1,000 Miles

A few minutes ago we hit 1,000 miles. It has been wonderful. Since you can't see my face, I'll let you know that I am not being sarcastic. We are having a great time! Right now the littles are sleeping and Guys is reading "Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends" to us (again) and we are giggling about their family idiosyncrasies that are so much like ours. We are stopping at Pizza Hut now, at dad's request. We are 30ish miles outside of Colorado. Yeah!

Amarillo by Morning- day 3

It's really foggy, but we already have 150 miles out of the way today.

Decisions, decisions. We could either head straight up to Denver with the trailer or go over to Albequrque and leave the trailer there (in RV parking on a military base) to avoid pulling on any mountain passes...

Hmmmm...

Day 2

Dear South East United States, I know you are sad to see us go, but could you please stop crying already?

Pulling a trailer in the rain is a little nerve wracking.

We made it! Day 1

There is something about being on a military base and in our own beds that feels so secure. And a bit odd.
At our first truck stop Pops got out and saw the trailer and realized "hey, that is my house!"
We are driving across the country and pulling our home behind us.

1 day of driving down. 9 to go.

Good night.

Good-bye Mississippi!

You can keep all of your coughs, colds, tummy bugs, mosquitos, ants, and humidity with you.

Your Southern Hospitality though, we are taking with us.

We have meet some truly gracious and generous people here and our lives are forever changed.

We would appreciate prayers for travel mercies, warm weather, and sanity. We just hit our first 30 miles. The baby has already cried herself to sleep, and I've heard 3 I'm boards, 2 are we there yet's, one I'm hungry, and 52 meows. We get to do that 30 miles stretch 100 more times before we reach our new home. Yeah, pray for sanity. Please.


Since I can blog from my phone, I'll do my best to keep you updated on our trip.

We are sure going to miss y'all.

The Message You've All Been Waiting For...

That is the patch the CO placed on Mr. Pilot's arm today. We are going to Whidbey Island, Washington to fly the Growler!  My husband's dream realized! It's everything he wanted!

Way back when we were in Colorado, my husband saw an article about the new jet coming out, the Growler and he said "That is it, that is the one I want to fly!" and here we are several years later, a dream coming true!  We should find out in the next couple of days when we have to be there, but it'll be soon!

We are both elated.  So thankful.  Praising our Great God! We still have a big day tomorrow, when everything will be made official.  Thank you all for your prayers! We can't wait to begin this new adventure!

The ~in NOT of~ Dictionary- a new word

Today we are adding the word Broccoli


Broccoli- (Bra-co-ly) as in a woman's undergarment.  I was informed by Pop's while folding laundry "Mom, that's your broccoli" and I laughed out loud.




 ~in NOT of~ Dictionary


Ashshore- Dinosaur- from Pops (sounds like something I can't type here)


Bracolli- Bra- from Pops


Calligator- Microphone- from Pops


Feeking - Sword Sheath-from Boy


Hipperoso- Superhero- from Boy

Hold Her- Pick me up- from Peanut

Hold You- Pick me up- from Pops
TeeTee - Blankie- from Guys

Thirsty Mountain- Drinking Fountain- from Butter

Up and Down- Pick me up- from Butter


Uppie - Pick me up- from my first two children

St. Lucia Day!

We studied Christmas around the world last year and discovered this sweet celebration from Sweden.  This is only our second year celebrating St. Lucia Day,  but it is already a warm tradition in our home and a much enjoyed morning!

Christmas in Sweden!

Around Christmas time in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is St. Lucia's Day (or St. Lucy's Day) on December 13th. The celebration comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.

St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name.

December 13th was also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, in the old 'Julian' Calendar and a pagan festival of lights in Sweden was turned into St. Lucia's Day.

St. Lucia's Day is now celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. 

Guys plays a bit shy, but she sure did a wonderful job this year.  She prepared last night by getting the coffee pot and tea kettle ready.  Bright and early (really early, dad needed to be at work at 7am) she was up to prepare cinnamon rolls and serve everyone in their beds.   

(we are camping out at our dear sweet friends' house for the rest of the month, what a blessing in this cold weather!)

What a fun morning!  It is also a great way to remember what Christmas is all about...

Share some of your family traditions with us, leave a comment! (please remember to keep our names out of it, so I can post it for everyone to see)

He's Done It!

Soft Wings for Mr. Pilot!

