Assignment Night

Assignment Night is March 7.

Graduation is March 21.

I had some counters on the side of the blog that were counting down the days until Graduation and Assignment Night, but apparently they were wrong. We are very excited for both nights. On Assignment night we will be finding out what type of helicopter Joe will be flying, and where our first assignment will be. Joe has been training on the UH-1 "Huey". They are huge and old school. Some of the instructors here flew the Huey in Vietnam, I could do an entire post about those old guys.
Anyway back to assignment night. Joe fills out a "dream sheet" and ranks the location and aircraft in order of what he wants. Your assignment is given to you according to what is available and class rank.
The Huey is our first choice, Joe would like to continue to keep flying it. The good thing about getting a Huey would be that later on, Joe would probably have the opportunity to switch to different helicopter. Say in a few more years when there are more Ospreys available and they are looking for pilots with experience, Joe could try for that.



For Hueys the choices are:
1. Fairchild Afb, Spokane, Washington
2. Andrews Afb, Washington DC
3. FE Warren Afb, Cheyenne, Wyoming
4. Malstrom Afb, Great Falls, Montana
5. Minot Afb, Minot, North Dakota
6. Yakota Ab, Tokyo, Japan
It was a tough decision for us, because lets face it I don't want to live where it is cold. Plus none of them are really that close to Arizona, and they don't really sound that exciting. I mean did you ever dream of living in Great Falls?(No offense to Great Falls or Montana, I'm sure it's a wonderful place.) I know I never did. I have decided to have a good attitude, no matter what we get. I did tell Joe that if we get Minot, there will be tears. You know, just so he could prepare himself. I would get over it and then get excited for our new adventure in North Dakota. (No offense to Minot or North Dakota, I'm sure it's a wonderful place.)It would be cool to live in Japan, but it is so far away. I wonder if I could do it, I mean I know I would be able to, but am I ready for that?


The other choices are a UH-60 "Pavehawk", it has guns and does combat, search and rescue. It is the Air Force's version of the Blackhawk.

The locations for the UH-60, Pavehawk seem more exciting to me, but Joe would have to learn to fly something new(Joe just spent9 months learning the t-6, then 6 more months learning the huey, we're ready to stick with one thing) and there is a greater chance for deployment with these.
1. Davis-Monthan Afb, Tucson, Arizona
2. Nellis Afb, Las Vegas, Nevada
3. Moody Afb, Valdosta, Georgia
4. Kadena Ab, Okinawa, Japan
5. Lakenheath Raf, Suffolk, England

The final choice is CV-22 Osprey, this one is still pretty new to the Air Force and it is rare to get one of these. They are cool because it is like a plane and a helicopter together.

The two locations for the Osprey right now, Hurlburt Feild in Fort Walton Beach Florida or Cannon Afb in Clovis, New Mexico. Joe's instructor already told them that there will not be any Osprey given to his class, so we aren't really concerned about this one.


The order that they are listed here is the order Joe is putting on his sheet,at least that is what he told me;). It is different than a "fixed wing" (not a helicopter) drop night.(Is anyone still reading this?) With fixed wing they find out what is available first and then, fill out their sheet according to what is available to them. Since helicopter classes are so small they just have the students rank them by preference. Our friends in Mississippi got their "drop" and it lists what base is available and how many spots they need to fill. So you know if what you really want is even an option or not, but that is not how it works here on the helicopter side of things. For example in the last class of helicopter students, our friends, who were second in their class, put Osprey first and then all of the 60 locations, then Hueys. They ended up getting assigned Hueys to FE Warren in Wyoming. It just like that here. So we have no clue, what we will get. Lately Joe has been making list of what assignments have been given in the past few classes. (seriously, is anyone still reading this?) and then trying to guess what will be assigned next. So far there doesn't seem to be any logical order to the assignments given.

Joe has ten "graded" flights left. Which means more than ten flights, some of them are freebies. This past week he has been doing night flights. His schedule is more conducive to my routine and I like it better than him being gone when I wake up. He goes to work at about noon and comes home around 11pm. He studies some when he gets home, sleeps late and studies, more before he goes to work. The cool thing about night flights is that he is training with Night Vision Goggles. I think it is pretty cool, he says it's not as cool as it sounds and that you would only fly at night if you had to.

So for those of you who made it to the end of this post here are some pictures of Joe at "work."

