Our Own Space

We’ve been told by people who have been stationed overseas for a while that going back to America can be overwhelming. That once you live in Europe, America is just plain loud and everything’s big. I looked for this distinct difference when we moved here, to Germany. It wasn’t very noticeable, so I decided to look for it when we went back to the states for our first visit. Again, not too noticeable. Except at Chuck E Cheese’s, where everything is over-stimulating anyway. (If I had to hear the “Pizza Dough” song one more time I might have thrown dough at the speakers… the most repetitive song ever made, I assure you.) I wondered if one had to be away from America for more than 10 months for the differences to really take effect. I sort of just shrugged the idea off as something I might be able to notice when we move back in 2 years. Then we got off the plane in Ramstein… we sat down to breakfast (0600 on our bodies, 1200 lunch time here in Germany) at the PX and were enjoying our pizza and Chinese (no IHOP here). I had dismissed the concept of everything being quieter in Germany and had not given it any more thought until that moment… Even in that huge (beautiful, amazing, Air Force) PX food court, it was definitely quieter here. It was noticeable. It was quite comfortable. We knew we were home. At least home for the next 2 years. Don’t get me wrong. When we head back to the US, we will do so with great excitement and joy! We love America and miss so much about her, but I do believe God has put this “thing” in us that causes us to enjoy having “home” move around. Going back to visit our family and friends who still live in the same houses they’ve lived in for many years is nice. It roots us. It’s great to take our boys back to see these houses, the people who live in them and give them a history. (Another blog for another time, I’m sure.) But Matt and I don’t want to be in our forever-house right now. We like the adventure we’re on. We like not knowing where our next duty station is going to be. Well, we are pretty sure our next stop will be the career course at Fort Jackson, but that’s for only 6 months. The next real duty station won’t be revealed to us until we’re halfway through that course… and we like it that way. This way of life would drive most of the people we visited in NC insane, and I say that because many of them have told me that at one point or another. Sometimes I feel like I need to apologize for not being more homesick, then I remember God set this path for us and He has made us for this journey. If I were homesick I would be miserable, because that trek to visit NC is a cumbersome one. Not one I want to make more than once a year, especially with four boys. I am thankful I am so at home where we are, and thankful that Matt and I share the excitement of our life and look forward to being home. Of course, we use that word interchangeably! Going “home” before the trip meant, “going to NC to visit family and friends.” While there it meant, “going back to the place where we have set our household goods and made our own life.” When we got off the plane in Ramstein, we immediately felt at home. The base there has been a treat for us since we moved here as it is just so nice. (Air Force does everything nice.) When we stepped off the C-17 the air was just a touch cooler than brisk, and we were home! The leaves are turning much prettier colors here, as we’ve had more rain than NC, and we were home. The PX felt like home. The autobahn was FAST and we were home. We stopped at WAAF to pick up our mail, and we were home. (Going through the gate and showing our military ID assured us we were home.) We pulled up to our house and walked in the door, saw our stuff, and we were home! And then strange things started happening. Bailey and I immediately noticed that the house smelled exactly like it did when we first moved in. It literally took us back 10 months to the first few weeks we were here. The house had a distinct smell, not bad or good, just, particular. And it was cool inside, just like we like it, and just like it was when we moved in. As we moved about the house, doing the chores of unpacking, I couldn’t help but have moments that felt like we had just moved in and were unpacking for the first time. Bailey hugged the fridge. I kept repeating, “I love my house.” There’s truly NO place like home! Our space.

Additional thoughts:

While in the states I was 100% there. I loved every minute of it, so don’t take the above as a hint that I wasn’t happy there, because I was. I was reliving our childhoods as we spent time with our families. Reliving our time as newlyweds as we walked around the campus of Gardner-Webb. Reliving our time as new parents as we drove past the house we owned when we had the first three boys. Reliving our time when Matt was a youth minister as we saw the church and the people who loved us so well during our time there. Those events are what made us who we are and we are so glad for each of those periods of our lives. I’m just extremely thankful I don’t want to go back and do them again. I feel that there are some people who wish to go back and live in the past and I pray that I always love the season I’m currently in and look forward to the next season with anticipation. God has proven Himself faithful and I can trust Him with my future.

As soon as we got home last night the boys were off and looking at the new playgrounds that have been built while we were gone. They also headed down to Nathan’s house. They’ve missed their friends! They can’t wait to see Owen and Wyatt!!

