Not What I Wanted to Tell You!

I've been saying that there's a lot of changes coming up for the older ones, and I told you I'd post once everything was in place--but it's not. 

Most of you know that Jeff is active duty army leaving for Afghanistan in a few weeks, Adam is signed up for the Marine reserves and will be going to boot camp in August and Tyler was turned down for Air Force because of his asperger's. New ruling is no form of autism in any branch of service.

But what we hadn't said because we were waiting to see how it would turn out is that Jessica was preparing to enlist in the Navy reserves. Then we'd have retired Air Force, active duty Army, reserve Navy and reserve Marines (with the plan to go active duty after college) all in one family! How cool is that? 

Jessica felt the reserves would give her some practical experience, and then when she graduates with her underwater crime scene investigation training in two years, she could decide whether to do active duty navy or remain a reservist for the rest of her 8 year commitment.

So she gathered the paperwork. For our family this is more complicated because of three foreign born siblings. She has to have all their info about when and how they entered the country, their citizenship etc. Jeff has no citizenship paperwork. She has been working on increasing her running speed and doing sit ups and push ups so she'd be ready.

On Friday we went to the recruiters, turned everything in and they scheduled her to go to Montgomery for MEPs (Military Enlistment Processing station) where she'd have her full physical, final ASVAB test, decide on a career field etc. HOWEVER, about an hour after they set this up, the recruiter texted her and told her they were not processing any female reservist at this time but that she could go active duty. 

Um, no. That's not the plan. She is halfway through a college program that she can't finish at any other college in the U.S. And she's not interested in trying to choose another major and finish college while being active duty. (Not to mention that I'm not ready for her to leave home permanently on such short notice!!!)

So my question is, why didn't he know that they weren't processing any female reservist? He's the recruiter, it seems to me he would have gotten a memo to that effect. Or is he just trying to push her into active duty because he gets rewarded more for signing up active duty? She told him "no" and told him to call her when they are taking female reservist again. She doesn't want another branch of service because she wants to dive.

So, I don't get to give you the announcement that I wanted to on Tuesday--that she's sworn into the United States navy--because instead, she's working a 40 hour week this week, including Thanksgiving Day, to save money for next semester.

So, perhaps there is something else amazing that God has planned for her, or maybe the navy will happen, just not now.

In other news, the three girls ran a 5K today.

Jessica ran the 5K and then ran the one-mile just for practice.

34:40

The girls both came in at 40:42. This is not a great time for them. In practice they were both under 36:00.

I'm not sure why they aren't motivated when it comes to the actual race. They seem to go much slower when they are together than in races where only one or the other runs.

Kaleb was supposed to run but he was written up several times this week at school so we decided he would sit this one out.

I'm not sure if I said this already, but last week Adam ran in the cross country regionals. He ran the 5K in 18:24. His personal best is 18:03, and he really wanted to break 18:00 this year but it didn't happen. He was 46th of 120 so did not go on to state. He is playing soccer now. Rick and I each went to a game, and he did not get any playing time in each game. Normally the whole family would go to all the games, but they are at 7:00 and the twins go to bed then, plus it's cold and it cost $5 a person. So $35 a game (three games a week most weeks) if we all went. I told him Jessica and I will come to the Monday & Thursday games because those are the evenings she doesn't work. Last game we were bundled up in blankets. It was only down to 45F, but that can feel cold when you're just sitting for two hours.

Jasmine is done with soccer and playing basketball at the youth center. More on that later.

We are looking forward to a week of just hanging out this coming week. How about you? 

Life will start getting more crazy in a couple of weeks with winter concerts and activities.