Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Issues...
My husband will be pinning on O-6 here in about 3 weeks. It's kind of a big deal! I already bought a dress; the boys have nice, new khaki pants (still have to find some shoes). He's making all the arrangements at work regarding location, food, invites and all that stuff that he should be taking care of.
Is it selfish of me to not want there to be any hassles or 'issues' to deal with that day?
There are some extended family issues going on right now and I really don't want the 'issues' to overshadow the celebratory nature of the day. Even if they're not spoken, they'll be hanging around in the air. We'll be feeling it.
I feel bad about how this is probably going to go down, but on the other hand, it should be Nort's day to celebrate - not worry about somebody else's feelings. Right?!
UPDATE: 'Issue' has been dealt with. Hopefully the day will be cheery!
Is it selfish of me to not want there to be any hassles or 'issues' to deal with that day?
There are some extended family issues going on right now and I really don't want the 'issues' to overshadow the celebratory nature of the day. Even if they're not spoken, they'll be hanging around in the air. We'll be feeling it.
I feel bad about how this is probably going to go down, but on the other hand, it should be Nort's day to celebrate - not worry about somebody else's feelings. Right?!
UPDATE: 'Issue' has been dealt with. Hopefully the day will be cheery!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I Finally Figured It Out...or, Why I Like Base Housing
Ok, a little background...
Mather AFB, CA - base housing
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ - 6 months in apt, then base housing
Little Rock AFB, AR - base housing
Pope AFB, NC - 6 months in apt, then base housing
Scott AFB, IL - off-base rental
Fort Leavenworth, KS - post housing
Scott AFB, IL - off-base rental
Maxwell AFB, AL - base housing
Pentagon, VA - off-base rental
It should be obvious...we like to live on base.
We've never owned our own home. We're probably the only people we know that have never bought a house. We have lots of friends who buy everywhere they go. They've made lots of money trading up. They've enjoyed a nice, big house in the suburbs, living amongst the townsfolk. We're not grown up enough to take that plunge. We're the ones who would get stuck with the house payment and nobody to rent it out...or there would be a flood or tornado or some major component of the house would need repaired or replaced and we'd be responsible...NO THANKS! We'll wait til the Air Force part of our life is over and then think about buying that "dream home".
Our taste of the suburbs has twice been assignments to Scott AFB. The first time we rented in Shiloh, a small community between O'Fallon and Belleville. It was nice. We rented it sight-unseen. It was a beautiful looking home on the outside and not too old, how bad could it be on the inside?! (It was nice on the inside too! My favorite layout of any home we've lived in.) The second time, we rented in O'Fallon, from a former co-worker of Nort's. It was a very nice home as well.
Being that the Pentagon doesn't have any housing, our options here were somewhat limited. On-post housing at Ft. Myer or Ft. Belvoir was going to be impossible. We certainly weren't going to buy. Renting was it for us. We were fortunate to have a friend in the area that found this house for us. It's nice, don't get me wrong. But, now that we've been here in VA for a month or so, I've finally figured out why I like living on base better than renting. (There are more than one reason, but I'm going for the biggie here.)
I'M NOT COMFORTABLE LIVING IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S HOUSE!
There, I said it. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. Like I said, there are plenty of other reasons...convenience, friends for Walker and TR, being with people who are "like" you, etc. The biggie for me is knowing that this is somebody else's house/home. How can you feel comfortable when the entire time you're there you're worried about scratching the hardwood floors, keeping dirty fingerprints off the walls, maintaining the yard so the neighbors don't think you're a slacker, wondering how many nail holes is too many...
When I'm in base housing, I know the house doesn't belong to anybody. I can make it my own. I can hang up whatever I want and someone else will fill in the nail holes when I leave. The walls may be that boring off-white base housing color, but it's ok with me. I actually prefer it to the lemon yellow kitchen that I'm currently sporting (which I would never choose) or the entirely faux finished/ragged/sponged bedrooms, again in colors that I would never choose, that we had in O'Fallon. Base housing is like a blank slate for me...painted and accessorized is just a reminder that "you are not the homeowner - watch what you're doing".
I'm having an incredibly hard time getting settled in this house. I can't get comfortable. At least now I know why.
Mather AFB, CA - base housing
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ - 6 months in apt, then base housing
Little Rock AFB, AR - base housing
Pope AFB, NC - 6 months in apt, then base housing
Scott AFB, IL - off-base rental
Fort Leavenworth, KS - post housing
Scott AFB, IL - off-base rental
Maxwell AFB, AL - base housing
Pentagon, VA - off-base rental
It should be obvious...we like to live on base.
