On our way!

Wow! I thought the time would never come. However, tomorrow we leave on our first leg of the trip to North Carolina! I am defintely feeling a whirlwind of emotions as I say good bye to what has been our home for the past three years and look forward to what will be our home for.... who knows how long. I am praying for a nice long stay in NC but I have faith that no matter where we go or for how long, God is guiding us to the place and time that is best for us. He has never steered us wrong. The kids are feeling the same emotions as I am. Amanda has made a great "kindred spirit and bosom friend," to quote the book she and I just finished reading. (ten points if you can figure out what the book was) Amanda's friend Breje lived two houses down nine years ago when Amanda turned one in Oklahoma and we were so excited to see her name on Amanda's fourth grade class list last year. Breje's mom threw a little good-bye/slumber party for Amanda last weekend. Even though Amanda is sad to leave Breje, she knows that she has friends in NC that left here a year ago which she will get to see. Amanda and Breje already plan on going to college together so she will be sure to see her again. Thomas has made his first real "best friend," here. They had there first sleep over last weekend as well and I know that one will be hard to say good bye too. They lived two doors down when we were still in our house and Nathaniel keeps telling his mom that he wants to go to Thomas's house. At six they just have such a hard time understanding.

I am posting some pictures from Tom's "fini-flight" in the squadron. It was a typical Hancock family drama show. See, we (the kids and I) are supposed to squirt him with a fire extinguisher filled with water when he gets out of the plane. So we took our positions as he climbed out of the jet. Amanda had trouble squeezing the lever while Thomas was holding the hose so I grabbed hold of it and squeezed, Thomas let go of the hose which flew through the air and squirted Amanda in the eye. So she is crying, I am trying to console her, Thomas is holding a hose that won't squirt and Tom is standing there going "Wow this is fun." Amanda then screamed that I "did it on purpose." I got frustrated and grabbed the fire extinguisher and took out my frustration on Tom. Than I felt much better, Tom got squirted and Thomas had a blast helping me :) Amanda eventually got over it and apologized to me. Anyway... what a clown act we are!

Tonight is my farewell from the wives. It is sure to be a tearful event. If I remember to bring my camera I will show some pics. Sorry it took so long to post again. We have been crazy busy with good bye's and the kids last minute sleep overs and partys. We miss you all!

Blessings,
The Hancock Clown Show

A matter of time

It was only a matter of time before the kids came down with pink eye. Even though Tom and I washed our hands so much that they are cracked and sore, the kids got it. Yesterday morning we took Amanda in then last night Thomas showed signs of it as well. UG! The good news is that other than being highly contagious, there is no real pain involved with pink eye. It is just annoying! The bad news is that the kids can't go to school for at least three days. I am going to rip my hair out!!!! Luckily I bought a children's French lesson kit at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago and this is the perfect opportunity to work on it. Amanda has been dieing to learn French and honestly I wouldn't mind learning either. We had our first lesson today and while I don't think Thomas will quite get as much out of it as Amanda, we all had fun. The kids are out in the back playing in the foot of snow that fell on the ground yesterday.

Hope you all have a great day!

Love and miss yah,
Mick

Back To Blogging

Well, I immediately regretted canceling my old blog. I didn't realize how connected it kept me with my family. So the Hancocks are back in our new blog. In case you couldn't figure out the reasoning behind our blog address, it is the first two letters of each of our names. I am sure you all read my Christmas letter and know that we are now living in a TLF on Mountain Home AFB. The TLF is not bad. It is really old but aside from that is pretty nice. We have two large bedrooms. Living room and a kitchen that is nicely stocked with dishes, pots and pans. Our dogs are even quite cozy. The TLF's used to not allow pets and in the last two years started offering pet friendly TLF's. YEAH!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and new year celebration. We were fortunate enough to spend Christmas with family. We drove to Reno and stayed with Tom's parents. Christmas morning was spent with Tom's parents, and his sister's sweet little family. Our kids had a blast opening all there presents and playing all day everyday until we went home on December 31st. That is when the real fun began. Sunday night (Dec 31st) my eyes started burning really bad. Tom's mom had been diagnosed with pink eye two days after we got to Reno so it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. I went to the emergency room first thing in the morning on the 1st. Sure enough I had pink eye in both eyes. I also had an awful head cold and sore throat but stupid me only had the doctor check me for pink eye. Well, Saturday morning Tom's throat hurt so bad he went to the emergency room and he tested positive for strep throat. The doctor was nice enough to give him a bottle of antibiotics for me too since he had just seen me on Monday and new I was sick too. Tom came home and took a nap while I ran the kids to the store to get more dayquil. When I got home and fed the kids I went up to check on Tom and as I sat down on the bed to wake him he turned to look at me and couldn't open his right eye. The look on his face as he laid back and said "@#$%" made me laugh so hard. I couldn't help it. So now we both have pink eye and strep. It is amazing since we are both green tea drinking, vitamin taking, hand washing germophobes. Oh well, such is life. We just keep praying for our kids and hope they will continue to avoid the superpower germs!

Well, that is our new year story. Hope yours is less eventful. Miss you all!!!

Love,
ToMiAmTo