Jacob was fiddling with that tooth all during field day today. He
wanted to get onto Mrs. Brockhaus’ tooth chart and he’ll just make
it! Tomorrow is the last day of school and his last lost tooth was
last July, just before we left NC.
Have you heard the cover of the Peter Schilling “Major Tom” song by Shiny Toy Guns? It’s featured in the 2010 Lincoln MKZ commercial on TV. I really like it. The You Tube below will play for you the whole thing.
Interestingly, last year Lincoln used a cover of the David Bowie version to advertise the 2009 MKS (“Space Oddity”, which is my favorite of the batch, by the way).
By the way, I’m not a fan of Lincoln automobiles and am not endorsing the product in any way. Just their choice in music to advertise their products 🙂
I’m quite impressed — in 2 1/2 weeks I was able to go from this:
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| From 2009 04 07 Muff_My_Last_Week |
To this:
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| From 2009 04 24 AFWA_DiningOut |
(Do I look like one of those ladies from the cast of Dynasty just standing around in a formal gown?)
I made it home from the desert in time to go with Dave to his office’s “dining out”. For some reason I emphatically proclaimed that I wanted to wear a dress instead of my mess dress. This is the first time in 15 years I’ve been to a military formal NOT in my mess dress:
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| From 2006 03 26 NCSU AFROTC Ball Pic |
Also, I have to express how impressed I am that I’m wearing a NINE YEAR OLD DRESS! Whoo hoo! It’s still in pretty good shape, structurally, and (most importantly) IT STILL FITS ME!
Lucky me, I found this picture of me in the dress from almost exactly 9 years ago:
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| From 2009 04 24 AFWA_DiningOut |
Pardon the strange-looking makeup there. I look like an unpopular geisha or something…
Timmy REALLY loves his little Webkinz puppy, named Thomas. This was Timmy’s first Webkinz, we got him at the end of the boys’ preschool year, about a year ago. Thomas has traveled with Timmy all over the place: Timmy sleeps with Thomas, takes him to child care on each day that he goes — for naptime, and Thomas has appeared in pictures throughout the past year….you can see the dates on the links below each picture. I wish you could see how progressively grubby this dog is becoming…he’s been markered-upon, snotted-upon, thrown-up-on, and chocolated.
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| From 2008 05 25 ColonialWilliamsburgWithGrandmaGrandpaFox |
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| From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg |
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| From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg |
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| From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg |
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| From 2008 08 12 JacobFirstDayOfKindergarten |
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| From 2009 05 03 OmahaZoo |
Last summer I let the boys decorate t-shirts for fun — Jacob did his own t-shirt, but Timmy dictated what he wanted on his shirt. “Mommy, I want a sand castle, and a happy sun and a crab family.” I did my best to accomodate him. Here’s a trip down memory lane with the t-shirts:
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| From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts |
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| From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts |
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| From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts |
So (and here’s my point), I came across a stray green t-shirt when I was changing the boys’ clothes from winter to summer. I probably picked up the shirt in 2008 sometime, it’s kelly green and I probably planned to do something St. Patricks-ey, but I can’t remember. Timmy saw the plain shirt and asked if we could paint another picture, and I thought that would be fun.
This morning I set up things for Timmy to paint the shirt and once again he asked me if I could do the painting. He asked for a picture of him hugging his Thomas Webkinz. I couldn’t do that…but I attempted a picture of just Thomas. Then Timmy asked me to write “I Love Thomas” on the shirt. Here is the end result:
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| From 2009 05 13 Timmy Tshirt |
I am NOT an artist at all, so this is super-corny, but Timmy thinks it’s great! The letters are actually a gold glitter paint, as it dried the opaque liquid gave way to just plain gold glitter. I think once the face dries I’ll fill it in with some of that gold paint like the body.
So there you have it — my baby LOVES his puppy dog and Mommy isn’t much of an artist.
More evidence that I tend to lead a double life. I have the honor of not just being a member of the military, but I’m also a proud Air Force wife.
When I was active duty, I’d attempt to participate in spouse functions, sometimes successfully, but sometimes NOT. Most were very welcoming and I had a great time playing Bunco, going on shopping trips, and attending countless bridal and baby showers.
