MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #37

14. April 2011 · Comments Off on MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #37 · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Doing this nice and early because the rest of my Thursday is pretty crazy!

1. With PCS moves happening every few years, do you take the time to paint and decorate your home? submitted by Life as Mrs. JPT

That would be YES!  When we own our house, we have always taken time to paint, not necessarily for the color, but more because we prefer higher quality paint on our walls to keep them clean.  At our last house in Nebraska, even though we had a rental, the paint was such poor quality (original homebuilder paint, I think) we got permission from the homeowner to paint several of the rooms with a higher quality paint, and also got permission from him to change some of the colors.

As for decorating, we keep it minimal.  No permanent stenciling or border paper.  We will make sure to hang items on our walls (the kids find it comforting, I know).

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? submitted by Standing By Him

If you mean a home based on the house itself, the layout and the decorating, it would have to be any of the homes on Wisteria Lane on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”.  Somehow they all look so beautiful.  I could never get my house looking that nice.  Which is how you know it’s a TV show, right?  Lynette’s semi-chaotic house is probably the closest to my own in terms of clutter.

3. What inspired you to start your blog?  submitted by Pink Combat Boots

My kids and my extended family.  Without having the grandparents nearby we heavily rely on the internet to share photos and videos of the boys.  I started my blogging — the storytelling aspect — on MySpace…WAY BACK before Facebook was presented to the masses.  My husband had a Facebook account because he was in Grad School in 2005-2008.  I started my Blogger blog in late 2007 so more than just MySpace friends could see the stories and pictures.  Most of the posts at the time were about the kids and some of the crafts and recipes we did.  Very little about the military life, since it wasn’t quite so military when my husband was in grad school.

4. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen on base? submitted by Adventures in Life

Most Air Force bases have a fire training area way over on the far side of the runway.  There’s always this burned-out welded together fuselage that gets set on fire time and time again so the firefighters can train on them.  Here’s an example of one at Cannon AFB, but if you do a Google Image Search on “air force base fire training plane” you’ll see dozens of them at assorted AF bases.

Don’t let this alarm you, it’s a “training” aircraft fire at Dover AFB.  Most Air Force bases have a fire training fuselage tucked away somewhere on the base.  Photo courtesy of The Dover Post.

The burned out aircraft aren’t very good looking and always looks rather shocking on an otherwise clean and professional looking base.

5. Which historical figure (politician, writer, artist, scientist, actor, etc…) would you like to have dinner with?  submitted by Army of Two

This is a toughie.  There are so many.  I think Abraham Lincoln would be towards the top of the list though.  Perhaps because it’s on my mind, I’ve been thinking about how this man had to do something pretty amazing.  He had a mutiny on his hands on several fronts, and had to make some VERY difficult decisions and essentially succeeded in keeping this nation together.  And to top that off, remember that this was before the days of telephone or Internet.  So communication was low and slow.  Heck, this was even 15 years before the invention of electricity!  At least he had the telegraph, right?

The American Civil War — 150 Years Later…

13. April 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
My dear husband and me at the 135th anniversary Battle of Antietam Reenactment, September 1997.  Can you spot the one anachronism in the photo?  We joined about 35,000 fellow reenactors in the largest ever American Civil War reenactment to date.  Don’t expect a 150th Anniversary Antietam — no one stepped up to lead the planning efforts.

On April 12, 1861, 150 years ago today, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, as the state militia attempted to take the fort from Federal troops.  While this “battle” itself didn’t result in any casualties — only two accidental deaths due to a Confederate cannon misfire and Union a 100-gun salute, the 2-day incident was the green flag for 4 years of intense fighting and strife that reshaped our nation.

Many of you know this already, but Dave and I are Civil War reenactors.  Perhaps I’m more accurate if I said “My husband and I WERE Civil War reenactors,” but I’m not ready to give it all up yet.  Let’s just say we’ve taken an 8 1/2 year hiatus since we’ve had our two sons.  We did one reenactment in spring 2004 when Jacob was about 18 months old.  Just a day trip, where we usually do weekend encampments.  I enjoy sewing the costumes, and we both really enjoyed a unique way to enjoy a weekend of camping and camaraderie with fellow American history fans.  I don’t know how many times the guys would be sitting around the campfire after a day of “battle”, passing around a flask of moonshine, discussing not sport scores or the federal budget, but rather whose historians’ interpretations of the battle diagrams of the skirmishes between Atlanta and Savannah are most accurate.

