TALICEE'S JOURNEY

BASIC TRAINING GRADUATION DAY AUGUST 23RD 2012

The big day had come. Lindsay and I were so excited. Up and ready early. Check out and headed to the field. So we thought. Side stop to get coffee. Then we thought we knew where we were going. NOT. Missed our excite and had to back track. Threw us off schedule. Had planned to be early and have great seats. Well, we had great sears, but the early part did not work. We found a parking place close, still have to get one more bag of Tyler's. Made sure we could get out quickly. Our flight was out at 2:00 p.m. If you have been to the Atlanta Airport, you know you have to jump through many hoops to get to your gate. And of course our gate was at the other end of the airport. Still have to fill the car up with gas and turn it back in. All this takes time. And we really did not know where we were going.

Got our seats at graduation. They were pretty good. Glad I decided to take the big lense. I could see all the way across the field, but not good enough to see him. The ceremony got started a little late but was great. The guys finally came across the field. He kinda told us where he was going to be. So that was where I was looking. He has a guy in there that looks just like him. I found him, but did not find Tyler for a while. He was closer to the front than he said he was. After all of the awards, finally presentation of the graduates. I was so proud. They told us we would pick up our soldiers at the front of the museum. Well, we did not know that they were going to do a group picture. People we are on a time limit right now. Finally, about 11:15 Tyler was ours for the taking. He grabbed his stuff and we headed out. You have to show ID to get out. The guard got a kick out of Tyler changing the in the back into his other uniform. We were off. GPS said 1 hour and 37 minutes. Can we make security and get to our gate before our plane boards. By the way, Tyler was 3 hours behind us in Atlanta and an hour behind us in Charlotte. We made it through security no problems. But there were tons of people. Tyler had no problem. He does not have to do what we do. Anyway he met us at our gate and we said good bye until Lynchburg. Our flight out of Atlanta was rough. It was raining and the pilot could not find a pocket to fly in. Finally landed and headed to the farthest end of the airport as usual. Had a snack and waited on our flight. Landed in Lynchburg and had a quick dinner before Tyler landed. Tyler and I got home about 10:30 p.m.

So glad to have him home for a while. He had school on Friday, so he did not have much of down time until this weekend. We moved some of his stuff to his apartment, but the rest can wait until he gets there in October.

I can say I am one proud momma. I am still learning about this Army stuff. I do know he has to go back to Ft. Benning in June for 5 to 6 weeks and then he is with the National Guard for the next 4 years. Hopefully, he will be with is job with the State Police and only have to do his weekend and 2 weeks a year. A momma can only hope.

I do say I have not had a summer. I have not had time to take a break. So many things have changed in our life in the last 2 1/2 months. Always something going on in the Landes household.