Major Mom

My name is Patricia, but in the blogging world I became known as "Major Mom" thanks to a friend in the Air Force Reserves. As soon as he had said it, the David Bowie song "Space Oddity" went through my mind. I am a mother and wife first - an Air Force wife, that is. My husband proudly serves in the Air Force as a weather officer. I also continue to serve my country as a Major in the Air Force Reserves. It's a wonderful double-life I lead. It was a very difficult decision for me -- I had our second son in early 2005 just before the 10-year-point in my career. It was already tough having to turn my oldest son over to a child care center every duty day -- 50 hours per week. So in spring 2005 I took advantage of a Reserves job opening for which I was qualified in Norfolk, Virginia -- my hometown! It's truly wonderful getting to see my sons grow up, and be able to help out at their school, on their sports teams (I've coached soccer before) and as a Cub Scout den leader. I'm not sure I'd have had time for that if I had remained on active duty. We currently live in Navarre, Florida, while my wonderful husband is assigned to Hurlburt Field, Florida. We've also lived in the following locations since we graduated from Penn State University in 1995: Fort Polk, Louisiana, 1995-1998 Yongsan Army Installation, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1998-2000 Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 2000-2002 Patrick AFB, Florida, 2002-2005 Raleigh, North Carolina (Dave was assigned to North Carolina State University), 2005-2008 Offutt AFB, Nebraska, 2008-2010 Hurlburt Field, Florida, 2010-present I started this blog in December 2007, thanks to suggestions from friends. We're in our third home since I started the blog. I used to send out captioned photo albums -- from AOL Pictures to Shutterfly albums to Picasaweb albums. Instead of flooding everyone with photos, now I can use this blog to send out the highlights. I'll talk about anything on here -- usually I'm talking about the kids, but I'll also delve into the local scene wherever we're living, and you'll also see some great posts about the two military moves (PCS: Permanent Changes of Station) we've had. Sometimes I talk about utter nonsense, such as finding a product called "Piggies in Pancakes" in a grocery store in South Carolina. In my spare time I write for the parenting blog GeekMom.com, I serve on the board of the Hurlburt Spouses' Club, and I'm a Cub Scout den leader. I also enjoy running and playing the violin.

Death of a Birthday Cake

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I was okay with the tiling of the fondant at this point. Read on and watch the de-evolution of the Creeper.
I was okay with the tiling of the fondant at this point. Read on and watch the de-evolution of the Creeper.

Good morning everyone! It’s the Monday after “Jacob Birthday Weekend” and I’m enjoying a relatively relaxing morning as a carpet installer is taking care of Dave’s train room. Jacob seemed like he had a nice weekend, and for that I’m glad. As the boys get older, I’m convinced that their birthday parties are getting easier and easier.

I have Cake playing right now on Pandora radio through the TV, and it’s apropos today because I’m going to be talking about CAKE!

As I’ve discussed before, I enjoy making my sons’ birthday cakes. I’m not a professional by any stretch, but it’s a fun hobby I’ve had since the boys were toddlers (2006) and we had bought an awful tasting cake for Timmy’s 1st birthday in North Carolina.

I have a public album on Facebook where I drop pictures of my finished cakes. For the most part, I’m happy with my work. They’re never perfect, but folks tell me that the cakes taste at least as good as store-bought, and that’s enough for me.

Jacob requested a Minecraft-themed birthday party this year. I did my usual Pinterest spree, quickly dropping brainstormed ideas onto the “board”. This pin was the inspiration for the cake I would attempt. Jacob was thrilled with the prospect of a Creeper cake. In this post I will discuss the de-evolution of the Creeper cake.

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Colorado Discoveries 11: Air Force Academy Falcons Football

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Air Force football is an experience like no other. From singing the Air Force song to the Wings of Blue jumping onto the field, it's probably one of the more inexpensive NCAA football experiences.
Air Force football is an experience like no other. From singing the Air Force song to the Wings of Blue jumping onto the field, it’s one of the more inexpensive NCAA football experiences.

We couldn’t help ourselves. The family got season tickets for Air Force Academy football. It was hard not to. We were interested in just one or two of the games this season, but when we saw the prices for single game tickets vs. season tickets, it was more cost effective to just get the season tickets. Especially when those season tickets include games against Notre Dame and Army.

Dave took the boys to their first USAFA game over Labor Day weekend while I was in Nebraska, but this past Saturday I had my own first experience.

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Colorado Discoveries 10: Cumbres & Toltec Railroad

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The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad takes you through otherwise-uninhabited parts of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad takes you behind a steam locomotive through otherwise-uninhabited parts of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

For Dave’s birthday, our family took an overnight trip to the quiet town of Antonito, Colorado for a trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.

