…but I’ve seen Amy cuddling up to another man.

Owen and Jer sharing a chair while they enjoyed their Krispy Kremes.

Sweet Sarah

“Me love donuts.” (Said in a deadpan Cookie Monster voice, of course.)

The anticipation!

I just got back from eight fun-filled days in Springfield, Missouri. Woohoo, right? Seriously. The kids and I went to visit Amy and her kids for a week or so. The ten hour trip there was uneventful. The kids were great. They’re awesome travelers. We made it there by one thirty central time. We left at five a.m., and we only had to stop three times.

Most of our days were pretty low key, but we had tons of fun being together. It’s always interesting to see how our kids are going to react to each other. In the past, Jeremiah and Kyra have played together more than any of them. This time, however, Jeremiah and Elijah decided to be best buddies. They spent the whole time locking the girls out of their “Elijah and Jeremiah Club”. It was nice to see them actually getting along with each other. They slept in Jer’s top bunk most every night, and were usually still awake talking when the rest of us went to bed.

The girls didn’t get along quite as well, but they did have their moments of playing well together.

On, I think, the second day we were there, we went grocery shopping and to Target. Why am I telling you this? Because it was fun, and we have pictures.

That’s a cartload of babies, huh?

Our friend, Aimee met us at Target, and then we went home and made quesadillas.

Aimee and Amy cooking and talking. I don’t remember what they were talking about, but I love the look on Aimee’s face.

Our friend, Joy, came over, too. The kids all love Joy, but I think Kyra is especially enamored with her.

We sat around the kitchen table talking till after midnight. It was really nice. I wish I lived closer. I could get used to hanging out with friends.

Amy had class on Monday morning and all day Tuesday, and her kids had school all week. So, a lot of my time was spent taking and picking up kids from school, cleaning up their messes, and fixing a bajillion cups of chocolate milk. Five kids go through a lot of milk. I was really happy to actually get to be of practical help to Amy…watching Sarah and taking her to school when the babysitter unexpectedly couldn’t, etc. Living so far away, I can never do the kind of things that best friends do. I wish I could be helpful more often.

We had a donut party one day, but other than this one photo…I’m going to make a new post later with all our donut pics and video. They’re really cute.

We were supposed to leave on Friday morning, but we hit a little hangup. The night before, on the way to Bible study, my tire was low. We aired it up, and were going to check it in the morning. So, Friday morning, I was gonna leave at six, but I ended up sleeping later and getting up at six. I went outside in the freezing cold to check my tire, and it looked like it could be a tad low but not much. So, I got ready, packed up our stuff, and went to load the van. When I went out there, at about nine, the tire was completely flat. I had to call a tow service to come change my tire for me, and then we took it to the tire store to get it fixed. It had a nail in it. It was the grace of God, though, that I slept later, and we weren’t on the road when the tire went flat. That would have really rained on my parade. Especially if it blew out on me.

These are some pictures from our wait at the tire shop. They’re fun.

Hugging my boy.

Biting my boy.

My bitten boy.

Our beautiful girls, waiting patiently.

After we go the tire fixed, we went out for pizza for lunch, and decided it was too late to head to Tennessee, so we were staying another night. We then picked Jeremiah up from school, went to Honey Heaven (a honey store that had a hive of real bees that we looked at and honey sticks that we ate), and went to the Army Surplus store. We were looking for an old school Army pt jacket. Chris lost his, and I wanted one. Amy had one that used to be Joel’s that I was coveting. Anyway, while we were there, we had fun trying on silly hats.

I think we’ll all agree on who was the cutest.

After the crazy Army Surplus fun, we went to get Andy’s Frozen Custard. Apparently, it’s a must if you’re in Springfield. It was delicious. After that, we ordered sushi. I wasn’t the only one who tried sushi for the first time.

Sushi is good. I think it’s my new favorite. Seriously. I had it for dinner last night, and then ate it for breakfast at four thirty this morning, and then I had some more on the drive home since my amazing friend packed me a little cooler of it. She really does make my life better…breakfast burritos and sushi are enough to warrant a lifelong friendship, no?

I so enjoyed my trip. It’s always good to be with my friend. To go to church and worship with her, to sing along to the song playing while we wait to pick up a kid from school, to eat sushi in her living room floor…no matter what we’re doing, it’s fun. I treasure each moment that I get to spend with Amy and her kids.

