News Flash

Miranda graduated from College!!! I now have a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology. It feels so good to be done.

Updating our many adventures in 2010, so far :)

I was going to start with, "It's been a long time since I've written on here" and then had a bad flash back to writing in my diary when I was 10. So, we'll skip that intro.

So far 2010 is proving to be a most memorable, busy and altering year we've had in some time.

Just after Christmas break, the kids and I got to go home to Indiana for my grandmother's 80th birthday. It was a great, though short, trip.

Grandma Waters, Daeglan, Mac and Uncle Morgan

The trip started on Wednesday, or it was supposed to, when we got up at 3 am to get to the terminal on base and hopefully catch a military hop to Kansas where I had a friend waiting for us. We were turned away, the flight had been rescheduled, please come back at 7:30. We came back, waited for nearly 2 hours and then were told the flight was full. I'm not gonna lie, I walked out of the air terminal in tears. I had to go home and call my dear friend, Traci, I wasn't coming to Kansas.

The next day we tried again and were successful. It took nearly all day for check in and then

sitting and waiting for them to ready the plane, but eventually, we boarded a C17 (click here for a look at the C17) and were on our way to Delaware. Yes. I said Delaware. The flight was.... an experience. C17's are cargo planes and this one was loaded with jet engines, 2 huge jet engines. See?

We sat in jump seats that folded down from the sides of the plane. We enjoyed our in flight meal of ham sandwiches, snickers and pop. We drank lots of bottled water. We broke the toilet.... seriously, my kids broke the toilet. Ever fly on an overseas flight with a broken toilet?

Good thing the crew was so nice. The pilot took the kids up the cockpit and let them fly the plane. It was a great treat for all of us, especially for me since he keep them entertained for a whole half hour. Here's a picture of the boys lounging on the floor of the plane, another great benefit of fly military flights :)

After nine hours of flying and spending the final two hours calming my sensory overloaded child from the noise of the plane (cargo planes are very loud), we finally landed. We got a taxi to the hotel. All was good. Until we found out that our hotel room was actually about 2 blocks from where we had checked in.... and I had already sent the taxi away. So we loaded our luggage on the bell hop trolley and walked in the dark to our room. My kids cried the whole way.

"Daddy should be here, he'd protect us." "Mom, you should have never made us come." "Someone is going to jump out from those bushes and kidnap me." Finally, we made it to our room!

The rest of our trip, actually followed this crazy, unpredictable pattern. The rental car company charged me $800 for my $150 car rental, making it so that I couldn't use my card to get gas when we stopped two hours after taking off for Indiana. Driving on the right side of the road kepy me on edge all day and I did, in fact, turn into the wrong lane (only once!) when getting off the highway for dinner... it was dark, leave me alone. Our time in Indiana was too short, but we got to see all the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins we'd been longing to see.

On Monday, we left Indiana for Texas with Mackenzie and Emma. The drive was long, but actually went well... oh wait, I was sick and throwing up for some of it... well, it went mostly well. While in Dallas, we got to go to the Dallas Aquarium, a Butterfly house, Chuck E Cheese, Applebee's and Old Navy! It was a great American fix.

The cousins, minus Sophie Jane, at the Dallas Aquarium

Leaving was bitter sweet; the kids and I were more than ready to be home and with Geoff, but it was hard to say goodbye to family and our dear America. We took a rental car up to Kansas and got on the first flight we tried this time, thank goodness. This time we were on a KC135, a refueler. (click here for a look at the KC135)

This flight was... even more interesting. We broke the toilet, again. Yes, we did. This time before take off. It took them 3 hours to fix, during which we sat patiently on the plane. The kids stayed awake the whole flight, finally giving it up at hour 9. Unlike the flight on the C17, there was no room to stretch or lay out, so it was a bit trickier keeping them happy. And, believe it or not, this plane was louder. Good thing I had gone to Walmart and bought Brody a nice set of hunter earmuffs to block out the noise. The boys got to go into the belly of the plane and see all the refueling equipment... again a nice treat, keeping my kids entertained for a half hour. Air Force flight crews, you rock. So we were finally all asleep and someone wakes me to tell me we are emergency landing in Ireland. Ireland? Yes, our navigation system went out hours ago and we are flying with a hand compass!!! Thanks for not telling me hours ago. YIKES. We landed fine. But since most of the flight was U.S. military flying on military orders, next to no one had passports. Me and the kids had ours, but not one other person did. We sat on the plane, on the tarmac for 4 hours while the U.S. and Irish governments decided what to do with us. After 18 hours of being on the plane--which of course, by that point we had eaten all our food hours ago and were thus starving--we finally descended the steps and got straight on a bus. They took us to a nice hotel, that I paid $240 to stay in. We ordered room service for the first time and slept all day, 13 hours solid.

Our room in Ireland

Our Irish room service. Yes, those are elf-sized bottles of 7up. Not Tolken elves, Santa elves.

We made it home, and in one piece the next morning and ran into daddy's arms. And I am tired now just remembering this trip. I'm not sure we'll do it again.

