E's First Move

Inventory item 65, check!

E is a little traveler. In his 12 weeks of life outside the womb he has lived in 3 different states: Texas for weeks 0-4, Florida for weeks 4-9, Texas again for week 10, and Louisiana for weeks 11-12. Throw in his two airplane rides and an 8 hour road trip, and you have a bonafide porta-baby! I suppose all babies are portable, it's just that most parents don't choose to squeeze that much action into the first few months of life. But we are a military family, so 1) we have no choice, and 2) we are up to the challenge! He did amazingly with the move. M drove our little Hyundai and led the way with the GPS while I followed in the SUV with E in the back seat. He slept almost the entire time, poor thing, not because he wanted to but because he couldn't resist the effect of the engine drone. We stopped twice to gas up (the cars, that is), feed him and change him, but after each stop he drifted right off despite the fact that toward the end he had already slept about 6 hours. And he even slept decently that night once he was finally ready for bed and we were settled in our hotel room around midnight! For this week and a half in the hotel he's also been a pleasure to live with, most of the time. He's got a little baby reflux going on, but other than the extra hassle that comes with that, he's what many would call a "good baby." I don't like labeling babies as good or bad. They are all good. But enough people have told us he's a good baby that I like to describe him as such. :) We visited our first Louisiana church last Sunday, and all the other couples in the group couldn't believe how well behaved he was. I think he made the ones without babies want some even more! He makes us want more babies, too...EVENTUALLY.

M started B-52 training earlier this week. The coolest thing about this base is that at all hours of the day or night you may just hear the 8 engines of a B-52 screaming down the flightline. Did you know that the Air Force produces a significant portion of our air pollution, and most of that is probably from the B-52? It leaves a thick black trail behind it when it flies, but this is pollution for a VERY good cause. I don't know about you, but I'm ok with having some extra junk in the air if it's for the sake of having Buffs trained to obliterate those who would love to obliterate you and me. Those in M's squadron here are training to work with nuclear weapons, and although we all hope it never comes to that, someone has to be prepared for that eventuality. This base has just welcomed Global Strike Command, whose purpose is to "provide combat ready forces to conduct strategic nuclear deterence and global strike operations in support of combatant commanders." I got that from the newspaper sitting on the hotel room coffee table. :)

I'll have to follow up later with some local color, including pictures and hopefully some shots of the base too. It is so incredibly hot here that I have a hard time lugging E out of the room only to bring him back soaking wet. It may technically be as hot here as in Texas, but it is way, way more humid and still! There are alot of casinos around which we, uh, aren't really planning on visiting, but we did go to the Louisiana Boardwalk and Copeland's already. So we've tasted some of the state, and we have liked it, despite our first impressions. We're all three of us off to the commissary and uniform shop and then dinner!

Blog loser!

I've been a total blog-loser this summer. I think I warned all (two) of my readers in the last post that I wouldn't be updating much til we moved, but still, how pathetic that I let most of our fun summer activities go by without chronicling them! Oh well. I've decided that my code letters for hubby and baby are too confusing, since somebody (who shall remain nameless) said that the first time they read my blog, they wondered why I was talking about my computer so much (PC). So, let's just call my husband M, and our baby Z. Technically his name starts with E, but Z is such a unique letter and a cool nickname of his, so M and Z they are. I pondered renaming the page "E=MC squared" (get it?), but that would just be nerdy. I digress...


