Lots of "co-op"eration going on

 As I think about the time that has passed since I last seriously blogged, I feel a little guilty. Then, I stop and think about ALL that we have going on with our little growing family....well, different seasons, I guess. :)

One of our adventures here at Edwards has been starting up the Edwards Christian Homeschool Co-op (ECHO). We are in our second year of ECHO and it has been a wonderful experience for us all. We meet every other Friday for the whole year and all the classes are taught by moms and dads here on base!! The day starts at 1000 and goes until 330.




Here is a sample of the classes that we have been able to offer: sewing (Abbie has made a purse and a quilt. This year she is making a shirt and skirt, for her sister, because Mom doesn't know how to measure); robotics (Will is one of four on his team); biology w/a lab; choir; art; excellence in writing (the teacher is FAB-U-LOUS); survival skills; lego challenge (Mollie's favorite!!); poetry; mock trial; geography; all sorts of pre-school fun for Miss EmmaLee.

Not only has it been a great experience for the kids, but for me as well. Last year I taught Geography and really loved working with all the kids. I don't know how much geography they actually learned....but they always left my class with candy (gotta be the fav). This year I have stretched myself a little farther and I am teaching a program called Excellence In Writing to 4th-6th graders. I spent some time this summer becoming a Registered Instructor with this program. It is my hope that at the end of this year I will become a Certified Instructor. AND, if that falls through, there is always my psych degree to fall back on. Homeschoolers have a lot worth analyzing (not to mention their moms) :)

What's in an owl pellet??!!



OH!! But that's not all!! We added another little co-op to the mix this year JUST for pre-k!! This one meets in our homes once a week. We rotate between homes and it is just as fun, but on a much smaller scale. We hosted our first co-op the other week and we learned about the letter C.

Can I just say, that I am in the "having big kids is awesome" phase of life. This is how our afternoon went with these little guys. They all came in and played with puzzles, which Will and Mollie ran for me. Then Abbie brought them to the table and did the sugar cookie craft for them......by herself. Mollie read the Bible lesson from Genesis for me! It was a beautiful thing :)

Where did the time go?

I don't know what compelled me. But I was compelled. I haven't been to this sight in well over a year, and now here I am again. I was quickly reminded of the preciousness of memories and I felt joy and saddness all at once. Joyful to have captured some wonderful moments and so sad that I have let so many slip away since the last entry.

the kids are bigger. Life is busier. So many changes. It is hard to know where to start. Iain and I just celebrated our 14th anniversary yesterday. That is a good place to start. The kids showered me with happy anniversary wishes all day long. Mollie gave us a card, which she dictated to Will, who wrote in his most ornate writing. It said " Dear Mommy and Daddy, Happy fourtenth anaversery, fourteen years being married, and just as long loving one another, love mollie." While much has changed, the one thing that is still the same is the incredible blessing of our family.

I hope I will be back soon.

Defining moments of childhood

Okay, its not a moment. It's a movie. One of the all time great works of cinema, if you ask me. Brilliant song writing, surpassed only by its previous namesake..........GREASE!! This is one of the best songs of the whole movie, Grease 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oLR5AW70zU&feature=related

The beginning of a new adventrue!!!

Today we made some new friends. Riley (sorry sista, yet another canine who shares your name, and yes, it is a boy)and Indie. We also made friends with their owners, Steve and Anne. Riley and Indie are Weimeraners; Steve and Anne are professional pointing/field trainers.....not far outside of the base!! :) They are going to help us as we pursue our new adventure. A dog!!! Not just any dog though; Iain is wanting to pursue the sport of bird hunting. Hopefully our freindship with Steve and Anne will be just what we need to be in touch with an excellent breeder and then eventually begin training (Iain more so than the dog, I am sure) on the "how to" of bird hunting. Here is the problem.....if you know me, I think in pairs. ie...4 kids. So, before we even get one dog, I am already thinking we need two! :) But according to Iain, that is my problem, not his. He thinks he is so smart. If I bid my time....I usually get what I want. ;)

Eleanor, if you read this, I thought you would like to know that Mollie has such a natural ability with all animals, but especially with dogs. She really reminds me of you! :)

What's he flying now???

