Justin's F I R S T day

What a surprise to receive a first-day-of-school picture from our big guy without even asking... I LOVE seeing how they change and grow from year to year!

I love this picture. I love this boy.

He really didn't even have a break after taking classes all summer. Fall football camp is over with his first game in less than two weeks. It is going to be an exciting fall. Especially for this family who is more than excited being back home to watch him play.

W I C H I T A state for TY

And he's off! Thirty minutes up the road to Wichita State. Love, Love, Love him!

Starting classes this week, he is happy with his new school and excited to be a Shocker.

Not quite a sophomore, he has a year of classes on his transcript taken through the University of Maryland while in Germany.

It was college but it wasn't really the whole college experience. Wichita State is a beautiful college with a strong engineering program.

The basketball team has done an exceptional job the last couple of seasons bringing more money and attention to the school.

Ty has the perfect opportunity to not only enjoy school but to thrive. He has the whole college experience at his fingertips now.

It should be a fabulous year all the way around. What a change from a few years ago...

Y E A H... first day of school

6:00 came early. However, this day did not come too soon! With an extended summer {getting out of school in Germany the end of April} this mom and dad are enjoying the silence this morning!

We are experiencing not only a lot of change at this transition in our lives, but also many firsts.
The first full summer Jim has been home to see the craziness behind what makes a summer.
Today, he is experiencing for the first time the excitement of sending kids to school.

That sigh of relief knowing that for the next nine hours, messes will not be made!

As every parent does- we love our boys. They just need to be in school. We think they are in for a fantastic year.

While registering them their new principal gave a tour of the one-level grade school.
She also placed them with what seem to be wonderful teachers- ready to take them on.

What a contrast from Germany. There are six classrooms in each level rather than eighteen or more.
They will have PE three times a week.

Caden gets two recesses a day.
There is no Spanish or German.

Rather than having 55 school busses, rural route 3 picked them up in our driveway.

No more smoking or cell-phone talking German bus drivers. I think Caden is most happy to be done with them.

It is pretty special to have our first-day-of-school pictures back on our front porch.

Caden thought it would be his first picture since he started school in Germany. Actually, he used to hang with the big guys when they had their first days...

road trips and F A M I L Y

We are feeling quite blessed right now. Last night, Grandpa and Grandma arrived after making the journey from Utah to visit. For Grandpa, it has been almost five years since he has seen the little guys. Big changes. For Grandma, it has been almost a year since she spent time with us in Germany.

We have really missed them.

After losing my Grandpa in June, we lost Jim's Grandpa Behl in July. After learning he was in the hospital, we made a spur-of-the moment decision for Jim to make the drive to Mississippi to see him. Without hesitation, Caden said he wanted to go along.

They would not let Caden in Grandpa's ICU room, but Jim was able to spending a few special days with Grandpa- a man who taught him so much. Not long after Jim said his goodbye and returned home, Grandpa passed.

We miss him already but he is where he wants to be- back with the Lord.

August 2nd, we were able to celebrate Grandpa's life with the family.

It was the first day of Justin's fall football camp, but his coaches were very understanding and allowed us to have him for the weekend.

It was wonderful to be a family- even for just a short weekend.
I LOVE being close to our big guy again.

We {hopefully} don't EVER have to wait four months in between times of seeing him AGAIN!

In a weekend, we made the six-hour trip to pick up Justin. From Arkansas we drove to Granny's (another six hours) to spend the night and time with the Dickey side.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and made the two-hour drive to Girard, Illinois for the services and time with the Behl side.
Saturday night, we drove two hours back to Granny's for the night.

Sunday, we enjoyed family and a beautiful Sunday dinner at Granny's with a table set for 27. Sunday afternoon, we hit the road to get Justin back on time (another six hours) to college. We crashed for the night and finished off our trip Monday with another six hours to Kansas.

From Friday to Monday, a grand total of 28 hours in the van.It was long but well worth every single minute. While in Germany, we feel as though we missed out on so much being so far away. Driving is not always easy, but it is nice to be close enough to make these trips. Cousins need to know cousins.
Now, we really need to make it out west....

Growing up in Alaska, I always felt so far from any of our cousins. I wanted to know my aunts and uncles and cousins. I want our boys to know their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Play with them, fight with them... make memories with them.

Now, we get Grandma and Grandpa for a little while. I'm excited to relax and play and make memories. School starts tomorrow. The bus picks the little guys up in our driveway at 6:30. They are going to be so tired. Ty starts at Wichita State in the Engineering program. Let the fun begin.

Football is in full swing for Justin and Caden. In two weeks, we will hit the road again to Texas Tech to watch Justin play on the big field. Life is so exciting. I hope we can keep up!

the tasks are M U L T I P L Y I N G

Two nights ago, my Grandpa Burgan died. He was 99. What a long life. What a tired body.
He used to read my blog and told me the last time I talked to him how much he liked it.
Can't help but think of him as I write...

It seems for every task we complete, two new tasks pop up. Or more. Jim is the structured, disciplined, focused one in our relationship. I know I probably don't even have to write that down- it's obvious. I can focus, but am easily distracted and usually {always} take on way too many projects.  I think bigger than I need to some times. I get excited.

I like to think we have accomplished one heck of a lot in the six weeks we have been home, but there is still so much to do. I know we have forever to do it, but it's starting to bother me more and more.
Sunday, Jim made a list of all the little things bugging him.

He had even assigned tasks to the days he was going to do them.
Sunday and Monday, he was going strong and knocking off things left and right.
SO much focus. Nothing new from my man. I do love it.