But with the war’s 150th anniversary coming up, and my husband being stationed east of the Mississippi River these next 2 years (if not longer!), there’s going to be plenty of opportunity to get back into the hobby, and we’re excited about the prospect.  We’ve been hauling around about 200 lbs. of uniforms, hoop skirts, tents, leather goods, and a replica Springfield Model 1861 musket from home to home all these years.

We’re even more excited about introducing our kids to the wonderful world of Civil War reenacting!  I have sewing patterns at the ready to make some handsome circa 1860s costumes for my boys.

I won’t go into Civil War history here, but I would like to bring to your attention some of the commemorative reenactment events on the calendar over the next four years.  The first significant combat action, the First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run*, will be reenacted July 23-24, 2011 in Prince William County, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.).  Word on the street is that the current economic and political climate is contributing to a lower-key approach to the celebrations, with lectures and walking tours leading the list of commemorative activities, more so than the all-out reenactments.

*Many of these battles are known by two separate names.  The Union Army leans towards geographical features for names, such as Bull Run, the creek that ran through the battlefield.  The Confederates used the names of nearby towns and cities, such as Manassas.  You’ll see other examples of this with Antietam Creek v. Sharpsburg (Maryland), Pittsburg Hills v. Shiloh (Tennessee), and Sabine Crossroads v. Mansfield (Louisiana).

12th Connecticut Volunteers at a reenactment in Narcoossee, Florida, Spring 2004.

I don’t think the First Battle of Manassas will be on our summer travel itinerary this year, but we are looking at other 150th anniversary events during our two years on the Florida Panhandle that might fit our travel schedules.  Shiloh is definitely a finalist (late March 2012)!  It’s easy to do web searches for smaller reenactments near you.  Websites such as the Camp Chase Gazette and Civil War Traveler have extensive information on reenactments, and the Civil War Traveler webpage even has special designators on the 150th anniversary events.  Here are some other key reenactments that will probably do something special for their 150th anniversaries:

Events are also being planned for western and even the Pacific theaters and the calendar links above can tell you more about that.

Canning 101: Or "Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, But Never Ever Jam Today!"

12. April 2011 · Comments Off on Canning 101: Or "Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, But Never Ever Jam Today!" · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

* Name that tune!

Oh, never mind!  Here’s the whole song, just for you!  This Carol Channing act sent my sister and me into a flurry of giggle when we were little.  Prepared to have it stuck in your head for a while, ha ha!

With all those strawberries I brought home on Monday, I had to get cracking to make some of the freshest strawberry jam EVER!  For the first time since 2007, I dug out my canning supplies.

“As if you don’t do enough…you do canning?”

YES!  I remember my Mom doing it when I was a kid, and it turns out canning your own food is easy, inexpensive, and incredibly nutritious!  It’s great knowing what’s in your food!

I bought my hardware in summer 2001 when we grew so many tomatoes, I was able to preserve several jars of whole tomatoes, along with several jars of homemade pasta sauce.  I’ve used it off and on in Ohio, Florida (2002-2005) and North Carolina, but then the equipment sat dormant while we were in Nebraska.

How does canning work?

Like everything else I blog about, a little science/history lesson is in order.  According to the authority on everything, Wikipedia, home canning is the process of preserving foods by putting them in jars and heating them to kill organisms that might cause the food to spoil.  I mainly stick to the easy-to-preserve foods (strawberries and tomatoes), and I’m now comfortable enough with the process that I’d like to delve into the more challenging foods soon, such as corn and peppers.

When foods have a pH of lower than 4.6, you can effectively kill the microorganisms by simply boiling the food at 212 degrees F for a specified period of time.  This is why preserving tomatoes, berries, and pickles is so easy.  And the hardware is inexpensive.

