Well, just a couple days after our USAF family's loss, my husband climbed back into the plane.
Was I nervous? TERRIBLY! Was it all going to be ok? Yes.
In short, Tuesday night, I didn't go to sleep. I woke up hubby at 130 to get ready to go in. He went in and was to take off in the wee hours. I sat on my porch for an hour, watching the lightning storm all around us, waiting on the plane to take off. It pops into my view and it was beautiful. I knew they had gotten underway.
Things in life can often be thought of as learning to ride a bike. You fall off the bike, only to get back on, quickly preferably, and try try again. Training in the military is often like that too. To ensure our freedoms, they must be ready at a moment's notice. An our hearts all still are broken about the crash in Guam, but to honor those we lost and continue to be mission ready, the rest of our airmen must go on. Hard to let DH go out the door, but he has to do what he must. :*)
Continue holding the families in prayers. We are missing a group of fine aviators and doctor. May they have comfort at this time.
24 July 2008
22 July 2008
Our Family
... not my blood family, but my Air Force family, sadly has lost some more members. In a community where there are only two bases, the chances that someone you know was either on the plane, or friends with someone who was, are pretty good.
Yesterday's crash in Guam hits so close to home for us. We live the life, see the B52s flying daily as we do our daily activities. It's one of the most awesome planes to see in flight. My youngest is learning to appreciate that bird in the sky now that he's old enough to know about them. When the C-130 was spraying for skeeters, Matthew asked, "Is that a B52?"
Sometimes in our lives, military or civilian, we become complacement, don't think that tomorrow might be our last. After having been out of the community for over five years, my husband climbing back in the cockpit of the BUFF didn't make me nervous. Those first ten years, I hated his flying, dreaded those days, and just was glad to hear his voice on the phone saying "I'm on the ground. I'll be home in a little while." Until yesterday morning, I had kind of taken for granted the idea, and just kissed him goodbye each flight, and would see him later in the day, or early in the morning. Not any more. I will make the most of our time together, love and live like it's the last time. This certainly isn't a wonderful assignment, but I am blessed to have my boys and my husband here. We must bloom where planted, and while it might be hard, my family (blood and AF) are here with me and part of me.
So tonight, as I head to bed, might we remember the words Ronald Reagan quoted after the Challenger, written by Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, who was killed 11 December 1941.
HIGH FLIGHT
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Yesterday's crash in Guam hits so close to home for us. We live the life, see the B52s flying daily as we do our daily activities. It's one of the most awesome planes to see in flight. My youngest is learning to appreciate that bird in the sky now that he's old enough to know about them. When the C-130 was spraying for skeeters, Matthew asked, "Is that a B52?"
Sometimes in our lives, military or civilian, we become complacement, don't think that tomorrow might be our last. After having been out of the community for over five years, my husband climbing back in the cockpit of the BUFF didn't make me nervous. Those first ten years, I hated his flying, dreaded those days, and just was glad to hear his voice on the phone saying "I'm on the ground. I'll be home in a little while." Until yesterday morning, I had kind of taken for granted the idea, and just kissed him goodbye each flight, and would see him later in the day, or early in the morning. Not any more. I will make the most of our time together, love and live like it's the last time. This certainly isn't a wonderful assignment, but I am blessed to have my boys and my husband here. We must bloom where planted, and while it might be hard, my family (blood and AF) are here with me and part of me.
So tonight, as I head to bed, might we remember the words Ronald Reagan quoted after the Challenger, written by Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, who was killed 11 December 1941.
HIGH FLIGHT
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Lord, be with those families tonight who await word on their loved ones. Lord bless and keep them. May they know they're not alone. Give them strength and peace, even in this moment. Lord, just wrap them in your loving arms and comfort them. Amen.
21 July 2008
Road Update
It was opened the other day :) YAY! No more watching those needing reading comprehension classes come down our street to only turn around.
It's so much quicker getting off this flipping base now! :)
It's so much quicker getting off this flipping base now! :)
It's That Time of Year...
Summer! Bugs! STATE FAIR TIME!
