Hobie is coming

Look how cute he is!!! He just finished packing and was laying in bed talking to me, and I told him to send me a picture. Our journey is finally coming to an end! I have to admit it has been alot more magical than I had expected! I'm not saying I'd want to do it again, or even that I'd recommend it to anyone else, but now that it's done I wouldn't trade it!
A couple weeks before Hobie left, he said to me if we decide to make this a sad hard experience it will be, but if we decide to focus on making this a good experience it will be alot easier to bare.
So about 3 weeks before he left he sarted having special family nights to prepare the kids
He talked to them about setting goals and being helpful, about the blessings this was going to bring to our family, and even though parts of it were going to be hard, it was going to make our family so happy and blessed when it was done. He got them all excited about writting letters, and getting mail. And I sat through all of them and didn't say much, just cried inside and tried not to let the kids know. But he was so right writting letters was fun, and we have a whole new closeness, and bond that I can't explain. Every day I watched for the mail, everyday I sent a letter for the first 10 weeks when he couldn't call. I only missed 2 days! He sent several letters a week also, but he wrote everyday too! The kids would run in the door everyday and say did we get any letters from dad today, then they would all sit on the couch and listen while I read them. We buit some fun memmories! And now it's finally here, he gets to come home....and new fun memmories get to start, and a whole new "military lifestyle" I 'm so glad I have such an inspired man with such wisdom to share it all with!
3 more days!!!!!

It's gonna be a hard 16 days....

Starting Thursday Hobie leaves on his campout in the woods, for 16 days!!! This will probably be the hardest of the time he's been gone, because we will have no contact at all... no 10 min Sunday call, no letters, nothing!!!! He found out for sure last night he can't take his cell phone!(we had heard maybe he could) I'm a little stressed, but I'm going to try to stay really busy! The silver lining... he comes home a week after he gets back from this! Can't wait for this month to be over!!!! Thanks to everyone for all their love and support, and all the help we've gotten!!

Win a free photo shoot!

Check out Angie's photography she is giving away a free photo shoot! Cute Cute Pics! Hope I win I want cute Family Pics when Hobie gets back from all his military training! We've really missed him!

My visit in San Antonio

I've tried to write about my trip several times, but couldn't decide which things to share, so I finally decided to put a little of ecerything in. I arrived Friday around noon, and I got my first cab all by myself! Then I went to the hotel and checked in all by myself again! After i got all settled I went into the mall which was connected to my hotel, and got some lunch and then I waited for Hobie, and of coarse the army held them over 1 1/2 late. Then they took away the late passes for the weekend, (which is stupid cause you only get passes when you have family in town, so it really only punishes a few guys with family in town.) So Friday we got about 1 1/2 hours together, it was so nice though! I miss him so much!
Saturday he came early and we spent the day together, we went to the mall, we walked around a little out by the riverwalk, we watched movies, it was great to just be by him and hold his hand as we walked around together.
Sunday he came early again, and we watched movies, we went over to the base, and I bought some groceries! We walked around and he showed me some of the places he goes, then he had to go check in, and I met some of his friends.
Monday he got out of school at noon and was supposed to be done, my flight didn't leave til almost 7 so we thought we'd have lots of time together! At about 3 he had me come over to the base, cause they were still standing outside waiting to be released! I came and sat until a little after 5 and finally he was able to go with me to the airport. He and his friends kept running over real quick to check on me while I was waiting, it was so nice. I miss him so much! All in all it was so nice to get to spend time with him, mothing else really mattered!

Get Ready to Cry

The National Guard sent this to me in an email and said download it and share it with your friends! I thought it was awsome. It made me cry! Stacy you might not want to watch this, it's a hard one...

Big Thank you's

I just wanted to post big thank yous to all those who helped me after my surgery, I had wonderful meals, round the clock care, help with house cleaning, folding laundry, a pedicure, and many phone calls to check on me! I really appreciate all the love and care that everyone gave me. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

The Blessing of having a cyst

Shortly after our insurance kicked in I visited the Dr. and he discovered I had a cyst on my ovary. He sent me for an ultrasound, and then sent me for a CT. The day I returned home from my trip to see Hobie, I found out the cyst was 6cm by 4 by4, which didn't mean much to me, but apparently that is large for a cyst and he wanted it out of there. So preparations were made for surgery. Because of this cyst, and the need for surgery, Hobie was able to come for a visit! He came in on Friday. I had told the kids I had a friend coming to visit, and all week they tried to figure out who it could possibly be. I had several conversations like this...
"mom just tell me is it a boy or a girl?' "
"I'm not going to answer that....but do you really think I'd have a boy come and stay while your dad is gone?"
"No, so it's a girl then"
"I'm not going to answer that"
"Well do they have any kids"
"yes 4"
"Boys or girls"
"Boys"
"how old are they"
"About the same ages as you guys"
now angry" I don't know anyone who has 4 boys our ages why can't you just tell us who it is?'

So at the airport Friday night Ellis was the first to spot his dad, he yelled it's dad, and then the others looked over kind of unsure as Ellis jumped up and ran over. In seconds 4 little boys were hugging on their dad!
We spent Fri night, Sat, Sun, Mon, and part of Tues, together. It went by fast but we enjoyed every second. It was so nice to have him here to hold my hand and comfort me.