She made me laugh right before she took the picture.

Craziness. We have so much fun together.

I don’t look so great in this photo, but Amy looks so pretty I had to post it.

I love my friend. I miss her already.

Here’s to hoping that our next visit is just as awesome as this one was.

So, on the way to the scope test I had done today, I had an interesting conversation with my husband and best friend. I remind you ahead of time, just as I’ve told you before, that my husband is warped. That’s all.

Me: “Chris, when we get to your mom’s, can you take the kids in by yourself so I can stay out here and pray with Amy?”

Chris: “Pray with Amy? Why do you have to do that? In case you die when you get scoped?”

Me: “Yes. That’s exactly why.”

Amy, on the phone with me: “That’s horrible.”

Chris: “Her  praying with you won’t help anything. ‘As it is appointed unto man once to die, and, after this, the judgement.’ If it’s your time, Rachel, it’s your time.”

Me: “Amy, he says if it’s my appointed time, it’s my appointed time.”

Amy: “Tell him you’re going to make an appointment for him.”

Me, laughing: “Chris, she says I should make an appointment for you.”

Chris, not amused: “That’s just silly. It’s not funny.”

Me: “Oh, it’d be funny if you had said it.”

Amy, laughing.

Me: “Amy, he’s not amused. He only thinks it’s funny when he’s the one who says things like that.”

Pulling up to an intersection in the rain, Chris looks at the oncoming traffic from both directions.

Chris: “We’re never going to get across. If I gun it, my tires will spin.”

Me: “Yeah. Then we’ll all die.”

Chris: “If it’s our appointed time, we will.”

Me: “What if it’s not our appointed time.”

Chris: “Then we may just all end up as vegetables.”

Me: “That would be horrible. Amy, if we all end up as vegetables, will you come down here and pull the plugs for us.”

Amy, singing, “Broccoli. Celery.”

Me, laughing, then turning serious, “Amy, honey. If ever Chris calls and tells you I’ve been in an accident and am in a vegetative state, you just keep him on the phone, get in the car, and drive here as fast as you can.”

Amy laughs.

Me: “No, I’m serious. We’ve had this conversation before. I don’t trust him. His definition of no chance of survival and mine may be different.”

Chris: “Hey, if I pull the plug and it’s not your appointed time, God will keep you alive.”

Me: “See, Amy! See!”

Amy, using her ‘Chris voice’: “La la la. Oops. Oh, sorry. I tripped over this plug.”

I whimper.

Wow! What a great trip!

Seriously. It was good. I left at five fifteen Thursday morning, made four quick stops along the 560(?) mile drive to Springfield, Missouri, and arrived at Amy’s apartment at two o’clock their time (three mine). That gave us a great deal of Thursday to spend together, too. It was so cool to pull up to her apartment complex and see my friend outside waiting on me. The fact that I had just drove ten hours with three little kids by myself was not the least of the coolness. I was pretty proud of myself. The kids were excellent, though. They were no trouble at all. Amy laughed at me when she saw that I really did wear my Supermom shirt. What can I say? I really believe in the power of positive thinking.

Thursday evening, I was so excited to get to go to Amy’s Bible study with her. It’s a group of wives of Chaplains, Chaplain candidates, and a couple of the ladies, including Amy, were Chaplain candidates themselves. So, it was a group of women that I felt an instant connection with. They had childcare, so we had some great girls downstairs watching all our kiddos while we got to relax and enjoy the fellowship upstairs. It was really good. I was very blessed by being there. That night, we (of course) stayed up most of the night. That’s what we do, I suppose. Really, though. We have five kids six and under between us. The only quiet time we have to hang out together in peace is when they are sleeping. It was great to spend time with my friend again.

