Boot Camp

Yes, I actually mean real boot camp. Sorta.

See, last weekend My family, Novel and I all went down to Fort Benning in Georgia to celebrate Brother #1's "Turning Blue" ceremony and his *ahem* second graduation from Boot Camp. But it's not like he flunked it the first time or anything. To put it really simply, he is changing his MOS and so they made him go through boot camp again.

The point is, we all had gobs of fun with all of us (or at least most of us) together in one place again. Novel, of course, LOVED getting to see my little nephews, and got lots of good practice working around large crowds of people and people in uniform carrying guns, rucksacks, etc. All in all it was a really great trip. Mostly because my family is just so stinkin awesome.

I don't really have a lot more to say on the subject, but I do have some pictures so please enjoy:

Here's Novel simply being adorable.

The "Turning Blue" Ceremony

He loves his daddy :)

This was part of a very cool tactical demonstration during graduation.
It's kinda hard to explain but there was lots of gunfire and smoke and Novel handled it all
without hardly batting an eyelash.

See? eyes are wide open.

Brother #1 is in this picture somewhere but I couldn't tell you where.

My adorable Nephew clapping for his daddy while Novel keeps an eye on him

Gazing with interest at the "festivities"

Sometimes brothers just have to be brothers...:

Poor Sister #2 had to miss out on all the fun, but seriously, my siblings are the BEST.

Yep. They sure are.

And my puppy is pretty fabulous too.

Novel and the Nephew are the best of friends :)

And we even got to ride in the back of the pickup truck on the way home...
We had a bit of a snuggle fest.

I love this dude!!

Congrats Bro. We're proud of you.

10,000

Apologies for my recent lapse in blogging. The past few weeks have been a little crazy.


...oh hang it all. My whole life is crazy. Always. So, nothing new there; I guess I can't use that as an excuse after all.

Anyway, I flipped open my computer this morning hoping to get caught up on all the little things that tend to get away from me when my life gets busy enough to make me forget I have a computer. Like this blog. Thankfully I've been able to sort of keep up with my email through my phone, but here on the Novel Pup I had comments awaiting moderation, posts to write, and other blogs to read :) Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So, I pull up Blogger and low and behold, "A Novel Pup" has officially passed 10,000 views! I feel ridiculously honored that so many people find the ramblings I write here interesting enough to read.

...I could bring up the fact that many of those views probably didn't actually involve any reading at all, but that would just be raining on my own parade ;)

In celebration of reaching 10,000 page views, I will now be sharing 10,000 things....um, yeah. Just things:

1. The above statement is a joke. I'm kidding. I wouldn't do that to you...or myself.

2. I have a monstrous amount of blogging material stored up in my head that needs to come out, but I'll try not to dump it on you all at once. I'll let it out slow and steady. Sort of like an IV drip.

3. I will even have some pictures here and there to share with your blog-drip! Not because my camera is fixed but because I've forced myself to start making better use of my phone's camera. Mostly because I am starting to realize just how little time I have left with Novel.

4. Now you have to wait for that next drip...


Waiittt fooorr iiiitt.......