First Day of Vacation - 21 December

The day began with an early trip to the airport to pick up Grandma, Grandpa, Breanne and Krista. See “Everyone’s Home” below.

Yesterday was Exodus for the students on base. This is the day that the busses arrive, load up students, and roll out to take them to stations across town for their Christmas break. We have a total of 4,000 students on base. The students aren’t allowed to leave base until 22 December so the busses left at 12:01 a.m. Mike stayed on base for that.
The rest of us spent the afternoon unpacking, settling in, getting haircuts and shopping for groceries.

Arielle surprised us by asking for a haircut when Bre and Krista were getting theirs cut. We think she looks darling…she’s a little unsure about the “primping factor” of her new do.








In the evening we enjoyed reading Bartholomew’s Passage, playing games and visiting.

Everyone is home!

After an extensive countdown that had me counting hours, we left this a.m. to pick the girls up at the airport. Yes, they met their grandparents in the airport in Dallas, the surprise worked!

When we arrived at the airport Zander said, “I think Krista is in that plane” with each plane that landed. Josiah and Jamin cracked us up with hand lettered signs they had made. This was funny to us as Bre is the one who always made the “welcome home” and “birthday” signs…these were two sheets of white computer paper with Breanne on one and Krista on the other. LOL

When the plane landed, of course, we were all straining to see them climb down. Yes, this IS a small airport and you climb out of the plane and walk across the tarmac to the building. We couldn’t quite decipher them until we noted two girls running and passing others on the way to the building…then we saw my parents chasing after them. What a hoot!

We went to IHOP for breakfast after leaving the airport. Bre quickly took over the care of Stacia. Arielle clung to her elbow. Krista had both Nolan and Zander on her lap. The “big boys” all moved down to talk to the girls….fun to see them glad to be together.


Everyone is tired but home and safe. Mom and Dad’s bags did not arrive but hopefully will by tomorrow. The girls have hair appointments for this afternoon. It’s a great feeling to have all the kids back at home. Yippee!

Krista beat Bre (behind) by a foot being greated by Nolan and Zander


Mom & Dad after their sprint after the girls

Back to normal

Our Camera is BACK!!!

And Mike hasn't quit taking pictures...here are a few that show Stacia at 4 months....

THE GIRLS ARE COMING HOME!!!

The energy around our home is astonishing!!!

Tomorrow a.m. “the girls” Breanne and Krista, arrive home. I knew I was excited. What joy to see how the children are anticipating being together. This is what a mom dreams of. The younger ones are BoUnCiNg off the walls!

Bre called this .a.m. while I was in the shower to tell us that they are flying out tonight. They have a test and then will head to the airport.

We called my folks last night and all looks good for them to be flying out from OR tonight as well.

The big surprise they don’t know of is that I’ve booked the tickets so that they will all meet up in Dallas and fly on the same commuter for the last leg of the journey. Those planes are small but not wanting to leave anything to chance, I booked seats next to each other for them. We are praying here that they all make their connections and arrive in Dallas at the same time.

Tomorrow in the a.m. Stacia will meet her grandmother and grandfather Townsend for the first time. The girls are excited to see her as she was only a month old when they left. She does many new things now…and is even CHUBBY.

I was explaining to Arielle, Nolan and Zander that they are all flying tonight but that we will pick them up in the morning. I told them that it will be early and they will either be here at the house when they get up or I could wake them up and they could go with us to the airport to pick everyone up. Zander grabbed my face and said, “Mom you wake Nolan and me, Alex, up!”

We anticipate the best part of this Christmas being that we will witness the growth and changes in the girls. I think they will be amazed at how well we’ve managed to get on without them…. Having grandma and grandpa here is the icing on our cake!

Of course, I’m already praying that the visit is as good as I’ve hoped. That we find lots of time to communicate in the midst of a busy Chaplain’s home at Christmas. I’m determined that the shadow of saying farewell doesn’t color the excitement of being together. We’ve always said each new phase of parenting was our “favorite” but Mike and I are not much enjoying having chickadees leave the nest.

I told the little ones we need to clean and then the girls will be home. Zander just came in and said, “Welp!, it’s all cleaned up!” Twenty-one and a half hours until the family is all under one roof.

School update

This has got to be a first! We have stayed on schedule through the month of December. On second thought we always “stay on schedule” but we usually go to “Christmas School” immediately after November. Christmas school consists of making steady progress in the 3R’s, doing lots of Advent activities and field trips, baking, cleaning, shopping and catching up on any subjects that need extra work. We have traditionally taken a break from the week after Thanksgiving – New Years. We opted not to do that this year. We had a “hard” start to the school year. Stacia was born the very week that school began. I then had 3 weeks of bed-rest with eclampsia that hit post-partum. The girls left the week after that; which involved much adaptation at home. Given all these facts we are thrilled to find that we are only 2 weeks behind our public school counter-parts at this point in the school year. Whew – the kids deserve a round of applause. We continue to love having our entire family using “Tapestry of Grace” (www.tapestryofgrace.com). In addition to being a well-written academic program we’ve benefited from the depth of discussion added to our family through studying the same period “together”. We began using this program last year with our younger children and Josiah and Jamin (our high school students) joined us this year. *I* am learning a great amount as I discipline myself to read the weekly teacher notes. We began our school break yesterday and will resume school on 2 January 2006.