Friday morning, we got up early, on just a few hours sleep, and got everyone ready, took Jeremiah to school, and went to Joy’s church for a women’s group thing. I had talked to Joy on Facebook and heard a lot about her from Amy, but I had not yet met her in person. So, I was so very excited to get to meet her and hear her speak to the women’s group. The service there was awesome. I didn’t know any of the worship songs, but just standing there and enjoying it with all of my sisters in Christ was amazing. Joy was awesome. She spoke about the importance of our words. It was good stuff! Our friend, Aimee, was also there. I had met her once before at Fort Jackson, briefly, and I was so excited to get to see her in person. (Yes, I am claiming all of Amy’s friends. They’re great!) Before we left, we made plans to meet up with Joy and Aimee later on, and went to pick up our kids from childcare. This was a huge, huge church, and they had a highly impressive set up for the kids. It was like Disneyland or something. The kids were in rooms by their ages, and got to go out to the playland which was like a McDonald’s playland on steroids. It was awesome. They had a blast. Elijah’s favorite part, I think, was the tiny little toilet and sink they had in the bathroom. He kept saying, “They have a wittle potty, Mama!”. You should have seen his eyes sparkle over that miniature toilet. Really, it was highly impressive.

Friday evening, we went to Amy’s Seminary for a game night they were having. I enjoyed getting to meet some of Amy’s classmates, and put some faces with names. We didn’t play any games, though. Really, we just ate their food and took advantage of their childcare. We mingled a bit, ate, and then sat in the prayer chapel talking in complete peace and quiet for a long time. We eventually picked up our kids and headed home.

Saturday, we met Joy, Aimee, and Aimee’s cousin, Thomas, at a park, and just hung out while the kids played. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home.

Sunday, I was so excited to get to go to church with Amy. We dropped all the kids off in their various classes, and got to enjoy the service sans kids. I was highly impressed with Amy’s church. The music was so good. It was contemporary but not crazy. Very worshipful and good. I enjoyed it a lot. They put their drummer in a box, though. Not sure what that was about. (Seriously. He was in a box.) I knew several of the songs, and it was good. The message was by a guest preacher, Bro. George Wood, (who is someone very important in the AG, but I forgot his title), and it was a really good message. I was highly impressed with him. That night, we went back to church, and it was just as good. I really liked Amy’s church a lot. I look forward to going back some time.

Monday, we spent most of the day at home, but took the kids to the park for a little while after picking Jeremiah up from school. That evening, we ordered pizza, and Joy came over for just a little while. It was just such a great time.

The whole trip was so much fun. It was a much needed break, and I came away feeling refreshed. Really, between the conversations with Amy and getting to pray with my friend again and then getting to attend a Bible study, a women’s meeting, and two church services, how could I not come away refreshed? It was so good to be there. I hated to leave. It never seems like enough time. I was excited to get home to my husband, though. Sometimes I feel torn between my two best friends. Really, someone needs to move. I am praying that someday we will be stationed at the same Army post, and I will get to spend as much time with my friend as I want.

Yesterday morning, I got up, packed all my stuff up, Amy fixed me breakfast, and then, after many sad looks and a few dozen hugs goodbye, we pulled out and headed back to Tennessee. The trip was great for most of the way. I only stopped twice between Springfield and Nashville. Things got complicated in Nashville when the ramp to I-40 was completely closed. I had to get off in downtown Nashville, and find my way back to 40 via Chris telling me roads to take over the phone. I ended up spending an hour in Nashville between the waiting on the interstate to get to an exit I could get off at and finding my way back to 40. Really, though, that was a blessing, too. It reinforced what I had learned several times this summer. I am capable.I…the girl who, up until Chris went to Vegas two years ago, was too scared to drive to Knoxville…have drove two trips to Fort Jackson and back, one trip to Florida and back, and now a trip to Springfield and back (all of those with three little kids, mind you!)…and I did fine. I am more competent than I often gave myself credit for. So, I count the hour in Nashville as a blessing.

Elijah spent the rest of the trip home…all the way from Nashville back to Harriman…crying. It was about to drive me crazy. The other kids were asleep, but he just kept crying and crying. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? My nerves were frazzled from the incessant crying, but I made it home safely close to midnight last night. I praise the Lord for safety and that I still have my sanity!

So, yay for friends! Yay for roadtrips! Yay for competence! And yay for arriving home with all children present and accounted for!

Addendum: For all of you grandmother and adoring great aunt types who read my blog searching for any little piece of information about the children and are probably wondering, “But how did the kids do? Did they have fun?”. Well, yes. They did have a good time. However, Amy and I don’t like to admit that our children don’t really like each other very often. So, la, la, la.

