January 2007
The Newly Commissioned 2LT
The ceremony yesterday was nice. After the soldiers marched in, they played the national anthem, said the invocation and then showed a short video. The guest speaker was a 3 star general who looked every bit the part of a general. Very commanding presence. He gave a nice speech directed at the graduates. Diplomas were handed out with the Distinguished Military Graduates going first of which Jim was included. The soldiers then said the Soldier’s Creed and sang the OCS Alma Mater & the Army song.
I have more pictures posted here.
(His new rank is referred to as a ‘butter bar’ as it resembles a stick of butter. You can see the gold bar on his beret and on his shoulder.)
Dining Out
At Elizabeth’s speech appointment yesterday, her therapist was thrilled with her progress. She is starting to put two words together on her own and when I prompt it. She gave us more ideas to strengthen her mouth & tongue muscles. The weak muscle tone makes it hard for her to make the sounds come out easily.
Jim’s parents arrived shortly after her appointment and we went to lunch. Jim came home early and his parents took Elizabeth home so I could get shoes & hose before my hair appointment. After getting home, we hung out awhile before getting ready. After picking up a couple classmates, we were off to the Dining Out (there’s also a Dining In but I don’t know what the difference is).
The Dining Out was held at the Columbus Trade Center. Dating back over 150 years, the brick & woodwork were beautiful. The evening started with appetizers & drinks. We then proceeded through the receiving line before being seated. After the presentation of the colors (the flags) & introductions of the head table, dinner was served. Prime rib (that was rather tough), mashed potatoes and almond green beans. Dessert was peach cobbler and chocolate raspberry cake. After dinner there was a speech, an announcement that they didn’t have formation until 8:30 (instead of 6:00) and retirement of the colors. We spent a little while more talking before heading home. Overall, it was much better than I expected. I enjoyed meeting & spending time with the people Jim has lived with for the last 14 weeks.
We arrived home about 10 to find everyone asleep. Jim’s parents slept in E’s room and she slept in her bed in there instead of our room. She woke up once around 2:30 and then went back to sleep. And I got 10 glorious hours of sleep!!! I’ve waited three years for that much sleep and it was incredible!!
We forgot our camera, so we only have two pictures and this is the better of the two.
Last real week
This is Jim’s last real week. The following week will be administrative stuff for the last of school & getting prepared for the next school. Then the next week is graduation!
Monday–5 mile run (pass/fail)
Wednesday evening–Batallion Commander’s Social (formal)
Thursday–test over the military intelligence class they have this week
Thursday evening–Dining In (formal)
This & That
I talked to Jim for a few minutes tonight. He’s platoon sergeant this week. And what a week to have it! While its a short one, today they had a barracks inspection by the sergeant major that he had to make sure they were ready for. And then tonight he had to collect goods, oversee packing and then escort the two classmates over to brigade headquarters because they were being kicked out for an infraction prior to Christmas Exodus. He said it was rather awkward, especially since he had become good friends with one of the two. By early afternoon, he had been told they would be getting kicked out tonight, so he had all afternoon to dread it. He said there has been lots of bickering and general irritation since they got back. When we were getting off the phone, he was headed to formation & to give a “pep talk” of sorts.
Elizabeth has her first day at Child’s Day Out tomorrow. We’ve talked about it all week and she’s very excited to go.
Almost everything has been unpacked now! We have a few more things to hang on the walls and, I think, four boxes to unpack. That’s pretty good considering where we started!!