Monday Blues

Air Force wives, rejoice! Now you can see your handsome hubby in his dress blues once a week! Thanks to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Schwartz, Mondays are now mandatory "Blues Days" for most career fields, Air Force wide. I guess this doesn't sit well with some people, and there are some career fields where this is not practical, and therefore, it's not required for them. (Can you see Adam in his former life as a heavy equipment operator, driving a loader in his dress blues? Or running that jackhammer?) But as a personnelist, it's perfectly fitting.

I checked, and I don't have any recent pictures of Adam in his blues, but here's one from 2004 (one rank ago!). Yes, it's of terrible quality - again, we don't have a scanner, so I took a picture of a picture in order to get this on here...and it wasn't even in the sunlight. So pardon the dark and grainy quality. But I felt this post needed a visual aid!


There's not a lot about the military life that takes my breath away anymore. I've seen enough emotionally moving ceremonies, been to fancy parties where high-ranking servicemen seemed to be dripping with ribbons and medals from their mess coats. I've seen the convoys, the amazing airshows. I've witnessed plenty of marching formations, and the hairs rarely stand up on the back of my neck anymore when life stops at 5pm each day while the national anthem plays. It's been almost nine years, and what once seemed such an odd and beautiful and even barbaric way of life, has become normal to me, even secure.

But last Monday, I was at the MPF for some reason, and I remember that my breath was taken away, once again, by the sight of all the servicemen and women in their blues, walking in the parking lot and working in the building. It was beautiful to me. Perhaps my sense of beauty has been "warped" slightly by almost a decade of being a military spouse, but I believe many would share my feelings. I know my hubby's mom would have loved it!

So then, I put myself back in my own high school shoes, and thought again about how I would have felt about my life as a military spouse, had I had any inkling. At 17, when I first fell in love with Adam, I could not have made up a story about this life if I'd tried! How much I've learned - about myself, how capable I am when I really need to be; about my husband, how much he is willing to sacrifice for those he loves; about my Lord, how dearly he loves me, and how precious His grace. It's interesting to look back with a smile and see how far the Lord has brought us...and then look forward with excitement to what the future holds!

You never know what will happen next. But I'm counting on getting a good look at my man in uniform before he heads off to work next Monday morning. I can't think of a better way for an Air Force wife to beat the Monday blues!

Our weekend

Many Sunday nights roll around and I wonder, What did we even do this weekend, anyway? This particular weekend, though, has felt productive to me - and that’s a very good thing! (When Mommy gets frustrated and whiney, it isn’t pretty. Not that she should do that, but, well...) Weekends just seem to carry the promise of "more" of everything. More fun family things, more time to get stuff done around the house and yard, and more relaxation. The perfect weekend for me, I think, is an even blend of those three. This weekend has been such. Since I actually have some things to report other than, Well, we all took naps and watched too much TV, I’ll share it with you!

On Friday, Adam finished up a 3-day class on, well, I don’t remember what it was actually called, but it was war games. They practiced a lot of taking out the enemy at close range, which is enjoyable for Adam, and he’s quite good at it, too, I might add. He’s had a couple of offers from instructors over the years to try to get him trained as a sniper, which Adam says would be a fun job except for the fact that you have to kill people. So although he’d probably be good at it, he isn’t interested. But I digress. Anyway, on Friday, the class had a paint gun war with four guys whose job it is to be the "enemy." (I think Adam is jealous that some people actually get paid to play bad guys and shoot people with paint guns every day.) Of course, it was incredibly hot, and Adam and his class were suited up in their flak vests and all that war stuff, so that was pretty miserable. But they did get done early in the day, and he was even home before noon, which obviously gets the weekend off to a good start!

Saturday, Adam went fishing early and was back before 10am. Then we hung out for a bit before Drake and I went to see the movie Space Chimps at the theater with some neighbors of ours. We hadn’t been to a movie theater in well over a year - um, make that two years! Wow. Adam stayed home with Levi, because we went to the noon showing, which is right at the beginning of nap time. It was admittedly weird not to have Levi with me. It always is. I need to get out more, I guess! Drake was apprehensive about going to the movie - he thought it might be too scary, but he eventually decided to give it a shot...and he really enjoyed it, so I’m glad he did!

