A few weeks ago, Kylie shared with Angie and I that she was considering the military. I don’t remember what my first reaction to her was, but I remember feeling a combination of concern for her physical (and emotional) safety, questions as to how committed she is to the idea, and pride that she would be one of the many men and women who serve our country and protect our freedoms. I still struggle with those same feelings today. We’ve talked a number of times since then, and today I went with her to visit the Air Force and Army recruiters. She had visited each already and collected a lot of information. She had also taken her ASVAB so she was able to discuss what jobs in each branch she qualifies for.

Going into the meetings today, I had been told that her experience with the Army recruiter was very positive, but that her meeting with the Air Force recruiter did not go as well. It sounded like they generally didn’t get off on a good note, and the meeting never recovered. I was curious about what the interaction would be like today. I should also add here that after talking to various friends and family who either have experience in the military or know someone who has, the overwhelming response was to lean toward the Air Force. The justification seemed primarily to center around quality of life, in that the housing, food, and facilities on Air Force bases was higher quality. This was followed by the generalization that she would be less likely to find herself in or around combat with the Air Force. If you see my concerns above, you’ll understand me when I say as proud as I will be for her service, I’ll be just as proud (and will probably sleep better) if that service is here in the states or in an area not currently experiencing conflict.

The meetings with both recruiters went well. Both men did a good job of explaining the benefits of their given branches, and their feedback seemed to confirm the comments around quality, though it sounds like the Army is making progress in this area. After hearing from both and asking them a number of questions, my thoughts to Kylie were that it may very well come down to the job she wants to do, so her next step is to determine the top 10 jobs in each branch that she qualifies for, and see where there are similarities and differences. Her eyes lit up when the Army recruiter mentioned a female special ops group that the Army now has, but it sounded like it was only available to enlisted soldiers.

As she narrows down the list of jobs, she’ll meet with each of them again to determine what’s available, complete her physical (which may refine the list further) and choose a branch and a job. I guess realistically, she could be signing up in the next couple weeks. That seems way too fast, but I guess there aren’t too may steps that can be inserted at this point. In both cases, it would be at least 6 months before she shipped out to basic training.

She still has the opportunity to change her mind, and we’ll support her decision either way. I think the military would bring some discipline and structure that Kylie could excel in and who knows, she may find that she wants to make a career out of it. Apparently 20 years is all it takes to reach retirement, so she might very well beat me if that is the case. For now, we’ll continue to pray for her and her decision and support her in any way we can. If you would also be willing to pray for her, Angie and I would appreciate it greatly. As things progress, I’ll try to remember to post an update.

I’m not sure if Angie will post her own account of turning 40, and this won’t be an analysis of how she has progressed through this milestone, but it’s hard to imagine that we could pass up posting something about it… so here goes. Just realize it’s from my perspective… so take that for what it is.

The actual turning of 40 seemed relatively low key, and Angie has taken it in stride. I only threw in the occasional age related jab, but given that she is a few years older than me, she get’s those periodically anyway. Maybe I have actually been preparing her with my pokes for this day such that it holds no fear for her. If that is the case, then I shall consider my job well done.

All kidding aside, she has approached, endured and triumphed over the event with grace, and with all of her beauty, which defies her age. Not that 40 is really old anyway.

We had to celebrate though and coming up with something worthy was actually more difficult than it may seem on the surface. Keeping it a secret was even harder. The hardest part though, might have been finding ways to get in touch with some of Angie’s friends, whom I’ve never had independent contact with. Those people who I assumed would, and eventually did, provide enough surprise to ensure she was ‘really” overwhelmed.

We had the cover of Calen’s 2nd birthday to help in some ways. I was able to invite the family without it being too suspicious. Angie’s Dad and Kat weren’t able to make it, and were sorely missed, but we have the opportunity to celebrate with them this coming weekend. Having the family here to celebrate was great but it also afforded some quality “doers” on the day of the surprise party… Ah… did I forget to mention the surprise party?

I’ll spare you too many of the details, but the celebrations began on Friday night when we went out to eat with family at Carrabbas. I had some earrings in the car for Angie, and so when she went to the bathroom with the kids, I ran out to the car to get them. The owner stopped by the table and asked if I wanted them to bring them out with dessert. So at the end of dinner, out comes a plate with tiramisu, a candle and her present. It was quite a surprise.

Saturday morning we had a very small celebration for Calen’s birthday… a sports theme. He can now play basketball, soccer, golf or ride a scooter… and he has been doing all of the above!

The kids went down for a nap and around 3:00, Angie and I left for the 2nd part of her birthday surprise… a hot air balloon ride. Angie’s mom and Kylie came with us to take pictures, while the rest of the family worked their tails off to pull the house into party mode (which was made more difficult than expected with the 2yr old party that morning… While we were off floating over Williamson County, a LOT of work was taking place… setting up tables, wine, beer, cooking some food, putting out trays of cheese, veggies, fruit, etc, hanging decorations and everything else that goes with getting the house ready for a good party. They did a great job and everyone showed up around 6:30… just as we were packing up and heading back to Arrington Vineyards (where we took off from).

I’ll stop here to say that the flight was amazing, and the crew made it even better. I can’t speak to other balloon crews (3 took off that afternoon, including ours), but I would absolutely recommend Ace High Ballooning. They were well prepared, and made the whole event fun from beginning to end.

We took some great pictures while we were up there, which are included in the web albums.

When we got back, we headed home, and I called ahead to let everyone know that we were coming… The family parked in the bottom of the driveway so we would be forced to come in the front door, and everyone else (40-ish people) parked one street over to as to not spoil the surprise.

When we came in the front door, the people Angie expected to see (family and a couple friends) were there to say surprise… but then people started popping out in the back and there was a good 5 minutes of Angie being “re” surprised by new faces she hadn’t seen in a while. The party went off great and I think Angie got to spend some time with everyone. It as a psuedo-80’s theme, with posters from the 80’s hanging along side picture of her from years past. Pictures of the party are also on the site. We had someone there to help serve wine and keep an eye on everything, which along with family still helping out made clean up fairly easy and the house was in good shape before everyone went to bed that night.

So, THANK YOU!!!! to all of our family and friends who helped to set up, plan, clean up, store stuff, and mislead Angie. It was officially her first surprise party.

Today Angie is still hearing from friends and coworkers who couldn’t make it. It’s amazing to think of how many people you really are connected to when you start putting them down on paper. I know I missed some people in the invitations, despite trying very hard to pull from all her circles of friends, but I think we did well, and I hope that the celebration helps to express to her how much I, and everyone else, regardless of whether they were able to make it, love and care about her. She is a fantastic wife, mother, friend, daughter, family member, coworker and boss, and deserving of every bit of celebration we can muster.