Memorial Weekend

Evie and I spent the extended Memorial Day weekend down in Texas with Michael which was perfect.  Evie was so excited to see her Papa after ten weeks apart, and got upset if he left her sight.  There wasn't even a moment of shyness around him either.  In fact, as soon as she saw him walk out of his squadron, she started running towards him.

The first night, we went out to eat at El Chico which was right by our hotel.  It wasn't my favorite, but it didn't suck.  Evie chatted Michael's ear off the entire time, and insisted he color with her.

It was in the mid-90s the whole time we were there so we spent a lot of time in our hotel room.  But we did take time to enjoy the few attractions of Wichita Falls.

We went to Lucy Park which has some walking trails and the falls.

Next to Lucy Park is River Bend Nature Center which has a butterfly conservatory as well as a few trails.  Evie absolutely loved it.

By Sunday night we were sick of fast food so we decided to try Logan's Roadhouse for dinner.  The food was good, but I was a little weirded out by something.  See, you get this bucket full of peanuts on your table.

Exhibit A

Instead of acting like a civilized adult and putting the shells of the peanuts you eat on your plate, you throw them on the floor.  No, I am serious. 

Exhibit B

I'm sorry, Texas.  But I just don't get it.  I thought it was kind of gross.

And then of course the main event of our trip was Michael's graduation from Tech School.  It was only a fifteen minute ceremony and it mostly consisted of a couple people talking and then the pining of the Maintenance badges on the graduates.  But it was great to be there just the same.

There were seven graduates.

The pictures from the ceremony didn't turn out well because of the angle of the sun coming through the windows in the hanger so I won't post them.  But Michael looked very distinguished in his blues, doing his whole marching thing.  :) 

It was hard to leave after five days together, but soon we will be together again for good!  Well, as for good as you get in the military.  But at least we'll get to live together again.  Twenty-nine more days!

Orders are Here!

The day we have all been waiting for has finally arrived. 

Michael finally received his Orders.  Hooray!

We are without a doubt still going to Kansas.  We knew there was a chance that would change so we're glad we now have a definitive answer.  I've grown very used to the idea so although it wasn't a base we had hoped to go to, I am 100% okay with it now.

Of course, no single leg of this journey has gone off without a hitch.  Orders didn't escape that. Hopefully Michael's "report by date" is wrong on his Orders, otherwise he has to report two days after getting done with his extra training.  He is suppose to have ten days so that can't be right.  Hopefully.

But having Orders allows us to finally get some stuff done.  We can get on the waiting list for base housing.  Michael can do his out-processing paperwork at Tech School.  When he finds out about the date thing, we'll be able to figure out the moving truck thing. 

I may have a million and one things to do in the next five weeks, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm going to be with my husband again!  For longer than a few days.  Hoorah!

Counting Down The Days!

I know the week just started...but is it Friday yet? 

Evie and I are driving down to Texas once again to see Michael this weekend.  Well, I'm driving.  She'll be relaxing in the backseat watching Dora and playing with her toys.  The difficult life of a two-year old, you know?

I'm starting to feel like I could do this drive in my sleep.  Fourteen hours is a long time which is why I split it into two days, but in a way it has prepared me for when we move to Kansas.  The drive from our hometown to Wichita is less than ten hours.  Before taking three cross-country trips since February, I would have said that was an excruciating distance , and we wouldn't be coming home that often.

Not anymore.  Ten hours?  Pshaw.  That's one day's drive.  It's nothing. 

But where was I?  Oh, yes.  We get to see Michael!

Evie hasn't seen her Papa in ten weeks.  Now, that might not be that long in military time when you think about all the deployments and trainings they leave for, but in our household, it's the longest they've been apart.  It's longer than BMT.  It's not like I'm going to tell a two-year old to suck it up, and get used to it. So I'm glad she gets to see him now, instead of waiting until July.

We get to see him for four whole days because of Memorial Day and his Graduation.  Which, by the way, got rescheduled again.  To Tuesday morning.  Good thing I don't have commitments to my time so I can just roll with the punches. 

Besides the Graduation early Tuesday morning, we have absolutely nothing to do.  It's going to be perfect!

When we visited Michael for BMT graduation, we had four days also.  But with all the ceremonies and the extra people visiting with us, we didn't have a lot of alone time as a family.  Although we enjoyed that weekend immensely, it will be nice to just be a family without having to run back and forth to different things.

I'll be sure to take lots and lots of pictures of us lounging around in the hot Texas weather.

I'm going to be busy this week with packing and getting ready to leave on Thursday so if I don't blog as much, that's why.  If I don't get back here before then, have a great Memorial Day, and take time to remember what that day means!

Roll With the Punches

I think the second rule military spouses need to learn (check out the first rule here) is to roll with the punches.  Living a life within the military is very unpredictable.  You can't and shouldn't count on anything, because nothing is guaranteed. 

