This year our family’s over thirty years of vacationing at the grandparents’ condo in Miramar Beach comes to an end.

When I got engaged to my husband Alan in 2002, I took my very first trip to Miramar Beach. Alan’s mom, who we call Nonna now, took me to her parents’ condo. We walked on the beach, ate out, went shopping, and had a great time.

Nonna’s dad was a contractor. He built these condos in the 1970s. How cool is that? He built them, and he bought one for himself. It seems like he rarely visited the beachside getaway himself. Instead, Grandaddy and Grandma Cunningham kept this condo up so all of their children could enjoy the beach with their families.

They made summer vacation an affordable pursuit for all of us. Without this condo in Miramar Beach, I doubt many of us would have seen so many beach days.

Since the condo was built in the 1970s, Alan and his family and cousins and aunts and uncles have summered in Miramar for as long as Alan can remember.

When I discovered this place, it was pure magic.

I have always loved the beach! This place was perfect. It is across the street from the beach. In the earlier days, there were two pools. Now it’s one larger pool, very small child friendly.

There used to be a playground too, and for a while, a giant sandbox surrounded the playground. John David buried two of his Batman toys in that sandbox one year. He buried them so well nobody was ever able to find them again. JD’s sand obsession was kind of a problem for a few years there.

Joshua went down the slide on that playground a million times the year he was a toddler with no younger brother. He had our full attention for about twenty months. After that, things got crazier and crazier.

There were so many wonderful years. Let’s go through all of them and start at the beginning. Don’t you love it when stories are told in order?

Let’s start with Alan’s early years of going to Miramar Beach. Throwing it back to the 1980s/early 1990s.

Alan’s mom and her sister, Janet, used to take their kids to the beach together every year. Doesn’t that sound fun? Cousins really are your original built in friends.

And then in 2002, Alan and I got married and we established our own family beach traditions.

But my first trip to the family condo was actually with Alan’s mom. I think Alan was away on an Army assignment. I remember well how amazing I thought the condo was that very first visit. I mean, wow! Imagine having a beach house you can go stay at every year for free.

To quote an adorable preschool boy I overheard at the condo pool a few years ago, “Is this life?”

My heart melted when I heard him ask his mom that, as they sat on the side of the pool, literally enjoying life. I feel that too when I am relaxing by the pool or the beach.

2002

My second condo trip was far less relaxing, but quite exciting. Alan and I were married by then. Alan was stationed in Oklahoma for five months for training. Meanwhile, I was finishing up my degree at the University of Alabama.

One weekend, Alan was the best man in his college roommate Tom’s wedding. Alan flew into Destin for the wedding. Alan’s sister and I drove down from Birmingham to join him and attend the wedding. We all three stayed at the condo together.

I think Amy and I drove into Destin especially late at night that weekend. Then the wedding was the next night. All I know for sure is somehow we were both extremely sleep deprived. I don’t know why exactly we were so tired.

On our drive back from Destin to Birmingham, we could not drive safely or think straight because we were so sleepy. We pulled off whatever highway we were driving on, found a small church parking lot, and conked out. I don’t know how long we slept, probably twenty minutes. It was long enough to survive driving the rest of the way home.

2003

In 2003, Alan flew off to Iraq. He didn’t get to lounge by the beach that year. For Mother’s Day weekend, Nonna and Amy invited my mom and me to join them for some Destin shopping and Mother’s Day photos. Pretty cool, huh?

2004

When Alan came home from Iraq, and got all of his required return-home-sanity classes done, we headed to Destin. Alan and I basically set up housekeeping for ten days at the condo. We entertained family and friends there and enjoyed all that Miramar Beach has to offer without a care in the world. This is how we did the beach back when we had no children. I cannot even remember what that was like.

My mom, Aunt Ann, and Melony even came by and visited. They got in some pool time. Then Ann regretted sitting quite so close to the water.

I love Ann so much. Finding these pictures was such a blessing. Ann passed away in the fall of 2023, and this was such a humongous loss to our family. I haven’t been able to bring myself to blog about Ann yet, but someday soon I will. It’s just hard.

I stayed at the condo when I went to Jennings’ beach wedding. I think that was 2004.

2006

In 2006, Joshua was still in his first year of life, and the photos are a preciousness overload. I love these so much.

2007

We had to go to the beach early that year. I knew once we had a newborn it would be too challenging. We went in March, and I was six months pregnant with Caleb.

The condo was booked, as the “snowbirds” were staying there. We are creatures of habit though, so we booked ourselves another condo at the same place, right across the pool from Alan’s grandparents’ condo. It was a smaller one, with only one bedroom, on the bottom floor only. The small condo was perfect for us in those days though. Joshua slept in a pack and play in the living room, and all was well.

This next photo is hilarious to me. It was back when the vendor in front of the condos rented bicycles, not just motor vehicles. We rented ourselves a tandem bike with a bike trailer. Poor Joshua might not have enjoyed his bike ride as much as we did.

2008

Somewhere down there, we found a Gulfarium. We got to see parrots and dolphin shows, and it was a great place. I don’t know if it is even still there.

I remember Alan and I managed to squeeze in one last beach trip that year before he was off to Iraq again.

This story, y’all!

The photo above with baby Caleb and Joshua in the little pool is a key moment. that was right after, or right before, Caleb picked up a whole, live, beta fish, and put it in his mouth!!

