R E T I R E D ... on to the N E X T chapter

It was a beautiful day for our family. Jim is officially retired- going out with a beautiful ceremony.

His buddies put an incredible amount of work into making it just right. The only thing missing was Justin and the rest of our family. Other than that, it was quite perfect. It was all about family.



While they {every higher-ranking official in his squadron} did not want him to retire early and did not think it would be approved, all who spoke agreed that Jim not only talk family- he lives it.

It was mentioned several times how important it is for us to be close to Justin.

The picture just doesn't look right without him in it. There is a hole and he was definitely missed.

Jim apologized to Justin {it's on video... Justin hasn't seen it or heard it yet...} for missing his first two seasons of football.

Now that we are moving back, we don't have to miss another season. We get to be there and we can't wait to get everyone settled. It is not easy being a military kid. Both Justin and Ty had adjustments being moved mid-high school but neither missed a beat- we could not be more proud of them and the men they are becoming.

Our friend in attendance told us afterwards that as the guys filed in and sat down- there was one who sat right behind them. As he looked up and saw it was actually Jim retiring he said, "Oh man- he was one of the cool ones." I couldn't agree more.

So funny as you know they get the email about the retirement and are told to show up even if they don't pay attention to who it is retiring.

His Chief said Jim was a future chief- no doubt. With that, there was applause in the hanger. He then went on to say that he chose his family over his career- something that he admired and a lesson he would take with away from knowing Jim.

I could not have been more proud to be his wife.

While he would have preferred to not speak, Jim had no choice but to thank everyone and speak for a few minutes. He did a fabulous job especially considering he would rather do just about anything that speak in public.

We were blessed to have close friends who took time out of their schedules to be with us.
It is a special time for our family. Today is our last full day in Germany. Tomorrow, we get on the plane. Let this new chapter begin... we are SO ready!

one hundred {thousand} M I L E S

And we have driven every one of them. We hit six digits on our last Europe trip- our trip to Prague. 

Just over 50,000 miles driven in Europe. While we didn't see everything we wanted to see, we covered a good part of this phenomenal part of the world.

so much to S A Y

We are out of our house.
We are still working to get out of Germany.

It has been one rough week. Really rough week.
I am reminded of our tough days getting settled in Germany. It has not been much easier wrapping things up.

The only difference is the prize of our home, friends and family on the other end.

My plan was to be blogging all week but, our Internet is horrible. We can't get on our laptop at all. Luckily, Ty's Mac works. The problem is I'm struggling using it- change is hard and I feel the need to let my brain rest.

We are excited but tired.
Tired of thinking.
Tired of working.

Ready for this transition to be over and the next stage of our lives to start.

Right now, working to get out of our phone(s) is proving to be a nightmare. Our house phone said they will be charging us through July even though we are no longer in our house. Even worse, the new renters move in May 1st.

Isn't that double dipping? Shouldn't it be against the law?

I got my hair cut the other day and the German girls in the salon told me the phone company can not do that to us. She tried to call for me. The system was down and they were told it's the law, we have to pay. They said to just close our bank account- they can not take the money.

Our landlord called for us to get it stopped- she was told the same thing.

Jim went to the bank to close our account. Our bank told us {on base, by the way} that if we close it and any company attempts to take money out- they will open it back up, GIVE them the money, then charge us the $ plus LATE fees.

Unbelievable.

It's no wonder Americans leave here with lawsuits and in limbo with German companies.

So, I went to the local office downtown this morning to finish out this phone account and return the router so we don't get charged even more.

After a 40-minute wait, the man told me I have to mail the router through the German PO, he can not take it. 

Strike one. 

Then, he said he can not do any customer service but he would help write a letter to see if they would consider canceling our account before July. He wrote the letter, then faxed it to the company for me. With the company logo on his building, I was still confused as to why he could not address my issues.

Then, let me know he usually charges 10 Euro {$14} for this service. But, since we do not know if this will help, he waived the charge just for today.

Seriously?

I told him at this point- I did not care. I would like to pay the three months service {we would NOT be receiving @$55/mo} and be DONE with Kabel Deutschland. He let me know, unfortunately he could not help with that either.

He could/would not accept my payment for my account.

Strike two.

It was all I could do to stay calm.

Until I got in the car and realized he mis-typed our e-mail address. E-mail is the only way for them to contact us. I should have checked it, but I WROTE it out for him. Think I'm back to square one.

Strike three.

Our cell phone company is even worse.
This is only part of why we are so exhausted.

