Wrapping up 2011

Looking back over the past year, it is hard to believe all the changes.  The two, even three New Year's Eves prior to this one were filled with such uncertainty.  Would Matt be accepted to ASCP (we took a huge gamble on Matt's getting in by filing for an Early Return of Dependents so the girls and I could be with family and I could start pursuing nursing during his Afghanistan deployment)?  And the past two: How would we handle civilian life for two years while Matt completed ROTC and hopefully did not injure himself during Asian basketball tournaments?  Not to mention other concerns regarding civilian healthcare, childcare and school choices for the girls, and my acceptance into--and then juggling of--nursing school on top of everything else.  And now those challenges are behind us.  :o)  The uncertainty that this year brings pales extremely in comparison: I, of course am continually wondering if/when I will have approval to test for my LPN license.  Matt and I enjoy browsing planes and potential bases he can request later in the year--we are feeling hugely optimistic after his 89er ride prior to the break.  I go back and forth a lot about the girls' school for next year too (Montessori with me working, or the public school on base with the ability to spend more time with them and be more involved with their classes by not working as much).  But these are all great and exciting--and largely non-stressful options, and we are so excited about all of them.  :o)

Our break has been wonderful.  A LOT of family time.  Prior to and immediately after Christmas, I was working a lot between my base job and holiday hours at the clinic, but after that, until Matt returns to work on Tuesday, I have had a lot of time off.  I was able to move my base hours up so that I was off every morning by about 11:15 and we have spent a lot of time enjoying the sunny (!) weather, playing with the girls' new Christmas toys, and even venturing out to our cute little mall one afternoon for a Chinese buffet lunch.  And barany chair spinning...lots of it!  I have also been working to reintroduce regular exercise into my schedule.  Both Matt and I gained a bit of stress and busy wait during our move here and adjustment to the pilot training lifestyle and I am looking forward to getting it back off with some friends during the base's Biggest Loser challenge that starts January 9th!  Plus...still hoping to get in good enough shape to knock the OKC Marathon off my bucket list, come May.  For New Years' Eve, we are heading to OKC for the day, for lunch with one of my good friends from nursing school and her new fiance, to get Matt's guitar repaired, and to pick up some fresh seafood for a yummy New Year's dinner.

Here are some pix and videos from our year-end adventures.

Christmas morning:

A holiday greeting to friends and family afar:


Evidence of Santa's visit (cookie crumbs, milk residue, carrot scraps, and a note!):

Lunch at Chen Garden:

Followed by a ride on the mall train:

Enjoying the unusually warm OK Christmas weather:

The girls out for a skate:

Cooking a New Orleans style breakfast courtesy of my oldest's new Princess and the Frog cookbook (egg in a nest and minty iced tea)...we went for a whole Tiana-themed day and made Jambalaya for dinner, too:

Of course, she had to change into her Tiana dress for the occasion!

Experimenting with their new science kit:

Making cake pops in my new pop pan!

For some reason, as much as we move, it is still hard for me to believe that we will be, in all likelihood, ringing in our next New Year somewhere else.  Even though we've moved houses each year we've been Oklahomans, 3.5 years will still be the longest we have lived in any one area since Matt and I met in 2002!  *very hard to believe* And even if Matt goes FAIP, we'll still be moving houses at the very least, although part of me wonders about committing to another 3 years here (length of the FAIP tour)...starting to get a bit stir-crazy, I think, lol.  But that could just be the holidays. 

I can't shake the feeling that we are going east coast or overseas next round, though.  I really enjoy being either somewhere totally new or somewhere near family (on that note, neither of us have ever been stationed near family).  Both overseas and the east coast are good options, although leaning slightly toward the former as far as hunches go.  :o)  And, as always, we will take and be happy with pretty much wherever & whatever we get.

Our pre-Christmas break

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  Since I don’t qualify for time off from my base job until mid-Jan (and my boss already gave me some over Thanksgiving, since we had my brother visiting), and my local clinic flex nurse job was pursued with the intent to work mainly weekend/holiday shifts, I haven’t had a lot of R&R yet.  This week, I work at one or both jobs every day except Christmas, however New Year’s weekend thus far is looking to be an actual 4-day!

Two nice scheduling things about this week, though, are: Matt will be off (free leave, as long as we stay in the local area!) to be with the girls every day I work my offbase clinic shifts—and my on-base job has let me bring the girls along to hang out in my office while I work for the week!  So it definitely still has the vacation/extra family time feel to it.  And, let’s face it, no matter how great the amount of time I have off, I usually end up crazy-busy and slightly sleep-deprived regardless.  My biggest resolution for the new year is go to bed at a decent hour…as I have become increasingly dependent on my morning cup of coffee and Excedrin.

