...and He lifts me up!

As I am sitting here in the airport waiting for our flight to Baltimore, I have been thinking about Louisiana and all the memories there. Thinking about how the last 2 years seem to have flown by so quickly - almost a blur in my mind. It seems to soon to be leaving, like we were just getting started. I started looking at some pictures that I had taken over the past few days as we said goodbye to friends, and began to feel sad. Even alone.

SO I started thinking about my friend Beryl and how she always reminded me to call on scripture and all of God’s promises. Just as I started thinking about how God’s word tells us that where I go He will be also, Morgan busted out singing. Nothing unusual for her, but what was neat was the song she was singing, and of course dancing to. It was a song that she learned when Uncle Charlie came to our church for a concert. It says…”I get down, and HE lifts me up!” “…in the darkness HE shines through”. Praise God for little children. Words so simple, yet so powerful to me right now. He is our Joy. Not a temporary, emotional smile, but an internal JOY! A joy so imbedded in us that it lives in the very depth of our soul. A joy that when we close our eyes (okay, you don’t have to actually close them) but when you just stop, and focus, and think about where you are in life, where you have been and where God is sending you, you find peace. Comfort in knowing that God is leading you and THAT is your Joy. As Christians we are given this joy, and the more that we learn, study God’s word and develop a relationship with HIM, the more that joy grows. What is interesting to me is that the joy that we have is so easily stomped on by life’s day to day activities.

This move has been such a roller coaster of emotions for our family. We KNOW that we are supposed to let God lead and ‘cast all our cares to him” but yet we get so busy and caught up that we forget, no, we choose without recognizing that we are choosing, to not let God be in control. Every time something would not go as planned I would go into ‘react mode’ and not think for one moment that there could be a purpose for this speed bump larger that I realize. In fact the last thing I did was say “well, thank you Jesus that so and so worked out…” Shame on me. I eventually was there, but not after having a small tantrum. What did others see in me? Especially those who were inconveniencing me. They saw sarcasm (yes, I know you’re surprised) and frustration. The worst thing was that my family saw the worst of it. I will say that I contained myself pretty well at times. Like when I went to get Mark’s uniforms at 9am and was told that I had to come back at 2pm because the workers there couldn’t count money. WHAT!?!??!! I did tell her that she should unplug the OPEN sign if they couldn’t do business. Oops, lost it a little I guess. But in my defense, there were many more things going on in my mind that I didn’t say. I kept thinking about that verse in James that says we should be slow to anger, slow to speak, and quick to listen. I get point for trying right? But did I stop and thank God for the other things that had been going well for us that morning? No. I loaded our already fighting children in the car they complained about getting out of, and now were complaining about getting into. Then sped out of the parking lot. Well, I was in a red sports car. J

Had I been in God’s word that morning? Had I invited God to be a part of my day? Sadly no. I have done better in general about inviting God into the ‘small things’ but I am still a work in progress. I figure I must be doing better when we find a great parking space and my daughter says “thank you Jesus for this great spot”. Sounds silly, but why not that Him for good parking spots. So when we don’t get such a great spot we say “Thank you Jesus for healthy legs and a beautiful day to walk”. See the difference here? By doing that in the little things, we can keep that joy on the top and not let things like “Geeze - that guy took my spot!” and driving around for minutes complaining about cars that take multiple spots. Okay, the people that use 2-3 parking slips for their cars still bug me, but they don’t care, they are not there, so why get bothered by it?

Now I m on the plane and as I begin to write again, I am reminded about the lady that was in front of me here on the plane. She laid her seat all the way back. I think her seat must be broken because I was practically breathing in her hair. The back of her seat was on my knees. I don’t know, when I lay my seat back I always check out what is going on behind me and often ask that person if they mind. I thought since it was early, maybe she wanted to get cozy and take a nap. NOPE. She sat up in her seat and hovered over her tray to look at a book!! Since then, Morgan and I traded seats so that she and Madison could watch a movie. The guy in front of me now had his seat back already. Not as far though. Far enough that I can’t have the screen all the way open, but not as bad. I can’t see the screen at this angle. But he too is sitting straight up doing some reading. Maybe he is claustrophobic? ;-) So I guess I will have some major editing that I need to do since I am just typing whatever comes to mind. Scary, I know.

We are on our way to Baltimore for a whirl wind of visits and last looks before heading out across the pond. Mark’s schedule is already booking up for events and meetings once we arrive and he assumes command. One of the smartest things we did was stay at a hotel in Dallas the night before leaving and having a shuttle load and unload our excessive amount of luggage.

