Shorter than expected

This title applies to both the winter season here as well as our run in pilot training.  Unfortunately, Matt was eliminated from the program last week due to persistent difficulties maintaining situational awareness in flight.  It was a bit of a shock, as we always expected his impressive log of Barany chair spins would back him up and earn him a second chance, if things ever came to this.  However, safety trumped effort in this case and now we await Matt's reclassification into a new career field (we expect to find out in late April/early May).  His #1 pick is OSI (Office of Special Investigations), although we both wonder if the AF will pass on the opportunity to place a strong math major in a technical job (such as Operations Research--his original assignment, back in ROTC, prior to being picked up for a pilot slot).  Tomorrow we are going to see the rest of his class at their Track Select ceremony, where they will be routed to T-38's (fighters), T-1's (personal jets, training for cargo and RPAs), and helicopters.  That will be difficult to see, since Matt was so close, but we are happy his friends managed to complete the T-6 program, as it is very grueling, and in all, only 19 of the original 25 officers in his flight are moving on to the next phase.

I decided to share some fun and lighter pictures showcasing something else around here that was shorter than expected...winter!!  The pix that follow are from our 1 day of snow this year.  Not even enough for sledding, but we did get a snow day off from work and school--and there was plenty for snow angels and snowmen!  :O)

Rolling snowballs...

Playing with one of their besties...

Carrot nose/snack break!

Angels

Warming up after some wintery fun

Now...it is late March, and tanning/burning weather already!!

Thanksgiving preparations

The first Thanksgiving dinner I ever flew solo on in the kitchen was also my first Thanksgiving with Matt (and, incidentally, took place over a year after our wedding d/t a speedy courtship and then my deploying a week after we tied the knot).  I innocently thought the entire meal could be prepared on Thanksgiving day [after sleeping in, no less!] and ended up highly stressed and with a broken Kitchen-Aid stand mixer about 2h into it.  Nowadays, I spread my shopping out over the week prior (I always try to get 15 items at a time from the commissary during busy weeks so I can just zoom through the self checkout aisle) and start cooking 1-2 days before.

Pix from our first Thanksgiving together...I cannot believe how young Matt looks!  I think I always look the same, lol.  Not sure if that's too good a thing though...

I love the combination of fancy wedding china and us basically wearing pajamas...lol.  In our defense, we had just moved to CA from Japan less than a month prior and our main furniture had not even arrived yet.  We are eating on a small square folding table on loan from the Airman's Attic.

Matt is enjoying 4 1/2 days off to celebrate and get some family time R&R (and, on a side note, he flew his first acrobatic routine yesterday--consisting of flips and sideway S's) and we are fortunate to have another visitor this week, one of my brothers--who is also the girls' godfather.  The girls and I made the extremely boring drive to OKC today to pick him up (seriously, the most interesting sites are extremely large [wolf-like] roadkill that we have seen on each of our last 4 trips out of Enid and various types of junkyards).  Even though it is only 2h, I always need to arm myself with coffee--particularly as there is hardly anywhere to stop along the road should the boredom start to take its toll.

On another note, I finally learned why it is so small-town out here, despite the presence of a very populated and single officer-heavy air base.  The flat and vacant fields that stretch for miles to every side of Vance are absolutely perfect for emergency landings, should a student ever encounter a problem in the air.  We are acclimating well to Enid, and always try to break the long airport drive up with lunch and window-shopping at the OKC Mall.  :O)  Girls are huuuuge Disney store fanatics.

Now that we are home from our drive, I am prepping for my first gluten free and dairy-light Thanksgiving.  I am basically combining recipes from two of my favorite blogs (a gluten free one and a crock pot one) and my brother is preparing a poached fruit dessert.  We are planning on a fun day of board games and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (we did not have a TV service last year, so this will be a huge treat for the girls!).  Either Thursday or Friday, we are planning on a trip to the movies, to watch the new Muppet flick--a childhood favorite of Matt, my brother, and mine--and a cast the girls adore too.  The big question is...will be brave the poorly-reviewed, but conveniently-located Oakwood Mall Theater or drive to the cute little 3-screen we passed while driving through Kingfisher, OK (about 30-40min away).  I am leaning toward the latter.