The girls were in a cute little Christmas story in church this week..as angels.  My oldest said to me, "Mom, you always are calling us angels, and now we have become angels.  You never call us 'Mary'" (a reference to a different potential pageant role, lol).  

 

We have also been spending a LOT of time spinning Matt (almost daily) as the weather and time off have grounded most flights.  Dangerous though it may appear, we found a great pastime for the girls while he spins.  Gets them some exercise, makes it more fun, and is probably safer than letting them around any of the other weight equipment.


This week, on top of work, I also got all our family presents mailed out (the annual trip to the post office is usually my least favorite part of the season), baked dinner for an out-of-commission family in my squadron, held my first Daisy Scout meeting (LOOOOOVED it!!!!), and baked about 8 dozen cookies for some care packages we are putting together for the single guys/gals in Matt’s flight so they can enjoy the home-baked holiday goodness that all the married guys get this time of year.

Our contribution: These two cookies (4 dozen each), plus candy canes.

Left: Peanut Butter Cup Bites & Right: Bacon Brownie Cookies (both are gluten-free).

Worthy of note: Back when we lived in OKC, Matt and I visited a great raw food, vegan, and gluten-free restaurant a couple of times (back when we used to have regular date nights, lol) and always thought it was interesting how the chef there made very tasty and convincing bacon out of coconut.  Wouldn't think the two could ever taste that similar.  Well, in our bacon brownie bites, you would never guess [caramelized] bacon is in there!  In my opinion, they taste a lot like Girl Scout Samoas, and are very yummy, caramely, and coconutty (despite no coconut in the recipe).

Considering how stressful I found Sunday School teaching to be, I was thrilled and loving every minute of Daisy Scout leading.  I have a terrific co-leader who complements me very well (she prefers admin and parent interaction, while I love getting hands-on with the kids).  For the first time in awhile, I correctly selected an age-appropriate craft for the girls to participate in, snack was a hit (“Christmas yogurt parfaits”: vanilla yogurt with strawberries and red/white/green chocolate chips that the kids assembled themselves).  We meet twice a month, which is a waaay better schedule for busy me than every week, and next month we will take our first field trip (to a fire station!).  I love that the scouting activities are things that I would want to do with the girls anyway, and are so so so geared to cultural and community involvement, introducing new experiences, and building confidence.

Looking forward to one more day of regular work this week, then some shifts at the clinics (I think flex nursing is sooo fun)—and family time!  The girls are in for a wonderful Christmas.

The sweeties enjoying their break:

Training Update

UPT update:

One of the main reasons (besides the fact that we loathe wasting free time off by taking leave during that time [note: military members typically get a full week “off” during either Christmas or New Year’s week, provided they remain in the local area…if they go out of town, even for a day, they are charged the full 2 weeks (1 week, with family days on either side of the weekends)]) we are staying in town over Christmas is to remain near the Barany chair.  Matt took about 3 days off during Thanksgiving, and then did extremely half-hearted spins (short, and basically spun himself) for the remainder of the week.  He then proceeded to hook (pilot talk for “not pass”) 6 out of 8 flights (due largely to spatial disorientation) and needed to fly both an 88 and 89 (commander’s review) flights.  Had he not passed his 89er, he would have been grounded from further training until he reported to the wing commander for a decision regarding his future (and the wait for this is killer-long; he has friends who have been in limbo for over a month!).  The flight he hooked prior to his 89 was actually comically bad—to the point where we were both cracking up discussing it.  Thank goodness he had an IP with him to retain control (on 4 or 5 separate occasions)—and it was not a solo flight.  He nailed his 89, though, and that has been a major boost to his confidence. 

However, it is also giving us a more realistic outlook for the future.  We are setting our sights more toward C-5s than C-17s and FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot), since--as a new student pilot in a flight of almost exclusively licensed pilots, his flying skills are strong, but very middle-of-the-pack--and he could probably use a little more skill development before he starts teaching.  This new route is exciting, too.  We are very blessed to have a just-go-with-it outlook in terms of where we live, etc. and are always up for the next adventure. 