You see Alan out there, bent over in the ocean? He had a bucket, with which he scooped up a beta fish. Then he put it in the baby pool, and the baby went right to work with his chubby little hands. He was determined to catch that fish, and he did! Then he tried to eat the fish!!! We laughed so hard that day. I mean there was a moment of panic, but we got the fish out, and then we laughed.

When I saw this photo, and as I pass the outlet malls down there, I feel a twinge of sadness. I forgot about how I used to get to go shopping on vacation. Can we bring that back? I have not done that in ten years, at least.

2009

In 2009, Alan was in Iraq. Dad and Mom and my brother came down and visited us for the day while we were staying at the condo. Back then, my dad had a bay boat he used to love to take out fishing in Florida.

That was an incredible day. Number one, I love boating. For another thing, my parents were a consistent part of our parenting team during the second Iraq deployment. It was wonderful to get to share this with them and take the boys out on their first boat ride.

Caleb had a little trouble with seasickness, and then he fell asleep. Joshua, on the other hand, was old enough to thoroughly enjoy to the boat ride, playing water guns, and stopping on an island and looking around for seashells.

2012

Summer 2012 was an extra exciting beach year. Alan returned home from Afghanistan in April of 2012. We did several fun family things that year, to include this beach trip.

I worked so hard that summer to get back in shape. I remember walking on the beach each morning, feeling ecstatic that my size 12 Bermuda shorts were falling down loose on me.

I spent the winter of 2011-12 living with my parents until Alan got back from Afghanistan, and I had consumed an ungodly amount of chocolate chip cookies. Dad and I had ourselves a ball buying the dough at Sam’s and making cookies. Poor Mom had to go to work everyday, and we were at home baking and playing with babies. That was before gluten turned against me.

2015

For 2015, we made time for the condo again. Even though we lived in California, the beach there was not the same. You cannot beat the Emerald Coast with its white sand, warm weather, and aquamarine water.

I swear we were more fun and adventurous when we were younger. Nowadays, we go to the pool, the ocean, and a restaurant or two. Back then we’d go to malls, movies, and we even checked out the Harbor Walk Village.

2016

In 2016, we moved back to the South, and we went to Disney World. I have no idea how we found time to go to the condo too, but I found this photo from 2016:

I don’t know what year they reconstructed the pool, but it was definitely done by 2016. JD destroyed that poor Woody doll between all the sand, the pool, and the markers. But if Woody’s goal was to be played with, he was the happiest toy ever.

2017

I remember taking so many boys to the beach and the pool used to be so much work. It was draining and hard, but I always knew it was important and it was worth it. The photos and the memories are glorious preciousness and I love it so much. Now when we go it’s so much easier. No one even runs away when I whip out the sunscreen. It’s too easy.

2018

I know Alyson’s kids used to enjoy that float too. We all shared it for years. That storage closet of floats and buckets was so awesome. After a few years, the favorite float died, and we were all sad to see it go. There is an awesome new one down there though that is basically a boat!

In 2018, we were moving again, so the fact we even made it to the beach was a miracle.

2019

I remember this trip well because it was a moving year and the summer of my 20th high school reunion. Before the reunion, we went to the beach. We were kind of between houses. I think we’d moved our stuff but had not really unpacked it all yet.

In earlier years, we used to always go to Destin Commons at some point for either a movie, a Bass Pro Shop visit, or Barnes & Noble. Look at how nicely they all used to read. We aren’t as good about that as we used to be.

2020

In 2020, we didn’t make it to the beach until August. We all remember what a disaster that year was.

2021

After a year of solid quarantine in Maryland, it was extra special to go down to Florida and get to live life free and mask-less. The strict, drawn out lockdown policies in Maryland were a real downer.

2022

In 2022, we were again in the middle of a move. I didn’t take as many pictures that year.

I always make everyone take at least one evening walk on the shore. JD and Joshua usually throw the football the whole time as they are walking. It sounds impossible, but they make it work. In fact, I’ve been dragging everyone out on these evening beach walks for so long, I think they are starting to like it.

My mom laughed and laughed in 2022, when I told the boys, “Okay, everybody let’s go to the beach!”

And they said, “Nooooo!!!”

Sometimes, I think maybe their life may have been a little too exciting because they seem to crave low-key, couch time.

Alan isn’t much better about it than the kids. He was excited about chillin’ in the condo too. We were out walking on the beach that night, and Alan turned to me and said, “Is this what you wanted?
What do you do with a bunch of homebodies on vacation? It’s hilarious. I laughed and laughed. We now say that all the time whenever we go anywhere at all. “Is this what you wanted??”

2024

Many years we manage to get Nana to come down for a day or a night. We always enjoy that, and I think it’s good for Nana too. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just go to the beach all the time??

I’m proud to report that everyone went to the beach without complaining in 2024. They were all good, energetic sports this year.

I think 2024 was the year everyone in the family was most excited to go. Everyone expressed their regrets that this was our last time at the condo.

When Grandaddy passed away, we knew no one else would be able to afford to keep it up for everyone. The condo has to be sold at the end of this summer. It will always hold a special place in our hearts and memories. I have no idea what we will do for summer vacations from now on! I guess we will all have to try some new things. That’s fine too.

But for now, it’s an end of an era, and we are all so grateful for the time we shared at Seacove Condominiums in Miramar Beach.

I hope everyone in the family (and it’s quite a large family) gets to enjoy the condo one last time this year!

The post Over 35 Years of Miramar Beach appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This retreat was 100% necessary.

It is hard for me to even sit here and describe how desperate I was to get away two weeks ago because I returned fully restored, better than before. I am on the other side of that mental wall of misery now. Life is good and happy again, and I fully mean that.