Seven nights to go...

prague and the C Z E C H republic

March was definitely madness in our house. April started out at a fast, furious pace as well.

As I type this, there are five Bavarian men working like crazy.

Screeching rolls of tape, a dialect of German I can not understand and crumpling  packing paper are the sounds that fill the rooms of our emptying house.  

The real packing started the last Tuesday. We were allowed to ship 500 pounds ahead of our household goods shipment.

Towels, sheets, pillows, dishes, scooters and of course, Legos are all en route to KS.

The real fun started this past Friday as the majority of our household items were boxed and snugly placed onto crates headed for Haysville, Kansas.

This afternoon, we will be left with only the dust and mess from almost three years in our Mackenbach home as they plan to finish up and sign off on our shipment in the next few hours.

Great friends have welcomed us into their home for three nights until we can move into temporary housing on base.

Wednesday, we will ship our van. Thursday, we will move on base. We fly out April 22nd.

Opting not to spend the weekend in a half-filled house waiting to be cleaned, we took off Saturday for our last quick trip.

Our destination was the {huge} city of Prague in the Czech Republic. In just twenty four house, we were we able to peek at another beautiful city while checking another country off our list.

Planning to drive and come home in a day, we took the advice of friends and drove the bulk of the trip (four hours) to Grafenwohr, Germany where we stayed in Army Lodging for the night. It was great advice as we did not have to wake up at the crack of dawn and all got a good night’s sleep.

Our plan for Prague did not go quite as anticipated. We are actually just fine with that.

Prague is not a driver-friendly city.

It is also a big city. You have to be careful where you park with gangs and theft a huge problem. We saw several cars with boots attached for those parking illegally. The rules are strict, the language a barrier. We are not big-city people to start with and noted how grateful we were to be on the same track.

On top of those factors, our Coleman was on day two of an ear infection that landed us in the ER between the hours of one and four {am} the night before. On a good day, he’s not thrilled to walk. Today, we decided to not even pick that battle.

Rather than pay more than $30 for safe underground parking to fight kids in a city they did not want to be in, we did what we like to call a drive-by tour. Jim's superior big-city driving skills were put to the test with busses backing up in front of us and trams coming from every direction. 

All in all, we survived.

I think we caught a little of the beauty, but were once again happy to get out of the craziness of another big European city and back into Germany.

never A G A I N

Knowing that we N E V E R have to move again is something that is getting me through these stressful days. I know there are more to come, so I will keep that thought in my head.

Our list of to-do's is growing in spite of crossing things off.

Our stress level is elevated in spite of trying to stay calm.

Our {my} energy comes and goes- mornings seem to be more productive.

Moving is something we know how to do.

Moving continents in a month is something new that we are working to survive....

It's not easy, but I know we can do it.
Thank goodness, we have a nice prize on the other end.

one of a M I L L I O N reasons...

...why I love my man.

Our to-do list is so long and enormous we seem to add more each day than we are able to cross off.

Seriously, who not only moves continents but adds a retirement and all that goes with it in just over a month's time.

No one that we know.

As Jim made his retirement appointment with the VA this week, they let him know that most people call six months in advance to start the process.

We don't have six months.

We don't even have six weeks.

They put him on a fast track.
Good thing there is a fast track.
Fasttrack should be our last name. We tend to be a little crazy like that.

Yesterday, I thought I was doing good staying focused working on whatever I was working on. The thought came to get the boys out of baseball since we will miss most of the season. Instead of putting it off, I emailed our youth sports immediately.

I was so proud. It wasn't even on our list and I was knocking it out!
That lasted for a minute until I received this email response:

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim and Sheila DICKEY [mailto:jsdickey7@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 3:28 PM
To: MUTCH, JESSICA A NF-02 USAF USAFE 86 FSS/FSFY
Subject: RE: Baseball season information

We have our boys registered for baseball, but just received retirement orders. We leave April 25th-ish, so we are going to miss most of the season. Any chance we can get a refund and give someone else their slots?

Caden & Coleman Dickey (both 9-10 yo)

Thanks,
Sheila Dickey

My response from youth sports:

Your husband already came in to get his refund.

Thank you,

Jessica Mutch
Ramstein Youth Sports Assistant
480-5660
Any one that I have to try to keep up with is a keeper. I'm reminded even amongst the stress and emotion right now that there is no one in this entire universe more suited for me.

I love this man.

there's no place like H O M E

You would think having not blogged for almost two solid months things were boring around our house.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
With work and school and kids and basketball- our days have been full.

