Mood:  down

Good morning,

Unfortunately this entry will be short. I got little to no sleep last night and I have absolutely how I was able to take Flyboy to work this morning. I am so tired, my eyes are burning, you know?

Today Flyboy is scheduler so I won’t see him until 1730, he has to P.T. and all too. Last night we had stroganoff for dinner and I have no clue what I will make for tonight. I was slightly leaning towards chicken parmesan, but I don’t know.

I finally used my dehydrator for the first time. I however bought a very loud one, so I don’t think that helped with my being awake. I dried a bunch or kiwis, strawberries, bananas and pears. Surprisingly they came out alright, really tasty and I am not a fan of dried fruit, with the exception of raisins of course. I can’t wait to make some more, but I figure that be a project started at early morning tomorrow, that way I will be gone during most of its noise making.

Yesterday I took Flyboy out on a surprise date. I picked him up for lunch and we ate at the Rib Crib, and then split a chocolate, strawberry and banana smoothie at Sonic. We came home for a short bit to pick up his PDG and found some “Zebra” gum (the kind that is known for being at Toys r Us) ate some of that and regretted it. Haha. I took him back to work and that was that. It doesn’t sound like much of an afternoon, but he wasn’t expecting it and it made him smile. =) hehe

Well I guess I will end on that bright note, I really need to wake up so I can sleep tonight. I have my doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon. Eek!

Love ya! Take care!!

~NikiRose

Mood:  d'oh

Buenos Dias!

I have no idea what to write down this morning. There is nothing new going on over here and yet not even the same ol’ is going on over here. It is just, blah, you know?

Mississippi Mom is really sick, so bad that she didn’t go to work last night, which is a pretty big deal. Flyboy is doing his thing, I’m doing chores, haven’t heard anything out of Soldier and that is about it.

I ended up not going to the ceremony yesterday, turns out Radar couldn’t find his name tag for his Blues jacket and instead of paying over $90 bucks to get one over night he rescheduled himself for the next ceremony. He apparently left his Blues jacket and all of its decorations back home, several states away and didn’t realize it until the last minute. He has been sooo busy lately it is understandable, but still.

Poor Flyboy though, Monday he worked out with CornFed and Turtle (I will have to tell you his story another day) and they did a “Baby Macho” workout according to CornFed.  (Macho is crazy when he works out and CornFed wasn’t up for something so intense. Haha) Anyway, so the workout consisted of A LOT of upper body weight lifting/toning/insanity and Flyboy impressed them with the fact that he can lift everything they were and then some. With of course the exception of CornFed, he benches like 220lbs, on a bad day. So Flyboy was beat and slightly sore that night and all of Tuesday. (Macho has been having Flyboy do cross training rather than focusing on a single muscle group.) Well Tuesday Squadron P.T. comes along and what do they do? They do nothing but upper body work outs and of course running, but running isn’t such a big deal. The three of them were dying yesterday. It also didn’t help that Squadron P.T. was broken into individual flights and so the PTL (P.T. Leader) decided that the flight was going to double the push-ups that the rest of the flights were doing, as well as the other exercises. I feel real bad for the three of them; even CornFed was having a hard time.

Well it’s almost 800, I need to get started on cooking, and I have SOOO much to cook and am not looking forward to it this time. Have a good day and take care!

~NikiRose

Mood:  rushed

Hello…

I hope everyone is doing alright. =) I am exhausted and the day has barely started. =S Flyboy had a briefing at 800 down at the base theater and of course today is grocery shopping day. He suggested that I drop him off at the chow hall so I can beat the shopping rush. That didn’t work as planned we ran a bit late, but it all worked out in the end. Flyboy is amazed that he was able to live on chow hall food for as long as he did, and he is ever so grateful that I can cook. =) (it was HIS idea to eat breakfast at the chow hall not mine)

