Moment of the Week

 Playing ALL WEEK with this fun new toys friends.  

Nate's taking me to dinner( but I have to pay)

We were young and I think its fair to say that 'we were married in a fever'  But we have had a great first 10 years.  And I can't wait to see how the next ten unfold....

Today is the last day of this deployment that I have been dreading.  Wishing Dave was here today is a huge understatement. Just one more month!

Sandbox Salutations wk 23

Merry Christmas

Just some Christmas cheer and fun from work!

Mom sent some lights and a tree and some stockings, I could think of no better place to put them  than inside my truck.  Afterall, this is where I spent all Christmas Eve.  The stockings say: Dave, Juan (the other shifts Driver, also my roomate), and CC's for all the Crew Chiefs.

Somebody left some milk and cookies on the fire extinguisher...Possibly the next best place since we dont have a chimney.

A Santa Sighting... He later launched out an aircraft.

I also got to spend Christmas morning with Teresa and Nate.  Here is the thing he has been asking Santa for for the longest time.  He just loves Cars!  really, who doesn't?

And here is the next best thing to Cars, anything with Toy Story.  He got everything a little boy could want.  It's kinda funny, if you look at Teresa's post you can see her same pic from her angle.  It's like a family photo in a way.

Thank you all for the gifts and cards that were sent our way here in the desert and back in South Dakota.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas

We hope your Christmas morning was merry and jolly!  Ours was!  Dave woke up to skype with us.  I had a hard time getting photos of him opening things because he so quickly would run to show Dave.  I should have had the camera in action mode!!

Santa brought Nathan a Woody!!  And a Bullseye!!

AND the CARS 2 movie!!  If you have spoken to Nate in the past three months you know that is what he REALLY REALLY wanted!

Nate had a very merry morning.  

loads of loot... Cars undies from Anna, a John Deere tractor and horses from G & G Brinker, a pillow blanket from G & G Staten, a Toy Story hide and seek tent from cousin Drew, Hungry Hungry Hippos from us, a car from his Godparents, a construction kit from Great Aunt Margret and Great Uncle Doug, and a couple books and lacing puzzles from Aunt Jackie and Uncle Cody!!

his own super hero cape from the Maddisons

Lots of ripping and tearing

And thankfully LOTS of smiles and laughter!  I'm so happy that this Christmas was still happy even though Dave isn't here

Lots of fun new things to keep us busy for the next month!!

Luckier

 I know this deployment is a huge bummer.  I hate it actually.  But I know we are lucky as heck to be apart in the year 2011.  Because tonight Nate got to skype with his dad while we put cookies out for Santa and an apple out for the reindeer.  Dave said prayers with him, and watched me pull boogies out of Nate's nose.  

And tomorrow, hopefully we can skype again when Nate wakes up and opens gifts.  

While I often complain about my deployment burdens, I know there are still guys deployed that don't have internet everyday, and cant be as connected as we are.  There are a lot of moms and dads that didn't get to tuck their kids in via skype and I hope everyone remembers them!!

P.S.  Notice Nate hung a measuring cup on the tree a couple days ago... I'm just gonna let it go.  He's a good kid.   

What a difference six months makes

Nate and I went to Storybook Island tonight after supper.  Six months ago it looked like this.  Nate and I both loved it.  He rode the train again.  We got hot chocolate.  

Merry Christmas Eve eve

Moment of the Week

Filling up

 My normal shopping day is Tuesday, so imagine my surprise when I went this morning and the commissary was EMPTY!  I mean there were a couple other people, but seriously no line at the check out, got a great parking spot, and I got in and out FAST! Incredible!  Normally they have five registers open and I wait for 20 minutes, not today!  I'm declaring it a Christmas Miracle!!

I got my normal meals stuff, and I was able to figure out a little Christmas Dinner for the two of us.  I was pleasantly surprised!  The only thing I didn't find little packages of was the stuffing, but the stuffing is the most important part to me so I wasn't going to stove top it!   I can probably make half a bag so its all good!  I even found mini apple pies and a four pack of my favorite dinner rolls!  I think that's a little Christmas Miracle-ish too!!  After our four years in Japan potato buds don't offend me anymore, so it will be a-okay for this little Christmas dinner to include cheater potatoes and gravy!

Our tree is filling up with gifts, we have been getting a package every other day for the past week!  

Our mailbox has been full of Christmas cards too!  Yesterday we had nine in our mailbox!

I hope your tree, fridge and mailbox have been filling up with fun Christmas things too!

Sandbox Salutations wk 22

It's beginning to look....... a little like Christmas?

I walked outside my bunk one night and saw this.  I thought it was hilarious and a little sad.  But to tell you the truth, the less christmasy stuff there is around i think is the better.  The more decorations I see and the more that people talk about it just makes me even more homesick.  It's hard enough to be away from my wife and kid, but it's even harder to celebrate a joyous occasion when I know that I can't be there with them.  One comforting note though, my day off next week is Christmas day in the states.  So that means that I can at least webcam with Teresa and Nate while they wake up and sit around the tree opening their gifts.

Merry Christmas All.

One last note

A lot of you may remember my truck Lucy from earlier post and all the issues I had with her.  Well I got her back for quite a while but then she finally died for good this time.  She blew an engine, go figure.  I guess it's from all the oil she was burning.  But now I have a Diesel truck that has both A/C and heat, but is uglier than heck.  It has paint missing from every panel, it's all faded and greasy.  But it's not all bad, at least she runs and I don't have to fill the oil every day.

Jolly

I have not been super in the spirit this year.  I love the tree, but still this Christmas just ain't gonna be that fun.  But today I made an effort.  

 We started the day with a yummy breakfast.

 I used a ton of butter

 Cut out cookies

 Baked up cookies

 colored frosting

 Frosted 

 frosted and frosted.  

Nate helped with the sprinkles a little bit.  Can you tell which star in the previous photo he did??

Packaging up the cookies is my least favorite part.  

And the dishes.  If you come wash these up for me I'll give you a cookie!!

Day 153

pretty sunset

temps in the 50s

picked up a ton of dog poop 

the weekends are the worst.

Moment of the Week

You probably haven't noticed, but we haven't had a moment of the week since August!  Nobody complained, but still I am reinstating Moment of the Week.  

I took this two days ago actually when I realized how skimpy the skittles are getting.  Now the oranges are ALL GONE, purple will be the next color taken out!

Lovin' the Fog Freeze

 Yesterday was foggy all day!  And there was a little fog freeze.  But today there is even more.  Its gorgeous!  Like incredible.  I forgot how pretty it was.  Well, I knew it was pretty, but when its like this I just cant stop staring at everything.  One of the prettiest things I have ever seen ever!

The bagger that took my groceries out today at the commi said she thought it looked like a movie it was so gorgeous.  I agree.  

SandBox Salutations Wk 21

These past few weeks have been Flying by, it feels good to say that we are close to the middle of December.  This next week brings us even closer to going home, not just in time but in milestone as well.  This week we get the first of many swap out jets that are from the squadron that will replace us in January.  It will be a lot of work, but a good feeling to know that we are that much closer to the end.  This week I got a morale box from Rebecca that had lots of goodies.

The punchballons were by far the biggest hit.  It took me a long time to get these guys back the flight-line for work.

Then later that day, while were waiting for a jet to come down, they started to hit the balloon back and forth in the back of the truck.

It may not be the conventional fun everyone else is use to, but when you get bored out of your mind from working all the time, anything to break the monotony can be the greatest thing ever, no matter how childish it may seem.  the got so worked up, that this one took a nap.

Thank you Rebecca for providing a full day of fun!