Our New Home (We Made it to Virginia!)

Way back in April, we found out we would be moving to Langley AFB in Hampton, VA upon Dan's graduation from F-22 Raptor B Course in August. We were thrilled! It was our number one choice, and I will say, now that we've been here for a couple months, we are SO happy.

There's a lot to do here with and without kids, unlike our last base, and we have been having fun checking out many of the fun things to do. Annabelle is settled into a new preschool that came highly recommended, and Josephine is settling into her new routine as a one year old (more to come on that soon!).

We bought our house, and it's been fun putting effort into decorating it this time around since we know we will be here for three years instead of just one! It feels like an eternity, and I am so glad! We have been married for 4.5 years and have moved across the country FOUR times already! We moved from Colorado to Ohio... Ohio to Texas... Texas to Florida... and now Florida to Virginia! We are SO ready to stay put and lay down some real roots here.

Another Year, Another PCS...

Big news! We are moving again once Dan finishes his F-22 B Course... this time to...

Langley Air Force Base in Virginia! 

We are so excited! We don't know ANYTHING yet, as in he graduates on August 24th and then has to go to SERE... and we assume we'll be moving AFTER his time at SERE (which I would prefer), so it'll likely be toward the end of September or beginning of October. This will be the 5th state we've lived in since getting married four years ago... it'll be Annabelle's 4th state to live in by age three... and, get this... Josephine's third state to live in before her first birthday! 

It's a lot. But it's fun! We should be there for about three years, so it'll be our longest assignment so far. I'm excited to finally lay down some roots somewhere.

Our 3rd PCS in 3 Years

Mid-December, when sweet baby Josephine was just two weeks old, we gathered what we'd need for two weeks and moved out of our home in Texas and into the TLF at Sheppard Air Force Base. We needed to get all of our belonging packed up and moved out so we could clean the house for our new tenants.

This is the first time we did not do a DITY move. In fact, we had people do almost everything for us, aside from Dan finishing up his home renovations - which turned out awesome, by the way, but that's a post for another day!

We had the movers pack and load up the truck, and we even hired someone to deep clean the house and another to clean the carpets - all things we've typically done ourselves. That just wasn't feasible with a toddler AND a newborn, though. Overall, our experience with the military moving us went much smoother that we imagined, but we still like that extra payout from DITY moves.

Half way through our TLF stay, the water heater leaked all over the laundry room, and we were forced to move into one of the MUCH older units across base. Lame. But it worked out okay... it was just a huge hassle to pack up all of our things (you have a LOT of stuff when you have two young kids, so I'm not exaggerating the hassle here), especially when we had plans to meet some people for dinner at a specific time. Yikes. That is a day I don't want to re-live.

Finally, we made it out of Texas, though, and started our trek to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. Thank goodness for our camper because we were able to sleep in it each night instead of moving all of our stuff to a different hotel room each night. It was also nice for discretely nursing Josephine along the way. We could stop anywhere, and I'd just get in there with her and not have to worry about using one of our covers (that we actually LOVE, by the way, but we were still learning our breastfeeding relationship at this point - remember, she was VERY young still!)

On day one, we made it to Louisiana and spent the night. On day two, we drove through the rest of Louisiana and all of Mississippi and stayed in Alabama. We made it into Florida on the third day, had lunch with some friends along the way, and then made it to our home! It was late, and our stuff wouldn't be delivered until the next morning, so we actually parked our camper at the Fam Camp at Tyndall and stayed in it for one last night.

The next morning, our household goods arrived! (Quick - I know! It helps that it wasn't peak PCS season... and it also meant that we skipped our New Orleans adventure we had planned because they called and said it'd be there on Monday morning, and if we weren't there, it'd go into storage... that meant we'd be waiting for our bed (and more importantly, Annabelle's bed!), and it would have another opportunity to get lost or damaged... so we said okay and hightailed it to Florida, skipping our time in New Orleans.)

I really like our new home. We're just renting for the time being since B Course is only a nine month training. If we end up staying at Tyndall after he graduates, we'll want to buy somewhere in this area... but this house is totally great for what we need right now! And it's in the closest neighborhood to base (which is still a 15 minute commute for Dan each day... the city is weird).