On the other hand, if you’re interested in preserving meats or low acid vegetables (such as corn and non-pickled peppers), you need to boil the food at a HIGHER temperature than is possible by simply boiling.  Perhaps you’re wondering, “How is this possible?”  Easy: you need a pressure cooker!  A pressure cooker, which allows the air pressure inside the vessel to increase as you heat it, the boiling point of the liquid can increase over 250 degrees F!  WOW, how cool is that?  Now, you can boil the canned foods at a high enough temperature to kill even the Clostridium botulinum spores, which can’t live in temperatures higher than 240 degrees!

As I’ll discuss in the next section, venturing into the pressure canning world involves a more lofty investment in a quality pressure cooker, large enough to hold the jars.

What kind of equipment do I need?  And how much will this cost me?

If nothing else right now, get this book!  Or at least a version of this book, since it’s constantly being updated.  This is the one I have from 1999.  It offers easy guidance on what equipment you need, along with dozens of canning recipes — not just for the minimally prepared foods, but also for salsas, sauces, and assorted flavors of pickles.

The rest of the supplies can easily be found at your local Walmart.  Look in the kitchenwares section…sometimes it’ll be moved to a “seasonal” section when the tomatoes and other veggies are in full harvest.  You might or might not see the supplies at other discount department stores — in this area it’s been hit or miss at my local Target (they had salsa jars, which was cool, but that was it).

This is a “canner”.  Really…it’s just a really big pot.  If you have a large soup pot, it will do the same thing for you: hold boiling water.

This “canner” includes a nifty rack that helps you easily lift all the jars out of the pot at once.  This will hold seven jars.

I also got this “accessory pack”.  Over the years, I’ve come to only use the tongs and the funnel.  And honestly, I don’t even use the tongs all the time.  But the funnel is a lifesaver — and can be purchased separately for just $1-2!

$6.97 at your local discount department store.
My 11-year-old accessory set.

Jars, Lids and Bands.  For me this is the only recurring expense with canning…this is because I give away so many of my jams.  I lean towards the “quilted jelly jars”, which are half-pint (8 oz.) sizes, for jams and jellies.  You can get a dozen for about $9-10 at your local discount department store.  For my tomato products I look for the “wide mouth” quart-sized jars.  They take special lids and bands, but aren’t that hard to find.

Some terminology.  The “lid” is the solid round disc with the rubber gasket on the bottom.  The “band” is the threaded ring that really is only needed to hold the lid in place until it’s been vacuum sealed.  Some folks will remove the band before storage, but I prefer to keep it with the jar, helps to hold the unsealed lid on the jar when you’re storing it in the fridge.

Know that if you keep your jars, you can reuse them with the bands, and you simply need to buy new lids for $1-2 per dozen.

These lids have a special rubberized gasket that will form the seal on your jars.  They can only be used once, but the jars and bands can be used multiple times.

And finally, you’ll need the fruits or vegetables you’re planning to preserve.  If you’re making jam or jelly, you’ll want to buy some pectin, which is also found with the canning supplies at your local discount department store.  Pectin is a type of polysaccharide found in plants.  This is the ingredient that gels together jams and jellies, and is also found in natural intestinal remedies, such as fiber laxatives and stool softeners.

So let’s tally up the expenses for canning your own food:

  1. “Canner” or other large pot: $20
  2. Accessories: $7
  3. Jars, Lids, Bands: $10 per dozen
  4. Pectin: $1-2 per recipe’s worth
  5. The cost of whatever food you’re planning to preserve.
I’d say that for about $50 of up front cost, the cost of my family going out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, you could lay the foundation for preserving foods with little-to-no chemicals.
OR: You could just hit this “Easy Button” here, which will hook you up for less than $45!

Canning 101: Classic Strawberry Jam

So imagine tapping into some fresh fruit or vegetables that were preserved a mere SIX hours after picking them off the plant!  And that you know EXACTLY what’s in the jar.

In this case, I know that this strawberry jam has only strawberries, sugar and pectin.  Of course, this recipe I’m going to demonstrate has 7 cups of sugar in the 9 half-pints of jam, so it’s definitely NOT a low-calorie food.  I’m only attesting that it’s nice to know exactly what’s in the jar.

