California May 2011

So I am back tracking just a touch to get a little caught up.  Let me take you back to May 24, 2011.  Tebo and I boarded a plane in Northwest Arkansas California bound.  To say I was anxious would be an understatement of a tremendous scale.  Of course my Tebo was (as usual) amazing.  He calmed me when he could see the fret in my eyes and knew exactly when to make me smile.  The weather all around us was crazy!  Flights were canceled everywhere and when we arrived at the airport in NW AR our flight was the only one that morning that left and on time (thank you Chadman).  We arrived in Dallas as scheduled and there were military in uniform all around us.  Of course I make it my mission to try and speak and shake hands (ok, hug) each one I can get to so as I made my rounds Tebo was getting his Starbucks.  I saw two men that were certainly Marines standing at our gate so I walked up to them and said, "you must be Marines".  Of course they seemed a bit taken back, but rather than screaming there is a crazy woman wondering around they smile (huge smiles) and said "yes mam, we are" (don't you love that?).  I said I knew you had to be.  First I recognize your backpacks and secondly, only Marines don't travel in uniform unless they are deploying or on duty at that moment.  I asked where they were going (because that's my job and I can) and they were heading to San Diego, CA.  What do you know, us too!  I didn't go into detail as to why we were going, but when we got on the plane there they sat and they just smiled big again and said hey again.  Okay, they might have been a bit scared that I was following them, but they didn't really seem to mind (thank goodness).  Any who...  we arrive in San Diego and I get a text from one of my bonus sons (RoRo).  He was there!  Who knew?  I knew SSGT Cayzee was meeting us there, but no clue that RoRo and Brian would be there as well as some other top dogs (whose names escape me right now, sorry).  Well, we are standing there and the Commanding General was standing there with SSGT and he introduced us.  Well, of course I hugged him and THEN they explain who he was...  Hellooo... that might be something a mom should know BEFORE she hugs him.  Oh well, I would have probably hugged him anyway, but maybe not as quickly as I did.  He was over all the 1st Regiment Marines so he was kind of a big deal.  I'm pretty sure he might originally be from the South, because he told Tebo that his wife, Mary, would most likely hug him tomorrow.  Got to love those Southerners.  We leave the airport and grab us a burger at In and Out Burger.  I order and the guy behind the counter wanted to know where I was from.  My first response was "why, because I don't know how to order your burger"?  Hmmmm....  I guess not so much.  Apparently I don't have  the same type of accent California folk do.  Well!  After a laugh (at my expense of course), we eat and head the hour or so to the hotel.  We drop off our bags and head straight for Camp Pendleton.  We meet lots of (what I like to call) Top Brass and wait for our bonus boys to get finished with the practice for the ceremony.  Then they start arriving one by one and it was overwhelming (in a good way).  We cried a little (okay, me a lot) and we laughed and just hugged (a lot!).  We finally get a plan together and Shawn takes us to his house where most of Chad's closets buddies show up.  We hung out and Shawn cooked for us and we just chatted and laughed and spent time together.  Finally, I told them Tebo was much older than them and I needed to get him to the hotel so he could rest.  I didn't want him to over do things on our first day.  :)
On May 25th we get up bright and early to prepare for Chad's ceremony.  It also just so happened to have been his birthday.  He would have been 23 years old.  I know!  I couldn't believe it either when I said 23 out loud.  So I started really young.  I did mention I'm from the South didn't I?  Ha!  Just kidding.  (I did start young though for those of you doing the math...  13 yrs old maybe).
