We're Back and Ready To Roll!

I'm really not even sure where to begin. I really don't think I'm going to harp on the summer, other than to say we had a fabulous one! We went to Florida, to the lake, had lots of fun with cousins, visited grandparents and aunts and uncles, swam, had a baptism, made a few short overnight trips with friends and family, went to movies and baseball games, celebrated my parents 40th anniversary, dreaded the flight back home and we did all of that with only a few ear infections and losing a toe nail! I have absolutely no regrets about spending the entire summer with my family. It made the time fly right by and as an added bonus, I got my Walmart/Target/Mexican food fix plus some free babysitting! It was seriously overwhelming to me, which I didn't expect. It's really just hard to explain unless you've ever lived overseas yourself.

So, I come back to Germany with a good attitude. I can do this. I can finish out our stay and enjoy the rest of the sight seeing we have to do. It's gonna be great even though I went to the shoppette today to get gas, mind you this was my only stop. I pump my gas after showing 55 forms of identification,go in and grab milk and get in the line as the 10th person with one aisle open and the fire alarm goes off. Seriously? Seriously. We have to leave the building so there I am waiting with 3 kids and a screaming 2 year old because we left her chocolate milk inside. We wait for the firetrucks and they let us back in to pay for our already pumped gas. Boy do I love this place and oh how I've missed it. Ok.... good attitude. Right.

See the counter on the side? Yep! We're down to 60+ days until Matt comes home. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. The hardest part is over and we are on the down hill slope if we can get through these next two months. School starts next week. :-)

I've really got to get caught up on all my blog reading from the summer. I feel so behind in this area. Guess I have plenty of time now. Only 10 more months... not that I'm counting.

Best Day Yet!!!

I was going to wait until I got back home to start blogging again, but I thought today deserved a special post. Landen was baptized! He was really saved a while back and wanted to be baptized, but at the time we were moving to Germany and Matt had already left. So, I urged him to wait until daddy could be there. So, we wait.

Fast forward: Germany = Swimming Pool so we once again decided to wait. Not that there is anything wrong with being baptized in a swimming pool, it just wasn't what we had imagined.

Fast forward: Summer. Arkansas. Matt's in Afghanistan.

Do we see a pattern? Our lifestyle isn't "normal" so to speak. So Landen and I discussed it once again and talked to Daddy about it. Daddy wanted us to go ahead with it and quit the waiting game. At the rate we were going he was going to be 20 before we could all be together for this! Even though we really missed Matt, we knew he was happy and at peace about it. Landen was baptized in the same baptistry that Matt and I were so that made it extra special. He also got to have ALL of his grandparents, several cousins and some other special people in his life that were able to attend.

Thank you to two special people who helped me out. Leigh Ann was sweet enough to take pictures for me and they turned out fantastic. Thank you so much! We wanted to make sure we didn't miss a thing, so I videoed from upstairs and also had another friend video from the balcony. Thank you so much to the Atchleys for that! It truly made it more enjoyable for me to know that we had it all documented so that Matt could be a part.

What an indescribable feeling to see your child give his life to God.