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2 years ago
Saturday, November 22, 2008
What?
We've turned Saturday mornings into pancake mornings and look forward to it each week that we're around. This morning was a fun one, experimenting with the Vita-Mix. I started out with the dry grinding blade to make oat flour from oats, and spelt flour from spelt berries. Next, was almond butter which was "okay." Next, was pancake mix - mmm. Matt especially liked the batter. Finally, we tried out home-made raspberry/blueberry syrup. These were some tasty flapjacks. This blender has some serious power. About halfway through, I decided that we needed to keep some earplugs in the kitchen -- you can seem them in the picture. My mom would be proud...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Our blender finally got here!!
I should probably disclose that I never thought I would get this excited about a blender. But I guess we didn't get just any blender, did we? No no, we got a Vita-Mix. It's the coolest thing since, well, sliced bagels. Maybe that's because it makes bagels...and anything else you can possibly imagine.
Johnni and I spent our Friday night making homemade peanut butter, peanut butter-chocolate milk shakes, and bagels. Who knew a blender could keep us up so late! Tomorrow we have plans for all kinds of foods....
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Finally
So, I've been saying for awhile now that someday I would contribute to our blog. Well, today's the day. There is a lot to catch up with, and I'm not quite sure where to start.
What's new? Well, some of you know that I wouldn't call myself a strong swimmer. I started taking adult swimming classes this month to get myself in the water and brush up on what I should have been practicing since my dad first taught me how to swim. I never look forward to going to my lessons, but it's conveniently on post, and they are super cheap. I leave each time feeling a lot more comfortable in the water -- tonight was the first time that I can remember going off an actual diving board. It wasn't too bad, but I did feel like a pancake getting flipped a few times. Tonight, I was procrastinating and decided to take pictures while I should have been heading down the road...
You'll see some pictures soon when Matt posts, but we had a great time in Charleston, South Carolina with Ben and Chelsa this weekend. It was so fun and relaxing to get to hang out with good friends. I have a much better appreciation for photography after this weekend! It was fun to watch and listen to Chelsa and Matt with their cameras. There were a lot of great places to take pictures, and we had fun during our "photo shoots." We just got back last night, but Chelsa already has some posted. Her work is amazing, and she was so great at posing us and having fun with it.
http://chelsaschaeferphoto.blogspot.com/
We got to see a lot of beautiful places. We spent some time downtown Charleston -- mostly walking around and eating. Sunday we went to a southern plantation. We had planned to watch a reenactment one of the Civil War battles (this one only occurs once a year). We missed it by about an hour but still got to see everyone dressed up from it. My friend, Amy, (also lives at Fort Rucker) and I have decided that we will have to go see a battle sometime while we are here in Alabama. Monday the four of us visited Cypress Gardens which was really peaceful. We got to go on a self-guided tour. Ben steered, Chelsa photographed, Matt helped paddle when he felt like it and took pictures the rest of the time, and I posed as our narrator. That night we spent time around the fondue pot - yum!
On the way back, Matt and I decided to spend a little time in Savannah. We found an awesome local pizza place downtown, and took Chaz for a walk along the water. I'm no photographer, but decided to snap a few of Matt in action:
We got a late start to the actual drive home. This picture explains itself...
What's new? Well, some of you know that I wouldn't call myself a strong swimmer. I started taking adult swimming classes this month to get myself in the water and brush up on what I should have been practicing since my dad first taught me how to swim. I never look forward to going to my lessons, but it's conveniently on post, and they are super cheap. I leave each time feeling a lot more comfortable in the water -- tonight was the first time that I can remember going off an actual diving board. It wasn't too bad, but I did feel like a pancake getting flipped a few times. Tonight, I was procrastinating and decided to take pictures while I should have been heading down the road...