"I See Pine" Family Reunion at Pine

We had an awsome time up at the cabin ......of coarse! Another successful reunion! We had 3 legged races, musical chairs, James juggling, jump rope, quilt tying, stories, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, stories, laughing, visiting, watermelon, dirt, bugs, snakes, fun and all the other Pine usualls! My mom drove my car and we followed my dad up, He and my mom like many others in the family still play the "I see Pine" game. So my dad calls me, but I guess he misjudged where he was cause he called a few hills to early.... so after a few minutes of small talk I finally said "We're on to you just so you know, I know you just called so that you could be on the phone to say I see Pine." Total dead silence on the other end of the phone.... I totally caught him off guard with that then he tried to pretend like he wasn't there but he was making so much noise moving around I knew he was then as I am telling my mom everything going on he starts giggling. He finally got his chance to say those three magic words everyone loves to hear "I see Pine"

Friday - our day of travel

We got up at about 3:30 am so we could get ready for our 3 hour drive to the airpoert to make our 9 flight. It was a beautiful drive. We flew home through Nashville with a couple hour layover. By the time I picked up kids and got home it was 5 in the evening. We decided to get up early and head for Pine instead of going Friday night we were all pretty exhausted!

My visit with Hobie - Play time

Swinging with Joey

Hobie climbing the rope! I asked him if he was allowed to climb the rope so I could see, I told him I wanted to take his picture for the kids. He said yea sure we can do that. So after he gets down he says "I'm glad none of the drill srgts. saw me do that they would have been yelling at me." I said why did you do that then, he said "cause I knew you wanted a picture." he is so sweet to me. Isn't he cute climbing the rope?

After Graduation Joey was so excited to see his dad again. Of coarse I was too! We had another great day together. Although this one was a bitter sweet day, the time seemed to fly by, and there were several times through out the day that I would look up at him and he'd be all teary eyed, or he'd look at me and I'd be all teary eyed, both of us anticipating the upcoming goodbye. That was really hard! But the time together was precious. I love the way it feels to be together.

My visit with Hobie - Graduation

The graduation ceremony was really awesome! It is such a neat experience to see all those soldiers lined up like that. And when they bring in the flags and play all those patriotic songs, it is really overwhelming. I have so much respect and admiration for all of them. We are so blessed to live in this amazing country. I am so grateful to have been a part of such an amazing experience.

My visit with Hobie - Family Day

My dad and I went to Ft. Benning to get Hobie, Joey was of coarse asleep so I asked my mom to stay with him. We were there a couple hours when all was said and done. It was so good to see him, neither one of us could stop smiling all day. I think it was almost 11 when we got back to the hotel. Joey was sitting in this chair, the curtains were open and Hobie knocked on the window. Joey looked over and his face lit up and he started yelling "That's my daddy, that's my daddy!" It couldn't have been more precious! As you can see he was very happy to see his dad. They played for so long! I was glad Joey fell asleep on the way to take Hobie back, I didn't know how he would take that. It was really hard for me to say goodbye that night. When we got back to the hotel, Joey woke up as I carried him in, and he was so mad that his dad was gone, he cried really hard for about 45 min. it broke my heart. I was having a hard enough time, and then listening to him say I want my daddy, where is my daddy about killed me! I finally got him calmed down when Hobie called and he got to talk to him. Hobie and I text until about midnight, we were both exhausted from not sleeping the night before, but we were so excited to see each other and talk in anyway possible we were wide awake! I just love him!

My visit with Hobie - Our day of travel

We missed our flight out of Phoenix by about 3 min. and it of coarse was the last flight, so we ran across the airport to catch a flight to Vegas, where we sat for about 5 hours until our flight to Birmingham left! Joey enjoyed a little Madagascar while we waited. He was so good all day we got so many compliments from people. I entertained myself with my first Vegas slot machine I did amazingly well I might add! I started out with $2.oo and I came back with $3.00 pretty awsome! After a 3 hour plane ride, that Joey was so excited about. When we got all straped in he yells 2 rows back to my mom "Grandma Gramdma we need to pray." Then he folded his arms. Some of the passangers around us got a kick out of that. He fell asleep shortly after take off and slept most of the way. When we got off the plane we ran across the airport to the car rental cause it was 11:40 and the car rental closed at 12:00pm. Then we drove the 3 and a half hour drive to Ft. Benning. With the travel time, time change and a few wrong turns, we arrived and got all checked in, and as I put the key in the door at about 5:00 am my cell phone rang, Hobie was giving me my wake up call. But we laughed all day in Vegas, and all night on the road. "Bonding Time" as I like to call it! So I think we slept about 2 hours before we went to get Hobie.