I'm now blogging from Louisiana, in slightly cramped, moldy, and buggy temporary lodging on Barksdale Air Force Base. I know, this is making everyone jealous. Granted, this building has been here for about 80 years, and it's reasonably nice for the price! We're staying here until base housing opens up for us, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. This must be good for us as a couple, being content with different standards of living for short periods of time as we move across the country and realize that even though all of our earthly possessions are in storage and we know practically nothing about this new place, it's home because we're here together. Never in my life did I think I'd be living in this state. NEVER! Neither did M, but we're taking it all in. When we went to Texas, we knew it was going to absolutely awesome, and it was - if I could have chosen to live in any state for that first year in the Air Force, it would have been Texas, and it was all we thought it would be! We're dealing with the change in our own way, letting ourselves start sentences with "Back in San Antonio..." only when we're talking to each other or friends who've also experienced the splendor of Randolph AFB. Air Force bases are inherently un-shady, but the surrounding area is a bit shady. We've only been here since Monday night, but we've been considering the pros and cons of staying here versus going to Minot, ND next year. It's not our choice, but we have a say in the matter. I've been googling Minot, and I can't say at this point whether I'd rather stay or go.


My little buddy is waking up here, so I need to post a recent picture of him and call it quits on this post for now! The one of him & me is from just a couple weeks ago late July, and the one of him with M was taken just last week. We have yet to get a really great family pic, but I'll post it when we do. :)

I Will Survive...

That is the song Prince Charming is singing as he tackles survival school across the country for the next few weeks, and the song that I'm still singing at night as I become increasingly familiar with passing the wee hours of the morning with our (precious) screaming/eating/eliminating baby. True, I'm spending these weeks in Florida with EE's Grammy and Granddad, who are an invaluable help throughout the day and even during those trying nights. So I really don't have anything to complain about, with all the cooking and cleaning being done for me and having built-in babysitters so that I can shower every night! If EE and I had stayed in the great state of Texas by ourselves, I would probably be starving half to death and approaching a full week without bathing. How single parents survive, I do not know!!!!!!!!

I wanted to announce here that we have orders: we are moving to Shreveport, Louisiana at the end of the summer, about a week after PC and I are reunited. We're excited about it, since we've already been in Texas for a year and are ready to move on and see what the next place has for us. Given his choice of the B-52 for his aircraft, we have only two options: Shreveport or Minot, North Dakota! We find out a few weeks after arriving in Shreveport whether we'll be staying there for a handful of years or getting shipped off unceremoniously to the tundra of North Dakota. Okay, it's not tundra (is it?), but it may as well be for this Florida family!

Since I must blog from my mom's computer for the next month or so, if at all, you may not hear from me much this summer. :) So here's EE enjoying his first vacation, missing his Daddy but very proud that he took his first airplane ride, and very successfully, I might add, at just 4 weeks old. Check back for a picture of his first Disney visit - Mom and I documented it quite extensively for all posterity!

March Madness, minus all basketball...

It's been awhile since I posted because Facebook almost always wins if it's a question of where to spend my time online. But for the few people who don't have Facebook, I should keep this page up. :) Let's see, what has happened since early February when I last posted...oh, I went to Orlando in March! That was fun, albeit a little bit scary since I despise flying. Every time I tell someone that, I smile to myself that my husband is in the AIR Force! I would feel much better flying on a military aircraft than I would on a civilian one, however, so I can see why he and his peers enjoy their jobs. While in Orlando, we had 4 days of undisturbed family time! It was great, and I was grateful to PC for not minding my leaving that week while he worked and studied.

One of the highlights of my quick trip was going to Epcot the night before I left! Mom, thanks for taking the picture to commemorate this occasion of Dad going out on a weeknight. :) He really went out of his way to make a special memory for me that evening! And of course D was delightful to catch up with during those few days. He took me mini-golfing and completely cleaned my clock at Fantasia Gardens, as always. I have oodles of great pics, too many to post on here, but he can rest assured that I will never forget that visit, he's the greatest little brother ever!

The day after I got back to TX, our friends here threw us a baby shower. They are so fantastic...I never would have dreamed that after living here for less than a year, we would have such a supportive network of likeminded friends. We did pray for God to provide us with friends before we moved here, but as is often the case we can't imagine how amazingly He'll answer until He makes it happen! PC and several of the girls' husbands came too on the condition that they
could barbecue outside and not be subjected to the girliness of a classic baby shower. It turned out to be pretty fun for everyone, and PC eventually came in for presents so he could see what Nemo got! We already had this onesie, but I'm sure it will become a favorite and we'll always have an extra handy.