We've never owned our own home. We're probably the only people we know that have never bought a house. We have lots of friends who buy everywhere they go. They've made lots of money trading up. They've enjoyed a nice, big house in the suburbs, living amongst the townsfolk. We're not grown up enough to take that plunge. We're the ones who would get stuck with the house payment and nobody to rent it out...or there would be a flood or tornado or some major component of the house would need repaired or replaced and we'd be responsible...NO THANKS! We'll wait til the Air Force part of our life is over and then think about buying that "dream home".
Our taste of the suburbs has twice been assignments to Scott AFB. The first time we rented in Shiloh, a small community between O'Fallon and Belleville. It was nice. We rented it sight-unseen. It was a beautiful looking home on the outside and not too old, how bad could it be on the inside?! (It was nice on the inside too! My favorite layout of any home we've lived in.) The second time, we rented in O'Fallon, from a former co-worker of Nort's. It was a very nice home as well.
Being that the Pentagon doesn't have any housing, our options here were somewhat limited. On-post housing at Ft. Myer or Ft. Belvoir was going to be impossible. We certainly weren't going to buy. Renting was it for us. We were fortunate to have a friend in the area that found this house for us. It's nice, don't get me wrong. But, now that we've been here in VA for a month or so, I've finally figured out why I like living on base better than renting. (There are more than one reason, but I'm going for the biggie here.)
I'M NOT COMFORTABLE LIVING IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S HOUSE!
There, I said it. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. Like I said, there are plenty of other reasons...convenience, friends for Walker and TR, being with people who are "like" you, etc. The biggie for me is knowing that this is somebody else's house/home. How can you feel comfortable when the entire time you're there you're worried about scratching the hardwood floors, keeping dirty fingerprints off the walls, maintaining the yard so the neighbors don't think you're a slacker, wondering how many nail holes is too many...
When I'm in base housing, I know the house doesn't belong to anybody. I can make it my own. I can hang up whatever I want and someone else will fill in the nail holes when I leave. The walls may be that boring off-white base housing color, but it's ok with me. I actually prefer it to the lemon yellow kitchen that I'm currently sporting (which I would never choose) or the entirely faux finished/ragged/sponged bedrooms, again in colors that I would never choose, that we had in O'Fallon. Base housing is like a blank slate for me...painted and accessorized is just a reminder that "you are not the homeowner - watch what you're doing".
I'm having an incredibly hard time getting settled in this house. I can't get comfortable. At least now I know why.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
No Expectations
Well, it's our last night in Montgomery. I have to admit, I never thought I'd become so attached to a place so foreign to me. I'm from Iowa. What do I know about the South?! Did I become attached to the place or the people...probably a combination of both.
We headed to Maxwell for an exciting new job - SOS squadron commander. Yikes! Yeah, that was scary. Were we really old enough to be squadron commander/spouse? I'm nowhere near being one of those spouses better known as "the hostess with the mostest". Was I ready to be the one that other spouses called if they needed something?
For some reason I've always been more interested in the "job" portion of my husband's assignment rather than the "spouse" portion. I used to be able to tell you how many fire extinguishers there are on a C-130 and where they are located...I used to be able to chum a chart...I knew all the Ft. Bragg drop zones and the difference between CDS and HE. I never had a huge desire to sit around with other spouses and drink coffee or make small talk.
However, the spouses I met here at Maxwell were something different. Most of them were...for lack of a better term, "non-expecting". I don't know if that's really a word or not, but it's what fits. They didn't expect me to be "all that". They weren't wearing white gloves to anything...thank God! They were just regular spouses who were doing their best to support their Airman. I found that to be true of most of the spouses I ran into at Maxwell, not just those in our squadron/school...like our AF friends from TKD and our neighbors here on base. It was relaxing and refreshing to just be friends...not being outcast or avoided because my husband's job title was squadron commander.
It's going to sound like I'm switching gears here, but I need to take an aside...
The one thing I've learned in my 19+ years of AF life is that it's easier to NOT say goodbye to people. I don't mean the "our paths will cross again" type of goodbye...I'm talking about the "go to dinner/hugs/pictures/etc" type of goodbye. This our 9th PCS. There was a time when we made it a point to make sure to find everyone and say a "proper" goodbye. They were nice, but they were so painful. Somewhere along the line, we missed saying goodbye to someone and it felt a little bit easier. You're talking to a person, knowing in the back of your mind that it will probably be the last time you see or talk to them, but you don't mention it and you go on about your business as if you'll see them again tomorrow. It sounds so cold in black and white, but it works so much better for me.
