Learning To Ride A Bike

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.

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.

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.

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 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. :)

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.

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.

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

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!

Quote for Today

"We are, each of us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other."
– Luciano Decrescenzo

Quote For Today

"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever."
– Margaret Cho

Quote for the Morning (just in case I find more)

Laugh at yourself and at life and nothing can touch you.
Louise Hay

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! HEY!

The week long peacefulness comes to an end abruptly around 7 or 8pm. Manchild returns from camp. Actually, I'm excited for his return. I want to hear how camp went. I asked another parent with hubby and child at the camp how things went. They abandoned the tents once for a siren but that was it. Phew! Knowing the storms we had this past week, I was sure at least one would get to them.

We also got invited to dinner in town with a friend of mine. :) I'm so excited! Her parents are even in town. How cool is that? I've got to figure out something to make for a dessert in a hurry. Might just be a frosted cake. :) Lord knows I have enough boxes of cake mix in this house. We won't go hungry! LOL

I finished a baby afghan this week. It's adorable. And yes, I'll get a picture of it out here eventually. It was white and from a book of patterns using the pound of yarn skeins. It was called Snowballs. (he he he) And looks like little snowballs alternating in the row and each row. This one is just one skein. Actually, I used a little bigger hook and used a little bit of the second white one I bought last week to finish off about 4 rows and the border. Now to return to the Granny Ohio Star afghan I started awhile back. The only thing I really hate about granny squares is having to weave in the ends and then sew the pieces together. The first one I'm doing is two blues and cream. The next one I want to do is red, white and blue. :) I also have yarn to do a brighter pink, turquoise, yellow and black sqared afghan. I really do enjoy the peacefulness found in crocheting.

Oh the small child speaks up... "We've got to go back to Germany." I asked why... "Because you don't like this place." He hears a lot more than I realize some days. Poor thing. I would love to go back to Germany, but with his problems, it's not possible for an assignment. A trip? Yes. For a tour? No. :( Poor kid! Attitude change I guess I need. Maybe with the sun out a little more these days, I can swing it and Matthew will forget about wanting to return to the lovely country of Deutschland. (as much as I'd love to go back too!)

Well, it's time to think about that dessert for dinner tonight. We're being treated to grilled ribs. YUMMMMMMMMY!

It's That Season Again...

... and sadly, it's not FOOTBALL! :D

Moving season is here again, in full force. We've already since April had 3, maybe 4 families move out of our little neighborhood. This morning there is a Wheaton truck in the street to move another one out. One of the ones with the trailer in its driveway. THANK YOU LORD!! I am tired of living in trailerparkville.

There is at least one other family on our street moving this summer as well. I'm somewhat sad about it. (not the trailer though!) The lady who suggested we go to town and get Matthew diagnosed is moving. :( We actually see her today for a physical, so I can see when their moving truck will show up.

Friends retired a couple of weeks ago, finally (ceremony was in April), to New Mexico. I already miss them! Several others are either going or will be soon. This is one aspect, like other friends, that I hate about our nomadic lifestyle. But then again, it's an opportunity to meet more people who share the lifestyle we do. And maybe have kids my children's ages. :) There's always ulterior motives to my thinking.

So watch out for those moving vans this summer! Slow down! Kids abound around those things usually!

My Suggestion Today

People need to take a reading comprehension class. I don't mean the kids who are in reading NOW... I mean ADULTS. I essentially live on a cul de sac currently thanks to the massive construction thanks to the Wonder Triplets. (another day another story)

Anyways... this is the second week of a sign at the end of our street saying "NO THRU STREET." My house sits at the end of that street where it crosses mine. My living room window is ground zero if someone's breaks fail and go thru the yield sign. At least 5 times a day, I watch cars come flying down to this corner, start to turn right (and some even do thinking it'll change as it goes past the other two houses?) and realize the road is CLOSED. Apparently, the English language is lost on these folks. It isn't even 10am yet, and I've seen one car already this morning go thru the motions. Amazing isn't it?