He is unofficially a Naval Aviator!

Thank the Lord for a warmer day!  We waiting very excitedly for Mr. Pilot's final landing as a student.

There we are, time for the traditional Hose Down!  We have been waiting for this moment for what seems like years.  

Can you see the dread anticipation on his face?  I said it was warmer, as in 40 degrees instead of 32.  It was awfully chilly!

This is incredibly priceless to me.  Sheer Joy was on almost everyone's face.  I said almost.

Pops was SO upset, he did not like this idea one bit!!!

Whew, glad that is over!

The guys said he had to hug me with his wet coldness.  It was worth it!

XO-"Do you want your wings?"

Mr. Piot Shivering- "Why yyyyes, Ssssir.  I think I do!"

We were prepared though, and handed daddy over a fresh flight suit to warmly wear his new set of Wings.

Just a small little happy to celebrate the moment.  I am so proud of my dear husband!

A special dinner for a deserving man.

Guess he thought it was good ;~)

Cheers!

 Congratulations Daddy!  What a blessing and an honor to be along for this journey with you.

May God always bless your Wings of Gold!

The spaghetti of my mind.

I am typing this with my thumbs. I've been waiting for days for the Internet to be fixed but I am giving up hope. So, I am typing with my thumbs on a phone that thinks it's smart. So smart it types mr when I mean me. And zooming when I mean spinning. Why yes, smart phone, I meant to say Minch instead of meant. Whatever that means. So sorry you might have to guess what I'm talking about... ;-)

It's cold out. So cold that anything touching an outside wall of the trailer is wet. Like my new feather pillow. And a brand new package of now soggy 24 rolls of septic safe (not cheap) toilet paper and whatever is under the couch and in the cupboards that I am pretending don't exist since we are moving soon. Even though we may not be moving for a month and stuff will be Milton- no, oh smart phone, I didn't mean Milton. I meant molding. But I can't see it so I'm pretending it's not happening...

Some dear friends are out of town for Christmas and have so graciously loaned us their house for the rest of the month. I am so excited, never mind we need to feed their goats and chickens that sometimes sneak in the house. There is an oven, a shower, a bed, and Internet. Oh, and a refrigerator that is above 32 degrees and it will make me feel like I am with friends even though they aren't there. We said goodbye to them last night not knowing if we will still be here when they get back or not. That makes for a very anticlimactic farewell to some very close friends. I am sad.

Mr. Pilot has 4 more flights before he gets "soft winged." that is where he is unofficially a pilot and gets to wear wings on his name tag but isn't quite yet a pilot. We are supposed to spray him with the fire hose when he lands that last flight. It's 38 degrees. That would be awfully cold. But, it's tradition, right?
We find out a week from today where we are going. The same day my mother-in-law flies in and my mom and step-dad drive in.
A week from tomorrow my family will get all dressed up to go on stage and pin daddy's wings on him. I will cry. It will be amazing.

Then there will be the after party. Apparently it's being planned by some single guys because it starts at 8:30 pm on Thursday and consists of a band, 3 kegs, $1,800 of booze, and $100 of food. And we have to pay for it. Even though we won't be going. Because it starts at 8:30. And 1800 dollars worth of alcohol. And no food. I see nothing good coming out of that situation. I find it an incredibly tacky way to celebrate something my husband has been waiting for many years to achieve. It's high-schoolish and in my opinion completely infantile and lame. Just sayin.

A week from Sunday is Daddy's birthday. What a busy week!

I have tons of pictures to share with you, if the Internet man ever comes around. I've called the front office three days in a row now, and she assures me they are working on it. She sounds just as annoyed as I am. I hope she's annoyed at the Internet man and not me.

The weather is bad today. So bad we got a serious weather warning. It might snow. And leave a light dusting on metallic objects. That is what the report actually says. 4 years ago the serious warning we got was 5 feet of snow in less than 5 hours and the city shut down. We couldn't open our front door for the snow and had to admit defeat in our challenge of going the whole winter without turning on the furnace. Of course that was Colorado, not Mississippi. Either way, it's bad enough I just got a text from my husband that he was canx. That means canceled. Don't the clouds and dusting of snow know that he must complete those 4 flights or nothing can happen next week?!

Enough rambling like noodles in a bowl of spaghetti for now. If you've kept reading this far, pray for sunshine and warmer days, you know, so my husband can get his wings and my pillows won't get moldy.