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House Guests

Last night we went to pick up 2 of our best friends from the airport, Cassie and Andrew. Cassie has been my best friend for a long, long time. I’ve known her since we were 12 and we even went to college together in L.A. Andrew has been Jake’s best friend for as long as I know of and I’ve also gotten really close with Andrew over all the years I’ve known Jake. Cassie and Andrew have known eachother over the past 4 years or so through Jake and I and thought it would be fun to come out together to visit us. I am beyond excited that they are here and its amazing how 4 people can all “click” so well together. It doesn’t matter how often we see eachother, we pick right back up where we left off and have so much fun.

Here is a picture of the 4 of us taken in college when Andrew came to visit us at Biola…

I’m so excited to see what this weekend has in store for us. Today we are going to do some things around base and I will show them the wild town of Columbus, MS 🙂 Jake has a flight today so he will be gone until dinner. Then tonight we are going to go to the Assignment Night on base and over to a party with Jake’s class. Tomorrow and Sunday we will probably take a trip somewhere so that we can all experience something fun and new (and southern!) This weekend is just what I needed to wash away the gloom of a stressful week.

Vent

Here I go. I think if I write out my stress I might actually have a more productive day…just get it out and move on. Sorry if some of this doesn’t make sense, I’m just going to type whatever I feel like.

This week has been awful and stressful for me. I have been on overload at work which I really don’t mind too much because I’d rather that than be bored and I’m thankful that I am being given big jobs to do but by the end of the day I am exhausted. I feel like not only am I doing all these work projects but I am trying to almost overdo them so as to prove that I can so that I can keep getting all of these projects and clients. I can’t wait for a week at work with some downtime or a slow day…if there will be such a thing.

Next, I’ve had multiple spouse events this week and pretty much go straight there from work. Don’t get me wrong, spouse dinners and meetings, etc are great and I’d rather be in the loop than out of it but I think I’ve reached my limit on social time. Its ironic that a few months ago I was craving interaction with others on the base and now I am spread so thin that I haven’t even really seen some of my good friends here in over a week. If I didn’t have a job then it would be different. I’m sure I would want an event every night but honestly I work a full day (especially this week) and then I go to an event and then I come home late and Jake is already asleep and I have a hyper puppy and a ridiculous load of household chores.

Thats another thing. I miss my husband. Pilot training has taken him away and I want him back! (Remember that this is just a vent. I am actually very thankful for this opportunity he has but its only normal for me to not always love the circumstances it puts us in.) This week is an early week for him. He’s been up by 4am every morning this week which means that he needs to go to bed super early and with everything I have going on our schedules just don’t seem to match. He has really been wonderful with trying to help me around the house since he knows I am worn out too but he really has no free time during the week. I have never seen him like this, so exhausted and overloaded. He holds it together really well but its easy to see that hes having a hard time with all this training and the schedule. It takes a toll on me to see him like that and know that I can’t really help him at all. I haven’t even been able to feed him a good dinner with our clashing schedules.

Last night was really frustrating too. I thought it would be my breaking point for the week but I think I was too tired to cry. Somewhere around 1am the craziest storm I have ever seen came through Columbus – I didn’t even know storms could be like that. Anyways it woke us up and the whole house was shaking and the bedroom kept lighting up and I swear it was right above our house. Bailey was freaking out and wouldn’t stop barking, Jake was pissed because he really needed his sleep so he could be ready to fly today and he was mad at Bailey and mad at everything. I felt so bad for Jake and I knew it was more important for him to sleep so I took Bailey downstairs and let her bark at the thunder until she fell asleep. It lasted for over an hour. Good thing Jake’s flight got cancelled today because I’m sure he was too tired to be flying. Anyways, Jake left for work and about 5am the storm started up again and the thunder started rolling which means I was up again. All of that said, I am a very very tired girl today and I’m sure Jake is even more tired but he gets no time at all to even think about being tired because he has a huge test tomorrow on top of preparing for his flights.

On top of all that, Cassie and Andrew come tomorrow and I have yet to start cleaning the house…which REALLY needs to be cleaned. So I will go home from work today and clean and clean and clean. Laundry, dishes, you name it, it needs to be done and it ain’t gonna do itself! I’m just so tired that I don’t know how its going to actually happen.