This is Joe and his classmates.
Jeremy, Monty, Annie, Joe


Getting ready to fly.

Flying the Huey.
Here is a field of cows. They have to practice landing in fields of cows a lot.
Could this be more awesome, Joe playing fooseball while President Bush in on the TV?

P.S. I don't think you are supposed to tell people exactly how you filled out your "dream sheet", because then it is really obvious when you don't get what you want, and people judge you because you might not have a very good class ranking. It's not really that big of a deal to me. There are only four people in Joe's class, when there is only four it's not that hard to figure out where you fit in the ranking order. Even when you are first in the class here, you don't know if your first choice is available. Plus, it's not like we really actually get to choose where we are going. It is out of our hands.

TAG

A.The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 4 people, and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged, and asking them to read your blog.

Since I have been tagged by three different people..... only one of them actually told me, Katie and Kelsey just assumed I would read their blogs and play along;).

10 years ago I was.....20 years old(you do the math), going to ASU with Amber. It was fun having Amber live at my house. We had so many good time together, and learned a lot about each other, like at night Amber needs to talk in order to fall asleep, and in the morning I don't really like to talk until I've been awake about 45 minutes. I was counting down the months until Joe got home from his mission. It was a fun time in my life hanging out with friends being young and always having something to do.

5 things on my to do list today
1. Fininsh the giant pile of laundry
2. Clean the kitchen, while I feel good
3. Mop the floor (this one probably won't happen, but it's on my list)
4. Plan something for family night tonight
5. Hopefully go to the postoffice to mail a few things (see things you didn't know about me)

Things I would do if I became a billionaire
I would do the obvious like buy everyone in my family houses, cars and help them with anything else they needed. Then it would be cool to start a family business, so we could all work together. We would take the summers off and have fun vacations together in the Bahamas. I would give everyone in Joe's family 100 million each, so they could spend how they like, lame I know, but I don't know what they would want. Plus give money to all of my friends to help pay off all of their student loans, other debts and a little (you know a few mil) extra spending cash. I would do all kinds of lazy, snobby things like get some one to do my dishes and laundry, so I could spend more time with the kids of course. Then the usual, like give money to various charities of my choosing. Of course Joe would have access to this money also, so he could buy things/help people.

3 of my bad habits
1. Procrastinating, it's called waiting until the last minute, I'm really good or bad at it.
2. Holding in my feelings, not dealing with emotions as they happen.
3. Thinking going to bed before 11:30 is not a good idea, I blame my mother.

5 places I've lived
Seriously, ten years ago if you would have asked me to name 5 different places that I would live in the next 10 years, I probably would have given you 5 different addresses in Mesa. Life can be crazy sometimes.
1. Mesa, AZ
2. Tucson, AZ
3. Columbus, MS
4. Fort Rucker, AL
Okay so ,technically I haven't lived in 5 different cities, but we're moving again in April/May. Ask me again in ten years, I'll probably have more cities to list.

5 jobs I've had
1. Serving custard at Neilsen's Frozen Custard *I hated that paper hat and bow tie, but I did love the free custard!
2. Hostess at Mi Amigo's *I would come home smelling like fajitas, it was gross.
3. Comet One Hour Cleaners *Touching other people's dirty clothes, and sweating up a storm. All of the cleaning was done there, so there was no point having an a/c with all of that steam and ironing going on, good times.
4. Receptionist for 6 different insurance agents *All these guys treated me like a daughter and included me on their daily soda runs.
5. Teacher's aide for Mrs. Dairman at Keller *Going back to my alma matter and seeing how sweet kids can be in fourth grade.

Things most people don't know about me....
*I love tv too much, pick a night of the week and I'll tell you what's on.
*I have over fifty blogs bookmarked, I can't help it, once I started jumping from blog to blog there was no stopping me.
*Ever since we moved to the South, I listen to country music and think there is nothing wrong with it.
*I buy cards all of the time, and then never mail them to people. I probably have one for you.

I tag: Becca, Raygon, Sarah D. and Jodi.

If we had a girl.........

She might look something like this.
This is what happens when the mullet wig doesn't get put away with the rest of the Halloween decorations, and I don't put my boots away after I wear them, and River is with his mother practically 24/7.
River and I have such a good time together. I love being able to spend my days with him, he is such a sweetheart. I never thought I would forget all of the funny things that he has done, but I should have written them down. He is so funny and keeps me laughing everyday.