When I packed my bags and left Alan with the boys, I did not even fully grasp why I need this so badly. I just knew that Alan works at home now, so he could handle the boys for the weekend just fine.

I did not realize how bad off my mental/emotional state truly was until I sat down on the airplane, buckled my seatbelt, was looking out the window, and heard a child cry. This was probably a preschool aged child. How many times have I flown with a child and had to quiet down a baby or a toddler on an airplane?

When I hear that sound, my heart always goes out to the parents. I have been that parent so many times. This time though the sound of the crying hit something deeper in my brain, down in my spirit, something I have pushed to the corners that comes overflowing out when I least expect it.

Tears.

No! No! I am not going to sit here and silently cry on this airplane. It is hard to explain why tears were so close to the surface, but I am going to try to explain myself anyway. All those memories of handling babies and toddlers on airplanes, they are all tied up in difficult memories I have of the hard work that I put in through all these years of being an Army wife.

I hear that crying, and instantly I am twenty-five years old, flying alone with my six-month-old to begin a new life in Texas. Alan will follow me in two weeks, but for now it is just me and the baby.

At the same time, I am twenty-eight years old, flying with a toddler and four-year-old alone because I wanted to visit Alabama longer than Alan had off from work. That day the flight was delayed two hours, and after hours of keeping the boys entertained in the airport, I was already on edge when I got on the airplane where I had to make sure Joshua did not come in contact with any peanuts, which seemed to be everywhere in those days.

The sound of the crying starts, and suddenly I was thirty-two, flying home with one-year-old John David to visit my parents who I do not get to see very often because we have lived in the D.C. area for five years. I remember that day there was a super kind lady on the plane who walked down the aisle and gave me a new and different toy for J.D. to play with so he would stop crying.

I am thirty-three years old, flying with all four of our boys to California. Mom flew with me because Alan is already in school.

There were so many moves, and there were so many airplane rides with small children and me. Somehow Alan usually was not there, and I cannot even remember all of them or why I took all of them. I just remember standing in the aisle, softly singing to my baby so he would not cry on the airplane.

I remember landing at BWI airport, with a baby, I don’t even remember which one, in tow, and completely unable to find my car in the parking garage at eleven p.m.

So all of this starts to flash through my head, and water is beginning to leak out of my eyes, while my nose fills up with the overflow of salty tears. I stiffen myself. NO! This is not the place. Every flight attendant on this airplane knows who I am because I am flying with Jennings. (I was alone in a three-person seat though, thanks to the rona.)

Instead, I focused my brain as hard as I could on praying that child to stop crying. He or she was asleep in like one minute. Thank you, Jesus!

Thankfully, I recovered, and Jennings soon joined me to talk all the way to Atlanta.

I had NO idea my brain was going to go in that direction from a simple airplane ride.

But the thing was that my head was already in that fragile place, from all the recent weeks of feeling trapped and homesick, so the airplane ride just kind of nudged me closer to the edge.

The first time this ever happened was the day I listened to a speech about the Combat Reboot program at my church. It just sort of lanced an emotional boil that had been festering for a while. Ew. Gross imagery. Sorry, guys.

Let me explain about that. Our church here in Maryland, back in the days when we all got to go to normal church, has a Combat Recovery program. One day the organizer for the Combat Recovery program spoke at a church business meeting. She was promoting the program and looking for new people to join and/or lead it. Alan has even been asked to lead the group, as it has to be lead by a combat veteran, but this is not Alan’s calling. I totally get that, as I feel that way about many things. Being a combat veteran does not automatically make you a good leader for veterans with PTSD.

I, of course, am not at all a combat veteran. Nor do I have combat PTSD. I have never seen war, lived with the daily threat of enemy fire, or had to watch friends die or be mutilated. Those are certainly not my issues.

However, as she stood up there talking about military veterans and their spouses and the challenges that they face and how this group can help them, I became a complete and total WRECK. I sat there and silently bawled my eyes out for what felt like twenty minutes. It was so humiliating and unexpected.

“Why??” I kept wondering. Why am I crying so much, and why can’t I stop??? And I could. not. stop. crying. It was terrible.

It was like every time she said the word “military” my heart just poured out more grief. This is so hard to explain, but again, I will try. I literally was left wondering if military wife PTSD could possibly be a thing. Maybe this is because this could be our last duty station? Or because we are nearing our twenty year mark? I don’t know, but suddenly, here it is.

When I was at this meeting, we had only moved in three or four months past. I was fresh off two years of moving in a row, five moves in four years, and eleven moves in eighteen years. Then there were those year long, fifteen-month, and six-month long deployments where I juggled the kids.

So many nights of being new in town, and it is like all the emotions of all those hard things that we dealt with in the midst of all these years as a military family just piled on top of each other in a very untidy fashion. You know how you stack things that are not equal sizes, and if you stack big things on top of little things and crooked on top of straight, and after a while it all just starts to slide?

Well, that day we had a full on avalanche of pent up feelings. When you are tense and fighting through a move or a family separation or a war deployment or being new year after year after year after year, it catches up with you.

This had never happened to me before, crying over I was not even sure what! I think it is the eighteen years of it just catching up with me. We could retire in two years, and I am so extremely ready to do just that. Retire and buy a house in Alabama, land of my forefathers. Maybe the Army thing possibly being almost over is a whole other part of it. I don’t know.

