Air Defense Artillery

Yesterday afternoon Cam selected Air Defense Artillery during the Branching Selection at OCS. For the next 3+ years this will be his job. We won't know his training schedule or permanent duty station for another month, but as soon as we know anything concrete, we'll pass on the info!

For the next two weeks, the OCS Candidates will be performing field work and, therefore, will be out camping in the wilderness and cold! I don't expect to hear from Cam, except on the weekends in between the two trips. Hope they have a good time!

OCS Update #3

Here's the scoop on what my soldier has been up to the past few weeks:

In honor of MLK day, the Officer Candidates were given a four-day weekend last weekend. Cam went to several planned events with his candidate comrades including a sports bar to watch a "big" mixed-martial-arts fight, a karaoke bar (where he sang a few tunes with a group of guys), and going out to dinner each night to get a taste of "real" food. He was also able to do a little shopping in town, thanks to his buddy, Marcell, who has a car with him!

During the previous past week, the guys tried to survive a few more death-by-PowerPoint classroom days. They also had to do a company run and a few tatical exercises outside.

This week, Cam is acting as the platoon's First Sergeant. This "honor" is rotated among the platoon each week and the duties include communicating orders from the Candidate Commanding Officer and the Cadre and keeping track of all the soliders in the platoon.

Finally, at the end of this week, Cam will be selecting his branch (AKA: job) that he will have for the next 3+ years. Branching is decided based on your class rank, which is earned by, among other things, gaining points for tests, papers, and PT scores. Cam is currently ranked in the top 3rd of his class of 150 candidates. As always, as soon as we know anything for sure, we will pass on all the information to our family and friends.

Craft Projects GALORE!

In an effort to keep myself busy while Cam's away, I've been trying new hobbies and crafts.

First, I learned how to quilt this past fall and made three really cute "tv blanket-size" flannel quilts for my nieces and nephew for Christmas! (See the pictures below) Those were so much fun that I decided that I would use the same pattern as well as left over fabric to make 4 more flannel quilts for Project Linus. I have enough for 2 more boy quilts and 1 more girl quilt. The last quilt will be just a random mix of left over fabric squares I have. I also picked up a new pattern online as well as some additional cotton fabric for another Project Linus quilt.

Recently, I took a basic knitting skills class one evening after work. I learned how to cast on, knit and purl and I'm all excited to use my new skills for scarves (and possibly some baby quilts for Project Linus too!).

On top of all that, I have quite a few cross-stitching kits that I have picked up along the way that I need to finish. Thankfully, the girls at work and I spend our lunchtimes cross-stitching together, so that gives me the perfect excuse to work on these.

Whew! I'll be a busy girl, but I have at least 2 more months of alone time to accomplish it all. Pray that I'll make it and won't become some crazy hermit-Martha Stewart-wanna-be!

Andrew's Quilt

Serenity's Quilt

OCS Update #2

It's been a while since I've posted an update about Cam's adventures at Officer Candidate School (OCS) and since he's now been back for almost two weeks, now's as good of time as any!

Most of the days are spent in the classroom setting learning about various tactical things, map reading, and leadership skills. They have also had a little "outside" training. Tomorrow the officer candidates are headed for a 7 mile rucksack march with their rucksacks (backpacks) full of gear equaling a certain percentage of their body weight. Cam gets to carry 74 extra pounds in his ruck. Every time he tells me about this march, he sounds oh-so excited...

Cam is currently a team leader for the week. This involves making decisions that affect the whole team as well as working directly with the cadre (officers/NCOs in charge of the candidates). He has also had the "opportunity" to stand watches in the middle of the night and be on latrine-cleaning duty.

Cam is also researching future job tracks that he might be interested in selecting during their "branching" selection occurring (hopefully) mid-February. His current interest is Air Defense Artillery. That job includes shooting ground-to-air missiles (and "They teach you to be a rocket scientist! Ha-ha!"). He is also still considering Military Intelligence. Once his job/branch is chosen, we hope to know which post we will be assigned to first. As soon as we know, we'll let everyone else know!

Finally, I know that Cam would love to hear from you! If you get a spare 5 minutes, drop a card or note in the mail for him. (His address is listed at the top of the blog's main page.) He also has his cell phone and if you leave a message, he will try to return your call as soon as he is able.

Lost ... and Found!

First, a little background: Sunday afternoon/evening brought about 5-6 inches of new snow (to top off the 4-5 inches still on the ground at my house). Knowing that I had to make it into work Monday morning, I decided to get up really early in order to shovel the sidewalk and driveway and clean off the car before I showered and got ready for work.

Plan was working out well: I got the truck all cleaned off and my driveway and sidewalk were the envy of the neighborhood. It wasn't until I retreated back inside that I discovered ... the truck and house keys were no longer in my jacket pocket!!!

I spent the next 45 minutes (still in the dark, mind you) I retracing my steps in the house, crawling through the truck and searching all the nicely piled 18 inches of snow that I just shoveled. No luck and I finally had to give up so that I wasn't late to work.

After work Monday night I again spent about 45 minutes in the blustery cold darkness scooping snow about looking for the keys. Now I was really beginning to worry and causing Cam to worry about me fighting off robbers trying to break into the house with the missing house key or losing the truck to thieves.

This morning dawned even more blustery, but I was determined to shovel more snow around. And again, I had no luck. Thankfully, by the time I arrived home, most of the snow I was battling had melted and I spotted the darned things twinkling in the remaining daylight sitting in the grass near the driveway. They HAD flown out of my pocket into the snow bank! I did a little happy dance right there on the spot!

However, the best news of all ... after they dried out, the alarm clicker for the truck was still operational! Yippee!

Gone, Baby, Gone ...

I just got back from dropping Cam at the airport. He'll be in-route back to Ft. Benning, GA (via a short layover in Minneapolis) by 1:30AM PST ... barring any delays. He's expected to arrive in Atlanta by 11AM EST and must be in formation at Ft. Benning by 5PM EST.

He wanted me to thank all of our family and friends for the wonderfully fun time we had together! He's taking all your well wishes back with him as well as a couple of pounds gained from Christmas goodies!