One week and counting

Tom graduates from basic training on August 4^th and we are all going to go to South Carolina to watch.  I checked my airline tickets today and was about to check my hotel reservation when I couldn’t find it!  OH NO!  Panic ensued for about 15 minutes while I frantically searched all the places I usually put this stuff in my cubicle here at work.  Finally I thought to look in my email box and there it was.  Phewww!

So, I got on Google maps and mapped out from the airport to the hotel, from the hotel to the base, from the hotel to Wal-Mart (priorities you know), and from the hotel to the zoo (graduates get free tickets to the zoo when in uniform and we need something to do off base).  So now I have my travel plans all printed out, maps in hand, reservations checked, just need to pack our clothes and catch our flight next Tuesday.

I’ve been busy watching videos of their Victory Concert that they attended over the weekend.  Tom was on the floor by the stage where there were filming so he is on camera lots of times!  He looks good – course they all look pretty much alike with their hair cut off and all in the same uniform but I look for the receding hairline and found him right off!  LOL.  I wish I knew how to capture the vid to post it here but I have been trying for two days to do that and can’t figure it out yet.

We were hoping to be able to spend the day with him on Friday after graduation so our flight doesn’t take off till after 5:00pm – unfortunately, he will be on a bus to Virginia for AIT on Friday morning so we have all day Friday in Columbia SC to spend… so I checked and it’s only 2 hours to Charlotte and the ocean!  My kids haven’t seen the Atlantic so I think we’ll make a day trip out of it – as long as we are back at the airport by 4:00pm we should be good.

I don’t know if I can take pictures on base – military has strange rules you know – but if I can, I’ll take some.  I am disappointed that he won’t be able to wear his dress blues.  They have to wear their everyday uniform for graduation because ‘during wartime ‘(When did we declare war?) ‘they have to be ready at all times on base to answer the call to duty’.  I also found out that the picture of them in their dress blues is photo shopped!  Imagine that.  So, I’ll get a pic of him in dress uniform but it won’t be HIS dress uniform it will be the same one that they all get… seems sort of dirty in a way. 

I can’t wait to see my boy – in a week!