You'll see some pictures soon when Matt posts, but we had a great time in Charleston, South Carolina with Ben and Chelsa this weekend. It was so fun and relaxing to get to hang out with good friends. I have a much better appreciation for photography after this weekend! It was fun to watch and listen to Chelsa and Matt with their cameras. There were a lot of great places to take pictures, and we had fun during our "photo shoots." We just got back last night, but Chelsa already has some posted. Her work is amazing, and she was so great at posing us and having fun with it.
http://chelsaschaeferphoto.blogspot.com/
We got to see a lot of beautiful places. We spent some time downtown Charleston -- mostly walking around and eating. Sunday we went to a southern plantation. We had planned to watch a reenactment one of the Civil War battles (this one only occurs once a year). We missed it by about an hour but still got to see everyone dressed up from it. My friend, Amy, (also lives at Fort Rucker) and I have decided that we will have to go see a battle sometime while we are here in Alabama. Monday the four of us visited Cypress Gardens which was really peaceful. We got to go on a self-guided tour. Ben steered, Chelsa photographed, Matt helped paddle when he felt like it and took pictures the rest of the time, and I posed as our narrator. That night we spent time around the fondue pot - yum!
On the way back, Matt and I decided to spend a little time in Savannah. We found an awesome local pizza place downtown, and took Chaz for a walk along the water. I'm no photographer, but decided to snap a few of Matt in action:
We got a late start to the actual drive home. This picture explains itself...
Friday, November 7, 2008
It's a long weekend
One of the great things about flight school, and I guess the Army in general, is the abundance of long weekends. Because of Veteran's Day this weekend is a 4-day weekend for most people. For some of us, it's actually a 5+ day weekend.
Most of the time when we have long weekends we have the option of "buying out" of formations on each side of the weekend. It's $5 for both -- the 1100 formation leading into the weekend and then PT coming out of the weekend -- and the money goes to the graduation formal for the outgoing class. As it is I don't have to go to PT on Friday mornings and with the buyout I didn't have to go to my 1100 formation. I also get to miss Wednesday's PT. This means that yesterday after my 1100 formation it was officially the weekend for me; it's a weekend that lasts until next Wednesday at 1100.
Before you start wondering what all your tax dollars are going to I should point out that I have to march in a Peanut Festival parade tomorrow morning for a couple of hours. Yes, I've come to flight school to learn how to fly helicopters only to find myself marching in a peanut parade.
We're leaving shortly after the parade for South Carolina for the weekend....we can't wait to see Ben and Chelsa! It should be a great weekend.
Chaz looks for his ball.....
Most of the time when we have long weekends we have the option of "buying out" of formations on each side of the weekend. It's $5 for both -- the 1100 formation leading into the weekend and then PT coming out of the weekend -- and the money goes to the graduation formal for the outgoing class. As it is I don't have to go to PT on Friday mornings and with the buyout I didn't have to go to my 1100 formation. I also get to miss Wednesday's PT. This means that yesterday after my 1100 formation it was officially the weekend for me; it's a weekend that lasts until next Wednesday at 1100.
Before you start wondering what all your tax dollars are going to I should point out that I have to march in a Peanut Festival parade tomorrow morning for a couple of hours. Yes, I've come to flight school to learn how to fly helicopters only to find myself marching in a peanut parade.
We're leaving shortly after the parade for South Carolina for the weekend....we can't wait to see Ben and Chelsa! It should be a great weekend.
Chaz looks for his ball.....
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Hurry up and wait
I think it's finally time that I get back to blogging on a regular basis. The past two months have flown by and I have a lot of things I've been wanting to write about.
SERE school was....let's just say it was excellent training...to complete. It's not something I want to do again, but not something I would want to go to war without. I gained an awful lot of respect for John McCain and all past POWs for what they've gone through.
One thing I wrestled with throughout the course was the existence of this blog. I also fought with my Facebook account, and if I had one it would have been a MySpace account as well. There is a lot of information on these websites -- information that I probably wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands. Not that any of it is all that sensitive in nature, but it's information that other people don't need to know. I finally came to the conclusion that my Facebook account would get deleted and the blog would stay with moderate censorship. What I mean by that is that we're going to try to keep our last name off the site, as well as anything that might identify us from an outside search. Let us know if you see something that might be a little too specific (full names, addresses, social security numbers, bank account numbers...).
