As was cleaning my room this morning and discovered my old chromebook under my bed and now here I am, blogging after three years.
Life has changed so much since winter of '21! Lets see if I can update.
Margaret finished Navy boot camp and was transferred to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio for corps school. We loved having her close by for the next year. She and her roommate Audrey would sneak away from base and come visit though they really weren't supposed to. I continued homeschooling the girls. We wrapped up the 2021 year and decided to make another go of it for the 2021-2022 school year. I let them decide what history they wanted to study and a foreign language. We studied biology and logic, Texas history, French, art history, in addition to their basics, english and math. We turned the upstairs sun porch into our happy little school room. It was a joy to come out there every morning with classical music playing and the sun streaming through the big windows. We could watch the cats casing each other across the yard or climbing the catalpa tree outside the big window. We grew things, made more art than we had room to display, read hoards of good books, and learned several French songs. I will always look back on that school year with the fondest memories!
William graduated high school that May. We threw a graduation/ birthday party and had a great turnout. Thomas even brought his new girlfriend, Kendra....Scott. It was a funny experience to have the jewelry queen in my home. At the time we weren't sure what to make of this new relationship, but they both seemed in love and so happy.
In the summer of 2021 John began having grand mal seizures. Needless to say it was terrifying. There were so many ambulance rides that I began having panic attacks anytime I heard a siren of any kind. For six months he struggled with seizures even after getting on a pretty high dose of divalproex. Thankfully he has been seizure free since December 29, 2021. Praise the Lord. He had a 24 hour EEG in January and nothing unusual showed up, so we're hoping he can some off his meds soon.
We lost my dear grandmother, Peggy Jean, that August, It was so hard to believe she was gone from this earth because she'd always been so alive.
In 2021 Margaret put in a request to be co located with Sam at 29 Palms. No one asks for 29 Palms for a duty station, so she easily got the approval. I didn't realize that you can request to be located with a sibling but apparently that's a thing. As Margaret finished her training and awaited orders to move to California, we began hearing whispers of her having a Marine boyfriend. She'd been talking to Spencer for months and now they were serious. He was fellow Texan, a rifleman in 3rd battalion 4th Marine infantry division out of 29 Palms. As Christmas approached Sam began to warn us that he planned to bring home a few Marines for the holidays. We were excited. We love having guests, especially military folk. In early December Brian got a call. A very nervous Spencer declared his love for Margaret and intent to marry her. Brian was a little taken aback and asked when they were thinking of getting married. Spencer said over their leave later that month. After Brian picked himself up off the floor, he said he said we should take one day at a time and see how the holiday goes first. If anything, they should wait till after he returned from his scheduled warfare training that would keep them apart for half the year.
Spencer got to our house the week before Christmas and stayed the next two weeks. We ran him through the ringer, dragging him here there and everywhere. That Christmas in Burnet with my mom was different: we had three new faces: Spencer, Thomas's girlfriend, Kendra and her youngest son, Grey. We played board games, capture the flag, musical chairs, did our usual white elephant gift exchange, sang carols, and watched Christmas movies. We came back home and another couple of Marines came to join us for the next few days. I think I'll always look back at that Christmas as one of my favorite memories of all.
After all the excitement of Christmas had died down, Margaret and Spencer came to us again and expressed that they very much wanted to get married. We told them we'd rather them wait till July, but would support them whatever they decided to do. And they decided to go right then and there to the Hays County courthouse and get married. They asked if we'd have dinner with them that night to offer any advice, which also ended up being a special memory, as we sat in the booth at Blazer and talked marriage over beer and burgers. Brian and I arranged for them to spend a couple of nights at the acclaimed Katy House, a bed and breakfast in town. Tiffany, one of the owners after hearing their sweet love story ran to Hobby Lobby and bought decorations and such to make their room extra special.
A few days later both Sam and Spencer had to return to California. It brought me to tears watching Margaret and Spencer say goodbye not knowing when her orders would come through for her to also be sent to California. It could be a month or more. Who knows!
It turned out to be only a couple of weeks and Spencer flew back to Texas so he and Margaret could make the drive to 29 Palms in her black VW beetle. It finally hit me that she was gone for good. no longer would she come to the house as our kid. She'd lived with us for three and a half years after high school before leaving for the Navy, and then after boot camp she was in San Antonio for a year while in corps school so we saw her often. Now she was really gone and also no longer had our last name.
So 2022 began with us adding a new member to the family and saying goodbye to our first born. Sam and Spencer left for mountain warfare training almost immediately upon returning to California so the honeymooners didn't get much time to set up house. Margaret got a call part way through the training that Spencer had passed out and had to be airlifted off the mountain. He woke up in a hospital not sure what had happened. Thus began the end of his career in the Marines. His body began breaking down and he was eventually honorably discharged last October as 100% disabled.
