Happy 1/2 birthday Steven Mark!

It's hard to believe that my little boy is 1 1/2 years old. It seems like just yesterday that he was just 8 lbs and seemed so fragile. Today I am amazed that he weighs in at a lofty 28 lbs. How did he get so big? His weight is not the only sign that he is growing older. He has started to talk-talk-talk. At times it seems like he's never going to run out of things to say. Although not every word is decipherable at this point, he is making progress each day. Every day there is something new and I am amazed yet again. On Jan 25th, the day after his "1/2 birthday," Pam (Nana), Steve (Papa), Mary Jo (Big Grama) and Steven and I went to Olive Garden to celebrate. It was nice to get together and eat lunch.

So far there is not much news to report about Richard. He is stationed at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX (still). He graduated from BMT (boot camp) without a hitch and is now in tech school. His tech school just happens to be located at the same base that BMT was. He got his job assignment; he got loadmaster. He will be in charge of loading cargo, securing it, and then accompanying it to its destination, which could be anywhere in the world. Right now he is in the first block of classes for this (he's about three weeks into it). He should finish his first block on Thursday 1/31 and then begin his next class on Friday 2/1. The next class is 5 weeks long. So far he has been a "rock star" at his classes. He is doing so well and we are so proud of him. Steven and I are planning a visit to Texas (our second since Richard has been there) in February. We'll be out there visiting him for 2 weeks from Feb. 13-27. We can't wait. Our time apart has been difficult but thanks to the modern conveniences of cell phones and the Internet we are able to talk every day (sometimes for hours depending on how much studying he has). Steven and I even get to talk to him on the web cam on the weekends. It is great! Steven gets so excited to see Daddy on the computer. He knows exactly who it is and usually greets Richard and a huge smile a very loud "DADA!!!! Well, that about sums our life up right now.

Hopefully we'll be getting some more detailed information about where we'll be stationed and when we'll get to be together again, within the next month or so.

Yes Sir, thank you Sir

We all had a wonderful time in Texas while we visited Richard. It was really fun to see where he has been living and what he's been doing. It was kind of strange though to see him marching around and being so professional (although I did get used to that fairly quickly). We are so proud of him! He has definitely grown a lot over the last few weeks; I think we all have. It's funny to hear him be so polite; not that he was very rude before. He is just that much more polite now, lol. Walking around base with him is different because of all the saluting and acknowledgement that he has to do. If he passes an officer he is required to verbally and visually acknowledge them. And every time we go inside from outside he has to take off his hat and then like wise on the way out. Sometimes he'd forget and then when he realized it, he would freak me out because he totally stop whatever he was doing and make sure he put his hat on really quickly. I'm still getting used to that. Anyways, he got laodmaster as his job. I guess he'll be staying in San Antonio, TX for a few more weeks for his Enlisted Aircrew Undergraduate Courses and then he'll precede to Florida for about a week for his Water Survival-Parachuting Courses. After that he'll be going to Washington State for about two weeks for his Combat Survival Course where he'll spend a few days in a POW cam. We are not sure of the actual dates yet. After Washington he should go to either Altus AFB in Oklahoma or Little Rock AFB, near Jackson Arkansas. Not sure how long he'll be there either. Hopefully when he goes to one of those bases, Steven and I can move with him while he finishes up tech school. Then he'll get a permanent station assignment and we'll all be moving wherever they tell us to. Richard is hoping to have more information and actual dates sometime in the next few weeks.