Dinner last night was homemade vegetable soup that I had prepared and frozen before we left. I stuck it in the crock pot frozen and thawed it in there, and it was great to eat a home cooked meal! We only had a handful of those while on our trip and have missed the hominess of them.

At bedtime each boy had no trouble falling asleep! In fact, earlier in the day I found Carson in the bed just about to fall asleep. I had to make him get up or he was going to fall asleep way too early… poor kid. As I write, it is 0815 local time and everyone is still asleep. That means the boys have been sleeping over 12 hours. Parker slept for several hours before waking at midnight, ready for the day, as it was 0600 on his little body.

Matt and I enjoyed an episode of Chuck after the boys went to bed and it was nice to be in our own living room, our own space, resting together.

Fun places, sweet faces, amazing spaces…

Okay, I’m really having to stretch my mind to come up with titles that include the word “space” so I can tie all my NC 2010 trip blogs together! This is going to be a fast paced blog, peppered with pictures showing some of our fun times in NC. In order to see more pictures you can go to our Shutterfly page, but it'll be a while before I get them all edited and uploaded.

6 October: Ramstein waiting to get out. (I wrote about that here and here.)

7 October: Walking around Charleston Air Base waiting on Nana and Papa; our first taste of Chick-fil-a… YUM!! (I wrote about that here.)

8 October: Driving to NC; Campfire time with the family, one of my favorite pastimes!

9 October: Day with the Ramsey family. They were kind enough to come to us and we started the day at Concord Mills, lunch at Chick-fil-a, running around at a park, and ending up at Outback!!

10 October: Virginia Creeper Trail… This was so much fun! The boys were had a blast riding 17 miles down the mountain and Parker enjoyed his time in the bike trailer behind Matt’s bike.

We also enjoyed getting to spend the day with my brother’s son, Mason! HE’S SO CUTE!!

11 October: Rest day. This day was spent at Nana’s house, doing nothing much. (I wrote about that here.) I promised Parker he wouldn’t have to get in his carseat and I believe he was grateful. This day we celebrated Granny’s birthday with a spaghetti dinner and the boys sang “Zum Geburtstag” to her.

12 October: This was the day we had originally planned to go to the Great Wolf Lodge. We decided against it because we were just having enough fun at Nana’s house! We, instead, went to Chuck E Cheese’s and got to see Granny and Grandaddy one last time. I really wish we had had much more time to just sit and chat with people. Catching up with people is hard when you’re on such a short visit.
That eveningwe had a photographer come to Nana’s house and they took pictures of the family: My mom and dad, their kids and grandkids. I still haven’t seen the results and I really look forward to that!

13 October: Today was Parker’s 7 month birthday so I took his ‘recliner pics’ in mom’s office recliner. It was the closest chair in her house to what I use at home.

We headed to Matt’s mom’s work and surprised her! We waited in one of the exam rooms and her co-workers had her come in to check on a “patient.” My camera was on a strange setting and I got horrible pictures. I didn’t realize this until after the fun was over, so I’ll just do my best with what I got. That night we had dinner with Grammy, Brad and Erin. After dinner we spent some time at Grammy’s house as she lavished the boys with gifts. Parker came home with some really cute clothes!

14 October: Sybil’s dad, PawPaw, was in the hospital during our visit so we went to see him. He really enjoyed meeting Parker and seeing the boys again.
After that great visit Grammy took us all to the House of Mouse (Chuck E Cheese’s) where we got to enjoy the “Pizza Dough” song… again. That night we had Panera for dinner. We were making sure to hit our favorites while we could.

15 October: If you have a chance to go see the Billy Graham Library, take it. Expect to spend about 2 hours if you want to see everything. Absolutely beautiful place, peaceful and such a great tribute to an amazing man of God.

That evening Matt and Sybil headed to the dress rehearsal for Brad’s wedding while I stayed at the hotel a bit longer. I met my parents at the restaurant and gave them the three big boys as they were going to keep themovernight. This gave me the opportunity to enjoythe rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding with out kids, (as they also met me and got Parker from mejust before the wedding).

16 October: Without the big kids Matt and I enjoyed seeing Belmont and ate lunch with one of my friends from college, Kristin. This was the BIG DAY! Matt’s little brother’s wedding day! The reason we were in the US to begin with! I had so much fun taking pictures! The wedding was beautiful and we’ve never seen Brad happier.

After the wedding Matt and I headed to the hotel, where Nana and Papa had landed with all 4 boys. This was a sad moment as it was the last time we would see them on this trip.

