F-15 Solo and Thanksgiving Weekend

Here's a little update:

Rob's F-15 class is the baby class and now the duties of cleaning the squadron bar has been passed to them. So, Saturday before Thanksgiving, we got up early-ish, took pictures in the F-15 (not every week, this was just special), and went to clean the bar along with a few others in Rob's class. The night before had been a naming party (where pilots get call-signs) and it was especially dirty. Now, as a wife, I don't actually have to clean the bar, but I wanted to help out my husband, you know. But when I got there, it turned out to be kind of fun simply because the bar was SO dirty and cleaning it made SUCH a BIG difference! I do love to make things beautiful and cleaning certainly falls under that. There was actually a few things that I couldn't NOT clean because they were so amazingly awful. Ah, the joys of being a pilot wife... :-)

Tuesday, Rob had his first solo in the F-15!!! It was so exciting! I got to go out and take pictures too! Of course, I brought cookies, because Sheppard taught me that it's always a good policy not to go to the squadron empty-handed. :-) I was so pleased - Rob told me that people were talking about the cookies the rest of the day - "Dude, did you get any of the cookies in the bar?... Your wife made those cookies? Man, they were good!... You got two? There was only one left when I got there!" By the way, I used Erin Duran's awesome cookie recipe! Thanks to you, Erin!

Rob did well on his solo. I am so proud of my husband!! It was really neat to be able to see his solo! I got to ride the bus out to the jet, watch him do his walk-around, start the jet, and taxi out. Then, Jeff drove me out to the end of the runway and we watched him take off! Later, we drove to the landing end of the runway and watched him do patterns and land. SO cool! The Eagle is an awesome jet!! Pictures are below.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, in case some of you missed it. We were privileged to go to one of the other students' houses for a pot luck Thanksgiving. YUM! Jordan fried a turkey and WOW! It was AMAZING!! ... yum... *sigh* Okay, I'm back. I made some of my favorite Thanksgiving food that I look forward to every year: sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin cheesecake, and apple tart. All the food there was great and the people were even greater. :-)

Then, I got to enjoy a long weekend with my favorite person in the whole wide world: Rob! He's so awesome. Friday, we went on a simple trip to Lowe's to pick up stuff to make a concrete table top (for a leg I FOUND on the curb) and ended up taking a spontaneous trip to Destin! Gas prices be praised! It's actually not that far - a little over an hour from Panama City. We shopped at the mall and outlet mall and came home with some fun new things. For dinner Rob requested we eat at McGuire's Irish Pub in Destin. It is a really neat place, and has it's own brewery. Highlights were warm honey butter melting over the loaf of bread, a crazy burger menu, and a brewed-in-house root beer float - root beer never tasted so good!

Saturday, Rob took me to drink coffee on the beach. Yea, we live in Florida and the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to the beach! Woo hoo! We took a couple little adventure side-trips and ended up on the logging trails next to the base in the rain. It was beautiful scenery! The cold comes slower here, so the trees have time to change their leaves - through my rain-distorted window the yellows, golds, and crimsons were even more breathtaking! We endured a few slippery moments on the back trails in the rain and had to off-road around a closed gate to get out, but had a lot of fun.

Gus follows this sunbeam all through the living room each morning.

We mixed and poured our concrete and it's setting right now, so we'll flip it soon and hopefully, it will easily come out of the mold. We'll keep you updated on our latest decor project.

My engineer husband put t-bolts in the concrete to set so we can easily attach it to the table via L-brackets. I love his problem-solving skills!

Also, I just want to give applause to the greatest job in the world - the one I have - housewife! It is SO fun! I love planning meals, managing the money, cleaning, and doing laundry! Most of all, I love being available for my husband! I love welcoming him home and hearing about his day! I also love hobbies and learning new things! For example, today I'm walking the dog, going to yoga (I love yoga), going to World Market, Wal-Mart, and the base Thrift Shop, and baking cookies for the Airmen Cookie Drive. I'm studying to get my ACE certification to one day teach yoga. I'm going on Thursday to some concrete design shops to see if they'll let me apprentice - learn a little something in exchange for cleaning up. And I'm looking online for awesome and cheap holiday decorations I can make this season. I love my job!!

Rob's solo

On the bus out to the jet

Rob preparing

Me happy in front of the F-15C

Rob doing his walk-around

I like the speed brake

Rob's jet. Tail number: 542

On approach

Sucessful solo!