What is the average reading comprehension in this country? I know I've read since I was little (not like the boys who were reading in kindy), but still was reading early, and often and still do. Dictionaries are abundant I think. Libraries are free. PEOPLE! Get out there and read!!!!!!! And learn the definition of NO THRU STREET - It doesn't go anywhere except to about 20 houses in my neighborhood!

Maybe the video professor guy (I think it's video... on TV... commercials) should have a reading DVD. :D

Suggestion today? Sign up your kids for a summer reading program and join in the adult one while you're at it! Might work your brain a bit and you might learn some new words! :)

Quote for Today

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment, it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."
– Orison Swett Marden

Could It Be!?!?!?!?

Summer? Arriving in Minot? Noooooooooooooo way!

I think it has finally shown up after nearly a month of waiting... the pool opens TODAY! Not that I'm running over to jump in, but just the principle of the fact that it "opened" Memorial Day weekend, it's not been OPEN. Gotta love the weather up here. I don't know why the Services folks waste money printing posters and flyers out with that weekend listed as "opening day" for the pool... it NEVER happens. Do you doubt global warming exists? Based on the lovely weather here, I doubt it.

That all said, I move on to proof of perhaps something stinks in Denmark. (misquoting Shakespeare :D) Anyways... 1993 the big Mississippi flooding... 500 year floods... I caught news this morning that at Hannibal Missouri (Here I thought only Iowa was having problems thanks to our super great awesome liberal lying media) the river will likely crest just below the 1993 levels. That's kind of serious! We had just had manchild at the time in California, and we were wanting to drive home to Ohio from California (young and dumb :)) so the family could see the kid before heading up here to the great white frozen tundra. We decided not to due to the flooding of the midwest. Anyways... this gives me pause to think, PERHAPS, global warming does happen. Or else, it's just bad luck to live near WATER that CAN RISE from TIME TO TIME. If the flood insurance costs too much, then MOVE. Sorry. Just one of those things I don't like to pay for other people's mistakes when it comes to poor decision making and my insurance costs!

I again am venturing east to Ohio tomorrow thru Saturday... I hope we can get from here to there!

So ... yes! Summer has finally decided to show up here in Minot. My little pal Pixie on the page... at the 955 reading this morning it was already 70. Almost here! WOOO WOOOO WOOOOO HOOOOOO!

Quote For Today

"I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: Turn back, turn back; you'll die if you venture too far."
– Erica Jong

Virginia Living in ND

I know now what I missed when we headed to Ohio in 2003, and skipped the Isabel experience. (Isabel being a hurricane) I watched the storm clouds gather today. But prior, I visited with the neighbor, got CG off to camp, went to town shopping. (quilt shop and hobby lobby)

I come back to the house, and realize the storm is moving QUICKLY into our area. I'm watching neighbors gathering up outdoor items. I get the chit off the front porch and get ready to move the trash cans inside, open the garage door, only to realize the rain had started already. And my trash is spilled out across the yard and the neighbor's yard. Fun! Matthew is a huddle of mush in the bathroom. We were REALLY scared. The wind gusts were predicted to be up to 70mph. The only thing we were missing was a funnel cloud. I thank God it didn't materialize! The little trees in everyone's front yards in the neighborhood were bent over in the wind at about 90 degrees. It stormed for maybe an hour, and now the sun is out to the west and it's stormy blue to the east.

So now, I think we're going to enjoy a quiet evening in the house since the ground is just too wet to go out and play.

Again, this wish, you are dry and well. We certainly have been lucky with the rain this week. It rained A LOT, but those folks in Iowa... my heart and prayers are with you.

Just Pondering

If the comments didn't have SOME air of truth somewhere, would one fight so hard to disprove them?
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

I'll have to go look again at the birth certificate... just curious if you can see it bigger. Interesting color for the 60s. :D

Ok, seriously, it really is curious that they have to put out this site to "fight the smear" they claim. It's going to be a LONG summer, and a LONG SITE, and my SHORT patience.

Quote For Today

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it."
– Abraham Lincoln