Saying goodbye to someone we love

After we left the Planetarium we went straight to Hammond to go to a farewell ceremony for Cordell. For those of you that do not know, Cordell is Jesse's younger brother. He joined the National Guard a little over a year ago and is now being deployed to Iraq. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony:

Cordell (middle) Misty (Cordells girlfriend left) Aurene (Cordells mom right)

Cordells flight uniform.

The huge helicopter Cordell will be flying in.

The ceremony was nice, afterwards we got to go to the airport and get an upclose look at the helicopters they would be flying out in the next morning.

The next day Jesse, I and the kids went and met Misty at the airport. She had to drop Cordell off there around 7 and after that we were only able to sit there and wait for the helicopters to take off around 10. So we went and ate at McDonalds with Misty and her mom and came back. Here are some pictures of us waiting and of the helicopters taking off.

Ben, Jackson and Misty in the trunk of her moms car. Surprisingly you could have fit more people in there. It was huge!

Jackson throwing rocks at everyone.

The helicopters as they were taking off.

One of the things we all said was that if we had known we were going to have to wait so long we would had set up a tail gate and had some burgers and music going. We also said that if we really would have thought about it, being the creative people we are, we would have made signs and had balloons and a flag on top of the car. In the end all we had was me and Misty standing on top of her moms car waving at all of the helicopters because we truly didn't know exactly which one he was in. It all happened so quickly you almost couldn't believe it was over. We are happy for Cordell. We love him and cannot wait to hear from him and see him come home next May. In the meantime we will be communicating with him through email and sending him care packages.

Field trip at the Planetarium

So starting Friday morning we went on a field trip with Ben to the Plantetarium. I was a chaperone for his class and was responsible for 5 really cute kids including my own. They seemed thrilled to be there! Here are some pictures below:

This is a picture of Bens teacher Mrs. Beatty with her group.

This is a picture of Ben and a little girl named Falon whom he has a crush on. She is cute huh?

I just thought she was adorable so I asked her if I could take her picture and this was that face she gave me. So cute!

I don't want to join the loose tooth club!

So on the way home today I hear Ben crying in the back seat. I ask him what is wrong and he says that he has a loose tooth. He then said, "Momma, how am I going to be able to eat if all of my teeth fall out?" I then explain to him that not all teeth fall out at the same time. He then proceeds to ask me how we can make his teeth stronger so they won't fall out. I told him that it was inevitable and that both Daddy and I had lost all of our teeth and got big new ones. Thinking he was ok with that I continue driving and a little while later I hear him crying again. So I ask him again why he was crying. He then tells me very loudly in between sobs, "I don't want to join the loose tooth club! I am not ready!" Trying to stay serious because to me, this is hilarious! I tell him that everyone does it and if he looked closely at some of his friends at church he would see that they had lost a couple and were surviving just fine. This seemed to make him feel better and he proceeded to tell me that just last week Jackson Degraph had lost one of his front teeth and he seemed to be doing allright. I was glad because he sounded so sad.

Long time no blog

So here I am, feelin guilty because I started this blog to communicate to my friends and family what we are up to and I have not been keeping up my end of the deal. Anywho, we Mallory's have been extremely busy. My best friend Kimberly got married the weekend before last and that was so beautiful. When she came down the isle I cried, and I am not talking about a one tear drop cry, I mean full on snot running down your nose is anyone looking at me I hope not cry. Yes, it was embarrasing but it was a beautiful moment. And then just like all of my other friends (yes you Courtney) she left me and went to Texas. I am starting to wonder what is so darn special about Texas and if I need to be there! I keep praying for an answer to that and what I am getting back goes something like this, "My dear Cherie', you need to hold your britches and finish out what you got going on where you are. You are doing enough. Quit worrying." Ya know what? I think he is right. Here is what is going on, we are selling our house so that we can move back to Baton Rouge to be closer to friends and family, once that is done I am going to quit my job and stay at home with my two beautiful children who crack me up, we are working on starting some kind of business (not sure what that is yet but I am sure it will be FABULOUS once we find out), and Jesse is going to start school. Not only that but our kids have so much that they want to do themselves. So through all of that transitioning, and I cannot believe I am going to quit my job (can you hear me hyperventalating? I hope I spelled that right=) we have come to the conclusion that we need our friends and family to make it through it and they are all right here. Texas might be in our future though, who knows! I really hope everyone is doing well. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing and I promise I will do a better job at updating this blog.