Can you spot the Jaren on the shelf?  Our kids have done great throughout this move.  Sure, they are tired and misbehave more easily.  But overall, they've been cheerful. . . .

_. . . .and even helpful!  Jaren was so excited to get to load some of his own toys onto the moving truck!

_And Eliana did her part too.  She played nicely with her toys in the midst of chaos and took her naps when she was supposed to.

_Everything we own (except the van) is in this caravan.  It seems like a lot and a little all at the same time.  Elizabeth's dad should be arriving in Missouri tonight with it all and be unloading it tomorrow, while we enjoy a relaxing week with Jamin's parents.

So last night, packing had come to a standstill due to a shortage of boxes.

Knowing that Walmart stocks at night, I gave them a call to see if they could save some boxes for us so we could pick them up in the morning. I was greeted with a "Merry Christmas" and after my request was told, "we don't save boxes, hon," but was then told they stock from 10:30 to 12 at night, and if we came around midnight that we could get the boxes straight from the stockers.

With my father-in-law here, we left the kids and made a crazy midnight run to Walmart, achieving our goal and able to resume packing.

The only problem is that waking up early on Sunday morning to go to church is VERY difficult when you only get 4 hours of interrupted sleep with all 3 kids waking us up at different times of the night, but considering how much chaos they're enduring, they are doing very well.

Amazingly . . . we had enough time to get ready, AND write a blog post in the morning!

One of my goals before I left Compass was to obtain my Inspection Authorization, which in simple terms allows me to do more than just an A&P (airframe & powerplant) mechanic.

Unfortunately, it's not a simple process. As with any certification, it takes studying, and then a lot of paperwork.

I had to drive to Charlotte yesterday with a letter from the guys at Compass, meet with someone from the FAA, and get permission to even take the test.  Then I had to call a testing center, and discovered that the 2 closest ones to the FAA's office did not offer the test for Inspection Authorization; the closest one with that test was 1.5 hours away.

_Wanting to get everything done in one day, I made the dash over to Winston-Salem's airport, took the test, and tried to make it back to the FAA's office for issuance of the certificate (you have to go back with the test results).  Unfortunately, the distance was too much for me to make it back to south-Charlotte in time, even though I would have arrived at 3:45. Why is that too late, you ask . . . because their office closes at 4, and paperwork always takes longer than 15 minutes.

So this morning I went back to the FAA's office in Charlotte, and left with a piece of paper that now gives me permission to perform annual inspections as well as inspect and approve for return to service planes after major repairs or alterations.

One of the guys there at Compass, after I had the certificate, quoted Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."

There's a lot of stress and liability we carry as mechanics, and we seek to perform our job to such a degree that others are confident that, to the best of our abilities and knowledge, the planes we return to service are in excellent, airworthy condition.

This is simply one more rating which I hope to see used for the Lord in mission aviation.

_ This is our last week in Shelby, NC, and so we’re furiously packing up our house. Although the rooms are a disaster, we still somehow managed to have company over, filling what little time is left with memories.

_ Our garage is also piling up with boxes, some waiting to be filled, others already packed. This doesn’t even count all the stuff already packed in our trailer.

It's a rough week, with obligations and hopes pulling us every direction: urgent needs like packing up, as well as work obligations, and then all the things we hope to get done, as well.