Memorial Day Weekend

Look at all that cuteness

Who can resist A story with grandma

Memorial Day Weekend

Aunts and uncles and babies oh my

Memorial Day Weekend

who wants to see the snake

I do I do can I Please Please

Daisy and Joey with their new catapillar friend

The catapillar

Prestons earthworm

Oh the creatures you'll find

Memorial Day Weekend

Our first weekend at Pine for the summer for my family (The Cluff) turned out to be a great choice of weekends.... Apparently great minds think alike, cause without planning it all of my married siblings and my parents ended up there together for lots of projects and fun. (We missed Mike and Desi) Most of us arrived Friday night, Grandma, Grandpa, Keith's Tammy, and her kids, and Heathers Family were already up there. Saturday Austin, Richie and his Family, LaRue and her family all arrived, and so did Grandma's neighbor. It was so fun to see all of them. We had a big pancake Breakfast Saturday morning, Hope's parents came in from Payson for that. We spent most of the day visiting, and dabbling with projects (We were working on the wheel chair ramp off the front porch) (Mostly Jared, my Dad, and Derek) We had a great day visiting! The Perry and Kreutz families installed new swingsets! Sunday after church we spent more time visiting, the girls did there nails, and I waited for my Weekly phone call from Hobie (which unfortunately never came). Monday morning shortly after we woke up, we started planning our day of projects, and Hobie called YEA! Monday we were much more productive, we worked on the ramp, flew planes, made curtains, worked on the quilt for the family reunion, and played of coarse!! The kids had a blast!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Ok so I'm realizing I don't know how to add multiple pics to the same post, so I'm gonna do several short posts of Pine instead!

Memorial Day Weekend

Dad getting the food going with his "helpers" of the day

This post is a little out of order, but I didn't get a chance to post our first Pine weekend of the summer due to my crazy week of packing and I didn't want to miss posting all the goodness of this one!!

June 2nd "The Big Day"

Today is finally "the big day" the one I've been counting down to like a little kid at Christmas, for almost 3 months. I've spent the last week packing to sets of suitcases for each family member in preparation for this "big day" There has been shopping trips, house cleaning, and of coarse the making of cookies! Today is the day I get to fly over to Atlanta ( Ft. Benning) to go see Hobie! I've missed him so much! There have been lots of sad nights, as I'm sure you can imagine! But to my surprise we've found lots of blessings in our situation too. We both spent time each day writing to the other about our daily tasks, but we also shared our feelings, and love for each other daily and more in depth than just the usual "I love you" We gained a greater appreciation for each other, we learned more about each other. Our communication is better than it has ever been, (and we've always had good communication) so we've grown, and we've grown closer, amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us with things we didn't expect! I always love it when I can find the Blessing in the trial. There are always blessings in trials. So it's a little after 5, my bags are packed the kids clothes are all laid out, and now we wait!!! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!

Mother's day

Hobie got to call for about 4 hours on Mother's day, they let him do the same thing the week before! We're keepin' our fingers crossed for today! It was so nice to hear his voice and have time to talk and visit. I miss him so much! I do have to say in an unexpected way it has had it's benefits, and we've grown even closer through our letters! He writes the best love letters, it's like we're dating all over, but only the good parts!

Tales from the back seat

Some of the best conversations I get to hear my kids have happen in the back seat of the car as we drive! The other day John Ellis was describing to us how he sometimes has de ja vue he of course didn't call it that, he was just describing his circumstances. So Preston or Jason says you mean your sidekick? Then Jason starts talking about That's so Raven, and other side kick superpowers from the movie Sky High. Preston always being the more literal focused one says "no Jason there are two kinds of sidekick the one that has super powers, and the one that means you can see the future."

check out my guns!

The Saturday night before Mothers Day the kids set up my foot bath for me the way Hobie used to, so I could do my wole pedi thing. They massaged my hands and feet and everything! When I was painting my nails, my hands were all slippery from the lotion so I asked one of the kids to open it, it was really stuck! So Jason came in and saw Ellis trying, and said let me try I can probably do it! Ellis said if I can't you can't. Jason replied with "Oh yeah check out my guns...(As he pulls up his shirt to expose his flexed arm) they are barely even squishey at all."

Two front teeth

Jason lost the second of his two front teeth last week. I always love the few days after they lose these and they talk with that little whistley lisp for a few days!

5-4 -5-6

I had kind of a fun day minus the fever I was running, I think it broke at dinner. I just started sweating like crazy and feeling a little better. I took some tylenol just before dinner and I think that helped. We got to shoot real machine guns. The m16 is pretty cool, but the m240 and m248 are really cool. They shoot like a real machine gun, pull the trigger and lots and lots of rounds get fired. I shot about 100 rounds in 30 sec. Crazy 248 shoots the same thing as the m16 but the 240 shoots man rounds. Kind of a fun day. We marched to te range which kind of sucked, but other than not feeling well It was an ok day.

5-5

Next morning and feeling much better I hope. We are doing combatives all day. I could care less about combatives, they are kinda fun but if I don't do them or rather didn't have to do them I would be fine. I still am pretty happy because I got to talk to you.