God is continuing to look after us. Duh, I know. A friend offered to drive us to Dallas so we didn’t have to wait and see what surprise mode of transportation we would have. We were loaded down in there. I think her truck probably floated all the way back to Bossier!! I want to write about friends, but this is getting long, so I will save that for another day. Sorry no pictures again - I need an adapter to add pictures, which was mailed, so you’ll have to hang in there and visualize….don’t we look good? We are all smiling…I’m much thinner…the sun is shining behind us…okay, you get the picture. Now Christa can photo shop the image!

Hugs to all - Jen

Nightmare on Cressmont St....

Disclaimer...

I like to read happy things on blogs or emails. I like to tell about the happy things. But we are a real family, living an all to real life. Since writing is therapeutic for me, I can't seem to find a piece of paper, and they look at me weird when I start writing on the boxes...this is my newest avenue of release. For those of you who want a feel good blog, check back another day. For those of you who want to know about the day to day, good , bad, and ugly, read on...

What is going on??? Our packers arrived as planned on Tuesday - 2 of them - but they were fast... On Wednesday, 2 packers arrived at 10:30 and said that the rest of the packers that were supposed to be here were called to another job.

Only one of the packers on Wednesday was from Tuesday- the other was s..l..o..w. SO, instead of crating us on Thursday like planned, they still had to pack some and crate some. They are here again today crating the last of our things. WHAT AN ORDEAL!!! This will be our 6th move and NEVER have we encountered such bad business. It's tough really, the ones who are packing us are great and doing all they can, but that is limited by their boss who keeps calling them to other jobs.

The crate they brought for Mark's bike was too small, so they needed to get a different crate - no problem, right? Well, today they tell us that they can't crate the bike that they will have to do it on Monday, because they are getting 2 15k lb shipments in and they are trying to move those out. Sorry, I don't care. We have been as flexible as we can but there comes a time when enough bending has occurred. NO GO JOE! We are closing Monday at 11am. Then they wanted to load it into a truck and crate it at the warehouse. Yea...NO. SO after pushing the issue, they will bring a crate today.

What a hassle. On a good note, we were able to sell the car to Landers Dodge - now they will mark it up and list it for about $4k more. What a shame. But what a blessing to us to not have to worry about it and get title info and all the red tape - we dropped it off, they gave us a check for the difference of pay off and away we go....

We have moved to the lodging on base and on Monday we will out process, close on the house and be on our way to Dallas. We are not quite sure how we will be getting to Dallas. No one can guarantee us a type of vehicle. We found one reservation that could give us a ford Escape. But they didn't know about anything bigger. Grrrrrr.

We had a sermon this past Sunday about Satan. Boy is he at work in our lives right now. Little things that we thought we under way are falling apart. We are doing our best to keep our focus and not freak out. I wish I could say I have not freaked out at all - but I can't.

When you move overseas, they give you allowances for rent and deposits, but you don't see that money till you have in processed and it usually isn't a big deal because you are in temp living arrangements for a while. Since we are assuming the outgoing commanders place, we will be moving in right away. Great right? Well today it was brought to our attention that we have to have all those deposits when we arrive since we will be moving right in. YIKES!! Our sponsor said that we should come with about $8k cash to get things set up. No problem. HAHAHAHAHA!! We will have some from the sale of the house, but...uh...

"in all things give praise" So I am praising and trusting. God is good and he will meet our needs. A good friend reminded me that in all things we are supposed to think on what is true. So I have decided to stop thinking on the "what ifs" and the "if onlys" and think on what I know to be true.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we embark this journey. We are each feeling the effects of the move in different ways - but all the ways are intense emotions. In a few short days we will be on our way to Baltimore to see family and then off we will go to Germany. I am looking forward to Monday at 1pm when the hassle will be over. If we can just find a way to Dallas now...

C A L G O N!!!! TAKE ME AWAY!!!!!

We are in the throws of packing - the professionals will be here in 10 hours. We have LOTS to do! Time is not our friend right now! SO many woulda, shoulda, couldas...

Wanted to be certain everyone has our new email address...

4parrotts@gmail.com

See you there! I will have pictures to post from the packers I am certain!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Today is Father's day! I wish that it could have been another time. I feel like Mark gets cheated whenever we move because it always falls around Father's Day or His Birthday. Poor guy. This year we decided on a gift a little early so that he could enjoy it before our packers come on Tuesday. Here are some Pictures of him installing his Highway Bars on his bike. He had some great help from Madison...

