I mentioned it last month, that we had a really good meeting with Davis and Alabama, and it was realized completely in March when he received the Alabama Prestige scholarship. This is the same one that Sam was awarded and includes 4 years of full tuition and 1 year of housing. He sent me the email asking "DID YOU SEE THE BAMA EMAIL?" and knowing the excitement in capital letters, I replied asking if it was good. Then I saw the email, and felt the lightning strike again. Then the text string is a series of noises, and words that aren't quite words, and finally included with a gif of Big AL dancing. He got the email while he was at the gym, and said he couldn't really focus anymore, so he came home and we jumped around a bit, then quickly told the girls not to say anything. When mom came home, this process was repeated. He now has a lucky Bama shirt he was wearing at the gym that day. And while it was supposed to be for his birthday, we decided to hit King Buffet (His favorite) for celebration lunch the next day. We will never know if he had it already, or if our chance encounter with Lucy Sikes last month helped out, but it is a cooler story with meeting her, so I will probably go with that one when sharing this amazing story. I immediately put in place a plan to go to Universal Studios after Sam got his scholarship, so on this day when Davis was awarded his scholarship, Ruby expectantly brightened and cheered saying "We get to go to Disney again".
Davis continues to rack up awards, getting the CTEC student of the week, and also the CTEC student of the year. We haven't seen any other scholarships yet, but he may have some other big ones coming with all these awards. But what else besides Davis accolades went on this month...Dad went bike riding for the first time in a long time (fixed the bike so me and Ruby can start biking more...we will see)...AHG friends...Chelsea was in the polygon, and Magan was a bit anxious. I did go downstairs, but finished Cobra Kai while everyone else huddled in the guest room with helmets on...Sam ate lunch with Ruby on his spring break....Then he went with me and Davis disc golfing. It came down to a tie, with Sam beating Davis on the tiebreaker basket...Foster Griswold got his eagle rank, and I got my third mentor pin (altho every one that gives me that pin, also mentions that it should have gone to Magan for the cookies)...My Little (Ah'shad Jones) in the Big Brother/Big Sister program got to go on a tour of our building at work, which was fun, and we did more than all the other groups...Sam interviewed for coop positions, and my buddy Rod captured him interviewing with Southern Company...Small Group at our house...Magan's finger, while looking bad below, is a lot better than where she began...Sam and Davis met James Spann...and my mom and dad took me out to a mexican restaurant, just me. I don't remember when or if that has happened in the last 40 years.
Magan is slowly going crazy, with a few examples to follow. On one Sunday, she was sad when we found out that Bojangles had changed their chicken fingers and made them a bit spicier. She sadly asked "What about the babies having to eat this spicy bojangles chicken?" I think on that same day as we were getting the chicken laid out on the stove to serve it, she told Davis to "Close the back door, it will make the food taste like outside". We think she was pretty tired, because she was deliriously laughing at herself with us. And another time after seeing a bunch of corn beef in our walmart order, I asked "Why", because none of us like corn beef. She said she wanted to make the sandwiches we like so much. A Reuben sandwich I asked, thinking this was the only sandwich I know of with corn beef. "Yes, the one you guys always order at the mexican restaurant". Laughing, I explained that was called a Cuban. A Reuben is that one thing on the Arby's menu none of us ever even think of ordering.
From Ruby's teacher after Magan delivered some Banana Bread: "Thank you so much for the delicious bread!! I have already enjoyed a piece this evening! Sweet and precious Ruby broke my heart today when she was telling me about her big brother (Sam). She loves him so much and started crying over missing him. Sweet thing! I assured her that she means so much to him too! I loved getting to meet him when he came for lunch. He was so kind with her! I know you are proud of them all! I hope yall have a fabulous spring break!" Sam took my place the week of spring break tucking her in each night, and apparently one night she asked him about Noel, and if they were going to get married. Sam said that they might, and I think she just started thinking about him having a different home and not getting to see her as much. Because Mrs Cooley later told Magan "It is really hard! Sweet baby girl! She has such a tender heart. She just cried that cind of cry that catches your breath when explaining how much she misses him. She's worried about him having a girlfriend and going off on his own with the start of his adult life. I can't imagine how you feel as the mama. The sweet sister is struggling too though." I don't seem to ever get texts of this depth from anyone, hahaha. I love watching their friendship. I wish I would have had that same relationship with my sister, but thankful every day all of our kids got the loving heart of their momma. Ruby told me about crying on the way to church before I knew about these texts, and we shared our mutual sadness and tears about how hard it is with Sam gone. This fall will hit us equally hard.