All the feelings started to come out my eyes and my nose:

-hurt -disappointment -uncertainty -inadequacy -failure

-abandoned– So many times I felt abandoned to deal with raising the boys alone. It was not Alan’s fault. He was doing his job, and that meant he had to go overseas sometimes. I knew that with my head, but sometimes it felt an awful lot like plain old alone. Maybe it was wrong, but it was a feeling I had to deal with.

-exhaustion -confusion -worry -frustration -anger

Well, obviously, I could go on and on. That was when I realized that no, Alan was right, combat recovery was not a good program for us. He did not feel like he needed it, and I needed recovery too much to go. That would have been a whole lot more of facing all those emotions that busted out all suddenly on me, and I could not handle it. I really couldn’t.

That incident was late last fall, and I had not had another moment of raw emotion like that one at the church business meeting until this flight to Florida.

But I am happy to tell you that I held it together for another twenty-four hours.

Then I spilled it all out onto Jennings, and somehow I feel like I ACTUALLY worked through it, to the point that I am not even the same and I am able to sit here and type about it without coming apart at the seams. I cried it all out in Florida. Poor Jennings! She got an earful!

Do you know why it helped?

Maybe crying it out, facing your problems, and talking about it always helps. I am not sure, but there was an extra layer present at Jennings’ beach bungalow. That added factor was the way that she pointed me back to what matters, to Jesus. She kept pulling up her Church at the Highlands telecasts and Christian music playlists, and it was exactly what I needed.

With God on your side, you are not relying on your own inner strength alone to get you through hard things. With God there is a bigger comforter and help that goes further than you could get on your own.

Jennings and I talked about our current problems, and we laughingly discussed and debated our old foes too. Together, we even combed Facebook and successfully found one of our friends from college days who we thought we would never be able to find. It was so good just to see her smiling face, looking exactly the same.

Every morning we ate our eggs and walked on the beach. Ugh, I would rather have cereal or a pop tart like in my younger days. Why won’t my pant size cooperate with that??

Then every evening we would take one or two walks. Two different nights we went out around midnight to search the beach for sea turtles laying eggs in the dark. There were none to be found though.

We got sun burned, ate lunch on the beach under our umbrella, and even went souvenir shopping. You might be happy to know that even down in Florida, they took our temperatures at the store, and everyone was required to wear a mask.

I got the cutest souvenirs ever, and I bought every single one of my boys (even Alan) a new Melbourne Beach t-shirt.

With every ounce of seriousness inside of me, I am telling you that this trip was a gift from God. He knew I needed it, and I am so thankful I got to go. The Lord saw my exasperation with lockdown isolation and homesickness, and he blessed me with a ticket to get me through until we visit our family in August.

If you are feeling miserable, pray!! Pray for help. You never know what that help may look like or what form it may come in, but don’t turn it down when it arrives!! You never know what God may have in store for you.

Seize the day! And pray!

We cannot wait to see all of our dear family in August! You will be getting the most desperate-for-people and visiting version of us ever. Ha! I hope you are ready!

The post Weekend Retreat: Dealing with Military Wife PTSD. Is that a thing? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The beach is my favorite place to go in the summer, but it can be expensive and dangerous for a family full of pale skinned people. This year we actually managed to take a thrifty trip to Miramar Beach without getting sun-burned!

Alan and I are always dreaming up fun things to do together as a family, and our efforts are often met with …….resistence.

One of our fellas actually lamented, “I don’t want to go to the beach. I just want to stay home and hang out at the house.”

Sigh. Well, perhaps we were hasty in taking a beach trip the very second that school let out, but that’s life. Children are still at the mercy of the parents’ summer schedules. We are at the mercy of their’s the rest of the year.

When I was a child, I would have never said, “I don’t want to go to the beach!” I don’t think I ever did go to the beach until I was around 13 years old, and it was something I was exceedingly grateful for.

That just goes to show that the more accustomed to wonderful things that a person is, the less we appreciate those wonderful things.

John David was not the beach-resistor. He couldn’t wait to go, but once he got there he was soon disenchanted and ready to head to the pool.

Have no fear. The moment the reluctant boy sat foot on the beach, he never complained again. In fact, Alan took all the other boys to the pool after an hour, while I stayed at the beach with Joshua until I began to worry about our sun protection.

Look closely to see a small boy in a yellow shirt, stealing a float from an older brother. He made the snatch, and he fled the scene. Joshua and I sat and laughed.

To be fair, it wasn’t stealing exactly. We share the floats. He decided it was his turn. Caleb, who was using it as a basketball net, but was pausing to fetch his ball, didn’t notice until JD was safely on the opposite side of the pool.

I was extra careful about sunscreen this year, and it paid off. I brought 0 sun-burned people home from the beach. Hallelujah! 5/6 of us are as fair as fair can be. This was an accomplishment.

My sunscreen strategy was simple.

1. Try to keep everyone indoors between 11am and 4pm.
2. Re-apply every 1.5 hours.
3. Wear a cover-up as much as possible.
4. I wore a seriously ugly hat, and so did Alan.
5. Put swim shirts on the kids.

Egypt wasn’t built in a day, so we settled for the Sphinx and a pyramid.

WWII airplanes flew over in honor of Memorial Day.

Thrifty, thrifty, thrifty

Our other big objective this year was to spend as little money as possible on the vacation. I think that’s always been a goal for Alan, but in the past I secretly didn’t care. This year I cared just as much as Alan.

Our thrifty strategy was also simple.

