Welcome Home & Happy Birthday!

Today our oldest son, Karl, returned to the great state of Texas, ended a six year career in the U.S. Air Force, and is celebrating his 26th birthday! What an awesome birthday present!!

Son, we are so proud of you and the wonderful, godly man that you are. You were a great asset to our military, and I know you will be missed greatly. Thank you for serving our country, and for doing such an awesome job at it!! I know you are thrilled to be back in the great state of Texas again, where you can be close to family. We are thrilled to have you so close by. I know the last six years haven't always been easy, but you've always maintained such a great attitude. You are loved more than words could ever express, and 26 years ago your dad and I were blessed beyond measure when you were born! We love you dearly! Happy Birthday, Mom and Dad

More on the twins

PROM 2013! So proud of these boys!

Dillon and his date, Ivy.

Darby and his date, Savannah. 

Friends!

Their favorite picture!

Boys will be boys!!

I thought I better start documenting the boys' junior and senior years since they'll be off to college before we know it!  We had such a fun school year watching them run cross country and track. They are quite the runners. It was sad to watch the track season come to an end because we loved going to the meets and watching them. They won many track meets, and ended third in state in their 4X4. They were disappointed, but it was extremely windy and the heavier boys seemed to get their day in the spotlight. haha! They were invited to the Meet of Champions though, and placed 2nd with all divisions present!! They had an amazing year, and we can hardly wait for next year. The football coaches saw Darby running and asked him to join the team...and he did. So, this year we'll get to watch football games (though I'm not as excited about that with the high risk of injury...but I'll be sitting on the side lines every game (praying! haha!). 

My Handsome Twins

These are two pictures from their track meets this year. I love taking pictures where they have no idea I'm doing it. No smiles, as they're preparing to run, but I love the pictures. Can't believe we have only one more year...

Remembering our Soldiers and their families

I wanted to take a moment, though I never seem to have time to write these days, and say I'm thinking about our Soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and their families, today. You're loved and missed more than words can describe.

Long time no write

So much has happened since I last wrote. We've moved to a new post, and are finally closer to family than we've been in years! Just last week we spent five days in Cancun with my husband's family and ALL our children. Our oldest son was even able to come back for R&R from Korea and he and his wife were able to join us!! This was our family photo on the beach.

 I can't believe our kids are grown like this! One of the twins was actually taller than our oldest son. That was pretty crazy to see when they hugged hello.

As far as what's taken place since last time I wrote, like November 2011, we've moved to a new post. We were only at Fort Bliss 18 months when they asked if we were willing to move to a new post. Of course we were willing...much, much, much closer to family!!! We bought a house, something I was thinking we wouldn't do until we retired from the military...but we're so happy we did. It's nice to have a home of our own again! SO NICE!!

It's also nice to have grass again, something we really missed in El Paso! The dog thinks he is in heaven since he's not had grass since he was 6 weeks old. It's funny that we can actually see a "smile" on his face now.

I'm still working for the same company I worked for in El Paso. I transferred here with a promotion, and LOTS of work. :) Still trying to adjust to all the changes. I moved here a month before the rest of the family to get through my OJT, for the new position, in the new area. It was a very stressful move to do it the way we did, but hopefully it made things easier than they would have been had I not...I guess we'll never really know though. Either way, we're here and settling in to a new home, routine and post.

I was thinking tonight that I need to get back to writing again. I really miss it. Even if nobody's reading, it feels good to put my thoughts down somewhere. :)

I've run out of titles!...

I don't seem to ever have much time to write these days and I MISS IT!!! I know I've said that before...several times.

I let my boss read some of my poems the other day and she said I need to get busy writing a book, and getting my poems published before someone steals them...I agreed. I told her I've wanted to write a book for a long time, and even started on it, but have never gotten far enough to matter. Life just seems to take over.

I opened up my computer in hopes of finding my oldest son on Skype. He has been in Korea for nearly two weeks now. I miss him a lot. Even though we haven't lived close to him in years, due to us all being military, I think the fact that he's in another country makes him seem SO far away. Wait! He is far away. haha. However, I have LOVED getting to talk to him, mostly just messaging, on Skype. I'm so thankful for that!!

