Master Sargent Promotion

Here are a few pictures from Kevin's big day!

We are so proud of him and all the hard work he has done!

We got ORDERS!

Well we finally received word! We are headed to Grand Forks AFB, in Grand Forks North Dakota!

We are all so excited about this! (Only down fall is Kevin has to go to Korea before he get's to join the kids and I.)

The girls are excited, they can't wait to see and live where their will be snow!

I am always up for an adventure and this is just so close to home!

Kevin too is excited to be back in the Midwest, back on familiar ground.

Now come the fun task of researching the area, finding a place to live from thousands of miles away, figuring out when to go, how much time to take the kids out of school, which school they will attend, a new hair dresser & a new church.

Oh and don't forget we have to try and sell a house and move all our stuff!

Let the fun begin!!

Hurry up and Wait!

This is something I am learning but am not very good at! Life has been nothing but slow around here lately. Work as been crazy busy for Kevin which makes life for us just as busy, trying to hold on to every minute we have with him.

Back to the waiting part, well you too will have to wait.

Just wanted to let whoever know we are still alive around here. We are just putting everything in Gods hand, where they belong! (this is hard too BTW!)

He's Home!

Well it is official! Kevin is back home with us. It was a late night last night as he did not get to base until almost midnight. The kids did great, I woke them up and we drove to base, picked Kevin up and came home and they all went right back to sleep. Here are a few picture from last night while we waited in the car and the first hugs!

Sunday Morning

It is Sunday morning and we are just about ready to leave for church on this WET CA morning. I thought I would let you know what is going on as of right now. Kevin should be on his way home by now. It will take a few days to get all the way over to CA, but at least he is on his way, we hope (no news is good news.) The girls know he is on his way home but I have not given then an exact time yet, I always say maybe. I learned really on that things happen and times and days change every minute.

So hopefully by next Sunday we should all be going to church together!

Have a blessed Sunday and if you are in CA and it is raining, stay dry! :)

February Already!

WOW where has the time gone, I can't believe it is February already. This is a big deal why you ask?

If all goes well Kevin should be home this month! Date? Who knows! Kevin and I learned very early on in Kevin's deployments that we don't believe anything, dates that is, till it is a day or two out. Even then I don't really let myself believe it till he is in the states, then once I can touch him is when I say he is HOME!

But it does help some to know that it should happen this month! Thank goodness Feb. is a short month right!

So what I am going to do with the month? I have a hair appointment, Dr. appointment, need to REALLY clean the house, wrap Birthday & Christmas gifts, stock the fridge with good food! and just start preparing the kids.

But for tonight I am going to enjoy my glass of wine and a few last nights of "girl" T.V.

Always looking to save a penny or two!

I am doing some research on San Diego CA for a family vacation. We are hoping to take a long weekend and head south to San Diego. Being a Military family does have it perks at times. There are tons of opportunities for us to get in free or at a discounted rate to many of the fun things we hope to see while on vacation.

The main research I am doing is a place to stay. I can't decided if we want to just stay at a hotel or try to rent a condo of some short. Hotel may be cheaper per night, but if we rent a condo we have more space, a kitchen where we could do some cooking and packing of lunches. The question I keep asking myself is would we really use the kitchen, would we really cook, and pack the lunches? The condo would give us more space, possibly two bedrooms so kids could go to bed at a decent hour and Kevin and I could enjoy the evening together without going to bed at the same time as the kids, which usually ends up happening when we stay at a hotel.

Is your head spinning yet? Mine is! So if anyone has a favorite place they have stayed or heard of any fabulous deals, please let me know!

Scrapblog

One of my friends but a challenge out for us to do a page that is "all about me" so this is my page. I was having a hard time at first but in the end I love it. Just thought I would share it with everyone!

