Summer has gone so fast! I could have cried when I got my back to school letter from Colleen last week. I’m just not ready to go back. I went and got all of my room put together last night so I am ready and won’t have to go back until the first day of school. John got laid off of his job 2 weeks ago. He is really happy he doesn’t have the long commute (2 1/2 hours one way) any more but he is really sad he is not working any more. He fills out 10 to 15 job applications every day but hasn’t had any interviews yet. We will just keep praying that he will find a job soon. I am going to be a grandma again! Carolyn is pregnant and expecting a baby the first week of April. This is so exciting, now I just wish they had insurance. Carolyn has had a hard time with John getting laid off and spends a lot of her time moping around on the couch. It gets really frustrating. I try to be understanding, but I think she would be happier if she got up and did something. We have been taking care of grandma’s yard every day all summer. We have gone through and cut down vines and brush that has grown out of control for the last 15 years. It has been a lot of work, but it sure looks better. We also do all the irrigating. Little John loves running through the irrigation water and playing in the yard. This week we have been painting all the rooms in the house. They really need it. It is going to look great when we are done, but it is hard to get any painting done because grandma wants to help and supervise so she is always right there with us. When we finish painting the inside, we hope to paint around the windows and trim on the outside if there is time. Sarah is going back to school on Friday. I can’t believe that she is already ready to leave for school. She is having a hard time because she has made so many new friends and has a cute boy friend that she would love to get to know better. She keeps saying that if she could stay she thinks that they might get married. I have just told her that if things are meant to work out then they will. She wishes that she could divide herself in half so half of her could stay here and half of her could go back to school. We are all going to be lost without her help. I am going to take her to school on Friday and then go over to Loa to stay with Heather and Evan. Heather is scheduled to have her baby on the 18th. They are an hour and a half from the hospital so if she has not had her baby by then, they will start her because they don’t want to wait and and have her travel that far. I’ll be with her until the 19th, then I go back and get Sarah from school and we fly out to Lawton, Oklahoma to go to Ben’s graduation from basic. We will be there from the 19th to the 21st. We are all ready to go with our tickets and hotel room, then Ben called on Sunday to say that he might not graduate because he has not passed off his push ups. He has to do 30 push ups in under 2 minutes. Right now he is up to 17 push ups. He said that if he doesn’t pass then off by Thursday, he will have to go to fat camp for 3 weeks where he will work on doing sit ups and push ups all day. If that happens we won’t be able to see him during family day. I told him that he better pass because our airline tickets were not refundable and I couldn’t afford to loose that much money. I hope that motivates him. I would think that the thought of having to stay there and go to fat camp would be enough motivation to pass them off. I had hoped that boot camp would help him decide that he needed to go to school and get going with his life. He has the big plan to buy every gaming system that is available and a gaming computer. Then he is going to work at Game Stop and buy all the games as they come out. He wants to go to school and room with his friends to they can all play games together. Oh, boy! I can only hope that he starts to get a better look on life as he keeps learning with the army. When I get back from Oklahoma, I have to take Sarah back to school and then I am going to go stay with Heather for another week. Carolyn is going to stay down there while I am in Oklahoma. I plan to get back on the 29th and then I’m off with the school year. I just have to work it out with Colleen so I can miss all the meetings the week before school starts. I have been working on genealogy in my spare time. I love it and would like to retire and work on it more. Some day I’ll get that chance. I spend a lot of my time taking care of the house and playing with Little John. He is my whole life. I have decided that most kids have a favorite stuffed animal or blanket, but I am Little John’s favorite blanket. When things are bad or he is tired, I am the only thing he wants. It is so nice to sit and snuggle with him or run around chasing him. I hate to go to school and leave him home. I’m going to miss him a lot. I sewed 24 quilts this summer that I am looking for a place to put them to sell them. We have canned a lot of jam, fruit, and tomato juice. I am always looking for ways to improve our food storage. I’m thankful we have it because we use it so much. I think about you guys a lot especially when I drive past your house and see how good it looks, just as if you were there. Teresa, Joy and I are going to do lunch this week before I am gone. Jason and Melissa are expecting their baby in September, but Melissa has been having such a hard time with her blood pressure and health that they were talking about taking the baby early, maybe even this week. We are all praying that she can hold out a little longer.
Aug. 16
Ben is finally graduating from boot camp! It only took him 2 weeks longer than everyone else. We were worried that he wouldn’t make it and then we wouldn’t get to see him before he goes to South Carolina for training. Carolyn, LIttle John and I are flying out to Oklahoma tomorrow to attend family day and his graduation. I am so excited to see him. He is excited also because he has been calling two and three times a day just to make sure we are coming and he wants us to know that he is HUNGRY and can’t wait for us to buy him some food. Little John has an ear infection and it is going to be hard flying with him. We fly into Denver and have a 45 minute lay over before boarding another plane to fly to Oklahoma City. Ben cannot go anywhere outside of Lawton so Carolyn, Little John and I are going to go sight seeing in Oklahoma City before we go to our hotel in Lawton.
