Hello?? Hello??

Ok... so today I tried to mow the yard. Sun was shining and it was nice and hot. Made about 3 passes with the tractor and the bottom of the sky opened up and dumped a flood on me. UGH! So, I came in and played with my new iPhone and loaded up a nice "mowing the yard" soundtrack for when the rain stopped and I would be able to mow again. So, Emma and I practiced... I put my earbuds in and turned on the music and she called the phone. It rang and I heard it just like I was supposed to. With the practice run out of the way and the rain drying up with the sun back out... I took off on the tractor down the driveway to get the 'hard' part done. Now this is the funny part... The song that pops up in the random shuffle was "William Tell Overture" (the theme from Lone Ranger). Here I am hauling it down the driveway going a good 6 mile per hour with the most appropriate song EVER blasting through my earbuds. So you can imagine my confusion when I hear an antique phone ringing in my ear. OMG! My phone is ringing! I yank it out of my bra (yes... don't judge)  and that also rips it out of my ear.  I see it is an 803 area code. IT'S BILLY!!!! Well, at this point the panic sets in when I realized I never practiced answering the stupid thing. I knew it rang, but I never had to answer the stupid thing. So the tractor is roaring and I'm screaming HELLO! HELLO??? into the phone. But the earbuds had come out so I have no idea if he's talking or not. Then I hear, "Becky!!! Shut off whatever the crap that is and put the friggin phone to your face!!" OMG! For some reason I couldn't coordinate my hands and mind to work together. So, I finally managed to turn the key of the mower off. (thinking now, I should have just stood up and made it shut off automatically.... but who can think like that in moments like these) ANYWAY!!!! The first words out of my mouth were "how long do we have." He said we could only talk for three minutes. There was just too much to say in that small amount of time. But what I got out of it was...
1. He sounded GOOD!
2. His blisters are still real bad and he's making it. He has to wrap it up like crazy anytime he puts his shoes on. Problem was they gave him the wrong size shoe and that's what caused the blisters. So, he got new boots Monday and they are helping a lot!
3. He did his PT test Tuesday. He ran 17:05 and had to be under 17:40, so that is good! BUT... he was one sit-up and one push-up short. He said he'd been doing them fine, but just had an off day. No biggie though. He'll get many more chances.
4. I told him he needed to write the kids a letter so that they could have their own letter from daddy and he said he would try if he got any personal time tomorrow.
5. This week was a lot of marksmanship (with the rifles or guns or something) And he was on one course and couldn't seem to stay consistant. He'd hit a target and then miss two. And then hit two but miss three. So they sent them to another course and he hit five bullseyes in a row. They said he was good to go after that. I don't know if that means he passed some test or something... but I could tell his chest was puffed out a little bit while he told me that.  (insert gorilla grunt and chest pounding here)
And then I hear someone in the background say something and Billy said we only had 20 seconds left. So it was a lot of I love you's and Stay strongs and We miss you etc etc etc... I didn't even get upset. It just happened so fast and then it was over. I didn't even ask if he'd phased to White yet. But I'm assuming the phone call is a sign that he has. We are 1/3 of the way done!!!

SIGH... So... it's been a great day! The yard is mowed. My iPhone is my new best friend - a poor substitute for the real thing, but at least it served its purpose today and connected me with my real best friend. And I am looking back on the events and realizing that if the rain hadn't forced me inside to work on the phone... I probably never would have figured out the earbud thing and would have never heard his call. SQUEEEE!!! (that's just me squealing with excitement)