The last few days have been pretty crazy with bad weather and long hours... but this exercise is SOOO interesting! Since my move from an Operational Weather Squadron at Barksdale to a base weather flight at Lakenheath, I have loved actually being a part of the flying operations and interacting with the pilots who come in for weather briefs. But Green Flag takes it even another step further: I am physically in the middle of all the planning and debriefs, so I know exactly what is going on and how the weather is affecting every part of their operations. It has been like a firehose of learning, and I love it. Spending so much time around all the aircrews tunes me in to what they are concerned about and what information they need most from me. Plus, they are just really interesting to hang out with! They talk about flying a lot, so I have learned so much about their career field, training, operations, and plenty of war stories.
CeCe and I moved from our hotel to base lodging today in preparation for Red Flag, which is a bummer because the fighter squadron is staying at the hotel, so it will be a lot less convenient to hang out with them. However, there are some pros, like being able to run on base whenever I want and not having to drive 30 min to get to and from work. I have been enjoying dinners at restaurants I miss in England, like Panera last night, where I was reunited with the amazing Sierra Turkey sandwich and bought several specialty bagels to use for breakfasts. Still on the list to accomplish in the next 2.5 weeks: Papa John’s Pizza, Quizno’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Macaroni Grill, Red Lobster, and several others.
Another thing I have missed in England is good music, and I have been in heaven since plugging into XM radio on the flight over and in our rental car here. As much as I love England, and as fun as it is to listen to the British DJs talk, I must say their music is fairly awful. It is all dance/club/rap/R&B and weird combinations of those. I am extremely thankful for my FM transmitter to play my MP3 player in the car on the way to work. Here, I turn on the radio and hear Daughtry, Nickelback, Shinedown, etc… and it is glorious. I heard a brand new song by Lifehouse (my favorite band) yesterday and nearly drove off the road, I was so excited.
Weather has been up and down here, but on Saturday I squeezed in a run at a beautiful 57 degrees. I got lost while trying to follow an on-base running route, but ended up running past the Thunderbird hangar and saw 9 gorgeous T-birds parked in a perfect line outside. So cool! The jury is still out on whether I would ever want to be stationed here, but it is a pretty awesome TDY location so far. We have been too busy to do any sightseeing, but I think we will have a day or two off this weekend in which I hope to rectify that. So no more pictures for you today, but hopefully soon.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
In Vegas, baby!
This is going to be a long one, but I was wayyyy too tired from traveling to write the first night, and we were out last night, so just consider it a double. :) Our trip to get here was LOOOOOONG, but ended up being pretty awesome. CeCe and I hopped on a bus at 4:30am from Lakenheath to London Heathrow, and realized we had another travel buddy, squadron-mate Martin from intel. When we finally made it to our terminal and checked in for the flight (man, LHR is huge... I think we walked about 10 miles inside the airport), Martin turned on the charm with the desk agent and got a free seat upgrade to United's "Economy Plus" section. He told CeCe and me that we should try to get the same, so we decided to ask at the gate. I HATE asking for stuff like that, but gave in this time knowing that I currently had an awful seat that would have made the 11-hour flight to San Francisco fairly miserable.
SO worth it!!! We were successfully upgraded for free, and I even got a window seat! When we boarded the plane, we discovered even more perks. Economy Plus is just behind Business Class, and is advertised as having more leg room than Economy, which I am not sure is worth the $100 upgrade price tag... and apparently a lot of people agree with me, because the section was more than half empty. CeCe had a row of 5 seats in the middle to herself, and stretched out across them to sleep for most of the flight. I had my window seat plus the seat next to it on the aisle, which was amazing to have room to spread out AND I didn't have to ask anyone to move to go to the bathroom (usually the only downside of a window seat). There were spa packages on our seats with a bunch of toiletries, a thick pair of socks, earplugs, a sleeping mask (you know that thing that covers your eyes), and a nice pair of headphones instead of the hard plastic earbuds.
Despite the perks, 11 hours is still a really long time on an airplane, and I was ready to be done before we were even halfway there. Argh. But near the end of the flight, the scenery began out my window. I have heard that Iceland and Greenland are beautiful from the air, but unfortunately it has been dark or cloudy every time I have flown over them. The clouds broke up once we got over Canada, which was an interesting landscape. Flat and snowcovered, dotted with frozen lakes and streams, and not really any civilization in sight. I decided to watch a movie (because Canada is HUGE), and the next time I looked out my window, we were over northern Idaho. WOW. Gigantic snow-covered mountains as far as the eye could see, so majestic I almost forgot to breathe. My nose was glued to the window for the remaining two hours of the flight. More mountains through Idaho, Oregon, and northern California, some with snow and some without, broken up by rivers and deep gorges. As much as I love England, there is something about the mountains of the Western US that makes me fall in love all over every time I see them.