(Two days later I made jam with half the sugar — which required a different kind of pectin that promotes more gelling — but I haven’t tasted it).

So here we go.  Let’s start with our stash of strawberries.

No…wait.  Start with the canner pot, make sure it’s filled up about 2/3 full with water and get it boiling.  It’s a large pot and you won’t want to wait for that water to boil once the jars are ready to process.

Back to the berries.  Crush the berries. I have a potato masher with which I can do this.  Looks like serious strawberry carnage here, doesn’t it?

Put the pot on high heat and bring to a boil. If you’re using traditional pectin, just put in the contents of the box with the sugar called for in the recipe. In this recipe, it’s asking for SEVEN cups of sugar (oofta!). If you’re using “low sugar” or “sugar free” pectin, read the instructions about the possible additional ingredients to be added at this point.

Allow this to boil vigorously for the amount of time in the instructions. In this case, we boiled for about 5 minutes, and this allowed the pectin to gel. You might want to use this time to get your ladle, funnel, clean jars, bands and lids ready near the pot.

You need to work quickly at this point. Fill each jar with the jam to within 1/4-1/2″ of the top of the jar. DO NOT FILL TO THE VERY TOP! You need the space to account for possible expansion of the jam while you’re boiling the jars, as explained in this link.

Make sure the top edge is clean, then place a lid on top.

Follow it with a band, which doesn’t need to be closed super-tightly. Just tight enough that the lid won’t slide off. That tightness will loosen up while you’re processing the jars.

Now it’s time to get the jars into the canner, whose water should be boiling already.  I use a rack that makes it easy to lower/raise up to 7 jars.

After the requisite number of minutes of boiling (15 minutes in the case of the strawberry jam), pull out the jars and let them dry off/cool on a towel. Listen for the pop — that’s the sound of the lid “imploding”. You want to hear this pop once for each of the jars you have, it’s the proof that a vacuum seal was indeed formed and your jams are good to go for up to 12 months in the cupboard!

If you don’t hear the pop, and there’s still a flexing of the lid when you press down on it, then your jam isn’t sealed. In most cases, you can simply re-boil the jar again and try for that seal. If that doesn’t work, then pop it in the fridge where it’ll last you 7-10 days.

The finished product. Some might suggest you cool the jars upside-down, to help the berries distribute better throughout the jar. I didn’t do that here, so the berries sorta drifted up towards the top.

Recipes claim that you should let the jars sit for 24 hours before using, but I don’t see why. Warm jam on some toast (in this case, potato bread toast)! YUM!

Because I Wanted That Bottle Opener! Gulf Coast Half Marathon 2011

11. April 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

My Double Bridge Run success back in February inspired me to sign up for this half-marathon.

I forced myself to do a deliberate training program. Starting right after the early February Double Bridge Run, I ran 2-3 x “short runs” of 3-5 miles each per week, plus 1 x “long run” approximately every week. Sometimes our family’s schedules make things a bit crazy, so that long run was about every 8-10 days instead of once a week, but it worked out well. My longest “long” training run was just under 13 miles and after dealing with that one, in mid-70s sunshine on the beach, I felt I was ready!

We were doing some Cub Scout camping in the town of Defuniak Springs, about 70 miles northeast of here, this past weekend. I left Dave and the kids at the campsite Saturday night, drove home and got a very good night’s sleep beforehand.

As is the case in most Florida warm-season races, the start time was 7am so I had to leave the house before 6am for the 30 minute drive to Pensacola Beach.

The sun was just rising as I was coming across the Pensacola Beach causeway, and you can see the low stratus clouds pouring onshore from the gulf. This is what it was like for the whole run! The clouds were great, but the 100% humidity still made it uncomfortable.

I want to show off this runner’s bib. I didn’t really pay much mind to the part of the registration about what I wanted my bib to say for a name. I never had a custom bib before. I wish I had put “Major Mom”.

I asked a random guy to take this picture of me about 15 minutes before start time. I’m all geared up here — bandana tucked into my waistband, headphones at the ready, Nike+ sensor on my shoe, and an 800 mg Motrin pill & Clif Gel in my back pocket (the Motrin sorta dissolved in my pocket during the run, UGH!).