The Air Force Wive’s group when I was in Korea in the late 90s was a prime example of not feeling welcome…most of their functions were tailored to times when the kids were in school, but once I made it to an evening event, and, to be honest, I wasn’t very comfortable listening to the men I worked with being referred to as “Billy”, “Joey”, “Tommy”, etc.
On the other hand, when I was stationed with the Army in my first years in the USAF, many of the Army ladies’ functions I participated in were great! They seemed much more laid back, and I didn’t see the distinctions between whether your spouse is enlisted, officer, the commander, etc. And they certainly didn’t care that I was Air Force, not Army.
If you’re a commander’s wife, you’re expected to be a leader in the spouse’s group. Obviously it isn’t required, but the other spouses will look to the commander’s spouse for guidance.
“What in the world is making you think of this NOW?”
Here’s what. Last week I attended a spouse’s appreciation function at Dave’s office. There were about 20 of us, we had a nice catered lunch and they even had some young Airmen who took Timmy and sat with him in a conference room where “Tale of Desperaux” was playing. After the lunch, we received the official Air Force Weather Agency briefing and then got a tour of the relatively-new building they work in now.
I like things like this. Dave will tell you about how much fun I have at social functions, and it’s important to me to know about the people and their families in Dave’s professional life, we help each other out in times of need.
During the function, the AFWA commander came out and addressed us, thanking us for supporting our husbands and even giving us these lovely certificates.
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| From 2009 05 11 AFWA Spouse Certificate |
I’d been seeing a goldfinch come by every once in a while for the past 10 days or so, yesterday I was finally able to get a picture! He’s on the thistle sock on the right.
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
Stay tuned! I have lots more to talk about, I’ve just been addicted to Bejeweled Blitz lately on Facebook and have been slacking off other responsibilities…on Facebook you can play against your FB friends, talk smack, etc. My sister and I have been neck and neck, as soon as her high score tops mine, I stop what I’m doing, sit down and play, play, play until I nudge past her. I’m terrible.
Today was a gloriously beautiful day! I can’t believe I was able to enjoy just about all day outside…I mowed the lawn for the first time this season, worked more on my garden, and planted a couple of containers with annual flowers purchased yesterday from Timmy’s child care center’s fund raiser. I enlisted Timmy and a couple of neighbor children this evening to “dig for earthworms” in our future-hop-plant plot, thereby loosening the soil for me. They found some 30 earthworms that I had them deposit in my compost pile…which needs a lot of help this early in the season….
…and I’m still outside and it’s so wonderful I’m going to take a picture with my uber-cool built-in-webcam:
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
Ta Da!
Can you see the bird feeders in tbe background? Maybe you can, then again, maybe not…
When we moved into the house in early August of last year, one of my first acts was to hang a birdfeeder on the tree in the backyard.
No action. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. The only birds around seemed to be giant blackbirds and they didn’t eat the black sunflower seeds I offered…
The week I came back from the desert, I saw some small brown birds around in the neighborhood…and that reminded me to re-invigorate my birding efforts. I went nuts installing feeders all over my yard. Can you count 6 of them here? Look REAL closely:
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
I remember from North Carolina that inspiring birds to come to your feeder as opposed to someone else’s takes some time and effort. I had a perfect backyard in North Carolina, with a hedge of wax myrtle about 20 feet behind my house to provide nesting and hiding spots. It wasn’t until the spring following our arrival — I hung our first feeder right away there, too — that I saw anything worth talking about.
Same as this time…we moved about the same time of year (latter half of July), so it’s now spring and my bird feeders are coming alive with activity.
Of course, being in a new part of the United States means a new group of birds to learn about. In North Carolina I was greeted with house finches, goldfinches, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wren, tufted titmice, myrtle warblers, cardinals and eventually, hummingbirds.
I’ve been once again sleuthing to learn about eastern Nebraska suburban birds. In mid-April all I was seeing were grackles, European starlings, and robins. Since robins don’t really partake of bird seed (they’re mainly carnivores, eating worms instead), and the grackles and starlings were too big, my feeders remained quiet.
Until this week. I started to see some brown birds feeding routinely, and I saw a downy woodpecker off and on. I stood inside at my kitchen window with my Canon Digital Elph camera set on 12x zoom and attempted to photograph the bird action so far as best I could….
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| From 2009 04 16 BirdsInYard |
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| From 2009 04 16 BirdsInYard |
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
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| From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder |
The birds are as follows: downy woodpecker, robin, house sparrow, American pipit or female house sparrow, another house sparrow and common grackle. Thanks to Maryann for helping me identify the sparrows — definitely a new species for me to identify!
