Thursday, May 10, 2012
Girls Lunch
Just another day here in Sin City, went to lunch with the girls. Had some great conversation with my ladies, they are the best. It's a gift to find women you can connect with and not feel judged or like your in some kind of competition. Just great friends to share your life with, it's a true blessing to have them in my life.
Tomorrow is my other sista's birthday. I think I'm gonna take her to lunch and maybe go shopping, not sure just yet. Hopefully I can make her day a little extra special. :)
Summer
I can't believe Katelyn is 15 days away from finishing kindergarten! She's growing so fast it makes me sad, but happy at the same time. She's blossomed into such a sweet girl. Gone are her chubby cheeks and little round face, now when I look at her I see a little girl, not my sweet toddler. She's such a kind sweet child, always wanting to help, picking me roses out of the back yard, offering me snacks and drinks, she really tries to go out of her way to make you feel special (isn't that my job, lol) She's wise beyond her years I think, sometimes I truly feel she's an old soul in a child's body.
She has been taking drama classes throughout the school year and her final play is the 24th of this month. I'm so excited to see her on stage, she's playing Tilly the baby ant and I'm sure she'll knock it out of the park. I keep asking her if she's nervous or if she thinks she'll forget her lines, her response "no mom I've got this, you'll see."
Next year will be quite interesting, she's starting 1st grade, I'm starting graduate school and hubby will be 7 classes away from graduating with his BS. Since he'll be finished before me I'm not sure how things will play out considering medical school is the next big chapter in our lives.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Hawaii and Australia on a HOP 2011
Since I started this blog, I wanted to make a post about our trip to Hawaii and Australia in January and early Feburary; I'm just now getting to it. I'm in desperate need of a break from studying so nows a good time, right?
As most know we are military, Brent is active duty Air Force and there are some privelages we have when it comes to traveling. We can fly anywhere the Air Force flies for free! Now talk to most active duty personal and they'll say "it's impossible, you need to much leave, you won't ever make a flight, there's no way of knowing where you can go, etc. etc." Now ask those people "When's the last time you've been on a HOP" I promise their response will be "Never".
I'm the queen of free, and I love to travel so this challenge was perfect for me. I researched "space-a -flights" on the net, went to the Nellis passanger terminal and within a week had all the information I needed to plan a Hawaiian adventure.
Ya see, the key to flying on a HOP is knowing the major passagner terminals for the Air Force. In military terms we call these PAC's terminals. Travis AFB is a huge hub, this base has 10 or more flights out a day, all over the country and world for that matter. Travis is considered the gateway to the Pacific. So if you want to go to Hawaii, Japan, Guam, Australia, Korea or Singapore this is your base. Travis also flies to the East Coast, to bases like Dover, Andrews and McGuire these bases are the gateway to Europe. Scott AFB in IL is the middle ground, this base flies all over the world and can get you to either the West or East Coast.
The problem with fighter bases, like Nellis is......well you can't get the hell out. The mission each base supports plays into what types of aircraft's fly from that base. Thus you aren't going anywhere from Nellis, or if you are, it's gonna be hard to plan. Major bases like Travis have flights and areas they service on a regular basis, so it's easier to plan. Granted the actual schedule is only released 72 hours ahead of time since 9/11 but you can call on a daily bases for a couple of weeks to get your bearings on when and where you can go. Each and every base has a "flight recording" number listed on their website. I have compiled all the numbers for each base onto a spreadsheet so I'm ready when we travel.
I'm not going to bore everyone with details about leave, and paperwork. If you need to know, google it.
So here are the details of our first expierence.
Brent and I drove 10 hours from Nellis AFB to Travis AFB on a Thursday night so we could be at roll call for the first flight to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. We made it in a few hours before, selpt in the car and made it to roll call. We knocked 2 retired people off the flight (active duty always has priority) and were ticketed for the frist flight. We were asked if we'd like to purchase a meal for the flight, I couldn't believe it! Of course we did, so we were set. Now we were off to security and then a holding area while the plane loaded its cargo. Security was a breeze, way better than commerical anyday!
Here's where the fun part comes in, after boarding the first plane a KC-10 we learned we'd all have to get off for a mechancial issue. No big deal, because there were 4 other flights leaving for Hawaii that day. We got off, went out of the holding area, we were reissued tickets for the next flight. Success, we were gonna be off and running, problem was we had to wait about 5 hours. No big deal to us, we could walk around base. Afterall this was a free trip !