She just turned five, my forever friend. She’s smart and cute and side-splitting funny. She doesn’t like babies, my cooking, or soda, and if ever you yell at her it would break her heart. She meow’s like a kitty, and wears dresses just because she’s a princess. She’s not my daughter or even my niece, but I couldn’t love her more if she was. She calls me Aunt Rachel, and it gets me every time.

Her name is Sarah, or sometimes Daisy…it just depends on which way the sun shines. She’s my best friend’s daughter, and she stole my heart. I talk to her mom a dozen times a day, and she always asks to talk to me when she knows I’m on the phone. Sometimes she tells me stories or what her brother’s doing, and sometimes I just fill her mind with propaganda about how wonderful she is for helping her mom do the dishes. I had to laugh when she fought for the phone with her mom, and she giggled and told me her mom sometimes forgets that Sarah and I are friends forever.

Last night, I called on my way home from school. I talked to my little friend, and she said she had a secret. Her voice was hard to understand in her gaspy, childish whisper. It took two times before I got the message. The secret she shared, well, it broke my heart. “If you talk to my Daddy on the phone, tell him to come home.”

Tell him to come home.

Her daddy’s a soldier, deployed to Afghanistan. So very far from home.

My little friend is five years old. She doesn’t understand war or duty or patriotism. They’re just abstract ideas that mean her daddy’s far away.

I can’t fix her problem, though I wish I could. My heart aches for the sadness she feels. I imagine the call years down the road when I’ll try not to break down and cry. I imagine my friend will be not so little, but still my friend forever, when she says, “If you talk to my Mom on the phone, tell her to come home.”

See, her mom’s a soldier, too. A soon to be chaplain with a burden to tell soldiers about Jesus. A mom who loves her kids more than life itself, asked to leave them for a while to minister to those who need hope. What can I do, but listen and pray? Listen to a mom whose heart breaks over the dad who’s away. Listen to the girl who whispers her secret. Listen and promise that I’ll always be there to listen and pray and be a keeper of secrets.

Pray for this family who does this for you. For freedom and country and each other and you. For God and the Gospel and the knowledge that saves. They’re not nameless faces, but real hearts and tears. They’re not an exception in this military life. It’s par for the course, and it hurts every time.

Do what you can. Help where you can. Most of all pray, because you always can. Pray for my friend, and pray for her man. Pray for her boy. And, please, please, pray for my little forever friend.

A mixed bag of emotions. Happy and sad. Eighteen days with my friend and her little ones. So much more than we had expected, yet not nearly long enough.

I had such a good time visiting with Amy. Having her and her kids along on our vacation was so great. Getting to spend some more time with them once we got back to Tennessee was the icing on the cake. The many miles between us makes her leaving especially hard. It was easier last time, when we knew we would get to see each other in only about a month’s time. This time, though, we don’t know when we’ll get to see each other again. We both have school. We both have kids in school. Mostly, though, we have 573 miles between us. It’s tempting to just feel bad about the fact that I have this great friend that I can’t see nearly often enough, but, after I think about it, I should really just be thankful that God blessed me with her friendship in the first place. It really is amazing.

We didn’t even know each other before this summer. I had left a couple of comments on her blog at the beginning of the year, but that was it until right before Chris went to Fort Jackson. A week or so before he left, Amy sent me an email with her phone number in case I needed someone to talk to while Chris was gone, being all chaplain’y. We began chatting, and, after Chris left, we started talking a lot. With both of our husbands gone for the Army, we had lots of empty time to fill up. I actually kicked my horrible, time-sucking t.v. habit because of all of the time I spent talking to her online. Through just random commenting on blogs and email and IM conversations, we got to be great friends. Five weeks or so into a new friendship, Amy got on a plane and flew to Nashville where I picked her up, having never met in real life or even known each other online for more than a few weeks. She went with me to Fort Jackson, and then stayed with me for a week. We spent a week hearing each other’s stories, talking, listening to music, and even praying together. Even now, writing this, it astounds me at how quickly we became friends. It was definitely a God thing. We both needed each other, and the miles and circumstances that normally would have prevented us from ever meeting were nothing to God.

So now, at the closing of my summer, I can’t help but be amazed. I was awfully lonely when this summer started. God has filled it up with good things. These last eighteen days have been so good for me. We have enjoyed our visit immensely. Our kids enjoyed it, too. They alternately played and fought, sang and tattled, played outside and played on the computers. These are definitely our kids. It’s kind of sad when, in a house with four computers hooked up and online, we had a computer shortage. Our kids spent hours with all four of the big kids sitting together in my desk chair playing the computer, on opposite ends of the kitchen table playing with each other, or crammed onto the chair.