I think I also am seeing a black-and-white warbler hanging out along the tree trunks, especially the rotted out trunk that’s been infested with termites.
The sparrows are definitely telling their friends about this place…there are more and more every day…
This morning I saw my first goldfinch, but didn’t get a chance to photograph any yet. Maybe in the morning. I’ve also seen a couple of cardinals, they sit VERY high up in my backyard trees…but when they sing they’re LOUD!
For now, I’m listening to the songs of a pair of robins who sit perched in my tall trees…a regular thing here now and I’ve loving it!
I forgot to thank Megan Henderson and her family in my previous posting for the care package she had sent! I’m so sorry!
Megan was my roommate in college my last two years and she’s a pretty awesome lady! She sent a box of books and magazines…thanks!
And for fun, here’s a picture of the two of us showing off our babies in their baby wraps! This is from summer 2003, Jacob was 9 months old, Megan’s son Aidan was 6 months.
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| From 2003 06 25 Trip to New Hampshire 25-28 June 2003 |
Good question.
Right now, I’m enjoying Dancing With the Stars, although my enthusiasm is somewhat limited because I was away for the first 3-4 weeks. I couldn’t believe that Steve-O wasn’t eliminated the first week…I guess he was a better dancer than I gave him credit for…
I’m also back to a CD-burning spree. Not making new CDs, but rather going through my old college-era CDs and burning them to iTunes. With a few exceptions, the quality is doing well enough. This was something I started back in North Carolina about a year ago, but then got distracted for obvious reasons. I’m finally back and it’s like lightning on my new computer! I also managed to get my backup hard drive that’s still connected to my PC to backup the music 2x weekly.
Anyhow, I’m still getting the hang of things around here, starting with keeping up with all the activities the kids have: soccer, school field trips, dentist/doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, etc. Dave had a train show last week that I assisted with, and this coming weekend Dave is headed to Pennsylvania to enjoy a weekend of railfanning with some friends.
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| From 2009 04 20 JacobTimmySoccerUniforms |
Here are the boys hamming it up in their soccer uniforms last week.
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| From 2009 04 23 Timmy_ChildCare_GiffordFarm |
Timmy’s child care class went to a petting zoo and Timmy had a wonderful time! I tagged along as a chaperone.
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| From 2009 04 25 DaveLayout_BurkeHS_TrainShow |
Dave is on the far right in the maroon t-shirt. The “crowd” you see around his layout was typical during most of the show…he had at least 1 party there observing. Dave allowed some children to operate if it wasn’t too crowded (and if the child was well-behaved). Timmy spent quite a while operating on Saturday morning while I went with Jacob to the Apple Store up the street for a Mac User’s workshop.
I’m now being beckoned to help wash dishes, so I’ll close here. I wish I had a little more to talk about, maybe I’ll speak more about the spring cleaning I’m enduring right now, we’ll see. I had these artificial nails put on last weekend for an Air Force formal event — I wore a DRESS! for the first time in 15 years…no formal AF uniform! (Pictures are forthcoming). Anyway, the nails made it pretty difficult to type.
*Update: I just trimmed down those artificial nails. They’re acrylics, so I was nervous about taking nail clippers to them, for fear their might simply shatter, but it did well enough and now my nice nails are at a reasonable length.
I’ve been mulling this one for a while…
I’ve been home about 11 days now. For the most part, things have been fine. I’ve gotten back into the routine…somewhat. I have to admit, having the new Macbook has been more of a distractor than anything else in terms of keeping to the housework, the kids and a couple of loose ends related to my deployment.
I figured I’d write about some various things on my mind these past couple weeks. Not everyone who I mention necessarily reads this blog, but perhaps one day if someone Googles a person’s name, this post will come up.
First off, I owe a thank you to all of the folks who helped me prepare for this deployment. This is a varied listing, from MSgts Lehman and Beaupre, who made phone calls and arranged for a lot of my training to be done from Offutt, to MSgt Curtis at Air Force Weather Agency, who made my local arrangements for weapons, chemical/biological warfare training, and answered my questions about medical outprocessing. These senior non-commissioned officers made magic happen so that I could leave for the deployment from home instead of from South Carolina. They even arranged it so I could get some drill pay to compensate me for the time spent just doing online training — about 40 hours worth! I also need to thank the Veeneman and Anderson families, who provided hours of Timmy babysitting when there wasn’t space in the Offutt Child Development Center.