Chance of rain

Well wouldn't you know it has been raining like crazy here! I am such a sucker for letting the girls get water logged in the puddles. Okay, so it happens to give me another oppertunity to play with my camera...you got me. So, here are the pictures of my puddle jumpers...

We are eating... in the JUNGLE?!?!?!

Wednesday we drove to Texas, just north of Dallas to drop off my van to begin it's journey to Germany. We thought that it would be a fairly painless journey - until we arrived. Apparently if you are still making payments on your vehicle, you have to have a letter from the lien holder releasing you to take the vehicle out of the country. Things that would have been good to know THE DAY BEFORE!!!! God was surely watching over us that day! The people at the VPC could have very easily said - "sorry, come back when you have that" and sent us on our way, but instead they took pity on us and did everything in their power to help us out. We had not been the only people that day that had been ill informed about what we needed!! Trust me, I plan on making a stop to the TMO office here and letting them know how much I appreciate their LACK of direction! Just to fill you in I sat in a briefing to learn about what to do and not to do and they never mentioned this small detail! After our 2.5 hour visit at the VPC, we met with our good friends Rob and Tammy!

Mark and I had decided that the last time I had seen them was in 1999 on our Cruise! WOW how our lives have changed since then! Now we are parents and have to be grownups!

Here we all are...I just today found a picture of the four of us on our cruise. We look a little different then we did 8 years ago - I'll blame the children!

They have a daughter, Lauren, who is so sweet I wanted to box her up and keep her! Madison took a special liking to her. Their twin boys, Colin & Jack were just precious! They will never get in trouble as long as they keep those sweet lil smiles they flash so sweetly!

The girls were so amazed by the VOLCANO, how could we NOT get one! It fed all 7 of us! The boys had already eaten and were busy sleeping.

I was so blessed to see them during such a hectic time in our lives! I hate that it took us 2 years to get over there to see them. There are not many couples that you can get together with and pick up right where you left off! Even after having children and so much time passing by. It was like we had just seen them a week ago!

Tammy & Rob you are simply fabulous and we are so glad to call you our friends! See you in Germany!!!!

Wait a minute Mr. Postman...

We have our snail mail address... get those care packages ready...:-)

Major & Mrs. Mark Parrott
PSC 9 Box 3146
APO AE 09123

Be sure to write that in pencil - in two more years you will undoubtedly have another!

Tomorrow we will be driving to Dallas to drop off the van, so it can be on it's way across the pond. We will be in Mark's car until it sells. We thought we had it sold but the dude backed out. So if you know anyone looking for an awesome car $2k below blue book - 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT with upgraded engine and some other good junk, let us know!!!

After we drop off the van, we are going to meet with some friends that we were stationed with at Ellsworth!! We get to meet with them every so often. Some of you may remember when we went on a cruise with them in 99...Before we all had kids!! They now have a 4 yr old daughter and brand new twin boys!!! We are excited to have the opportunity to meet up with them! I am sure I will blog all about it!

Later!

LOST

It FINALLY happened, after weeks of anticipation...Madison has lost her first tooth.

Mark and I had just put the girls to bed and Madison came in our room telling us that she thought her tooth was 'looser'. Then she told us how she was moving her hands around and hit herself in the mouth. While telling us she did it again! She closed her mouth, had an odd look on her face and spit out her tooth.

She looked at her hand and said "eww what is that?"

we said "it's your tooth"

her, screaming crying: "I don't want it out!!! Put it back!!! I don't like it!!!

Knowing how she is about blood, Mark was quick to keep me from showing her herself in the mirror and had Madison start rinsing her mouth out. All while we were trying to calm her down and keep her from seeing us laugh.

Meanwhile...Morgan had been having a rough evening. She was having some issues with NOT wanting to go poo... She comes into the bathroom and upon hearing Madison's news began to hysterically jump and squeal "Madison's tooth is out!!! Yippee!!! I can't believe it happened!!"

While Madison was being traumatized Morgan was so excited that she had to make a quick exit to the potty because her "bodily functions" were working on their own!!

All this drama happened in about 7 minutes!

Madison then began to warm up to the idea of her tooth being out and we called Grammie and Poppop with the news then went to see our neighbors Jon & Julie. Fortunately they are all late night people seeing as it was about 9-9:30.

So now she is our toothless angel. She is growing up sooo fast, I can not keep up! Every time I close my eyes, she looks older.

So long...farewell...

Well the day has come to disconnect from the Internet and pack up our computer. We were planning on sending our computer with our household goods (next week) but then realized that we would not have our computer till late August. Yikes! So we thought we would send it tomorrow in our unaccompanied baggage which should be in Germany mid July. We will still have access to check mail at our new address 4parrotts@gmail.com, and I hope to update our blog while we are home with family.

