Blessing, Balloons & Trauma - Last Day in San Angelo

Mike and Krista got back to the trailer at 1 a.m.

We met our realtors early. They loved the house. There is currently a 9 month supply of houses on the market in our price range...but we are offering closing, the house is newly painted, newly carpeted etc. The circled up with us and PRAYED for our trip, thanked God for knowing us, prayed that God would send a family to our home who would know and experience the Love that currently resides in the house.....I love our realtors. They also gave the boys directions on how to reach them 24 hours a day.

The boys received an unexpected play date with the Leathermon boys. Thanks Tammy.

The youngers met us at the house at lunch time.

I spent 10 hours on the phone with Verizon....I now have a domain...and POSSIBLY we'll keep our same email addresses when they disconnect our DSL...we shall see. If we disappear, remember the address in the sidebar will work. After 10 hours I had no CONFIDENT address that we'll keep our email address to the trip - BUT the web hosting dept had informed me the rest of the departments don't have a clue how the web works and that since the domain is established and is linking from those verizon addresses it will be fine. I agree that the other departments don't appears to have answers so I'm going to trust him. We'll see tomorrow what happens. LOL

We blessed Jamin as he moves from young male to adult male. This is something we do as a family....these are sweet and personal moments in our family life. I share it here because Mike keeps telling me the blog is a "family history and legacy". We also blessed Cy's apartment when he moved in....we decided to bless it again and send it to the apartment across the way that the boys will be moving in to in 9 days. ::snort::

For graduation we kicked Jamin out of a plane, gave him a printer and a mattress.

A tradition we began when we moved from Alaska is a farwell balloon release. Four years ago we shared the good and the bad, committed to release the bad and move on. It was meaningful but not quite "right", I thought. I had instigated this tradition. Yesterday, the missing part clicked. I shared about cherish and cling. We discussed the memories and people that we will cherish from San Angelo. We discussed the hard and bad things that have happened here...and we resolved as a family to cherish the memories of this season...but not to cling to the good or the bad...to move on to what God has for us in the next three years.

Each person shared....we didn't use strings this year...so how enviromentally aware we've become.

Josiah decide a good and bad balloon were in order. ::snort::








We prayed and released the ballons. What a visual reminder that it's time to let it go and move on....

Blessings...Balloons & Trauma?

We made a last stop at Armstrongs. Zander took Mrs. Armstrong flowers. We dropped off another van load of "stuff," gardening and cleaning stuff this time. ::snort:: Mike and Doug joked about how far we hope to make it today.....the battle cry has become "Abilene by Dinner" - about 90 miles away. The joke between Mike and Deja had been that I skipped a retirement dinner and cancelled a cleaning date so I could avoid saying goodbye to Deja. I plead the 5th....however, I did show up to say goodbye. I want that noted, my shoeless friend.

We headed for dinner. A huge storm - tornado like - blew in. We rushed to the lake to get our dog and she was gone. Arielle was heart broken. She had tied her to a tree with water and food so she'd have shade. She didn't mention this to any of us until the storm began. She didn't have a clue the sun would move or that a storm would blow in. They looked all over the grounds, while I cuddled a sobbing, shaking Arielle in a sleeping bag and prayed that our time in San Angelo and our time with our wonder dog wouldn't end this way. A neighbor finally told us that the camp host had Bea.

Mike, Jared and Krista headed back to the house to "finish up".

The younger ones and I waited for Bea's return. She was cold and shivering.....and seemed to be saying, "How COULD you leave me in a storm and now you're going to leave me in ID." Her eyes are rather expressive. We dried her, cuddled her, rubbed her and she slept well all night.

It was a full day. I'm doing a couple of loads of laundry this a.m. the rest of the family will be waking up shortly, our men are meeting us here to get the trailer ready to go....and we WILL leave town today....not sure how far we will get....stay tuned.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Happy Birthday Krista!

Our second born is 22 years old today!

Krista was born with the gift of service. When she was younger we worked hard for her to understand that she was loved for WHO she is and not for WHAT she does.... We've taken great joy in watching God mature this gift for His benefit during the past 22 years.

When Krista heard we were moving, she put in her notice at work so that she could come out for Jamin's graduation, stay to help us get things ready for the move and travel with us. It appears an Air Force brat can never have enough of cross country pcs trips. ::snort::

Krista has an amazing sense of determination. School was TOUGH for her. She has dyslexia and this meant that learning to read, write and spell was a chore...but she is determined and has an "I can do this" temperment. I was amazed a couple of months ago to get a call asking me to save all the orginal philosphers and years of Cornerstone curricum because she'd like to "run through them again"....this was the curriculum that the publisher advised us not to try with her because it was for "gifted" students. May I encourage you that if God impresses on you that something is right for your child - HE is the EXPERT? ::snort::

One aspect of dyslexia is that Krista can SEE the big picture...in math, in life, in jobs....and therefore is a great one to solve all sorts of problems....and she's learning the need to communicate WHY the big plan will work to others...but often she simply KNOWS and SEES the big plan and isn't sure why......