What’s funny about these kinds of races is that I spend so much time weaving my way through people who run rather slowly, yet are at the front of the pack when the gun goes off. It took about 3 miles before I didn’t have to worry about passing people. And then I had to go to the bathroom — rrrr! With the incredible humidity I had chugged a LOT of water just before the start, and it was catching up with me. So I took a 2 minute potty break at the 3-mile point. There was a race photographer right by that porta-john so I’ll have to see if there are pics of me waiting, ha ha!

Other random thoughts while I was racing:

  • We were running on roads that were alongside the beaches. There were so many dead crabs on the roads…and people were just crunching away at those crabs!
  • Even though the roads were closed for the race, there were still cars on our route, driving just as fast as we were running. That exhaust didn’t help one bit!
  • I got to see the race leader pass me when I was at about 5 1/2 miles heading east. The westbound route in the opposite direction was just past the 9 mile point. Whoa….
  • Even though the course was flat flat flat (yay!), the cant in the road on the curves was tough on my ankles.
  • At the end of the Air Force marathon there’s a loopy type of thing at the end…you’re coming a little down a hill and the finish is right in your face, but then you turn AWAY from the finish line and do another 1/2 mile or so weaving through the Air Force Museum outdoor displays before you get to the finish. In this race, the weaving and looping around is done in other parts of the course, so when you are heading in the last mile towards the finish, it’s a straight shot! Thanks for that!
  • The last mile or so was pretty tough. By then, you’re among a group of runners with similar experience and training, we’re all going at the same pace, and we were all stopping to walk for little spurts here and there. We saw someone get hit with a pretty bad cramp and an ambulance had to rescue her. I felt rather insensitive passing her with the EMTs and not saying anything, but what do you say to someone about get put on a stretcher? She was probably feeling crappy enough…

I had set a goal for a 2 hour race, but I don’t know what I was thinking. In my training runs I never ran that fast, and perhaps a more realistic goal would have been 130 minutes. I finished in 127 minutes and I’m thrilled at that!

This is my soaked-in-sweat picture about 10 minutes after finishing. That humidity took a toll!

My info is just above the halfway point of this list.  These are the preliminary results, before all the runners had some in (or not come in, in the case of some of them).  Once the results were official, I somehow went from placing 440 to 380.  Official results are here.

The finisher’s medal…and my inspiration for this race — we needed a good strong bottle opener!

What’s next? I don’t know. There’s a Pensacola Fiesta 10K on the 30th that I’m interested in, but I think the kids’ sports might impact that. We’ll see. Folks say it’s a very beautiful point-to-point course that ends in the historic Seville Square part of the city. That’s actually a hilly race (yes, hills in Florida!) and it’d be a good challenge. Other than that, there are no more long-distance races in the area until the fall.

Florida Discoveries 9: Akers of Strawberries!

07. April 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Love that name!  It’s the name of our nearby you-pick strawberry farm.

This post will be about our strawberry picking experience, which wasn’t quite as nice as The Vollmer Farm in North Carolina, but it has the Bellevue Berry Farm in Nebraska beat, hands down!

My next post will cover the strawberry jam I made out of about 3/4 of the berries we got!

If you’re east of the Mississippi, chances are you’ve had a chance to enjoy some Florida strawberries.  Plant City, Florida is the “winter strawberry capital of the United States”, shipping about 3/4 of the nation’s berries throughout the country in the midwinter months.

Right about now the Florida harvest is wrapping up and folks are getting less Florida berries and more California berries.  I personally think there’s a HUGE difference!  Florida berries are bigger, redder and tastier!

Can’t you tell here?

I can’t believe how beautiful these are!  Sorry, no smell-o-blog.

One of the neighborhood moms put out a Facebook invitation over the weekend to meet at the local Publix parking lot, and then car pool up to the berry farm. Akers of Strawberries is about 40 minutes northeast of Navarre, and it was a fun trip. I took a couple of the older kids in my truck along with Jacob and Timmy, and they enjoyed watching Return of the Jedi on the ride.