Take Graduation for example.  It seems like something that should be pretty set in stone as long as you don't fail a block test or miss a day of class.  As long as you complete the requirements, you're golden.  Even if Tech School Graduation is considerably more low-key than BMT's was, you'll still feel proud standing up in front of family and friends.

But boy oh boy, let me tell you.  Nothing is sacred.  In the military, I'm pretty sure the phrase "set in stone" doesn't even exist. 

Because of a safety drill taking place the week Michael was set to graduate, they were informed early this week that Graduation would be held behind closed doors because the base would be on lock-down.  In other words, no family. 

So no getting to see my husband graduate another milestone.  No taking part in him being promoted.  No father seeing his daughter for the first time in ten weeks.  Nada.

Thankfully, I think the third lesson we military spouses learn is that we are surrounded by exceptional people who try their best to make things right. 

The instructor of Michael's class offered them a solution.  Work their Airmen butts off, and they could graduate next Friday instead.  As long as they keep on with their current progress, that should be easy.  So problem solved.  Hopefully. 

As I've said, there are no guarantees.  So you won't ever catch me holding my breath. 

If it seems like all I do is complain about the military, please let me correct you.  Because it's not intentional, and I hope it's only temporary.  One of the best things about the military is the life lessons you learn.  Michael has only been enlisted for just over four months, and look--we've already learned three great ones. 

I guess my point is, life is unpredictable.  So the military really isn't that different from life.  It's just set at a different pace and has a few alternative rules.  It's a learning process, and we're still new to all of this. 

So bear with us, we'll be in love with the Air Force again some day I'm sure.  Right now, we're just learning to roll with the punches. 

Tech School Frustration

It seems my trend is to write a bunch of blogs posts in a row and then quit for many weeks at a time.  Sorry 'bout that folks.  But this one wasn't planned.

I would like to start by saying I know that having a husband serve in the military means that my family has to give up a lot of our control.  For (at least) the next six years, a lot of major life decisions won't be our decisions to make.  And I'm absolutely fine getting used to that.

But I think when the frustrations become a little too much to bear on my own, I'm going to need to vent a little.  So please bear with as I let loose my current level of frustration. 

Originally, we were told that Michael would go to eight weeks of BMT and ten weeks of Tech School.  Then we would move to our first duty station.  What we weren't told was that sometimes there is a layover between BMT and the start of classes at Tech School.  Luckily for us, that was only about ten days for Michael, instead of two months like some of his fellow BMT graduates. 

When we found out we were moving to Kansas, Michael was informed he'd have additional IFR training after Tech School graduation because of the aircraft he'll be working on.  The training is only eleven days long, but it was up to the instructor when he would start the class.  Well, we found out that date today.

Instead of the first week of June as we had hoped, Michael will start IFR training in the middle of June.  Which means he'll be done around the 1st of July.  He went from ten weeks to just under sixteen. 

If that wasn't frustrating enough, now we have to decide if him doing Recruiter's Assistant for the two weeks after training is going to make sense.  It would be great to him to have a few days to see family and friends before we move.  And to help me with all the moving preparations.

But my sister gets married the third weekend of July and if he does RA, we'll be moving the week before her wedding.  I'm not so sure I'm sane enough to drive ten hours in a car by myself, unload all our worldly possession in our new home (hopefully right away), and then drive those ten hours back to be in my sister's wedding.  And then of course, turn around a few days later and do the drive all over again.  I might spontaneously combust or something.

Of course, he still doesn't have his official orders yet so this could all change even more.  We could end up going somewhere completely different.  Which would mean he may not have IFR training at all.  Or he could have some other training.  Who knows, right?

I don't even want to think about how this all affects our housing situation.  We can't get on the waiting list for on-base housing without orders.  Ugh.

I know that the Air Force is a pretty large organization with a lot of stuff going on, and I get that.  I know we're not the only military family to face these problems--honestly, I think most families have similar frustrations every single time they move.  But I was hoping with all my might that our first move wouldn't be completely insane.

I should have known better.

Melting Pot

So life has been a little hectic around here, but in a good way.  I went to visit Michael a couple weekends ago, and it seems to take me a little time to recoup from all the traveling.   Sadly, I forgot to get a shot of the two of us together, but I did manage to capture a fantastic one of him in his ABUs. Ladies, please keep the drooling to a minimum.

I've also been trying to enjoy this unseasonably awesome spring we've been having.  I'm thinking all this warm weather is Wisconsin's way of saying, "See, I'm not so bad.  Please don't leave me."  Yes, I'm the one accountable for the beautiful weather.  Feel free to bow down. 