So, for those of you that may not have gotten a "proper" goodbye from me, please don't take it personally. I'm being slightly selfish. Thanks for understanding.
We headed to Maxwell for an exciting new job - SOS squadron commander. Yikes! Yeah, that was scary. Were we really old enough to be squadron commander/spouse? I'm nowhere near being one of those spouses better known as "the hostess with the mostest". Was I ready to be the one that other spouses called if they needed something?
For some reason I've always been more interested in the "job" portion of my husband's assignment rather than the "spouse" portion. I used to be able to tell you how many fire extinguishers there are on a C-130 and where they are located...I used to be able to chum a chart...I knew all the Ft. Bragg drop zones and the difference between CDS and HE. I never had a huge desire to sit around with other spouses and drink coffee or make small talk.
However, the spouses I met here at Maxwell were something different. Most of them were...for lack of a better term, "non-expecting". I don't know if that's really a word or not, but it's what fits. They didn't expect me to be "all that". They weren't wearing white gloves to anything...thank God! They were just regular spouses who were doing their best to support their Airman. I found that to be true of most of the spouses I ran into at Maxwell, not just those in our squadron/school...like our AF friends from TKD and our neighbors here on base. It was relaxing and refreshing to just be friends...not being outcast or avoided because my husband's job title was squadron commander.
It's going to sound like I'm switching gears here, but I need to take an aside...
The one thing I've learned in my 19+ years of AF life is that it's easier to NOT say goodbye to people. I don't mean the "our paths will cross again" type of goodbye...I'm talking about the "go to dinner/hugs/pictures/etc" type of goodbye. This our 9th PCS. There was a time when we made it a point to make sure to find everyone and say a "proper" goodbye. They were nice, but they were so painful. Somewhere along the line, we missed saying goodbye to someone and it felt a little bit easier. You're talking to a person, knowing in the back of your mind that it will probably be the last time you see or talk to them, but you don't mention it and you go on about your business as if you'll see them again tomorrow. It sounds so cold in black and white, but it works so much better for me.
So, for those of you that may not have gotten a "proper" goodbye from me, please don't take it personally. I'm being slightly selfish. Thanks for understanding.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
PCS Stories - Move #1
With our impending move fast approaching, I have been reminiscing about some of our past moves. Each move has particular memories for me. Some are the moving process itself, some are the people or the places. Every PCS has it's own story. We are entering the "older-than-most-everyone-else-in-the-Air-Force" crowd, so some of the things I mention have long since passed and will probably be totally foreign to many. Here goes.....
Move #1 - Ames, IA to Sacramento, CA (Mather AFB)...aka A big wad of cash, some sandwiches, and a dancing airman.
Mather AFB was an early BRAC victim. It was a great base! Fabulous location for new lieutenants (and their families) - 2 hours from the Sierras, 2 hours from San Francisco. Gas was cheap and you had nothing but time and money. Alas, this is not the big memory for me.
The first memory was going to Offutt AFB (Omaha, NE) to get our travel advance! By travel advance, I mean PCS money! There was no government travel card back then - thank God! We drove 3 hours to pick up cold, hard cash....I think it was about $2000 worth! As poor, just-graduated college students, we were going to move cheap and save a bunch of that cash.
I think the AF gave us 5-7 days to get from IA to CA. We divided up the drive and figured out where we would spend each night. (Remember those little books that the hotel chains used to put out that listed every hotel by state. We had all the books and checked all the prices!) The first night, we officially spent at Nort's parents' house in Kansas City; 2nd night - Denver (probably a Comfort Inn); 3rd night - Grand Junction, CO (Motel 6 - Yes, Motel 6); 4th night - Salt Lake City, UT (some "nice" hotel in the city that probably cost $75/night - that was our "fancy" hotel night); 5th night - make it to Mather AFB, CA.
