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.

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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Some time ago, Dave and I were watching Family Guy (<– watch full episodes here!) and there’s an episode where Peter’s dog, Brian, is attempting to cheer up Peter. So Brian puts on a banana suit and wields maracas and starts singing. Dave and I tried to dig back into the recesses of our brains … Read more

HEY! I’m trying to sleep here!

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In part because I’m sick of all the references to Terminix and Ant Farms for sale at the top of my page, and in part because I’m tired today, allow me to vent! For the unaware, Apex, NC is this “special” location on the former Seaboard Air Line RR: the highest point on the line … Read more

Ant Farm Update

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So, we’ve had the ants in the farm going on 5 days, and we have some good-looking tunnels appearing now. Unfortunately, all the tunneling is going on in “Timmy’s” ant farm, while Jake’s has something else going on…mass burials of all their dead. I’ll tell you what! I think these ant farms are WAY more … Read more

An Updated Experiment

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Well, while the enthusiasm is there to have our family live with just the one car, in practice we discovered some “issues”. First, Dave usually leaves his office around 5:30pm. If I’m doing a labor-intensive dinner, such as a stir fry where I’m chopping veggies and standing over the stove for a few minutes, taking … Read more

An Experiment

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So…we own two vehicles. Dave drives the Toyota Prius to/from work (20 miles per day), while I take the boys around in a Honda Odyssey (more than 20 miles per day, usually closer to 50). Don’s blog now has an RSS feeder streaming his favorite news articles related to Electric (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) … Read more

In the Dark Ages…

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So here’s the plan to keep the ants in the dark…it allegedly will inspire them to tunnel more. I simply folded a piece of black construction paper in half and rubber-banded it to each of the farms. Stay tuned…I put the construction paper on at about 7pm, will remove it in about 12 hours when … Read more

We Have Tunnelage!

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…though I have to admit that I thought there’d be more tunnels by now…I’m considering putting black construction paper over the sides during the day to encourage more in-the-dark work. From 2008 03 10 An… Now, for those with mining backgrounds, you’ll know that what’s pictured below isn’t a tunnel, but an “adit”. A horizontal … Read more

All The Little Ants Are Marching….*

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*I couldn’t help it…I did it again — name that tune! I got the boys ant farms for Christmas this year. I had found them at Walgreen’s of all places on Black Friday and let me tell you, those Uncle Milton Ant Farms are SO cute, I also got one as a 5th birthday gift … Read more

The "New" Jaguar

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I’ve been seeing this commercial by Jaguar on FoxNews, I have always liked the song (“Hush” by Deep Purple), so to tie it to this INCREDIBLY SEXY car is really cool. Author’s Note: I doubt I’ll ever get to own one of these, I like having both of our cars paid off. Starting at ~$50K, … Read more

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