Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to wish all the dads (especially ours!) a very Happy Father's Day! A little late in the day, but we hope you had a great day!

Grown-up Toys #1

For those of you who know Grant, he's been wanting a big-screen tv for years. He keeps putting it off, but we finally did it. He started really looking into the sizes and kinds a couple of weeks ago, and he told me he wanted a 73"! I told him no way, 60" is the max we would go. A friend down the street has a 57" Mitsubishi DLP, so last weekend we made a trip to Best Buy to look at the 60" Mitsubishi DLP. We were surprised to see that the picture in the store didn't look that great, especially compared to the Plasmas and LCDs. It was good to see the different kinds and sizes in person though. I told him that we needed to get at least a 50"...the others were just too small!

Well we left not knowing what to do, so we came home and thought about it for a couple of days. When we got home, he started looking on Best Buy's website and Amazon, and found a Panasonic 50" Plasma for a pretty good price. Now we had to decide if we wanted a big tv or a better picture. I didn't have a preference really, so I let Grant decide.

After researching the tvs and watching/reading several reviews and talking to family and friends, we decided to get....

...the Panasonic VIERA 50" 1080p 600Hz Plasma HDTV! The delivery guys should be here within the next hour, and then we will be the newest "cool kids on the block." ;)

Our New House

Many of you have been asking to see pictures of our new place, so here they finally are. Thanks for patiently waiting! :) I've uploaded 2 videos (the first one is a pretty big file, so it may take a little bit to load), and I'm going to apologize for my cheesy narration and bad camera skills. I didn't realize that I was shaking it that badly, so sorry! I also have pictures of each room and different views below in case you'd rather look at them or get a closer look.

We are in the right side unit of the duplex.

Old houses that I'm so glad we don't have to live in...the new houses just opened up in April!

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Garage

Laundry room!

Guest bedroom

Guest bathroom

Extra bedroom/office

Master bedroom

Walk-in closet (master)

Master bathroom

Hope you enjoyed your tour! We are liking it so far...although you can tell they used cheap materials to build the house, and you can people next door walk across the floor or if their tv is really loud. Sure beats Columbus though! ;)

Officially Back in the EST

Well we made it, and I'm finally getting around to posting about our move. We are now back in the same time zone as most of our friends and family!!

The movers came on the 27th to pack up our stuff. Unfortunately, that day the base decided to cut power to our housing area...meaning no lights and no air conditioning on one of the hottests days we'd had so far. It was miserable, especially for the packers. Anyway, we had a good group of guys except for one, who is probably the one responsible for most of our damaged goods. He dropped the dryer off of the dolley (sp?) and scratched it up pretty bad. Grant saw him do that, so we definitely can claim that one! He just wasn't very gentle as he rolled our furniture and boxes off the step out of our house. So, needless to say, we had a few things (glass, frames, wood) broken or dented, but worst of all, our washer doesn't work. It just leaks all of the water out of the bottom. We are still waiting on someone to come look at it. I had to do laundry at a friend's house down the street today because we were running so low on clothes! We filed our claim around the 8th of June, and the moving company has contacted us since then. They have to send out repairmen to look at the damages first before they decide if the item can be repaired or if we'll get the full replacement value. One more reason why I wanted to do a DITY move (where we move ourselves). Oh well I guess, welcome to military life.

Anyway, so we spent way too much time cleaning on Thursday the 28th for our inspection on the 29th...they spent about a total of 5 minutes looking over the house. Awesome. We finally hit the road around 11:30. We stopped in Augusta, GA that night, and finished the drive the next day. Wizzo did really well, sleeping most of the time. Friends of ours said their dog threw up most of the way, so I am really thankful Wizzo did not get sick like that!

We stayed in TLF (temporary lodging/living facility) until we could get a house. We were there from Saturday the 31st through Thursday the 4th. We talked to the housing office on Monday after Grant started in-processing and were able to look at the house that day. We loved it right away and set up the date for our initial inspection and to get the keys. We got the house on Wednesday, moved some stuff from the TLF over to the house, and then the movers were coming on Thursday. We also had our cable and internet connection set up on Thursday. The movers were AWESOME! Seriously, some of the best I've seen so far (not that I've had a ton of experience, but hey). There were about 6 or 7 guys and they moved so quickly! We didn't have them unpack anything out of boxes, but they put some things in different rooms and most in the garage. Next time we move, we decided we are not going to do much of any pre-packing. We will let them pack up everything and unpack everything too. Then they take all the boxes away for you! I think it will be so much easier that way. I mean, that's what the AF is hiring them for!