In fact, things are about to get a little more exciting.
I'm not sure even we will be able to handle it.

The bottom line: we are going home.

The Air Force {US government} is doing this whole re-shaping thing right now cutting back the military. We don't get it, we just know it's going on.

In January, an email was sent out offering an early retirement to those who qualify. We fit in the time frame that they offered with Jim hitting 19 years of service this July.

We talked about it {for about an hour} and decided to go for it.

More than anything, we are tired. We are ready to be settled. We are ready to be back in our house. We are really ready to be close to Justin and closer to family. We are ready to get Ty in college in the states.

Jim immediately submitted his packet and we have been in limbo for three months. That might not seem like long but it is when you are trying to plan your life, or even the next six months.

Last week, an article came out in the Air Force Times that all early-retirement decisions were being put on hold. More people are trying to get out than they planned on. We thought for sure that our chances were slim to none.

In fact, Wednesday night we started talking about a job in Georgia. It was actually sounding like a good plan. A path we might follow.

Thursday {March 13} around noon, Jim received his retirement orders. Not just the approval but actual orders straight from the Secretary of the Air Force. As of July 31st, his commitment to the United States Air Force is served and he is released.

He messaged me to call him immediately- we are OUT.

When he arrived home around 5:00, he let me know he had packers scheduled April 4th and 6th, taking everything on April 7th.

Just over three weeks and our lives are being packed up. Who does that?

The details will work themselves out. They always do. My non-procrastinating husband {a personality trait I actually love} reminds me daily that this is what we do.

We work well together under pressure.
We work well together.
We will be fine in spite of the stress of the next three weeks.

It will not be easy saying our goodbyes here. We have the most cherished friendships and memories that we will treasure forever.

Friendships that we would never have made had we not left Kansas. With plans of returning to Kansas, we are actually overjoyed. If I could fast forward the next three weeks, we would. I might just have to stop substitute teaching this week- I'm not sure there is time to work!

We can't wait to get back in our house with the boys' hand prints in concrete behind our shop.
We can't wait to get our business back up and running full speed- we are bursting with ideas and plans.

We can't wait to get settled and pick up where we left off.
There's no place like home- especially when Kansas is home!

the C O L O S S E U M

The highlight of our trip.

We got up early for our second day of Rome. It was our only full day to see the city. We intended to make the most of it.

Our hotel had a nice buffet breakfast on the roof with a beautiful view of St. Peter's Basilica.

Lemon and orange trees lined the roof-top terrace. Anywhere the lemons and oranges can grow outdoors in January makes me happy. I wanted to sneak outside and pick one, but resisted the urge.

Having booked a Colosseum and Ancient Rome tour, we had studied the Metro system and how to get from our hotel {next to the Vatican} down to the Colosseum.

Looks easy enough, right?

As we were walking out of our hotel, I asked the man at the front desk to point us in the way of the Metro was just to make sure we did not get turned around. He strongly suggested taking the bus instead of the underground subway.

Rather than being in the dark, we could drive above ground and see all that there was along the way. The crazy driving down narrow streets was an added bonus.

It was great advice and we took it.

sights we took in along the bus route

The bus station was around the corner. It was around 8:00am- early for Rome. The big city was still sleepy and peaceful. When restaurants do not open until 7:30pm for dinner, you know they stay up late and sleep in.

We jumped on bus 81 which took us straight to where we needed to go. No transfers, no craziness, no crowds. Rome has a very efficient and user-friendly local transportation system- we were quite impressed and especially happy to not get lost.

Again, we had no idea what we were seeing. There were fountains and monuments and enormous buildings out both sides of the bus. A very kind non-English-speaking priest helped us by pointing out where we would get off for the Colosseum.

It was not hard to spot- the structure is incredible. You can't miss it.

Early for our tour, we stopped in a little Café for a sweet treat and a little bonus Lionel Richie on the local radio.

Our tour was small {eight others} and the best decision we made to get the most out of our short time in the city. With kids, guided tours can be long and frustrating as our boys are not always patient.

They get bored, we have to shush them {something Caden can't stand} and end up missing all the history.

We can't blame them, so we avoid the frustration all together and rarely spend the money or time on tours.

Today, we were ready for our history lesson. We hung on every word and detail our truly Roman guide Damien offered for the entire three-hour walk through the Colosseum and Ancient Rome.

This fine man of mine even took pictures- something that never happens. I knew we were somewhere grand for him to take charge of a camera.