I finished shopping at the Commissary then headed to Target to pick up grape juice. (Flyboy likes it in the individual bottles and the Commissary doesn’t stock them.) From there I headed in the direction of our gas station and remembered that I had stuff in the car to donate to the Goodwill. Luckily it wasn’t too far out of my way, dropped off the stuff, and then spent 20 bucks to fill my tank. =P I unloaded the groceries from the car and rushed to put away the goods that needed to be refrigerated. Flyboy then text messaged me saying that he was on his way back to the squadron and he was ready for me to drop off his lunch and P.T. bag. (*sigh*) I heated up his left over coffee (he mentioned he was really tired) grabbed his gear and headed out the door, of course after packing his lunch. =) I headed back to base gave him his stuff then headed to the next store to pick up corned beef (Flyboy wants corned beef and cabbage sometime this pay period). From there I headed to Wal-Mart and picked up a dehydrator. (I have been really wanting one and Flyboy said I could get one this paycheck. Plus I told Soldier that I would send him some beef jerky. =) He is really excited!!) So I am now home and eating left over chicken noodle soup. It came out alright, though I need to work on the spices, it is a little bland.

Now the game plan is to finish blogging, do the dishes, shower and get dressed up for a pin on ceremony. Radar is pinning on Senior Airman as well as a bunch of other guys; it is a pretty big ceremony. (Everyone who is pinning on a new rank from A1C to CMSGT, kind of big ceremony) The first time I attended one of these ceremonies, was about a year and a half ago. Flyboy had to go and so I went with him. I of course asked him what kind of attire and he was completely wrong. (I found that out when I got there. I was the only one in jeans and a pretty blouse.) Today Flyboy is going to meet me at the ceremony after Squadron P.T. which I find is really screwed up. The ceremony is at 1600 and P.T. is from 1500-1600 so many may not make it. (The whole squadron has mandatory P.T. on Tuesdays together; I think I told you all about this.) Anywho, if the guys can’t make it to his pin on, I can. =) (Actually the first Pin-On Ceremony I went to was for Ohio ((I will have to tell his story another time)) and afterwards I met CornFed for the first time. He asked my permission to take Flyboy out for driving practice in his big pick-up truck. He called me “ma’am” and assured me he would have him home before supper. Hehe

Anywho, busy, busy, busy... Oh, guess what… (Not a good guess what, more like a “figures” guess what) Come to find out, Flyboy may not be able to test for Staff this go round. Even though he was told he was promoted to Senior Airman 15 Jan 2009, on his EPR too, the actually paperwork signed by the Commander isn’t dated until 20 Feb 2009 which is AFTER the cut off date to qualify for Staff testing. He is going to investigate it some more and if he can test, he will, but it isn’t looking so good. On one hand he is bummed but on the other he is looking forward to comfortable studying rather than the cramming. I am bummed all the way around. I really believe that he can beat the odds that are stacked against him with passing the test. I want to see him do it, you know?

I think that is it for news. Great Grandma is doing better; they are just finding a way to stabilize her with medication. Her blood pressure is through the roof, but her heart rate is next to nothing. =/

Well I better start on the dishes, or take a shower; I guess I will have to flip a coin on this one. Anyway, I hope you all are doing well and are getting better! Take care!!

~NikiRose

Mood:  cheeky

Morning,

Well, we survived our blizzard. It missed us by 2 or 3 miles, however we still got an inch or so of snow. Apparently I40 was shut down and most of the roads north west of us was too! Sunday, just as predicted was 60 degrees and all of what we got had melted off by noon. We didn’t leave the house at all on Saturday; honestly we didn’t want to deal with the crazy drivers. We spent most of the day studying and trying to fix the PS2. It didn’t seem to want to play Flyboy’s favorite game. I fixed it though. =D

Oh, I am having trouble finding a comfortable temperature again. During our “blizzard” flyboy and I woke up to a living room that was colder than the freezer. So we decided to barricade the fire place, and well the house stays warm now. Haha. Actually too warm, so I am now back, to searching for that awesome temperature. Last night it was so hot we didn’t even sleep under the covers! I had the fan and the AC on too! It is very irritating, but what can you say right?

