Potluck parties

While being an AF pilot student's wife is undoubtably easier than being a deployed airman's wife (in the peace of mind department), it definitely has its challenges, particularly when you are also a parent.  Last week, as the more veteran AF person in Matt's flight, I decided to try to start getting us wives and kids together to share stories and find support during the program.  There are two other wives in Matt's flight (one in his scorpion class, another in the rhino class), and both have adorable little kids.  One has a 3-month old and the other has an 18-monther, plus one on the way.  So it was a great mix, having all the kiddos together and it will be wonderful welcoming a new little member a couple of months down the road.

We were dealing with some food allergies (dairy, shellfish), but still put together a nice little spread: seared orange chicken breasts, asparagus with lemon vinaigrette, artichoke dip with tortilla chips, roasted potatoes, crescent rolls, carrot zucchini cake, and pink fluff.  

The girls at the kiddie table:

All segments of the AF were well represented: we are an active duty family, one of the other families is Reserve, and the other is National Guard.  Experiences in training vary in each sector: for instance, Reservists are assigned a particular plane from the get-go and have a standing duty commitment (the latter is similar to the 12-year commitment Active Duty members must accept prior to training).  Guard members also enter pilot training knowing what they will fly, however their assignments from there are much more up in the air, with commitments being much shorter (~1 year, max) and base-specific, as individual Guard units operate on state levels.

After sharing stories and mostly talking about kids, the hubbies were all released early due to weather and came over to finish off the rest of the food.  :o)  It was a great evening and hopefully will become a monthly thing.