Yesterday, was back to frustrating. Our Internet has been super slow. Until they update the Haysville tower we were told it will remain slow. The next town over has a tower as well that the first installer said he could not reach.

Then, we noticed new neighbors across the street had their dish going to the faster tower. It would not be a big deal except we run our business from home- faster service would save us so much time.

We had another installer come out yesterday {only because cancelling service with this company would have cost $180 since we have been with them more than a month... 36 days to be exact} to see if he could move the dish to get a signal on Clearwater.

We let him know if a tree in our tree line was in the way- Jim would take it down. Sure enough the installer said he got a flicker and one tree was the problem blocking the signal.

Jim put a halt on going back to the DMV {for the third time... to register Whitey} and picked up the chainsaw to go to work.

As soon as it was down, the installed said that was actually not the reason for no signal.
He still couldn't get it.

It couldn't have been a dead tree, or even one of the smaller ones. We now have a healthy, big tree cut down for no reason waiting now to be cleaned up.

More work done and more work to do all for nothing. He did continue in close to 100 degrees and crazy winds to find a signal from the top of our shop. Now, Jim gets to dig a ditch to bury the cable that is running through our yard from the shop to the house. Frustrating, but we have Internet.
The wind could calm down any time now.

C O N W A Y via St. Louis

The timing worked out just right. Our van arrived in St. Louis on Thursday and Justin had to be back to school June 1st- Sunday.

Being that I missed out on being able to take my kid to college, I really wanted to take him back and help him get settled.

Jim's cousin was gracious enough to let us use his truck and Granny lent us her trailer to get our storage {including Whitey} back from Illinois last month. Scheduling our van to be delivered to St. Louis made it perfect for returning both the truck and trailer.

Eight {8} hours from our house to the van. One {1} hour from the van place to Granny's. Six {6} hours from Granny's to Justin's. Six {6} hours from Justin's home.

A grand total of more than twenty {20} hours of driving made for one long weekend.

To get the most out of our weekend, Jim, Justin, Caden and I hit the road shortly after midnight driving straight to get our van first. Ty and Coleman opted to stay home with Lady. Just an hour from Granny's house, we showed up as weary travelers ready for a long nap.

Time with family, a yummy dinner and the boys even got a little fishing in. Twenty-four hours later and we were on the road to Conway, Arkansas to get Justin in an apartment.

We initially thought they had a furnished apartment but found out the day before that they only had unfurnished. It all worked out between Justin and his new roommate they are good to go!

It's a simple apartment in an excellent location right next to campus. All that two guys working and going to school need. They even have a washer and dryer in the unit.

Luxury living, I'd say. After we did a little shopping, I sent Jim, Justin and Caden fishing while I set things up.

Conway is a really beautiful city. We were so impressed. It has anything and more that one would want or need.

Arkansas was a surprise to us as well- super green and lots of lakes. It made for a beautiful drive.

With too or three practices a day and summer school {stats}, Justin's summer break was way too short. However, that drive to Conway is much better than that drive to Frankfurt. I can handle this.

a little P O K E Y

Any given day, I'd say my man and I are pretty fast at getting things done.
We think we make a pretty good team.  Once we get started on a project or task, we can usually crank it out in no time.

These days, I'm not feeling too fast. More like slow motion.
It's not that we are not working, or not working hard. It just seems like we still have SO much to do!

A week ago today, they finally delivered our household goods. Seeing that truck show up was a beautiful thing. We thought we dejunked {and don't consider ourselves collectors of much} but it is still too much. 16,000 pounds to be unpacked. Ugh.

We scheduled the movers to come back today to pick up our boxes. We thought giving ourselves a deadline might be a good idea.

I think if the last two months would have been a little calmer, I might be a little faster now.
Or, maybe not.

quite the TO DO list

One month later and we are still unsettled.
But, we are home.
Home is good.

SO good.

Since moving out of our Mackenbach house it's been quite a trip.

Three nights with our wonderful Germany friends.
Twelve nights in a temporary apartment on base in Ramstein.
One night in a Holiday Inn Express in Baltimore.
Two nights in Evansville, Indiana with Jim's brother and family.
Five nights in Marissa, Illinois at Granny's.

Two nights in Mulvane, Kansas with wonderful friends- the second with Justin.

May 1st, our renters were out and after three and a half years, we have our house back.
It could have been in worse shape. More than anything, it feels as if it was abandoned.

We have had a lot of cleaning to get it whipped back into shape.
We knew we would be painting to freshen it up.

While waiting for our household shipment, we decided to go ahead and rip out carpets, replace fixtures, stain/refinish our hardwood kitchen floor and put in new hardwood floors (living room).

As if this was not enough, the yard is a wreck with more weeds than grass.

Birds have taken over with what sounds to be a million new babies in nests in the eves of our shop and in the guttering. We also heard birds in the chimney.

Yes, it's a mess.

Above is four years ago, what we showed up to three weeks ago and today.
It is going to be a long process just getting it back to where we had it when we left.

Our deck which was in bad shape to begin with it about to fall apart.
That will be another project in the very near future.

Lucky for us, my little brother planned a big surprise and walked through the door the day after we arrived home.

It's been pretty incredible being able to catch up- I've loved having him around. Jim has enjoyed finally getting to know him. Having the extra help on the endless list of projects and to do's has been a bonus.

The before-and-after pictures will eventually be posted.
The change already has been quite dramatic.

I can't wait to be settled.

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.