Ah…..Arielle is crying…missing the boys….

The boys left at 6a.m. for their whirlwind trip to AK. I’m praying that this trip is amazingly wonderful for them in every way. This means that we’ve come as close as possible to having ½ of our 9 children out of the home at one time. Strange. Really strange is that this will be our LIFE in a few short years (3 to be exact). We will miss the boys. We miss their sense of humor, their perspective of life, the late night talks and their help with the little ones. Our kids are such team players. We COULD function without the help that the kids give us, but you know if they didn’t help out we’d have no time for say reading, sleeping, or dates. LOL Krista called today to see if the boys had gotten off o.k. and to ask me if I’ll officially be her mentor. She told me I already was and assured me I was up to this. {bg}

I made more bread today. I’m having trouble with it running down the sides of the pans. I made 4 loaves today…two in the big Pampered Chef stone pans and two in the Pyrex. The PC ones are HUGE and look good…and didn’t stick. The ones made in the Pyrex overflowed the sides of the pan. Ah well….they all rose well and taste great. I wonder if the huge loaves will taste the same as the smaller loaves or if they will be airier….hmmm….. I also made Gram’s Italian dressing and French dressing. I am not sure we will be able to eat all this wonderful, fresh produce now that the boys are gone for 2 ½ weeks. I forgot to take that into account when I bought this time. LOL

I took the four youngest ones swimming today at China Beach. We had to squeeze into Mike’s Non- AC Honda for the drive to base. YUCK. I’m hoping he’ll fix that AC soon…it’s miserable to drive…and noisy. I don’t know how he does it or why he does it either for that matter. :::snort::: I KNOW that if he doesn’t fix it this summer he won’t fix it next summer because “we’ll be leaving in a couple of months”…..and we really didn’t need the AC in AK. LOL It was fun to be at China Beach. The whole pool is shallow and made just for kids. They loved it. It was a bit cool and so Stacia got out after the first hour. I was loaded with magazines to read so enjoyed the quiet. A strange thing happened at the pool. One family with several kids was getting ready to leave. Their kids stripped naked right there by mine…they were 9, 10 yo’s not little ones. I found that odd. My 7 yo and 9 yo found it odd too….. As the kids swam I reflected on how different things were at this time last year. We’d just arrived and thought the heat would kill us. I was 8 months pregnant. The girls and older boys were with us. We didn’t know anyone. The whole area was new and strange to us….and now its home.

Well – not sure what we will do with the rest of our night but we have 3 or 4 hours before Mike and Jared are home from Dallas. They drove Cy and Jamin up to catch the plane. I opted to stay home with the younger set rather than try the 10 hour drive…..we wouldn’t fit in the Expedition anyway….which reminds me that Ivey Motors hasn’t called me yet to say the van is fixed….we may be heading for a new one. There has to be an end to them trying to figure out what is wrong with it. I wonder if all 15 pass Ford vans do this….if so, they’d probably be able to figure out what was wrong with it…who knows?

A lady called for Jamin to do her yard today. He’s built quite a nice little business for himself. I’ve got to start remembering to take the camera with us…..this blog needs more photos and less words. LOL

Jared told me he'd taken a photo for the blog. Look what I found. Stacia LOVES to play the piano.

Arielle has begun working through the piano books on her own. Stacia takes that as her cue to come play too. She bangs and then looks at Arielle with a look that says, "See, *I* can do this too!"

*Something Beyond the Sky* by Siri L. Mitchell

This book was sent to all the SR Protestant Wives in the Air Force, maybe Wing Chaplain’s wives too…..It’s written by an Air Force Spouse.

The book centers on the stories, lives and friendships of four new Air Force spouses. It was fairly realistic. I’ve dealt with or known women that dealt with all the issues in this book. The one character that was unrealistic to me is Rachel – I’ve never known any spouses who had billions of dollars and flew anywhere their heart desired, bought mansions etc…..

