Important=Family

Hope y'all had a lovely Thanksgiving.  We did.  I love spending time with my family, which is why I haven't been spending much time here on the blog.  Sometimes, when it is a matter of priority, the blog loses.  And that's ok.  I won't have my family around forever.  The twins are getting bigger every moment.  Angel is turning into a sweet little lady who makes dinner for all her dollies in her play kitchen.  Eddie is learning how to change a sour mood back to sweet.  David is drowning in junior high homework.  Chris is dealing with why-is-school-so-important-itis.  Ben is applying to colleges.  And Alec is doing this.

I'm amazed.  They all grow up so fast, and I don't want to miss a moment.  I'm afraid to catch a breath sometimes, and then the very next minute I can't wait for something to change.  In between the fear of losing and the excitement of growth, there is magic.  If I quiet my brain every now and then, I see it.  It comes in twenty hands and a hundred toes and a thousand chances to serve and a million heartbeats of love.

I love this family!

Cooking on Vacation

Yeah, almost done with the vacation stuff.  I just go out so rarely that it's a big deal.  My dad said, after watching me have a panic attack just before the plane took off and took me away from my kids, that I either need to stay home or go out more often.  I'll stay home.

Really.  Besides my family being my huge-est-er ever joy of life, I have all my tools there.  Like my bed and my kitchen.

Eating on vacation is a challenge.  I want to chose foods that are good for us, but I'm hampered by not being able to cook or do decent food prep.  So we improvise.  Here is our kitchenette in the hotel:

I loved having this.  Full fridge, microwave, and medium sink.  Full dishwasher even though we only had a set of 4 dishes.  Ha.  Countertop stove with two burners.  No oven.  How am I supposed to make cookies to drive out the old-coffee-grounds-and-burnt-popcorn smell?

In a covered skillet on really, really low heat.  They were yummy.  Snickerdoodles were Jay's favorite.  How did they get such a funny name?

I laughed about having to buy such cute little containers when I usually buy the giant packages!

We ate sandwiches and soup and prepackaged hamburger helper and rice dishes.  Mixed with frozen or canned veggies and a loaf of French bread, it was pretty good.  Dad wanted to eat out for one meal a day, but we made the others.  Apples and bananas.  Cold cereal or fried eggs for breakfast.  And muffins in a microwave!

It's much easier than I thought it would be.  Grease coffee cups (one cup for each 1 1/2 to 2 regular muffins), scoop in the mix, and nuke.  I did four cups in 3 minutes.  The batter doesn't brown, so I sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar before I put it in the microwave.  And yum.  Now I have a new quick breakfast for the early-morning boys.

More Pictures

And you thought I was done, huh?  Settle back in your seat.  I've got more pictures, then I'll be done.  Promise.

sucker for the flag - highway overpass, Petersburg

lovely wood detail -  farmer's market in old town Petersburg

wouldn't stop so I could shoot him

Civil War cannon - siege of Petersburg

long layovers at the airport

out the little window of the plane

happy to be nearly home

Coming Back With Pictures

Wow it was hard to be gone from my family.  Surprisingly to me, it was even harder to come back.  I've spent the last week in a downward spiral, but I think I'm pulling out of it now.  What a mess I am sometimes.

But now I'll bore you with pictures from my recent trip to Virginia.  Feel free to duck out as I plug in the slide projector and set up the screen.

 icy sunset somewhere over the midwest

traveling buddies - glad we always got seats together

happy sign at the airport

colorful leaves for Opa and Alec

sightseeing with the army graduate

cute little garden - love the fence

Alec taking panoramic pictures of the colors

rail fence in Colonial Williamsburg

shoreline near Jamestown

fun fountain near to commemorate Jamestown

James River

Dad at City Point - loved the tree tunnel behind him

what kind of trees are these without bark?

did better than he thought he would

gorgeous sunset over the Appomattox River

Traveling

I've traveled six thousand miles over the past five days, left my home and family, and had bad jet lag - twice.  I have decided that I really don't like traveling.  Not without my family.  And nothing would convince me to leave some of my family... except my own flesh and blood.  In this case, my eldest.

When Alec started basic training, I waited anxiously for his letters. I loved it when he could call home, and I worried about him.  That's what a Mom is supposed to do, right?

I remember that when I left home for the first time, I was all too happy to leave.  And I didn't want to come back.  But I did.  And then I didn't.  And I loved being gone, and having my new, grown-up life.  But I loved coming back home gone with my family, too.  It was a hard, awkward mix for the first while.