/
Airplane windows are by far the worst medium through which to take a picture... the thick double pane always turns pics blurry, plus they are usually scratched or mottled with ice crystals, making it impossible to focus on what is outside. I don't have any good mountain pictures (the poor quality just would not do them justice), but as we flew into San Francisco on the California coast, I was lucky enough to catch an incredible bird's-eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge! Again, apologies for the poor quality, but here it is:
/
After a 2-hour layover in San Fran, we were back in the air bound for Las Vegas. And the jaw-dropping scenery continued. The sun began to set behind the coastal mountain ranges as we flew southeast, providing me (in my window seat on the right side of the plane) an unobstructed view of the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. As the sun touched the horizon, it lit up the mountain peaks like a blazing fire with the most vibrant colors of yellow, orange, and red all at the same time, colors no artist could ever duplicate. I watched in awe as the sky glowed behind the jagged profile of the mountains. As the sun disappeared, the horizon began to slowly dim, like an ember in a campfire. Unbelievable. God has always been and always will be my favorite artist.
/
It was dark when we approached the city of Las Vegas, and the massive expanse of city lights centered around the Strip was a pretty spectacular sight to see as well. We were picked up at the airport by one of the pilots from the fighter sqaudron, and then after we got checked into our hotel, we headed out to dinner with a group of them, including my friend Jake from OCF. To CeCe's and my delight, they agreed to our suggestion of Olive Garden for dinner, so we got to cross off our #1 on the list of restaurants we miss in England.
/
The time difference started hitting me while we were eating (it was about 5am in England), and I think I was asleep approximately 30 seconds after we got back to the hotel (luckily I made it to my room and bed). Plans for the next day included several briefings, training, and orientation on base at Nellis. When I stepped out my door just prior to 8am the next morning, I stopped dead in my tracks. Two reasons: a) it was bright daylight (sun doesn't even begin to rise in England in winter until after 8am) and b) this was the view from my doorway:
Mountains! And they are everywhere! I'm glad I was a passenger instead of driving around all day, because every horizon has these huge mountains and I couldn't take my eyes off them. It definitely feels like a desert, though, it is so dry you feel the need to constantly drink water. I'll skip over the details of the briefings and training since that would bore you (though maybe my rambling about other things does too), and just say that we ended the afternoon with a trip to the BX and commissary to pick up some things for the hotel rooms (we have kitchens), then came back to get ready for a dinner out with the squadron.
/
They got a couple taxis the size of small buses, and crammed most of us into those with a few groups following in vans. We went to a German restaurant called the Hofbrauhaus, and it was incredible! It is supposed to be a replicate of a restaurant in Munich, and from what I saw of Germany back in September, I think they did an incredible job. Here is a picture of the inside:
/
Cavernous decorated ceilings, long wooden tables, costumed beer maids, huge mugs of beer, and a live band made for an awesome atmosphere. Plus, it was really cool to get to hang out with a bunch of new people and get to know some of them better over dinner and a drink rather than the weather counter. After dinner, we walked across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino and hung out there for a while. I didn't gamble, but it was fun to watch some of the guys play blackjack and craps (a game I still do not understand). I headed back to the hotel around midnight with a group of people, so it was not too late a night.
We have today (Saturday) off, but I am still not sure what I am going to do. CeCe and I will probably head to the gym pretty soon, and there is a BBQ at the hotel for dinner, but those are my only plans so far. One of the pilots who used to live here was telling me about Red Rock Canyon and how cool it is to hike, so I'd love to do that, but he had already promised some friends he'd play golf today, so it'll have to wait until the next day off unless I find someone else to go with. I'm also hoping to meet up with college friends Jeremy and Laura at some point, so maybe I'll get in touch with them today. For now it's off to the gym!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Vegas-bound
...but only temporarily. :) This Thursday(ish), I will be leaving beautiful snowy England to spend 3 weeks in the infamous city of Las Vegas providing weather support to one of Lakenheath's fighter squadrons participating in Red Flag, a huge exercise at Nellis AFB involving aircraft from all over the world. I am really excited to be involved with such a large-scale operation, and am looking forward to the experience and some sightseeing in Vegas. There are two of us from the weather flight going, and CeCe and I have extensive plans to catch up on American things we miss in England (mostly stores and restaurants).
I think it is going to be easier for me to leave England this time than it was back in September for a couple reasons. First, I have had more time to convince myself that it is actually not a dream that I live here. It was just so soon last time... as dumb as it sounds, I was afraid I'd wake up to reality and wouldn't get to come back. Second, since I am going with one of our flying squadrons, it feels like another adventure on this assignment, or that I'll have part of England there with me in the form of CeCe and our F-15 aircrews. Plus, I'll have the added bonus of visiting college friends stationed in Vegas, and my parents are planning to fly in for a long weekend in the city.
I have soooo much to do before I leave! This weekend was a wonderful one spent with friends, which I will never regret especially since three of them will be gone when I get back from Red Flag, but the lack of productivity will make the next three days very busy ones. The Christmas tree really must come down today, the house needs some cleaning, I am going in to work very early tomorrow to help launch our first round of jets leaving for Nellis, and at some point I need to get both of my cars back from the garages at which they are being worked on (long story), etc etc. So it is back to busyness for now... next blog will probably be from the good old U.S. of A!