Web Site

For anyone interested in what's going on in my little slice of heaven, here is a web link to our news site.

http://www.386aew.afnews.af.mil

Kevin
--
'Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. Was too strong.'
- Ronald Reagan

A Quiet Sunday

Today was Sunday and it was actually a quiet one. I finally got a chance to sleep in a little bit and then went to the office where my team and I did a ceiling to floor cleaning that was long overdue! The place smells much better now that old coffee stains and other such neglect from the last crew have been taken care of. A little Febreeze in this environment is also a wonderful thing. Once that was taken care of, we all got some lunch and I spent the afternoon watching College football. That was pretty much the day's activities in a nutshell, it'll be back to the grind tomorrow morning.

This was written by Kevin

Saturday Satire

A little Military photo humor

Wordless Wednesday; Packing helper!

Pack me!
I will fit!

Saying Good Bye

Our morning started nice an early today. We were all up and on the road by 4am. The kids are doing amazing well for being up that early. I did send both girls to school. I have found that as much normalcy as possible is a good thing. So Cassie is at school, Josiah is napping (kind of), and Kira is watching Sesame Street. The morning went pretty much like the other 5 or is is 6 now, deployment send offs. Get there really early and then just sit around and wait. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that there is a lot of hurry up and wait in the military.

The other thing I learned real fast is if something is going to go wrong, with anything like the car, the house, you name it, it will happen when he is gone. This separation is appearing to be no different. After our final hugs and kisses the kids and I walk to the van. After getting all three buckled up and doors closed, oh yeah that is the first thing, the sliding doors decided they were going to stop working! I heard a little extra "ding" as I started the car. It was a warning light, I could not believe it, I had not even put the car in drive yet! I hope and pray that this is not the how the rest of the separation is going to go.

After bringing Kira to school, then Cassie to school, then back to pick Kira up school (she only went for an hour yesterday and today) we headed to the dealer where they check the tires, put air in them and made an appointment for the doors. Thank goodness for warranties!

I am sure it will be a very early to bed night for all of us tonight. I do know that Kevin has a few long hours and plane rides ahead of him today also. I will or Kevin will try to keep you posted on his end and his journey as well.

A Day in the Life of a Security Forces Flight Chief

It's been awhile since I've posted anything and I've been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to think of something interesting to talk about. I came up with going through a typical Security Forces work day. Here goes!

03:00 (yes, that is 3:00 am!): Wake up, make note to self to find the cat that took a dump in my mouth and deal severely with it!

03:01-03:30: Shower and take care of other necessary hygiene activities. (we call it the three S's in the military, I'm sure you can figure it out!)

03:30-04:00: Make coffee (very necessary at this unholy hour!) eat something and head out the door.

04:00-04:30: Drive to work.

04:30-05:00: Meet with off going Flight Chief and get pass-on's from the previous shift and prepare my morning briefing.

05:00-05:30: Guard Mount, known as the morning briefing in most civilian Police Departments. I brief my guys and girls on where they are posted, pass on's and safety.

05:30-06:00: Shift Change.

06:00-08:00: Attempt to get administrative tasks done, such as duty rosters and manning documents.

08:00-1530: Back office (Overhead personnel) are in and the day is spent putting out brush fires and running in circles trying to get things done. I also do post checks and try to get some training exercises in throughout the day.

15:30-16:00: Refuel and wash my vehicle in preparation for shift change.

16:00-16:30: Review daily paperwork, desk blotters and citations.

16:30-17:00: Brief on-coming Flight Chief on any significant pass on's.

17:00-17:30: Finish Paperwork.

17:30 -18:00: Conduct shift change and supervise weapons turn in.

18:00- 18:10: Turn my own weapon in>

18:15-18:45: Drive Home.

18:50-19:40: Eat something and put the kids to bed.

20:00: Take myself to bed and do it all over again the next day.

I hope this gives a little insight to the long hours we work as Security Forces. I hear a lot of others in the Air Force complain about their "long" hours. Once they see what we do (we occasionally get augmentee's from other career fields) they have a whole new respect for Security Forces.