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.

Timmy the Tagger

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So here’s the side yard. It’s quite nice. See? There’s an apple tree — and the apples aren’t bad, either. Quite tart, I see a pie in our near future. And here’s Timmy marking up the fence to the right of the apple tree. He did this with some sidewalk chalk, thankfully it’ll wash right … Read more

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Dave is coming up with a sign for one of his model railroad businesses and wanted something 70s-looking. When I was looking for some vintage ads, I happened across this one. You’d NEVER see such ads today. That’s all I have to say ’bout that…

Cellos were playing what????

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I found a pretty good radio station here, better than anything I could find in NC or in FL. “The River” plays a nice variety of newer rock music (Audioslave, Beck, Flogging Molly) with some “classics” mixed in (I heard some R.E.M. from Document, U2 from War, and old Offspring today). I typically have to … Read more

Dave’s Home!

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He was discharged tonight around dinnertime. That “original pain” mentioned in the previous blog post, that sent Dave to the ER on Wednesday night in the first place, hasn’t returned since about this time last night. A Gastro-Intestinal specialist worked with Dave’s case today and presented this as the cause: mesenteric adenitis. Basically a virus … Read more

So What Else Could POSSIBLY Happen to Us Here in NE?

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Dave went to the emergency room at about 4pm Wednesday with pains near his appendix. After a CT scan at 7pm, it was inconclusive whether it was really appendicitis, but Dave and the doctor made the decision at about 8:30pm to perform a “laproscopic appendectomy” Wednesday night. The surgeon (an Air Force doctor, actually, with … Read more

Memories

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I’m so happy about this! The past couple houses we’ve had, we’ve hung up a few pictures of the family, but nothing at all like what I’d like. I had many…many….many pictures in frames that you’d prop up on a table, but those had to come down once the curious kids came along. They’d been … Read more

A Big Red Gamble

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Would you do this? This is a Nebraska Furniture Mart promotion between now and the end of the month. Fortunately we aren’t in the market for a new TV. Our existing one, circa 2004, came through just fine.