My Favorite Girl

This is my favorite girl in the whole wide world. Officially, she is Kaylie Elizabeth Rose Searle. She was born on April 30, 1993 at 12:20 p.m., and weighed in at 7 lb., 1 oz. She was absolutely beautiful. She is a ray of sunshine in my life.

Kaylie is now 17, and a junior in high school. She is an A student. At the young age of 11, she came to me and asked me if she could join the U. S. Navy Sea Cadets. I asked her how she had heard of this, and she said she had looked it up online and went on to tell me all about the things she could learn. I called the people that run it, in Mattydale, and lo and behold, the gentleman I was talking to used to deliver feed to my father's farm. So we went and checked it out. She spent a weekend there, to test the waters. I figured she would say.."No Way Mom!", but she didn't. She absolutely loved it!

In the six years that Kaylie has been in the Sea Cadets, she has traveled quite a bit. She started out with a one week tour in Buffalo, on the USS Sullivan and the USS Little Rock. They loved Kaylie and her friend Nate so much that they have asked them to come back and staff boot camps every year since. Her very last boot camp this year will be to staff again at Buffalo. She has gone to New Jersey to a two week boot camp aboard the USS New Jersey. Last year, she went up by Fort Drum, to a Sea Cadet unit called Camp Clark, for what was supposed to be a one week tour, and ended up staying there for almost six weeks. Every time a boot camp was getting close to being over, she was on the phone telling me that they asked her to stay and staff another one. This goes to show that my girl knows her stuff!

She has learned so much doing this. She has her marksman award for shooting rifles, she did culinary boot camp, she is qualified as a master at arms, and the list goes on and on. The things she has learned, have made her a better person. She is very intelligent and is not afraid to try new things out.

Last month, my girl was promoted to Chief Petty Officer of her unit. This is as high as she goes in the Navy Sea Cadets. This photo is of her being sworn in as Chief. We are so proud of our girl. She wants to go to law school and become a civil attorney. I know in my heart that this is one kid that can go all the way!!