This Friday I see the doctor, so I will know more of what is going on then. I am so clueless about this it is not funny. They have me on those pills to regulate my cycles and well they have yet to be regulated, and I take my pills, it is not like I am skipping them or anything. I really want this issue fixed or controlled or what have you.

I haven’t heard anymore out of Soldier. The last I heard he was trying to switch shifts with a friend of his so he could be on the same schedule as his lady friend Domino. =D =D =D enough said. ^_~

Mississippi Mom is pretty sick, it seems like the same stuff you all had in WA. =/ She called on Sunday to tell me that one of her aunts called about Great Grandma. She isn’t doing very well and is in the hospital. Apparently her heart is doing the same thing dad’s was. It is really enlarged and doing the fluttering thing. They have her on oxygen, and had to do several blood transfusions because they found out she was anemic. They were going to release her today, but it is looking more like Thursday or Friday. It isn’t looking too good over there. =(

Not much else is going on. I have lots of dishes to do and not enough sink to do them in. haha. Laundry is done though, that is a plus. Hmmm…

I think I should get on those dishes. I am making chicken noodle soup for dinner and need to get the crock pot going. Fun Times. I hope everyone who is sick gets better and can get a lot of rest! Take care!

~NikiRose

 PowerPresto!!!!

Mood:  cool

Morning.

Well, we ARE on blizzard watch. I mean where did this come from? Sunday it is supposed to be 60 degrees… This makes no sense.

Anyway, as you can tell I am up. Actually I have been up since 430. Flyboy couldn’t sleep and decided to get on the computer and turn on all the lights on in the house. So I woke up thinking it was 630, and well it wasn’t. I made him crawl back into bed because he was complaining about being tired. (Well, if you are still tired, you can’t fall back asleep when you are on the computer…) haha. He is more rested even though he could fall asleep, that I think is due to the coffee he had. He is in the shower doing his normal routine and so I decided I would jump on here. I have no clue how cold it will be when I get out to the car so I figured I would at least get up earlier just incase the car has a nervous break down because of the sudden change in weather.

Flyboy has water survival today; luckily it is at the indoor pool at the local college. I have no idea when he will be released from there but I sure do hope it is early. We are scheduled to be hit with this puppy around the early afternoon.

Hmm… I don’t think much of anything else is going on here. Oh! Flyboy passed his last CDC test yesterday. He didn’t take as long as I thought he was going to. I figured it would at least an hour, I mean that math is time consuming. (Well apparently it is raining now… I can hear it in the chimney. I am glad it is rain, although it might be sleet. These next few days are going to be fun! I can’t wait to see what summer will be like haha)

I think I should head out to the car now just to make sure I have enough time in case it decides not to start on me… Take care, and stay warm? =S

~NikiRose

Mood:  chatty

Good morning…

Flyboy has his last CDC test this afternoon, so he showed up at work this morning and they told him to go home. So, back to base to pick him up… He is slightly miffed because he could have slept in until 800 instead of getting up at 600, but hey, what can you say right?

The new Squadron Commander is getting things in gear and he has only been here for 2 days! It is awesome! We lucked out and got a Commander like MSgt Awesome. Hehe =) There have been changes in the P.T. schedule and both Flyboy and I like them, I don’t know about everyone else, but this guy is really serious about fitness, no more slacking! He is making it mandatory bi-weekly for the squadron to P.T. and then within the flights they have to allow for at least 4.5 hours of P.T. a week. This is AWESOME! Flyboy has been having trouble getting the time to work out because they keep sticking him as scheduler, which is slightly messed up, but he is awesome at scheduling so that’s why they keep putting him there. =)

Anywho, that is about it I guess, well besides the blizzard we will be getting later tomorrow evening!!!!!!! I mean what in the world…??? Tonight we are to have nasty thunderstorms, high winds and lots of hail, big hail. Then tomorrow and all through the weekend it is going to snow like crazy, so much that they have the salt trucks on stand by! I thought this was spring? Where are the tornados? Not that I want tornados here, by golly no, but snow? Are you serious? I miss west coast normalcy, well weather wise, my goodness.

