CONGRATULATIONS Sergeant First Class Slade

Yesterday was the big day. Donte was promoted to Sergeant First Class, E7 and I am so very proud of him. As usual the day started off hectic as I scrambled to get the boys ready for Soccer, by the grace of God we made it and I explained to the coaches that they would be leaving early. No problem they say. I get a few errands done and go back to pick the kids up. The situation goes like this. I go to the soccer field...ummmm where are my kids....in fact where are all the kids? I turn around trek back to the building in the 198978735 degree heat.....OK high 90's but it felt like 198978735. There they were in the middle of the huge indoor track in the nice air conditioning playing with a ball the size of Jupiter. No kidding this ball was like a huge blowup beach ball that would crush you if you got caught under it. I stand at the door and try and wave my kids down...the little one saw me and then acted like he didn't. The coaches are all so enthralled with laughing at the kids that they don't notice me either. So now I had to debate....do I walk in and chance getting smashed by this ball.....Ummmmmm NO just ain't worth it. I finally get the coach's attention and he gets the boys. I tell them to come on we have to get ready and get this they are upset......why......"we didn't get to play with the big balls"!!! I almost fell down laughing at this. Oh the things that come out of kids mouths. As soon as I get them home and into the shower I hear the front door open. Donte is home and now all four of us are getting ready. I specifically tell the boys to shower, get there undies on and put lotion on. I get showered and start getting ready. Now my husband is in the room with me but I am moving at warp speed so he could have been 10 states away for all I knew. I got my clothes ironed, the boys pants ironed......and then noticed something...in the midst of all the excitement my loving husband is fast asleep on the bed. "UH HUM" HONEY I say, "can you iron the boys shirts while I finish getting ready?". "Sure" he says like we have all the time in the world. I explain to him that we women have to pluck, primp, blow dry, curl, and do 1001 other things in the effort to look great for the cameras at these events. He in turn looks at me like I have 4 heads and nods his head in agreement. So off to the ceremony we go. We get there in plenty of time and sit around while everyone else arrives. Donte has always had a good bunch of fellow soldiers but these guys and the poor lonely gal are hilarious. Never a dull moment. They read his orders and then they yank his E6 rank off and I very carefully place his E7 rank on and punch in square in the chest as hard as I can. It was very different from when I pinned on his E6, back then you had rank with the prongs and you made sure that the dammits were missing because what is rank if you cant cause pain right....ahhhhh the Army way. Donte then said a few touching remarks about God, his wife (that's me) and the kids. His fellow recruiters had the local store make cupcakes with E7 rank on it (was nice because this is nowhere near a military town) and with a little coaxing they all dug in and got there sugar fix for the day. The big party will be next weekend, here at the house. We will be having a good old fashioned southern style BBQ with all the fixin's and of course the beer.....yuk dont like beer but I know a few soldiers that will. I will post pics either tonight or tomorrow.