5-6

It's early in the morning I have fireguard again from 12:00-1:00 sucks. At least I get to talk to you in a letter. Yesterday we did combatives all day. I choked out 2 guys pretty fun. 1 guy out weighed me by 70 lbs, the other guy my size. The big guy took me about 10 min, the other guy I did second, in about 30 sec. When they put us in weight classes I'm gonna kick butt, maybe.
We will see. The good thing is I'm not that sore right now. Only my tow hurts a little Must have pushed off on it weird or something, everything else is fine. Everyone was all exhausted by the end of the day, we did that stuff all day. Nobody ever choked me out so I feel pretty good about that too. Sorry this one is short and sorry that I missed yesterday. Monday was kinda crappy for me. Yesterday was much better, hopefully today I'll feel great.

letters

4-27

Man oh man I miss you like crazy. Not getting to call is harder today than it was yesterday. Especially since I don't know if I'll get to call next sunday. We qualify tomarrow with our m-16 I passed another PT even thoughthe drill srg. messed me up on my push-ups. Still passed though. ha ha ! more and then no more till AIT. yea. I found out in blue phase things might really change. We might get to use computers, and get our phones back. We might go to blue phase next week. Cross your fingers. After qualifiation tomarrow we get Pizza. yea. I'm hungry. I'm always hungry now, it sucks. I'm tired too waking up at 4 will do that. We are learning how to do IV's kinda cool by Thursday well be doing them on each other.
I'm so hoping the rest of the time goes quicker. I'm worried about AIT also cause I will need to be certified in 2-3 weeks, what normally takes a semester of college. That is fast, even for me. Sorry I sound like this I'm mentally shot today, I needed to talk to you for my pick me up. Hopefully I'll get a letter today.

(The DS didn't let Hobie call the Sunday before he wrote this, they puniched the whole platoon, but he's not sure why.)

4-28

Today went by fast. yea Good week for production, bad week for missing you. I told you I passed my PT again. Well today I shot Sharp Shooter, and got pinned, or my badge. cool. Just came back from my meeting. I found out we get to call this Sunday, unless someone does something stupid. And we will get our cell phones back in blue phase. Which I think will be next week. Cross your fingers and toes and everything else you can cross. Also thank Heavenly Father in your prayers for how well I've been doing. I know I would not be doing this well mentally, physically, and spiritually if I hadn't been so blessed. I have my moments but when it matters I always pull through.

one of my favorite groups of words

em eye see kay ee why

em oh you es ee

letter 4-30

4-23

Well I'm in the middle of no where doing nothing but staring into the middle of the empty woods. We are waiting for lunch, I'm starving! We are moving in a wedge like an attack, then we eat, but we are waiting for everyone else. So it's another oppertunity to talk to you.

4-24

Sorry I got a little side tracked. After I wrote you we ate, ant then did night land navigation till about 2 am. Slept till 6 did more feild training, now we are back at base camp waiting for buses. So everyone is sleeping, big wusies, can't handle no sleep, bring it on! All in all it was pretty fun, could have been better but what are you gonna do!
I'm back feels so good to be clean again! I took a shower, and cleaned my rifle.

4-25

How are you today? I'm really really sorry, I had the chance to call you today and I dropped the ball. Luckily I'll have a call tomarrow. I would have only gotten to talk to you for about 3 min anyway, and that is almost worse than not calling. The reason I would have gotten to was because I was one of 10 that did the best on PT and BRM(shooting) So they took 10 people from each platoon in my company, so 40 people from charlie co. got to go to a church that does a soldier appreciation day, and they fed us pizza, ice cream, nachos, sodas, and candy bars, chips and cookies. They also provided us with their personal cell phones to call home. I thought I had more time, and when I got ready to call we had to leave. I think I may have broke my stomach with how much I ate. I'm so full. but it was awsome. Earlier today we did combatives and I went close to all out, and had no pain anywhere on my body. I'm healing up.

4-26

What a crappy day, our platoon lost the phone hopefully only for this week. Really stupid reason too. Crazy DS of coarse. Sorry. I didn't do anything and nobody else really did either. Some of us got burned, but the whole platoon paid. I feel so terrible for you and the kids. This will probably be my longest week now. No talking to you is going to be hard. Another day closer, I miss you so much. I'm back Oh by the way most of the guys here think Hope is a hotty, from the family picture. She might get a kick out of that! I'm not looking forward to the next overnight trainings, we leave on wed. and not come back until sunday. That will be in 3 weeks, but then our training is technically over. The next week we'll be getting ready to graduate, and the week after that will be graduation. Only 5 sundays left.

Joey's shots

About a week and a half ago I took Joey in to get his shots. He did really well! Later that day we were playing outside and he was being so happy and cute, so I asked one of the kids to get the camera for me so I could take pictures of Joey on his shots day to send to dad. Joey heard me and came running over saying "mom shots all better now, shots all better see" With the biggest happy grin, it was so adorable!

More letters

4-21

I'm on guard duty for some rifles while the rest of the guys are picking up bags for another company Delta. They graduated when we got here, and the next cycle is coming in. We have been the only company here for a while. Now there is Alpha, and Delta. We are the seniors Ladi freakenda. It is very pretty here. I love times like this when nobody else is here, it's so calm, and peaceful.

