Beach Night

Almost 8 years ago Henry and I moved to Langley AFB, VA and started our Air Force journey. We got there and were blessed to meet incredible people who are still very important to us today. We keep in touch with all of our old squadron commanders/wives, I'm still very close with a group of girls from the "old" 27th, and Henry considers several of the guys to be some of his closest friends. People often say you never forget your first assignment and I will totally agree with that. While we have loved all of them in different ways, our first F-15 assignment was special.

One of the families we met was the Echols'. Now if you are a long time blog reader this isn't news to you. In fact you know quite well how close we are and you could probably rattle off their kiddos names and spot them in pictures. We first met John and Magan when they were newly engaged and we have had the joy of experiencing so many of their firsts. One of the most special firsts we got to share was the birth of Jackson, their oldest. Magan was my first good friend to have a baby and I learned so much from her. I will never forget going to visit her in the hospital, August 26, 2005, and holding that sweet newborn. I looked at her and cried and said, "Oh my goodness, you're a mom." And to be honest, I feel head over heals for that baby that day. A year later we added Addie to the mix and she and Jackson were the fearsome twosome for six months. Then came Mattie Claire, a little girl who stole my heart and has always been such a love bug. She's the only baby that I've missed kissing right after they've come into the world since we weren't at Tyndall yet when she was born. Carter joined us a year and a half later (and MC has always adored Carter... I told you she was a love bug) and a few months after C-man we got Meggie, the sweetest miracle. You see, while I didn't give birth to all of these, just two, I consider all of them to be family. They are so special to me and they all love each other as brothers and sisters. And this is why I am having such a hard time with this move, because this will be the first time they have been separated for more than four months. And, this will be the first time they know that they are not together. Jackson, MC, and Meg are Addie and Carter's very best friends. They do not know what life is like without them down the road and it breaks my heart to see these babies separated. Yes, I knew this would eventually happen and yes, I know that we have been given the gift of time because very rarely do people get to spend 8 years together in life, much less the Air Force. But that doesn't minimize the pain of saying goodbye. We went to dinner this past Saturday and let the kids play on the beach and as far as I'm concerned it was a magical night. A picture is worth a 1000 words so here you go...

Vacation Bible School

We've been rounding up answers to God's questions this week at VBS. Saddle Ridge Ranch was a HUGE success and we had tons of fun. Carter's class, the ducks, had his usual ladies in it and they are just fantastic. Seriously, I cannot rave enough about the workers in the baby rooms at Hiland Park. They have loved on him since he was a baby and they continue to do so every time he is in there. While he didn't get to really participate in the activities, they did make an effort to do crafts (brave ladies) and sing with them.

Addie on the other hand got to go to the Buckaroo Ranch, aka the 4 year old class that I was teaching. We had 4 girls and 7 boys and they were BUSY. They definitely kept me on my toes this week. We learned all about how God has a plan for us and that we are wonderfully made. The kids thoroughly enjoyed worship in the mornings, story time, crafts, recreation, music and snack. It brought back lots of memories for me of going to VBS and being a youth worker. Most of those memories involved Katie so it's been a hard week in that aspect. Sunday night the kids are singing in big church (this will be Addie's first time doing this) so I'll be sure to get a cute video of her doing the Saddle Ridge Ranch theme song. For now, here's a few pictures of our week. Most of the kids in my class I know since I'm friends with their mom's so it was super fun to see their reactions and how they interact with each other.

Craft Time- Ms. Amanda and Ms. Susan did an awesome job of planning the crafts each day.  It didn't hurt that Erin France was one of the craft helpers and one of our favorite people.  :)

Sheriff Lanyard

Running the horse course in recreation.  It was fun to see that Addie didn't sit out on the sidelines like so many of the other girls but rather jumped right in and played and had fun.  That's my girl!

Doing her lasso for the Saddle Ridge Ranch song.

Each morning the girls would sit down and color while we waited to go to big church.

We panned for gold one day as part of our center time.  Addie and Cooper and having lots of fun.  And this is so cute I have to blog about it... Cooper's mom is my friend Deniece and she said they were looking over these pictures at home and Cooper goes, "Hey there's Addie.  I like her a lot.  I think I love her."  How precious is that.  Cooper... her first love. 

Sitting on the big covered wagon that Ms. Tammy somehow found out in Wewa- a small town in the MIDDLE of nowhere.

Beach and a Few Randoms

I was downloading pictures from the week at VBS and realized that there were several photos that I hadn't downloaded off my camera. A few are from when my mom was here and Addie was being a photographer and a few are from when we went to the beach a few weeks ago. Enjoy the random photos :)

Budding photographer???

Beautiful dress up clothes from Clara France.

Random silliness

We are sick over the fact that these beautiful beaches are about to have nasty tarballs all over them.  GROSS!!!!  Thanks BP for not only destroying an already depressed economy but ruining our natural resources.  They may never be the same.

The Junior Museum and Park Play

It's hot... and for some reason the city designers decided that most parks in Panama City should not have trees so there are only a few playgrounds that we can visit this time of year. It sort of a bummer because they really do enjoy playing outside and I like for them to play outside, but not when it's 90 and 100% humidity. That's miserable. Thankfully, we have one park that is fantastic and is completely shaded and the sides are pretty enclosed so I don't have to worry about Carter falling off. We met Magan there one morning and the kids played and played. We brought picnic lunches and had a wonderful time.

Another morning we met our friend Laurie and her two daughters, Evan and Elliot, at the Junior Museum. We've been there before and haven't been too impressed so I didn't think we would stay that long. But this day the girls were having so much fun as was Carter and we ended up getting there at 10 and staying until 1:30!!! We ate lunch, played inside, walked the nature trail, and Laurie and I even got massages! They were doing a special for museum workers and asked if we wanted to participate. It was fantastic.