Somehow we missed out on this the first time here, but will probably go today to take in the great NoDak State Fair. After growing up on Ohio's version (and being to the California fair once), I'm not so sure how underwhelemed I'll be when it's said and done. How much better can it be than the butter cow and milkshakes? Ohio has the dairy area, complete with butter sculpture, ice cream and milkshakes. It is a MUST DO stop while there. It was probably my favorite thing to do at the fair, other than the commercial buildings. (I want a shamwow... what are the odds that they'd have that in Minot?)
BUTTER SCULPTURE FACTS
• The butter sculpture tradition began at the Ohio State Fair in the early 1900s, when Ohio State University and dairy processors sponsored sculpting contests. The appearance of the butter cow and calf became an annual fair tradition in the 1920s, after the Dairy Products Building opened.
• In the 1960s, the display's sponsors — the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council Mid-East — added another featured sculpture, usually a human celebrity with an Ohio connection.
• Featured sculptures over the years have included: astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, professional golfer Jack Nicklaus, Star Wars' villain Darth Vader, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, A Tribute to the Columbus Zoo and A Tribute to Milk Delivery.
• About 1,000 pounds of butter are used for the displays.
• About 500,000 people visit the sculptures every year.
• Butter sculptures have gained national attention. In 1987, the sculpture of Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, of suburban Columbus, appeared on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman. In 1997, Sports Illustrated featured a photo of the butter sculpture tribute to Ohio State football coach John Cooper. (Hmmmmm, there's a mistake some would rather forget! LOL)
A short story with pic of cow, from the Lantern, tOSUs student paper... http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2005/08/11/Campus/Butter.Cow.Is.Udderly.Popular-966584.shtml
Some more pics of works.... I guess I might actually really go today to the fair here.... it has to be OK. http://www.dispatch.com/live/foundation/slideshow.jsp?file=/multimedia/daily_slideshows/2007/07/fairbutter.html&image=1&adsec=multimedia&tot=10
Did you know they claim 250,000 attendees at the fair here? Hopefully they don't all come this afternoon. I'm not one for crowds.
I'm off to get ready for the day... make sure I have the camera... maybe NoDak has something awesome like the butter sculpture. I'm feeling kind of young thinking about the dairy area in Columbus. :)
Somehow we missed out on this the first time here, but will probably go today to take in the great NoDak State Fair. After growing up on Ohio's version (and being to the California fair once), I'm not so sure how underwhelemed I'll be when it's said and done. How much better can it be than the butter cow and milkshakes? Ohio has the dairy area, complete with butter sculpture, ice cream and milkshakes. It is a MUST DO stop while there. It was probably my favorite thing to do at the fair, other than the commercial buildings. (I want a shamwow... what are the odds that they'd have that in Minot?)
BUTTER SCULPTURE FACTS
• The butter sculpture tradition began at the Ohio State Fair in the early 1900s, when Ohio State University and dairy processors sponsored sculpting contests. The appearance of the butter cow and calf became an annual fair tradition in the 1920s, after the Dairy Products Building opened.
• In the 1960s, the display's sponsors — the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council Mid-East — added another featured sculpture, usually a human celebrity with an Ohio connection.
• Featured sculptures over the years have included: astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, professional golfer Jack Nicklaus, Star Wars' villain Darth Vader, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, A Tribute to the Columbus Zoo and A Tribute to Milk Delivery.
• About 1,000 pounds of butter are used for the displays.
• About 500,000 people visit the sculptures every year.
• Butter sculptures have gained national attention. In 1987, the sculpture of Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, of suburban Columbus, appeared on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman. In 1997, Sports Illustrated featured a photo of the butter sculpture tribute to Ohio State football coach John Cooper. (Hmmmmm, there's a mistake some would rather forget! LOL)
A short story with pic of cow, from the Lantern, tOSUs student paper... http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2005/08/11/Campus/Butter.Cow.Is.Udderly.Popular-966584.shtml
Some more pics of works.... I guess I might actually really go today to the fair here.... it has to be OK. http://www.dispatch.com/live/foundation/slideshow.jsp?file=/multimedia/daily_slideshows/2007/07/fairbutter.html&image=1&adsec=multimedia&tot=10
Did you know they claim 250,000 attendees at the fair here? Hopefully they don't all come this afternoon. I'm not one for crowds.
