I can't believe I have a 19-year-old. How do these things happen!?
Here's John after he'd just turned five. He was such a cute little boy (though he could be a terror, too!). I feel like I should still be a mom of young kids instead of a mom of a teenager and a young adult, but that's the way life goes!
(I would LOVE to press rewind and relive those times! Well, some of them anyway. 😆)
I sent him this card at school along with a couple of gift cards. If you know John well, you'll know why this was the perfect card for him. 😂
As I just alluded to, John was away at school on his actual birthday, but he arrived home one week later for Spring Break. I was so glad that he was home again!
During Spring Break week he spent a lot of time with friends, played a lot of Fortnite, and did a lot of sleeping.
I made him an early Easter basket, and as I said on Facebook, I didn't spend a cent on it! I used all of the Christmas candy that he didn't eat (because of wrestling season) and included two gift cards he hadn't used yet. (I'm not even the one who got him those gift cards. 😆)
Because wrestling was done, he ate most of the candy that week!
On the first Sunday that he was home, we had a family dinner to celebrate his birthday.
While I made tacos for dinner (one of his favorite foods), they played Scattergories, one of our favorite games to play as a family. It always makes us laugh! Sam was MIA up in his room because he was still recovering from being sick, but he did make it down for dinner.
I got him a vanilla cake, his favorite.
Here's the cake aflame with 19 stubby candles (because I've used the same candles for years--but I finally did throw them away after this!), plus one candle for good luck. I don't know when we'll be celebrating his birthday together like this again! 😭
The week after Spring Break when he was back at school, our friends were in Virginia and stopped by to see him and sent me this picture. 😊
I didn't know they were going to be down there so this was a nice surprise, and it meant a lot to me. I'm so thankful for good, strong Church members who care about my sons, especially the men. John and Sam benefit so much from their good examples and genuine care.
In a few short weeks, John's spring semester will be done and he'll be home for the summer. I can't believe how quickly the school year flew by! He had a good freshman year and he likes SVU, but he's thinking about transferring to BYU-Idaho when he gets back from his mission because he wants to be with his best friends from home who will be going there. I don't love that idea, but it will be his choice. We'll see what happens.
And speaking of his mission, we were hoping his call would have come by now, but it's been delayed a couple of times. For some (maddening) reason, his stake president in Virginia didn't submit his papers after their interview, so that delayed things, and then once they were submitted, there were a few questions from the Mission Department about some health-related things that he apparently hadn't filled out in enough detail, so that delayed it again. And then General Conference was this past weekend, which might have delayed it further. I've learned through the vicissitudes of life how to be patient with things that are beyond one's control, but dang! In any case, it will happen soon and we're excited for this next big stage of his life. I'm proud of John and for how much he's overcome in his life and for how he's always remained strong and faithful and true to the things that matters most. 💖