With all that said, I have been a ball of stress all week and am hoping and praying that this weekend with Cassie and Andrew will be so fun that I will forget about all this. I can’t wait to see them and that alone is sure to cheer me up. I am going to take Friday afternoon and Monday morning off of work so that gives me a nice long weekend to relax and enjoy my company. And if the rain ever stops we will hopefully be going to Great America in Atlanta on Saturday. Its Air Force day and we all get in free 🙂

Okay…vent over.

My Week In Bullet Points

I attempted to write a long updates blog just now but because I am not in a very “bloggy” mood it was really turning out to be a boring post of disconnected thoughts. So instead I’ve decided to just list some bullet points of random thoughts and updates as I think of them…

• Jake’s first day of flying went great, and flying every day since then has gone just as well. He is on a late schedule this week so he hasn’t been getting home until after 9pm every night.
• Work has been long this week (even though its a short week because of Labor Day). I’ve studied hard and finally passed my Google AdWords exam. I am now officially a certified Google Advertising Professional. I even have a special logo to place on my resume. It was a long process and no fun at all so I’m glad to have it accomplished.
• Labor day weekend started out fun and ended kind of “blah”. Friday night we went out with a bunch of people in Jake’s class to celebrate their first day of flying. Saturday we went with another couple to Tupelo, MS (Elvis’ birthplace by the way haha) to do some shopping and eat at Olive Garden. Sunday I ended up feeling really sick after church and that sickness continued throughout my whole day off on Monday. I at least had enough energy to enjoy our class BBQ on Sunday which was a lot of fun.
• This week while Jake has been working late, I’ve gotten bored and started to redecorate the living room and finish decorating the rooms upstairs. Its turning out really good so far. I’ll post some pictures when I’m done.
• I’ve started making Bailey a scrapbook 🙂
• Cassie and Andrew come to visit one week from today!! That is by far the most exciting thing I have going on this month and I cannot express how happy I am that they are coming out here. We are going to take them shooting (and the boys can go hunt armadillos), go to an assignment night on base, take them in the flight simulator, show them around Columbus, and whatever else they want to do while they’re here. I can’t wait!

That’s all for now! Happy Thursday!

Congrats Jake! T-6 Time!

Jake is officially done with the Academics (Phase 1) of pilot training and today at 4:15pm he will pilot his first flight in the T-6! I’m so ridiculously proud of him as I have witnessed first-hand how hard he has worked to get to this point. Please pray for him that his flight goes smooth today and also pray for me as I overcome the slight anxiety I have of the person I love most being up in a plane every day from now on.

Here is Jake getting ready for his flight…

And of course he wanted a picture with Bailey…

Feelin’ Crafty

It’s Friday and another good week has just flown by again. On Wednesday night, while all the guys were studying hard for another huge test (which by the way Jake only missed one on! WOO!), a few of us girls decided to get together and have a chick flick movie night. Well, somehow that also turned into a craft night as everyone just decided to bring over little projects they had been working on. Since Wednesday I have been inspired and have been feeling very crafty! Suddenly, I have all these ideas of things I want to do like make my own fall wreath to hang on the door, make a scrapbook of Bailey, make some cute cards and send them out just for fun, work on decorating the guest bedroom with some fun frame collage ideas I have, and the list goes on and on. I’m suddenly very interested in HGTVs website and all the crafty ideas they have on there. Hopefully I will put this motivation to good use and be productive over the weekend.

On a completely different note, I dyed my own hair yesterday! Don’t worry, nothing drastic, just keeping myself blonde. Although I have always gone to the salon to get highlights done so this was something totally new to me. Its just that I was way past due to get my hair colored again and was not feeling great about spending the $80-$100 to do so. I just went to Walgreens, picked up some generic blonde hair dye (with highlights already in it apparently) and gave it a try. I did pretty good on matching the dye to my hair color except it did turn out a little more “strawberry blonde” than “champagne blonde” like I usually have it, but I really like it! It made me think, “Why have I been paying so much money when I can stay blonde for 7.99?” The best part is that no one really noticed, so it must look very much like my usual color. I guess I will have to see how it looks after it fades before I know if its really going to work but as for now, its a great alternative to those high salon prices!