More adventure updates to come :)

Brody's Big Day

On September 6th, 2009 our little man (or rather our growing man) was baptized. It was a truly wonderful day. Brody was a bit nervous to be the center of attention and to be dunked, but he was calm and very attentive the whole day, just soaking it all in. My mother got to be here and she gave a talk about baptism. Geoff baptized Brody and as a wife and mother it was a great moment to witness. Mac, Daeglan and Emeryss were so excited for Brody, they all cheered and clapped when came up out of the water (which if you are not LDS, you have to understand is a bit taboo, it's usually one of those really reverent quiet moments where you could here a pin drop). It was really cute though, to hear Daeglan shout, "Way to go, Brody. Well done!" I love the way my kids love and support each other. Our wonderful Bishop, Bishop Wilkins gave a talk about the Holy Ghost and then Geoff along with other men in our ward, laid his hands on Brody's head to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirm him as a member of Christ's church. Again an emotional and spiritual moment. And then Brody was welcomed as the newest member of the Thetford, England ward by our great Primary President, Sister Olson. He got a poster and his Faith in God booklet from the Primary which he thought was cool.

Geoff and I are so pleased with Brody and the consistent good choices that me makes. He is such a deep thinker, he constantly amazes us with his deep understand of gospel truths. He is a great brother (while not perfect, none of us are) and loves to teach his siblings new things and explain the world to them. And he has a great testimony and is quick to pray which is a great example and reminder to me to rely on Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We feel truly blessed to be Brody's parents and get to share such moments as his baptism with him.

Tick, Tock and Sheep

I just have to share what I am experiencing right this moment....

My house is so quiet I can hear all my clocks ticking... and then there is Emeryss, up in her bed counting her heart out (and I'm wondering, who taught her to count sheep?) 1, 2, 3, 47, 52, 47, 59, 47, 98, 5, 6, 76, 29, 18, 20. Ready or not. 1, 2, 3.... and it all starts over again. Yes, we played hide and seek for family night, how ever did you guess? I love listening to her, she is soooo darling! And she counts so well, she must take after Geoff :)

It's been a long time...

Well, that's an understatement!

I'll be posting some updates soon. But to give a quick filler-inner...

Geoff got home on July 9th and we are all soooo happy to be together as a family again, 7 months is a long time! Since then we've just been living and going with the flow. We took a family trip to Legoland and Windsor the end of July, Emeryss and I went to Germany in August and in September school started back up and Brody was baptized. So there is much to update everyone on and there are lots of pictures!

I'm trying to get back in an organized mode, so bear with me...
until then...

Create

The Month of LOVE

I've been thinking a lot about Valentine's Day this year.  It's not something we do big in our marriage, but it is remembered and it is fun!  Now, I remember when I was younger getting Valentine's from my parents and grandparents and of course, my classmates. And of course, I loved it all. It was a fun day, but what about the rest of the year? Did any of those feelings of love linger? Some did, but it's not like the Christmas spirit that starts in October and lasts halfway through January. This is Valentine's day and most people starting thinking it somewhere between February 1st and 13th and then it's over February 15th.

So, I've found myself wondering this year, what's the point?  To put more money in someone else's pockets by buying a hundred little cards for my kids to send out and receive tenfold that will all be recycled?  To add inches to my waist by all that incredible chocolate? To do something special for the one I love that I could/should do for him any other day of the year, if I were so inclined?  What is it really all about?  And do I really need to buy into the commercialism of it? (wow do I sound cynical, sorry)

And then I got this scripture and quote in an email today:

Jacob 3:7 (Book of Mormon)

"Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children."

Spencer W. Kimball
"The love of which the Lord speaks is not only physical attraction, but also faith, confidence, understanding, and partnership. It is devotion and companionship, parenthood, common ideals and standards. It is cleanliness of life and sacrifice and unselfishness.

"This kind of love never tires nor wanes. It lives on through sickness and sorrow, through prosperity and privation, through accomplishment and disappointment, through time and eternity. . . . For your love to ripen so gloriously, there must be an increase of confidence and understanding, a frequent and sincere expression of appreciation of each other. There must be a forgetting of self and a constant concern for the other. There must be a focusing of interests and hopes and objectives into a single channel" (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 248).

Now that is the type of love worth celebrating.

So in reality, everyday could/should be Valentine's Day.  Everyday we should be celebrating and showing the love we have for our family.  We should be listening to, doing for and sacrificing for one another every moment of our lives.  And yes, there are occasions when it is great (and sometimes needed) to give a little something more, a little something special and maybe that occasion is Valentine's Day and maybe it isn't.  However, I think if we truly loved one another as Christ would have us love one another, we wouldn't need chocolate hearts, small cardboard cards, or stuffed animals to let people know we love them or for other's to feel that we love them.

So I end with this scripture and challenge each of us (that includes me) to take it to heart and truly pray for charity, pray to know how to love those around us, pray to have the strength to love those around us, pray to be open to receive love from those around us.

Moroni 7: 45-48 (Book of Mormon)

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

  

May you all partake of charity, the pure love of Christ, the pure love of your spouses, the pure love of your children during this month of LOVE and throughout your life.