I love this picture. They are still all hot and sweaty from playing outside, and are laughing like crazy over some silly computer game.

I expected Kyra and Sarah to spend all their time playing girly things like Barbies and baby dolls, but, while they did like to play with each other, it was Jeremiah and Kyra who hit it off the best. They spent hours and hours and hours playing computer games together. They also had some pretty spectacular, freaking out arguments. Is an arranged marriage out of the question?

It was so cool to see our kids having fun together. I really love those Maxwell kids.

Amy was pretty fond of my kids, too, but I think it was pretty obvious that she love, love, loves Owen the most. Shh. Don’t tell.

We had such a good time, it’s hard to see the visit end. Instead of being all sad about it, though, I’m just going to be thankful. Thankful for good friends and the opportunity to spend time with them.

God is really good to me. Really, really good.

Elijah spends so much time not smiling for pictures, I forget how cute he is when he actually does it.

Sarah was thinking about doing some tight rope walking.

Could this kid be any cuter? I highly doubt it.

Two little monkeys in the tree at the alligator park.

One of the gators we saw.

Jeremiah looking cute. You should just imagine an identical picture, only with Elijah, because he looked a little stoned in his picture.

Today was fun. I woke up right after the sunrise on the lounge chair out on the balcony. My back was stiff and sore. Amy and I had been out there talking for forever the night before, and I just stayed out there. Besides the fact that Chris, Elijah, and Owen were all asleep in my bed and there was no room for me, I was just really into laying there on the balcony watching the stars and waves and listening to them crash on the beach. It’s hypnotic.
So, I drug myself to the bed when Owen woke up some time early this morning, and then got up for good around eight. We lounged around for an hour or two, eating breakfast burritos, listening to music, and posting pictures for you guys. Then, we all got into our swimsuits, gathered up a bajillion shovels, pails, floats, swim rings, towels, and other beach paraphernalia, packed up some stuff for lunch, gathered our five small children, and hit the road. We went to this really awesome state park. I regret to tell you all that I didn’t take a lot of pictures of this place, but it was because we were too busy actually doing things. This place was shielded from the big waves by a rock jetty, and it was really shallow with just enough small waves to make in interesting. There was plenty of wet sand for playing in, and dry sand up on the beach to stick your umbrella in. We played and played. The kids all had a blast. We built a really awesome sand castle. Amy and I and all of the kids contributed to our sandy work of art, and we were quite proud of the end result. Chris, Velvet, and I went snorkeling, which was cool. Chris really, really enjoyed that. I had more of a hard time, due to my sinus infection (which is much better than when I came, in case you are wondering). I kept coughing into my snorkel. It was fun while I did it, though. There were fish swimming around all over the place.
After we finally drug ourselves out of the water and across the beach with our five little children, our bajillion shovels, pails, floats, swim rings, towels, and other beach paraphernalia, we made some sandwiches and had a picnic. We were starved after being in the water and playing in the sand for several hours. We played around for a while, and then went to Alligator Lake, where we actually got to see some alligators.
Once we got back to the condo, we went down to the swimming pool and the hot tub. It was fun, but we were exhausted by the time we made it back to our room. We had a late dinner, and all of the kids were soon asleep. They all played hard today, and were so exhausted.
Right now, I’m the only one up, waiting on a load of laundry to finish, so we can have clean swimsuits and towels for tomorrow. It’s so cool to have such a fun day and know that you’re just going to get up and do it all again tomorrow.

Click here to see pictures from Monday.

Our morning started off well.

Sweet Sarah!

Mamaw Velvet and Owen. He wasn’t so sure what he thought of the ocean. He was intrigued, but a little scared.

Amy and Jeremiah got knocked down by a wave. The picture I missed would have been even better, but, um, I was laughing too hard to take it.

Daddy and Kyra waiting on a wave.

Me and Owen, napping in the shade.

My sweet, sandy, sunburned baby, right after his nap.

Look at that happy all over Jeremiah’s face.

We’re all having a great time. I’m trying to post pictures a little here and there, so I don’t have a huge bunch of pictures to post all at once when I get home.