With no issues we borded a C-17 cargo plane 5 hours later and were on our way to Hawaii. We were given blankets, ear plugs and our little lunches we ordered. We were also allowed to lay on the floor and sleep. Sweet! And since we have completed another HOP trip to Hawaii, I should get around to posting about it, this trip is over a year old! I've got to get better about updating our blog!
As most know we are military, Brent is active duty Air Force and there are some privelages we have when it comes to traveling. We can fly anywhere the Air Force flies for free! Now talk to most active duty personal and they'll say "it's impossible, you need to much leave, you won't ever make a flight, there's no way of knowing where you can go, etc. etc." Now ask those people "When's the last time you've been on a HOP" I promise their response will be "Never".
I'm the queen of free, and I love to travel so this challenge was perfect for me. I researched "space-a -flights" on the net, went to the Nellis passanger terminal and within a week had all the information I needed to plan a Hawaiian adventure.
Ya see, the key to flying on a HOP is knowing the major passagner terminals for the Air Force. In military terms we call these PAC's terminals. Travis AFB is a huge hub, this base has 10 or more flights out a day, all over the country and world for that matter. Travis is considered the gateway to the Pacific. So if you want to go to Hawaii, Japan, Guam, Australia, Korea or Singapore this is your base. Travis also flies to the East Coast, to bases like Dover, Andrews and McGuire these bases are the gateway to Europe. Scott AFB in IL is the middle ground, this base flies all over the world and can get you to either the West or East Coast.
The problem with fighter bases, like Nellis is......well you can't get the hell out. The mission each base supports plays into what types of aircraft's fly from that base. Thus you aren't going anywhere from Nellis, or if you are, it's gonna be hard to plan. Major bases like Travis have flights and areas they service on a regular basis, so it's easier to plan. Granted the actual schedule is only released 72 hours ahead of time since 9/11 but you can call on a daily bases for a couple of weeks to get your bearings on when and where you can go. Each and every base has a "flight recording" number listed on their website. I have compiled all the numbers for each base onto a spreadsheet so I'm ready when we travel.
I'm not going to bore everyone with details about leave, and paperwork. If you need to know, google it.
So here are the details of our first expierence.
Brent and I drove 10 hours from Nellis AFB to Travis AFB on a Thursday night so we could be at roll call for the first flight to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. We made it in a few hours before, selpt in the car and made it to roll call. We knocked 2 retired people off the flight (active duty always has priority) and were ticketed for the frist flight. We were asked if we'd like to purchase a meal for the flight, I couldn't believe it! Of course we did, so we were set. Now we were off to security and then a holding area while the plane loaded its cargo. Security was a breeze, way better than commerical anyday!
Here's where the fun part comes in, after boarding the first plane a KC-10 we learned we'd all have to get off for a mechancial issue. No big deal, because there were 4 other flights leaving for Hawaii that day. We got off, went out of the holding area, we were reissued tickets for the next flight. Success, we were gonna be off and running, problem was we had to wait about 5 hours. No big deal to us, we could walk around base. Afterall this was a free trip !
With no issues we borded a C-17 cargo plane 5 hours later and were on our way to Hawaii. We were given blankets, ear plugs and our little lunches we ordered. We were also allowed to lay on the floor and sleep. Sweet! And since we have completed another HOP trip to Hawaii, I should get around to posting about it, this trip is over a year old! I've got to get better about updating our blog!
Spring Break
It seems the school year has kept me so busy I haven't had time to blog.
Over spring break Katelyn decided to learn to ride her bike. I've been asking her the past month or so when she wanted to take her training wheels off but she kept answering "not now".
Yesterday while Veronica and I watched the kids out front Katelyn pulled up next to us, as Veronica and I continued chatting I noticed Katelyn working on her bike. I watched for a moment and then asked her what she was doing, to my surprise she said "It's time for me to learn" she took her training wheels off herself and said "I'm ready". She totally rocked, I held the seat and she took off peddling like the wind, we caught it on video and I'm so proud.
She's such a brave, cute little girl. We are so lucky!
Over spring break Katelyn decided to learn to ride her bike. I've been asking her the past month or so when she wanted to take her training wheels off but she kept answering "not now".
Yesterday while Veronica and I watched the kids out front Katelyn pulled up next to us, as Veronica and I continued chatting I noticed Katelyn working on her bike. I watched for a moment and then asked her what she was doing, to my surprise she said "It's time for me to learn" she took her training wheels off herself and said "I'm ready". She totally rocked, I held the seat and she took off peddling like the wind, we caught it on video and I'm so proud.
She's such a brave, cute little girl. We are so lucky!
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