1. Our condo was free. Alan’s grandparents let us stay at their place, and that’s why our family has gotten to go to the beach so frequently over the years. (Gigantic thank you to Alan’s grands!!!)
2. Only eat out once/day, and that will be a lunch.
3. Buy enough groceries to have plenty of snacks and easy to assemble meals so that no one will even ask to eat out. Success!
4. The condo has a pool. The beach is right across the street, so there is no need to pay for any other activities.
5. Rent a Redbox movie instead of going to the theatre. (Remember, we have to hide from the sun for several hours/day.)

Joshua and Daniel were all about the net fishing. They caught quite a few tiny fish and crabs.

Would you like our meal ideas that made this possible? It was so simple it’s almost embarrassing to list them.

Breakfast

cereal, eggs, and Pop-tarts

Since they are normally not allowed Pop-tarts, this is a humongous treat. I was curious if pop-tarts were any better than donuts, so I looked it up……They aren’t better, just different.

By the way: 1 Krispy Kreme glazed donut = 22g carbohydrates and 11g fat

1 Blueberry Pop Tart = 38 g carbohydrates and 5g fat

Cocoa Pebbles cereal =  25g carbohydrates and 1g fat

Eggs                    = 0.6 g carbs and 5 g fat

……Sooooo that’s why we don’t normally do pop-tarts. One of my boys gets crazy hyper from all that sugar. At least with the cereal, they get the protein from the milk to help my conscience. There’s no way I’m COOKING 3 times/day. Breakfast has to be easy.

Eggs are the clear winner, but not all of us can eat the eggs. I have a son with an egg allergy. Sad, right?

This one is allergic to nothing, and he likes his eggs dyed green and served with sausage.

Lunches and Dinners

Micro-wavable hamburgers. We are sort of fanatical about these because they are delicious, they are real, and they are brain dead easy to make quickly.

We also served egg sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, and hot dogs while we there. It was only a 3 night vacation.

Next year maybe we’ll do a no-eating out at all policy because that would have saved us another $90, believe it or not. $90 was how much we spent on the groceries for the whole weekend, and yet that’s what it costs to take our family to a restaurant, other than fast food.

And by the way, it was a free of incident beach year too! There were no ER visit, no jelly fish stings, no rain days, and no sunburn. Ah, yeah. We fall more in love with Destin every year.

I’m 1/2 daredevil like Caleb.

I used to swim to the sand bar, and I CANNOT go to the beach without getting drenched from head to toe. It’s not possible. I don’t know how you do it. Moana was right. It DOES call you.

…..but I’m now 1/2 skiddish. I’ve been stung by jellyfish a few times, and y’all, that HURTS. Plus, I see fish and shadows, and I start to panic. Ah, if only I could have stayed young and dumb.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k]neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

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Tomorrow is Daniel’s very first day of kindergarten. To me he still looks like this:

How can I send this sweet Bama boy to kindergarten??

But, believe it or not, the Dan Man is 5, and he is extremely excited about going to school with his brothers. They will all be at the same school together. I had planned it differently, but at the last minute Daniel was awarded a scholarship, so that worked out beautifully.

It’s hard to even focus on how much is happening.

Our heads are still spinning. In June, we trekked across the U.S. of A. In July, we hurriedly unpacked. (So now I need to go back and re-organize everything.) Then we headed off to one vacation after another. We did Disney. We saw friends. We went to Destin. We visited family.

I feel as though all along, our life keeps improving more and more. Happy things keep happening to us, and I’ve been so much in recovery from the dismal beginning of 2016 that it’s taken me awhile for this new thing to set in to my head.

I’m not stressed anymore!

Wait. I don’t have to make lesson plans? Nope.

I don’t have to do any teacher training? Nope.

I don’t have to even feed everyone lunch? Nope.

I can be at my parents’ house in two hours? Yep!

The big boys are already in school, and they LIKE it??  Yes!!!

They actually like their new school a LOT!!!

I keep thinking about those Christian song lyrics, “He set my feet upon a rock.”

Of course, that is also in the Bible, but it’s so much easier to pop in my head when it’s set to music. In my head that’s me. I was sinking in my misery, and I have been lifted and set upon a rock. Amen. Amen. Amen.

I think we’re on the verge of loving it here. I made my schedule for tomorrow, and it doesn’t sound hard! I didn’t even have to color-code it!! 

Praise the Lord, y’all! I have found relief!!! Now we just need to make a friend or two, and we’ll be all set.

We aren’t off to a great start on the makin’ friends bit.

First off, we’ve lived here over a month and we’ve been out of town for most of that.

Secondly, we have a son whose Southern accent impersonation is down right hilarious. I only hope the locals will think so, instead of feeling like they’re being made fun of. I haven’t heard him do it in public though, so we should be good. (Ask Joshua to talk Southern next time you see it. You will laugh!!)

Then there was the doctor’s office incident.

Alan took all four boys to the doc on a Saturday by himself. (I was out of town again.) We just needed to get school and sports forms filled out. Moving is such a pain when it comes to health care!!! (That’s another reason our company should let us live places a little longer.)

Well, they were all there for HOURS, but everyone was well behaved, thankfully. But right at the end, the doctors refused to sign the sports forms for ALL the boys! Can you believe that!!??  And it was because of my heart problem! Ugh.  Way to go, Me!

Alan tried to convince them that the boys do not have it, and even I am fine. I could play sports even. (Not well, but I could do it.) He failed to convince Doc #1, so he asked to get a second opinion from one of the other docs there that day.