On with the good stuff. SERE ended on a Sunday, and I had most of the week to recover. I had a temporary limited duty profile which got me out of PT for that week. All I had to do was go to a 5 minute formation each day. Most of what I did besides that was eat and hang out with Johnni (and Chaz!) -- it was great to be home.
My parents came down that Thursday evening and spent the weekend with us. My dad and I played a good bit of golf to include our first Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course. The four of us went golfing together on that Sunday before my parents took off the next day. I had a couple of days of PT and formation (PT is at 0615 for an hour and formation is at 1100 for about 5 minutes) before starting Dunker training on Wednesday.
Dunker, flight school slang for HOST - Helicopter Overwater Survival Training, was a two day course that taught me how to get out of a helicopter if it goes down in water. It was efficient, to-the-point training that I enjoyed -- it was also my first SCUBA experience. This led into a 4 day weekend. Johnni and I got to spend some great time together that weekend...and if I remember right, there was a lot of football watched and a few walks through the neighborhood. Pretty relaxing.
Coming off the 4-day I had to start my next course which would last 3 weeks. BOLC IIIa is a 3 week introduction to being an aviation officer. The only problem about starting it after the 4 day, which had been predeced by 2 days of dunker, was that I never got the word. Apparently the course started at 0645...but for me it started at 1100 (big thanks to Ryne K. or I probably wouldn't have even gotten there that early). Good stuff...but I was told I didn't miss out on much. Since I had already gone through BOLC III for Medical Service (my branch), about half of the course was old stuff. We did have several tests during the course, including a vehicle ID test. Ever wonder what the difference is between a Russian T-72 tank and a T-80? I haven't either, but now I know.
In between weeks 2 and 3 of BOLC IIIa I took a motorcycle safety course on post. It's a 2.5 day course that's required for any service member to ride a motorcycle (and it's free -- bikes included!). It was a pretty good course, and now I'm qualified to ride my new 1981 Honda CB650 that I bought from Aaron R. as he left flight school. I've been riding that around post for the last few days and it's been good to be back on a motorcycle.
BOLC III finished last Friday, and now I'm on hold for the start of "actual flight school." I've heard anything from 2 to 4 months wait to start, so I'll be on hold for that whole time. Being on hold means it's back to PT and formation every day. Thankfully I'm not paid by the hour! Of course I say that now....
That's the play-by-play of the last two months to catch everyone up. Now for some of the "color" commentary....
-Joe and Leslie are having a baby! We're sooo excited for them and can't wait to have a niece or nephew. They're going to be awesome parents, and "little TR" is going to be a cute one! We're really excited to see them at Christmas/New Years.
-Deb and Craig couldn't live without a Sheltie after Chaz left (he went to Iowa with Johnni while I was in SERE)...so in came Mac. Now Chaz has an uncle. We're excited to see him in a couple months.
-Chaz has become a rascal. He's smart and a great dog, but he can be pretty mischievous at times. He got neutered last week, but is back to his normal self by now.
-Matt got a motorcycle.
-Johnni was thrown head-first into running stubsinhand.com -- and she did great! Things are finally winding down a bit there for the year.
-We found out that the post library rents movies for free...we like movies...and free is good
-We made a slight modification to our family room. And if you were wondering, Johnni did make it all the way up...
And, any blog post wouldn't be complete without a good action shot of Chaz.
SERE school was....let's just say it was excellent training...to complete. It's not something I want to do again, but not something I would want to go to war without. I gained an awful lot of respect for John McCain and all past POWs for what they've gone through.