Signs Joan is pregnant......

*Napping more than usual, for me that's a lot.

*The smell of girly soaps that I usually love, now make me want to barf.

*Songs on the Country station make me cry.

*Joe asks me why I'm crying and I have no explanation.

*I forget the usual things.....like to take my purse with me if I'm going out.

*I miss my family more than usual.

*I wish Amber would come hang out and watch Max and Ruby with me.

*I miss going to the Bienz's, letting the kids run wild and have Laura taking care of me. (I actually miss this one all the time.)

*Ezra tells me I better do laundry soon because the hamper is about to tip over, and I think to myself, I should teach Ezra how to do his own laundry.

*I make dinner and then don't want to eat any of it.

*I don't make dinner, because everything sounds disgusting.

*I wonder why we don't have Ramen and grilled cheese for dinner more often, because it is really delicious.

*Ice cream doesn't even sound good.

*I wish I had some of that spicy pickled cauliflower. (I think it's a Martin thing)

*I think laying on the couch watching Spongebob with River is a good activity.

*I wonder if I'm drinking enough water and eating enough vegetables.

*I have to go pee all of the time.

*Joe tells people I'm expecting.......expecting to have morning sickness and be grumpy.

Sorry for the pity party, I just thought I would share some of the things that have been going on. I know all of you are sad that you are not here to enjoy me in my pleasant state. I do remember when I was pregnant with the boys, I felt better after twelve weeks. So, I've got that to look forward to.

Baby #3

If you didn't know I was pregnant, you do now! We haven't been telling people, because we wanted to wait until my first appointment. We did get to tell our families while we were in Arizona that was pretty cool. I had my first doctors appointment today. I have been a little nervous since we found out and it was a relief to go today and find out everything looked good. Since this was planed I have been taking my vitamins, the doctor was very proud and said I was his first patient in over a month that had been taking her vitamins before she got pregnant. They gave me a little ultrasound and the baby looks like an alien/peanut, but that is normal.
I am 9 weeks along and due on August 19. Do I know where we will be living on August 19? Not really, but that is the fun of it, am I right?

Really long post about Christmas in AZ

We had such a wonderful Christmas visit to Arizona. It was so great to see our families. We got there on the Friday before Christmas and totally surprised Joe's mom. She had no idea that we were going to be there. It was so great. We want to say a big THANK YOU to our friend Mary Johnson for putting it all together.
The plan was to surprise Pam (Joe's mom) at the new Mimi's Cafe in Casa Grande. While we were waiting for her we decided that it would be a good idea to let everyone around us know what was going on. We knew Pam was going to freak out when she saw us. She hasn't seen Joe for over a year. It was a good thing we told the people because when she saw Joe she screamed and started crying, asking Joe what he was doing there. She was so excited to see Joe, the boys and of course me. It was so great. Sorry I don't have any pictures. We tried to get it on video, but she came in faster than we thought. The people around us were very nice and congratulated Pam when they were leaving. A nice lady told us that she wasn't feeling the holiday spirit and we made her Christmas and cheered her up.

On Saturday night it was the Martin Family Christmas Party. This year it was at Kyle and Elyse's house. It was so nice of them to let everyone come over. We had such a good time and it was so great seeing all of my family. Every one was able to be there this year. We had delicious Mexican food and a great program. My favorite was the puppet show by David's family. We almost forgot to take a picture of all of the grandkids. I think there is 28 grandkids, 29 including Jill Bienz, Danny wife. That's right Danny's wife. Here it is, pouting, crying and all.

So, if you are Ezra and River and you are staying at Nannie's house there are some things that you are definitely going to do:
1. Make a "palette" to sleep on and watch boomerang.
2. Eat Nacho Cheese Doritos.
3. Go to IHOP for breakfast, at least one time.
4. Have spaghetti for dinner, unless mom and dad are there, then then you get delicious Tacos.
5. Get surprises from Nannie on Saturdays
6. Play outside, if it's too cold for a pool, then dig in the wash with metal spoons and buckets.
(they dug all day on Saturday, boys and dirt.)

Here is their spiderman palette.

Here are Ezra and River playing in the dog cage, they don't need much to have a good time.

