"sir, request permission to quit sir"

Not Josh, but two class sergeants two days in a row have given up. The class that three and a half weeks ago started out 74 strong is now down to 60 ... and Josh is still in that 60, hanging strong. (Mom and Dad Y, be proud of your son!) His friend got appointed as the new class sergeant, Toderoff, so pray for her. She's in his circle of friends who he is sure is going to make it all the way. It would really shake him up if one of them didn't make it, so pray them through too please. Josh thinks that they picked her to be class sergeant for the rest of the week because they were tired of screw-ups and wanted someone who wouldn't quit. She really knows her stuff, which means during inspection tomorrow they will be well-led enough to open their ranks and get individually inspected, which means that tomorrow Josh will probably come home with several R. I. R.'s. However today he did not. He did not even get physical discipline today (other than what the whole class earned) so thanks for the prayers - they worked! Please keep praying!

Since he didn't have R. I. R.'s to write, he ate his supper (Josh would roll his eyes and say, "dinner!" at this point, but it's not his blog is it?) at the kitchen table with me and we talked some before he started studying. (The dear boy managed to get tomato sauce on his notebook before I had cleared the table). So we actually had Valentine's Day supper together.

Also tonight Investigator Washington, the one who investigated him before he was accepted, called him to see how he is doing. It was funny because I didn't know who he was talking to. At first I thought that he was joking with one of his friends because he kept saying, "Sir no sir" and "Sir yes sir" and "Sir I'm doing well thank you sir." ::grin:: It was kind of funny. He's stands and sits straighter too now. Nice, tall, full of muscle, and sure of himself. No slumping at all, very sexy.

Oh, and the mystery of my upset stomach is solved. While Josh was finishing up his supper I started making him guacamole for his lunch tomorrow. I usually put avocados in his sandwich, but he wanted them differently and thus the guacamole. I've been the only one eating guacamole. So there he was, sitting, half watching me and half studying. I went into the pantry to pull out the lemon juice to put in the guacamole, and as I poured it on (from my 1.5 quart bottle that I bought in a 2-pack from Costco) he asked, "Aren't you supposed to refrigerate that after opening?" I looked at the bottle, and sure enough! You are! I looked more closely at the bottle and realized that it had brown clumps, probably of bacteria, floating in it. As I dumped it out I noticed that it was not the pleasing yellow it should be, but a definite brown. Eeew. Yeah, I've been eating that. Thank you LORD that he caught it before I gave it to him to eat! It really would not have been good for him to have an upset stomach! He looked at the bottle, and the expiration date was May 31, 2005. So, umm, it had been opened, unrefrigerated, and past expiration for more than a year. Nice. I threw away the other bottle too, and the avocado that I had dumped the stuff onto and I started fresh for his guacamole, making it with a _real_ lemon the second time around. It's always nice to have a mystery solved, and I am so glad that we caught it before he ate it! That would have been just horrible!

So, as you see, God is having mercy on us. May he be having mercy on you too!