I'm Back.... well sort of

Since things have been soooo crazy this summer our blog has suffered quite terribly. BUT I am hoping to get back on the wagon starting in October. So, those of you in the family who have given up on me, hang tight. Love you all and will post soon.

Behind in posts but trying to catch up!

     Here are some extra photos from our recent travels. First MOVING DAY. They brought this ginormous truck and I thought surely with all the stuff we have sold off they didn't need such a big one. Well, I was wrong, we nearly filled it up. I was so surprised. Even though the military paid for movers, I still spent too much time taking down pictures (was told to, found out I didn't need to), sorting cords (ditto) and more. In the long run I am glad I did it because it will arrive more organized, etc. Let's hope it arrives tomorrow as planned! It is already a week late!!

    On our trip down to Alabama (and after graduation) there was some fun stuff. We passed a rocket. Really. I think it is for some sort of aerospace museum or something. Yah, I didn't really care. lol

    After Mike's graduation, we all headed over to Bass Pro Shop. It seemed a bit bigger than the one in Texas, but I may be wrong because everything in Texas is supposed to be bigger!!!

     Katherine gave a bear a run for his money and all the kids tried their hand at shooting. Parent's did too and I have to say Mama is a pretty good shot! Potential burglars beware! 


    Now if we can get all of our stuff tomorrow I can then get settled in and go back and share some photos of the July 4th weekend fun!! Please shoot up a prayer or two and hopefully we will all be in our own beds tomorrow night in our new home on the base! The kids need toys and play time desperately and Daddy and Mommy need no more hotel confinement! 

HE DID IT!!!

    After 5 weeks in the heat of Montgomery, AL my sweetie finally realized his dream and graduated as an officer in the UNITED STATES AIR FORCE!! He looked so handsome in his uniform. The celebration took place over two days. The first was the awards ceremony where his squadron won Honor Squadron. 

   Mike's mom Susie (AKA Gigi) flew in to Indy to drive down with the kids and me and I am forever grateful for all her help!! Not only did she do all the driving the entire way there but also cleaned the whole house before we left. I have the best mother in law EVER!! Mike's sisters Christy (AKA KAKA) and Kimberly (AKA BOBO) drove in from Texas. Love you guys and so glad you could all be there!! 

    The second day was an awesome "parade" where each group marched past the distinguished guests, commander and other higher ranking folks. Again he looked so cute! If you look close you can see him. He was second row back second from the right side. It was hotter than heck and they had practiced this event several times a day for several days. We were all sweaty and hot at the end (kids miserable the entire time) but so happy to see Daddy say his oath and be sworn in to active duty.

    Although I have posted some of these on FB I know some of you may not have seen them yet. Since we are still not in our new home, and this is my first day with internet in a week, I apologize for not having uploaded sooner. By far though my favorite picture has been the one of Katherine greeting Daddy after his graduation. They looked so precious and you can see how excited she is about seeing her Daddy again!! We are so excited about this new phase in our lives!!! Thanks to all of your for your support and prayers!!

Course Work.....

     So the flight has been participating in a Leadership Reaction Course or LRC this week. It's when they face a physical obstacle, and using both physical strength and balance, have to solve a mental problem using team work (all rolled into one).
     Each team has is given a task to complete and they area quite complicated. Although the leader is "in charge" they work together as a team to solve the course problem and they are tricky. Mike was in charge of 2 of the harder problems this week and unfortunately they were not able to complete the mission within the time constraint. BUT on a much better note, a team he was on smashed a course record by 2 minutes and were recognized for it. Very cool. 
    To give you an idea of how difficult these are, out of his entire flight only 4 of 15 missions were completed. Pictures are not allowed to be taken on these so these photos are from another activity they were involved in. It's called the WLPS course. It involves orienteering, team work and problem solving. 

Romeo Raptors

Fly, Fight and Win!! In the air, space and cyberspace!!

GOOD GRIEF!!
    So I just spent about an hour trying to get my blog a little more 'snazzy'. I like how it looks, but it took waaaay too long. I know there has to be an easier way... any hooooo...
    I have been able to talk to Mike daily which is good but I am missing him terribly (we all are) which is bad. Katherine informed me yesterday, "I wish you had to go to training and not Daddy". Ouch. Yes, she is her Daddy's girl!
    He and his flight got to go out on base this past weekend. Some of them went out for pizza and bowling. They had a good time bonding and getting a little down time. No pix though. Since Mike hasn't been able to send pictures I have been pilfering from his flight mate's Facebook pages. Here are a few of the latest from COT!

    Notice that you see no one traveling alone. One is not allowed to go anywhere on base without a buddy (making mothers everywhere quite happy). The only downer is, you have to wait for a buddy when you want to go somewhere, which can be a hassle. 

    This one I put on FB but it was too small to really see anything. Doesn't my honey look so cute in his ABU's. Or as we common folk call them, "cammos". 

    This was an assignment for the flight. They had to think of one word to describe what being an Air Force Officer meant to them. Mike's is the one that says "Honor". 

104 + humidity = misery

Mike and his flight mates from Romeo Raptors!

     And my absolute favorite pic of all (unfortunately a little blurry) is this picture of my sweetie in his "blues" that they got to wear for the first time this week. Look how skinny he is. The boy is down to 206 pounds. 