Alec was glad to be gone, too.  I think most kids are.  But the first time he mentioned basic training graduation, it was only too obvious that he wanted us to be there.  Oklahoma was a long way from our home.  But we were there for him.  That's what families do.  We're there for each other.

Alec and his Opa have an especially close relationship.  Alec is his first grandchild, and they  have always been buddies.  I really wanted to take my dad with us to see Alec's basic training graduation, but I was afraid the long trip with our rowdy active family would be too much for him.

So we hatched a plan to get my dad out to see Alec.  After basic training, Alec had nine more weeks of training in Virginia, and I thought it would be fun to fly out for that graduation.  Obviously it is too expensive to take our entire family (even though Angel cried to me on the phone first time I called home that she needed a "ticket to the plane, too").   But my dad and I could go.

We had a good time, even though I cried all the way as I was leaving.  I'm a mess like that.  This Mom has a hard time going away from her kids.  Dad and I went to Alec's graduation, did some sightseeing, rested lots, and spent some good time with this boy who is quickly becoming a remarkable man.  How did that happen, I'd like to know!  I'm sure I haven't had him long enough.

And now I'm returning home.  I'm melancholy to leave Alec there, but he has another month of Airborne training before he can come home.  But I miss my other kids.  I miss my man.  I'm sure my bed has missed me.

And I can do without being away for quite a while.  I'm really just a homebody... and I like it that way.

The Call

After graduation, Alec had to return to his barracks with his group,and I picked him up later so we could spend the day with him.  When he slid into the front seat of our (much nicer than I thought it would be) rental car, there was a pile of papers on the seat.  As he reached to grab them, he realized that the big white envelope was for him, and his eyes flew open wide.  I got him.  Evened up the score a little.

A few weeks ago, Alec called home like he usually did. In the course of the conversation, he casually mentioned that when I flew out, I might want to take a later flight that day, as his mission call might be coming in the mail.  Ok.  Wait.  Your what??

Alec had prepared the paperwork necessary to send in his mission application before he joined the army.  We were working in it back here.  He told me that he would wait until he got home to send it in.  But then he sent it in earlier, and didn't.  tell.  his.  mother.  I'm sure his dad was laughing his head off in Heaven.  Jay loved to pull surprises on people, and Alec has a healthy dose of that in him, too.

So when I got the big white envelope in the mail from church headquarters...  as I was pulling out the driveway to head to the airport, of course...  I didn't tell Alec that I had it.  We had hoped, but not expected it to come that day.  It was a good surprise.  Touché, my dear boy.

We hurried back to the hotel where Alec carefully opened the letter.  Tears ran down his face (manly ones, I assure you) as he read, "You are called to serve in the Cape Town, South Africa mission."  I'm still teary, and excited, and gonna-miss-you-honey as I type. He'll report to the missionary training center there in South Africa in the spring.  He made some happy phone calls and posted his news on Facebook.

Coming kind-of-soon, to an area not-so-near you (actually more far, far away than anything): my Alec.  And he'll be awesome.

Army Graduation

Have I mentioned enough times that we had a rough time with our travel from home to Virginia? We got waylaid in Chicago long enough that we were going to miss our last connecting flight. Hooray for some hard working airlines people who got us a more direct flight instead. Even still, we got to that last airport after the car rental counters had closed. We had to take what cars were left... and we didn't get a good deal. And then we had to drive for what turned out to be two hours to get to our hotel... at 2 am. Or was it 3? Regardless of our exhaustion, Alec's graduation was bright and early at 8am, local time. That's 6 am for the time our bodies were used to.

Dad and I managed to drag ourselves out of bed and find the right building on the army base. Challenging after having been given wrong instructions twice. Dad slowly climbed the flight of stairs to get to the auditorium. We slipped into our seats as the graduates began to line up to get their certificates. Close. I knew we were fine because they go in alphabetical order, and we're not at the beginning.

To my surprise, they called Alec's name first!  And there he was, in the front of the line.  He earned the highest marks of anyone in his entire class, and graduated with top honors as Distinguished Honor Graduate.  Of course, my iPhone refused to turn on when I was that insistent in it turning on NOW.   So I didn't get any pictures of him walking across the stage or shaking hands with the Army brass who were at his graduation.  But I saw it.  At least I made it there.  Whew.  I'm a good mom after all.  Barely.

...to be continued...