Doc #2 also denied us. We all have to go to a cardiologist before they will be cleared to play sports. Doctors totally freak out about the v-tach thing, but I’m telling you mine is benign. It’s monomorphic, non-sustained. I’m good.

So today we’re sitting in Sunday School, and Alan whispers, “That doctor that wouldn’t sign the boys’ sports physicals is right over there.” Yep. Doc #1 is in our Sunday School class.

No way.

Yes way.

We chatted with him after class. He didn’t budge any on the issue, but hopefully we are all on good terms. I’m sure he’s a very good doctor. It was just a little embarrassing.

Oh, yeah, that’s us. We’re just making friends all over the place.

Won’t you be our friend??

I am seriously, for real, truly going to take a “1st day of Kindergarten” picture for Dan tomorrow. And a “3rd day” pic for J and C! I don’t know why I’ve had so much trouble remembering.

Have your kids/grandkids started back to school yet? Share with me in the comments!

The post Life After Home School and the Move appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

“I want to hug Olaf! I want to hug Olaf!”….”No. No. I not hug him. I scared o him.”

We’ve been back from vacation for a few days now. Daniel keeps asking when we’re “ever going back to America.” By America, he is referring to our home in California. It was amusing to listen to Caleb trying to explain to Daniel that we are still in America.

In the short time that we’ve been back from Disney World, 7 of us caught a cold. 6 of us developed a hacking cough. (I have escaped it so far.) 2 of us have projectile vomited. Maybe that’s why Dan is ready to head back to “America”!

I think this was the first time in our 10 years of being parents that we were awakened to the sound and FEEL of projectile vomit at 5:50 am. I’ve never jumped out of bed with so much quickness!! We got him changed, us changed, stripped the bed, cleaned up, and all gathered in the living room to watch Planes, JD’s current favorite movie.

I sat there with my coffee, so thankful for our automatic coffee maker, trying to force myself to wake up.

I was so happy to see Caleb walk into the living room at 6:10. I snuck off to his bedroom and went back to sleep in his bed. (Mine was still wet.)

Daniel does have some happier summer vacation news. He has an exciting new accomplishment to add to his name: underwater swimmer! He can now go under and swim without even pinching his little nose. He mostly taught himself. That’s how Daniel rolls.

We’ve sent summer out with a bang. Here are the photos from Day Three of vacation, which we spent at Hollywood Studios.

It’s taken me so long to blog about our Disney trip, you may think we spent three weeks there. But no, I’m just slow. We were there for four days.

The almost disaster

This ABC cafe was a huge hit with our boys because they have tv’s everywhere. We couldn’t get a word out of the boys or a question answered the whole time. They were total tv zombies, watching ….a cooking show. Lol!

Ordering food for six people at Disney is confusing. No, ordering food for six people anywhere is hard to keep straight. You know that feeling when you go to the drive-thru window with 6 people in the car? And they all order something different? That is our life, ya’ll!!  Every meal of vacation!!

I thought nothing of picking up these adorable chocolate cupcakes for the boys. I kind of wanted one myself.

So a miracle happened. No, I’m telling you, our almost disaster was a miracle.

Now, normally Joshua eats all of his food and then starts eating everyone else’s. But this time he did NOT. Weird. Feeding Joshua is like feeding a teenager. He’s only 10, but it is. My mom, who fed three teenagers at once, has already confirmed this.

I figured he would surely tear into that cupcake, but he looked at it, a CHOCOLATE cupcake, with CHOCOLATE icing, that looks like Darth Vader even, and said, “No, I don’t want it.”

That was a stop the music moment right there. I was all, “What? But it’s so..look at it. You don’t want it?”

Alan said, “He must be full. Can I have it, Joshua?”

Joshua agreed to let Alan have the cupcake, and Alan took one bite and discovered……peanut butter filling. Pure peanut butter!

Aughhhhhhh!!!!!

Oh my goodness. If that had happened to Joshua, we would have had to use the EpiPen, which we did have, and then Day 3 would have abruptly ended with a ride to the local ER in a nice Disney World ambulance.

Nut allergies are an easy thing to drop your guard about because for the most part, it’s pretty easy to just not eat nuts. We were way more vigilant after this cupcake incident.

It was about 95 degrees in the Indiana Jones show.

JD made it halfway through the show, but when cars started blowing up and catching fire, JD insisted that we leave. So he and I exited early.

We left the park around 3pm, sweaty and tired.

Even bus rides are fun and exciting to children. I wish I could get that level of enthusiasm back for myself.

The T-Rex

That evening, we ate supper at Disney Springs, at the most themed out restaurant I’ve ever seen. Hard Rock Cafe has nothing on this place.

T-Rex entry and gift shop

Magma, Sea Creatures, an Ice Age in the back, roaring dinosaurs, a giant octopus. This place delivered the atmosphere, and the food was delicious too.

JD had only managed a 10 minute nap that day, so by our 6:30 dinner, he was ready to collapse.

So he nodded right off to sleep, right on Joshua’s shoulder.

He slept until we were all the way back AT our hotel. And then he woke up hungry and with more energy than the rest of us.

Enjoy the rest of summer while you can. It’s almost over! Don’t forget to keep in touch. I’d love to hear about what you’re doing with the rest of your summer.

The post Hollywood Studios, the Almost Disaster, and the T-Rex appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This was the best surprise I’ve ever pulled off.

We are not typically adept at keeping exciting news to ourselves. We are the kind of people who announced we were pregnant the second we found out.