In the traditon of my posts during TPS, I thought I should post about what plane Iain is flying while he is away. I won't say much, because, knowing me I would break some major security issue and ruin everything. SOOO, I won't say much. :)

The plane is called a BD 700. Before arriving at the desert, he had never actually flown this airplane. He had trained in simulators for a month prior to going, but actual flight time in the plane was when he got in country. Now, Iain acted like this was no big deal. I, on the other hand, was kinda impressed......but I guess if you are a test pilot, that is what you do. Fly strange airplanes in foreign countries. Weeeeelllll, okay. If you "guys" say so.

Anyway, he loves the mission out there, which again I am not going to get into, because I don't like getting in trouble. I'll just say this...........okay, I won't do it. I was gonna give a hint, but then I chickened out. It really isn't a big secret, it is just this being the internet and all......

I am back!

Well, it has been quite a while since my last blog. the lures of Face Book snatched away my attention for a while. While I love some of the great things about FB, I need to get back to a forum of therapy through writing. I miss it, I need to ponder things by writing them out.

That said, not a lot to ponder at this moment. To recap what has happened since my last entry:

Iain graduated from Test Pilot School!! This was a major victory in our home and we are all so proud of each other fro coming thorugh such a challenging and rewarding time. Aftrwards, Iain and I escaped to San Francisco for a few days to celebrate and recoup. Iain returned to work as a test pilot for the 418th. I have continued to home school the kids. This summer we bought a truck and RV!! It has been the most fun thing ever!! We took a 2 week roadtrip in it to Yellowstone, San Francisco and Big Sur. We had the best time ever!! The last day of our trip we got a call (one we were expecting, which is why we took the trip to begin with) that began the process of Iain leaving on a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan.

That brings me to present (more or less in a nutshell). Today marks 4 months of Iain being gone, not counting the month of training he was doing before, but whatever, who is counting? We are now past the longest we have ever been apart. I feel the weight of it. The kids are doing so, so well. We know God has called our whole family to this deployment and we know He has purpose in it. Iain and I feel very much at peace with that fact, and I really have seen that translate over to the kids. They strike me as being very......secure. That is the best word to describe them. They are sad, they don't know why God has called us to this........but they trust us, trusting Him to work it out for great purposes in our lives.

So, I fill my time schooling the kids, running to all kinds of extra curricular activities, working out, cooking (which I love), working with the youth in our church and generally staying as busy as possible. I think that is my coping mechanism while Iain is gone. I don't like to be in the house, idle, for very long or it hurts too much. So, we push, pray and move forward.

Navy Test/Florida/Australia

PC-9

Hawk 127

Flying the F-18.

In Florida flying the Huey.

I am about 2 months behind on my blogging, but it has been a busy 2 months. Let's see if I can touch on the highlights.

When I last left off, Iain was on his World Tour. He went to the East coast first to fly with the Navy Test Pilot School and visit our great friends the Drowns. Then he went to Australia to fly with their test pilots. Most of you probably know this already, but for those of you who don't, Iain is a native Australian. For those of you who don't know Iain at all, no he doesn't have an accent. Not even a hint of one, but his parents still do :) Anyway, he enjoyed his time there very much but it was quite rushed. He was not able to visit as much family as he would have liked to. He did, however get to spend a bit of time with his cousins who live in Sydney. Peter and Nicole and their 3 sweet kids. Iain loved just hanging out with them and spending some great family time together.

The planes he flew in Australia were the PC-9 and the HAWK 127. I will post some of the 100's of pictures he took on his trip. He had a super time. When he got home it was time to gear up for the final days before graduation and boy were they busy ones. (I won't include pictures of our cousins or our friends the Drowns becaseu I haven't asked them permission, but know we love you if you are reading this and that Iain loved his time with you. )