I can't say that we're in love with Panama City... it's very different from what we assumed... BUT we're going to give it a fighting chance before we make that decision since the weather has been SO COLD (worse than it's been in 28 years, in fact, according to the news), and we haven't had time to go do anything fun... so we'll blame the "blegh" feeling on that for now and hope we end up enjoying it more once it warms up!

Now we wait to find out if we will be staying at Tyndall for Dan's follow-on flying assignment or if we'll be moving again this fall. We will put in our request in a couple months and find out hopefully sometime in May or June. He graduates in August and goes to SERE after that, so we'd be moving in October or so if we do!

2017: A Year in Review

2017 was a year we knew would be exciting... but we didn't bet on SO MUCH excitement!

We were able to travel a few times - to San Antonio for Dan's centrifuge training, to Dallas / Ft. Worth for a long weekend, and to Kansas City, MO for a week and a half! We didn't take any huge trips, but that's okay. Sometimes, less is more.

We celebrated eight years together as a couple and Dan flying (and completing) the T-38 at pilot training. We shockingly found out we were pregnant with Baby Cookie 2.0 (a total surprise!) and celebrated our third wedding anniversary.

The biggest event of the summer was drop night - finally finding out that Dan will be flying to F-22 Raptor for the world's greatest Air Force! He graduated from pilot training later than month, and Annabelle took swim lessons and went to her first movie in a theater (to see Trolls) - fun times!

Shortly after, we found out Baby Cookie 2.0 was another girl - yay! We celebrated Annabelle's second birthday in September, Dan's start and finish of IFF (Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals), had maternity photos taken in early November, and welcomed tiny Josephine in late November!

And our last major event for the year? Moving across the country! The Air Force sent us to Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL, where we'll be for about 10 months.

I hope everyone else had a great 2017 as well. Cheers to 2018!

Introducing... Baby Cookie #2!

Well, I'm only a whole MONTH late making this announcement... but our beautiful second daughter made her appearance on November 21st! We've been a little (ha!) busy since then moving across the country (more on that later), so I'll just leave you with this for now!

Welcome to the world, Josephine Jayne! We are so glad we get to be your parents and that we got an extra 20 days with you... if pre-eclampsia is good for anything, it's extra snuggles! :)

2016: A Year in Review

This is one of those posts that probably won't interest too many of you, especially as I've blogged (not too well this year!) about many of these topics already... but this is more of a post for the books. For my memory. For my family... and especially for my daughter. 

Regardless, 2016 was good to us! It was less life-changing than 2015 was, but it did bring along a cross-country move and home-ownership for the first time. Each month was filled with many different events, and I want to remember as much as possible.

In January, we took our first family vacation to Niagara Falls, Canada (with a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on the way) when Annabelle was four months old. 

In February, we had lots of visitors to our home in Ohio - my mom, followed by Lydia, followed by Michelle! 

March brought Annabelle's half birthday, Dan graduating with his Master's in Applied Physics from AFIT, and saying goodbye to good friends in Ohio before moving to Texas. 

We stopped in Missouri to see family for Easter on our cross-country drive and got settled in Texas in April. Annabelle went to her first air show and (kind of) enjoyed it. 

We traveled to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico in May, and Annabelle got to go on her first six flights, including one Space A flight on a C-17. We visited family and friends on that trip and even took Annabelle to our favorite places from our years in Colorado Springs. At the end of the month, Dan and I celebrated two years of marriage. Exciting! 

In June, Dan promoted to 1st Lieutenant and started pilot training at ENJJPT, signifying the real beginning of our life in Texas. 

July was hot, and we spent a lot of time walking around our neighborhood in the mornings before it was unbearable. 

August was spent with a trip to Branson for a wedding and a trip to Kansas City for a bridal shower and bachelorette party. Dan flew his Dollar Ride in the T-6, and Annabelle and I went to the airfield to watch Dan fly his first solo in the T-6 - how fun! 

September brought our sweet and sassy Annabelle's first birthday, which was a blast, and a family trip to Dallas to take her to the zoo for the first time. That month ended with a trip to Kansas City so I could stand by one of my best friend's side as she became a wife, and then Annabelle and I visited another best friend in St. Louis so we could meet Baby Huxley! I also finished my exclusively pumping journey, which was a long but well worth it year-long extravaganza for me. 

In October, Annabelle and I returned from our road trip, and we celebrated her second Halloween by taking her to a Trunk-or-Treat event on base. 