4-22

How are you? Just finished another letter only one more to go. ( He didn't get any mail then got 5 letters the same day) Reading your letters is the highlight of my day. I'm at another range again shooting last time at this range I did terrible, I don't know what happened. We'll see today how it goes. Tomarrow we go on a field exersize. Be there all day and all night we won't be back until Friday afternoon. I'm not sure what we'll be doing but I think it's going to be war simulations, sounds fun. Shooting blanks at each other and so forth.
Well I just finished shooting like I did. Like I said I don't know what happened before. I shot sharp shooter, 5 away from expert. So I have prequalified, Next Tuesday is qualification day, say a prayer for me, Maybe I'll get expert with more prayers.
Iwas looking at the upcoming schedule and it just seems like there is so much left. There is plenty completed, but there is alot left. However things keep going on, days aren't so long anymore, and the weeks seem to be moving faster, just not fast enough for me. I'm ok just a little more homesick right now.
The DS (drill srgt) are changing leadership, and guess what I got pulled into it. I'm a team leader I forgot to tell you, I've been trying to lay low cause pretty much everyone that has been through this has been telling me to do that. So Just doing my thing and then see ya later. Just trying to get through this is all that matters.

letters 4-22

4-17

Hello Family it's Friday again. This week really did fly by fast. Finally time is going by like it used to. I'm so happy my locker is full of pictures of you. I love it. I didn't get any mail today, neither did anyone else. Crazy huh! Tomarrow we get to go to a football game off post. Sweet. If there are phones I'm going to talk to you most of the time. What is going on with the cell phones I might get mine back in a couple of weeks. Cool. I 'll be able to cal on Sundays, not for sure, but it sounds like it.
The sun is almost down now it is about 68-70 it is so nice. Oh I thought you'd laugh at this. You know what I like to eat alot now.. Salad with Blue cheese dressing (kind of like ranch but better) (his discription here makes me laugh cause blue cheese is my favorite) Cheese, onions, etc. and EGGS. Hard boiled eggs broken up. It's awsome. And breakfast is my favorite meal. The meal I'd hardly ever eat. I usually eat eggs, and bacon or sausage, an apple orange or grapefruit, 1 slice french toast, 2 bowls of cereal. When I'm done I'm not full it's only that I didn't eat fast enough or can't eat fast enough that I don't eat more. I've taken a few daws of recover from PT because I can. I passed all my PT's, which is great! I feel so much better now that I've had a day or two to recouperate, I think that I am also finally over that cold that I had when I called you. I've been taking advel the past few days and my ankles and ribs feel like they are finally almost totally healed. I'm still doing push ups and sit ups just no running.
If I didn't say this before the kids especially Joey all look different. It's crazy! I still think it's worth it though. I really hope things settle down for you in regards to work. I don't want you to work anymore. I hope that will soon be done. Like I said before I left no money jobs I'm done working for people that treat you like you've been treated. You are deffinately done when I get back dealing with people. I really only have like 4 weeks of training left then it's the fun stuff like getting army greens, pictures, etc. So the last 2 weeks should go by fast! Monday it will be 1 month, then just a little more time.

4-18

Good Morning my Family - How is everyone doing? I have all day to myself because I've passed everything to this point. Everyone that hasn't are all out training right now. Sucks for them, boring for me! Oh! you would be so proud of me. One of the kids that sleep next to me was upset about something and was teling me about it. I was trying to help him out by giving him some advice, then I stopped and thought for a sec. and said are you just venting? He said yes and I said ok I'll shut up and just listen... I'm getting better because of you. The drill srgt is having me make a table. Go Figure! It will be fun, and he'll owe me something maybe a phone pass or something, we'll see! I have about 1/2 hour then we leave for dinner and then to the game.
I just got back from the game it sucks that I only got to talk to you for a min. I should be able to talk tomarrow. It's 11:55 and I'm wide awake. The football game was cool it was military appreciation day. Even the cheerleaders wore camo.

4-19

I'm back nothing more has happened cause it's 3:24 am and I'm on fireguard. fun fun. Luckily it's Sunday morning and we sleep in til 6:30 so I'll sleep a little more. I really hope something happens so that you can come stay at AIT for a little while. Over all being able to talk to you is going to be so much better. I need to wake up some people gotta go.
It's crazy how depressed and girly some of these cry baby guys are here. Sometimes I think I'm in a girls dorm. Drama drama drama everywhere. I'm just observing and laughing at them. Although it's exhausting at times. It's nice to get away and go chill with Daneily "the other mormon" He is really cool and really mellow. What I would really like is to still be talking to you, that was so nice earlier today. There is a guy here who yesterday found out that his girlfriend died, and nobody told him. He found out yesterday at the game . She passed away a week ago. Count your blessings. I do. I can't imagine having to find out news like that, that way. How awful for him.
Tomarrow we are running a 3 mile run and shooting the rest of the day. This week should go by pretty fast also. lots of things to do. Most of it is fun stuff too. Lights out is at 8 instead of 9 tonight and it's 8:15 and they are still on. My drill srgt. is crazy. He reminds me of Nicolas from Ellis Woods when he talks, but I think he's losing his marbles a little. My other drill srgt. is awsome. But the one here right now, and of coarse he is the senior one, is a little insane. He'll be talking completely calm and for no reason at all go bazurk! then 2 sec later completely calm. He's like Nicolas cause he's a control freak, and his accent is very similar. Well he finally turned off the lights.