    The kids and I sent Mike a care package last week. We put some of his favorite chips, candies, nuts and beef jerky in there. Trying to fatten him back up. His 40th b-day is this Thursday so we sent him another goody package today. Hope it gets there in time. Another b-day present, he gets off of medical restrictions tomorrow and will get to participate again. Nothing like sweating and running around on your birthday!

ROMEO RAPTORS

This was the group on a stationary truck from days gone by that sits on the base.

Mike's flight "Romeo Raptors" took on the assault course this last week. Unfortunately Mike wasn't able to participate because of his knees. He was a spotter and cheered on his flight mates. 

 

Mike is hoping to get to join in the ropes course this week. Send up a prayer for those knees!! He has 2 weeks down and 3 to go. He did score a 94% on his first of 2 tests! Way to go sweetie!!! He and his flight spent ALL WEEKEND studying for it!! One another positive note, they get to wear their blues this week. Can't wait to see pictures!!!

Ouch my knees....


Poor Mike has been having some more trouble with his knees the past few days. He was already having troubles before going to COT but the constant walking, marching, stand up, sit down, little sleep, etc. is taking a toll. He is going to have to opt out of PT this week (Dr.'s orders) in order to let them rest some and will go see the doc again next week. Since he did so well on his PT baseline test, that is a good bit of insurance for him. Please keep praying for those knees though. He is a little bummed as he will be missing out on the obstacle course today.
    On the bright side, I was able to get a few more pix from one of Mike's flight-mates. This is a few of them taking a bus to chapel last Sunday. It's too far to walk.

         Here is a picture of his dorm. It looks pretty on the outside but the air conditioner hasn't been all that great. No fun trying to sleep in a room that is 80 degrees.

         Please keep praying for his safety and health and that the time would pass quickly. Well not too quickly, I still have quite a few things on my to-do list. ;-)  

First picture!

Ta da! Here is my honey in his ABU's with a fellow Chaplain candidate!

whoops
Apparently I got all the stats wrong on Mike's PT test. lol They have been corrected.

Latest from COT
    Got to talk to Mike today. He said he did really well for his baseline PT test this morning. He did about 45-47 (I forgot) push ups and sit ups. I think they are given 1 minute. I will have to ask. He ran a 12 minute 1 1/2 mile too. He said even though they have to wake up at 4:30 and he is running on very little sleep, he wakes up a little early each day out of excitement!
    He has an academic test tomorrow then actually gets a little break over the weekend since Monday is a holiday. I thought for sure it wouldn't be for them. That was a nice surprise.
    Yesterday he was the first one to volunteer to lead his flight (his group of about 15). He said he got yelled at quite a bit and corrected quite a bit (as they all do all day long) but said he really enjoyed it. Nothing like having to march 15 folks who all still have no real clue how to march. lol He did get a compliment as he was the only flight leader of the many for the class of 290 who did a certain procedure correctly. That was pretty cool.

    The kids are holding up well. They go back and forth between playing well together then fighting over nothing. I do sense an improvement in attitude overall since school has been out though. They love playing with friends, but have also been very creative this week when playing together. The most recent fun, they played that they were "meeps" whose job it was to save the world. They all had a pair of stockings on their head. It was precious!

Getting Ready and Saying Good-bye

Mike got all of his gear packed up and ready to go the other night. It is amazing how much stuff you can pack into one of those duffle bags!

We couldn't believe it was already here, the time to say good-bye. Although we are so excited about this new endeavor, there is never really a good way to prepare for being apart. Mike got each of the kids a little gift that he gave them the morning he left and he wrote a letter for each of them to be opened in the coming weeks.

  Getting their goodies

The saying good-bye part was ok, but you could tell the kids were a little sad getting "just one more hug" over and over from Daddy.

I absolutely LOVE this picture of my boys!

But as Mike prepared to drive away, Katherine burst out crying yelling, "I LOVE YOU DADDY, I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO!!". Oh boy, I almost lost it at that point. Here is the picture I caught right as she started the water works and was wiping away her tears.

During his training, he will be busy and out of contact most of the time. Although we have already heard  bits and pieces of his adventure via text and a quick call. Today he told me he is the 'dad figure' of his flight and already the guys are coming to him with questions and to borrow supplies they didn't think to bring. He said it's not the "full metal jacket" experience he expected, but then again time will tell. 

Please continue to pray and I will keep you all updated as I get new info from Mike. Don't forget to send him a card or letter if you can. If I didn't already send you the address, email or call me and I will get it to you.

Hugs,

Robin

TESTING

Hey everyone, I am going to try and keep our blog up to date so I can post what Mike sends me while he is in COT and what we are doing as well. Please send me a quick email to let me know if this post came to you via email. I am not sure what I am doing so I don't know if I did this right.

PS attaching a picture for fun.

Jakob's 9th birthday party.

Wii celebrated Jakob's big day with a Wii themed party. We had 5 boys over from his class and let them loose to play. We stopped for a snack break, then later a goody bag break, then cake and ice cream/gift break. It was so laid back it was shameful! Even the Wii remote cake was really easy to make. Now, taking a sibling picture, that was another story!