This book gives a clear view of some of the issues that face military spouses (moving, loss of personal identity, prejudice…) and it shows some of the highlights of the military lifestyle (diverse friendships…).

This title by Harvest House Publishers (where my brother works LOL) is not in a genre I usually read, but I did enjoy it. It was an easy read. There were moments of fun and moments of reflection while reading the book. I’d like to see a sequel where the main characters continue to grow in their friendships and relationship with God through PCS’s, deployments, new friendships…..and centered more around their involvement in the chapel and PWOC rather than OSC…but that’s ME.

BUSY DAY

Shew. We did some laundry this a.m.

We went to “The Rink” with Debby and her boys. The kids skated and did two rounds of lazer tag. What a hoot! Zander was high scorer. He shot way, way, way more rounds than anyone else. The first time no one wanted him on their team. The second round they all wanted him. After playing we went to Ci-Ci’s – a pizza/salad buffet joint. We said goodbye to Debby and the boys. I ran the boys up to the base to cash checks at the BX. We had one hour before meeting Mike. I took all the kids in to play their free bowling game of the day. The base has a program where they can get free shoes and one game every day of summer. We picked up Mike. We took our Chaplain Candidate out to dinner and visited. We came home and finished packing the boys. We are going to bed…they leave at 6:00 a.m.

FISH WOES

I”LL SPARE YOU THE PICTURE!

We were given three fish: a catfish, an algae eater and some other silver fish. These fish ate the fish in our tank. We woke up this a.m. and the catfish and silver fish were floating belly up. Zander had fed them. I never KNEW FISH WOULD EAT UNTIL THEY DIED. UGH. SO….we’re packing, playing AND trying to clean out a fish tank.

Not sure WHAT IS UP WITH MY keyboard…..it really needs To bE thrown out….but the new one isn’t working quite right yet.

TAXI

My life today felt like a re-run from the old show TAXI. Not only was I running back and forth on short trips…but strange things seemed to occur at every turn.

I made a trip out to Robert Lee again. This is becoming a bi-weekly event. I drive out on Monday and leave the van. I drive back on Friday and pick the van up. Josiah drove out for me this a.m. and I got some zzzzzz. Yes, I’m still tired. Zander was up at 3 a.m. This hasn’t happened in weeks. I’m thinking he once again overdosed on whole-grain, honey filled cookies. He wasn’t bad – he was just awake. Stacia woke at 5 a.m. Two of her teeth are in and two more are nearly in…..

I took Josiah and Jamin to get their hair cut and I shopped for things they need for their upcoming trip. Raincoats are NOT something that are in high demand in W TX this time of year. :::snort::: We found everything else. Dayton has promised to let the boys use his fishing gear.

I came home and switched out kids. I then took Arielle and Jared to get their hair cut. We refuse to let hair be an issue in our family. There are so many other really big things to fixate about as parents. Our 12 yo WAS getting shaggier and shaggier and testing our resolve. We’d had many talks with him and understood his thoughts. We asked only that he keep his hair clean. Today he came out of the barbers with a CAESAR cut….really short. He mentioned that now that we are hanging out with the students he’d better get a different cut. This actually brought a smile to my face….because I knew that the whole hair thing went deeper – it’s hard to find your identity when your dad is not only a pastor but active duty military and all around you have short, short hair…..I think he is making his peace with the Air Force environment.

Dinner was Encore Presentations. I did get apples going. I didn’t get bread made. Mike and Josiah are working late tonight….I’m hoping my two little ones will be really tired and go down within 30 minutes….then maybe I can go down too.

OH – the hair dresser told me today, while cutting Jared’s hair that my hair is so damaged she’d be afraid to touch up the roots or do anything…it would probably BREAK OFF. She gave me some samples to try to speed the restoration process. I think it is near hopeless. In a few months it may be long enough for me to cut it REALLY short and start all over…remember Susan Powter? Mike’s worst nightmare….