I think it is going to be easier for me to leave England this time than it was back in September for a couple reasons. First, I have had more time to convince myself that it is actually not a dream that I live here. It was just so soon last time... as dumb as it sounds, I was afraid I'd wake up to reality and wouldn't get to come back. Second, since I am going with one of our flying squadrons, it feels like another adventure on this assignment, or that I'll have part of England there with me in the form of CeCe and our F-15 aircrews. Plus, I'll have the added bonus of visiting college friends stationed in Vegas, and my parents are planning to fly in for a long weekend in the city.
I have soooo much to do before I leave! This weekend was a wonderful one spent with friends, which I will never regret especially since three of them will be gone when I get back from Red Flag, but the lack of productivity will make the next three days very busy ones. The Christmas tree really must come down today, the house needs some cleaning, I am going in to work very early tomorrow to help launch our first round of jets leaving for Nellis, and at some point I need to get both of my cars back from the garages at which they are being worked on (long story), etc etc. So it is back to busyness for now... next blog will probably be from the good old U.S. of A!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Year in Review
I was planning on this being my last entry of 2009, but there were literally not enough hours in a day these last few days to write it, so here it is as my first entry of 2010. :)
Since there are “Highlights of 2009” lists everywhere (internet, TV, radio), I decided to do my own little highlight list. In part, I am hoping this will convince me that 2009 really did consist of all 365 24-hour-long days, because it feels like it flew by at the speed of light. I hesitate a little bit to do this because I don’t want to offend anyone if I leave something out… but just take into account that I am writing this on very little sleep after working long nights all week getting one of our fighter squadrons off on a deployment! So, here goes:
January: Trip to San Antonio with all the 26 OWS officers, great times with awesome people that I will never forget. Not too long after, was officially notified of my assignment to Lakenheath! I was at an off-site training exercise, and my squadron commander drove out to find me and let me read the notification on his Blackberry. He says my reaction was worth it. :)
February: Half Marathon #4 in Dallas, great course and ran faster than expected. AFWA commander visited for our Ops Super’s retirement, which resulted in a few days’ worth of fun events (big group dinner out, party at VFW, karaoke, etc).
March: Weekends were consumed with marathon training, and weekdays enjoying my job and co-workers. Not a very eventful month overall (or maybe I am just forgetting something).
April: Parents visited for a last hurrah in Shreveport. They got to attend a hail and farewell dinner with the squadron and meet a lot of people, plus Mom and I enjoyed gourmet milkshakes on at least 3 different occasions. After they left with my cat (to keep her until she can travel to England), I left for Monterey, CA, to run my first full marathon. Big Sur Marathon was a challenging (mountainous) yet unbelievably gorgeous course… totally worth it and I WILL do it again. Also explored the beautiful city of Monterey with Matt, went whale-watching, and hiked at Pinnacles National Park.
May: Moved out of my apt in Shreveport and down to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, for training before my next assignment. Enjoyed the perks of beaches, new running routes, and front row center at a Dierks Bentley concert.
June: Went skydiving for a second time! (And my mother forgave me.) Gorgeous sunset jump with OWS friends in Houston. Spent two weekends with Matt and his family in FL - lots of good times cooking, fishing, and a trip to Panama City Beach. College roommate Jamie got married in PA, and I was honored to be a bridesmaid. The wedding was like a huge reunion of all the families from college days, couldn’t have been better. :)
July: Enjoyed a long 4th of July weekend at home in VA with the parents. Got to see everyone at church, ride Dad’s new riding mower (fun!), and make a final trip to Cold Stone Creamery with Mom before leaving the country. Spent a weekend at the beach with Carrie and a few other PSUers at Eglin. Graduated training at Keesler, then stayed with friends in Shreveport while I outprocessed the base. My last 10 days at Barksdale consisted of a camping trip in Arkansas with the officers, squadron luau party, and catching up with friends. Then on July 29th… I boarded a flight out of Dallas for London!
August: Felt like I was living in a dream. Spent weekends discovering the incredible history and beauty of England. Cambridge, Framlingham Castle, Bury St Edmunds, and Castle Acre Priory were all explored and marveled at. Found a beautiful house, and began getting to know all the awesome people in my new weather flight.
September: USAFE Weather conference at Edelweiss, the US military resort in the German Alps. Unbelievable experience… the people, the scenery, the culture, everything. The week was capped by a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle, which had been a dream for years. I traveled back to the States for my cousin Amy’s wedding in OH, a beautiful and joyful occasion to spend time with and catch up with extended family. I also got to spend a night with sister Lisa at the University of Virginia, and enjoyed touring the campus, meeting her friends, and reminiscing about my college days.
October: Bought a bright yellow 1979 Austin Mini, a love-at-first-sight experience that required me to learn how to drive stick shift (on the right hand side of the car and left hand side of the road). Traveled to and explored Dover Castle and the White Cliffs, an area so beautiful I was inspired to sign up for a half marathon there in February.
November: Traveled to Istres, France, to do weather support at one of the US space shuttle divert locations. Cool mission to be involved with, plus enjoyed the chance to dust off my high school French and take sightseeing excursions into nearby Marseilles and Salon-de-Provence, taking in both the Mediterranean Sea and French Alps scenery. Celebrated Thanksgiving with my weather flight “family”, for whom I have been so thankful.
