Sunday, October 25, 2009

Three little ducklings.....

Another day in the life at home! Notice the one sock off and one sock on....Enjoy :-)


Saturday, October 24, 2009

Princess Party

Time to get back in the habit of blogging again!! For starters, the Captain has arrived safely at his abroad location and we've been able to connect via phone and internet on a semi-regular basis. He seems to be doing well and is just eager for the countdown of our separation to begin. We are adjusting to life apart from our Captain...we have good days and bad days.

The Captain has been requesting some updated pictures of the girls. Our little ducks had a princess birthday party to attend today and so what better excuse to snap some new pictures?!! Baby duck kept moving out of the shot before the camera snapped so we'll have to attach a separate picture.

"We sure love and miss you Captain!!".

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Memory Verse

So, here is last week's memory verse. I'm sorry the kids are horizontal...the Captain decided to leave his camera and take mine and Mama Duck is still trying to figure the darn thing out! =)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A Gift

The alarm clocks were set and ready to go off at 5:30 am. The Captain and I stumbled into bed at 2:30 am after a day filled with trying to just get life in order.

The day began with a frustrating 2 hour visit at the JAG office. After days of compiling paperwork and legal documents to prepare for deployment, it just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment to have to hash through it all again on our last day together. The remainder of the day was filled with more paperwork, packing and laundering the Captain’s gear and other tasks too numerous to mention to get our house in order.

Before we knew it, the alarms were sounding. It was time to get up and take the steps we had been dreading – it was time to start our good-byes. We quickly got dressed and ready and woke each little duck. We gave them their ‘Daddy Dolls’ (see picture). Each little duck has their own doll with a recorded message from the Captain. We piled into the car and headed for the airport. We had decided in advance to just say our goodbyes at ticketing and head home rather than hang around at the airport. After a tearful farewell it was a lonely drive back to our house.


About 2 blocks from home, my cell phone rings – it is the Captain.
Our conversation goes something like this:
CAPTAIN: “They didn’t pay for my ticket”
MAMA DUCK: “You don’t have a ticket?!?!”
CAPTAIN: “My orders didn’t come through correctly and so they booked the ticket but didn’t pay for it. I’m on the phone now trying to straighten everything out but why don’t you come back to the airport because I’m going to be here for a while”

I had NO IDEA our car could turn around so quickly. We tore back to the airport eager to spend just a little more time with our precious Captain.

**NOTE: I share this next part for the benefit of my family as it is just another testimony to how wonderful Ames IA can be. Sitting next to the Captain’s gear was a young man covered in Cyclone wear. I couldn’t help but ask: “Are you from Ames?”. He broke into a huge grin and shared that indeed he was. Well, we had to just take his picture. Of course, I asked if he knew any of my relatives and sadly, he did not.

The Captain got off the phone and it was clear that they were not going to be able to re-ticket him until the next day. There it was. We had been given a gift! The gift of another day together as a family that was free from the stress of packing or tying up loose ends! Indeed “every good and perfect gift comes from above!”. Isn't our God wonderful?! (Also...kind Ames IA boy helped carry the Captain's gear out to our car and thanked the Captain for his service!!).


So, what does one do with a free day?
We sang praises of thanksgiving the whole car ride back home.
We enjoyed a family breakfast together.
We crawled back in bed for a little more sleep.
We took the kids swimming together.
We had a root beer float in the middle of the afternoon just because we could.
We enjoyed time out at the dollar theatre, followed by dinner, a trip to the book store and we enjoyed another night to tuck the kids in as a couple.

What a delicious day and a delicious gift. Now, our alarms are set once again for 5:30 am so that we can get the Captain to the airport on time for his flight tomorrow morning.

Monday, September 7, 2009

School is back in session

We kicked off another year of homeschooling last week and enjoyed getting back into routine! As part of our school-year activities, we are going to post video of the girls reciting their memory verse each week. Here is this week's verse:

Camping over Labor Day

We decided to beat the Labor Day rush and went camping Thurs/Friday with the girls. We ventured up to Cloudcroft NM and enjoyed great hiking, wildlife (night time visit from some raccoons), and good times around the campfire. Here are a few pictures from our adventures:

Middle duck dancing with pine needles:



Baby Duck bundled up by the campfire:



Big Sis Duck waiting patiently to roast marshmallows:


Mama Duck and girls outside the tent:


The Captain and girls:

We're Back!!

Where to begin?! This will have to be a verbal post only as there are WAY TOO many pictures to adequately cover the wonderful trip we had back home visiting family and reconnecting with great friends! Suffice it to say we had a fabulous time and many fond memories from a summer trip back to MN/WI and Kansas City. We'll have to send the pictures via e-mail once we have them all compiled and organized. In the mean time: THANKS EVERYONE for an incredible trip!!