We're moving to......

We're moving to Alaska! 

In early February Derek walked in the door from work.  In his hands were three BEAUTIFUL orange Gerber daisies.  "What are these for?"  I asked as he handed them to me. (I hadn't called him crying from a bad day.  Birthdays and Anniversaries were still months away. )  He held up his phone and began to read me an email he had received from Colonel Allen. She noted that Derek had put GERMANY and ENGLAND down as his 2nd and 3rd choice for location preference. These two places did not have openings, but as they were "OVERSEAS" bases, she wondered if we might consider ALASKA as a possible location for moving.  It was that or Wright Patterson in Dayton Ohio.  The fact that she was actually giving us an option was a big deal we found out later.  In the military, they just don't do that.  You move where they want you to go.  Sure, you can SUGGEST....(which is what we did.)  But we didn't suggest Alaska!

According to the Air Force, Alaska is considered "overseas" even though it is part of the United States.  And rightly so, since you have to go through Canada to get there or take a boat through international waters.

So, Derek was on cloud nine.  His bags were practically packed. He just needed a wife to go along for the ride and he was a little nervous she'd say OHIO instead.  HENCE the FLOWERS!  He didn't even need to spend the money on the flowers.  As soon as he read the words "ALASKA" in the email, I was screaming and throwing my hands in the air.  We were going! Though, I'll be honest, I did pray about this later that evening just to be sure.

The answer was ALASKA.

I had NO IDEA how involved the process would be to move my 4 children 4,000 miles. (I'll document much of this journey so you too can enjoy the ride.)  And when we told our friends and family we where we were going, I was shocked by the replies. From my observations, MOST of the family took it fairly well.  Amongst our friends and associates, 100% of the men we told were thoroughly jealous.  1 out of every 10 women actually expressed excitement at the prospect.  The other 9 were fairly horrified at the idea.  After all, Alaska is known for long, cold, dark winters and lots of ferocious wildlife.  This was a little disheartening.  That is, until we set sight on Alaska.  But in the in between time, we knew this is where God wanted us, so we went in faith.

A mother's fight

May 28, 2011

Sending Tanner to school was a tough decision.  I’ve “sat on the fence” as a good friend of mine once described me, about whether or not I should send him to public school or homeschool him.  This has been a HUGE inner battle for me. Tanner is a sponge.  He absorbs anything and everything in the intellectual world. We present a concept to him, and instantly he gets it.  The trouble is, in public school, they teach “horizontally”, not vertically.  Horizontal is good for the average kid.  I’ll be honest, I’m a big fan of horizontal.  I’m a horizontal learner myself, but for Tanner, he gets the concept, then gets bored with all the extras.  He’s definitely a vertical learner. 

They also have 26 kids in a classroom where Tanner goes to school.  It is one of two best schools in the district, but that’s too many kids for a teacher to allot much time at all to individual attention.  So why did I put him in?  I wanted him to be exposed to other kids, cultures, disciplines, and well, the world.  I knew he already knew the curriculum, but I could supplement at home at his level with curriculum and he could still benefit from “the social stuff” as we like to call it.  That and when he entered Kindergarten I was pregnant with baby number 3 and worried it would be as tough a go as it was having baby number 2. 

Tanner went into kindergarten  reading at the end of a first grade level.  He knew how to add and subtract into the double digits.  By the time he left Kindergarten, he was reading at a 4^th grade level and doing multiplication and division.  Every day Tanner and I would do some sort of education time at home before he went to school.  But his behavior at home was tough.  

By the time he went into first grade, his behavior was beginning to reflect at school too.  Since Tanner doesn’t read my blog, I’ll just say it, but Derek discourages me from using it in front of him:  Tanner was BORED!!! I toughed out the first three months knowing that they were doing a lot of review at first and things would hopefully pick up.  When they didn’t, I met with his teacher for Parent/Teacher conferences.  I asked her to do a specialized test put out by the District called the Math Inventory.  This is an exam that tests their math skills beyond the grade level they are enrolled in.  I knew Tanner was doing higher than 1^st grade math and I wanted us both to know where his skills were. She agreed to meet back in three weeks’ time after she administered the test.  

Three weeks later we met up only to find out she administered a different test.  It was a test that she had created over the summer and it only evaluated him at a first grade level.  I went home and fumed for a few days, then called the Principal.  She backed the teacher up whole heartedly until I asked her, “What do you do when you have a child who is reading beyond their grade level?”  She said they had a test they give to evaluate the reader’s grade level. “So, what do you do if you have a child who is doing math beyond their grade level?”  She confessed, “I don’t know.”  So I committed her to finding out about the Math Inventory test.  A day later she called me back and said that the test did indeed exist and that it would be administered to Tanner.  Progress!

They took another month before they administered the test.  When the results came back, I was given a note in Tanner’s backpack that said a third grader would come three times a week to meet one-on-one with Tanner to do THIRD GRADE MATH.  This was a turning point for Tanner in his behavior.  Though it never completely improved, it was better at school. I was a little disappointed that the School, and/or District didn’t step it up a little more, and I felt like this was all they could think of to appease us, BUT it was something and something is better than nothing at all.  Honestly, the District nor the School has much at all by way of flexibility in how they choose to teach children at different learning levels.  This was all they had to offer, so we grabbed it and were grateful.  