Holiday fun

Hopefully Matt's week of training will not suffer from all the family fun we enjoyed this weekend, but after months of busy 12h days and weekends juggled mostly around study schedules, it was nice to have a lot of fun together and a lot of family time.  :o)

Friday evening we took the girls to their first play: a version of Roger & Hammerstein's "Cinderella".  It was a very cute musical production and both girls loved it.  They got dressed up, met Cinderella and Prince Christopher afterwards, and overcame their fear of stepmothers, as the step sisters and step mother in this version were somewhat friendlier (at least in their eyes) than the ones in Disney's.

Posing before the show:

With Cinderella & Prince Christopher:

Saturday we took the girls to a pancake breakfast with Santa.  It actually ended up being more of a fruit and muffin brunch, because the girls were so busy playing with the bounce house attractions, that the buffet was clean out of pancakes by the time they decided to eat.  :O)  They enjoyed a visit with Santa, face paint, ornament crafts, and cookie decorating.  It was a great time!  Every month since we have been here, the base has put on some sort of amazing family activity.  For a base hugely populated with single airmen, it is amazingly family friendly.

Bouncin' plane:

Chic-fil-A cow:

Face paint:

Ornament making:

That evening, Matt and I attended the Med Group Christmas party at Leonardo's.  It was fun getting dressed up and having our first actual "date" together since moving in here.  One of our very sweet neighbors actually babysat the girls free of charge and treated them to an amazing evening of cookie decorating and board games.  It was very nice getting to attend a squadron party together, particularly as it was at precisely such a party where our courtship began 9 years ago.  :O)  And the time has reeeaaally flown by!

Today was a lot of fun too.  Even though I was hosting a potluck tonight, and probably could have spent the whole morning cooking and cleaning, I talk the girls to church on base in the morning, motivated heavily by the fact that children's choir practice was directly afterwards and the girls are going to be angels in a brief story session during the morning service next weekend.  My oldest said to me, after getting costumed up this morning: "Mom, you've called us angels for a long time--and now we are angels!  You've never called us 'Mary'."  Lol, the things they come up with!

Angel rehearsal at Church:

For our potluck this evening, we made Italian herb chicken and broccoli with toasted hazelnuts and garlic (both crock pot dishes, which I loooove) and gluten-free tiramisu cupcakes (and pasta, iced tea, and bread machine bread).  It was a lot of fun, and I am a growing fan of dinner parties now that I'm working and the kids are in school and we can't do playgroups all the time (although I absolutely cannot wait until summer break!).  Matt dressed up as Santa and did a quick in-and-out visit, dropping off gifts for all the kiddos.  I would have loved to get pix of the girls sitting with him, but at this point, they are waaay too observant.  They already check out mall Santas for authentic hair (to determine if it's the real Santa or, as we have told them, one of his messengers out collecting wish lists and behavior reports) and my youngest has discovered two of her gifts that I hadn't wrapped yet.  I have been hiding things way better for my oldest, but, as usual, seem to underestimate my youngest's age and abilities.

Potluck fun:

Please excuse the *terrible* quality of the following vids...  I had initially decided I was going to photograph the visit, but after seeing Matt's great acting and the kids' great reactions, switched to filming, but it's just on my phone camera in terrible lighting...

We are looking forward to this final week of school for the girls before Christmas break begins!  Just two days of clinic training left for me, some major flights for Matt, and a serious day of class partying for the girls' at week's end.  :o)

The best of intentions...

I started out writing this blog with the (unbelievably lofty) idea that I would [attempt] to update it on a daily basis, to kind of preserve a day-in-the-life feel for us when were are in nostalgic reflecting moods down the road.  However, the double-job thing has been kicking my butt!  I really enjoy both of my positions, however I am in training still (two days left!!) for my flex nurse one, and my boss wants me to [understandably] train during normal hours, when the more skilled, regular nurses are working.  Which means, between my mornings at the base clinics and afternoons in various off-base ones, I have been essentially working a 9-5 job 3 or more days a week since Thanksgiving.  I know that is probably not that daunting a task to most folks out there, but coupling it with pilot student wife, and mother of two kids highly accustomed to a stay-at-home mom--who also enjoy a very packed extracurricular schedule (including swim lessons two school-nights per week), and it has been a challenge.  The girls' school has a wonderful after-school program which they have been going to, but the long days are particularly tiring for my oldest, who, as a kindergartner no longer enjoys naps as part of her daily routine.  So...I am very glad that: 1) my oldest will get to partake in a special art (sculpture) class during after care tomorrow and 2) both girls only have two days of it left!  It has also been a huge challenge for me to keep up with my daily cooking/cleaning routine working afternoons, as I had previously relied on my 2h gap between my base job and the girls' pickup time to prepare dinner, clean, and take Petunia out for her exercise.