But this time we played it cool. We DID tell the boys we were headed to Disney World. However, we did NOT tell them that I copied my friend Amy’s Disney itinerary as closely as I could, so our Disney vacation would be shared with Xavier and Zoe. (Don’t worry. Xavier and Zoe’s parents were in on it. I wasn’t completely stalking them.)

So Alan and I rode down to Florida, enjoying our secret.

Believe it or not, JD was the MOST visibly excited one. “I’m just so excited to go to Disney World. Can I ride Dusty? I wanna ride Planes.”

Road trip discovery!!! Best coffee ever, y’all!! Raceway gas station Community Coffee. I gotta find a Raceway close to my house now. I am hooked.

scenes of happiness

Art of Animation Resort

Our resort was the bee’s knees, y’all. We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort at Disney World, which is actually a VALUE level resort. The family suites sleep 6 and have 2 full bathrooms. There is a cafeteria open until midnight, several swimming pools, and all the free drink refills you want, if you have the Disney Dining Plan.

Art of Animation Cars Family Suite. This room was all themed out for Sally’s Cozy Cone Motel. That couch turns into a bed.

There was a life-size Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sheriff, Ramone, and many others. It really upped the excitement level of staying at Disney World.

He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get in and drive Lightning McQueen. Bless.

Magic Kingdom

Day 1 was off to a rocky start. First, we were later than we had hoped to be because….well because we are us and we have four children.

That’s 6 people to apply sunscreen to. Six people to feed. Six people to dress. Six people to brush teeth. 6 people to use the bathroom. Six people to get on each other’s nerves. 6 people to make jokes. 6 people to keep up with. 6 people to wake up. You get the idea.

So we finally made it to the pearly Magic Kingdom gates, through the bag check line, and to the bracelet scan ….and…..

whomp whomp whomp

“We need you to go to guest services.”

Denied entry. Now that is sad.

There was a line at guest services. I guess we weren’t the only ones.

Turns out that we had to prove that we were military b/c we’d gotten a sweet military discount on those tickets.

Now, if our resort peeps had known, they could have validated that for us, but we didn’t think to tell them, and they didn’t ask, so this had to be done at the gate. It was a good thing Alan had his ID with him.

Phew! Finally got through that. We made our way over to the train. Poor little John David tripped as he was climbing onto the train. He cried. It was loud. After a few minutes of that, a sweet lady from behind us passed him an entire package of Starbursts to cheer him up.

We needed that. I wish I knew her name. I’d shout it from the rooftops.

We are not familiar with the parks, and pretty much everything has changed since we went 8 years ago, so it took us a while to find It’s A Small World, where we were scheduled to meet our friends at 9:30.

JD, with his consolation candy

Miraculously enough, we were only a couple minutes late when we spotted our friends!

Xavier ran over to us, and Joshua…..looked confused. It was hilarious. Joshua was silent, but his face seemed to be saying, “Um, yes, hello, who are you?” to Xavier. Of course, after a few minutes, Joshua and Caleb figured out what was going on, and they were so happy. Joshua actually turned to Caleb and said, “Caleb, pinch me. I don’t think I’m awake. I must be dreaming.”

Yes, it is indeed a small world after all.

We all rode 2 rides together, and then split up for the 3rd because not all of our Fastpasses were together.

We were nervous about JD’s ability to keep his Magic Band on his arm. See, the Magic Band is of great value at Disney. All your reservations are programmed in there. It can also identify a lost child. And as an adult, you can wire your credit card info on there so you don’t even have to carry around money. Magic bands open your hotel room, know your fast pass times, and contain your park admission ticket. They are a big deal.

So you can imagine my dismay when after ride #2 of day #1, I look down and realize that I have lost MY Magic Band. Well, of course I did, really. I’ve always had trouble with bracelets. Grooooaaaaan.

The boys headed off to use their Fast Pass with Alan. I headed back to the Haunted Mansion. If a cast member (Disney employee) finds a Magic Band, it’s kept at that ride for an hour. So I figured I had one hour to get that band back. I had it when I got on the Haunted Mansion ride, and it was gone afterwards, so that had to be it.

ugh. We had walked a long way. It was sunny. I was sweating. I missed turns, I turned back, but I eventually found my way back to Haunted Mansion, using my handy-dandy Disney app.

I asked each cast member I passed, “Have you seen a pink Magic Band?”

No.

I went all the way through the suddenly very long Haunted Mansion line. No band.

I was annoyed to have to ride the ride again, by myself, but I did it.

It wasn’t scary, but creepy skulls and ghosts aren’t my thing. “Why this ride, Lord?” I thought.

Call me crazy, but he answered me. I thought about my tendency to gloss over everything bad and pretend like the gross, evil, and unfortunate things in life don’t exist. That’s apathy, really. But these things do exist, and they must be faced.

I prayed for God to just please give me my band back and get me out of there.

At the very end of the ride, as I went through the exit corridor, I asked a young lady, and she said, “Hold on.”

Then she was gone all of two minutes and came back holding my magic band.

Thank you, Lord!

I’m happy to tell you that bad things come in threes, so that’s the last one. The rest of it went well:

So excited to find this!

Oh, the tea cups. What adult likes this ride? This was the only ride that made JD cry.

Happy People

By lunch, JD reached full melt-down level.

But Caleb and Dan were dying to ride these cars, so we split up here and met back at the restaurant. Lunch made all the difference too. When in doubt, feed the children!

I thought Zoe’s ears were adorable.

riding the People Mover

Country Bear Jamboree

One of the best things that happened: It rained almost every day, just enough to cool things off. The heat was not nearly as bad as I feared it would be.