One thing I wrestled with throughout the course was the existence of this blog. I also fought with my Facebook account, and if I had one it would have been a MySpace account as well. There is a lot of information on these websites -- information that I probably wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands. Not that any of it is all that sensitive in nature, but it's information that other people don't need to know. I finally came to the conclusion that my Facebook account would get deleted and the blog would stay with moderate censorship. What I mean by that is that we're going to try to keep our last name off the site, as well as anything that might identify us from an outside search. Let us know if you see something that might be a little too specific (full names, addresses, social security numbers, bank account numbers...).
On with the good stuff. SERE ended on a Sunday, and I had most of the week to recover. I had a temporary limited duty profile which got me out of PT for that week. All I had to do was go to a 5 minute formation each day. Most of what I did besides that was eat and hang out with Johnni (and Chaz!) -- it was great to be home.
My parents came down that Thursday evening and spent the weekend with us. My dad and I played a good bit of golf to include our first Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course. The four of us went golfing together on that Sunday before my parents took off the next day. I had a couple of days of PT and formation (PT is at 0615 for an hour and formation is at 1100 for about 5 minutes) before starting Dunker training on Wednesday.
Dunker, flight school slang for HOST - Helicopter Overwater Survival Training, was a two day course that taught me how to get out of a helicopter if it goes down in water. It was efficient, to-the-point training that I enjoyed -- it was also my first SCUBA experience. This led into a 4 day weekend. Johnni and I got to spend some great time together that weekend...and if I remember right, there was a lot of football watched and a few walks through the neighborhood. Pretty relaxing.
Coming off the 4-day I had to start my next course which would last 3 weeks. BOLC IIIa is a 3 week introduction to being an aviation officer. The only problem about starting it after the 4 day, which had been predeced by 2 days of dunker, was that I never got the word. Apparently the course started at 0645...but for me it started at 1100 (big thanks to Ryne K. or I probably wouldn't have even gotten there that early). Good stuff...but I was told I didn't miss out on much. Since I had already gone through BOLC III for Medical Service (my branch), about half of the course was old stuff. We did have several tests during the course, including a vehicle ID test. Ever wonder what the difference is between a Russian T-72 tank and a T-80? I haven't either, but now I know.
In between weeks 2 and 3 of BOLC IIIa I took a motorcycle safety course on post. It's a 2.5 day course that's required for any service member to ride a motorcycle (and it's free -- bikes included!). It was a pretty good course, and now I'm qualified to ride my new 1981 Honda CB650 that I bought from Aaron R. as he left flight school. I've been riding that around post for the last few days and it's been good to be back on a motorcycle.
BOLC III finished last Friday, and now I'm on hold for the start of "actual flight school." I've heard anything from 2 to 4 months wait to start, so I'll be on hold for that whole time. Being on hold means it's back to PT and formation every day. Thankfully I'm not paid by the hour! Of course I say that now....
That's the play-by-play of the last two months to catch everyone up. Now for some of the "color" commentary....
-Joe and Leslie are having a baby! We're sooo excited for them and can't wait to have a niece or nephew. They're going to be awesome parents, and "little TR" is going to be a cute one! We're really excited to see them at Christmas/New Years.
-Deb and Craig couldn't live without a Sheltie after Chaz left (he went to Iowa with Johnni while I was in SERE)...so in came Mac. Now Chaz has an uncle. We're excited to see him in a couple months.
-Chaz has become a rascal. He's smart and a great dog, but he can be pretty mischievous at times. He got neutered last week, but is back to his normal self by now.
-Matt got a motorcycle.
-Johnni was thrown head-first into running stubsinhand.com -- and she did great! Things are finally winding down a bit there for the year.
-We found out that the post library rents movies for free...we like movies...and free is good
-We got DishNetwork. I can finally watch Monday Night Football again, and we get to watch John and Kate plus 8 together. It wasn't long before we realized that it is easy to watch too much TV if we aren't careful.
-We made a slight modification to our family room. And if you were wondering, Johnni did make it all the way up...
And, any blog post wouldn't be complete without a good action shot of Chaz.
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