There was a Navarre area Moms group also up at the farm and we were invited to join in on their group rate, which was $5 per child to fill a small microscopic container with berries and then get a small frozen strawberry yogurt.  Here’s Timmy showing the container the kids were given:

The berries were so big, you couldn’t fit that many into the pint-sized container.

This wasn’t as great a deal as it sounded.  At $1.50 per pound, and $2 for the frozen yogurt, this was more like $3.50 worth of product for $5.  Many of us put down the money without realizing what we were getting into.  Oh well, the kids were happy and that’s what counted, right?

Right?

So…we picked out about 9-10 lbs. of berries total.  Jacob and Timmy, despite not really liking strawberries unless it’s in Go-Gurt form, really enjoy looking for that perfect berry.

I was attempting to recapture a picture I took of the boys in 2007 in North Carolina.  
Good thing I was wearing a red t-shirt!

MANY of the berries had this siamese-twin thing going on.  Made the berries much bigger, however….

…you were left with this gaping hole that seemed like it would be a breeding ground for mold, bugs and other yuckies.

Jacob couldn’t help but laugh at the “funny berries”

We filled up the two small microscopic containers and part of a cardboard flat with some HUGE berries, enjoyed our picnic lunch we brought, and then had the frozen yogurt.  I had mine on top of a strawberry shortcake (homemade shortcake) and it was one of the best I’d ever had.  I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture of it.

Here’s our stash of berries, about 1/3 of which were made into jam 6 hours later!  But that’s for another post!

Florida Discoveries 8.5*: Kayaking!

06. April 2011 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 8.5*: Kayaking! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

*I’ve had to do some re-numbering with my Florida Discoveries posts, so instead of re-numbering everything, I just stuck a “0.5” in there.

How many of you remember this video from Sesame Street?

For years and years and years this was my perception of kayaking.  Being sealed into this fiberglass tube-thingy as if you have no legs and navigating river rapids.  And of course being able to flip around like this guy (allegedly Jim Henson) does at the end.

Last week as a surprise for my sister and nephews, we borrowed a 2+ man ocean kayak from our friend/neighbor/former commander Mike D.  This is different than the traditional, competition kayak that I was more familiar with (but had never done).

I’d been canoeing many times — Girl Scouting, in college, in Louisiana on the Sabine River — but kayaking is somewhat different, and in many cases it was easier.

The first day we took the kayak out to Navarre Beach, we were mortified at how tall the waves were in the Gulf (it was chilly and windy), so we packed everything up and ran about 500′ across the parking lot to the Santa Rosa Sound side where things were much calmer!  We all took turns taking short trips out.

After my sister’s family left last weekend, we took a trip to the beach again, this time so Dave and the kids could try out the kayak.  The gulf side was nice and calm, and we all got a chance to paddle out towards the dolphins!

Here are pictures from our two kayaking trips.

I believe it was a 130″ long kayak (just under 11′).  So here’s how it looked packed into our suddenly-small-looking SUV.  Luckily we were only transporting it about 5 miles, or 10 minutes drive.
More »

Florida Discoveries 8: Pretty Camellias

06. April 2011 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 8: Pretty Camellias · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Today I was in downtown Fort Walton Beach to pay a visit to the local running store. Between the parking lot and the store you walk through a pretty camellia garden. These variegated ones caught my attention.

Enjoy!  Click the picture to see it in better detail.

Florida Discoveries 7: Emerald Coast Science Center, Fort Walton Beach

04. April 2011 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 7: Emerald Coast Science Center, Fort Walton Beach · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,

My sister Margaret and her 3 sons were in town most of last week.  It’s always really wonderful when my sister’s family visits.  All 5 of our boys are almost like a pack of wolves, they rarely fight, and Margaret and I can talk talk talk talk talk talk talk…..

Did I mention we talk?  We were up till 1-2am every night they were here…

Ironically, the weather was fabulous for the 5-6 days prior to their arrival, and on the day they left, it was once again sunny and warm.  They were greeted with windy, cloudy days, complete with a severe weather outbreak on one of the days!