December: A flurry of holiday events involving fun times, amazing people, and lasting memories. Rejoiced to see my first snowfall in England, a 6-8” blanket that made my house and everywhere around look like a scene off a Christmas card. I built a snowman, made a snow angel, and walked through town taking pictures of the wintry beauty. On Christmas, I opened gifts with my family despite the distance and time difference, thanks to Skype. Had Christmas dinner and celebrated New Year’s Eve with my adopted “family” here.
2009 was not without its struggles, mistakes, hard times, and regrets. No year ever will be. But I choose to focus not on those things, but what I have learned from them. I feel like I have done a lot of growing up emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. This did not come without growing pains, and for the times this included pain for other people, I am truly sorry. But I believe in a God who can bring good out of every situation, in time, and I hold on to that for others as well as for myself. I will remember 2009 as a year of overwhelming blessings. I deserve none of the joys I have realized or the dreams that have come true, but the beauty of God’s grace is that He has given this abundant life so freely. I pray that I never let anything steal the joy in that truth, and that 2010 is a year in which I learn more and more every day how to love the people around me with this unconditional love that we have all been given.
Since there are “Highlights of 2009” lists everywhere (internet, TV, radio), I decided to do my own little highlight list. In part, I am hoping this will convince me that 2009 really did consist of all 365 24-hour-long days, because it feels like it flew by at the speed of light. I hesitate a little bit to do this because I don’t want to offend anyone if I leave something out… but just take into account that I am writing this on very little sleep after working long nights all week getting one of our fighter squadrons off on a deployment! So, here goes:
January: Trip to San Antonio with all the 26 OWS officers, great times with awesome people that I will never forget. Not too long after, was officially notified of my assignment to Lakenheath! I was at an off-site training exercise, and my squadron commander drove out to find me and let me read the notification on his Blackberry. He says my reaction was worth it. :)
February: Half Marathon #4 in Dallas, great course and ran faster than expected. AFWA commander visited for our Ops Super’s retirement, which resulted in a few days’ worth of fun events (big group dinner out, party at VFW, karaoke, etc).
March: Weekends were consumed with marathon training, and weekdays enjoying my job and co-workers. Not a very eventful month overall (or maybe I am just forgetting something).
April: Parents visited for a last hurrah in Shreveport. They got to attend a hail and farewell dinner with the squadron and meet a lot of people, plus Mom and I enjoyed gourmet milkshakes on at least 3 different occasions. After they left with my cat (to keep her until she can travel to England), I left for Monterey, CA, to run my first full marathon. Big Sur Marathon was a challenging (mountainous) yet unbelievably gorgeous course… totally worth it and I WILL do it again. Also explored the beautiful city of Monterey with Matt, went whale-watching, and hiked at Pinnacles National Park.
May: Moved out of my apt in Shreveport and down to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, for training before my next assignment. Enjoyed the perks of beaches, new running routes, and front row center at a Dierks Bentley concert.
June: Went skydiving for a second time! (And my mother forgave me.) Gorgeous sunset jump with OWS friends in Houston. Spent two weekends with Matt and his family in FL - lots of good times cooking, fishing, and a trip to Panama City Beach. College roommate Jamie got married in PA, and I was honored to be a bridesmaid. The wedding was like a huge reunion of all the families from college days, couldn’t have been better. :)
July: Enjoyed a long 4th of July weekend at home in VA with the parents. Got to see everyone at church, ride Dad’s new riding mower (fun!), and make a final trip to Cold Stone Creamery with Mom before leaving the country. Spent a weekend at the beach with Carrie and a few other PSUers at Eglin. Graduated training at Keesler, then stayed with friends in Shreveport while I outprocessed the base. My last 10 days at Barksdale consisted of a camping trip in Arkansas with the officers, squadron luau party, and catching up with friends. Then on July 29th… I boarded a flight out of Dallas for London!
August: Felt like I was living in a dream. Spent weekends discovering the incredible history and beauty of England. Cambridge, Framlingham Castle, Bury St Edmunds, and Castle Acre Priory were all explored and marveled at. Found a beautiful house, and began getting to know all the awesome people in my new weather flight.
September: USAFE Weather conference at Edelweiss, the US military resort in the German Alps. Unbelievable experience… the people, the scenery, the culture, everything. The week was capped by a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle, which had been a dream for years. I traveled back to the States for my cousin Amy’s wedding in OH, a beautiful and joyful occasion to spend time with and catch up with extended family. I also got to spend a night with sister Lisa at the University of Virginia, and enjoyed touring the campus, meeting her friends, and reminiscing about my college days.
October: Bought a bright yellow 1979 Austin Mini, a love-at-first-sight experience that required me to learn how to drive stick shift (on the right hand side of the car and left hand side of the road). Traveled to and explored Dover Castle and the White Cliffs, an area so beautiful I was inspired to sign up for a half marathon there in February.
November: Traveled to Istres, France, to do weather support at one of the US space shuttle divert locations. Cool mission to be involved with, plus enjoyed the chance to dust off my high school French and take sightseeing excursions into nearby Marseilles and Salon-de-Provence, taking in both the Mediterranean Sea and French Alps scenery. Celebrated Thanksgiving with my weather flight “family”, for whom I have been so thankful.