V A T I C A N city

Living in Europe has taught us a lot.

We were reminded again this week that it seems the more we see and experience, the more we realize how much we do not know. 

As we walked {less than ten minutes} from our hotel to Vatican City, there was a moment that we looked at each other wondering where we were and what was in front of us.

We were completely overwhelmed not knowing whether to turn right or left. It is usually safe to follow the brown historical signs to see the sights. In Rome, the brown signs are on every single corner.

Rome is massive.
Rome is H U G E.
Everything is on a grand scale.

It is not like there is one really incredible building, or fountain or sculpture in the middle of the city.

The entire city is filled with more sculptures, fountains, buildings, churches, museums and history than one can possibly take in even in a lifetime.

We knew we were in Vatican City, but embarrassing to admit- we did not know much more than that about this glorious spot on the map.


We definitely did not do our homework. Instead, our motto was to take as much in as we could and figure out where we were once we returned home.

What we did learn {right} before making this trip is that Vatican City is its own state, ruled by the Pope.

With only about 500 people living in Vatican City, the city has its own post office, banks, currency, judicial system, radio station, shops and daily newspaper.  

As with every other trip we have taken, visiting Rome has only increased our desire to learn more about the ground we walked on, the churches we walked through and the fountains from which we drank.

We arrived on a Wednesday- just after Pope Francis addressed the audience.

Masses with the Pope at the Vatican can be celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica, in St Peter's Square or both together depending on the celebration and the expected number of people attending.

Mass is celebrated in the Church which holds up to 15,000 people or St Peter's Square, which is much larger and can host up to 80,000 people. The chairs were empty as we arrived, and the crowd minimal.

January is the time to visit as we did not wait in a single line.
We picked the right time to visit a place that sees millions of tourists from around the world each year.

As we stepped into view of the square, we saw metal detector lines.
Did we have to pass through them? Could we take pictures? Did we need to pay?

We turned right, only to notice that we could walk around the metal detectors and into the square and the fountain directly in front of us. What fountain? Not sure, but people were taking pictures, so we took one of our own.

Reading the signs, we followed the path and through the front doors of St. Peter's Bascilica- a massive, gorgeous structure. As Catholicism's most important shrine, the marble, gold touches, art and Michelangelo's huge dome are absolutely breathtaking.

The details are intricate.
The monuments and statues are too many to count.
A visit left us with more questions than we had going inside.

Impressive is an understatement.
We are changed from being here.

wonderful, but not P E R F E C T

We are still trying to wrap our brains around all that we were fortunate enough to experience in Rome.

It was beyond incredible. That does not mean everything was perfect.
Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.

I had that quote up in our home for a while. I forgot how much I loved it- I might have to put it back up somewhere.

For this anniversary trip, we started planning in October. Not crazy itinerary planning, but we found our tickets on RyanAir and committed to making the trip happen.

our incredible view of the Alps en route to Roma

If you are going to live in Europe, it is critical that you know about RyanAir.

RyanAir is a discount airlines. Cheap, cheap, cheap if you watch flights and have an open mind.

They fly out of Frankfurt-Hahn, a small {crummy} airport in the middle of the hills about an hour from our house.

The way they make money is in the fees. If you know this, you can easily avoid paying extra and experience really cheap travel to so many destinations in Europe.

There are also no assigned seats, so people get a little crazy rushing to board each flight. If you know this and go with the flow realizing the whole time it was so cheap- you are fine.

I'm still working on not getting worked up as these pushy Europeans cut in line- makes me CRAZY!

welcome to Roma

For us, we look at the days we want to travel, then see what destinations are cheap.

We had a few places we wanted to visit, Rome happened to be super cheap the week we could travel. Plus, it has been super high on our list.

With our tickets just 10 Euro each way {that's about $14 USD), plus airport fees and taxes we were able to both fly round trip to Rome for a grand total of $100. T O T A L.

Everyone knows if you check a bag, you pay. We pack light and carry it on.
If you want a coke, or bottle of water, you pay. We bring ours with us.

There are no warm washcloths to wash your face or hands.
Pockets in the seats in front of you do not exist.
There definitely are no movies.

For an hour and a half flight and a two-night, three day trip- RyanAir is the way to go.

As we parked in the parking lot and started to unload, we realized we had forgotten our backpack. Seriously? We have never forgotten a whole backpack.

