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.

Happy Easter!

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Good morning friends and Happy Easter!

(I started this post this morning, but I’ve been fighting with my photo software all morning, then went to church.  I’m now about to head out to visit friends for the afternoon so I will just publish what I have here and go into more detail later).

It goes without saying that as the kids get older, the whole Easter egg hunt experiences becomes quicker and quicker.  The boys did their entire hunt while I was brushing my teeth, so I don’t have many pictures at all.  But here are some pictures of our weekend so far.

We colored eggs with both Kool Aid and Dave’s old silk ties. I’ll write more details about how we did them later.

Dipping eggs in Kool-Aid-based dye. Smells, well...FRUITY!

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Another Test Post

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Here’s ANOTHER test post, testing some publishing-related plug-ins. Thank you for your patience. In the meantime, I’ve included a random picture for you to enjoy.  This is a “stained glass” project that Timmy did in art class.  Sharpies on a piece of transparency film :-).  This was shown in a Santa Rosa County Public Schools … Read more

My Easter Egg Plans

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Thanks to Pinterest, and a GeekMom who actually tested it last weekend, I will be trying a new approach to dyeing Easter eggs: Kool-Aid! I had written about Kool-Aid while we were living in Nebraska (since Hastings, NE is home of Kool-Aid!) but honestly I don’t get it that often. But this display at my … Read more

Painting Progress

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This week we’ve been painting the great room and kitchen of our house. Yes, it’s a rental, but all this time it’s been sterile white in color…EVERYWHERE and frankly it was getting on my nerves.  For starters, it shows EVERYTHING.  Every smudge, every scuff, every bump by a backpack, piece of furniture, etc.  Secondly, I … Read more

In a Happy Place…

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This is yet another test of some additional capabilities for my new blog. I needed to re-establish the connection for those who receive e-mails of my post, but not from FeedBurner. For the past two days straight, I’ve been tweaking and massaging the settings on my new blog location and I think I’m in a … Read more

This is Another Test Post

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Testing my post-from-e-mail capability. Please enjoy this picture of what color our foyer is becoming! We’re doing lots of painting this week! This is a color called “Pismo Dunes” available from Behr.  We also painted the bathroom on Sunday — a lovely icy blue color.

Welcome to the New Home of Ground Control to Major Mom!

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Hello!  I’m slowly, but surely, migrating my blog from the Blogger home it’s had since December 2007 to its new home here at my personal domain.  Dave’s been using this domain for quite some time. Thanks to GeekMom, I’ve been getting pretty comfortable with WordPress and there are some blogging features I’d like to use, … Read more

Searching for that Perfect Cup…Without So Much Garbage

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I “won” this Keurig Elite from the HSC Charity Auction last fall.

Like millions of other Americans, we have become Keurig customers.  It’s like a revolution in coffee…Keurigs give you a “perfect” cup of coffee with very little work.  The American dream, right?

We got our first Keurig, a “Mini“, just before we moved from Nebraska to Florida in fall 2010.  After the movers took our regular coffee pot, it was a nice way to keep having our coffee in the morning.  It’s small and we didn’t have to keep coffee grounds on hand, just a box (or two) of K-Cups and some disposable coffee cups. That one ended up in Dave’s office.  We like how it turns itself off after the cup of coffee brews.  We get a bit paranoid about coffee pots being left on.

This past fall we got one for the home.  It’s been great.  When you register your machine with Keurig, you get coupons for free K-Cups.  BOGO for 2 boxes of 48 K-Cups.  This was a great deal after Christmas when the Starbucks K-Cups became available online.

K-Cup-brewed coffee is delicious and perfect every time.  No doubt there.

My conundrum: K-Cups are very wasteful and are expensive.  After all, traditional coffee pots brew through compostable coffee filters and then you can go on to compost the spent coffee grounds.

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Alabama Discoveries 3: USS Alabama Battleship “Overnight Adventure” in Mobile

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You can get an idea of how BIG the guns are on this ship.

This past weekend the boys had the opportunity to camp out on the USS Alabama battleship at its museum location in Mobile Bay.  This is something the organization does for Scout groups (and other groups) most weekends.

The USS Alabama trip is truly one of the highlights of the scout year for my boys’ pack.  I was the coordinator for the trip this year, even though females aren’t allowed to remain on the ship if it’s a male-booking.  Everything went surprisingly well; the kids and male chaperones seemed to have a great time!

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