! How in the heck did that happen?? I am sure proud of him!

Action Jackson

Jackson is getting to be such a big boy! He is over 10 pounds now. I'll get him weighed at the vet so I'll let you know for sure. He goes to the vet tomorrow to get snipped! OUCH! I'm sure he won't be too happy about that! He is sure a little love kitty! I love him soooooooooo much! The other kitty in the picture is Chelsea. She is one I adopted about 3 years ago. One of my old neighbors was going to take her to the pound and I just couldn't have that happen so I took her in. She was about 5-6 weeks old when I got her. She is a little sketchy though. She is really sweet and lovable when I am the only one around. She hides under the bed whenever anyone else comes in the house. There are only a few people that she comes out around. It's weird.

Giant Cookie Cake

Here is a shot of the giant chocolate chip cookie cake that I made. This was very interesting to make.

Latest Birthday Cake

So - whenever we have a birthday or special occasion at the office I make one of my homemade cakes for us all to enjoy. I thought that I would start posting pictures of my creations. I think I was Betty Crocker in a past life.

GI Cody Update

Hey There ... just another update on Private Homeyer. He is starting to write about being homesick in his letters so I feel a little sad about that but am trying not to show it with him. Other than the homesickness .. Cody actually is doing great there. He is doing really well on all the tests - both physical and written. I have to say that the physical part sure is physical. They really put these kids through some rough stuff to train them. I know it's good they they get this extensive training so they are prepared for anything but from a mom's point of view - it's sure hard to hear about the things that he has to do. He does write pretty detailed letters home so it is really neat that he tells me about all of the stuff going on. I sure love getting his letters. I'm getting excited that it's getting close to graduation and family week. I'm so excited to see him. It sure will be strange to see him in his uniform but I bet he's a handsome devil! I'll make sure to take lot's of pictures.