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.

Military Move Musings – Day 4

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Day 4: Raton, NM to Colorado Springs, CO

Hi honey, we're home!
Hi honey, we’re home!

This is a short drive day. We timed things so that we could easily arrive during the work day so we could visit the realty office and pick up our keys.

Very little to talk about for this short 2 1/2 hour drive. The trip up I-25 northward from Raton is pretty tricky. With the trailer, it was a lot of effort for the truck to wind its way through the mountain passes.

We picked up our keys from the realtor and then had a nice outdoor lunch in downtown Colorado Springs. We ate at a place called La Creperie, which had outdoor seating and welcomed pets. Howie sat at our feet and people-watched. He dog-watched too, since there were so many dogs.

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Military Move Musings – Day 3 and the Oklahoma City National Memorial

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Our view for most of Day 3's drive.
Our view for most of Day 3’s drive.

Day 3: Oklahoma City, OK (1200′ elevation) to Raton, NM (6680′ elevation)

This was not quite as long a drive as the previous day, but it was the least interesting day of driving. It was westward across western Oklahoma on I-40, then we turned northwestward in Amarillo taking U.S. highways (instead of interstates) towards Raton.

Before we hit the road, though, we took a few minutes to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which is a park at the site of the former Alfred Murrah Federal Building. The memorial is very beautiful and very well done. We visited at about 8am on a Sunday, so it was nearly empty. It’s sunk into the basement of the former federal building, and evidence of the bombed building can still be seen.

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Military Move Musings – Day 2

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Day 2: Opelousas, LA to Oklahoma City, OK

This was the longest driving day, about 8-and-some-change hours worth of driving, along with 2 more hours worth of numerous stops and traffic/construction issues in Dallas.

Dave slept 9 hours Friday night. He asked that nothing wake him up — neither alarm clock nor my noise — so I let him sleep.

…and sleep….

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Military Move Musings: Day 1

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Day 1 = Navarre, FL to Opelousas, LA

Being that this is our 3rd move since I started this blog 5 1/2 years ago, I will attempt to write a diary of sorts of our 4 day not-quite-although-it-feels-like-it cross-country drive between the Florida Panhandle and Colorado Springs.

Day 1 for us was supposed to be a “short” drive. In a good-old-fashioned military change of command, the outgoing commander says a farewell/thank you speech, ceremoniously gives up his guidon to the new commander, and then beats feet out of the area.

Dave had been saying for the past several weeks, "You'll have to pry the guidon out of my cold, dead hands!". But he was joking....
Dave had been saying for the past several weeks, “You’ll have to pry the guidon out of my cold, dead hands!”. He was joking…but you wouldn’t know if from this picture, would you? Photo: Michael Bruenning.

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Colorado Discoveries 5: Visiting the US Air Force Academy

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For those who might not have realized, my husband’s new Air Force job will be as a faculty member in the Physics Department at the Air Force Academy.

On our house hunting trip to Colorado, it took us about 48 hours to choose our house and enter a contract. That was our goal. The rest of our time in the area was spent fulfilling assorted appointments, and we had a couple hours here and there to kill between appointments. In addition, both Dave and I had meetings on the Air Force Academy campus. Dave met with his new department, and I met with someone about trying to get a Reserve job.

The weather was beautiful, so we took some time to see the Visitors Center and hike the trail to the chapel and see the cadet area.

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Happy Birthday Howie!

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I’m over a month late, but better late than never! Happy 13th birthday to our dear Howie. He’s still going strong, ironically, his latest medical ailment was an infected hot spot on his tail, of all things (that’s for another post). I was in the middle of Operation EAT WHAT WE HAVE, so I made … Read more

Another Day…Another Move….

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This kept us busy today.
This kept us busy today.

Today was the day. A great big truck pulled up to our house and picked up about 99% of our belongings.

Yeah, we’ve done this before…but it’s still a really big deal, and really exhausting, despite the gentlemen from the moving company physically hauling everything out of the house.

I can’t believe this is the THIRD military move I’ve been through since I started this blog in 2008.  Here are pictures from the 2008 move, and more pictures about our 2010 move.

I’ve been scarce lately, even though I have lots of pictures and stories of this past month to share. From Colorado to the kids’ baseball to our wrapping up the school year here. But for this post, we’ll talk about our moving adventure so far.

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