Thanksgiving week is coming up quickly. However, you would think Christmas is next week by the way the stores are filled with EVERYTHING Christmas...including the music playin' and the bells a ringin' and even caroling taking place outside the store, courtesy of the the volunteers with the Salvation Army. The boys and I had to run to the store tonight and we couldn't help but crack up laughing at the out-of-tune caroling that started as we walked by. It was just so funny I'm still laughing about it. Maybe by Christmas they'll have it down! :)

The last few months have been filled with my husband being in the field. I'm so excited to say that will be coming to an end, for a little while anyway, sometime this weekend!! I miss him terribly. I think that's the worst part about being military...some people might beg to differ, but I love spending each and every day (evening) with him. Sometimes I think, "One of these days I'll probably get used to it."...and then I think, "no! I don't want to get used to it! I WANT to always miss him being around any time he has to be gone! I'm OK with that!"...he's my best friend; what can I say!

Our friend that I posted about just recently, who had the heart attack, is actually doing pretty well. It's truly a miracle that he is alive. Praise God! He has a long, hard road so please keep him and his wife - Eddy and Kathy Williams - in your prayers. Thanks!

Well, I better get some sleep...work comes early.

Deployments

KSCE, a Christian T.V. station here in our town asked us if we would come speak about deployments, to be aired in honor of Veterans Day. After aired, they put their shows on YouTube. You can watch it by clicking here.

To our friends who are enduring a deployment right now - we are praying for you and think of you so often. To our friends who paid the ultimate sacrifice during deployment - our hearts are forever touched in ways we can't even explain in words. We think of those men so often. We think of you and pray often for you and your children. Thank you all for the friendships, the laughter, the tears, the joys, the sorrows...all that makes each of us love a little deeper. We love you and our lives are forever blessed because you are in them, even though the miles separate us!

PRAYER FOR A FRIEND

We have a close friend that had a heart attack and has had some complications. This is from his post on the morning before it happened. I went to his blog to see if family had updated it with the news that he needed our prayers, and this is what I read (as I cried). God is good and he is holding on to life. We are just praying for a miracle! Please pray for his wife and kids as well. We love you, Eddy, and know God is walking with you through this!!

Lets Finish Well

Scripture

Acts 20

24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Observation

I want to finish well. I want my life to count for the kingdom. I don't want to retire. I don't want to slow down. I want to finish well. I want to make a difference in the lives of as many people as possible. There has been a job that has been assigned to me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Do you want to finish well too?

Application

Today I want to count. I want to make a difference in someone's life. How about you?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I want to finish well. I want to complete my task. I want You to smile at my life. Don't let me mess up. Don't let me settle for something less than what You have for me. Put people in my life today that need to hear about You.

All is Well

Work is keeping me very busy, and tired, but all is well. Since I've written about our puppy, I have to tell you he is a sweetie! We all love having him around and enjoy taking him out to enjoy the great outdoors with us. Last weekend we were out off-roading and he was looking out the window and took a leap...all the way out...to the ground. Thank goodness it was a soft landing and I didn't run over him. I was really upset, thinking how easily I could have run over him...but he never made a sound, and came running to me all covered in dirt when I got the jeep stopped. I wish I had taken a picture of him all covered in dirt...but I had a little too much on my mind at the time.

We've been spending some of our evenings out shooting our bows, preparing for hunting season. It's been a fun, and I'm finally getting a lot better at it...hitting the target every time. I didn't say hitting the bulls-eye, but am hitting the target! :) And sometimes the bull-eye!

Our oldest son had a birthday this week. I REALLY miss him, and can't believe how quickly our kids have grown up. If you're a parent of a young one, hold on tight! They'll be gone before you know it!!

Yeah for the weekend! Now it's off to bed, to get up early to go scouting for our hunt next weekend. One of these weekends I'm going nowhere and doing nothing!!!...one of these days!

Duke...

This little puppy is bringing lots of laughter and smiles to the family...

You'll see why...

He's sooo cute...even more so in person.

He looks bigger in the photos too, but I think this is a good picture to show his size...

We took him for a day of fun out on the road. Our first stop...McDonalds.

This picture shows his size in comparison to a large cup.

He fell asleep on the road trip...several times!

Is that not the most adorable sleep position?!?!

Then the boys added the water bottle to his legs. hahaha!