November was busy with Dan flying long hours, hosting a giant Thanksgiving dinner, and just living life. 

December brought about Dan completing his training in the T-6 and traveling to Missouri for Christmas and New Years! 

What a wonderful year we had as a family. Here's to 2017 - hopefully it will be even better!

Hello, Texas!

Well, we made it to Texas! We are moved in to our new home, and we love it!

We've been taking our time unpacking boxes, figuring out where we want things to go (isn't that always the worst when you have a new layout in your home and certain things just don't seem to fit anywhere?!), and getting settled in.

We've checked out some local stores and the base, and it seems like we're really going to enjoy our time here.

Lieutenant Lovemuffin doesn't start pilot training until June, so we have a couple months to relax before the full-blow CRAZY begins... and I'm okay with that.

I'll be going back through everyone's blog posts from the past week and a half and going on a commenting spree to play catch up... so I apologize in advance about that! ;-)

Do you enjoy moving in to a new home?

Goodbye, Ohio!

Today, we are driving away from our house in Ohio. It was our very first duty station as a married couple. Once Dan graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2014, we got married and moved to Dayton, Ohio so he could get his Master's degree from AFIT, the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Last night, he received that Master of Science in Applied Physics degree (more on that coming soon), and we completed our time at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Thank goodness. We were not so much a fan of this town, but we also know it could be worse. There's nothing AWFUL about Dayton... there's just nothing exceptional about it either. In all fairness, we probably would have felt that way about any base after coming from gorgeous Colorado Springs.

Although we are not upset to be leaving Ohio behind for more exciting things (ie: pilot training and all the fun and craziness that comes along with it in Texas), we did make some special memories in Ohio...

We lived in our first house as a married couple. Sure, we rented it, but we worked hard to put it together to look and feel like a home, and I will definitely miss the layout of that house. It's also the home we welcomed Annabelle into, and while she will have many homes growing up, this one will always remain special because of the middle of the night feedings, sweet newborn cuddles, and many first milestones that took place in this very house. I'm happy to be leaving, but I'm also overwhelmed with sadness about leaving that part of Annabelle's life behind - she'll never remember it, so I'm happy that I at least captured her nursery in photos for her to have when she's older.

We went to many baseball games, went flying, and even made our own table for our patio! We're excited to move that one with us to Texas for all of the cookouts we see in our future.

We welcomed Smudge, Dan's childhood dog, into our home, and the kitties moved to their third state! Gilligan and Stormy are such well-seasoned travelers. 

Dan started his first Air Force job as an officer, going to school at AFIT. Those butterbars look so good on him. I turned my Etsy shop into something larger than I ever expected and shipped out a TON of orders for the holiday season. We took a family picture with all of our pets for our first married Christmas, and we celebrated our first year of marriage! 

In Ohio, we found out we were expecting, found out the baby is a GIRL, went through my entire pregnancy, and welcomed sweet Annabelle Kathryn. Life wasn't so bad in Ohio, after all. ;-) 

We bought our new car (the Dadmobile), spent our first Christmas with a baby, watched Dan defend his thesis (and graduate!), and took Annabelle to the polls to teach her the American way. 

While we're hoping never to be stationed in Ohio again (and as a pilot, Dan shouldn't be assigned there - but you know the military...), we will definitely miss some small aspects of it. And our small handful of great friends there. We will definitely miss them.

Now onto the adventures of pilot training! 

Do you ever feel sentimental when leaving a base, even if you didn't particularly care for it?

The Hotel Life

If you saw my last post about Annabelle's nursery, you know that I captured those photos since we'd soon be leaving our house in Ohio.

Well, we've left. But we're still in Ohio for the week. Lieutenant Lovemuffin graduates from AFIT with his Master's degree on Thursday, and we will head out on Friday morning.

Until then (and since last Wednesday), we've been living the hotel life.

And when I say we, I mean Annabelle and me. Dan has taken all of our household goods down to Texas and started setting up our new home. (This situation is all kinds of weird, but he went without us to drive the Penske truck down. We're doing a DITY because we have a deep freezer full of my frozen breast milk from exclusively pumping to feed Annabelle. This way, we can all ride together next week. He towed our Escape behind the Penske truck, and we will tow our Camry behind our Navigator when we drive down next week. Yes, we have three cars... also a long story.)