Another week, Another blog full of updates!

Wow, I can’t believe that its been so long since I’ve posted! I don’t even know where last week went! It went by so fast and I was so busy that it seems like a blur looking back at it. Its a bummer that I wasn’t able to blog at all last week because it was probably the funnest week I’ve had here in Columbus. Almost every night there was a class event or spouse event to go to and I was excited and eager to go to them all!

Tuesday night was the Officer’s Spouse Club social on base. It was an ice cream social and it was fun but a little bit awkward. The new girls there (including me) were really singled out and ended up being roped into doing all these base and community things involuntarily. I was glad I went with some girls I knew because otherwise I probably would have had an awful time. I’m not sure yet whether or not I will join the club.

Wednesday night I went to a jewelry party that my friend Katie was having and Thursday night was Jake’s class’ Pilot Partner’s welcome dinner. Basically at the Pilot Partners thing, we just went to meet with the business that is sponsoring Jake’s UPT class. We had dinner, talked with people from the community, and thanked them for their involvement. It was funny, because of where I work, I have already met a lot of people in the community. I was actually introducing people in our class to people I have met through work. It was great!

Friday night was by far the best night of the week! My friend Ann and I decided that we needed a girls night out. So we ditched the hubbys and went out to Applebees for dinner and then went to the movies to see The Time Travelers Wife. We had an awesome night out and I haven’t laughed so hard in so long! I see us having many more fun girl nights this year!

The weather this past weekend was probably the best weather we’ve had since Jake and I moved out here. It was only in the 80s and it was completely dry heat! No humidity! Crazy!! Jake and I took advantage of that on Saturday by going on a bike ride around base and then eating a nice dinner out on our patio (which thank goodness is screened because otherwise the bugs would have eaten us alive!) Sunday was great too; we carpooled with some people from our class out to church and then came back and us girls headed to the pool! We all just relaxed and talked and enjoyed the amazing weather. Then my friend Patty called and said that her and her husband had finally arrived on base! Jake and I know them from L.A. and have been anxiously awaiting their move to Columbus. We spent the night showing them around base and then we headed into town for a yummy southern style dinner. I had such a great time and forgot how alike Patty and I are. I think we could just talk for hours! Welcome to Columbus Patty!

We also had a furry little visitor stay with us last night, Charlie (Patty’s dog). They weren’t able to get pet friendly lodging for the night so we offered to watch him. We had a great time and Bailey loved it! I don’t think they stopped playing all night! It made me realize how badly Bailey needs to be around another dog. Jake and I want to get another one so bad but we really feel like we should wait until the housing people will let us put our fence up. In the meantime, Bailey has been getting lots of time with other dogs in the neighborhood lately. There are a few girls that live around me that take their dogs on a long walk every night together and they invited me to go the other night. I really appreciated that because lately Jake has had too much studying to do to walk with me and Bailey so we usually go by ourselves. Now, walking with the other girls has become almost a nightly thing and I always look forward to it (as does Bailey I’m sure!)

In conclusion, life is great here in Columbus. Its definitely home for me now and its great to finally see where I fit in all this. I’m so thankful for the work God has done in my life up to this point to get me here and its great to see that when I trust in Him, He always provides!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Happy Monday!

Look’n for Mr. Right

Bailey got a surprise present in the mail this week from her grandma Kathlyn…

Life in Columbus

I feel like I have so much to talk about and update on that I should probably divide it into sections so that I am not just randomly swithcing from subject to subject 🙂 Here we go in no particular order…
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Work
I have almost been back at work a week now and for the most part I have just jumped right back in where I left off. When I got back to work on Monday, I already had projects waiting for me! That has made me excited and happy because it makes me feel really needed at work and accomplished when I finish my long list of to-do’s. Most of the week has been filled with the usual: proofing, research, research, and more research. But I also got to go to a Facebook seminar for advertising which was pretty fun. I already knew most of the information but I did manage to learn a few things from it.

