Well, we are finally here! We arrived at our new home and laid eyes on it for the first time, two weeks ago today. After basically living in our car with very few stops for a whole week, we were so happy to pull in our driveway and call our new place "home." We bought a cute little house on almost an acre of land here in NC. The house was built in 1995 and we new it needed some updating. We purposely chose a house that we could make "our own" by updating it. Since it was Saturday and we weren't going to get our household goods until Wednesday, we went to my Dad's house after dropping off one of our cars and putting most of our diddy move stuff in the house. We enjoyed the comforts of home at Dad's and got to watch the super bowl on a high def TV. (Important for Tom :) We stayed two nights and went home on Monday morning to get started on the painting and updating the fixtures throughout the house. When we pulled into the driveway, I instantly noticed the pool of water in the driveway and thought "hmmm, it hasn't been raining so where did that come from." And there began the fun of our next week. We opened the door to be greeted by much water in the house. As it turns out the flapper valves on the toilets (which were supposed to be replaced by the seller before closing) were not replaced and when the kids used the bathroom the water kept on flowing while we were gone backing up our septic system which unknown to us, had a very large tree root blocking large amounts of water from getting through. This caused all of the drains in the bathtub and shower to flow over into the house for the entire two days we were at my dads. Did I add that we had just had brand new hard wood floors installed before we moved in. Praise God for homeowners insurance. Basically after three days of six enormous fans and two enormous dehumidifiers going 24/7, the house dried out. The duct work under the house in the crawl space had to be replaced and a few other little things fixed. Our hard wood floors are also being replaced all to the small tune of our $500 deductible. I have learned to adopt the phrase, "it could have been worse." And have learned after crying a lot that first day to just laugh deliriously since neither makes a difference and the latter is much more fun. We didn't have any flooding upstairs, and thanks to insurance a lot of things have been updated that wouldn't have been. So, now we have all of our stuff and have unpacked every room in the house except the master bedroom because the floors haven't been replaced in there yet. We had to order more wood. Anyway... we love our new home and have alr
eady made huge progress in updating it with paint, light fixtures and appliances. We can't wait to have visitors, although we will have to, since we have to sleep in the guest room until the master bedroom floors are finished.
Moving on to some more great news, I had my follow up CT scan shortly after getting here and there has been no change in my lymph nodes since my last CT! I am so happy. I guess once you have been sick if you have one unusual pain or odd feeling anywhere in the region of where your cancer was you tend to get a little nervous. It brought me great peace to have that CT and know that everything is as it should be.
Lastly but certainly not least, I have to boast about my man. He is usually very modest and doesn't like me to share these things but it turned out he won flight commander of the year for the 12th Air Force. The 12th Air Force consists of several different Air Force bases. It really is a big deal and I am very proud of him.
Thank you again to all my friends and family that have been praying
for us. It has certainly made a difference during this very stressful time.
Blessings,
Michelle
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
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
We are happy to report that Thomas' cast has been removed! He is happy and healthy and using his arm like it had never been broken. Let me tell you when they took that bad johnny off his arm it was rather unpleasant. The nurse gave me a gauze pad with some alcohol on it to wipe his hand and arm with after she took the cast off. All I know is the pad smelled like Thomas' arm when I was done rather then the arm smelling like alcohol. We went straight home from the doctor's office and stuck Thomas in the tub with plenty of bubble bath for a nice long soak. Needless to say he is a yummy smelling little boy now! Yippee Skippee! He can also ride a bike now too which is nice.
