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.

The Star Wars Cupcake Decorating "Kit"

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This week my youngest son is celebrating his 6th Birthday. I won’t be specific about which day, but with family in town this weekend, I made some pre-birthday cupcakes to serve as dessert. Last weekend we were at our local mall-like-shopping-location. It isn’t really a mall, since it doesn’t have that old-school enclosed building thing … Read more

From GeekMom: Should We Dilute the Kool Aid?

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When I was little, I remember my mom making Kool Aid.  I have pictures around of me wearing my token Kool Aid mustache.  I even had a Kool Aid t-shirt. I remember sometimes the Kool Aid would seem, well, watery.  Did my mom dilute it on purpose?  Boy, I hope she didn’t.  Sometimes, I wondered … Read more

CrashPlan Update

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Isn’t Schoolhouse Rock the BEST????  I Googled images for “Hooray” and this scene from the episode on “Interjections” appeared. Yesterday we had success! Paul and I did a couple more tweaks with our respective firewalls, and after dinnertime, the grey lights turned green on our CrashPlan GUIs! This point-to-point uploading is going much much faster … Read more

Free, Easy, Automatic Backup???

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I called it. On Saturday I enrolled in CrashPlan for the 30-day free trial and so far I’m not that impressed. Their website claims “Free, Easy, Automatic Backup”. So far, no. Paul kindly offered to sign up also — we can always backup to each others’ machines with the CrashPlan GUI without charge — and … Read more

"I Want an Oopma Loompa NOW!"

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As promised, Part II of my devious plan to conquer the world. I mean, my paperwork! I need to look into storage options for my photos, videos and these soon-to-be-scanned-in papers. If you thought my paperwork filing plan was sloppy, our computer’s file plan is an incredible mess. I try to keep up with it, … Read more

Going Paperless!

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…at least that’s the plan here…. Now that I have a handsome new office, I was hoping to work on bettering the family’s reliance on stacks of paperwork everywhere.  I want to scan in our old bills, bank statements, and receipts, and clear our office of some of the stacks of papers everywhere.  I’m even … Read more

Shameless Pitch #576: Build and Grow Workshops at Lowe’s

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Jacob has to complete a number of achievements to earn his “Wolf Badge” for Cub Scouts. Those with scouts know exactly what I mean here…and those who don’t have scouts, well, these are tasks associated with being healthy, honest, righteous, and all around good citizens. One of the achievement sub-tasks is to build a birdhouse … Read more

The Return of Runner Girl?

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That’s what I’d like to think… 🙂 Especially before we had kids, Dave and I enjoyed long-distance running. Obviously, our training dwindled some after the kids arrived, and between Dave and me and our double-jogging stroller, we’d always managed 1-2 races per year even after the kids were born.  Then we hit a lazy streak … Read more

Florida Discoveries 2: Backyard Birding

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New state, new house, new batch of birds to look for! I’ve posted on and off about the birds that have come to visit our houses in both North Carolina and Nebraska (ironically, I got woodpecker pictures in both places). Now it’s time to see what Northwest Florida brings to our backyard! First of all, … Read more