December: A flurry of holiday events involving fun times, amazing people, and lasting memories. Rejoiced to see my first snowfall in England, a 6-8” blanket that made my house and everywhere around look like a scene off a Christmas card. I built a snowman, made a snow angel, and walked through town taking pictures of the wintry beauty. On Christmas, I opened gifts with my family despite the distance and time difference, thanks to Skype. Had Christmas dinner and celebrated New Year’s Eve with my adopted “family” here.
2009 was not without its struggles, mistakes, hard times, and regrets. No year ever will be. But I choose to focus not on those things, but what I have learned from them. I feel like I have done a lot of growing up emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. This did not come without growing pains, and for the times this included pain for other people, I am truly sorry. But I believe in a God who can bring good out of every situation, in time, and I hold on to that for others as well as for myself. I will remember 2009 as a year of overwhelming blessings. I deserve none of the joys I have realized or the dreams that have come true, but the beauty of God’s grace is that He has given this abundant life so freely. I pray that I never let anything steal the joy in that truth, and that 2010 is a year in which I learn more and more every day how to love the people around me with this unconditional love that we have all been given.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Yes, I am a couple days late on the Christmas greetings, but better late than never, right? We had Christmas Eve Day off from work, so I baked cookies for my neighbors, cleaned the front sitting room, and did laundry before going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at the base chapel. The service was beautiful, and I saw a lot of people I knew - even the wing commander was there with his family.
Christmas Day was wonderfully busy. Jose and Janice invited everyone over for dinner at 3pm, so my family and I planned to have "Christmas morning" over Skype at 1pm my time (8am their time). I woke up early and finished putting my new futon together, baked 5 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and whipped up a sweet potato casserole.
This was the first year I was not with my family for Christmas, which was sad, but through the wonders of modern technology, we were still able to watch each other open gifts via Skype video feed under Christmas trees on different continents. Thankfully, both my package of gifts for them and their package of gifts for me arrived in time for the big day. It was fun to watch them open the gifts I sent - even Oreo the cat got one!
Christmas was the occasion of so many of my favorite family memories growing up. For most of my childhood, it was spent in PA with grandparents and cousins. My sister Lisa and I always shared a bedroom, and this was even more fun when we got to sleep in the semi-finished basement of my mom's parents' house. There was a storage area full of games, including a pinball machine I played for hours. Lisa and I hosted dances for our Barbies, where Barbies and Kens swayed to Disney songs played over and over on a cassette player. We slept on cots in the basement, and of course I thought it was hilarious to rig Lisa's so that it would collapse when she sat on it. On Christmas morning, I would wake up early and then wake up Lisa, so we could anxiously wait together for the seconds, minutes, and sometimes hours to drag by until 8am when we were allowed to go upstairs and look at the tree.
Christmas afternoon and dinner was always at my dad's parents' house, where all of our cousins stayed. With six girls, Barbies were a constant presence, and Amy always made up the best stories for us to play with them. It's fun to think back on how the gifts, games, and interests changed as we grew up. One thing that never changed was sitting at the "kids' table" in the kitchen for dinner... Melanie was the only one of us who ever graduated to the adult table in the dining room. I think after that it just made sense space-wise to keep the other 5 of us in the kitchen, no matter how old we were. :) Then there was black forest cake (which all the kids thought was gross) for Grandpa's Dec 25th birthday, and so many different flavors of ice cream that I got to play waitress and write down what everyone wanted on a notepad. So many good times, I could go on and on down Memory Lane when it comes to Christmas.
This year, Christmas was at Jose and Janice's with my weather flight "family". The food was amazing, thanks to everyone bringing their specialties. We had great times and lots of laughter with each other and the kids. It was our last get-together before Kim deploys tomorrow, and one of the last before Robin/Bobby and Greg PCS in January, so no one was really in a hurry to leave. We played games, watched movies, played with the kids, watched football, etc. until almost midnight.
This week is going to be crazy at work with one of our fighter squadrons headed out the door for a deployment. I'm briefing a predeparture brief tomorrow morning, then departure briefs at un-Godly hours of the morning (really more like the middle of the night) on two other days this week, so I may be on a mids-type schedule. Nobody's really talked about New Year's Eve, but I am sure there will be a gathering somewhere. Looking forward to Penn State vs. LSU in the Capital One Bowl!
Christmas Day was wonderfully busy. Jose and Janice invited everyone over for dinner at 3pm, so my family and I planned to have "Christmas morning" over Skype at 1pm my time (8am their time). I woke up early and finished putting my new futon together, baked 5 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and whipped up a sweet potato casserole.
This was the first year I was not with my family for Christmas, which was sad, but through the wonders of modern technology, we were still able to watch each other open gifts via Skype video feed under Christmas trees on different continents. Thankfully, both my package of gifts for them and their package of gifts for me arrived in time for the big day. It was fun to watch them open the gifts I sent - even Oreo the cat got one!
