Gib's scout troop had some members of Delta Company from Fort Cambell come and visit at a troop meeting a while back. This companay has since been deployed to Iraq. Scoutmaster Green has suggested that the boys adopt a soldier by writing letters to them while they are overseas. Well we decided to take this on as a family project. We have been given 1st Lt. Patrick Hardin. Chrissie has written and mailed the introductory letter as follows:
Dear Lt. Hardin,
My son Gib is a boy scout with a troop you visited. That’s how we got you as Our Soldier. We hope you enjoy our letters. I know not everyone likes to write, but if you could squeak out a couple to let us know a little about you or whatever, we can have an idea of who we are boring with ours!!! So, here’s a bit about us to break the ice:
Let’s start with Gib, since I hope he will develop a liking for letter writing as he writes to you. Gib is the only boy in a family with 3 sisters. Recently on one of those “get to know you interviews” he answered the question of what he wanted to be when he grew up as “a brother to 3 brother-in-laws”. Me and the girls like to tell him we are raising the Perfect Man and not to let the testosterone from the scout troop get to him too much. He just laughs; he’s a great kid. I call him the Troop Puppy because they all pick him up, spin him around, and just generally love the snot right out of him.
Gib is named after my dad, Sherman Gibson, who went by the name Gib to most of his friends and Navy buddies. My dad worked his way up from enlisted to Chief Sonar Officer in the Navy. After several years in subs, taught at the naval warfare school in San Diego, CA, where I grew up. After retirement from 20 yrs in the Navy, he did electrical work with satellites. He was a cool guy, loved hiking and nature, and died too young at 63 of pancreatic cancer 3 yrs ago. He was so healthy the docs thought he might make it 3 yrs but it was only 9 months. He died at home with my mom, brother and I at his side. The Navy determined his death was service related-exposure to stuff like asbestos. We all miss him terribly. My brother still lives in San Diego and is a watershed biologist for the county. My grandpa is there too, born and raised, and is almost 88 yrs old. He’s a rabid ham radio operator and travels, and likes to go RV camping. We lost Grandma only 7 months after my dad, so it’s been a rough few years for us. My mom, she’s Lynda, recently sold their house in San Diego and moved out here to live with us. We sold our house in [] and went in together on a house in [] just a few miles north. It’s a great house with a granny flat on the main level so she has her space and we have ours, but we’re all together most of the time. Out back is “woods” and land that will remain undeveloped. It borders a golf course and our neighbors to the north of us look out on the greenway, but we see only trees and the hill. It’s great here – so beautiful and private and an awesome location. At little buggy, but between all the birds, butterflies and deer it’s very cool. I’ll print a photo on the back of this page for you.
Anyway, back to our Gib: He is a typical little guy, kinda short for his age, but I think he’ll be OK once a growth spurt hits in a year or two. He likes Playstation, NFL football, computers, reading, and everything about Boy Scouts. Gib also plays drums and is enjoying being in the jazz band and percussion ensemble at school. He used to have several guy friends but they all moved away (that’s when we broke down and got him a Playstation) and then we moved, so he doesn’t get to toss the football or play street hockey like he used to anymore. Gib is on his second backpacking trip with the troop this weekend. He’s a big Mama’s Boy but in a good way. He has a great sense of humor and from what I hear; he’s been a big hit with the girls since Kindergarten. I should probably be worried.
Indy, our oldest, is celebrating her birthday this week. She is way too outgoing and beautiful for us to think the next few years will be easy! This is a sample of our life with teenage daughters and it’s only just beginning: A 23 yr old asked her out after getting to know her a little (OK, let’s be real – looked at her) at the pool this summer (he was rather shocked to find out she was still in HS). Once he found out how old she was, (he thought 21-22) he started calling her Little Sister. Smart Guy, eh?! A coworker asked her to be her room mate, and Indy says she’s been asked out for a beer after work a couple times now. She says “sorry I can’t” and thinks to herself “for 4 more years”. She’s in high school and we are starting to think about colleges. I think she is thinking more about boys, but we are always in the mode of looking out for her! Actually, she is seriously considering [] University. We’re going to some campus day in November to get a head start on the whole college thing. [], which is less than 20 minutes away, is almost too good to be true for us as parents, so I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high that my baby won’t be moving far away right after graduation after all. Indy plays guitar, likes music, art, photography, and works at a music store. She is an aggressive soccer player, and an honor student. She’s having a fun birthday weekend – 2 concerts, a hockey game and a football game.
