<p>Wow, that’s a good distance! What we won’t do for our kids!! If it makes you feel better, in November we drove 9 hrs. to Moody Air Force base to see our favorite Thunderbird perform one last time! It was SO worth it.</p>
<p>I think Dole’s Salisbury office is only an hour from here but now I’m pulling my Garmin out to make sure.</p>
<p>who’s your favorite? DS or a DD, giuessing it has to be a family member for the thunderbirds.</p>
<p>The most awesome Thunderbird is Maj. Malachowski. I wish we could claim her as family but she’s not…we love her like she is though :)</p>
<p>fifi (sp?) Ex Strike Eagle?</p>
<p>yep, that’s her callsign.</p>
<p>World is small and keeps getting smaller</p>
<p>Hey – We’ll be coming from the Triangle; it’ll take about 1-1/2 hours (although we’ll plan on 2). Looking forward to meeting everyone!!</p>
<p>Okay…we now have 3. Ours is AFA, what about you guys?</p>
<p>Son is USNA</p>
<p>D has USAFA nom. from Dole.</p>
<p>I knew when I saw Dole’s name you all had to be from NC (we are in Charlotte). Congratulations on your children’s nominations/appointments. I currently have 2 at USNA , my D is a 2C and my son is a plebe. My last child applying for summer seminar in a few weeks. Going to the reception brings back memories. Your son/daughter will have a photo taken with Senator Dole and then they will mail it to you a few weeks later. Enjoy yourselves.</p>
<p>Midmomof2,</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I was hoping there’d be time for pictures. Congrats on your multiple Mids.</p>
<p>NEWS FLASH (1:40 PM, 18 Jan),</p>
<p>For those of you who haven’t heard yet, we just got a call from Sen Dole’s office saying the reception is CANCELLED for tomorrow! Salisbury is expecting 3 - 6 " of snow, and they don’t want anyone risking driving in those conditions. Ceremony re-scheduled for Saturday, Feb 16.</p>
<p>You now return you to your regularly scheduled program…</p>
<p>Well all you NC er’s enjoy the “snow”… (LOL, we haven’t seen any but the kids enjoyed their “snow” day last Thursday). Hopefully we’ll see you all at Dole’s reception in February. Maybe there’ll be lots more good news by then! 
Take care!</p>
<p>See you all tomorrow…remember they changed the location!</p>
<p>Thank you b&p, I hadn’t even noticed the location change.</p>
<p>Well the “Dole thing” was today!</p>
<p>Senator Elizabeth Dole invited all her Nominees to a reception in Siler City, NC (her hometown). It was awesome. To see all these very poised “kids” each introduce themselves just brought tears to my eyes. I was good!–I didn’t cry, but I did sniffle a bit…These kids are our future and I felt blessed to be in their presence. I pray that each one of them get the appointment they are waiting for.</p>
<p>Also, the best part–we met CC’s own “BulletandPima”! That was great to put faces to the CC names and also to meet their son! What a cutie too! I took his picture with my D! It makes this big world feel just a bit smaller when we get to meet in person! Great to meet you Bullet and “Pima”!!..and we laughed the whole way home how “Pima” got her name! Maybe she’ll share that!</p>
<p>I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet anyone else. We had to leave in a hurry for little D’s basketball game. Oh, it was SO cute–she told Senator Dole that she’d also like a nomination in about 9 years!! :)</p>
<p>^^^^ Glad to meet you too.</p>
<p>To put some persepctive behind my name…Bullet and I were in an arguement one day and I called him Anal…he responded by saying you are a Pain In My A**, I am going to call you Pima, we both laughed so hard and the fight was officially over. If you ever see an Acura MDX driving around with license plate that says PIMA’S, that would be me. When Bullet went to get it the DMV asked what it meant and he said beautiful in Italian…they bought it.</p>
<p>Your daughters are beautiful and my best wishes for you and yours…you were smart to bring her book, now go out and buy a new one so that one can be saved.</p>
<p>I too was impressed at how the kids acted, and the fact that they felt comfortable enough to speak to each other about life as they waited to meet her. </p>
<p>One kid knocked our socks off because he did his run in 5:20…I laughed and said I couldn’t ride a bike in a mile that fast.</p>
<p>I’m glad you made it home safely B&P, you had quite a drive. </p>
<p>The best part about Senator Dole’s book is that she already autographed it for my D four years ago. We saw her by accident at a book signing and she wrote, “Girls can do ANYTHING, good luck at Early College” (that’s her High School)…so we brought it along today hoping she would sign it again. When she opened it and read what she previously wrote, she teared up!!! It was the sweetest moment to see a senator get emotional! So I have pictures of her signing it again for D. This time she wrote, “I’m so proud of you! With hearty congratulations for being one of my nominees”. So that makes the book even more special for my D now.</p>
<p>I’m so proud of all these kids! I wish I was their age again…okay, no I don’t, scratch that. But I am envious of all that they can choose from and sure hope they all know how lucky they are! </p>
<p>I hope your son starts feeling better. What a trooper to drive all that way not feeling well!</p>
<p>Bullet said as a Dad of a girl that he would never allow our DD to go to a college with a 4 guy to 1 ratio, especially being that pretty! :)</p>
<p>Oh to be young, pretty and smart…now that is the tri-fecta (sp?)</p>
<p>Funny thing is our DD is going to the JROTC Mil. Ball in a couple of weeks, and she said to me, I have to go to a college that has a ROTC program (she has no desire to attend an SA), because she wants to marry someone in the military. I asked why? She said she could never imagine living in one place, she has loved this life.</p>
<p>I walked away so happy knowing that she doesn’t resent us for making her move every couple of years, and that in the end it was a positive life. Both DS1 and DD, will have gone lived in 9 homes before they graduate. They tease DS2, because he will be our only child to enter hs and graduate from the same one. DS went to 8 different public schools, DD will have the same number. DS2 will only have gone to 6.</p>