We were going to save even more money by making some sandwiches to eat along the way instead of restaurants all the time. While in KC, we made about 4 hoagie-length sandwiches that we Saran-wrapped and stuck in the cooler with some chips and sodas (or "pop" as we called it back then). I remember stopping at a rest area near Hays, KS to eat lunch. It was windy! After 2 days of eating sandwiches, we threw the rest out and ate some fast food from then on. Oh, the other good travel story was the day we drove from Denver to Grand Junction. It was June. When we left KS it was pretty warm. Not quite that warm at the Continental Divide! We were in shorts and there was snow on the ground and it was freezing up there! We took some quick pictures and moved on.
The other memory from that move was our arrival at Mather. Driving up to an AF base gate back then was slightly intimidating. The gate guards all wore blues and white gloves. I remember one particular guard...I called him "Mr. Happy" because he was always smiling and waving and snapping a smart salute. Ah, those were the days...A smiling, happy gate guard. This guy used to have a routine, dare I call it a dance, for waving the cars through. He would wave his arms, spin around, blow his whistle, the whole nine yards. It was awesome!
Back then all of our belongings fit into that little part of the moving van that fits over the "5th wheel" area - I'm not a trucker, I don't know what it's officially called - but you know what I'm talking about. We took a minimal amount of stuff in our VW Golf - it had to make over the Rocky Mountains for crying out loud!!
So, some 18 months later, we'd load up the Golf again and head for AZ...but that's another blog post. Stay tuned.
Move #1 - Ames, IA to Sacramento, CA (Mather AFB)...aka A big wad of cash, some sandwiches, and a dancing airman.
Mather AFB was an early BRAC victim. It was a great base! Fabulous location for new lieutenants (and their families) - 2 hours from the Sierras, 2 hours from San Francisco. Gas was cheap and you had nothing but time and money. Alas, this is not the big memory for me.
The first memory was going to Offutt AFB (Omaha, NE) to get our travel advance! By travel advance, I mean PCS money! There was no government travel card back then - thank God! We drove 3 hours to pick up cold, hard cash....I think it was about $2000 worth! As poor, just-graduated college students, we were going to move cheap and save a bunch of that cash.
I think the AF gave us 5-7 days to get from IA to CA. We divided up the drive and figured out where we would spend each night. (Remember those little books that the hotel chains used to put out that listed every hotel by state. We had all the books and checked all the prices!) The first night, we officially spent at Nort's parents' house in Kansas City; 2nd night - Denver (probably a Comfort Inn); 3rd night - Grand Junction, CO (Motel 6 - Yes, Motel 6); 4th night - Salt Lake City, UT (some "nice" hotel in the city that probably cost $75/night - that was our "fancy" hotel night); 5th night - make it to Mather AFB, CA.
We were going to save even more money by making some sandwiches to eat along the way instead of restaurants all the time. While in KC, we made about 4 hoagie-length sandwiches that we Saran-wrapped and stuck in the cooler with some chips and sodas (or "pop" as we called it back then). I remember stopping at a rest area near Hays, KS to eat lunch. It was windy! After 2 days of eating sandwiches, we threw the rest out and ate some fast food from then on. Oh, the other good travel story was the day we drove from Denver to Grand Junction. It was June. When we left KS it was pretty warm. Not quite that warm at the Continental Divide! We were in shorts and there was snow on the ground and it was freezing up there! We took some quick pictures and moved on.
(Ok, we're old, but this picture does pre-date our time there!)
The other memory from that move was our arrival at Mather. Driving up to an AF base gate back then was slightly intimidating. The gate guards all wore blues and white gloves. I remember one particular guard...I called him "Mr. Happy" because he was always smiling and waving and snapping a smart salute. Ah, those were the days...A smiling, happy gate guard. This guy used to have a routine, dare I call it a dance, for waving the cars through. He would wave his arms, spin around, blow his whistle, the whole nine yards. It was awesome!
Back then all of our belongings fit into that little part of the moving van that fits over the "5th wheel" area - I'm not a trucker, I don't know what it's officially called - but you know what I'm talking about. We took a minimal amount of stuff in our VW Golf - it had to make over the Rocky Mountains for crying out loud!!
So, some 18 months later, we'd load up the Golf again and head for AZ...but that's another blog post. Stay tuned.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Anti-Smoking Commercial
As a mom, I'm appalled at this commercial. This little boy is not old enough to understand that his mother has not actually left him at this busy train station. I understand the point behind the ad...I understand that CPS was on-scene. I don't have to like it.
I think any mom I know would agree with me that this boy's tears are REAL - he is NOT acting. It brings me to tears!
I think any mom I know would agree with me that this boy's tears are REAL - he is NOT acting. It brings me to tears!
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