Surprise Phone Call

We were just about to sit down to dinner tonight when Anthony called from basic training. All of the trainees had been asked three questions, and because he got all three questions right, Anthony was able to make a call home for 20 minutes. So here's a more detailed update.

First, he was not held back, which means he will be graduating on time on December 5th, as long as everything continues on track. He is an Element Leader--basically there's the Training Instructor (TI), then a dorm leader (who is a trainee), and then Anthony. So he has a lot of responsibility, but it also means they trust him. He is also in the band. And I thought it couldn't get worse than being in the high school marching band. :) But he made the mistake of raising his hand when they asked if anyone played an instrument. He's not thrilled with the director, to put it lightly, and the worst part is on Graduation Day, instead of being able to meet me right after the ceremony, he has to get back on the bus, take his instrument back, and they have to clean all the instruments, which means I have to wait for him for 2 or 3 hours. Why anyone would ever want to be in the band is beyond me, but it was too late to back out when he found this out.

The other trainees are finally starting to shape up. Anthony yelled at several of them and told them to quit playing around because they were wasting his time that he could be spending with his family. None of them were married or had children, and they were shocked to learn he was so "old." Apparently that did the trick for some of them, and they're doing better and getting privileges and mail, but this is not always a good thing. One trainee received $4 in change and a troll doll from his little sister, and this irritated the TI enough to earn him the privilege of doing 25 push-ups. Another received a Sponge Bob sponge, and that got him 40. So I was warned not to write anything on the envelopes of my letters or to send anything that will cause problems.

This week he'll be learning lots of First Aid, as well as having a major cleaning inspection, which will determine whether I'll be getting any more phone calls in the near future.

In other news, Will and I are officially now part of the military family as we now have a military ID. I took the paperwork today, and when they pulled up our file on the computer, I was surprised to get a glimpse of Anthony's military ID photo. I almost didn't recognize him without any hair. The only words to describe it are: not good. Luckily he was not wearing the glasses, so I don't have to have that image burned in my mind for eternity. But now we can receive military discounts, we have health care, and we can get groceries for cheap. Anyone up for a trip to the Commissary? The man helping me with my ID made sure to point out that I can buy beer on Sundays and stock up, to which I pointed out that I had told him minutes before that I was pregnant. He said then I can get some for my husband, and I didn't even get into it with him. I can see it now, "Pregnant Mormon Buys Beer on Sunday." What next?