Moran Family Fun

Our big plan for the summer this year is to catch a military flight (like flying standby, but on military aircraft) to the states so we could do a bunch of college tours with Abigail and so we can visit my family in the west. There's no guarantee with these military flights so you have to be very flexible and willing to change your plans. It didn't look like we would ever get out on a flight from the UK, so we took a big risk and drove to Germany to try and catch a flight from there. Bottom line up front - We made it on a flight!!!! We left the house a little after ten last night and we finally made it here after almost nine hours of driving and one ferry ride across the English Channel. I am exhausted and have had only 10 minutes of sleep since I woke up yesterday morning. It's also literally 100F here today, so we're a sweaty mess in this air conditioning free country.  Here's the story. We left last night to drive to Ramstein. I prayed and prayed as I drove ...

Yesterday in Relief Society one of the sisters shared something that touched my spirit. She was talking about when we're feeling down or struggling with some sort of challenge and how our instinct is to turn inward or to think about ourselves and our problems. The Savior is the ultimate example of what we should do when faced with obstacles or challenges. When He was suffering in Gethsemane and during His trial and crucifixion He didn't turn inward. He thought of others. He asked His disciples to watch with Him and when they couldn't stay awake He told them to "sleep on and take their rest." When Peter smote off Malchus' ear, Christ healed him. Think about that - He healed a man who had come to help arrest Him. He reassured the thief on the cross that He would be with him in paradise. He asked His Father to forgive the very soldiers who were crucifying Him. While on the cross He made sure His mother would be cared for after His death. In the depths of pain a...

It's going to be tricky to write about week 5 and a way that I felt the Lord blessing me and my life because last week ended an entire seven days ago and my memory is not that great. However, I do have a few thoughts about what I was blessed with the week of June 9-15, otherwise known as the last week of school. Oh man, the 2018-2019 school year was a rough one and I feel as if as a family we barely survived.  There wasn't any one event or situation that made this school year such a struggle, and it truly was just a combination of things. I think part of it was my enrollment in BYUI's Pathway program, part of it was the shift in our family dynamics when Emily left for school and then a mission, certainly the responsibilities for my calling were mixed in there, having three teenagers and their emotions to navigate, Jared's busy work schedule, starting a new part-time job, almost five months of approximately two migraines a week, and some big-time problems with our swee...

Our "nice" car that we bought when we moved here straight up died  earlier this year.  For a little bit, Jared drove it to and fro and when it worked we were grateful and when it didn't we were still grateful because it worked most of the time. But at a certain point, it just didn't go anymore.  We would have been happy to keep it, but the repair costs would have been more than the car was actually worth. We had to figure things out. Could we make life work with only one car? It would take a lot of planning and would be kind of inconvenient. We're just used to being a two car family. But we do live just five miles from the base where both Jared and I work so one of us could easily bike to work. There are also car rental companies around here that rent older cars for cheap. We could rent a car for the rest of our time here for something like £35 a week. Plus, we wouldn't have to pay for repairs or taxes on a rental vehicle.  In the meantime, we needed to do ...

The day of the USAFE-AFAFRICA Annual Awards Banquet was a long one. We left the hotel at 7:10 am to go to the Officer's Club and practice our entrance into the ceremony that evening as well as the smaller presentation ceremony where each of the winners was given a medal by General Harrigian, the USAFE-AFAFRICA Commander. We practiced lining up, standing at attention, standing at ease, walking up to the front of the room, shaking hands, having medals placed around the winner's necks, walking back to our places, and assembling for a group photo. This was all just for the medal ceremony.  General and Mrs. Harrigian, the annual award winners and their spouses, and Chief and Mrs. Easton All that practicing in the morning and we were STILL off-center with the flags in this photo. Come on official Air Force photographer, tell us to scoot over! After that, we practiced entering the big banquet hall. We pretended we were walking in between two rows of JROTC cadets with sab...

In early May, we traveled to Germany for the USAFE Awards week. In addition to the awards banquet honoring Jared and the other annual awards winners, we had a little field trip of sorts. We started off by driving to Frankfurt and visiting the Berlin airlift memorial. This used to be on Rhein-Main Air Base, but it was closed and became part of the Frankfurt airport. But the airport maintains this little grassy area with a memorial, two airplanes that were actually used in the airlift operations, and the old welcome to Rhein-Main air base sign. The base historian came along with us and told about the history behind the airlift and how it helped to repair German-American relationships after World War II. Then we got to do something that most people aren’t able to - they opened up these two 70+-year-old aircraft and let us climb onboard both of them and look around! It was definitely cool and Jared's favorite part of the day. After that, we drove along the Rhein...

I've written on here before about friends, friendship, and feeling as if I belong. In fact, the post about anxiety, insecurity, and friendship is the most read post on this entire blog! Most of the time I feel good about myself and how things are going in my social life, but sometimes I get stuck and feel as if I don't have any friends. I sent a text to Larisa, who is my oldest friend after Jared, to ask for some advice. I explained how I was feeling - kind of on the edges of the groups of people around me but never fully part of things. As usual, she gave me wise advice but following that advice will require me to get outside of my comfort zone. Normally I like to stay firmly where I'm comfortable, but I read something that stuck with me this week - there is no growth in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growth zone. That perspective made me willing to stretch a little bit.  I'm paraphrasing here, but Larisa's advice was to just put myself out there and inv...