Benefits of Hard Work

Well school is out and so is the sun!

Colin and I finished school the first week of May and have been playing outdoors ever since! We went camping over Memorial Day Weekend and have  made a boating trip with his family. His parents just recently put in a pool in their back yard so we have made a few trips there to swim in the pool, especially with this heat! The sun has sure been shining bright! Definitely another wonderful reminder of all of the wonderful things we have been blessed with on this earth. Colin's Brother and his Wife just recently had a baby! WE ARE AUNT/UNCLES now! Super exciting! 

Colin has been really big into mountain biking and has crashed a few too many times. (Good thing I bought him a nice mountain biking helmet for Christmas). He is such a goof! The biggest focus in Colin's life has been his recent acceptance to go to Field Training for the Air Force ROTC program. The ROTC program is an officer training program while attending school. Field Training is something that is held for 4 weeks during the summer in Montgomery, Alabama at Maxwell Air Force Base. They have different rotations of the times that cadets can attend. Colin was assigned to the 5th Rotation...they call it Max 5 or something like that. Anyway he left July 10 and will Return August 7. They are not allowed any contact with home unless it is by snail mail. They are supposed to take their cell phones with them in case something happened with their flights they were to notify their commander of the situation. When they get to the base, it is there that they turn in their electronic devices to their commanding officers. Some good advice was given to him before he left. He was told that when he attends church, to make friends with somebody in the congregation who would allow him to use their cell phone to call home. I haven't been putting too much expectations or hopes into whether or not that will actually happen just to protect myself from disappointment. Yesterday was his first Sunday gone and no phone call. The last contact I had had from him was Wednesday afternoon when he called to tell me his flight was delayed in Dallas. I know he is working hard and doing the best he can. There are benefits to having parents live so close to Hill Air Force Base in Roy, UT because there are a bunch of retired Airmen in their ward with some excellent contacts and advice! He especially is grateful for the friends he has made within the ROTC that have gone through this before them and given him some good direction as well. I remember the preparation he has put into this Field Training. For those of you who do not know, the military is VERY particular in how they fold their clothes and keep their room and make their beds etc. We spent many hours figuring these things out and folding and refolding all of his clothes to make sure they were at the standard they needed to be. I admit I think its kind of dumb how they are so particular about some of their things but I respect our military and all that they do for this country. I also respect the lesson they are trying to get across. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL. Needless to say I am looking forward to having him come home and being so detail oriented and tidy! 

I have been keeping busy as well. I have been trying to keep Colin on track with preparation for field training and all that goes into it. I am the Office Manager for the Utah Statesman and have recently been recruited to work for Student Involvement here on campus. It has definitely furthered my contacts in the professional world and helped me to improve career wise. The Statesman is the school newspaper and we recently were notified that the office would be changing locations as well it will be placed under the Student Involvement Department. At first I was very hesitant about it because the room we would be moving into is significantly smaller. On the plus side, I do get my own office! Since the Statesman does not publish in the summer and Jay, the recent advisor has moved into retirement, I have been the one in charge of this transition/move. I had to pack up and consolidate the entire office and let me tell ya...it was NOT and easy task. I was able to get everything that we would be taking upstairs to fit into a small storage room so I was pretty proud of myself for that! The Assistance Vice President and the Associate VP were really impressed with me that the big help that I have been to them. So currently I am in a little tiny office on the third floor of the Student Center until I can get moved into my permanent office which should be taking place NEXT WEEK! Im so excited. I am really excited for the new furniture that was ordered and to see how my designs have turned out! So I am excited to announce that I have decided to start a military wife blog, just to kind of document the process of a military wife and Colin's military experience. I know that there are already a lot of blogs out there that document a military wife, but everybody has a different point of view. I will place a link to the blog on this one. It has not yet been created, but the link will be here shortly after it is created.

I look forward to spending some time with Family over the next two weekends! My cousin Cassie is getting baptized on Sat. the 20th. This event is so special to me as she is the first (other than myself of course) family member to get baptized on my dad's side in the LDS church. I know that each of the family members have their own religious beliefs and I have the highest respect for that, I am excited and grateful that I will have somebody on that side who shares the same beliefs that I have. On Saturday July 27th is the Dooley cousin reunion and I am SO excited to see all of my family and have a good time with them! Colin's cousin is getting married on Aug. 3 unfortunately the same day as my best friend so that has been hard decision to make as one is in Idaho and the other in Eastern Utah. Then Colin comes home August 7. So there is a lot to look forward to and I am SO excited!