17 October: We got to see Grammy one last time, before heading to Boiling Springs. We got some good pictures of her with the boys. It’s never easy saying good-bye! Fortunately, we were looking forward to seeing our friends in Forest City so that eased the sadness a bit. And, we hope Grammy will come to visit us in Germany.

Our first stop in NC was at Mitzi’s house. She and Mitchell fed our family a feast of feasts, including fried okra, which I miss dearly. They say it’s not hard to make but I’ve never mastered it! I ate seconds and wish I had had room to carry the rest home with me. Parker had his first tastes of mac and cheese, potatoes, and green beans. He LOVED it.

The boys went out with Megan (who was a BABY when we moved to FC!!!) to ride 4-wheelers. She taught Hayden how to ride the 4-wheeler that requires him to change gears! Awesome!

The next stop was at Cathy’s house. It was just what I had hoped it would be: tons of talking for the adults, lots of playing for the boys. While we missed seeing several families we would have loved to see, we understand that it’s just impossible on such a short visit.




This image was taken by Heather Ensley... I am so glad she grabbed my camera and snapped a few sunset shots off Cathy's back porch. NC really is beautiful!

The day concluded by a time around the campfire, during which I lost Parker’s paci. We spent a good bit of time looking for it by light of the 4-wheeler, never to find it. Well, we did the next day by the light of the SUN!

Our hotel room in Belmont was very small, in an effort to save money. We had 4 nights in this one and we were ready for more space so when we got to Boiling Springs for two nights we upgraded to a two-room suite. We had a huge whirlpool tub and the boys LOVED that.

Parker had been sleeping in the metal crib and hating it.

He ended up in the bed with us a lot, something I really don’t like. It makes me nervous and I keep checking to see that he’s breathing. The hotel in Boiling Springs had a real pack-n-play and he LOVED it. Slept like a log!

18 October: This was a doozy of a day! We toured GWU and reminisced… it seems like yesterday that we were in college.
They did NOT have a Chick-fil-a on campus back then!

We enjoyed lunch at Fuji Yama before hitting Wally-world, the Christian Bookstore and FCBC . This is the Veteran Memorial at FCBC put together by Alex Hutchins for his Eagle Scout project. It looks awesome!

After shopping we got to see the Martin and Murray families, meeting Eli Martin (I forgot my camera so I borrowed this picture of Eli from Pammy’s FB) and...

Keeliana Murray for the first time.

Next stop, the Franklins so Marie could babysit the big three while Matt and I got to go on a double-date with Anna and David.

We always look forward to these dates and try to fit them in every visit. They had a great new place for BBQ. If you live in NC/SC you should try Daddy Joes BBQ in Gaffney… YUM! We had the “chopped pork with rib sauce” plate. So good! Of course, no date is complete without dessert at Outback.

Yes,we had the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under!! And this was the last thing I could taste on the trip, as I woke up the next morning with a cold…

19 October: We slept pretty late and asked for an extended check out so we could enjoy the pool. Parker had his first experience in a pool and LOVED it. It didn’t hurt that the pool was quite warm and he loves water anyway. He was super cute in his bathing suit!!

Since Hayden couldn’t enjoy the pool he “swam” in the whirlpool. We ate lunch at Bojangles before starting our trek to Charleston. On the way I called and found out that there were two flights scheduled for the next day for Ramstein. Our prayers started at that point, that we would get on the first flight. We signed in to our hotel (a 4 bedroom duplex) and started washing clothes. Matt vacuumed the van out and once the boys were in bed we repacked everything, finding out that we only had to ship one box home. Not bad! We crashed at bedtime, exhausted, and I was feeling rough with my cold.

20 October: Roll call times: 14:10 and 15:10. That means that they were going to start calling names accepted for the flight at 2:10. We were great on time, having decided to get to the airport at 11:30 for check in. We pulled into the terminal at 11:35. We checked in and Matt left to take the van back to Triangle. He was fairly certain he’d be back by 12:30 as the car rental place was only 15 minutes away. At 1:00 I had still not heard from him and they had decided to start roll call an hour early. I worked hard at keeping panic at bay, faking a smile and calm voice with the boys. He had the prepaid phone AND the Nextel with him so I didn’t have an easy way to contact him. That’s when I remembered I had stuck a calling card in my pocket. I used the guest phone to call him (after having to search my Facebook messages to find the number to the prepaid phone). He had still not been PICKED UP by the cab! I was close to panic but had to fake it, still! They started Roll call and when they got to our name I had to walk up there and say, “I think we’re going to try for the next flight.” Praise God for the second fight! Oh, I was so worried! He walked in the door 5 minutes later. I went back to the desk and told them that we would try for this one afterall, and they said that when they had gone through all the CAT III’s they would go back down that list. This time, we were ready and we made the first flight! As it turned out, there were 48 seats on each flight, and only about 60 total people needing to get to Germany. The first flight filled up and those who didn’t fit got on the second. I wonder if being on that second one would have been better, more room to spread out. But it wasn’t worth thinking about. We were glad to be scheduled and checked in. Our flight was delayed two different times by an hour each time. It didn’t phase us, as we were there and going home. We pulled out games and entertained the kids as best we could. When we boarded we were happy to be sitting together for this flight. (On the flight to NC we were separated by a couple… they really should have moved down two seats so we could sit together.)

