Not Too Young

When my son or I tell anyone he is now in the Young Marines, I always get, "Isn't he too young for that?"  The answer is no.  The Young Marines is for children ages 8 - 18.  I have also gotten, "Why are you trying to turn him into a soldier so young?"  The Young Marine program doesn't try to turn children into soldiers.  One thing the Young Marines DO do is promote physical and mental developments of it's members, along with morals and a drug-free lifestyle.  They also teach the ideals of honesty, fairness, courage, respect, loyalty, love of God, and fidelity to our country.  And let's face it, kids now days need this because too many parents out there aren't teaching these things.  The Young Marines also try to get the kids interested in and have a respect for their own academic achievement, along with the history and traditions of the U.S.A.  They learn teamwork and leadersip.  They learn about community service, and see how good it feels to do things for others. 

So why wouldn't I get my child involved in something like this.  Yes, I can teach and do all this stuff with him at home, but he is getting older.  He wants to go out and do things with kids around his own age without his mom (thought that wouldn't come around to at least the teenage years, lol). 

As a side note, R DOES want to be in the military when he grows up.  It has nothing to do with the Young Marines.  It is something he decided when he was 4 years old, and he hasn't changed his mind since.  He has a love for this country, and yes, I do encourage it.  And yes, I am proud that he wants to join the military when he is old enough, and will be even prouder when he does.   

Going Shopping

I have my list all ready, and later today I will be going to buy foods from my okay to eat list for the "Blood Type Diet."  I will start this diet tomorrow.  I won't be cutting all my avoid foods out all at once, but will instead start to slowly eliminate them. 

Blood Type Diet

I have been reading "Eat Right 4 Your Type" by Peter J. D'Adamo.  It is basically a diet with a list of foods that are right and wrong for your blood type.  It is more of a diet to optimize your health, but weight loss is one of the affects of it.  Since I have been eating not so healthy lately, and have packed on some weight, I am going to give them Blood Type Diet a try.

I know this will be hard for me.  On the list of things to avoid for my blood type are red meats, pork, and most dairy (I can still eat poultry though).  Since these are some of my favorite things, I know this will be hard.  But if it helps with my health, then it will be worth it.  Even if I don't lose any weight, eating better will still be beneficial to my health.  Since I am going to have to give up some of the things I love to eat, I am going to start this in baby-steps.  Since I already have poultry once or twice a week, I am going to start cutting red meat/pork out once a week until it is completely out.  I am also going to start to phase dairy out (and slowly go from regular milk to soy milk).  I will try to keep an update on my progress and how I am feeling as I start this process

My Oldest

In one week from Saturday, my baby boy (who isn't really a baby anymore) will be graduating from Recruit Training for the Young Marines. I am so proud of him for doing this. After the first day he told me, "You would have thought they would have went easy on us since it was the first day." Even after saying that, he said he was ready for the next weekend to come to go back. And every Saturday he has woke me up at the crack of dawn telling me to get up so we won't be late, lol. I can't wait to see him in his camoflauge uniform for the first time.

To learn more about the Young Marines and see if it is something your child might like to be involved in, you can go to http://www.youngmarines.com/.

Birds

Last Tuesday, my male Parakeet, Forrest, died. C cried all day long about him passing away. She had never paid a bit of attention to either Forrest or Skye (the female), so I have no idea why it hit her so hard. Of course the next day she was all over me, telling me I had to go get another bird that looked just like Forrest so we could name him Forrest the Second.

So just forward to Friday. Skye was a little lonely, so I did go buy her a new friend to keep her company. I got a male that is blue and almost looks like her. B is the only one of the kids that knew I was getting it, and that's only because he went with me while the other two were at school. Neither C nor R noticed the new bird in the cage at all. R did finally noticed, but only after my dad walked in the door and went over to say hi to Skye and says "Good, you got her a new friend so she won't be lonely." Then R jumps up and runs over there. C never noticed on her own. Finally at bedtime I told her to go look in the bird cage. She was excited for all of 5 minutes, then got mad because I didn't get a green bird. Anyway, the new bird's name is Cobalt.

Young Marines

Ray had been wanting to join the Young Marines, so I finally got him signed up. He started is recruit training for it this past Saturday, and will have his graduation from recruit training on May 1. When I picked up him, he told me, "They could have went easy on us since it was our first day." I told him that once he goes back next Saturday, he will see that they probably did go easy on him, lol. And even though he thinks they were hard on him and the other new recruits, he is ready to go back. He is looking forward to what the Young Marines have to offer, and all the cool things he is going to get to learn and do (like the camp outs and rappelling down things).

He does have to know the Young Marine Creed by Saturday, so we have been going over it several times a day. I'm afraid he won't have it memorized though. It takes a while for him to memorize things like that...just like his daddy. But all I can do is my best to help him remember it

Spring Break - Day 2

Nothing got broken today, thankfully. I took the kids fishing for a few minutes today. Brian got bored after about 5 minutes though.