In work news, the excitement is building as we get closer to finding out what PC will be flying and where we'll be moving this summer. He's currently interested in JSTARS, B-52s, and AWACS to some extent. Those planes could land us in Georgia, Louisiana, North Dakota, or Oklahoma, in my understanding. Of course, I'm extra excited about the Georgia option because it's only 314 miles from Disney World (the aircraft briefer actually mentioned that to the class!), and I also happen to know some really cool people who hang out in Georgia. I guess we've become accustomed to the South and don't exactly want to leave! But wherever the Lord sends us will be perfect for us. The squadron had what's called a Scarf Drop this month for the students to choose whether to specialize in advanced navigation or electronic warfare for the remainder of the training program, and I was super proud (but not surprised) to see PC ranked in the top third of his class when he went up to select his blue (advanced nav) scarf! Here he is chugging his choice. The cups were filled with what I hear was a mix of Kool-aid and some kind of alcohol. Mmmmmm. They picked which color cup to drink out of based on their career selection, making this seemingly casual get together a pretty big deal that will determine alot about their futures! Alright, this post is getting very long and full of pictures as I try to summarize the entire month of March. What's left is coverage of PC's birthday and some baby updates, but I'm thinking that will have to wait for another post because I have to leave for a nonstress test at the hospital in a little while. Plus I'm tired of trying to format these pictures, every time you insert a new one the whole post gets messed up! So, more another time. :)

Air Show Antics

Last weekend we had the chance to see a spectacular air show right across town. We happened to drive by a roadside banner advertising it a couple of weeks ago, and I'm so glad we did because we wouldn't have wanted to miss this! This particular show only happens once a year, and it was totally free, so we were totally up for it. Unfortunately PC has been to two different airshows where something went wrong and one of the pilots died, and I happened to be with him for the second one. It was probably the worst event I've ever personally witnessed, and it was on that day a few years ago that I told him adamantly, "you are never flying!" Well, I think I meant that he would never fly as a pilot on a supersonic jet, so I'm satisfied in that respect. He's since then piloted a Diamond and now flies all the time on the T-43, but I'm okay with that. Anyway, the show was really amazing! We got there in the morning and saw the base's Combat Control Team jump from a helicopter, the Army's Golden Knights, an AETC flyover (which showcased all the aircraft from our base, including the one PC trains on), a Heritage Flight Formation, demonstrations of the F-15, F-16, F-22 (right), and the Harrier, a reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and last but certainly not least the Blue Angels! The video below is a quick shot of them in the finale. You'll see my camera pan across something tall and greenish - that's PC with a blanket over his head, trying in vain to save himself from the sun. Throughout the course of the day I experienced moments of extreme terror. So did all of the little kids at the show, so I wasn't alone. It was super exciting and awesome to behold, so much so that it was scary. PC even admitted that he gets a little nervous seeing the stunts just because we know what could happen, but I was very impressed by the public prayer for safety that was said before anyone took off in the morning. Thankfully God protected everyone, but my heart had to be beating as fast as the pilots' while I watched them zoom not too high above the crowd, shoot straight up in the air, disappear into the clouds and then swoop back down over our heads! At one point I retreated to a hangar in hopes it would make me feel safer, but not being able to see the airplanes and still hearing their thunderous roar kind of freaked me out more...so basically, there was nowhere to hide. :) I noticed a blind man sitting near us for the Blue Angels, and he had a companion explaining to him what was happening. I loved hearing his reactions to the deafening blasts of the F-18s going by, he was having a great time without even being able to see what was happening! Some friends met us there for the finale and said "wow, you're really red," which we later found out was true when we got home. It was quite a day, but next time we'll remember to bring the suncreen! I am definitely more impressed than ever before with America's airpower. And even better, since I'm mostly a visual learner, I now know the names of many more planes!