Aug 19
Carolyn, Little John and I slept over at Carolyn’s in-laws house in Clinton. Little John had a terrible time an was up most of the night. We were still up at 3:00 am when we got a text from Heather saying that she was heading to the hospital. This is so exciting! I wish is could split myself into two and be with her while also being with Ben. We left Clinton at 5:30 am to catch our flight to Denver and then to Oklahoma City. We got to the airport and got our bags out when I realized that I couldn’t find my purse. It had everything in it. I needed it! The only thing I could think of was that I had left it by the door of the house as we had been getting ready to go. We were trying to figure out a way to have someone go and get it and get it to the airport before our flight when Pat, Carolyn’s mother in law, searched through the van one more time to see if she could find it. There it was. It was between the seats. Thanks goodness for small blessings. We made it to our flight and everything went well. Little John loved flying. He loves seeing new places and traveling. It seems strange that a 22 month old would enjoy traveling like he does. Our flight landed in Denver and we got to take the airport train to our next terminal. That was a fun experience. I am doing a lot of things that I never dreamed I would be doing. Exploring new places, trying new things. We only had a half hour from the time we departed our plane from SLC until we had to be on our plane to Oklahoma, so we hurried through the 2nd terminal to reach our flight terminal. Wouldn’t you know it was clear at the other end of the terminal. We finally made it and sat down to eat breakfast before we boarded our next plane. Just as our boarding flight was called, I got a phone call from Evan’s (Heather’s boyfriend) mom saying that the baby was in distress and that they were going to do an emergency c-section to save the baby. It was so hard to walk on to the plane knowing that my daughter needed me. I talked to Heather for a few minutes as I walked onto the plane. She was scared and Iwasn’t sure she wanted to go through it.jjjjjjjjju uuuu mkjjkjkjkm,jkjk ˙e¨ ¨Ω´ u uuihuiffhufuhhdhdjihhkdhdd ffffgffggøπøƒ øƒøøˆƒøˆ®øˆ®ƒ'em i 3 yggfWyf
(Little John says “Hello”) We boarded the plane not knowing how things were going and frustrated that we could not call to see how things were. When we landed in Oklahoma City, I called to see how things were. They were great. Heather had a 7 lb. 11 oz. 21 in. baby boy named Jordon Asher Smith. Evan sent me some pictures and he is darling. I can’t wait to get home and hold him. I had a rental car reserved at the airport and we drove around Oklahoma until we got to Bricktown. We rode the water taxi that drives around the town through a man made canal. The water was choppy because there was a tornado watch a few towns away. Luckly we didn’t have to experience any tornado’s while we were there. Ben’s graduation was wonderful! It was worth everything it had taken to get us there. We got to spend some time with him sightseeing and just enjoying his company. The first thing he wanted to do was to go eat fast food. Every time I asked him what he wanted to do next, it was eat fast food. Little John attached himself to Ben and would not let anyone else help him or touch him but Ben. The first night we dropped Ben off back at his barracks, Little John cried for an hour because Ben was not with us.
It sure made Ben feel good to be wanted so much. Before we knew it, time was over and we had to fly back home. Ben was flying to South Carolina, Fort Jackson on the same day we were flying home but not at the same time. We had to leave our hotel at 4:00 am to return the rental car and make it to our 7:00 am flight. The flight home was nice. I wanted to go right down to Loa to see Heather and the baby, but we had our mandatory school days, so I stayed home and did school instead. I can’t believe that summer went so fast and that we are starting another year. I really don’t feel ready. Teresa and I talk about the time that we can retire, but that is not in my future. We saw Calvin Bingham at Arctic Circle on one of our lunch days. He said that hopefully this will be his last year, because this will be 38 years for him. Teresa and I looked at each other and we both went 38 years! That is were we will be before we get to retire. It is so depressing! I have my room together and ready to go as much as I can get it. I don’t have it all the way I want but I don’t see to care. All I want to do is hold the baby.
It sure made Ben feel good to be wanted so much. Before we knew it, time was over and we had to fly back home. Ben was flying to South Carolina, Fort Jackson on the same day we were flying home but not at the same time. We had to leave our hotel at 4:00 am to return the rental car and make it to our 7:00 am flight. The flight home was nice. I wanted to go right down to Loa to see Heather and the baby, but we had our mandatory school days, so I stayed home and did school instead. I can’t believe that summer went so fast and that we are starting another year. I really don’t feel ready. Teresa and I talk about the time that we can retire, but that is not in my future. We saw Calvin Bingham at Arctic Circle on one of our lunch days. He said that hopefully this will be his last year, because this will be 38 years for him. Teresa and I looked at each other and we both went 38 years! That is were we will be before we get to retire. It is so depressing! I have my room together and ready to go as much as I can get it. I don’t have it all the way I want but I don’t see to care. All I want to do is hold the baby.
