{"id":2506,"date":"2013-09-09T10:59:31","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T15:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2506"},"modified":"2013-09-09T15:30:34","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T20:30:34","slug":"where-have-you-been-major-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/09\/where-have-you-been-major-mom.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Have You Been, Major Mom?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The endless fields of wild sunflowers helped keep me company on my drive to Nebraska in August. The profuse rains in eastern CO this summer have really made the area bloom. As you can see, otherwise I have nothing to look at.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yep, we’ve been busy! For most of the month of August, I’ve been playing hostess to a litany of contractors as we are aggressively trying to complete our basement. At the end of the month I went to Nebraska for 1 1\/2 weeks of work. While I was there I completed (and passed!) one of my numerous Air War College essay tests.<\/p>\n

Back in May we chose the one house — out of the 10 or so we looked at — that had an unfinished<\/em> basement. This also meant that the house was the least expensive of all the ones we viewed. We took a gamble and figured if we could get a loan for the basement remodel, we’d really up the value once it was done. We also enjoyed the prospect of the unfinished basement being like a blank canvas — we could really customize the space to our liking.<\/p>\n

We took several bids and found a company<\/a> that is an excellent hybrid between a full-service remodel company and completely doing it ourselves. Dave and I have a few skills when it comes to painting and other small tasks, and by piecing together the contractors, we could have professional work done when needed, and DIY tasks done that would save us thousands of dollars in labor.<\/p>\n

I have been uploading pictures of the basement progress to a Facebook album that should be visible whether you have Facebook or not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Besides working with the basement, I had to take a trip to Nebraska for 1 1\/2 weeks of Reserve work. As is typical in the military, we had to say goodbye to several folks in my office, and say “welcome” to several others. I enjoyed a nice dinner out<\/a> with a girlfriend from Florida; her family had moved to Offutt AFB this past summer. I also had the chance to see The Butler<\/em><\/a>, a very well-done movie, despite their having cast Hanoi Jane to play the great Nancy Reagan.<\/p>\n

This trip was unique because I was able to\u00a0drive<\/em> from Colorado Springs to Offutt AFB. It was fantastic having my own vehicle with me for the week and a half, but the drives there and back were pretty brutal. Thankfully I had Tina Fey’s audio version of\u00a0Bossypants<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>to keep me company on the eastward trek, and David Sedaris’\u00a0Naked<\/em><\/a> for the trip home. Since\u00a0Naked<\/em> is a pretty short book, I was able to hook up some Penn State football through my radio (this was on August 31st) and it carried me the rest of the way home. It was nice to listen to Penn State beat Syracuse!<\/p>\n

Having a vehicle also meant I could do some SERIOUS shopping at Trader Joe’s<\/a>! I bought a case of Charles Shaw wine, along with several months worth of TJ’s pasta, baking supplies, and snacks. I was able to pick up maple syrup and salad dressings too — things I had been unable to do when I had to fly back and forth. I am hoping that’s my last trip to TJ’s like this, there’s planning to open THREE Trader Joe’s stores in the Denver metro area in early 2014.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7346\"<\/a>

I didn’t buy this, but I did get a kick out of all the TJ’s liquor labels. I did pick up some pre-mixed margarita that we enjoyed 48 hours later at a friend’s house for Labor Day.<\/p><\/div>\n

North Platte, Nebraska is the approximate midway point on the trip. I stopped for dinner there both on the 22nd and on the 31st. On the way home, I stopped at Runza<\/a> and picked up a pile of sandwiches for the boys.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

My boys love Runza!<\/p><\/div>\n

When I got home from Nebraska…about 2 hours after I pulled into the driveway…we got to meet our sponsor cadet, a 4th class named Rob. We had dinner with him and his parents and we all seemed to get along really well. For those who know me well, you know that I’m all about getting to know a community to its fullest. So of course with Rob it’ll be no exception. This young man is polite, very kind to our boys, and enjoys video games and science\/physics as much as the rest of us. We look forward to giving him a home away from home (when the basement is finished) and showing him around Colorado so he can get to know this part of the country.<\/p>\n

So there’s my month of August in a nutshell — the part about the kids starting school on August 19th is in another post. Things seem more calm in September. I have a couple events up my sleeve that I might be able to write about when I have more information. Jacob’s birthday…and\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>birthday…are coming up too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yep, we’ve been busy! For most of the month of August, I’ve been playing hostess to a litany of contractors as we are aggressively trying to complete our basement. At the end of the month I went to Nebraska for 1 1\/2 weeks of work. While I was there I completed (and passed!) one of my numerous Air War College essay tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[385,13,157,153,103],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-Eq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":650,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/09\/home-again-home-again-jiggity-jig.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":0},"title":"Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig","date":"26 September 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I got home from Air Force Reserve duty Nebraska last Wednesday night. \u00a0It was my birthday, and the boys picked me up at the airport and we went out for Korean food at our new favorite Korean restaurant, called Okie Dokie in Fort Walton Beach. \u00a0It was a good week\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Z1uTbLe6m_g\/Tn_utLRP6VI\/AAAAAAABaCI\/iRB0L9GM7-Y\/s640\/IMG_5616.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/but-no-one-is-chasing-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":1},"title":"But No One is Chasing You….","date":"11 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"I run.\"Why?\"Several reasons. I guess reason #1 is because the Air Force said I have to.\"But the Air Force said you only have to run 1 1\/2 miles for its fitness test. You've run as many as 26.2...why?\"I guess my routine running is 3-4 miles at a time...once upon a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":649,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/09\/ground-control-to-lieutenant-colonel-mom.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":2},"title":"Ground Control to Lieutenant Colonel Mom???","date":"19 September 11","format":false,"excerpt":"No, it isn't working for me either. \u00a0I'll keep the title as is, okay?Greetings from Nebraska. \u00a0I've been on Reserve duty for the past week. \u00a0I hadn't been here since May, so it was nice to see my colleagues and meet several new faces in my office. Many of you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.usmilitaryjewelry.com\/images\/products\/thumb\/mlc-10756%20(2).png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":468,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/09\/let-the-games-begin-vollmer-pcs-2010.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":3},"title":"Let The Games Begin — Vollmer PCS* 2010","date":"27 September 10","format":false,"excerpt":"*Glossary: PCS: Permanant Change of StationDon't fret, we still have a few weeks.Eight, to be exact. Almost exact: 8 weeks from Tuesday the 28th.Yep. My brain has officially shifted into \"Prepare to Move\" mode. This is becoming old hat for me. Let me set the stage here. I grew up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/08\/so-what-else-could-possibly-happen-to-us-here-in-ne.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":4},"title":"So What Else Could POSSIBLY Happen to Us Here in NE?","date":"22 August 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave went to the emergency room at about 4pm Wednesday with pains near his appendix. After a CT scan at 7pm, it was inconclusive whether it was really appendicitis, but Dave and the doctor made the decision at about 8:30pm to perform a \"laproscopic appendectomy\" Wednesday night. The surgeon (an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/09\/mommy-it-smells-like-a-zoo.html","url_meta":{"origin":2506,"position":5},"title":""Mommy, It Smells Like a Zoo"","date":"05 September 08","format":false,"excerpt":"This is what Jacob greeted me with this morning. At least he said \"Good Morning\" first.No, my house isn't that filthy! As you'll remember from my Pros and Cons posting at the end of last month, our neighborhood sits just north of a large cattle farm. When the wind is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2506"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2518,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506\/revisions\/2518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}