Next up is Taryn. She’s a quiet little cutie. At least around us. She’s also an honor student, and she and Gib are the closest friends with each other of our children. Taryn likes to spend a lot of time alone on the computer, reading, also likes photography, or hanging out with Gib. She designs the most amazing things with a paper and pencil. She was drawing all these intricate quilt patterns but has recently started doing these cool drawings with straight lines making a neat abstract pattern. She is very geometrical and I wonder where that talent will take her. Taryn is on the same soccer team as Indy so it’s fun for us to go to games and cheer them both on at the same time, and the sisterly dynamics on the field are interesting to watch as well. Indy is protective of Taryn and woe to the player that takes advantage of Taryn’s diminutive stature. Taryn just tops 5’ and is about 85 lbs. She’s small but very speedy. We call her the cheetah because she gives a lot of speed but only for so long and then she’s done.
Our youngest is Mariah. She looks quite a bit like Hermoine in the Harry Potter movie. She is currently spending a heck of a lot of time planning to be in a girl band. My mom said she was working on their answers for media interviews last week. She spent hours on it. She’s been taking lessons on her electric guitar for a year now, so who knows, someday she could be in a band. She just talked me into adopting a Fiddler Crab from a recent science study at elementary school. I said NO! 15 times, but on the 16th just couldn’t break her little heart over the phone while she was at school, saving the life of this poor last little crab nobody else wanted. At least it wasn’t one of the millipeeds (too gross to spell correctly). I named it Apple (get it? Crab-Apple? But she’s calling it Shaliya or something like that). Mariah is waaaaay into Webkinz. If you haven’t heard of that, let me tell you, somebody is a Marketing Genius. It’s like the whole Beanie Baby craze, but they took it to a whole ‘nother level. You buy the stuffed animal. Register it online, name it, etc., and get a whole bunch of $$ in your webkinz account to buy it furnishings to live in, food, and who knows what else. You win more money by playing games with your little critter, and when you buy another one? You guessed it, even more $$ in your special account. I think she’s up to about 9 or 10 of them. She even has Gib liking them too, but I’m sure he’d deny it if asked! They’d be on the computer 24/7 doing webkinz stuff if they could. It’s all I can do to get them to eat. As long as the homework gets done, they practice 30 min on drums and guitar, they are free to plug in all they want.
Hopefully, this wasn’t TMI for ya. You were saved from page 3 by a bum shoulder that I have no idea how it happened. It could have been from yoga, or perhaps when I tried to get a kiss from Gib before he left for backpacking yesterday, but it is horrible and I can’t type anymore. I don’t do pain well. Next time, I can tell you a bit about my hubbie Mike (bless the man for living with 5 women) and myself. Better yet, I’ll tell you about the Boy Scout Water World Campout . It’s a family weekend at [] Lake. We brought all our daughters and their friends. For the scouts 14 and older, life got a lot happier. I played chaperone very diligently that weekend, lemme tell you. Seriously though, I have never seen a higher caliber of boys and young men all in one place as I did that weekend. What a great Troop it is. They thought the world of the soldiers that came to visit at the Barn before ya’ll were deployed.
We consider it an honor to send you a few minutes of light reading about our typical American Life that you are fighting for; and hope that you can check the stress for a few and kick back and enjoy. We also consider it an honor to pray for you and your company that you will return home safe and sound.
Take Care,
Mike, Chrissie, Indy, Taryn, Gib & Mariah
