Kind of a different day for us, as we came into our Friday, with the girls. Jason had an appointment at Balboa Hospital and was to home by 11:00. I picked up Jackie at about 10:30 for her speech therapy and then Linda picked up Stacy at about 10:45. Both girls were on a minimum school day today, and when we all got home we left to Camp Pendleton to see some of Jason's buddies at their EOD site. One of the senior guys, a MGySgt, was retiring after 25 years with the Marines, and it was officially a send off for him, and a Family Day for everyone else. When Gavin (the retiring Marine) and I spoke on the phone he said it would be great to have all of us there, and I mentioned that Jason's birthday is actually on the 31st. He said, "That's great! We can get him a cake and present it to him after all the other presentations are done." As it turned out there were several guys who were being presented with plaques, and I said we will be there, sometime after noon ... we arrived at about 13:00 (1pm).
The presentations were fun and very interesting, as it is always interesting to see how a bunch of EOD Marines are going to honor each other, and a great deal of it is with humor. Most of the humor is very related to the type work they do (EOD techs have about the most dangerous job in the military), so I figure they have earned the right to be a little different with their humor, and they all seemed to like it. Jason's cake presentation was the last thing and like the rest of it he took it in stride and had a great time with the rest of them. Funny part is, he thought he was being brought up for an entirely different reason. One of the traditions they have is that if you're on TV, for any reason at all, you have to buy the company a round of drinks, and Jason had been on TV several times over the past several months, sometimes without even knowing it. When it turned out to be about his birthday he was very surprised, and that's what we wanted. We all had a great time and the girls even got to play in a jumpy house, for just about as long as they wanted. We finally had to get going home, and we had to get them out of the jumpy house.
The drive home was pretty slow, as I think everybody decided to get out on the road, and be going away from San Diego, or towards, so both sides were kind of packed. It is about a 40 minute drive to get up to Pendleton and it was about a 90 minute drive home. I guess the good part is that the girls fell asleep on the way home, and this gave them some time to nap. You could tell Jason had a good time there, as he was talking a bit more on the way home, and this is when he was tired, and usually pretty quiet. Then finally, once we did get back home and settled back down I received a phone call from my brother Charlie - I hadn't heard from him in a few years, so it was another nice surprise. We talked for a little more than half an hour and then he had to get going - with the promise of him coming to a visit, in another 6-weeks or so. It will be good to see him again.
Over the past few days I have said I would get some pictures up on the blog, so tonight I'm gong to post a few of the house and let you see how it is coming along. Also some of the pictures of the Rolling Stones concert, and I think that's about all we have for right now. Thank you, for all the continued support and prayers. Take care and stay positive.
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| Jason's new kitchen is coming together |
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| Food pantry |
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| North end of the house, just prior to stucco |
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| South end of the house just after stucco |
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| The workers applying the stucco to the back of the house - guess which one is the boss |
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| Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen, and the girls are standing where the refrigerator is going |
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| Tile work is almost done in Linda's and George's bathroom |
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| Grandpa with Stacy |
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| Grandma with Jackie |
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| Jason's fireplace |
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| Girls hiding in the entertainment center |
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| Three of us at the Stones Concert |
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| Mick Jagger performing |
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Mick Jagger performing
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