**.. VOTE NO ..**

My dad discovered that there was some bill passed that is going to cut or take away the benefits for Children of Disabled American Veterans.  This is something that helps pay college tuition for kids of Disabled Veterans.  My sister and I will not be affected by this however my brother is quite a bit younger than us and it will most likely affect him.  

PLEASE vote NO here for the Jack Johnston (by the way I got some love for this post about my brother, you should definately read it, I think I might just copy and paste it bellow too) goes to college with military benefits fund.  Military people, wives, husbands, kids, grandparents, family friends, etc ... please vote because this could some day affect you and your children as well.  You can also join the facebook group here.   

Here is the post for my brother .. It looks long but a lot of it is pictures :)  

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2009

Jack Johnston **

I have not been blogging much lately, because I have been exceptionally busy && I don't always know what to say to keep people interested. So, I have finally decided to blog a little bit about my brother .. hopefully you will learn to enjoy him as much as I do :)

Jack is 11 years old and he was born when I was 9 & 1/2. Growing up I was a very responsible young lady and my parents trusted me to watch their two children, when they went out for dinner or to run short errands, etc .. At the time Alexandria (I will blog about her some other time) was 6 & 1/2 and Jack was a newborn.

Jack && me at Bandido's !

I think that since he and I are so far apart in age, that he was more of a son to me (not literally, but we never argued or anything like that && my parents were always around. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about this.) I was always there to help, whether it was to feed him, change diapers or put him to bed. I loved helping out!

My dad is in the Air National Guard and when he would go on trips I would help my mom out by getting Jack to and from practices and games, when she had to work. Since he started playing sports, I could probably count on two hands the games that I have missed .. and this includes the past year and a half when I have lived across town. I drive 20 minutes at least twice a week to cheer him on.

During the spring && summer he plays baseball. He currently bats 4thin line up .. which is awesome .. but he is also in a batting slump .. so I don't know how he is keeping his position! He is a great catcher, he isn't so into pitching, but they need him to .. so we try to get him more into it .. it is an insane amount of pressure on a young man though .. all those people saying, "Common Jack, just relax." or "Jack just throw strikes." Have you ever tried to 'just throw strikes'? Let me tell you .. not as easy as it looks. But he is getting better! And when he is not pitching or catching, he plays short stop.

 This picture is from last year, but you get point !

Last summer Jack && I went to Cedar Point for the day. We got up on an overcast Tuesday morning at 7 and made the 3 hour drive. PERFECT day ! It only sprinkled once around lunch time, so we went out to the car to eat the lunches that we had packed. I was exhausted, so he sat there while I took a 20 minute power nap, because I had to drive us home that night, and it was sprinkling so we couldn't ride rides anyways. THen we went back and we rode EVERY roller coaster that we wanted to, with minimal waits! It was quite possibly one of the best days ever :)

Jack && me on a roller coaster .. they wound up stopping the

ride && walking over to tell me I couldn't have my camera out :/

 Totally worth it though !

This was the line for the Millenium Force aka NO LINE ! It was so crazy !

In the fall Jack plays football, FINALLY ! I have been waiting since the day he was born for him to play football ! I love it so much ! Last year he was in 5th grade && played quarter back for the 6th grade team ! Very exciting ! He also played other positions && played both offense && defense, since it is such a young team, they are trying to figure out what everyone is good at. I think he enjoys football so much, because he never had anyone to rough house with && now he does.

Jack is number 7 with the white cleats .

 Such a bad ass !

And finally, in the winter Jack plays basketball. He usually plays in the forward position, but has been known to play both center and guard as well. I think he really likes basketball the best, but I really hope he keeps up with the other two .. (I like them the most!)

 Robert (11), Jack (12), Jonathon, cousin, (21), Seth, best friend (24)

I also took him snowboarding last year .. but somehow all of those pictures have disappeared except for one .. and it's not even of him boarding :( But he really liked that too ! We went down the black diamond at this particular park (which is in Ohio, so it is really just a big hill), but we went down that on our 4th trip down maybe, and he wiped out and took out a caution sign .. he was fine .. so it is now okay to laugh .. but I was afraid for my life!

Warming up by the fire :)

Finally, like a good sister, I like to show Jack, what not to do .. My boyfriend, Jason and his former roommates work with my dad .. so for one of their birthdays he stopped by the party with my brother .. like any good sister, I let him play beer pong .. relax he just drank mountain dew ! but now he will be somewhat prepared for what the future holds !

See, Mountain Dew !

All in all my brother Jack is an amazing young man && I would never even consider trading him for anything else in the entire world ! I love having him call me at 1 am during the summer, because he knows that I will be up too ! Just to talk, even though I saw him today. Or when he calls me to remind me that he has a game, "But,Kaiti you don't have to come to these." I love him so much and would so absolutely anything just for him.

**.. refund ..**

I am the child of a Disabled American Veteran.  For that I recieve some money for schooling.  This past semester we also found out that my dad can get the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits and share them with us.  Here is were the confussion begins.  You cannot 'double dip' into both of them, you can only use one at a time and it goes by year instead of semester.  You would think that a lady whose job is DEVOTED to taking care of this would know all of the aforementioned information and help a sister out.

I went into her office in October and asked what needed to be done.  She filled out all of this paper work and submitted it.  I said, "Shouldn't we wait until next semsester, becasue I have already paid my tuition this semester and it's just a waste to do it now."  Her response, "Oh yah, that would be dumb to use it now."  It was this whole thing that had to be called and cancelled.  She said just e-mail me in December and I'll file it for next semester.

So I e-mailed her in early December (she has a habit to forget things so I e-mail her often).  Well she filed them in the middle of Decmeber while I was still taking class for the fall semester.  A week ago I got an e-mail saying that I owe $1908 for tuition and fees from the FALL semester.  That had been over and done with since August.

To make things even better, I wrote an essay in the Fall for a scholarship and I got it.  So now I am trying to find that money too.  I had to go to my college and go back and forth between the financial-aid office, the Bursar office and the registar office.  I knew what needed to be done but not one person handles all of it and for some reason they could not figure it all out.

I finally got a check and I think I should have gotten more but if everything else was settled correctly (fingers crossed) then I'll take it.