Then in the afternoon, we planted two little rosebushes, a tomato plant, and a red pepper plant (which we thought was a yellow pepper when we bought it, but we were wrong...oh well). Yes, all you green-thumbed folks, I realize that late July is not the right time to be planting tomatoes and peppers! But we got off to a bit of a late start, and we have an extremely long growing season down here anyway, so we decided to give it a try. By the way, the tomato plant is a variety that says "good for late and second plantings" so we are hoping that means it will grow fast! I just realized that Adam and I have never, to my recollection, planted anything edible in our 9 years of marriage! We’ve done different flowers and shrubs and houseplants, but no fruits or vegetables. I was talking to my sister the other day on the phone - she called to rejoice with me over Heidi’s return - and we talked some about her garden. She and her husband have had a vegetable garden for a few years, and my parents have, also...like forever...plus fruit trees and berry bushes. So that phone conversation the other day is what sparked my sudden interest, and inspired me to plant a "real" garden. I guess I have to amend that...I don’t think two plants qualifies as a "garden," but humor me. Now, let’s just hope they don’t die!

Then today, we went to the early service at church, and kind of laid low for most of the afternoon. Oh yeah, we did give our new plants lots of water and Miracle-Gro, and sprayed this anti-fungal stuff on the one rosebush that we already had, which has "black spot" disease. Doesn’t that sound menacing?? I’m not really a rose person, but we are learning a little about them as we go along. Turns out for this one, we should have realized what was going on sooner; the dreaded "black spot" has progressed over much of the plant, and we had to prune most of it back - way back. It has a truly horrible haircut. I hope this spray stuff helps keep the fungus from spreading further, or to the new plants. That’s the idea, anyway. We’ll see how it fares.

Then, this evening, Adam and Drake went fishing, and I took Levi to work with me. For those who don’t know, I work Sunday evenings at a church in town (not ours) doing childcare for their evening service. It works out perfect for me because I can bring the kids if I need to, and it brings in a little extra money. Plus, I get a "life" outside the home, if only once or twice a week! (During the school year, I work Thursday mornings also, doing childcare for the International School there - where immigrant adults learn English and work toward citizenship. This is really cool, and I’m sure I’ll blog about it sometime in the future.) So Levi and I went to work. Then we came home, and he’s in bed asleep already! I’m sure Adam and Drake will be home soon, too, and it will be off to bed with the big boy as well!

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. Okay. Well, that wasn’t exactly a nutshell, but maybe that was our weekend in a......um......giant hundred-year-old sea turtle shell? I’m seriously going to have to stop being so long-winded or I will start scaring people away.

Ah yes, to make it up to you, here are some pictures from the weekend:

Levi loves fish! Remember how I said I would post a picture of him eating fish? While Drake and I were at the movies yesterday, Adam made fish and rice for him and Levi to have for lunch, and even took a picture for me!

The boys having a bath - what fun!

I know this looks kinda mean, but Levi loves it!

See?

As I'm finishing this post, Adam and Drake have returned from their fishing trip! Here is Drake with a Redfish (bigger) and a Pinfish (smaller). He caught the Pinfish by himself, start to finish, and reeled in the Redfish - off Daddy's bite - and Daddy netted it. He's pretty proud!

Entering the Birthday Zone

Well, we're nearing that time of year for our family where we almost get tired of cake and ice cream. It's birthday season! Starting with Adam's birthday this Thursday, we have 4 birthdays in less than two months. Adam's (July 17), Clayton's (July 29), Drake's (Aug. 17), and mine (Sep. 13). Whew! Then Levi (Feb. 17) has the rest of the year to himself. ;)

At the MPF (Military Personnel Flight), where Adam works, they have a tradition of "desk decorating" for birthdays. Adam came to work last Friday to find not only his desk, but his entire office decorated in a Bob the Builder birthday theme, heralding back to his former life as a heavy equipment operator. Yesterday, the boys and I came to visit him at work (after hours), as he had a lot of work to do and was there late. So I got some pictures of his decorated office for your viewing pleasure. (By the way, Adam will be turning 30 this year!)

Adam's office, all decked out in Bob the Builder

He even got a toy!

The Passport Man hard at work.

Well, we were sort of hoping that Drake's method of transportation would rub off on Levi - not the other way around!

One more picture before I head off to conquer some more laundry... This morning, Drake was dragging the comforter from his bed around and making a "club" (think he meant "clubhouse") all over the downstairs. Levi thought it was so funny, and was following him wherever he went, to try to get under the comforter too. For as much time as they spend grumpy and whining, it was really nice to hear them laughing and content together. They had a "club" under the table, next to/under the rocking chair, in the hallway, and on the couch. Here's a peek:

I see you in there!