It's a small room, but it has a kitchen, so we've been just fine. Who am I kidding? I'm not cooking! This is like a vacation. There's also a TV with cable (which we don't have), so I thought I'd watch some good shows... but it turns out, there are no shows I like on cable, which is why we don't have it in the first place. Ha!

Hotel life hasn't been too awful, but I will say that I'll be SO glad when we are out of here and on our way to Texas!

Now check out this little cutie... she is thoroughly enjoying the hotel bed to play on, but she's sleeping in her Pack n Play. Ironic that she plays on the BED and sleeps in the Pack n PLAY. ;-)

 

Have you ever stayed in a hotel for an extended period of time during a move?

A PCS is Upon Us

When Lieutenant Lovemuffin graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2014, he was all set to head to pilot training. He's been flying for YEARS and can't wait to train in Air Force planes.

... but then he was offered a slot at AFIT, the Air Force Institute of Technology. A free master's degree? Heck yeah! Dan will be graduating in March as a Master of Physics, and his ladies (Annabelle and I) are pretty proud of his hard work while writing his incredibly long thesis.

He is chomping at the bit to be in the air again, though. His old flying team teammates are finishing pilot training in waves, and he is just stuck in Ohio going to school... still. But it'll all be worth it!

In fact, it'll SOON be here... because we are moving to TEXAS! Sheppard Air Force Base, here we come!

We've actually known since before heading to AFIT. These were his original orders... but we didn't know if the Air Force would mess anything up. Dan received his official orders about a month ago, and he'll be flying down soon to look at houses. We'll leave Ohio at the end of March, and Dan is SO excited to start flying again!

He'll be at ENJJPT (Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training), where he will start out flying the T-6 and move on to the T-38 before finding out what aircraft he'll be flying for his career. We are so ready to be there!


    

We're Baaaaack!

Okay, so we've actually been back for a few weeks, but since we weren't planning on being back, I decided to continue my break from blogging... just because everything has been so overwhelming that I haven't had any time!

Let me catch you up.

Since my last post with our wedding recap, we have:

• driven from Colorado to Missouri to drop off one car and leave the cats with my grandma
• flown to Pennsylvania to watch a couple friends marry each other
• gone on our AMAZING month-long European honeymoon
• traveled back to the USA (Oregon) last minute to say goodbye to Dan's mom
• walked a mile and a half to In N Out Burger from the LA airport for lunch
• packed up our entire house and moved out within five days (and let me tell you that there WILL be a blog post about our first (awful) PCS experience
• driven from Colorado to Ohio, with stops overnight in Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana
• unpacked our entire new house
• flown on a private C-21 from Ohio to Maryland Space A for my birthday... just because we could
• found a church in Ohio to go to (and it only took two tries - the first one was NOT for us)

Phew! We are exhausted after this crazy summer, but my handsome husband in-processes for his graduate school program this Friday, and things will return to normalcy (or close enough) once we have structure. I can't promise any blogging in the next week or so, but I hope to make it a regular thing once again.

Thanks for bearing with me this summer as I have not posted once since the very beginning of June. Oops.

We Found Out Where We're Going -- Our First PCS!

Last night, Dan received his FIRST BASE assignment... it's where we will head after his graduation / our wedding this summer!

He has officially been chosen to complete Euro Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas!!!

I have literally NEVER even stepped foot in Texas before... not even for a layover at an airport. It's going to be an entirely new world for me, but thankfully, it's on the Northern side of Texas, so that's still considered the Midwest, right? ;) 

Wichita Falls is the bright green star! I'm so excited that we'll be close to Dallas and Oklahoma City. That will be so much fun! 

While we're there (for a little over a year), Dan will be training in the T-38, which is a fighter trainer. It does not guarantee that he will drop fighters at the end of pilot training, but it helps, and it will be an amazing experience for him. He had the opportunity to fly in one this past semester for one of his classes when they traveled to Edwards AFB in California, and he fell in love with it. 

Has anyone reading this been stationed at Sheppard before? We are SO thrilled that we got our number one choice because I know that certainly doesn't happen often in the military. 

• Where is the best place you've ever lived?
• Where is the worst place you've ever lived?
• Do you ENJOY moving, or do you hate it?