We could live without the Italy book and itinerary I had put together and printed.
We could survive without the snacks we had packed.

our weather was perfect... this was on our return to the airport as the rain started

Our camera has video option, so it was no big deal that the camcorder was in there as well.

But, the one thing we really needed was the envelope that had all of the paperwork to go with our flight including our boarding passes. Yes, re-printing boarding passes is yet another way RyanAir makes money.
Once we realized we still had passports and could actually fly, we had to suck it up and pay for them to print boarding passes.

The grand total for two new pieces of paper to get on the flight: 30 Euro.

That's 15 Euro each, or $40.75 for them both. Boarding passes that cost more than the initial tickets.


I'm pretty sure on any flight we go on for the rest of our lives, we will never forget the backpack.

Kicking ourselves, we tried to move on and were fine until we realized everything else was in that folder including our hotel address, public transportation instructions {how to get from the airport to the bus to the metro line to walk}, and all addresses and phone numbers.

I had spent a lot of time planning this trip out and making sure everything was printed. Now, we were on our own with only our memory to rely on.

Walking a few circles around the underground Metro, we finally figured out which line to take. Fortunately, Rome's Metro is quite simple with just two lines- one red and one blue. It took me longer to recall which stop we were to get off at, but we did it!

Our first impressions of Roma... blue skies and perfect weather.

We bought our tickets and squished out way onto the crazy filthy Metro to our stop: Ottaviano- S. Pietro. How could I forget a name like that?

We got off avoiding all pick-pocketing, walked up the stairs and tried to get our GPS to work. By this point, we realized the hotel address was on Jim's leave paperwork in his wallet. Trouble was, our GPS never got past the searching for satellites screen. Ugh.

We just started walking and lucky for us- ran straight into the road. As we turned on the street, the hotel was right there. What a relief.

Not perfect, but we were ok and on our way- kinda.

Next, the hotel let us know that they did not have water {slight problem} and had rebooked us to another hotel. After several attempts at finding the USO office just around the corner from the hotel, we showed our IDs and were let in the door.

With this super small sticker on the door, I'm not sure how we missed it.

What a blessing the USO is to military members around the world. They are there to help with anything and a cold bottle of water and place to sit down was as welcomed to us as anything at that point.

With free WiFi, we tried to re-print our boarding passes to avoid the fees on our return. Hotmail noticed that we were in an unusual location and would not let us in without the code they emailed to my A Simple Impression email address.

I have not worked or used that email address in 3 1/2 years and could not even remember how to get to the site. At this point, I remember feeling that I was tired of thinking. We were on overload.

We decided to figure out the Internet thing later {Ty came to our rescue} and were on our way by foot to our new hotel. 

Only one or two wrong turns and we made it to Hotel Consoli.

Upgraded from a 3-star to a 4-star hotel at the same price, we checked in, took a deep breath and headed out for our first afternoon in Vatican City. We had sights to see and were on a mission. No rest for the weary on this trip.

Definitely not a perfect start, but a start to a wonderful trip.
Welcome to Roma.

as much as the M O O N and the S U N {and the stars}

Ten days ago, we had an anniversary.
This week, we celebrated.

In beautiful Rome.

Three days and two nights to experience this magnificent city together.
Thanks to Ty, we were able to make the trip alone.

Few people {especially new friends} know our family story. I like to think of it as our happily ever after.

Up until this anniversary, our little guys did not even know. As we have reached anniversaries, we have added ten years to our actual time married just to simplify things for the them.

Or, maybe it was to simplify things for us.

We knew they would eventually add up the years and the ages of the big guys and put it all together. Instead of having them so confused, this was the year that we broke it to them.

We really haven't been married forever, but instead eleven years.

As Caden and I were waiting for Coleman after school on the day of our anniversary- he asked me how long his dad and I had been married. I asked him in response if he wanted in on a big family secret. Of course, he did.

I kept it simple. I was married before. Justin and Ty were adopted by dad.
Everything was legal and perfect. There were no step-anythings.

He looked at me with his thinker face {if you know our little man, you know what I'm talking about} for a few seconds. Then, he asked if Coleman knew yet. He was excited to be the first to know.

Then, he asked if Justin and Ty knew that they were adopted.
That's it.

As soon as I told them that they knew everything, he was fine.
End of discussion.

Letting Coleman in on our family secret went about the same.
No big deal. No real questions and we went on with what happened that day.

As we returned home from Rome last night, this note folded and tucked perfectly inside of an envelope was waiting.