Thanks to everyone who sent me e-mails and care packages while I was gone. This includes the Goldman, Warlick, Buckler, Vollmer (both the Nebraska and New York Vollmers), Fox, and Gifford families. You listened to my requests for St. Patrick’s Day goodies, 100-Calorie Chessmen, toilet paper, and single-serve sugar-free drink mix packets.
Thanks also to those who made my deployment experience outstanding while on shift…this could never be done without great people who continued to find a sense a humor, kept things “real” and kept their chins up even when things weren’t going hunkey-dorey. There’s no way I’m going to include all the names, but you know who you are. I learned so much about leadership, officership and military professionalism in general. I will carry those lessons for the rest of my military career.
To the members of the weather team with whom I had the honor of serving: Maj Matt Hauke, Lt Joey Clevenger, AGC Angel Rossy, MSgt Chris Canarina and SSgt Mike Main. To Lt Clevenger and SSgt Main in particular, they were my night shift compadres and I don’t know how many times they kept me in line — their seasoned, experienced work in CENTCOM helped keep me looking good! Thanks!
To my deployment buddies — those who emerged from my crazy active duty past to cross paths with me halfway around the world: Maj Rose Lathrop, Maj Kasi Traweek and Capt Paul Bryan. Thanks for taking time out of your schedules so we can get together for Friday coffees and Saturday pizza/gyro lunches. I was reminded of “Sex and the City” where the gals got together every weekend for lunch at a diner and would talk about anything and everything — Paul, I know you’re not a gal, but you could gossip/chat/emote as well as the rest of us! Rose and Kasi, congratulations on your engagements, and Paul, congratulations on your new baby — I owe you a blanket, it’s coming this week, I promise!
I owe a special “thank you” to Maj Paul Gifford — yes, that same Paul you’ve heard me talk about for quite some time. He’s the one who stepped up with me to divide our 179-day deployment in half. For this to work, we both had to be medically, physically, and duty qualified. We were putting an incredible amount of trust in each other and I thank Paul for coming through on his end of the bargain…
Last, but certainly not least, the biggest thank you of all goes to my awesome family:
Dave: if you remember, I got the “invitation” for this trip the same week you were feverishly making edits to your dissertation for that last Dr. Lackmann signature! This past July. On top of finishing your dissertation and getting the family ready to move, you cleared your mind enough to give me the chance to press forward with preparing for my trip. I know you weren’t jumping up and down saying “Please go, Patricia!”, but you helped me work out the timeline, helped with childcare during preparations and — most of all — played SINGLE DAD for 4 months during the worst winter you’d ever experienced. I wondered if you had a catastrophe-free week: Howie’s ACL injury, all 3 of you with colds, flooded basement, van repairs. Getting to talk, via phone, webcam or even IM chat with you was the highlight of my time over there…thank you!
Jacob and Timmy: to my babies! You two are amazing — Jacob, you continued to thrive in school and trusted that I would be home in “100 days”. Timmy, I can’t believe how much you’ve grown since I left — you’re now READING and talking so well! I loved talking and web-chatting with you while I was away, hearing your stories always put such a smile on my face. Thank you for all the letters and artwork, too. Jacob, your Groundhog decorated our weather section for about a month, while we celebrated a Groundhog’s Day…over…and over…and over.
While I was deployed, I found out there are some limited job opportunities here at Offutt, so I’ll be transferring units later this summer. I love my unit at Shaw, but it’s time to move on and minimize these commutes.
I don’t plan to volunteer for another deployment. If I get sent over, I’ll serve honorably…but it does lead me to a new question: “What now?” A couple options have crossed my mind — at the forefront is looking into becoming a math teacher. There’s a program called “Troops to Teachers” that is supposed to offer some flexibility for getting teacher certifications.
In closing, I was so glad I was able to be part of the Global War on Terror. I was in grad school on 9/11 and I remember feeling like the most useless member of our military — I remember trying to donate blood and being told that the Red Cross wouldn’t even take my blood because I had spent time along the Korean DMZ. To be able to see how we’re running our war, and seeing how incredibly tough it is to forecast the weather for Iraq and Afghanistan, was an experience I’ll never forget.
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