I think I am going to make some pancakes, I am starving and I am sure Flyboy is too. Maybe I can bake the guys something and bring it in when I drop Flyboy off this afternoon. Hmmm. I finally got my dishes back so I can make wings again (they have been bugging for more wings =D) though that will have to wait until payday…

I hope you guys’ weather isn’t as psychotic as ours. Grr. Take care! Love ya!

~NikiRose

Mood:  accident prone

Good morning!

(Well I am calling it morning because technically it is still morning over there where a majority of you are) I set my alarm but Flyboy turned it off and let me sleep. Nice, but not so nice, because now I have broken a promise =(

I just got off the phone with Soldier. He called excited about a possible promotion. He has impressed Generals and high ranking NCO’s and they are shocked that he is only an E-2. When Soldier was back in the states he had put in to rank up, but it hadn’t gone through. When he opened his mail today he got a package that had paperwork saying his new rank and there were Corporal stripes in there. So he went up to his First Sgt and they had a discussion about it. Apparently they want to make him a Corporal, because he is kicking so much “behind” over there. He really knows his job, he is keeping his group in check and well he is being what a soldier should be. It is AWESOME!!! So as of now he is waiting on paperwork and he’ll know more, closer to his leave. =D =D How awesome is that?????

Flyboy is studding his heart away and I’m trying to figure out what to make for supper, because nothing sounds good =/

I lost train of my thought, Soldier called again, some dummy out there was well, being a dummy and Soldier needed to vent about it. There is always that ONE guy who thinks he is above the Regs, ya know? Grr.

Anywho, I am going to wander around the kitchen and see if anything jumps out at me screaming “eat me for supper!”

I hope all is going well with you guys. Take care! Oh and Soldier said that we can go ahead and leave E-2 on his mailing address, until we know more. =) Love you guys!

~NikiRose

Mood:  bright

Afternoon!!!!

Sorry this is so late; it’s been a crazy morning! I took Flyboy to Sick Call this morning to get taken off of DNIF and was stuck in the car until 830. (Doing flash cards of course) haha. He is doing better and I think that I will have him schedule an actual appointment with the Flight Doc to see if he can get put on some allergy medication. He has been doing GREAT with the stuff he’s on, but the kicker is, as long as he is on it, he can’t fly. So I am hoping that the Doc can put him on something that would help him breathe, but yet still allow him to fly. We’ll see.

I dropped him off and headed home then decided I wanted to make chicken noodle soup tonight. So I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some veggies and as I was checking out the cashier and I got to talking, like for over and hour or so, and her husband is joining the military and is heading for MEPS next week. She and I both have the same type of “girl” issues but her doctors are saying she may have something else. So pretty much I made a new friend!!!!! Yay me. We switched numbers and I have been answering her questions and we might hang out in the near future. She was really freaking out because when he goes in they will be taking a big pay cut and they just bought their first house, and being a man he totally forgot to ask about it when he was talking to the recruiter. I didn’t have much of an answer at the store but I came home and did some research for her, since she was still at work, and eased her mind a bit. =) The awesome thing is, she just graduated high school in 2008 and she has her head on her shoulders! There aren’t too many like that out here. Plus her and her hubby are a team like Flyboy and I are, not too many marriages like that out their either. =) Not to brag or anything. hehe

I am sorry this is so brief, but it is noon-thirty already and I am SO behind on coloring it’s not funny, plus my shoulders/neck/upper back is killing me.

Tomorrow will be an early day; it is the day before Flyboy’s final CDC test!!!! The whole day will be nothing but studying, so I will make point to post early. Then Thursday will be a later post because he will be taking his test and I will be stuck waiting in the car. I have a feeling this will be a longer test because there is a lot of math involved. It is the kind of math where he has to convert binary into hexadecimal and octal and multiply them and a bunch of other weird stuff. Friday he has Water Survival, poor thing, and I have no clue how release time will be with that. Fun. =)

Anywho, I REALLY need to color. Blah. I have emails to respond to and I will do that asap, promise! Hope you all are doing well. Take care!!!