Tanner LOVED his time with his new tutor, Garrett.  He idolized him.  He, a lowly first grader, got to hang out with a third grader. Seriously amazing stuff!

Tanner was never graded on his math time with Garrett.  Neither of them ever received any teacher instruction on how to do the math they were learning.  It was understood that Garrett was a smart kid too and this 3^rd grade math was easy for him.  So all of Tanner’s “instruction” came from Garrett. Tanner was still expected to complete the 1^st grade course work given him in class and this is what he was graded on.

At the end of the school year, I caught the two of them and took this picture.  Thank you Garrett for taking the time to teach Tanner math.  You made his year at school so much better for him!

As for the mother’s fight?  Well, the next time I met for Parent/Teacher conferences, the teacher was calling Tanner “gifted”.  Little did I know that this one word would completely change Tanner’s life.  And since I’m writing this post a year behind, just wait and see what unfolds with my sweet boy!  As for my thoughts at the time of this picture: This battle of mine will continue on to the next school.  Or maybe I’ll homeschool.  But somehow we’ll make things right for him.

Tanner's Recognition

April 28, 2011

Each child at Two Mile Prarie is selected at one point throughout the year to receive an award.  They give these awards out at the assemblies they hold once a month.  Last year, Tanner was awarded in the very first assembly of the year.  This year it was the last. 

In a sea of children, being singled out and recognized can feel really great!

The Principal calls them up to receive a certificate and a new pencil.  She then reads the words that the child's teacher has written on the certificate.

Congratulations Tanner!  We're so proud of you!

After all the children's were excused to go back and sit with their classes, Tanner came back and stood with Lexie while the assembly finished out. These two are such good friends.  They really miss each other when school is in session.

Colin turns THREE!

April 26, 2011

We made it!  We survived the twos with Colin and we're so glad to be embracing the threes! Phew!  Colin's second year of life kept us all on our toes! 

It is no surprise Colin's birthday had a BIG train theme to it.  With the movers coming in just a few days, I'm just grateful we had a little paper available and my Cricut still out to make this cake fun!

At our house, it is all about the CAKE. I surprised Colin with his cake and well, you can see, he LOVED it!  I've been so preoccupied with all that is involved with moving that Colin probably thought we had forgotten about him.  I think it made this birthday all the more special because we stopped life and just focused on our sweet, sweet boy.

Third birthday are just so fun.  it is really the first birthday that they REMEMBER and LOOK FORWARD TO.  They enjoy it so much because they know what to expect. 

Some things we LOVE about Colin:

It takes a phD in linguistics to understand him.  If there's a consonant in the word, Colin replaces it with a "K" sound. It's tough at first, but give him a try and before you know it, he's grabbed your heart and BOTH of your ears!

He captivates you.  Colin has a charisma that captures your attention and keeps you listening for hours.  His eyes widen and he just loves to tell you all about whatever it is that he just experienced. 

He is the best cuddler in the family.  Colin can never GET or GIVE enough HUGS!

He loves TRAINS.  I love that he has found something all his own.  He is our third child and he spends a large chunk of his time trying to be just like his older brother and sister. If he only knew how much his personality holds its own in our family.  I'm so glad that he has found train play as something that is solely important to him!

Happy Birthday Colin!  We love you!

Farewell Breezewood!

April 23, 2012


Later Saturday evening, our neighborhood threw us a farewell BBQ.  I remember the first time we went around and delivered cookies to each neighbor's home to introduce ourselves 4 years ago.  We felt like people stuck to themselves and knew of each other, but never really interacted.  A few months later, we threw the first Breezewood Block Ice Cream Social.  Talk about going out on a limb!  But people came.  They introduced themselves to each other.  They ate little ice cream, but talked much.  And when they left, they asked if we could do it again.

In the winter we got some snow and a lot of ice.  We shoveled walks together and and drank  hot chocolate in our garage.  A couple of the families began having dinner groups together. The widows gathered for Christmas.  And the following summer, we held another Breezewood Block Ice Cream Social!  Before long, our children longed to play together.    We called each other when our cars broke down and we needed a lift.  We shared dehydrators, kids clothes, toys, holidays, advice and laughter.  We looked after each other.

Breezewood Drive became home and the people who live there became family.  Oh, how we will truly miss this little spot of heaven.  We thank the Lord for crossing our paths with such wonderful people.  You will forever be family to us!

Easter at Bass Pro

April 23, 2011

It is Easter weekend and there are so many family friendly activities to do in Columbia.  We made our way over to The Bass Pro Shop for their Easter egg hunt.  They hid the eggs throughout the store amongst the merchandise.  They had employees/volunteers everywhere re-hiding the eggs as you walked by!  They kept an eye out for the little guys who just couldn't find an egg.  You could find 5 eggs, then go to the back of the store to trade them in for 5 pieces of candy.  For the older child, this kind of Easter Egg hunt might be depressing, but for the younger child, this was perfect.

After the cash in on candy, they had a cute craft foam project the kids could each do.  Then we went out onto their dock and devoured our candy.  The day was perfect.