LIEUTENANT WALTON

Brace yourself, it was another eventful weekend. I'll start with the most life-changing event...

We did it! Scott took the Oath of Office last Friday June 8th and was officially sworn in to the US Army some 100 feet high on the Shawnee Mission Park Observation Tower. 

 She's fearless

Gettin' a lesson on how to pound the bar pins (without the backs) into his collar for after he took the oath. It's tradition. 

                      TAKING THE OATH

I had the honor of pinning him

Bam! I pounded that thing just like I was trained :) Jk, I could only make myself tap it...

..because I love him :)

 Meet Lieutenant Walton!

          It's a little weird transitioning from the civilian world to the military world, even though it won't really hit us for four more years. First off, all the military guys immediately started calling Scott "Sir" because he outranked a few of them. Second off, we're not used to the awesome insurance discounts and other benefits yet, but we'll take it! He'll go to school as normal for the next four years and then report at a military base hospital to do his residency. After residency he'll owe 4 years more. So we'll be in the military world for the next 12 years, even though we won't realize it until residency starts and we have to move to base. 

Right now he's commissioned as Lieutenant in the IRR- Inactive Ready Reserves, and will be active at the end of these next 4 years. 

There are many reasons why we chose this to be a great route for our family, the least of which may even be the pay. I'm sure you'll hear about all those things as they come; until then, THANK YOU ARMY for paying for Med. school. 

X FACTOR TICKETS

We got free tickets through On Camera Audiences to the taping of X Factor auditions (singing competition show like American Idol) while they were here in Kansas City last weekend. 

To be honest, I have never seen the show, only heard of it and I figured if Simon Cowell and Britney Spears were a part of it it was worth going to, especially for free! 

Simon Cowell was "under the weather" for our Friday night taping which was pretty lame but Britney, Demi Lovato, and L.A. Reid were still the judges of the night. It was interesting to see what it was like before all the editing takes place- a lot longer and drawn out with more breaks to reapply makeup and get drinks. Other than that, it could have been an impressive church talent show. 

I learned that Britney Spears was always "bored" and didn't have as much of a personality as I would have liked for someone to have, and Demi Lovato was always "on the fence," which got old to hear after seriously about 25 times of hearing it. You KNOW they'll be editing all that repetitiveness out for the show. It's definitely more exciting to see a movie star or famous musician when they are the one performing. L.A. had great things to say and I only wish Simon had not been sick. 

After the editing, the lights, music, large crowd and presence of Hollywood stars, the TV shows seem like a bigger deal than they were when they were taped. I guess it's all a big deal though, especially the 4 million $ and life changing future involved for the winner! 

 Wow, Mike. Way to make everyone look like midgets ;)

 We're famous

 Michelle and Jeff

 Mike and Mel

 Matt, Heather, Me, Scotty and Mich

 Total church talent show. These girls actually came together at their church.

 Britney Spears

Fun night :)

It really was a busy weekend; the kind where everything is fun but you can't help but be either annoyed that there's another place you have to be or stressed out because you just want to sit and do nothing. Besides Scott being commissioned as an officer, and the X-Factor show, there were two separate family birthday celebrations and we also had a neighborhood garage sale which we participated both Friday and Saturday.

And yes, that is where we got Sydney's 50 cent outfit from last post which actually cost less than 50 cents because we bought so much (each item at 25 cents, we couldn't control ourselves!). The grandpa talked his daughter into selling as much as we could fit into a box for 5 bucks. So we filled two. Syd is gonna be one well dressed baby until she's size 3T. That was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime jack-pot garage sale- awesome stuff for a steal (and a lot of it still had tags!). We were grateful for the little neighbor girl who had a grandma who spoiled her rotten with way to many super cute clothes, shoes, swimsuits and dresses.

          We finished off the weekend with this awesomeness. It was a going away party for my two brothers in laws' cousin (two brothers married my two sisters..).

Adult Slip 'N Slide, Anyone?!

 Syd LOVED it! She kept asking for "More? More?!"

 Scott clearly won that race...

Waiting patiently in line... :)

Sydney rocked the Adult slip 'n slide

 A random snake that decided to join the party...

 Told ya! FEARLESS!! She gave him a little tap, tap.

Good times. It's been nice to rest a little this week.