Since Pam didn't know we were coming she took her tree decorations to work. Mary supplied us with some ornaments to decorate the tree with. They turned out to be real keepers.

On Christmas Eve we opened one present. It was a Nintendo Wii. It is so much fun to play. Here is a picture of Pam and Joe playing baseball. It can get a little crazy, Pam was sore the next day. When Pam and Joe play together (against each other is more like it) it gets competive and the trash talking starts.
I'm pretty sure Ezra said something like, "Nannie what did you just say to my dad?"

Christmas morning was fun, the boys were so excited. We left some tacos for Santa, he ate them. The boys got pajamas, clothes, pokemon, and digital cameras for kids. The best present was being able to be with our family for Christmas.

Oh, you know we went to In-N-Out Burger. Here is a picture of Joe's "double, double, animal style" with his fries. Plus the boys fries too. It was so delicious. When we were almost done eating Joe said to me, "Do you realized we haven't said one word to each other since we got our food?"

We also got to stay a few nights with my parents. Here is a picture of Ezra and Grandpa lighting the fire. Was it cold enough to have a fire? Not really, but that never stopped my mom from being cold or my dad from building a fire.

When we got to town the boys were desperately in need of haircuts. I asked my dad and he said yes. It brought back memories of brothers and nephews getting their haircuts. We had a good time with my parents.

Ezra requested that we go see Jed before we leave. We had a good visit with Kyle and Elyse. Joe and Becca stopped by with their cute baby. All kids ran around having lots of fun. When it was time to go Ezra was very sad. He cried for a bit on the way home.

We did get a picture of this awesome Arizona sunset, on our drive home.

Here is a picture of Joe playing Guitar Hero and Ezra playing along on his indestructible Brazilian guitar. I never thought I would hear my kids say, "I think dad's playing Slowride." and then run in the room singing along.

It was good and busy visit. We didn't get a chance to visit everyone in my family before we left, so I was glad I got to see them at the Christmas party. We also got to see Joe's dad and step-mom who were in town for Christmas too. We had a great time, and made it home with only minor complications (lost luggage, that we got in a few days.) Now we are home and it is back to real life.

Ezra's B-day Party!

Ezra is 7!!

On Ezra's actual birthday we had a family party with cake and opened up presents that Nannie had sent in the mail. He was so excited to get pokemon and sonic toys!



The next weekend we had a birthday party with friends. By the time we invited friends on our street and friends from church (and some siblings came), there was 17 kids! I had a hard time telling Ezra he couldn't invite people, but next year I'm sure it will be easier. It was crazy chaos, but all of the kids had a good time. Joe and I were wiped out after it was over. The kids played relay games, tried to break the pinata and decorated cupcakes.

The kids doing the dress up relay.

The kids doing the crab walk relay.
Ezra taking a swing at the pinata.

Decorating cupcakes and getting messy.

All in all it was a great party and it seemed like everyone had a blast. Later that night I asked Ezra how his party was. He very excitedly told me "it was a rip-off!" He was about to be in big trouble until I asked him what rip-off means. He told me it meant a really super fun exciting time. I corrected him and let him know that he shouldn't tell people his birthday was a rip-off.

Family Snowball Fight With Nannie

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

"I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas!"

We put up our fake Christmas tree. Every year I think, next year we will get a real tree, but so far no luck. It has been a while since we have had a real one and really, next year we are going to get a real one.
We had good time putting the tree up and decorating it. We listened to Frank Sinatra Christmas CD, the one where he sings J-I-N-G-L-E Bells. Ezra and River love that one. Joe put the tree together and the boys were very eager to "help" him. River said, "I like Christmas." Then Ezra said, "I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas." He was saying it all night, it was cute. I just loved how they decorated the tree. There are a lot of little groups of ornaments together. The branches near the top, don't have much on them. Ezra kept asking if he could put the topper on the top, so Joe lifted him to the top. I think he must have seen this on one of the Christmas movies.

Fun with the camera

So Ezra and River were playing with the camera they started taking pictures of the toys Ezra got for his birthday. (We are having a party with his friends on Saturday, so I will post about that later.)They took about a dozen pictures, or should I say Ezra took a dozen pictures. I will just show you a few.....you'll get the idea.
Picture 1 -toys


Picture 2- toys


Picture 3- toys


Picture 4 -"when is it going to be my turn with the camera?"