But that didn’t stop us.  I’ll write about our chilly kayaking trip in my next post, but for now I’ll discuss the activity we did on the one day I took the boys out of school.  It thunderstormed most of the day, so we visited the Emerald Coast Science Center in Fort Walton Beach, which is about 30 minutes east of us.

It’s a small operation, probably about 2 hours total to see the whole thing.  And that was with 5 very curious, geeky boys.  They enjoyed it just the same, they were especially interested in the hands-on activities, such as the bubble tables and the interactive health and anatomy areas.

Enjoy some pictures from our afternoon.  After we visited the museum, we met up with our friend Lisa who lived nearby.  By then, the rain had stopped and the boys enjoyed a couple more hours at Fort Walton Landing park.

Just off Highway 98 in old historic Fort Walton Beach.

The kids didn’t seem to care that this “Hot Hands” exhibit didn’t really work anymore.

Playing with the Van De Graff machine.

This was fun…you open/close the mirrors to make the mice multiply.

Timmy trying to figure out how the color lights work for this exhibit.

The bubble room was by far the most popular area!

Quite a face, huh?

The boys were having contests to see who could make the longest bubble!

This had the makings of a really great picture, except for the little ones having their eyes closed….

So we suggested they shade their eyes and this is what we got….

Florida Discoveries 6: Azaleas! But While I Have Your Attention: Azalea Queen No More?

28. March 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,
Do we look like a bunch of pretty little azaleas to you?  Nah, didn’t think so…I still have my dress today, but can’t zip it up past my belly-button.

At first I was just going to post pictures of the all the beautiful azaleas I’ve seen on the Florida Panhandle these past couple weeks.  I’ll stick those at the end of this post.  Not since Norfolk — where I grew up — have I lived somewhere with so many azaleas gracing us.  Norfolk has always had a special affinity for azaleas, and they’re celebrated extensively.  The flowers are huge, and the pink hues are more vivid than I remember than even 20 years ago…

…and speaking of 20 years ago, while I was remembering the pretty azaleas from Norfolk, it triggered a memory.

In 1991, this geeky girl was in the royal court of one of those traditional Southern Festivals.  It was Norfolk’s “International Azalea Festival”.  Unlike other Southern festivals that mainly tap into the local attractive, smart ladies for the royal court, Norfolk’s Azalea Festival is a celebration of NATO and the royal court itself was chosen based on NATO’s member nations.

NATO has a headquarters in Norfolk (no, not THE headquarters), so there were representatives from each of the member nations and they would choose young ladies native to each of the member nations.  In 1991, there were sixteen member nations that would contribute a queen and 15 princesses.

Then each of those ladies would have an “attendant” selected from the community.  Norfolk and Virginia Beach interviewed ladies at the local high schools and would submit one from each high school.  I was my high school’s selection in 1991.  I can’t say how other high schools did it, but I had a rather intensive interview where I remember questions about my plans for the future, knowledge about the local community, and one of those “if you could change the world” kinds of questions.  It seriously reminded me of a Miss America kind of thing and I didn’t think I’d get it.

But I did, and I had to get fitted for dresses, shoes, and was provided the list of events we’d be part of, and what kinds of outfits to wear for each of them.

I wasn’t used to this…I wore jeans and sweatshirts every day, usually.  Now I had to have cocktail dresses, business casual clothing, professional clothing, and evening gowns at the ready.  Luckily, the pink dresses you see above are the evening gowns, provided by the festival itself.  Air shows, receptions, meet-n-greets, a parade where each country was to be featured on its own float, the Azalea Ball and the coronation ceremony.

The pictures I have are only from the coronation and one picture of a some “cocktail dress” event that I’ll save for another time.  I wish I had more…I cleaned up pretty nicely 🙂

The escorts were brought in from the Virginia Military Institute.  Handsome, huh?  Too bad it’s a “free” weekend for the guys, and most of them were drunk the whole time, including my escort.  Ugh…
But…easy on the eyes 🙂

When I sought out the Norfolk International Azalea Festival website so I could share the information with you, I was really surprised at the changes that had taken place over the years.  Starting with the name of the event: it’s now the “Norfolk NATO Festival”.  Other changes include: the Azalea Queen is no longer.  Starting in 2008, the position migrated from daughters of prominent military members to military members themselves.  There are now “Festival Ambassadors” chosen from active duty military.  Starting this year, a MALE will be serving as a Festival Ambassador.

