Nicholas found!

New "Where's Waldo" discovery!

Probably from Friday, January 25.

Nicholas is in Boot Camp

Well, as of January 10th he was!

There's this thing that we're essentially told not to do, and that's to go looking for photos of our recruits.  But here's the other thing, every parent of the kids in this platoon is almost desperate for word, any word. Since these young men gave up their phones on Jan 7, we haven't heard or received anything but a standard 15-second phone call on Jan 9 that we missed (Becca was in class, she got a voicemail which she shared with us), and a form letter that was sent to Becca that she photoed and shared with us.

But there's another thing. Families who go to boot camp graduation tour around the island and SEE THE NEW AND MIDWAY RECRUITS.  And they take photos.  And they post them.  And people see them and share them and we see our kids. Technically, these recruits have not given permission for these photos to be shared, these are not taken by the official photographers that do the uniform photos or build the boot camp yearbook. 

Aside from the rare sneaky photo, we wait for a letter.  Again, it'll go to Becca and she'll share with us, but so far, nothing.

That doesn't surprise us.  He's not much of a writer, and I would guess that if he did write, he would get emotional and he probably doesn't want to do that more than what reading our letters already do. So I get it.  I also know that by the time we get whatever he writes he will already have gone through so much more and his thoughts and feelings at that time are gone and buried under a dozen new challenges and a 100 new emotional roller coasters.

So we rely on the old adage "no news is good news."  As far as we know he's not sick, he's not injured, he's not falling behind, he's not starving, he is sleeping, and he has no hair.

Send good thoughts his way, OK?

The week starting the day after Christmas was hard...

On December 26, this one went home to Maryland - to her apartment, her new car, her SO, her job.

She won't be back to Germany, but we'll get to see her in April and/or June.

Then on January 2, these two went to Georgia.  It was a long hard trip, Mokka had to be at the airport on December 31 and the pet shippers had everything arranged for her to fly out early on the 2nd.

Then on January 3, this one shipped out to Boston to get over jetlag and in-process at MEPS. He spent Thurs-Mon at the hotel, and Saturday afternoon he spent with our awesome friend Jerry and his kids at the aquarium, then caught a Bruins game in the evening. He was glad he didn't bring a jersey.

To say the house is super quiet now is an understatement. I knew this holiday season would be different - this year would be different - and so far it hasn't disappointed.

Jonathon is going to have far too much parent time....

We have a trip to Wroclaw, Poland and Geneva, Switzerland yet...

.... and several other things, but for now, how about this?

It only took 2 hours and here it is under a "second skin" wrap, with blood pooling at the bottom. I never knew tattoos bled. You know, sometimes it really is better to go into something without knowing anything about it.

48 hours later and wow... it looked awful but was also time to take off the wrap. The wrap kept the sheets clean.

Oh the suspense.....

Wrap off and pretty sure that the blobs all over weren't part of the original sketch?

A shower, some gentle soap, and some healing cream and I. Am. DELIGHTED.  It's gorgeous.

I have to say that I don't think I'll ever get another one. BTDT. It has everything I want on it and don't let anyone ever tell you it doesn't hurt.  Thick lines hurt. A lot. So very much. The last twenty minutes were no fun at all.

But it was worth it. Ian and I made a deal years ago that if the Caps won the Cup we would get tattoos.  I think the original intent was matching ones, and you've seen Ian's...

Full splendor with the Cup and the year.  Very cool.  I guess I wanted one a little more personal and I don't regret it one bit.