~NikiRose

P.S. (I made a friend!!!!)

~NikiRose

Mood:  accident prone

Good morning…

I hope everyone is doing well. =) There isn’t too much going on here, though we do have a storm rolling in and a nasty dry line that will most likely cause trouble tonight.

I’m getting a bit stressed over here. We have got the Cali trip coming up and the chance that we may have to put it off to July because of “Training” but now I have no idea what is in store. Saturday night my knee started killing me, the same knee that I injured and needed stitches for, I mean severe pain. It has been doing this off and on since I injured it but each time it decides to hurt it has been getting progressively worse, pain wise. So I decided to feel around where it hurt, you know, maybe I could rub out the pain, well I was wrong and I found what feels like a bone chip, that I can move around in there. It really freaked me out so I had Flyboy feel it and he isn’t too happy about it. Neither his knees nor my other knee has this “moveable piece”, nor is it a good sign that the more I am touching it (making sure its not a figment of my imagination) the more it hurts to the point I almost passed out. Yeaaaah, I found the source, now I just need a medical professional to check it out. I wouldn’t be as stressed if it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t know how much is going to have to come out of our pockets if I need surgery. I don’t know if they need the lump sum all at once or if they will be alright with payments. You’re thinking, but you have insurance through Flyboy, I know, but I have no idea if they will cover me because this came from a work injury in 2007. I don’t want to and I won’t go after my previous employer for this because I really don’t think it is fair, and it’s not. So yeah, a little stressed here. My wisdom teeth on the bottom are coming in and will be a problem, the top ones, eh, it’s debatable, and so that is on my plate too. We have dental, and oh my goodness if that isn’t a confusing mess. They sent is a booklet to inform us about procedures and what I am covered for and how many times a year and what standards I have to meet mouth wise before I can do this or that. Aaahh. Honestly I think we would be better off without it because I really think the out of pocket costs are cheaper with out it. My word… So yeeaah…  Being broken isn’t so much fun. I really hope it won’t push into the Cali trip. The whole point for us to come out in June is because it is before Flyboy gets told he can’t leave the local area and plus Soldier will be coming out and family reunions are fun. July is our last chance this year because August until, I want to say April, Flyboy won’t be able to get leave. (I will explain more, closer to that time or if we are lucky and can come out in June, I will explain it then) But yeah, just a little stressed, I don’t want my broken-ness to cut into all the work we have done building up for this trip. I won’t know anything for sure until my doctor’s appointment on the 3^rd of April.

On a lighter note, I heard form Soldier yesterday, and the day before, literally. He called!!!! It was pretty cool. I haven’t heard from him in a while, although the first connection was pretty bad and I could barely understand most of what he was saying. The second call however was pretty dog on clear; I think it was because he was at his duty post and not in the barrack tent. He is doing alright, getting annoyed with the sandstorms, they had three yesterday. He says that the food over there, chow hall, is alright but it is nothing but fatty, unhealthy food; which is slightly ironic because the keep getting lectured on how they need to eat healthy and count their calories and blah, blah, blah, and yet all they serve at the chow hall is unhealthy food. He was telling me that they have a cooler over there full of ice cream treats and by the time he can get over there (his duty shifts are horrible) all that is left are the mango ice cream with caramel filling. The yummy chocolate or vanilla ones are gone. Haha, poor thing. His second call was regarding his cell phone and trying to get pictures off of it and what not. I had no answer for him because, well, his state side phone won’t work overseas, so I suggested getting a disposable camera, right? He started laughing and told me that was pointless because they don’t have a 35mm film developing station there, all they have is a Kodak stand, like at Wal-Mart, but yet they still sell disposable cameras. That is AAFES for ya…