Our TLF...it was pretty nice!

Excuse the messy bedroom...I took the pictures right before we checked out.

What we found upon arrival....yes, that's a cockroach...yuck!

We are slowly getting settled (mostly because I'm lazy about unpacking some small things...), but we're getting there. I'm going to post the house pictures in another entry, so look for those really soon (I promise!) We are glad to be out of Mississippi, that's for sure!

Surgeries

Just wanted to mention that my mom and Wizzo are both having surgeries today, so keep them in your prayers!

Mom is having 3 moles removed that the doctors said were basal cell carcinoma. They are just using local anesthesia, so she will be awake! Hopefully they won't have to do any skin grafts, especially for the one on her face by her nose. She may be in surgery now, actually. I'll give her a call this afternoon to find out how it went.

Wizzo is getting neutered and having some baby teeth pulled that haven't fell out yet. I dropped him off at 8:30 this morning and get to pick him up at 4:00 this afternoon. Poor guy hasn't eaten anything since 6:00 yesterday evening! I took some food with me this morning in case they were going to feed him after his surgery, but they said not to feed him until tonight! I felt so bad because he just kept looking at me like "Feed me lady!" Hopefully his surgery goes well and he does okay with all the anesthesia!

...and actually just as I finished that last sentence, the vet called me to let me know Wizzy did great! He said his neutering surgery went well and they pulled 4 baby teeth. His stitches are dissolvable, so that's great...I won't have to take him back to remove them! The doctor said he did well with the anesthesia and he's in recovery. Aww poor baby...he's such a good dog! I'm excited to pick him up this afternoon! :)

Keep both of them in your thoughts as they recover!

Our Week in Florida

Alright, I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Florida back in May! Sorry to keep you all waiting so long. I'll give you the run-down by days.

On Monday (the 11th), we packed up and left for Pensacola. We checked into our room at the Naval Air Station, where Grant would be going through water survival training Tuesday-Thursday. We ended up ordering Hungry Howie's (yum!) for dinner and then took a walk (while it was lightning, nonetheless...) around base to find the building that Grant needed to report to the next day. First of all, NAS Pensacola is HUGE! It was so much bigger than Columbus. Our first impression was that it seemed like a nice place.

The nasty smog in Mobile! The place smelled like straight oil...
The tunnel after going through Mobile!

Tuesday was Grant's first day of water training. I dropped him off before 7:00 and then of course took a little nap. :) Later, I ran along the sea wall (what they call the wall that runs along the bay and the edge of base) and met Grant after his class was done for the day. We made plans with one of the WSOs who was in Grant's IFF class (they do their nav training in Pensacola) to go to dinner at McGuire's (Grant's favorite restaurant while he was on casual in Florida). On our way to dinner, we learned that every Tuesday there is a 5k race that ends at McGuire's so people will run and then get dinner and drinks after. I think you might even get something for free or so much off your bill since you ran. Needless to say, it was pretty busy when we got there!

I was able to watch them do some of their parachute harness training. They are sent down the zipline and have to release from their harness and drop into the water at the end.

The sea wall -- where I went running. How could you complain about this?

On Wednesday, I had a chance to go watch the Blue Angels practice! I was looking into air shows the day before and found out that they practice every Tuesday and Wednesday at NAS, so I thought it would be fun to go. There were a ton of people there, which surprised me because I thought I'd be one of the only people just watching from the parking lot. Here are a couple photos from it (I'm going to do a separate post with more photos and videos because I have so many good ones!)...Grant was so jealous that I got to be there (although he was out parasailing!). It was definitely really cool!!

After the practice show, I went to the beach that is located on base and laid out/read for about an hour. I must say that having a beach on base was so awesome! It was so relaxing. :)

Grant got out of training early, so we decided to check out some of base and found a couple of old Forts that they used back in the 1800s for protecting the Navy Yard. It was cool to read about the history and think that people actually fought battles there. After dinner, we went for ice cream...yum!

The three above pictures are of Advanced Redoubt of Fort Barrancas. It was built between 1845 and 1870 to defend the northern side of the Navy Yard. Apparently the design of Redoubt was a nightmare for enemy forces. There were cannons, musket fire, and howitzers hiding in all of the little windows. After walking down around the fort, let's just say that you would NOT want to be the enemy here!