The princesses and attendants program also fell away, being replaced by a Youth Ambassador program set up to learn more about the children of the foreign NATO personnel assigned to southeastern Virginia.

Clearly, the emphasis has come away from the flowers and has become entirely a celebration of Norfolk’s importance as an internationally significant military community.  The Virginia International Tattoo is now a focal point of the celebration, a military splendor-filled night of music and pageantry.

I don’t know what to think of this…I’ve always been a stickler for tradition.  I’m sure there’s been a movement to lessen the “exploitation” of young ladies, and perhaps a concern was raised from the military community — the princesses usually were daughters of high-ranking NATO-nation military members.  I was assigned as attendant to a Canadian girl, her father was an admiral.

As promised, here are some pictures I’ve taken this week of the pretty azaleas in the area.  Most of them were taking with my phone while on a run.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #35

24. March 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

1. What is your must have gadget? submitted by Flying High With My Flyboy

That goes without saying.  My iPhone.  It’s been a paradigm shift for me, but I’m becoming more and more reliant on it, and feeling great about becoming paperless!  Shopping lists, calendars, little notepads…all electronic!  And it integrates so seamlessly with my Macbook!

2. How does your adulthood compare to what you imagined it would be like when you were a little kid? submitted by L to the Third

I never thought I’d (a) join the military myself or (b) marry a military member…especially after watching what my mother went through as a Navy Wife for 27 years!  Offers by the Air Force for pay for my college was all the carrot-on-a-stick that I needed.  But I soon realized that being in a military community is comforting to me…and I’m now nervous about how my life will be when none of us in the household is military.  And that’s coming up sooner than one would think!

3. What is your favorite chocolate recipe?  submitted by Our First Deployment

Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Pie!  It’s DIVINE, and I do make it with raw eggs, I have to admit.  Ironic, I was just contemplating making one tonight…

4. How do you deal with military life when it gets to be to much or to hard? submitted by Combat Boots And Pointe Shoes


This is a toughie.  I’ve had my REALLY REALLY REALLY hard days before…and usually it takes a very little reminder somewhere about what we’re here for.  


On 9/11/01, my husband was TDY to downtown Seattle and I was very afraid for him.  I was active duty at the time, and we were all busy with accountability and stuff, but I remember it was the unknown that is truly scary.  “Was Al Quada intending to target other large American cities?”  Precautionary measures were established in large metropolitan areas and my husband and I weren’t even sure when we’d see each other again — our colleagues were getting called to extended duty/deployment standby left and right.  We were both grad students at the time, so we wouldn’t be deploying, but I still have distinctive memories of that fear of the unknown.  


After another 2 days in Seattle, Dave and his colleagues drove nearly 48 hours almost straight through from Seattle back home to Dayton, Ohio.  The longest week of my life…


How did I deal?  I leaned on my friends.  I leaned very heavily on my friends…and they came through for me.  Emotionally, and practically.  Don’t ever shut out the offers for help…ever!

5. What piece of advice would you give a new Military spouse facing their first deployment?  submitted by The Albrecht Squad


See #4 above.  Spouses SHOULD be getting plenty of offers of assistance.  At least that’s always a goal of mine, and when my husband becomes a commander later this year, it will be a priority of mine.


Don’t be afraid to accept the help of others.  It doesn’t make you weak…it doesn’t make you a bad spouse or parent.  Allow someone else to watch your kids, even if it’s 2-4 hours per month, to get out and spend some time to yourself.  I know of spouses who committed suicide because he/she felt overwhelmed with keeping up with the house, the kids, and the emotional stresses of missing his/her deployed spouse.  


There’s no reason to be overwhelmed…if all else fails, pay a visit to your chaplain or the Family Readiness Center.  There are lots of programs out there…you aren’t going through it alone!!!  Not by a LONG SHOT!

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