Krista will enter Eugene Bible College this year as a Junior (she has lots of credits to transfer from non-traditional sources). She is pursuing a degree in Intercultural Ministries.... missions...and we are excited to see where God leads her.

Thanks for all your help these past days, Sweets! We love you! God blessed us real good when he placed you in our family.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Irony is...

being old enough that you can remember when beach shoes were flip flops, then thongs and now back to flip flops.....and the same children who years and years ago called them thongs are MORTIFIED and amused when you say, "Get your thongs on and let's go to the pool!" ::snort::
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Skydiving Part One

Part One because I randomly picked a couple of photos of both kids but haven't checked out all the photos, nor do I have time to write about our day out today.

Here are a few photos of Krista and Jamin. Josiah also jumped but opted not to have a photographer jump with him this time. We DO have photos Mike took that I'll load "soon".

One, Two, Three - JUMP!






Krista was sitting on the floor, right against the door....so they sort of fell out more than jumped. LOL

Julie, we did NOT get the high five between Krista and Jamin.....Mike's photos haven't been loaded to the laptop yet...the battery died on me. I know that there was a great one of Annie and Roy....I'll make a disc or such and send them on...not that you NEED more photos...but it's the neighborly thing to do. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

I Don't Want to Go Bye Bye

Poor Stacia had a meltdown as we left our home last night. She broke away from Arielle and Krista and refused to be put in the van. I was getting a tad bit irritated - it was late.

I went out to help her in the van...she was beside herself.

I grabbed her, hugged her tight, forced her head to my shoulder and began to listen.... "I don't want to go bye bye. I don't want to leave Stacia's house. I don't want to leave Stacia's house. I don't want to go bye bye anymore..." ::sniff::

I rubbed her back, held her tight and told her over and over, "It's going to be alright." She relaxed and fell asleep.

I realized later that I feel like Stacia. I want someone to hug me tight and assure me that it's going to be alright. Of course, I find this in God. The best place to find it. I also shared with Mike and he diligently tried....but the snoring sort of took away from the effect. ::snort::

As I tried to get to sleep it hit me again...cherish this time, cherish Stacia's house, the friendly town, the transition of two sons from youth to adult...but Stacia is clinging (as is to be expected for a little one who has known nothing but San Angelo and Stacia's home her entire life). I need to remember - cherish/not cling today and tomorrow, especially.

Do pray for us as we tie up loose ends so that we can depart early tomorrow. We meet the realtor this a.m. Mike is signed off base. We have our tickets to Japan.

I've welcomed each extension....but emotionally I think it's time for all of us to say the goodbye...

Glimpses of the day:

Some folks will do anything for a good connection...


Cy held his arms wide...Stacia ran to Krista....then Cy and then Jamin tried the arm thing and she complied.


Beatrix, the wonder dog, has chosen an old suitcase as her domain.


We finally brought down the stash of chocolate from the top shelf in the master bdr closet.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Stacia's Observation

Stacia was heard this week telling a trusted adult, "I had a home, but now I have lots of boxes." That about sums it all up, doesn't it?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Massive Recapture of Last Week

OK - a ton of photos of the last week...I don't have time to rotate each one....sorry.

Memorial Day Mike got out the big bubbles. We laughed at the difference in Zander and Stacia's approach to popping bubbles. Stacia chases them with ONE FINGER and Zander CLAPS and SMASHES them.

















Played at the park and visited with friends - still Memorial Day.







Nolan spent a lot of time fishing this dead stick out of the lake.








All the youngers hid and SURPRISED Josiah - can you see the faces in the sleeping bags? The sad thing is that when they didn't answer he went looking for them and they waited a LONG time to surprise him. ::snort::


Old Faithful moving to it's new home.


The Infamous All Nighter at our house.


Can you see the clock? Proof of the all nighter.


Jamin joined the fun when he got off work at 10:00 p.m.











We trekked out to Foster Rd Bat Bridge...what FUN. We even met a nice policeman who had been called because a lot of people were gathering on the bridge. "I know what you are doing, but I received a call....Be careful, don't jump." ::snort::














One day we went bowling at base...











This is the night that we discovered I could blog from the dock and Cy could fish from the dock. Which we did. We then talked late into the night. Precious memory.

The chapel staff met us over here for a farewell on Thursday night. We had root beer floats and welcomed the quick storm.....it was HOT that day.

That's the week....add in a bunch of errands and such and you have an accurate picture...oh and sporadic moments of emotional release. ::snort::

I'm nearly caught up - just need to get those skydiving photos ready to post. But I really need to fold laundry and don't want to leave the laptop on the table for THAT long.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...