Check back for updates!

Strings attached

Today Mark was looking through the Bossier Voices paper and there was an article about a store relocating that was called "The String Shop". He had been talking for a while now about getting new strings for his bass. So off he and Madison went to look for some strings! While they were there Madison found a guitar that was just her size and 'way cool'. It was blue and had a flower as the body of the guitar and a leaf at the head. She has taken an interest in playing, so we will keep that guitar in mind. Mark came home and put on his new strings right away. Madison was ready to play. Mark is in love with his bass all over again. Thought I would share these shots...

Kids say the darndest things...well Morgan does...

Here are some silly things that have come out of the mouths of our girls lately...

In the car....
Madison: Hey daddy, can we listen to 'two thousand years ago' (a song)
Morgan: Hey Maddie, take the WE out and just say I cause there is no WE...I don't wanna listen to that song!!

That past few days the girls have had a fort in the living room made of LARGE boxes, we took it down on Wednesday...This Saturday morning...

Morgan: HEY! Where did the fort go?
Madison: Morgan, It's been gone for two days, you know that!

There are more - but these two were first on my mind and Mark is distracting me so I can't concentrate!

Playground Fun

Today the appraiser dude came to measure our house and do whatever it is he needs to do. Since the girls and I could not be here we decided to run some errands. As we were leaving Madison commented in an ever so sarcastic way how she was BORED of running errands. So I reminded her in a very Mary Poppins tone, that you never know where a HAPPY HEART may take you. To prove my point, and quickly before her mood changed, we pulled into the school parking lot. "What are we doing here?" she asks... "I thought you may like to play on the play ground before we go to the base" I say. "You better believe I do!!!!" And zoom she was off. Oh yeah...the Mom points were racking high now!!

She was so funny running up to the swings. She went up to the side and stood there a moment and smiled. Then I hear her say "can I go next please...oh yeah...I can go now because THERE IS NO ONE HERE TO TAKE MY PLACE AND HOG THE SWINGS!!!!!!" She jumped her lil booty on the seat so fast she about missed the whole seat and landed on the other side.

Morgan was like a child OD'd on caffeine. She went from thing to thing so fast I could hardly catch her for a picture! She did stop and strike a few poses for the camera though...

They had a blast today. Madison was sure to tell Morgan how to play on each piece of equipment - and Morgan was patient to listen, and then do what she wanted anyway. :-)

Scrap booking surprise..

Once a month I join a group of fabulous women at church to scrapbook. I love it! It is cheaper than therapy and it's an opportunity to fellowship & learn. Every month there is a different group of people that come. Some times there will be 12 of us and others there will be 4. This month was great, some of my favorite people were there. I was told that the regularly scheduled night was going to be moved up because they wanted me to be able to come once more before I moved. I thought that was pretty cool. Little did I know that this was a planned surprise goodbye thing for me. I was so touched. I love these women. They each have touched my life in such a special and often unique way! LOL. I can be silly with them and I can confide serious issues with them. I must add that they all put up with a lot from me. They dish out their fair share of sarcasm, that's how I know they love me too! I know that next month they will be so bored. The better remember to bring a radio since I will not be there to sing for them.

This picture is of the women who were there Friday night. They are from left to right: Amy, me, Autumn(hiding), Kelly (our leader), Caela (my military mentor), Lauren, and the two trouble makers in the front are Kristy (partner in crime) and Christa (sweet girl I am corrupting).

I will miss them all dearly, and they will all hold a special place in my heart. Their husbands will all remember me as the one who made their wives NEED a cricut cutting system. Sorry fellas!

The Hello Kitty Club

This is the official headquarters of the Hello Kitty Club. I found this tent at Target last year on sale. It was a $34 tent and I paid about $4. It is great for keeping the LA bugs out! The girls were excited when I pulled it out and they spent a good amount of time setting it up. I became a bit nervous when they began to add things like Baseball bats. I asked Madison why she was putting it in there and she simply said "oh, you never know when you might just need it". then she turned to her sister and said "now get in the tent Morgan". Hmmm.

This gave me my first opportunity to try out my new camera!!! Thanks to mine being stolen by Northwest Airlines!!! Sorry, still a bit bitter. I love it! It has an incredible 15x optical zoom. Now I can take pictures of precious moments without the girls knowing about them. Only I wish there was a way to have Morgan STOP picking her nose! Yuck!!! At least she isn't eating them anymore. I know because she tells me. :-)