Give it to Jason he'll try anything

Yesterday my little tornado Joey got into the pantry just before the kids got home, He got out the chocolate mini rice cakes, that luckily were almost gone, and dumped them on the fireplace hearth, and some on the floor. I was looking over the papers from school (Jason vacuums the living room everyday after school anyway) and Preston came in and said "Jason what are you eating?" I look over to see he has the rice cakes in his hands. He says "I don't know" and looks down at his hands then matter of factly says "They are worms crawling in dirt" and takes another bite, and goes back to his homework!

letters 4-16

In Hobie's letter to the kids he wrote
All day long we shot m16 's I only got to shoot 44 times cause I hit 40 targets. Only those who hit less than 25 got to shoot again. Which was alot. I shot for 10 min but was there all day. But it was still fun. My drill srgt only hit 36 ha ha! I beat him by 4 my other drill srgt was impressed, and he's hard to impress. My grouping was awsome. I only missed 1 out if 8 on the 300m 1 of the 175 and hit all my 75m Pretty good huh! 300M is more than 3 football fields. I couldn't believe I did that!

letters 4-13

4-13

Well the day has now passed. We were supposed to do my first PT, first of 3. But the weather would not cooperate. Too much lightning for the 2 mile run. Later on we did combatives, so I wrestled around with other dudes, pretty fun. The cool thing though is that Ft. Benning is the only Basic Training that will certify their soldiers to be level 1 in combatives.

4-14

Right now I have fireguard. It's 3:30 in the morning I'll have a 1/2 hour after my shift to sleep, so I guess I'm up for the day. We get to do the PT test today, and a road march. It might be an overnighter, I'm not sure, but it sounds fun. By the way MRE are not that bad if you get the right ones. I've only got candy in mine twice which kinda sucks. All the other platoons in my company (3 others) don't get to eat the candy we are the only ones that get to. Ha Ha my platoon has been lucky with drill srgts. They both are pretty cool. The senior one can be a pain sometimes but we still have way more privelages than any other platoon. Like calling home on Sundays and such, other platoons can't. We transitioned into white phase yesterday. That was kinda cool they took the 4 platoon flags down and replaced the red with white flags. We are supposed to get more privelages but we'll see.
5 more days will be 1 month since I left. That is crazy to me. It's been the slowest month that went by pretty fast. I think I'll be fine until May 30th that day will suck but I know I'll get to see you a few days later. Until then we will be doing alot of cooler stuff. No more gas, lots more blowing stuff up, doing missions at night against other platoons. Easter was hard for me, our anniversary will be very hard for me.

4-15

Time to answer questions. I got my moms on Tuesday both on the 14 th. We had some classes on rifle marksmanship which I qualified or passed on today. I am up everyday at 6 -6:30 doing PT and getting ready for breakfast. So when you up at 3 am that's what I'm doing. I got like 8-9 letters on Tuesday. On Tuesday I passed on all myPT stuff. yea. My push ups and sit ups I thought I got a 70 and 58my 2 mile run I got a 68. I need a 50% on all to pass so I did fine. Today I qualified on rifle. I qualified on rifles. Tuesday we did some land nav, the 3 mile pack (40-50 lbs) hike. The hike is required. So today my body was beat up! I feel good now (10 pm)
I'm getting so much stronger though. I'm doing well physically my dad was asking. I tell you what though I don't know what I 'd do without prayers and a priesthood blessing. I've told you my ribs and ankle hurt every night, but when I need them to not hurt and work I feel no pain or tolerable pain. Maybe when my faith grows I'll feel no pain. But I feel like Heavenly Father wants me to remember what he is doing for me everyday. I feel so blessed, no matter what I am going through aches and pains if I need to preform at my top level I know my Heavenly Father steps in and eases my burden, lightens my load. I appreciate my blessings even more. Even though I know I'll be blessed when the time comes, I still humble myself and ask again. What a blessing my time here has been.

letters 4-10 -4-12

4-10

Pretty fun day shot m16, cool. Shoot tomarrow also. Time has been going pretty fast at times it seems slow, but looking back its almost been a month. I hope it goes by even faster as we transition from red-white-blue. There are guys that say in blue they were doing pretty much anything in reguards to cell phones and mp3 players etc. That would be great! At AIT I know we have internet too, That will be nice rather than writting letters. And you can send pictures daily or update daily. I just want access to talking to you when I want.

4-12

I had a big day yesterday so I never had time to write. Oh I forgot after I got done writting on Friday Night I went to bed. Then the tornado alarms started sounding. Before that we had some awsome lightening. Then the alarms went off. They (drill srgt) told us we can sleep in till 6:30 but because of the tornado's we have to sleep downstairs in another room. The whole company 250 of us. that sucked. On top of that they woke us up at 5:30. So we didn't get to sleep in our beds, and we got woken up early. I blame all those who went to that movie about Christ (The Passion) God was not happy. That's just what I think.Yesterday we shot m16 and had to zero them. Adjust the sights. There were only 3 wo could not zero in our whole platoon. That was fun but it took all day long. By the time we got back we ate dinner, did PT, had our squad meeting, went to bed. Now its now, so Happy Easter I miss you all so much.
I just realized at breakfast I missed the Saturday egg hunt. I have to admit I was preety sad about that. We have not got mail for a few days because Friday was Good Friday and Monday was something else. Just got back from church. One of the drill srgt said you didn't hear this from me but tomarrow sometime you'll be moving to white phase. Hopefully that will mean something we'll see.