Notable events of 2022: Thomas and Kendra married on 2.22.22. They had a small wedding at the ranch they'd recently bought in Wimberley. The girls started school at Smithville. We'd homeschooled for two years, not counting the half a year the whole world homeschooled, and they were asking to go back to school. Another first is that the girls went to a sleepaway camp for the first time which they thoroughly loved. They'll go for their third year this summer. We made several trips out to California in 2022. Sam traveled quite a bit with the Marines, to Northern California for training as mentioned, to Hawaii for several months, and to Japan for the second time. Spencer was supposed to go along but his injuries kept him home. The wedding we'd planned for he and Margaret had been cancelled when he got orders to go to Hawaii since the dates conflicted, but he ended up not going after all. Even so it was great fun for me to help Margaret with the planning until it came time to try to get our money back on all the things we'd already paid for. In September, Brian and I took a 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii. We spent hours snorkeling and hiking and enjoying each other. We island hopped, cooked together, and even got our first tattoos late one night in Honolulu. Not long after we got back we got a call from Marg and Spencer telling us that we were going to be grandparents! At the time, we could never dream what a wonderful little person was growing inside Margaret! She is perfect. That August William moved to College Station to attend Blinn. For a season we had three kids out of the house and three in. Thomas and Kendra had a Christmas gala at their home that year with a roaring twenties theme. for a few hours on a Friday night in December we got to pretend we were someone else, sipping Prohibition era cocktails and dancing the night away with people like the governor (well, he wasn't dancing since he's in a wheelchair) and celebrities.
2023 was a year of change for us. I took a job with Smithville ISD as an inclusion paraprofessional. It seemed like a good fit since the girls were both attending there and I had so much experiencing dealing with neuro divergent kiddos after raising several of my own. It was difficult work, tracking the progress of individuals and having to always be "on" for these kids. It was a shock to my system to begin working full time for the first time in 26 years, but the kids made it worth it. I love people, especially little people. We took several trips in 2023, but mostly to California. I know Joshua Tree NP like the back of my hand now. In February we hosted a wedding/baby shower for Margaret and Spencer at Thomas's place. Kendra sweetly sent over gobs of flower arrangements and champagne for the party. We had a great turnout with our family, Spencer's family, and several Marines and Sailors. John graduated high school at the end of May. My baby. I was so proud of him. He'd taken up a job at a local restaurant at the beginning of his senior year and several of his older co workers came to watch him get his diploma. He saved every penny of his pay as a line cook and paid for himself to take a six week trip to Europe. I was a little nervous after his epilepsy diagnosis but the Lord watched over him and he had a wonderful time. Brian and I spent several weeks in the high desert of California awaiting Dixie's birth that summer. Margaret had a rough go of it and ended up having to have a c-section after three days of labor. Thomas called me up after the birth and said he and the girls were going out there to see Dixie. He rented a place in Palm Springs and Brian and I extended our trip a little longer to spend a few days with them. We all had a great time kicking back in this awesome mid century house at the base of the mountain.
Sam was discharged from the Marines on August 7th. John flew out to California and rode back to Texas with Sam and another buddy who was discharged at the same time. The next day the fam met up in Port Aransas for the annual beach trip. It felt surreal to have Sam home for good. No more deployments or see-you-laters.
William had moved back home after six months in College Station, so now we had all three boys living at the Wells Boarding House. It's been fun but not real fun. Its difficult living with so many people especially adults and trying to make it work. I am grateful for more time with them and especially that the girls are getting to know Sam and William better. We have lots of movie nights and the boys stay up late playing Mario Kart with Hazel and Olive. The boys have been great about driving the girls all around to the activities as needed and picking them up from school.
William has amazed us and is handing college like he never did high school. He made the dean's list and honor society. He was hired as a sub at a classical charter school this year and then as their athletics coach. The track team has done better than ever under his direction. We're so very proud of him! He hopes to move out soon. Sam got a job working grounds maintenance for Smithville ISD. The girls love seeing him riding the mower outside their classroom windows. He hit the ground running in his music career as soon as he got out of the Marines and began playing gigs around town. Almost every night finds him either playing with other musicians in local pickers circles, practicing or writing songs with his band, or doing solo gigs around the area. He is house hunting for a place to buy and is also hoping to start college in the fall. John plans to start school in the fall as well and hopes to move in with Sam once he gets a place.
I suppose that catches us up to date mostly. I'll try to not go three years between blogposts next time.