The ceremony was so sweet.  There were so many people there (military mostly) and the reverence and respect they not only showed us, but Chad was amazing!  It was so sad, but amazing at the same time.  When they prepared Chad's boots and gun it was probably one of the hardest things to watch and to see our bonus boys be the ones to carry those items ripped my heart out, but I could't imagine anyone but them to be the ones to do it.  Zach marched out with his boots, Shawn marched out with his gun, Brian marched out with his cover (helmet), and Seth marched out with his dog tags.  Can you for one moment imagine how heart wrenching that must have been for them?  My heart just ached for them, but they were amazing.  The entire ceremony was more than we could have asked for.  After the ceremony and before we went down to the reception the Mayor of a small town called, Santee (who adopted 2/1 Marines) presented Katie with a certificate (which she later presented to me) from where they adjourned their meeting in Chad's memory and they gave her some beautiful white roses (I can't remember the meaning behind those).  It was so sweet.  We went to the reception for a bit and then left to prepare for the cookout for our guys.  Tebo cooked his booty off.  He grilled 52 burgers, 36 brauts, and 24 hot dogs.  We figure we had close to 50 people there and it was the best time.  Those Marines and their wives were laughing and relaxing and just having a plain old good time.  We had bought lots of Mountain Dew t-shirts so we could get as many together for a big group picture as we could.  Tebo and I bought every one we could find in NW AR and some of the wives grabbed what they could and we just laid them all out for people to grab.  Once we had every t-shirt taken we started gathering everyone together to get our picture.  Okay, so one would think Marines were use to getting into formation (right?).  It was not as easy as  you might think to get them all in one place in an orderly fashion.  At one point I said "how hard can it be to get Marines into formation".  Shawn said, "Mom, you might be surprised, sometimes it can take us 4 days to practice to get it right".  Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but in about 20 minutes or so I had all these Marines and their wives and some kids all together for a group picture (well, all but RoRo, but Shawn called him right fast and he double timed it to get in the picture - lucky for him).  Maybe the D.I.s should offer me a job (just saying).  Anyway, Thursday morning SSGT took us up to the top of the mountain where the cross is that all the Marines honor the fallen and they leave stuff there that was important to them.  Tebo and I left a Colts badge holder and a TN orange Polo ball cap for Chad.  It was an amazing sight.  So as a sidebar.  We didn't hike up the mountain like our Marines do (thank goodness), rather SSGT took us all up in an ATV.  It would only go so far and the last leg we had to walk down this "hill".  Going down was much harder than I expected, because even with tennis shoes it was hard to get a grip (that should have been my first clue).  Thank goodness I had Tebo, because he held on to the back of my pants to make sure I didn't roll down the "hill".  The view was spectacular!  You could see all of Camp Pendleton from up there.  Heading back to the ATV I thought, shoot, it can't be harder than coming down so here we go.  I was wrong!  We went about 1/2 way up and I had to stop.  I seriously thought I was having a heart attack.  Tebo was so thankful that I was experiencing what I thought to be a heart attack, because then he could stop without looking like a slacker in front of the Marines.  Ha!  We finally make it to the top (just barely) in time to see little Ashley jogging up in flat open toed sandals (yes girls!  Open toed sandals on Mt. Everest)  Of course she weighs 3 lbs and is 21 years old, but never the less!  Ugh!  We spent the entire day hanging out with RoRo, Zach W, Zach S, Shawn, and SSGT.  We went all over base and just hung out and had lunch and just enjoyed being together.  It was awesome.  Tebo and I took Zach, Ashley, Lindsey, Shawn, Zach S, Lauren, and Brian (along with Suri and Mosley's little girl) to dinner on the pier Thursday night and just had a great time.  It was hard to leave on Friday, but knowing we would see them again soon made it a little easier.  Of course being who they are, Zach S, Shawn, Lauren, and Brian all met us at the rental car place and took us to the airport and sat with us until it was time for us to go through security.  It was so sweet, but not necessary.  We got back to AR in time for Tia and Alex to arrive and we awaited our visit from the guys.  To have to go out to CA for the reason we did the Marine Corps and our bonus kids could not have made it a better time for us.  Please enjoy the pictures.  We truly are blessed.

Seth & Shawn

Brian & Zach S

Ashley & Gladys

Who is really grilling? 

RoRo, Ash, Zach W, & Tebo

Robert & Abby

Tebo is grilling and gabbing

SSGT (I couldn't keep him working)

The Whole Gang

The girls

Zach S, Shawn, Tebo, Me, RoRo, Zach W, Ash at the cross

The guys

Me & Tebo with our boys

Our special stuff for our Chadman