I don’t know what all we talked about it went form anything to everything. We did talk about my knee though and he wanted me to know that he would rather I stay out here and be healthy than come out there and have the chance of an emergency room visit. We talked a long while about it and between him and Flyboy it has been pretty much decided that I have to get fixed first. I mean I knew that, but I was trying to put it off In the back of my head, and I didn’t want to admit it. But I do feel better that I was able to talk about it with him, Soldier, (I already knew how Flyboy stood) and him saying what he did. It just bums me out. Like I said though, I won’t know for sure of anything until my doctor’s appointment. The waiting game is not fun at all. Soldier said that he would feel bad if I came out there instead of getting fixed first, and really I can’t send him back over there with that kind of mind set. =S

He is really excited about coming back to the states; the drivers over there are crazy. He was saying that the drive ALL over the road, like on the sidewalks and on the wrong sides of the road. He is mainly stuck on base, so I am assuming that on one of his missions he had to convoy off of base or something. And I though the drivers here were bad… I asked him if they drive on the opposite side of the road like they do in England or if they drive normal (aren’t I arrogant) like they do in America, he said it is like stateside.

Oh... wow... I just made farting sounds with my hands… I am sure you really don’t care but it really threw me off. When I am thinking I tend to fiddle with my hands and it’s cold so I stared rubbing my hands together to warm them, but I put my palms together so my fingers were on opposite sides and warmed them that way. Like I said, I fidget when I think. Well I guess there is just enough space between my palms and when I rubbed my hands back and forth it made, sounds. Haha. I have rubbed my hands this way before and never heard a noise, that is why it really threw me off. Sorry… Though you have to admit, it is sort of funny, in a random sort of way.

Tonight I am making lasagna; Flyboy really wants me to make some. I have been putting it off because I didn’t feel up to cleaning the Crockpot. (It was being used to soak some silverware at the time) Saturday morning, I guess, Flyboy decided to surprise me with an empty kitchen sink =) It was nice to wake up to, so I made him breakfast. =) haha. But it really was sweet though.

Wow, I must be writing in slow motion, because I haven’t written very much and yet I have been on the computer for just over and hour. I guess my subconscious doesn’t want to finish the flash cards. Haha. I ended up turning the last 10 flash cards into a mini comic. (The answers just seemed to work out that way) It kind of started with a joke about the answer “Packets”. When I first read the answer I thought it said “pockets” which made no sense… and the comic was born. (In reality it has something to do with modern computers) On the guy’s flight suits, on their left arm they have this really cool pen pocket. It has a Velcro close, and when you open it you can put like 2 pens in it. It also has a side zipper that works awesome for keeping your cell phone in right underneath the pens, or a little note book. Anywho, It started off with this guy wanting a 2^nd pen pocket ( I don’t recall what the answer was) and then it just turned into this story about this new airman who got is pen pocket stolen (or so he thought) and started freaking out because they had a uniform inspection in 5 minutes. The rest of the older airmen tell him to calm down, but he is new so he is freaking out. He calls up Life Support (what Cousin Rich did) and he explains the situation and they hang up on him. So the poor guy is so freaked out that he gets sick to his stomach, they guys give him Pepto and he gets this genius idea to draw his pocket on his uniform with a sharpie. However he missed the inspection, but the captain who notices that he is missing. Then the next thing the newbie knows, (his name is Airman Peters by the way) he is strapped to this chair with a metal spaghetti strainer strapped to his head hooked up to electricity (I can’t draw that well) and there is this nurse with a needle telling him that the military doesn’t tolerate the drawing of pen pockets on uniforms with sharpies. Then his wingman, the one who told him to calm down, comes in with an alien skewered on a spear stating he found the infiltrator and that Peters is innocent. And it ends with the life lesson of “Trust your Wingman”. It really is quite dumb, but it made Flyboy laugh and I know the guys in the flight will, plus he remembers the answers to them all, and it only took one read through!!!!! I think I have a gift… lol. Honestly I had no idea it was going to go that far. The answers after the first joke about pockets just seemed to make it unravel into a weird story. It was kind of fun really, but now I have to color them all. =P I am almost done though!!!! Hehe

Well I better head off for now. Like I said I need to color. Hope you all are doing great! Take care!

~NikiRose