Christmas was the occasion of so many of my favorite family memories growing up. For most of my childhood, it was spent in PA with grandparents and cousins. My sister Lisa and I always shared a bedroom, and this was even more fun when we got to sleep in the semi-finished basement of my mom's parents' house. There was a storage area full of games, including a pinball machine I played for hours. Lisa and I hosted dances for our Barbies, where Barbies and Kens swayed to Disney songs played over and over on a cassette player. We slept on cots in the basement, and of course I thought it was hilarious to rig Lisa's so that it would collapse when she sat on it. On Christmas morning, I would wake up early and then wake up Lisa, so we could anxiously wait together for the seconds, minutes, and sometimes hours to drag by until 8am when we were allowed to go upstairs and look at the tree.
Christmas afternoon and dinner was always at my dad's parents' house, where all of our cousins stayed. With six girls, Barbies were a constant presence, and Amy always made up the best stories for us to play with them. It's fun to think back on how the gifts, games, and interests changed as we grew up. One thing that never changed was sitting at the "kids' table" in the kitchen for dinner... Melanie was the only one of us who ever graduated to the adult table in the dining room. I think after that it just made sense space-wise to keep the other 5 of us in the kitchen, no matter how old we were. :) Then there was black forest cake (which all the kids thought was gross) for Grandpa's Dec 25th birthday, and so many different flavors of ice cream that I got to play waitress and write down what everyone wanted on a notepad. So many good times, I could go on and on down Memory Lane when it comes to Christmas.
This year, Christmas was at Jose and Janice's with my weather flight "family". The food was amazing, thanks to everyone bringing their specialties. We had great times and lots of laughter with each other and the kids. It was our last get-together before Kim deploys tomorrow, and one of the last before Robin/Bobby and Greg PCS in January, so no one was really in a hurry to leave. We played games, watched movies, played with the kids, watched football, etc. until almost midnight.
This week is going to be crazy at work with one of our fighter squadrons headed out the door for a deployment. I'm briefing a predeparture brief tomorrow morning, then departure briefs at un-Godly hours of the morning (really more like the middle of the night) on two other days this week, so I may be on a mids-type schedule. Nobody's really talked about New Year's Eve, but I am sure there will be a gathering somewhere. Looking forward to Penn State vs. LSU in the Capital One Bowl!
Friday, December 18, 2009
SNOW!!!
When I woke up this morning, there was approximately 3" of snow on the ground... as I write this, it has just stopped snowing for the third time... and I'm up to almost 5" accumulation!!! Woohoo! I LOVE snow. Always have, probably always will. My earliest memories of snow are mostly from Christmases at my grandparents' houses in PA, since coastal VA rarely gets a good blanketing. However, on the rare occasion that we did get snow at home, we definitely took advantage of it... I remember building quite a few snowmen in the yard with my sister, and sledding at Bunny Hill with a line of parents at the bottom catching kids who might fly too far and land in the river. Sledding in PA was an adventure as well... when my cousins and I flew down the hills of Dickinson Law School campus, there were sometimes less people on the sled or tube at the bottom than there were at the top. :)
And of course, 4.5 years at Penn State added plenty of wonderful snow memories. Freshman year, it snowed on Halloween, the earliest I had ever seen snow in my life. I remember dancing around outside with a friend from Georgia who was just as excited. Snow at Penn State brought so many fun things. There were snowball fights in BDUs with the AFROTC crowd, and band practices with no hope of seeing the yard lines on the field. Snowmen dotted the quads of every dorm area. I played snow football the first time it snowed almost two feet, and experienced the wonder of being tackled into a sea of white powder. There were several tailgates and football games in the snow, skiing and snow tubing at Mount Tussey... I could go on and on.
So yesterday was the beginning of my snow memories in England. We made a bet in our office a few weeks ago about when the first snow would be observed at Lakenheath, plus or minus one day. In technical terms, snow had to be encoded as the type of precipitation in the official RAF Lakenheath weather observation for it to count. Most people picked a day in January; I picked Christmas (for fun), and Greg picked December 18th. Go figure. Haha. Now we all owe him a Coke, but I'm not too disappointed because I am so excited to see the snow!
I was actually working the desk in the weather station when the snow started yesterday, and boy did things get crazy fast. Visibility dropped to 1/2 mile, winds gusted up to 35kts 3 hours before we were expecting them, the SOF was calling trying to recover jets that had taken off, the phone was ringing off the hook... lucky for me Greg was there to help out, because I didn't even have time to be excited about the snow starting. The first bit was over in about half an hour, and we didn't see the serious snow start until around 7pm, when I was happily back home with my car safely in the garage. I ran around and took some pictures, then went to bed just after 9pm expecting to wake up at 5am to a couple inches outside. Instead, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing at 10pm... delayed reporting in the morning, no flying, so no need to open the weather station, don't show up till 11am. Woohoo! Took a couple more pictures, looked at some weather stuff on the computer, and went back to sleep.