We have an incredible sense of accomplishment when we look back over the past 15 weeks. Sure, we could be further along, but we’ve come a long way. The older boys had to learn a totally new program. The younger ones have been making great strides in the areas of weakness we had pinpointed. We’re on track.

Highlights of our school since I last wrote:

~Nolan, Arielle and Jared have finished their astronomy text! We’ve been working through “Exploring Creation with Astronomy” http://www.highschoolscience.com/ We will begin “Exploring Creation with Zoology” in January.

~Jared is rushing ahead with his math text! This is a major break through for him. He is scoring 90-100% on all tests and assignments. His goal is to finish his current book by the end of January. He hopes to complete a second text by the end of the school year which will get him “caught up”.

~Arielle has finished another Explode the Code (phonics) book. She only has one reader left in the Sing, Spell, Read & Write program http://www.pearsonlearning.com/singspell/index.cfm. Her goal is to finish this program by the time school begins again on 2 January.

~Nolan is on Step 11 of the Sing, Spell, Read & Write program (the program consists of 36 steps). We’ve had a lot of fun noting the changes in the program since we began using it back in 1995.

~Stacia, Zander, Nolan, Arielle, Jared and I visited a local Christmas Tree Farm.

~Jamin has finished the rough draft of a book he’s been writing for several years. He is now revising it…spending hours at it and seeming to enjoy it. Mike and I are anxiously awaiting our turn to read the book.

~Jamin and Josiah are writing their first ever research papers. Yes, we are behind on this one. I’ve tended to let writing slide because I “know” what they know…but we’ve learned that this is not a good plan. Jamin is writing “Davy Crockett – personification of the American Spirit”, and Josiah is writing “The Hindu Belief in Reincarnation: How it affects the Hindu Worldview – contrasted with the Biblical view of the afterlife and how THAT affects the Christian Worldview”. Ok, ok….no catchy title yet for Josiah but that seems to be where he is heading…at a quick pace.

~Nolan, Arielle and Jared are currently working on a unique Advent Season writing assignment. They are taking daily pictures of things that remind say “Christmas” to them and then writing about that item. Yes, we miss our Nikon D 70 which was due back weeks ago from New York City. I’m starting to think we may have to track its journeys….TX, Amityville, NYC, Anchorage, AK, Amityville and we are assured it is winging its way back to TX “now”.

Touch of Culture

What blog would be complete without a touch of culture?

We’ve not seen “Narnia” yet, but we do have a new family favorite. Yep, a family favorite….from Zander – Mike we all enjoy this one: Veggie Tales, “Lord of the Beans”.

Lord of the Beans is a satirical look at “Lord of the Rings” and throws in various other spoofs as well. We are huge Tolkein fans so this appealed to our funny bone. LoB however, does pack a message. It follows the fantastic journey of a Flobbit named Toto Baggypants who inherits a most unusual gift. With the help of his mentor Randalf and a spirited group of friends, Toto embarks on a mission to discover how he should use his gift. On the journey he has to cross Mt Much-Snowia, encounters Lord Scaryman and sporks, and continually asks “Why have I been given this gift”. Obviously (if you’ve read the Tea Time thoughts) you’ll see that this message would resonate with me personally.

I’ve been asked if the message is stronger than the most recent fare from Veggie Tales and I’d have to say yes. We really liked this one – and it seemed like the “old ones”.

That’s it – our touch of culture for the week.

EXTREME LOVE

Excerpt from the PWOC newsletter I wrote in December.

It's here!

The time of year that we call Advent and celebrate the coming of our precious Savior to earth IN THE FLESH! Traditionally Advent also celebrates the coming of God's presence into our daily lives and looks ahead to the coming of our Lord at His second coming. This time of year is incredibly awesome to Christians. In all the hustle and bustle of the season do not let the "EXTREME" love of our Heavenly Father and His Son go unnoticed. Yes, EXTREME! Consider the EXTREME love of the Father. He sent His SON to REDEEM you back to Him (John 3:16). Consider the EXTREME love of the Son. "...though He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-9) Consider the responsibility you now have to walk in EXTREME love. For you see, I skipped verse 5 of Philippians 2: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus". As you take time this season to reflect on the EXTREME love of the Father and Son....may your thankful heart well up with praise and overflow in humble, obedient service and EXTREME love for others.

May you find time this season to bask in His EXTREME love for you.