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Look who made it through the nine weeks of ALERT Academy!!! Lupe and I are so very proud of Joshua. This was not easy. He had to learn to rely on his squad and they on him. Learning to work together was key or else they could or would be dropped (50+ push-ups) or worse what they called 'smoked' and you didn't want to be smoked with all the intense exercises and drills that come with it. Josh even showed us a log that a team/squad would have to carry around to learn teamwork. Thankfully Joshua had an awesome team where all the guys worked together.  Week 3 ~Honor Squad. His squad worked so well together that they were the Honor Squad for the whole time. I thought that was huge and it says a lot about their character. When we first got there we could see Josh but not talk to him. I cried. It was so good to see him. I just stared at him because it was all I could do. I couldn't call out to him. I'd have loved to run up to him and give him a hug but that would not be a ...

Dear Joshua,  I got your letter!!! I was super excited and couldn't wait to rip the envelope open. I'm so glad to hear you are doing well and they are feeding you wholesome food. You know how I am with wanting you to eat healthy.  Land Navigation Training Guess what, today (Tuesday) the ALERT Facebook page posted pictures of your first week. It was nice to see what you've been up to.  I heard you all had your first PT test, had three days of Catalyst, and started your Land Navigation training. I'm so excited for you. Praying that you will understand and do well with all that navigation learning. I know it can be a lot with having to be accurate with your calculations and all. You'll do well. I know it! Physical Training Test- Josh front row on the right As for us, we've been busy. Dad with the house, screens, work, AWANA, ALERT Cadet, and so forth. Me with homeschooling, reviews, making homemade goodies, and dinners. I actually made a dinner menu, made a shoppin...

I've been stalking the ALERT site daily for this picture to show up. My glimpse to see how he looks now.

Yesterday more photos were posted to the ALERT Academy Facebook Page. Yay. They are all of the same night (R-Night). It's been five days since my Joshy left and I miss him so much. photo credit: International ALERT Academy  I couldn't wait to see a photo of Josh with super short hair. I have never seen his hair so short. As excited as I was a whole new set of emotions came forth that I wasn't expecting. One was CHANGE. This experience is going to change my son. I know it's a good experience but I also know he will come home a bit different. Josh was mature in many ways but still their were areas for growth. Growth that I want for Josh but will miss that last bit of immature-ness. While in ALERT they are not allowed to "horse" around. Will Josh still be fun loving? Most of all I'm worried about our bond. I know that some day Joshua (and all my boys) will go off and get married. Love someone more than mom (as it should be), but for now, what if it's gone...

I was so super excited to see this picture posted on the Alert Academy Facebook page Saturday the day after we dropped Joshua off. Photo credit: International Alert Academy Joshua is in the red shirt, bottom row, on the left. He's so cute!!! Look at the handsome group of young men. I'll be praying for his whole unit. Today the pictures were posted on the Alert blog . I was so disappointed that we didn't know we could stay for R-Night. If you notice in the photo below there are people in the stands. Photo credit: International Alert Academy Those are family members of the recruits. No one told us we could stay while our sons are learning some of the commands and such. Did you see we found Josh in the above picture? He's waaaay on the other side.

My letter to Josh. Of course anything super personal will have been deleted. I thought my letters would be great as blog entries to keep as memories for all the kids. Dear Joshua, I was going to write earlier today but it got busy. Around 6:40 P.M. your dad and I took Annette to soccer practice. She did pretty good. Of course she needs improvement because she's never played on an official team before but for her first time she did great! We had to get her some soccer shoes after she was done. We went to Sports Academy. Annette tried so many before she found the pair that fit just right so we were there for a good hour and a half. She also needed a navy  blue shirt. We hunted for one at Sports Academy but weren't able to find one. Imagine that. In the whole store there was no navy shirt.  I did find all kinds of stuff for you, haha. You know, right now everything is about Joshy, Joshy, Joshy. I'm always on the hunt for something you might "need". I found a soap dis...

Dear Josh, I woke up at 5:00 A.M. and first thing I though of was you   I prayed for you today and will continue to pray throughout the day too! When we left you yesterday we headed home. Part way Ethan got car sick and we had to pull over, yuck! But thankfully it didn't happen in the car. I gave him my bag that was holding my french fries from Wing Stop but he didn't need it. When we drove into town we had dinner at Taco Delight. Not my favorite place but it was good. They have these new pork tacos and they were actually pretty good. Caleb ordered, you guessed it, a cheese quesadilla. His plate came with sour cream and guacamole which he let me have so my tacos were even better.  Guess what, dad ordered you a sweet tea. We are so use to ordering 8 drinks. It will take some getting use to. We miss you. When we got home dad searched Red Box for a movie. Your cousin came over to watch the movie with us. It was nice but I missed having you. I can't wait to hear about your fi...

I have been quiet on the blog. As some of you may know, Joshua was accepted to join Alert Academy Unit 56. Even though he was accepted we didn't know if he was going to go until the day before he left. It was a very trying and emotional time. Joshua went for his physical on Sept. 26th. We thought it was an open and shut thing. The doctor would sign off and we could move on with getting things ready. But I'll tell that story next. Right know I want to focus on yesterday. I was writing this up on my Homeschooling6 Facebook page when I thought I might as well make it a full on blog post. We dropped Joshua off at Alert Academy in Big Sandy Texas yesterday at exactly 4:00 P.M. It was one of the hardest times EVER. He's been away for a few months at a time in the past but it was staying with Auntie R or his grandparents. Leaving him this time was so different knowing there is NO family there, nada, he's on his own. It was also hard because I KNOW that he will be stretched phy...

My first graduate, so many feelings! My adult son checking in at the doctor's office for the first time on his own. Late birthday celebration. Joshua's first coffee press.

It's a bit quiet here at Homeschooling6. My mother-in-law is visiting and we've been pretty busy. My nieces and nephews started back to school too so that's been fun. They look so cute with their backpacks and all. We won't start our homeschool for another few weeks (after Labor Day). I'm still collecting a few more things for school. I'm almost done. Hopefully I'll get some pictures and videos going soon. My one little corner where I make the videos is kind of dark but it's the only space I have so it will have to do. Annette took some senior photos of Josh. This one his eyes are a bit squinted. We took this in front of the docotor's office. We had an appointment Monday. We will take some more today. His announcements arrived too. I'll have to blog more about them soon. Josh has been accepted to the Alert Academy. We are excited for him. Please pray as there is a medical issue that came up and it might impact if he will be able to leave in Sept....

My 18 year old son Joshua surprised me this Mother's Day (well a few days ago) with a two part episode he made. I thought that it was so sweet! In part one he had me laughing because he's so funny. He set out to make a garden of flowers with a heart in the middle. One of the reasons he was a little late with presenting me with the Mother's Day Special is if you play Minecraft (I don't but my kids do) then you know that they have to go out and get stuff. For instance the flowers, well sometimes Josh had to go through swamps and such. It wasn't easy collecting everything. It could take days, so these two episodes were not just made in the 15-20 minutes that he recorded. In episode two he spends a great deal with putting the heart together. He had me laughing. What I think was suppose to be something smaller ended up being a huge monument. It actually looked nice the first time. The heart is made of wool so he had to sheer the sheep quiet a few times to collect enough ...