4-7

I'm on fireguard again 10-11 shift. My time is almost up. We had a combat medic come in today and told us what fort sam would be like. It sounds great. We can have a computer and it will have internet hookups, sounds like we can have cell phones. You can come visit. He also said it's going to be fast paced and hard. We will be EMT-B certified in 2 weeks (that's a 3-6 mo coarse) done in 2 weeks crazy! About reservations I don't know anything either so maybe just call down here and ask.

4-8

I got in trouble today with about 7 other guys for wearing warmer clothes under our PT's I had to write a 650 word essay. Fun. (In John Ellis' letter he said one guy got caught so they checked everyone.) So I don't have much time to write cause I wrote the essay already. We did land navigation all day after morning PT pretty fun. Then I wrote my essay. It was good I must say. I got your letter, the smell good one. Thank you. I love mail call cause I always seem to get one. I got one from a seventy, pretty cool. Well I'm really tired, alot of standing in freezing cold today.

letters 4-3 - 4-7

4-3

Well I'm sitting here doing nothing, starving, I'm always hungry now! I can't eat enough and I'm still not gaining weight. Crazy huh! I miss our nighttime snacks.

4-4

We've been learning combatives (fighting) this morning. Pretty cool. Then we got our heads shaved again. This time I look like a skin head. Before it wasn't this short. It's just before using a razor. So far the only thing that has been a surprise to me is that the drill sargents are not as crazy as what I would have expected. The kid in the bunk below me is getting depressed cause he hasn't heard anything yet. Man I miss your snacks!!! Mostly cause I am used to eating a little all day not alot 3 times a day in 7-10 min. Also I drink way more water than you now. Just at the meal times I have to drink 1 large glass of water, and 1 large glass of poweraid then I usually get a glass of milk if I have time. But breakfast, lunch and dinner I have to drink both, secondly I have to eat 1 piece of fruit before I can eat the rest of my food. I can't wait to eat at my pace again and taste the food again, and have your food again. If you send me a package I ave to do 40-50 push-ups. If it has goodies in it the drill srgt. will eat it in front of us. If you send me a musical card I will have to sing and dance in front of everyone. So don't ok! Days like today just drag cause we don't really have anything to do and we can't rest, eat, or call. But I can call tomarrow. How are things with my dad? What about Grandpa? Well I should probably be getting off to bed. 1 week down 9 to go. June 3rd is family day. I don't know if you can reserve a place yet. What's going on with the house? There are some weird snoring here, so I wear ear plugs cause it drives me nuts! Luckily I'm usually pretty tired.

4-5

General Conference weekend. Wish I were there. Went to church we had a fast Sunday which was pretty cool. Not much happening here on Sunday. I hope they let me call you today they said they would. So how many days till I see you again? Just got off the phone with you, great to hear your voice. So glad to hear the spirit in our home is good, peaceful. That makes it easier too. Hopefully I'll get more freedoms the longer I'm here. I'm hungry again, some guys are sneaking saltine crackers, pb &j from the cafeteria. They share with me cause I'm papa Cluff.

4-6

Just got some letters from you and Ellis, love it. Today we fought with Pugel sticks. They look like a big q tip. Lot of fun, our platoon now has won two of the three events we have done. Pretty cool. The drill srgt. love it. My ankle has been killing me. So of course I have been praying for it to heal. Now with my ribs, that still hurt when I'm not doing anything and now my ankles the same, but as soon as I do anything I must do to graduate, no pain, I'm fine. Miracle, I'm so blessed. I have so much joy here because of these little miracles in my life here, in this crazy place. Someone wants me to make it through this. Tomarrow I'm getting gassed. I'll have to let you know how that goes. I keep telling others around here that are missing their families that you are doing this for them If you quit you are doing it for yourself. I miss you but this is for our family. I do have friends, the older guys are lwss crude and mostly not at all, and there is a mormon named Daniely from Orlando who is 32 that is really cool. My bunk mate is 19 crude and lonely, no letters for him yet.

4-7

Got gassed today. Jason may think I'm a woosy but getting gassed Sucked! Holy crap I'm glad that is done. That stuff they gave us is the weakest stuff the army uses and it is terrible. It was a type of nerve gas that makes your eyes burn and water and your skin feels on fire. and the bset part is you can't breathe without it feeling like your breathing sharp burning air. They make you take off your mask for a second at first and say your roster # and last name. Then you clear your mask. Which hurts bad couse the gas is in your mask so your eyes and lungs all burn while you struggle to breath. When you finally recover then it gets really bad. Some guys in front of me couldn't put their helmet on so I had to suffer. If you did something wrong you got to go back, that was not going to happen to me and it didn't! When I finally got out several seconds later 20-30 I couldn't see much at all, but my vision cleared up. You couldn't touch anything at all cause it would make it burn more. After we finally aired out enough then it wasn't bad at all anymore. But during it it was terrible! The other crappy thing was it was freezing. We sat around cold eating MRE's I was miserable. Today was a good day to end. We did PT early this morning before we got gassed. Ate breakfast then froze outside till we came back from being gassed. Then we did PT till just a little while ago. My stomach is already getting defined. Awsome. They said it will be hot here. It hasn't beenat all yet. That normally wouldn't bother me but they don't let you choose what you wear, so I've been pretty cold.I'm looking forward to the warm, never thought I'd say that! I did 400 crunches today pretty cool. Not at the same time, 200 earlier, 200 again. The best thing about today was your letter. Thank you.