Picture 5- "You better let me have a turn!"


Picture 6-River running "I'm telling Mom you wont let me have a turn with the camera."


Here is a picture of two cabbage heads. Aren't they cute?


I feel bad that I haven't posted in a while. We had a good Thanksgiving. Our friends Rich and Monica Welch came over, plus Rich's mom came from Minisota. We had some delicious food, watched some football, took naps, and divided up leftovers. I have a lot to be Thankful for.

Peanut Festival?

This past weekend we went to the Peanut Festival, it wasn't really a festival as much as it was the state fair. It was overpriced and we didn't have Nannie (Joe's mom) with us to buy a ridiculous amount of tickets and all of the fried food that we wanted. So we settled for a ride on the carousel and an elephant ear. The boys scouts from our stake had a booth and they were selling, elephant ears. I had never heard of them before, but they are like a flat churro or a bigger thinner version of indian fry bread covered in cinnamon and sugar. We bought two and then one of the guys that was working there was one of Joe's flight instructors and gave us a free one, so we ended up with three elephant ears. We couldn't eat all of them, but immediately Ezra was in heaven, River took some convincing, but after we made him take a bite he thought they were delicious too.
It was pretty much a rip off of over-priced games, rides and food.



They did have a free booth you could go in and learn about the Alabama Farm, which leads me to Joe's favorite story.
The boys and I are in the booth learning all about the farm, Joe is waiting with the stroller outside the booth. A man and his kids, who clearly know about farming in Alabama, walk by and his kids start to go into the booth. Then the dad in a thick southern accent says, "Kids don't go in there that is for people who aint never seen a fa....."
Then he sees Joe and says, "For people who want to be a farmer for a day."
I don't know if is funny as a story on my blog, but it was funny when it happened.



So there was this lady and she had a monkey on a chain. You could A) Give the monkey a quarter for a good luck handshake. B) Give the monkey a dollar and get a picture OF the monkey. C) Give the monkey 5 dollars and get your picture taken with the monkey.
Holy Smokes that monkey was raking it in!!! Joe said if I wanted to live comfortably like a carnie he would buy me a monkey. I'm still debating.

Mississippi

Ezra & River on the back of a giant C-17.

My three boys in the Huey.

Ezra on top of an F-15



This weekend we went back to Columbus MS, too see our friends get their assignments (what plane and where to). Our good friends the Woodlands and the Carusos both got their first choice and they are both going to go to Travis AFB in California (Lucky!). It was so fun to see all of our friends from Mississippi. We went to dinner with the Caruso family and some other friends after assignment night. On Saturday we went to "Career Day" (planes set up for you to look at and talk to the pilots).

We got to watch a University of Alabama football game with Joe and Katie C. and their friends, Ana and Kyle (I recommend this to everyone). If you don't know what "Roll Tide" means look it up. Katie's dad was calling her during the game so they could discuss what was happening. I'm pretty sure she answered the phone "roll tide" when he called. My Joe was impressed by Ana's football knowledge, first she was discussing how college football should go to a play off system and then during the game she claimed there was "p.i." (pass interference). It was so fun to see what being a true football fan is all about.

Here are our friends with their new aircraft.

Kelsey and Oliver on the left with C-17.

Joe and Katie on right with KC-10.













On a side note when I said "look it up" I didn't actually look it up myself because I know what it means. The Mascot for University of Alabama is an Elephant or The Crismon Tide. I don't get it either, but I'm from AZ. I found this quote on the internet(so it must be true.)

“Roll Tide is Alabama’s battle cry, but among fans, it’s the ultimate all-purpose phrase, like prego in Italian or namaste in Nepali, an acceptable substitute for hello, goodbye, nice to meet you, and Amen” — Warren St. John, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Trick-or-treating on post is out of control. It is set up to be from 6-8pm. Once it starts it is non-stop. I wonder if it was like that in Queen Creek, AZ? They have similar set up, lots of houses in a row, that are full of kids waiting to get candy. Joe got home from work at 6:10 and he said it was crazy trying to drive home. We had 6 giant bags of candy and we still ran out before the 2 hour block was over. When we (I took the boys trick or treating) were on our way home at 7:05, most houses were out of candy too. The boys came home with a good haul. River is still too young to guard his candy and let Joe and I pick out our favorites.