This year, for me, is about being more on top of things, and that includes creating a history for our family. I'm doing that post-per-day thing on Instagram, writing in my journal regularly, and also working on the blog, among a few other things. If you're interested, feel free to read along.
I just double-checked when I last wrote. That would be following Ty's assignment night, when he got assigned to be a T-6 instructor. Since then, here's a quick run-down of what's happened...
Ty officially graduated from pilot training and "got his wings." It was a fun and eventful day, and we had the privilege of having Ty's parents join us for the special occasion.
Graduation day was also the day we found out about Ty's upcoming schedule. He would be leaving 6 days later for survival training in Spokane, Washington. He would be there for three weeks, then have to report straight to San Antonio for 5 months of instructor training. That meant that the girls and I would be moving ourselves to Texas, and we'd meet Ty there.
We took advantage of the time we had with Calvin and Jane, and we went to both the pumpkin patch and the county fair in the same day. Two very different experiences (and price tags!) but we had fun at both. We also went to watch our very first roller derby match. That was a new experience, haha.
After Calvin and Jane left, we quickly secure ourselves a storage unit and got as many things squared away as we could. Then, after Ty left, the first big even was Halloween. The girls were so excited and loved every bit of the little bit we did.
The next three weeks were filled with packing, cleaning, packing, and more packing... with as much fun fit in as we could.
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| A bunch of friends helped us move a ton of things into storage one Saturday. We had juice and cookies for everyone. Later that day, I came around the corner to find this scene. I asked Afton if she's like a cookie. She simply looked up at me and smiled. |
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| Movie Night |
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| Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning... |
We even had the blessing of my mom coming into town for the final few days to help us out. She was such a huge help. And I even told her not to come, that we'd be fine. She ignored my insisting. And I was wrong. Her help was completely invaluable. Thanks Mom!!!
All of this while Ty was trying not to freeze to death.
Once everything was all ready and we were all checked out, we hit the road. I don't have many pictures of the trek... I was a little occupied. But I do have this:
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| At least it kept her quiet for a few minutes. |
To sum up the entire experience, I'll just paste something I posted on Facebook when we arrived in San Antonio:
"If you want to be blown away by the goodness of mankind, read this post. We (Michelle and our two girls) made it to San Antonio safe and sound. I don't normally post much on Facebook, but I really want to say thank you to so many people. I'm not going to tag anyone because I know they didn't do it for recognition, and some of them I don't even know their names. THANK YOU to everyone who watched my girls so I could have some more productive packing time. THANK YOU to the people letting us store a bunch of stuff at their house while we are gone. THANK YOU to the people who have come multiple times to help us move things. THANK YOU to everyone who let me do laundry at their house after my washer and dryer were in storage. THANK YOU to everyone who came and helped me get most of our possessions into storage, and even those who ran to the grocery store to get cookies and juice for all the helpers. THANK YOU to everyone who checked in on me periodically and asked how I was doing. THANK YOU to the person who helped cleaned most of my house. THANK YOU to those who called me the morning before the move to see what they could do, helped me pick up my trailer and get it backed into my driveway, stayed at my house almost all day packing, loading, cleaning, running to storage, and more loading until 11pm. THANK YOU to those who helped me keep reality in check. THANK YOU to those who stopped by just because they had a spare moment to see what they could do to help. THANK YOU to my mom for coming into town to help even though I told her no. THANK YOU to the people who took her to the airport. THANK YOU to the person who paused his morning run to help us get our heavy trailer hitched onto our truck. THANK YOU to all those helping us tie up loose ends we left as we departed amidst chaos. THANK YOU to the sweet couple in Starkville who followed me out to my car to offer to pay for my daughters' lunches when they noticed I couldn't find my wallet. THANK YOU to the manager at Wendy's who gave me the meals for free anyways and all the employees who helped that happen, including the one who chased me back out to the parking lot. THANK YOU to the honest person who found my wallet in the Chevron parking lot and turned it in. THANK YOU to the kind gentleman who, upon our return to Wendy's to attempt to pay for our food (manager still insisted it was covered), approached me and offered to pay for gas or something because he noticed we were traveling and saw what had happened earlier. THANK YOU to the multiple people who stopped in the Walmart parking lot who stopped to offer their help while I was sitting on top of our truck covering up our things with a new and bigger tarp and applying straps and bungee cords while my girls sat in a shopping cart and watched. THANK YOU to the friend of a friend for helping me find a safe and comfortable hotel and booking it for us. THANK YOU to the friend who made the effort to find a connection to a hotel for us. THANK YOU to the nice lady at the hotel who kept an eye on my girls while I got all checked in, and the nice couple who helped me get that one bag I just couldn't keep a handle on to my room. THANK YOU to the people who helped me relocate our two-year-old after she made a mad dash out of the continental breakfast area. THANK YOU to Ty's cousins who I'd never met before who put us up for a night and gave us great food and company. THANK YOU to my great college friend who fed us lunch today and whose daughters became instant friends with mine. THANK YOU to my new neighbors who helped me unhitch the trailer from the truck and gave me directions to the nearest grocery store. THANK YOU to all my family and friends for all of their words of support and encouragement over the last three weeks. THANK YOU to the dozens and dozens of offers for help I was either unable or too stubborn to accept. THANK YOU to the Savior for making this trying time both humbling and empowering, making me stronger than I thought I was, but also humbling me by the goodness of Him and His servants. God is good. People are good. I am so incredibly blessed. THANK YOU.
There's not much more I can say beyond that. It was incredible.
We got to San Antonio on Friday, and Ty got in late Saturday. The girls got to see him for the first time on Sunday morning. They made it clear while he was gone that they are definitely "daddy's girls." Afton's excitement that Sunday morning did not disappoint. Eliza took a little bit to warm back up, but she's definitely earned back the title of "daddy's girl" too.
Since we've all been here in San Antonio, we've had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of my cousin Matt and his wife Stephanie (I regret not taking any pictures), visited SeaWorld...
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| Thanks for the pictures Haley! |
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| Salt Lick BBQ |
...had a great Christmas...
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| We tried that idea to set the camera to take a picture every few minutes. This is about the best picture we got. Hungry Hungry Hippos. |
... had Christmas dinner with Matt and Stephanie (again, no pictures.... we'll work on it)...
... had Matt and Stephanie over for games (I DID take pictures... see, I TOLD you I'd work on it)...
... and overall have had a good time here. We're trying to take advantage of everything San Antonio has to offer since we are only here for a short time, but we're also excited to return to Columbus and begin (or resume?) our adventure there.
If you made it to the end of this blog, congratulations. Hopefully we didn't scare you away for next month. If you didn't make it... well... I guess that doesn't really matter because you're probably not reading this anyways. So............ until next month! Phew!