Letters 3-31

3-31I woke up about 3:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. Had a pretty fun day yesterday. We did an obstical course, did our PT test, and then did a bunch of strength exercises. I will be cut when all is said and done. I already feel stronger and more healthy. I was so worried about my ribs but everytime that I did something I didn't really feel my pain until I was done. All day. What a blessing, I was praying my heart out. Well guess wat it isn't tuesday anymore. I'm on Fireguard now and it's 1:20 am wed. I jusst talked to you around 11:45 ish Tuesday became pretty crazy we did another obstical coarse and got soaking wet. Before that we did 30/60's which is sprint for 30 seconds and then walk etc. We ran 1/2 mile warm up 1/2 mile 30/60 then 1/2 mile cool down. Then we ate and went to a class on IED or explosives that Iraq's use to blow us up, crazy class. One of my drill srgt. told us some really crazy stories of when he was there. I'll have to tell you some day. After that we did the obstical course we got sandy and nasty when were done. Then they washed us off with the coldest water, I couldn't even talk, then we had BRM Basic Rifle Markmanship. Just an intro to what is coming up.Oh! When I finally went to sleep about an 1 1/2 later you called, and freaked me out they didn't tell me why you called only that I needed to get my butt down there and call you cause the red cross called. So after I calmed down I slept for 5 min and now here I am at 1:40. I went and got my laundry and stuff in the middle here. I was glad to here your voice and the kids in the background. I wish I could have talked more. I miss their voices. I don't know if I can do AIT and not see you for that long. I am so blessed my ribs only hurt when I am not doing anything they feel totally fine during thephysical activities, and hurt alot later! Not more than before, they are actually getting better, but they still hurt. Such a blessing! When you heard me on the phone and didn't recognize me it's cause I have a cold, but it doesn't bother me to much. Just sounds bad! Well my shift is over. How is my dad doing by the way? and Grandpa?

Hobie 3-29 -3-30

Hobie's letters
The first week he was in processing, So basically everyday he stood in line for hours, to get things like uniforms, shots, financial paperwork, and all that stuff! He's been at the real Basic training since last Thursday. He says to summerize last week "Civilians were mean, drill sargents were mean, processers were mean, the lines were long, and all in all I hated it!" It's 2 days into red phase which lasts about 2-3 weeks and so far it's been pretty easy. Yes they make us do things because we mess up, and they make us do things when we don't, so who cares! I'm eating well, I feel good with the one exception.(he bruised his rib) Enough of that it's not that bad, It's not fun, but not that bad! Oh my drill sargent is hispanic and no one can hardly understand him, which makes for some fun if you can imagine!
3-29

Well it's another Sunday,went to church this morning at 8:30 found out there are some mormons around here! I got a blessing and I gave 2. I met and was a part of Hyrum Smith's great great great grandson's blessing. Pretty cool, and very spiritual. Tomarrow we do our first PT. My feet don't hurt as much, they are getting used to standing around and that makes me happy.
3-30

It's 2 am Monday morning and I am on Fire Guard, or Guard duty. I'm sitting at a desk logging in all the people coming and going. If you can imagine ther really isn't much activity. I sleep on the top bunk #142 of 160 beds close to the back of our room. Everyone on both sides of me are pretty cool. The guy right below me is a 19 year old noisey, question asking, pain in the neck! Yeah me! Naw he's alright, but still a pain. That pretty much summerizes the letters so far I'll add more as I get more! I did get to talk to him the other day, and he sounds really good! He's excited to start learning things! He did ask for everyone to pray for him, he said his rib is starting to feel better, but he doesn't want that to cause any problems that could cause him to have to stay longer!

Hobie's Address

I just got Hobie's address if anyone is interested in writing! He can't recieve any packages, they will be thrown away.
PFC Ronald J Cluff
RN# 142
C Co, 2nd Bn, 47th Inf
5375 Hanson Drive
Fort Benning, GA 31905-4930
The letter I just got was a form letter from the commander, but as he writes me I'll post things here about how he's doing! He sounded really good last week when we talked on the phone. He sounds so happy and excited! They already shaved his head, and he has about 1/32 inch of hair he said. As of then he'd been doing alot of processing stuff like getting uniforms, and shots!
Posted by Brittany at 7:00 AM 1 comments

Hobie

I wanted to create a blog so I could post Hobie's letters and everyone could get on and check how Hobie is doing, and see all the cute things happening in our lives!