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.

iPhone and Potties Don’t Mix!

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Right after I hit “Publish Post” on that Labor Day blog post below, something dreadful happened. I got up from my spot on the couch where I do my blogging, walked to the half bath just outside the family room, and prepared to go to the bathroom. Before I could get started (thankfully!) my iPhone … Read more

Labor Day in America

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Happy Labor Day friends! After all these years of celebrating Labor Day, taking advantage of the day off granted to most (but not all) Americans, I finally took the time to learn about this holiday’s origins. I found this from the ever-faithful (cough cough) Wikipedia and the perhaps-more-accurate U.S. Department of Labor website. The very … Read more

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A Thomas-Themed Scrapbook. Really? Yes, really.

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How crazy are we?  My next scrapbook project is to use this lovely Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-themed scrapbook I got many years ago as a gift (I honestly don’t remember where/when I got it).  I opened it up recently after several years of it sitting with my other unused scrapbooks…and counted TWENTY available pages. Could I possibly come … Read more

Nebraska Discoveries 19: Offutt Air Show 2010

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We’ve done this two times before here and here, but it’s worth discussing again.

It’s late August at Offutt AFB — time for an AIRSHOW!

This year’s airshow lucked out with a last-minute booking of the Thunderbirds after the Coney Island Airshow was cancelled. (Don’t know why, message boards have speculated it was financial). Unfortunate for an entire airshow to be cancelled, but yay for us, right? When the airshow was first announced in mid-July, the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team was the headliner.

Like the past two years, the aircraft start to roll in around mid-week and we can see the air traffic from throughout my neighborhood as the aerial demo teams start to practice their shows. While the propeller planes and helicopters stay pretty close to the runway, the jets need more maneuvering space and often have to turn around over our neighborhood. Whoo hoo! So we were seeing the Thunderbirds, the F-22 and F-18 several times right from our yard! The kids at school had quite a treat during their recess on Thursday and Friday too 🙂

In 2008 we watched the Thunderbirds from the local bike trail. In 2009 we watched from a local neighborhood that offered a good view. This time, the boys and I watched right there in the middle of the action.

Enjoy some of our experiences from the airshow.

These KC-135s are Nebraska Air National Guard planes from Lincoln
From 2010 08 28 Offutt AFB Airshow
I’d never seen a Global Hawk UAS up close before, after all the times I’d forecast for them….
From 2010 08 28 Offutt AFB Airshow

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The Vollmer "Weather Curse", Take 6

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Most of this text is stolen from a 21 November 2008 blog post about the crazy weather experiences we’ve had everywhere we’ve lived since we’ve been married. At the end of that blog post, I posed the question: “What will Bellevue, Nebraska bring?” Now that we’re wrapping up our Nebraska tour and headed toward our … Read more

You’ll Wear It Well, Dave!!

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I think Dave is going to look outstanding in these!!!! Yesterday afternoon Dave received the news from his commanders that he has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Yippee! The family is so proud of Dave. Yesterday we went out to one of our local favorite restaurants, Quaker Steak and Lube in Council Bluffs for some … Read more

The Corn Debate — Starch or Veggie?

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Considering I’m in Nebraska, it makes sense that we should take some time to discuss corn here, right? The nickname “Cornhusker” was first adopted by the University of Nebraska football team in 1900. The little farm stands popped up all over the Omaha Metro, as they do every year in mid-July. I’m partial to this … Read more

Iowa Discoveries: The Iowa State Fair…or…What Did They Try to Fry THIS Year?

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This past weekend we paid a visit to the Iowa State Fair. In 2008 and 2009 we drove right down the road to Lincoln for the Nebraska State Fair, which was fun when it was nice and close. This year, the state fair will open up on August 27th at their new home at Fonner Park in Grand Island, NE, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from here.

The former State Fairgrounds in Lincoln will become the Nebraska Innovation Campus, a university-private industry research center. Similar to N.C. State’s Centennial Campus, and Penn State’s Innovation Park.

Since Nebraska’s State Fair moved relatively far away, we decided to check out Iowa’s State Fair, near downtown Des Moines, about 130 miles east of us.

I think this might be the biggest state fair I’ve ever attended. I’ve only been to 4 of them: Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska and now Iowa’s. The old buildings reminded me of the historic buildings at the NC State Fairgrounds. There were numerous midways, and we had trouble finding the little-kid-friendly rides. Unfortunately, it was incredibly hot, and I think were all that much crankier from it.

Enjoy some pictures from our day at the fair!

Timmy did a leaf rubbing and taped it to a display area:

From 2010 08 21 Iowa State Fair
From 2010 08 21 Iowa State Fair

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Colorado Discoveries 4 — Rocky Mountain National Park

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The reason we went up to Estes Park was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent 2 days at the park enjoying hikes and scenic drives.

We took a somewhat advanced trail near the Bear Lake trailhead on the first day, I think some of the rangers were surprised that we were considering taking our young boys, but they did really well. Yep, we were going way up there!

From 2010 08 09 Rocky Mtn Natl Park Day 1
From 2010 08 09 Rocky Mtn Natl Park Day 1

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