What A Military Mom Does When Her Son is Deployed

We had not heard from Tyler in awhile. I was sitting in church yesterday praying for him and wondering when he will call again. Since he is in the Special Forces he can never tell us where he is, where he has been, what he is doing or what he has done. It is hard to hear of turmoil in some parts and deaths and wait and wonder.

It seemed like today that Sarah (Tyler's girlfriend) is also growing concerned. The days seem quite long as we wait in between calls.

Yesterday during church I realized that I was probably doing stuff that only Military families do. My cell phone's vibrate mode is broken. So while Dw is preaching I have the phone on silent but sitting on that seat so it is in my peripheral vision. If it lights up I see it immediately. If I am looking the other way for a second, I quick look back to the phone....did it light up? I click to have it light up. I click it again to check it again.

During worship I thought, what will I do? So I turned the volume to full blast and tucked my cell phone into my shoulder strap. I was wearing a jacket so no one could see it - although I might have looked like I had a shoulder-pad-gone-bad on. I kept it up high all during the worship just in case it rang I could hear it almost next to my ear. When people were leaving and I was greeting at the door, again, it was in my shoulder strap.

The picture on the left is my favorite picture of Tyler. I can hear him laughing when I look at it. Abigail took the pictures when she was home with all the kids in March, just before TyTy deployed.

Probably most can't understand, but while we wait for that precious phone call from our handsome oldest son, we will do anything to be certain that we don't miss his call. How proud we are of you dear Tyler. You are OUR HERO!! We LOVE you and can't wait for you to come HOME

!

Nelly

Liberty's dog was hit and killed on the road in January. We were all heartbroken. It's amazing how 5 little pounds can work their way into your hearts. There are days I still tear up thinking about that little muttly named BooBoo. We have prayed and searched for a companion like our little BooBoo was. He was a Schnoodle and loved people. He didn't have a mean bone in his body and he was definitely not a yapper. Lapper (lap dog) yes, yapper no.


So a couple of weeks ago I drove Emma and Graham to Denver for ATF. Emma has been enjoying the long distance company of one special young man since camp last summer Since our church wasn't going to ATF we asked if Emma and Graham could go with this young man's church?? It was a 'yes' and so I drove them up there.


While they were at ATF I stayed with my one of my dearest friends Jo. She and I grew up together, she was in my wedding and she is also my accountability partner. There is no one on earth (except my husband) that I can laugh with like her. We laugh about old stuff, new stuff and everything inbetween. We are able to just be ourselves, totally. And we know too much about each other that we will always have to be friends. (Right Jo?) I treasure her friendship.

So Jo and I drove all over Denver looking for a puppy replacement. I couldn't find a Schnoodle at all, so decided maybe I ought to get a Schnauzer and make our own Schnoodles. I ended up with the sweetest little girl dog. I brought her home (unbeknownst to Liberty) and gave her my purse. I said, "Look inside, I brought you a little something." Liberty was thrilled. She dresses her up in dolly clothes and from the looks of things the puppy obviously doesn't mind at all.

Here is the newest furry addition to the family - introducing Nelly!!!

A Place Called Simplicity

I am beginning this blog at the beginning. I have had such fun posting to Isaiah's journal, yet there is so much more to me and to my family, that it seemed only appropriate to begin a family journal.

So from the beginning.......Dwight and I are very happily married (30 years this coming August) and we have a boatload of kids, seven (so far!!!) to be exact!

Recently I spoke at church and mentioned having a boatload of kids. A lady visiting was heading out the door after and said, "You said you have a boatload, how many do you have?" I suspect she thought I had two and was calling that a boatload.












Just to take a little detour here, one time there was a lady who asked how many kids I had. I told her. She said, "Well I only have one, but trust me, he keeps me waaaay busier than yours do, cause you just don't know my one!" I was polite (we pastors wives have to be polite, after all she was saying this in the church foyer). Of course I was thinking, "Have you never heard of the words "time out" or "discipline"??....

Back to the other day and the lady asking about my boatload.....I replied that we had 7 kids.....she smiled and said, "Yup, you're right you have a boatload." She had four (her own sweet boatload).

Like I was saying....our boatload is getting even bigger (more about that later) so there is alot to keep up with. We have had several big events in the last few weeks, so I think I will write a post about each one separately. It's just not so much fun to share the spotlight with everyone else when you are one of the boatload of kids around here.

So join our family as we simply journey through life!

(PS The pic was taken a short hop, skip and jump from our little log home (A Place Called Simplicity) ....that's the Rockies in the background! I think we get to live in the prettiest place on Earth!)