I woke up at 6:30am and was thrilled to see the 3" white blanket over everything outside. After it started getting lighter, I put on all my snow gear and went outside to take pictures. I also had to go to the post office, so that gave me a wonderful excuse to walk through town and see everything covered in snow. Here is a picture of my house from across the street, complete with the Christmas tree lit up in the front bay window:
When I got to town, I saw a lot of snow-covered cars and people trying with varying levels of success to uncover them, get them started, or move from their parking spaces. Made me extra thankful for my garage. Here is a pretty picture of the clock in my town square:
On the walk back to my house, my phone rang again, this time it was the squadron DO: don't come to work at all today, and pass the message to the rest of the weather flight. Yippee!!! So then I got to call a few other people with the good news. When I got back to my house, the sun had risen and the snow looked even prettier in the daylight. I set about making a snowman in the backyard, but had to compromise with a small one since the snow was really dry and powdery, not good for packing. Here is my little guy, I still think he is pretty cute:
So the rest of the morning and early afternoon has been spent enjoying the snow, taking pictures, watching two more inches fall from the sky, baking some yummy mesquite chicken for lunch, and beginning to put together my futon that was delivered (in a box) this week. Greg's going-away dinner is tonight, and I really hope that everyone still shows up for it... the roads should be much better after people have been driving on them all day. I'm going to see if I can finish the futon before I have to get ready and venture out. Wish me luck, and if you want to see all my England snow pictures, check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355523&id=701905001&l=9bf3067ae4
And of course, 4.5 years at Penn State added plenty of wonderful snow memories. Freshman year, it snowed on Halloween, the earliest I had ever seen snow in my life. I remember dancing around outside with a friend from Georgia who was just as excited. Snow at Penn State brought so many fun things. There were snowball fights in BDUs with the AFROTC crowd, and band practices with no hope of seeing the yard lines on the field. Snowmen dotted the quads of every dorm area. I played snow football the first time it snowed almost two feet, and experienced the wonder of being tackled into a sea of white powder. There were several tailgates and football games in the snow, skiing and snow tubing at Mount Tussey... I could go on and on.
So yesterday was the beginning of my snow memories in England. We made a bet in our office a few weeks ago about when the first snow would be observed at Lakenheath, plus or minus one day. In technical terms, snow had to be encoded as the type of precipitation in the official RAF Lakenheath weather observation for it to count. Most people picked a day in January; I picked Christmas (for fun), and Greg picked December 18th. Go figure. Haha. Now we all owe him a Coke, but I'm not too disappointed because I am so excited to see the snow!
I was actually working the desk in the weather station when the snow started yesterday, and boy did things get crazy fast. Visibility dropped to 1/2 mile, winds gusted up to 35kts 3 hours before we were expecting them, the SOF was calling trying to recover jets that had taken off, the phone was ringing off the hook... lucky for me Greg was there to help out, because I didn't even have time to be excited about the snow starting. The first bit was over in about half an hour, and we didn't see the serious snow start until around 7pm, when I was happily back home with my car safely in the garage. I ran around and took some pictures, then went to bed just after 9pm expecting to wake up at 5am to a couple inches outside. Instead, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing at 10pm... delayed reporting in the morning, no flying, so no need to open the weather station, don't show up till 11am. Woohoo! Took a couple more pictures, looked at some weather stuff on the computer, and went back to sleep.
I woke up at 6:30am and was thrilled to see the 3" white blanket over everything outside. After it started getting lighter, I put on all my snow gear and went outside to take pictures. I also had to go to the post office, so that gave me a wonderful excuse to walk through town and see everything covered in snow. Here is a picture of my house from across the street, complete with the Christmas tree lit up in the front bay window:
When I got to town, I saw a lot of snow-covered cars and people trying with varying levels of success to uncover them, get them started, or move from their parking spaces. Made me extra thankful for my garage. Here is a pretty picture of the clock in my town square:
On the walk back to my house, my phone rang again, this time it was the squadron DO: don't come to work at all today, and pass the message to the rest of the weather flight. Yippee!!! So then I got to call a few other people with the good news. When I got back to my house, the sun had risen and the snow looked even prettier in the daylight. I set about making a snowman in the backyard, but had to compromise with a small one since the snow was really dry and powdery, not good for packing. Here is my little guy, I still think he is pretty cute:
So the rest of the morning and early afternoon has been spent enjoying the snow, taking pictures, watching two more inches fall from the sky, baking some yummy mesquite chicken for lunch, and beginning to put together my futon that was delivered (in a box) this week. Greg's going-away dinner is tonight, and I really hope that everyone still shows up for it... the roads should be much better after people have been driving on them all day. I'm going to see if I can finish the futon before I have to get ready and venture out. Wish me luck, and if you want to see all my England snow pictures, check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355523&id=701905001&l=9bf3067ae4
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Great Weekend
It's Sunday afternoon, and I am sitting on my couch in sweatpants and slippers with my laptop and a new Napster playlist... I'd say it was a great ending to the weekend, but there are still a couple more good things to come today (church and run). :)
Friday afternoon, I got to do a presentation about the Scientific Method and how it is used in weather to a 4th/5th grade class at the base elementary school. The 23 kids were full of energy and had so many funny questions and comments about weather. After my talk, I took them outside to use a couple of our "fun" pieces of hand-held equipment. They loved blowing in the kestrel to see how high they could get the wind reading and pointing the laser range finder at everything in sight. When I got back to the office, I found it dark and everyone gone... and an email from our squadron commander authorizing early release before the holiday party, since it was too foggy for the jets to fly and the airfield closed. Sweet!