I'm off to get ready for the day... make sure I have the camera... maybe NoDak has something awesome like the butter sculpture. I'm feeling kind of young thinking about the dairy area in Columbus. :)
16 July 2008
Y-town Boys Do It Again!
Shout out to the Ohio boys.......... Thanks for doing the deed and killing the skeeters off! :D
The C-130, like this one, were in town last night to spray the base and today the town of Minot. They come out of Ohio to help care for the bad bugs! They have been out in force the last few nights making sitting on the porch terrible! The bites on my legs suck, so to speak.
Anyways... I'm so happy for this event. Hopefully the spray will do some good, and not kill off our birds that live in the ditch eating up skeeters.
12 July 2008
Discovery
I went to the casino last weekend and spent a fun several hours in Newtown ND. Ok, TECHNICALLY, it's west of Newtown. :) Hard to believe that place started the same year we were first so lucky to be assigned here in Minot.
Driving home at 2 in the morning, one sometimes is enlightened to things. One of them last weekend? A reason to remember for a positive about being in the middle of nowhere! SERIOUSLY.
Until you get out from the "city lights" of Minot or the base, you don't realize just how many stars there really are in the sky at night. It was like someone threw white dots on a piece of black paper, and not a small amount of them.
So, my understanding is there are meteor showers to behold next month. My suggestion for folks? Drive 30 or 40 miles out of town, somewhere that NO ONE LIVES, and get comfy. You'll be shown an amazing sight! I suggest highly finding a quiet road with no one. SERIOUSLY. The road to Newtown? There are lonely fires burning from the oil wells that are popping up on the prairie these days. No houses. Just wells. And deer. And coyotes. I think that is the kind of sky God was thinking of and showed to Abraham when talking about his descendants. Not necessarily the ND sky, but that's ok.
ND does have a cool sky at night when you can get away from "cities." Enjoy your own sky wherever you are! Even my hometown area where I grew up had that same chance of seeing lots and lots and lots of stars.
Driving home at 2 in the morning, one sometimes is enlightened to things. One of them last weekend? A reason to remember for a positive about being in the middle of nowhere! SERIOUSLY.
Until you get out from the "city lights" of Minot or the base, you don't realize just how many stars there really are in the sky at night. It was like someone threw white dots on a piece of black paper, and not a small amount of them.
So, my understanding is there are meteor showers to behold next month. My suggestion for folks? Drive 30 or 40 miles out of town, somewhere that NO ONE LIVES, and get comfy. You'll be shown an amazing sight! I suggest highly finding a quiet road with no one. SERIOUSLY. The road to Newtown? There are lonely fires burning from the oil wells that are popping up on the prairie these days. No houses. Just wells. And deer. And coyotes. I think that is the kind of sky God was thinking of and showed to Abraham when talking about his descendants. Not necessarily the ND sky, but that's ok.
ND does have a cool sky at night when you can get away from "cities." Enjoy your own sky wherever you are! Even my hometown area where I grew up had that same chance of seeing lots and lots and lots of stars.
Quote for Today
"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed."
– From Baltasar Gracin y Morales
– From Baltasar Gracin y Morales
01 July 2008
Miss North Dakota
Just an update on the young officer representing Minot in the Miss ND contest.
Well, she is the first runner up! And there's even a contest for that position in this country. In the base paper, she says she's not sure she'll compete in it, but at least her future didn't end at the pageant. Miss Harper did well! YAY!
The Minot paper article: http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/516180.html
And the base paper, http://www.northernsentry.com/mafb%20internet%202.pdf Nice article about her and her family came up to see her compete.
I still giggle at it all but she did great!
Well, she is the first runner up! And there's even a contest for that position in this country. In the base paper, she says she's not sure she'll compete in it, but at least her future didn't end at the pageant. Miss Harper did well! YAY!
The Minot paper article: http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/516180.html
And the base paper, http://www.northernsentry.com/mafb%20internet%202.pdf Nice article about her and her family came up to see her compete.
I still giggle at it all but she did great!
Quote for Today
"We are, each of us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other."
– Luciano Decrescenzo
– Luciano Decrescenzo
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