Our life is our happily ever after. No doubt, we have tough days and tough weeks.
We also have so much good to go with the tough.
My man is the love of my life; our boys are our joy.
So much life. I am one lucky girl.

a quick V I S I T from our KS friends

We were so excited to start December off with a quick visit from our Kansas friends {and neighbors} Steve and Tammy.

Oh, we have missed them!

We have really missed living across the street from such wonderful neighbors.
We loved watching as they worked on projects together as we worked on our own projects.

We really just want to be like them when we grow up.
Funny thing is how much Jim and Steve are alike.
Almost identical in a lot of ways.

Unable to get any time off work, our weekend together was quick but still wonderful.

We started off meeting them in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for the Christmas market and nightwatchman tour- a very cool way to learn a little bit about this walled city.

It was the first and only snow we have seen this winter and SUPER cold. We think they brought a little Kansas wind with them... brrr.

It was so nice to see them. I think we are even more homesick now.
Our countdown to get back to Kansas continues...

an A B U N D A N C E of home

It has been an abundant two weeks for us.
Every part of the definition is applicable.

a·bun·dance  (-bndns)n.

1. A great or plentiful amount.

2. Fullness to overflowing

3. Affluence; wealth.

 

To have an abundance of something is to have more than you need. 

Abundance is the opposite of scarcity. 

{plenty, heap, bounty, exuberance, profusion, plethora, affluence, fullness, opulence, plentitude, fruitfulness, copiousness, ampleness, cornucopia, plenteousness, plentifulness}

An abundance of noise. 

An abundance of laundry. 

An abundance of food. 

An abundance of dishes.

An abundance of messes. 

An abundance of wrestling. 

An abundance of brotherly love.

An abundance of craziness.

An abundance of happiness. 

An abundance of home. 

Justin asked that we not plan any trips over the Christmas break.

He wanted to be home. He wanted to chill. 

It has been just that and could not have been much more perfect. 

Working out {for the boys}, eating, movies and time together.

We were reminded again {click here for my post from last Christmas} with a visit from our Oma across the street how blessed we are. She reminded me again that I have everything. 

She does not want to come in past the front door.
She won't come for a meal as I have invited her many, many times.

She does not want to be a burden. 

She also lights up seeing her boys and her dog.

We broke the news to her that this is our last German Christmas, our time overseas is winding down. She looked at us with disbelief and tears filled up in her eyes. 

I told her I will write to her. She does not know it yet, but I will keep true to my word.

Yes, we have an abundance.

no longer a T E E N

We are elated to have our big guy home from college for not only the Christmas break, but his birthday today!
This mama bear is so happy to have all of her cubs in the den for at least a few weeks.

He went straight from the Frankfurt airport to have lunch with Coleman at school, then to make gingerbread houses with Caden and I at the elementary school.

After school, he managed to take the littles to the pool to swim while Ty was on lifeguard duty.

While watching a movie last night, he said, "I'm going to fall asleep in two minutes."
I think he made it another thirty seconds.

You know your kid is getting older when he puts a crock pot on his Christmas list.

Today, he turned twenty.

It is steak and salmon on the grill with cheesecake for his birthday cake.

I think at this point for him, it does not matter what is on the grill.
He is just excited to grill with his dad. I can hardly believe it.

In October, when Ty and I left Justin in Kansas to fly back to Germany I held it together pretty well. The good-byes are always the hardest for this mama.

He hugged me and held me for a minute and reminded me that he would be home soon enough.

He then came over to the car {by this point, I had started crying}and reminded me that he was going to bring a scholarship home with him.

He is going to be a bear.

Last week, he gave his verbal commitment to play D1 football at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas.

Just six hours from Kansas City, the location is close to several bases. We hope to get close to him as we move the end of summer.

Two weeks ago, they flew him to Arkansas for an official visit- putting him up in a Marriott for the night as they showed him around.

Last week as he called the head coach to commit, we got to watch and listen to the excitement on both ends of the phone.

His new head coach said to Justin, "So, you want to be a bear? That is awesome. You just made my day, big guy."

Justin could not stop smiling.

He loved it.

Chick-fil-a in the cafeteria.
Cleats and even practice cleats paid are provided along with practice clothing.
Football laundry will all be done for him, with clean clothes hanging in his locker.
Full-ride scholarship.

It is pure joy as a mom to watch your kids work so hard through the highs and the lows of life to reach their goals.

It is going to be another exciting year for Justin.
We can't wait to watch it unfold.

Right now, he is already at the gym starting his new UCA workout.