Dinner at Tony’s Town Square. JD slept through almost every single evening meal in his stroller.

Alan bought these ponchos for $1 a piece at Target from the camping section. We were thankful to have these!!

Amy is the real deal New England Patriots fan. She’s even from New England.

Granted, we got off to a rough start, but by lunch I feel like we had things turned around in our favor.

It struck me during our vacation what a positive difference it made, sharing this trip with good friends. Our kids were braver about trying new things, and I think it helped Alan and me to be more relaxed and fun. People often say that Alan and I are laid back, which is a real head scratcher for me because the truth is we are tired, uptight people. We do like to have fun. It’s just that we’ve been so busy changing diapers, enforcing vegetable consumption, teaching reading skills, coaching memory work, cleaning up, and taming boys over the past 10 years that sometimes it feels like fun is a relative concept. 

Our friends, Amy and Sean, are in the parenting trenches just as we are, so they’re understanding. Plus, we have shared history. They’ve already accepted us for who we are. I’d like to put my finger on what it is that makes me like these friends so much. Because I do. I love their whole family, and Amy is one of my few closest friends. They are upbeat, and they are real at the same time. Amy is the kind of friend I can be myself with, and they are good about keeping in touch.

There is a certain quality you find in just a few friends in life, a quality that cannot be aptly described with words.

All I know is to call them “kindred spirits” as Anne of Green Gables did, but it’s more than that. There are some people who can’t help but be the main characters in your life. It is a matter of both mutual respect, shared interests, and plain old convenience and timing.

But I think God’s hand is in it too. Sometimes, once I realize a friend is definitely more than a passing acquaintance, I stop and wonder, “What is it, God? What should I learn from them? What do they need that I might offer?” It’s usually both. It’s that whole iron-sharpening iron thing.

It was a refreshing visit, especially as we enter another phase of meeting new people and being “the new kids” yet again.  My heart starts to get tired of putting my best foot forward, and that is why I drag my family out on all these vacations. I have this need to remind myself where we’ve been, where we’re going, and who we are before we plunge in to building a new community for ourselves.

And I have to take a little time. I wish that it were everyday, but sometimes it isn’t. But never forget to take a little time to read God’s Word, the Holy Bible, and get down on your face, and pray for the courage and strength to tackle the next thing. It would  be beautiful for life to be like the ENDINGS of your favorite movies, full of pot-luck dinners, and breezy sun-lit paths. But instead, it’s more like an obstacle course, where your relay team keeps changing. God is the only constant.

Today I found this verse:

In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.  Psalm 81:7

In your distress, you called and I rescued you.

Yes!!  That was exactly it. This year and many times before!

It rang so strong and true with me that I wrote it down in 4 different places, one of which was where I copied the verse on my wrist in red ink pen. Alan said it looked disturbing. Sigh. I just wanted a place I could see it that wouldn’t wash off when I washed my hands. Being disturbing was not my intention.

But y’all!!! Sometimes life IS disturbing!!!

That is why we NEED friends! And vacations! And PRAYER!! And a little silence and rest. And upbeat people.

The post Deep Thoughts from Magic Kingdom 2016 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

10 Reasons why I love Destin, Florida so much:

#1. There is SO MUCH to do!

Even if you just go from pool to beach, pool to beach, with outings for food, it is fun.

There are shops, water parks, golf, pools, the beach, restaurants, and so much shopping! The Harborwalk Village area is a must see!

There are also arcades, outlet shopping malls, movie theatres, a Bass Pro Shop, and mini golf places nearby, as well as a water park!

Also naps:

JD’s first year in the bottom bunk

#2. The clear, beautiful water, the warm temperatures, and the light breeze make this beach a taste of Heaven to me.

what it looks like when you don’t have your sunglasses on

See how clear this water is!!

#3. When I say Destin, I really mean the Destin area as a whole. Destin has actually become pretty crowded in recent years. It’s still worth it though.

We have a fantastic place to stay. Alan’s grandparents let us stay at their house for free.

I’m all about choosing affordable vacations.

#4. It makes my kids HAPPY. (For bucket-loads less money than Disney World)

#5. Beach activities are actually good for your health. Well, except for sunburn. See my awesome UV-protection-workout- wear- turned- swimsuit, created to cover up my sunburn so I could still have fun in the sun?

This was about not dying… 😉 (Gingers understand.)

#6. Many days, it rains and then clears up, which cools things down nicely. Florida does not have a drought like California. So you can actually play after the rain, or in the evening or early morning, with a lot less sun exposure:

Cloudy beach day = my new favorite

#7. The crystal white sand!!   Ahhhh I could run my toes through this all day, but be careful, it gets so hot that it will also burn you.

JD’s tiny foot prints

#8. Fishing Thank you to whoever left these awesome nets at the condo. Alan and the boys are still talking about it.

#9. Tradition. I love revisiting vacation spots over the years. The way we enjoy them changes, but the way the memories build and flow together make it extra special. I love seeing the boys grow in their Destin over-the-years photos.

#10. It’s family friendly. This is not Panama City Beach. I didn’t see a single car that said “Show us your boobs.” I did see plenty of young people, but not the wild MTV Spring Breaker crowd. Destin keeps it classy.

Yes, I’ve had a happy, easy summer.  We must remember to count our blessings when we’re on the mountain tops of life. Life is good, and I am soaking it in this summer. I can’t tell you how much we needed this!

“For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.”    Psalm 103:11-13

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