Evan is shopping up a storm

Want to know what he's looking at...

These things... creepy crawlies and snakes.  Ewwww!  He on the other hand loved them.

This area is blacklighted and they throw marbles down the funnel.  Hours of fun.

They have a boat (that you can turn on and it makes noise) for "fishing" in St. Andrew's Bay.

I wish I knew what he was thinking here.

Playdates and Goodbyes

Our time is getting very short around here and so we are trying to maximize our fun with friends. This past week was Carter's last PT and ST sessions with Ms. Paula and Ms. Kathy. They have loved on Carter for the past year and taken him from a baby who army crawled but couldn't get off of his tummy into a sitting position to a kid who can run, climb stairs, and actually has some words. We are so thankful for the role they have played in our lives. Carter will miss his "play" times so much and we've been blessed because they have loved him so much. We also said goodbye to our EI specialist Ms. Vicki. She has come to our house once a week for the past year and worked with Carter on cognitive development. I know Carter would not be where he is today if she hadn't worked so hard with him. He is so going to miss her as will I because she became not just a therapist but also a friend.

You might wonder what Addie as up to with all of these last sessions and here's the answer... playing! We've been blessed to have such wonderful friends through school who have helped us out time and time again with our crazy therapy schedule. Ms. Jessica and Ms. Tammy, aka Morgan and Kayleigh's mom's, have been such a blessing. Addie just loves her two friends and they have stepped up to help with her so that Carter could get the most out of therapy. Tammy is a fabulous documenter and always takes such sweet pictures of the girls. Here's what Addie and Kayleigh have been up to this week...

Look at that sweat... it's hot in Florida

Tammy set up this cute little table so the girls could have a tea party... and yes Addie is dressed like a mermaid.

Two pretty princesses

House... maybe

After a few days of dealing with Langley Base Housing and finally having the very nice manager of all of housing take over our case due to some serious communication errors (can you tell how I feel about the people who work below the very nice manager... they really need to work on their customer service skills and start communicating with each other) we finally think we have a house.

The whole debacle began on Wednesday when we got an email saying they wanted to offer us a home that would be ready when we got there. Perfect. We called them and said yes we wanted it and things seemed great for about 10 minutes. Then Henry called back and asked that they send us a floorplan and the lady said, "Ummm, there might be a problem I'll get back to you." Not good. That night I sent her an email and asked for a reply the next day just so we would know what was going on. By 3pm we hadn't heard anything so I started making some phone calls. Durring that time, my friend Gala had called asking me if I wanted her to run by the house and check it out. I said yes and she tried to call as well to make an appoitment to see it. Gala actually got through and got to be the one to deliver the "bad" news to us... they screwed up and there was no house. In fact, there were no houses available at all. Not good again. We are leaving in 6 weeks and at this point in time we were really going to be homeless. I finally got someone who mentioned that there are two offices and that office A handles the waitlist and office B handles the rental agreements. Office B was renting out homes without letting office A know. Ok, so they made a mistake and that stinks but that's ok. The lady in office A said they had just had something else come available and that it wouldn't be ready until August 12th. I told her we'd take it and that we would be fine waiting until then. Not 5 minutes later Henry calls (we didn't know we were both making phone calls) and he gets the same story about how house #2 is already rented because office B didn't tell A with this house either. Once, excusable, twice in 24 hours, serious communication errors. She tells him that we will have an answer by noon on Tuesday. Not ideal, but at least we can start looking for an intown rental. At 5:30 that evening the manager of all of housing calls Henry at work (we never asked for his number but evidently there were several emails about the fact that we had been offerd two houses and both were already taken) and says that he personally will get to the bottom of this by tomorrow. Yesterday by noon we had an answer... this house

Thanks Dottie for taking the picture.  It sort of looks like our old house in VA right?  I see a set of rocking chairs on the porch and some cute window boxes with flowers just like 202 Mockingbird Lane

(baring any other wierd things, we haven't signed so I wont send out an address) will be ours as of the 16th of July. It's smaller than what we wanted it to be but that's ok because at least we wont be homeless. So now I can breath a sigh of relief and know that we are going to have somewhere to live and can focus on what I wanted to be focusing on all along... decorating! We're loosing two rooms, the dining room and Addie's current room, so we're going to have to get a little creative and rent a storage unit. Addie will get the guest room bed and furniture, Carter will get a full size bed, and when we have company they will sleep in Addie's room and Carter and Addie will get to have a slumber party. Something I'm sure they will LOVE. Be on the lookout for several more decorating posts because I have some really fab ideas for Carter's room and none for Addie so if you have any great suggestions pass them along.

Backyard Bash

Yesterday Addie's friend Kayleigh invited her class along with a few other friends over for a Backyard Bash and oh my goodness it was so much fun. Tammy, Kayleigh's mom, went all out getting so many fun sprinklers, bubble blowers, water balloons, ice pops, hot dogs, and sundaes. The kids started playing at 10 and by the time 2 rolled around I had to pry Addie out of one of the pools. I was so neat to see how the kids interacted together and to see them playing outside of school. They have always seemed like such a sweet group of kiddos, but yesterday just emphasized that fact. They didn't fight, they didn't tattle, they just played and played. We are SO going to miss these friends and thankfully have a little time left to have a few more playdates. Thanks Tammy, Dave, and Kayleigh for letting us spend the day with you (and for taking pictures, can you believe I forgot my camera?)! It was fabulous!

Oops I forgot to rotate it

Eating ice pops

Addie and Kayleigh had the same suit... can you tell where us mom's shop... Target

Cute picnic area

For a girl who refused to get in a pool the other day she sure did have fun in this one