So anyways, while visiting Michael at Tech school I came to a realization.  Probably many people have already figured this out, and I'm just behind.  And maybe in essence, I did know this.  But seeing it with my own eyes just made it more real to me. 

The military is a melting pot.

When you think about it, the military brings men and women from all over the country, and tells them to work together to achieve the ultimate goal:  achieve the mission.  No matter if you're male or female, you're white, black, yellow or somewhere in between, you hail from a metropolis or a small town...you must look past your differences and work as a team.  I think this is a beautiful thing.

If you know my husband, you probably know he's not the most outgoing guy in the world.  He doesn't go out of his way to make friends.  That's his personality, and I love him for it.  But going to BMT and then Tech School with a bunch of strangers that you're now expected to spend practically every waking minute with...well, that's going to lead to some changes.  And in my opinion, some great ones.

Men and women just like my husband are making friends with people they never would have before, either because of prejudices or the simple fact that their paths never would have crossed.  They broaden their social circles--friends are no longer based on skin color, gender or social class.  They ban together within their flights, with their roommates, with the others in their specialties.  It's like college, but way more intense.

Maybe it's the sociology nerd in me, but this realization made me even more excited for our move in a couple of months.  I like bearing witness to the interactions between people so the goings-on of a military base ought to be for me what a candy store would be for a five year old.  Pure heaven.

We're Moving To...

Well folks, Michael and his five classmates got their base assignments on Wednesday night.  All but one of them are heading to...McConnell AFB just outside Wichita, Kansas.

If you remember, we were hoping to head to a southern state (Florida, Arizona or Texas) so when Michael gave me the news, my first reaction was disappointment.  Who wants to move to Kansas?  I've seen "Wizard of Oz" for goodness sakes.  I don't want to look outside my window and see flat, dusty plains and tornadoes on the horizon!

 

Once the shock wore off though, I started doing what I do best:  research.  Since that phone call, I've spent countless hours on the internet, reading every single thing I could about the base, Wichita, and the area surrounding it.  I've looked at city statistics, on and off-base housing, area attractions, restaurants, etc. I've posted questions on forums and joined Facebook groups. 

Let me tell you, I feel so much better!

Okay, so Kansas wasn't exactly on our short-list of places we'd like to live.  But my "pros" list is quite a bit longer than the "cons".  For example, it's less than a ten hour drive from Wichita back to our families in Wisconsin.  After my twenty hour cross-country road-trip to Texas by myself a few weeks ago, ten hours is a walk in the park.  We'll be able to visit family a lot more often than if we had moved to any of the places on our dream sheet.

Wichita is a fairly large city (over 366,000 people) so it boasts many attractions.  The one thing I really wanted to have wherever we moved to was a zoo--and Wichita have an amazing one.  Wichita also has a lot of different kinds of museums (science, art, aviation, cultural, etc) which will help fill up our weekends.  And of course, all big cities have lots of shopping!

Although the base is a small one--it only has one squadron--the Spouse Club is very active.  I am extremely excited about that bit of news because the last thing I want is to be stuck in the house all day with a two-year old and no connections to the outside world.  When you don't work outside the home, it is difficult to meet people, especially when you move to a new area. So I plan on joining up with the other wives right away to do whatever it is they do.

There is also a very active playgroup on base!  Meeting other military wives is important to me, but meeting military wives with small children is a must. 

So there may be things about Kansas that I'm not excited about--tornadoes, the wind, and some snow--but I'm staying positive that it's a place we could be happy with for a couple of years.  I don't doubt that we'll try to move on to a base off our dream sheet when we're able to, but at least we won't be miserable in the meantime.

Tech School

Now that Michael has graduated BMT, he's on to Tech School.  On Monday morning, Michael--along with about 300 other Airmen who just graduated--took a bus up to Sheppard AFB in northern Texas. 

So far, things are going well.  He shares a dorm room with one other person which is a big change from sixty other guys.  They have their own bathroom too which means private showers.  It's sad really, when things like that get you excited.  :)

In the many briefings he had to go to yesterday, he found out that some of the programs are full so Airmen will be "laid over".  Basically that means they'll just be doing details around the base until enough people graduate for them to get into their program--for some, that will be up to a two month wait.  Please cross your fingers that Michael doesn't see a delay. 

Michael's training is only nine weeks long, so if he isn't delayed, he should be done by the end of May.  He is considering being a "recruiter's assistant" for a week or two when he gets done.  Basically, he'd help out his recruiter here at home so he can stay in town for an extra week or two before we move to our first base.  This would be really great because otherwise he'll only have a day or two to visit everyone before we have to pack our stuff and move. 

If Michael's training isn't delayed, we should find out in three to four weeks what base we'll be moving to!  I'm anxious and excited all at the same time for those orders to come.  I'm obviously hoping we get one of the five bases we put on our list, but I'm keeping an open mind for wherever we end up.