Thursday was Grant's last day of training. I ran again by the sea wall, and after Grant was finished, we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum for a little bit and then picked up some fast food for dinner. The museum was huge and they had a ton of planes in there! Now we wish we would have taken the opportunity to go to the Air Force museum at Wright-Patt in Dayton while we lived in Ohio!! Here are few of the pictures we took:

The NC-4, the first airplane to fly across the Atlantic, is a flying boat of the type known as a tractor biplane. The upper wing span is 126 feet and the lower 94 feet. The length overall is 68 feet! Maximum speed in flight is about 80 knots (93 mph). Communication among the crew was by telephone, as the noise of the engines was too loud for speech. The record flight began at 10am on May 8, 1919 and finished May 31, stopping at several places along the way. They are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the first transatlantic flight this year! Isn't it crazy the things they could do back then? AND how technology has evolved?!

Just showering at one of the camps. ;) Look closely and you can see they were limited to just a few seconds! The can had small holes to let the water through.

Grant's always trying to pick up the ladies. Giving the sailor a run for his money. ;)

SO MANY planes!

Anchor outside...read below to see how much it weighs!

I want to say that this is the F-18A super hornet, but I could be wrong...

Friday morning, we checked out and drove to Navarre, where Grant was stationed for a year on casual duty before pilot training. We stopped at his old apartment complex to see one of the managers that he was friends with, but she wasn't there. :( We decided to head to the beach to eat at the "tiki bar" (which is not it's real name...), since I never got to go there during the summer I spent down there. It is basically a bar with a sand floor and a fun ring game where you have to swing the ring and try to hook it on the opposite wall...it was tough, but I finally did it! They weren't open when we first got there, so we walked along the beach to the spot where we got engaged! It was a long walk and I can't believe we walked that far that day! They have really made the beach nice. When I was there, a lot was damaged by a hurricane in 2004, but now they have restrooms and pavillions that people can rent.

"Our fence"...much worse shape now than 2 years ago!

After we ate, we decided to change and hang out at the beach for a while since it looked like a thunderstorm might pop up. We had fun trying to "dodge" the waves so I didn't get saltwater in my eyes! And of course, my sunglasses broke, so we had to stop at Target to find a new pair for me (and I got a new pair of cute sandals!!). The last time I was in Florida, my glasses broke...I don't know what it is about my glasses and the beach, but they always seem to break. Hmm. Then we drove to Eglin AFB, where we were staying, to shower and then head into Fort Walton Beach for dinner. We decided on a steakhouse and it was pretty yummy, but expensive!

See the broken glasses?? :(

Saturday, we stopped at the BX and commissary at Eglin and they were HUGE! Seriously, Columbus's BX and commissary are like mini-marts compared to Eglin. I guess Eglin has the biggest of all AF bases. We grabbed some lunch and then left for Destin, the best place ever! :) We did a little shopping at the outdoor mall and, of course, had to stop for ice cream at Coldstone. We split a cake batter ice cream with cookie dough pieces, chocolate, and whipped cream in a waffle bowl. It was delicious!- We were meeting up with one of Grant's friends from Hurlburt Field later that night, so to kill some time we decided to head to the beach again. Neither one of us wanted to get in the sun though (we were burnt from the day before!) or go in the water since we wouldn't have a chance to shower again before dinner. So we stopped at a beach store and bought a nice umbrella to sit under. While we were there, we saw some people taking pictures for their beach wedding...it was cute. :) Later we met up with Grant's friends for dinner at a pizza place called Mellow Mushroom. It was really good and a fun place! Then we headed to a local bar for a few drinks before calling it a night. I love the houses down there!

Sunday was our last day, so we checked out and headed back to Columbus. We got back around 5:00, and I was very excited to pick up Wizzo again!! I think he forgot about me a little bit though because he didn't seem as excited to see me as he usually is, and he wouldn't come to me right away. It took him a few days to get settled and back into our routine, plus we had a lovely tick problem. Ugh. The people we left him with took him out to the nature trails and they all (dogs and people) picked up ticks. We were finding them several days after we got back, which made me extra paranoid that they were on him or on me or in the house. Ew, I hate ticks!

So that was our trip...long post, I know. That's the main reason I've been putting it off! But I'm finally trying to catch up in my blogging, so things should look up soon. :)