We are enjoying a pleasant holiday season and had our first snow on Tuesday (which also motivated me to finally rearrange (if not completely unpack) the garage enough so I can park in it, making early mornings waaay more pleasant and warm for me and the girls.  The "mancave" is no more.  Matt had set it up very nicely for himself, but greatly greatly prefers to commandeer the family room instead (he has even set me up with headphones with a 10' cord for TV viewing at night), so I have reclaimed it.  Our decorations are up (excepting outdoor ones [besides our yard inflatable Minnie & Mickey and some light-up door ornaments and a wreath], which probably aren't going to happen d/t Matt's training schedule and need for sleep...and my fear of modest heights) and our little home feels quite cozy and homey.  The girls are incredibly excited about Christmas and will be performing as angels in the base church pageant.  This is also the first year where they (thanks largely to Nickelodeon TV commercials) have wish lists for Santa, and boy are they specific!  It has actually made shopping waaay easier and (surprisingly) less expensive this year, too.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brother/the girls' godfather and I ventured out on Black Friday Eve--to Walmart (bad idea) and then Walgreens (a favorite local shopping spot, alongside Ross, the Thrift Store, and Hobby Lobby), but did most of my shopping online on Cyber Monday (Kohls, Target, and Amazon).  We did brave the poorly-reviewed local theater at Oakwood Mall (my opinion: not as bad as advertised, although it did smell like feet--but the odor was one that I got desensitized to pretty quickly once inside) to check out the Muppets movie.  Matt said I laughed harder than anyone else in the theater.  It was definitely a cute film, but in my opinion, could have used waaaay more Muppet screen time.  I think the Muppets are at their best in films like Treasure Island and the Christmas Carol, where they are clearly the stars, instead of just part of the cast.

Thanksgiving pix...

The spread (couldn't quite motivate to use the nice china this year...too much stuff to hand wash):

My brother's specialty is super-fancy Williams-Sonoma cooking (he actually used all our pots for this...necessitating I use the microwave-rice cooker for the stuffing, lol): 

Gluten-free poached fruit dessert with fresh mint and lemon whipped cream:

Fun in the leaves during our post-dinner walk/bike ride:

Ringing in the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving at Oakwood Mall:

That night, we drove to Yukon for a festival of 4 million Christmas lights, followed by Custard at Freddy's:

We enjoyed a carriage ride (due to ineffective advertising, we had the whole car to ourselves!) through the park:

And the fun doesn't stop there...

It seems like all our holiday parties will be crammed into this coming weekend.  Friday night we are taking the girls to see a local production of Cinderella; Saturday the girls have breakfast with Santa, then bowling with my med group flight, and then a babysitter while Matt and I attend my squadron Christmas party; Sunday I am taking the girls to church, then they have pageant practice, and in the late afternoon/early evening we are hosting a holiday potluck (Italian) where Matt will also be dressing up as Santa and giving presents to the kiddos.  I am also hoping to set up an ornament craft station...and at some point cook and clean the house before our friends arrive, lol.  Next Friday the girls have their school Christmas party--I am very excited because I was able to sign them both up to bring in a holiday dessert for their class--so we will have fun scouring allrecipes.com next week.  :o)

Matt is doing well in pilot training.  His motion sickness has been flaring up and he has hooked several rides this past week, but is definitely improving.  Pretty much if he gets airsick at all, it is an automatic hook, so at least by being assigned extra flights, he is getting more air time and practice.  The weather has posed a challenge as it has been intermittently crazy-windy and also rainy and snowy over the past two weeks.  Any time he goes more than a day or two without flying is a huge setback for him airsick-wise, so the weather has made it a real challenge, and all the down-time (a couple 4-day passes) will make the holidays difficult two.  Since we are staying in town, however, he will have ample time to spin and will also hopefully be able to get three solid flights in in between the Christmas and New Years passes, when he has a little string of duty days.

Well, hopefully now that my schedule has slowed down, my blogging will pick up...always have to fill every minute of free time with something, lol.  I'm just glad I am not even going to attempt to "catch-up" by back-dating my blog posts for like the past two weeks (like I did for our trip to New Orleans) and am just going for a clean slate...because that would take forever to catch up on and create totally pointless stress, turning something fun-ish chore-ish very very fast.  :o)