More Americans will have heard of other Rocky Mountain tourist railroads, such as the Rio Grande Scenic, the Royal Gorge, or the very-well-known Durango & Silverton. I personally haven’t been to any of those other tourist railroads, but they’re all located in bigger cities/towns/communities than the two endpoints of the C&T: Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. The Cumbres & Toltec is a narrow gauge railroad and is absolutely spectacular and takes you through some VERY uninhabited parts of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

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Where Have You Been, Major Mom?

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The endless fields of wild sunflowers helped keep me company on my drive to Nebraska in August.
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.

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.

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First Day of School Pictures

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Jacob AND Timmy!

Okay, so I’m a little behind. A couple days after the boys’ started school, I had to go for a 10-day trip to Nebraska (more about that later).

In an ideal world I’d have loved for the boys to dress up some for the first day of school, but (a) I have sons, not daughters who are more likely to dress up and (b) kids simply don’t dress up for the first day of school the way they used to. I feel like a won a battle (not the war) with their at least wearing “nice” shorts.

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Colorado Discoveries 9: Cripple Creek

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Our family took a leisurely drive in the Mustang with the top down. We didn’t set a location precisely, but ended up in Cripple Creek, Colorado, a very quiet little mining town that’s filled with casinos.

There’s a tourist railroad in Cripple Creek, called the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. Trains leave every 40 minutes and take tourists on a 45 minute ride. We didn’t plan to stay long enough for a train ride, but we enjoyed looking around at the depot.

You know what else is cool, the railroad is pet friendly! When we come back to ride it we fully intend to bring Howie!

Otherwise, Cripple Creek has numerous small casinos and little else. The state voted to allow gambling in Cripple Creek in 1991. The town is tiny. It was tough to find a place for lunch in the area…most of the restaurants are in the casinos. But we did find a burger joint on called The Creek on Bennett Avenue (the main drag), that was pretty good. Dave had an elk burger which he testified was pretty darned good.

 

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The kids have mixed feelings about having the top down. So long as we aren’t going too fast, they really enjoy it.

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More Hiking in Colorado Springs

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There are so many places to go hiking throughout Colorado Springs. I’ve made it a point to get the kids out and about 3-4 times per week this summer. The City of Colorado Springs parks and recreation website has a great listing of area parks, which is the best starting point when planning your day.

The boys would often get tired after these hikes. Jacob has recently revealed that he can’t stand “desert walks”, which we encountered on most of these hikes. We’d quickly go from aspen-kissed creek beds to sandy junipers and pear cactus. I had found a couple memes to make fun of these hikes. Here’s one that sums up Jacob attitude about the more desolate parts of our hikes…and here’s one that sums up the bike ride we took last week (which I don’t have any pictures of, and it was quite traumatic for all…so we’ll pretend that it didn’t happen).

Enjoy some photos from some of the hikes we’ve done lately….

Pulpit Rock Open Space, near downtown Colorado Springs

Pulpit Rock is in the middle of Colorado Springs. We took a short walk around the base of the rock, it was storming around us. We didn't last long.
Pulpit Rock is in the middle of Colorado Springs. We took a short walk around the base of the rock, but it was storming around us. We didn’t last long.

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Boys’ Baseball Bedrooms on a Budget

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Who needs a Fathead? For the cost of a single Fathead we were able to do all this with Jacob's room.
Who needs a Fathead? For the cost of a single Fathead we were able to do most of this with Jacob’s room.

Each time we move, we try to come up with ways to make the PCS appealing for the boys. You know, something to look forward to. In the past we have given them gifts, and we’ve also given the boys some liberties with decorating their bedrooms.

(Truth be told, the boys absolutely love it here…they’re really enjoying the hiking and the views of the mountains from throughout our house.)

For the past two houses we were in rentals, so we weren’t able to do much with the bedrooms, but in our current house we let them have a little fun. We told the boys they could come up with a theme with which we’d be willing to paint the room. They quickly agreed on baseball-themed rooms.

As always, I came up with a Pinterest board with the boys’ ideas.

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West Navarre Primary 2nd Grade Patriotic Performance

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This is from June 5th.

I’m just sharing some You Tube videos I had taken of Timmy’s class’s “Patriotic Performance”. It’s a tradition with the school’s 2nd grade classes. Sadly, the school is so large you can’t get all the 2nd grade classes to perform on the stage at once…nor can you get that many kids’ parents/grandparents into the room to see it. There are four classes performing in these videos.

I think there were over 300 second grade students at Timmy’s school. Nearly 1000 students in all for grades K-2.

Enjoy!

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