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.
I can’t believe I forgot to post about Legoland! <Facepalm!> We surprised the boys with a brief trip the day after Christmas, on our drive home from spending the holiday with Dave’s family in Tampa. Instead of writing a bunch of dialogue about it here, I will drop the Google+ photo album here and you … Read more
“But at least you’re kept your head above water with all the holiday obligations, right? You seemed to have had a billion Christmas parties for Dave’s unit, scouts, the spouses’ club, and the boys’ piano lessons.”
I guess so — the house was decorated, trees trimmed, gifts were purchased and wrapped, cards made and sent out, and we made it to everywhere we were expected to be this season — with White Elephant gift exchange gifts as needed.
I was pretty tired by the time the kids started their holiday break on the 18th. It was non-stop from the week after Thanksgiving.
The Magic of Christmas light show at Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every holiday season. Our family really enjoyed it.
I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while, but before I knew it, Christmas got a bit overwhelming. Since there are still several days to enjoy the light show, I will try to get this post out there before their last weekend so people can try to fit it into their New Year’s plans.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home is a 65-acre property just southwest of Mobile, Alabama. The holiday light show, called Magic Christmas in Lights, which started in 1995, has become very popular and draws visitors from throughout the Gulf Coast.
Dave asks me around Thanksgiving every year, “What do you want for Christmas?” And I usually come up with something unusual, such as “I would like you to arrange a family trip to Bellingrath Gardens in December.”
Of course, he had to go do all the research: What is it? Why does Patricia want to go to a botanical garden in December? How much do the tickets cost? Do I need to get the tickets ahead of time?
I’m usually the one who does the travel planning in the family: I make the airfare, hotel, rental car arrangements, I am the one who does the route planning ahead of time. I don’t mind, really. But for Dave to take the reigns on travel planning is a real treat.
Dave got us internet tickets for December 8th, a Saturday night. The hours for the event are 5-9pm, and I will explain in a minute why it’s important to arrive at 5pm. We took our time getting to the gardens, stopping at Lambert’s Cafe in Foley, as well as a brief trip to the Wales West Tourist Railroad to see the holiday decorations there also.
Can you see the cracks in the screen? It’s extra creepy when I’m looking at this picture of screen cracks through the real cracked screen.
Allow me to give a little public service announcement.
Last weekend I dropped a filled duffel bag while attempting to load it into our car-top carrier for our holiday trip to Tampa. It fell from the top of our SUV, and in the bag were my Macbook and iPad. The iPad was well-protected, but the Macbook was not; the screen shattered and one corner of the aluminum body crushed.
Don’t yell at me, I’ve been fussed at enough about this.
The computer is still working decently, although I can occasionally feel the cracking of some small shards of glass inside the keyboard.
We have USAA Property Insurance (being a military family and all), and we immediately called them about our options for getting the computer repaired or replaced.
This has been an insane holiday season! But let me just toss up some You Tube videos showing off the kids. These were all taken with our new camera…with the telephoto lens zoomed in as far as it would go. I promise I have so much more to write about this week, bear with me, … Read more
Today Timmy got his first pair of glasses. We knew this was coming for a long time. He’s like his father in so many ways: appearance, his comedic nature, and many other “youngest child” traits. It took three visits to the eye doctor this year to get everything right, Timmy would complain about his vision, and … Read more
Our family got to spend last week with Dave’s family in New York. Even though Jacob, Timmy and I get to go annually — the boys spend some time up there — I sometimes go up to pick them up from their visits…Dave hadn’t been since 2009.
We flew the family up this year, driving to Panama City Beach so we could take advantage of a low-stress Southwest Airlines route to Islip, New York…on Eastern Long Island. This made pick up/drop off easy for Dave’s parents. The boys were wonderful during the travel both to and from New York.
The enjoyed playing with their stuffed animals on the trip up to New York. They were each allowed to bring two. It sounds strange, but they play pretend with their animals very nicely and don’t fight. I’ll take it!
The family spent most of the week relaxing; Dave and the boys played with LEGOs and Lincoln Logs, and the whole family enjoyed going through box after box of photographs from when Dave was younger.
Jacob enjoyed helping me review a book for the blog last month.
This post is about Jacob. Some folks know — some folks don’t — that Jacob has been our more reluctant reader ever since he learned to read. His little brother plows through books pretty quickly, while Jacob reads more slowly and more deliberately.
Jacob had been sticking to book series that are heavier on the illustrations: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Origami Yoda, Adventures of Tin Tin, etc. Timmy loves those books also, but had no problem reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series while in 1st grade. Having Jacob read every day for school had been a challenge. In 3rd grade he had to set reading goals and it was pretty tough working with him to meet those goals.
Like a heel, I forgot to bring our good camera, but I was able to get a bunch of nice iPhone pictures of Pack 105’s participation in the Pensacola Veteran’s Day Parade. First I have to show off these two pictures because they melted my heart! Now for this year’s event. I was the coordinator … Read more
Just before I took my October trip to Nebraska the family did a Cub Scout Family Camping Event near Defuniak Springs. This is our 3rd time going to a Fam Camp event, so this time around the family could be more laid back. The Cub Scout family camp experience includes the same activities: fishing, swimming, … Read more