After 3 hours the plane landed in Maine to refuel before making the trip across the pond. This leg was just over 7 hours and everyone slept fairly well. Parker was up at midnight ready for fun, so I had to entertain him a bit. My cold kept me from sleeping very well, but I was headed home, so that was great! We landed and got to see the rear of the plane open up and them remove our luggage. (That small pile behind the connex was the luggage strapped together.)

As we got off the plane we noticed an amazing difference in temperature from when we boarded! We loved it! Lunch for breakfast at the PX, mail from WAAF, then home, sweet home. In the past two weeks we had slept over the ocean going both directions, in SC, and in three different places in NC. It was worth all the work and effort, seeing all the people we got to see.

Fun places, sweet faces, amazing spaces.

Wide Open Spaces

Everything’s bigger in… North Carolina?!? I thought the saying ended with Texas… Of course, one of the first things we noticed in America was how big all the cars are. And we really enjoyed the big parking spaces, especially since we were driving that huge van! And speaking of big, it was several days before I went into a Target and let me tell ya, HUGE! It was very nice to be able to get everything we needed from one store. In Wiesbaden our shoe store is nowhere near our furniture store, or toys, or sports equipment… We have different places we have to go for each specific item. It was very convenient to be in one store and able to get everything we needed in one stop.

After we left Charleston with Nana and Papa we went straight to visit Nana’s dad, a man we lovingly call “Gramjack.” As the story goes, my cousin, Jason, called him Jack. Trying to get him to say “Grandpa” didn’t work and Gramjack was the result. It stuck. Anyway, Gramjack has recently moved into a new home called Willow Grove and we were so excited to go see his new place. There was recently an article in Matthews Living Magazine featuring Willow Grove with three pictures of Gramjack included! Fun stuff! While there we also saw my aunt and uncle, Janice and David. Janice took Parker out to see the water fountain and he about leapt out of her arms trying to get it. She came back to get us and I followed mom and Parker with my camera ready. I had so much fun capturing his expressions!

David told me a great joke… he’s an Air Force dad: The pilot of a stunt plane came up beside a C-17 and said, “Hey, watch what I can do!” And off he went, doing loops, twists, dives, and twirls. As he finished his exciting demo he came back up beside the C-17. Unimpressed, the pilot of the C-17 said, “Okay, now watch what I can do.” After about 5 minutes of flying straight ahead, steady and smooth, the C-17’s pilot said, “How’d you like that?!?” Confused, the stunt pilot said, “What did you do?” The pilot of the large aircraft said, “I went to the bathroom and got a cup of coffee.”

This is the plane we rode home in.

We had a great visit with Gramjack before heading toward Locust. Mom, Parker and I stopped at the Tomberlin’s house to let me feed Parker while Mom ran to the grocery store. It was a sweet time for Brooke to meet Parker and me to see a side of Brooke I’ve never seen… Usually she’s being entertained by my big boys. This time she was working her hardest at entertaining Parker! She’s such a little momma!

By the time we got to Mom’s house, Hayden was already on the 4-wheeler! We had packed our motorcycle helmet for this very reason. I have to say, boys were made for the outdoors and Nana’s and Papa’s house is a great place for them to explore. Woods, fields, dry creek beds, galore. It is great to be able to send them outside to see what they can get into!

Over the course of our time in NC, we rode 4-wheelers at three different houses. Carson learned to ride Papa’s and Hayden actually learned to ride 4-wheelers that require him to change gears! Bailey was happy riding with either brother who was willing to drive him around. Such a fun experience! These pictures came out totally black and I had to edit them quite a bit in order to see the boys at all.

The next two weeks were followed by amazing fun-ness!