The party was a blast. The Mildenhall O-Club was all decorated for Christmas, food was great, and it was so fun to see everyone all dressed up and in holiday spirits. The weather flight all got a table together, and one of the first events of the evening was a contest to determine which table got to go through the food line first. Guess what the contest was? Making a gingerbread house! Fun, but when you're only given 10 minutes, it gets crazy. Kim and Greg and I took on the task for the table, and of course much hilarity ensued in the next 10 minutes, but we ended with a fairly decent-looking house... see picture below:
Unfortunately, after time was called and the Sq/CC started walking around to judge the houses... someone bumped the table. You guessed it. Here's the "after" picture, hehe:
I stood outside, entranced, until the clouds began breaking up and it disappeared... only a few minutes at most. I had to smile to myself as I walked back in. How cool is it when God allows us to have glimpses like that of His beauty? Was it a coincidence that my concentration on cleaning was broken at just the right moment? I think not. So add that to the never-ending list of God's blessings in my life. :)
Friday afternoon, I got to do a presentation about the Scientific Method and how it is used in weather to a 4th/5th grade class at the base elementary school. The 23 kids were full of energy and had so many funny questions and comments about weather. After my talk, I took them outside to use a couple of our "fun" pieces of hand-held equipment. They loved blowing in the kestrel to see how high they could get the wind reading and pointing the laser range finder at everything in sight. When I got back to the office, I found it dark and everyone gone... and an email from our squadron commander authorizing early release before the holiday party, since it was too foggy for the jets to fly and the airfield closed. Sweet!
The party was a blast. The Mildenhall O-Club was all decorated for Christmas, food was great, and it was so fun to see everyone all dressed up and in holiday spirits. The weather flight all got a table together, and one of the first events of the evening was a contest to determine which table got to go through the food line first. Guess what the contest was? Making a gingerbread house! Fun, but when you're only given 10 minutes, it gets crazy. Kim and Greg and I took on the task for the table, and of course much hilarity ensued in the next 10 minutes, but we ended with a fairly decent-looking house... see picture below:
Unfortunately, after time was called and the Sq/CC started walking around to judge the houses... someone bumped the table. You guessed it. Here's the "after" picture, hehe:
We came up with a really great story about how a tornado hit (we're the weather table, get it?), but since we are such good forecasters, everyone was warned and got out safely. The Sq/CC laughed, but apparently didn't buy it... we had to wait a while to eat. Fun times anyway though. :) Another highlight of the evening was a Christmas trivia quiz, which our table almost won. The question was asked, "What were the three gifts brought by the wise men to the baby Jesus?", and I blurted out "Goldfrankincenseandmyrrh!"... and was immediately met with 9 deer-in-the-headlights looks, a pause, and an "Um, can you spell that?" Haha. At the end of the night, CeCe (one of our forecasters) won the grand prize drawing, a 32" LCD TV. So overall, we had an outstanding party.
Saturday, I was up early to get the house ready for my housewarming party. I had to concede the desk room early to a "box room", since there was no way I was going to completely eliminate all boxes from the house in 12 hours. So now I can say all but one room of the house is unpacked... as long as I leave out the part about not being able to walk in the room because there are so many boxes.
The frantic cleaning/box-moving/decorating/baking day did have one welcome interruption, however. Around 8:30am, I was sitting on the floor of my upstairs bathroom, folding towels into a drawer, when I happened to glance up at the window... and saw a gigantic rainbow so bright that it shone through the frosted glass. There was a mad scramble to find my camera before dashing outside in my slippers, and WOW. Pictures, and even the video I took, do not do this rainbow justice. It was HUGE, arcing across the entire sky, and brighter than any rainbow I have seen before in my life, like it was actually made of colored lights shining out of the clouds. Unbelievable. Plus, there was even a hint of a second rainbow above it. Like I said, pictures do not do it justice, but here it is from the back door of my conservatory... see the very faint second line at the top right?
I stood outside, entranced, until the clouds began breaking up and it disappeared... only a few minutes at most. I had to smile to myself as I walked back in. How cool is it when God allows us to have glimpses like that of His beauty? Was it a coincidence that my concentration on cleaning was broken at just the right moment? I think not. So add that to the never-ending list of God's blessings in my life. :)
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I hope everyone who came over had a good time, because I loved every minute of it. From grilling to s'mores to kids running around the backyard screaming (hopefully my neighbors will forgive me for that) to playing hide-and-seek to just hanging out and talking, it was awesome. In the aftermath, there is a little bit of mud of my beige carpet, my Christmas tree ornaments have been completely rearranged by two one-year-olds; paper plates, plastic silverware, cans, and bottles are cluttered on every horizontal surface downstairs, and I desperately need to vaccumm... but oh so worth it. :) I was so busy running around that I didn't really take many pictures, and the few that I have are of the kids, but that's okay. I'll take memories over pictures any day.
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Well, it is time for me to change and get to church (it is a contemporary service, but sweatpants and slippers might get some strange looks), so I'll stop rambling. Hope you all had a great weekend too!
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