Tomorrow I have my official training to take over the media bills and other financial bookkeeping on Quickbooks, which is a huge work load to take on but I am excited for the challenge! Also, my work is going to have me take a class on Google Adwords and get certified. This is an awesome opportunity for me and something to help build my resume. I think I will start on that next week sometime. Overall, work is going great and I definitely feel like part of the team. Its great to be back at work doing something that I can be proud of!

Family
Of course by family I mean Jake and Bailey 🙂 Jake is doing great in his training still. Yesterday was another big test for him and he’s been studying pretty hard for it all week. He got an A on it and I am so proud of him! He is really working so hard and I’m glad he’s seeing the rewards of his work. He’s been involved in a lot of study groups with other guys in his class and really seems to be making some good friends along the way.

Jake and I have really been great lately working as a team; supporting eachother through both of our hard work days and still making time to put one another first. We don’t get a lot of time together so we have been making the most of our time. Instead of laying on the couch watching a show, we have been very active, like last night we went for a long bike ride around base together, and a few nights ago we washed the car together. It sounds funny but its a good way to be together and do something together.

Of course, Bailey is always our “something together”. To us, she is our child and we spoil her ridiculously. We are so thankful to have her and she brings so much fun and laughter into our lives. Sometime in the near future we plan to get another dog too. Bailey really needs someone to play with and we always feel so bad leaving her at home alone all day long. I’m not sure that we will get a puppy because they are so much work but I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens.

Church
It’s great to be back at church and getting involved again after being gone all summer. It’s strange that most of our friends that were there when we first got there in January have already left and moved on to their next bases. Its given us a great opportunity though to meet so many more great Christian people and connect with other Christians within the AF community. Pretty soon I will also be starting my Thursday night bible study again with the girls. This time we are going to be working through a book on being excellent, Godly wives 🙂 I think that will be a wonderful study and hopefully very beneficial to the foundation of our young marriage.

Friends
Looking back on my blogs from when we first moved here, it is amazing to me to see how God has really provided in the area of friendship. I still remember so strongly those feelings of loneliness and need for friends; now I am surrounded and overwhelmed by the people God has brought into my life. My closest friend out here, Ann, has been such a blessing to me. We are so much alike in everything that we like to do and the way we think. She is someone I can call whenever I need someone and she is there for me and we can talk for hours.

Then, I have all the wonderful wives of UPT class 10-13. There are 10 of us and we all have such a great time together. Last week we did quite a few things together and some of us even took a day shopping trip to Tuscaloosa, AL. Everyone gets along so easily and so far this group of girls seems to be pretty drama free. The hard part is though that I am the ONLY one who has a full-time job out of all the spouses. Therefore, most of the meetings are in the mornings and I am at work. I already missed one and I know that I’ll miss many many more. Its kind of a bummer to feel left out but I know that I should be happy and excited to be working and thankful to have a job. And there are also plenty of events at night for me to attend. Like next week I have an AF or spouse event almost every night! I have a social on Tuesday, a jewelry party on Wednesday, the pilot partners welcome on Thursday, and a baby shower to go to on Saturday! I know it will be such a fun week and I am excited for all the girl time. Oh and also, my good friend Patty and her husband get here next week! I can’t wait for her to be here and I know we are going to have a ton of fun here in good ol’ Columbus.

Visitors
This week we have had the joy of having some good friends come back to visit for the week, Matt & Logan. They were our neighbors when we first moved here and they are the 2 single guys that I would also mention in my earlier blogs from Columbus. They are such great friends and we’ve enjoyed every second of there visit with us. Now one is stationed in Washington and one is in New Jersey and both are flying C-17s.

Next month, I am even more excited that 2 of our best friends are coming out to visit for a few days, Andrew & Cassie. Hopefully I will be able to take a day off work when they are here and we can plan something fun. We might drive to Atlanta for the day and go to Six Flags because its military day and we get in free and it’d be something fun to go do. Jake is also insisting that we go Armadillo hunting while they’re here. Oy…

We may also be having some family out for the holidays. That would be so much fun and give me a good reason to decorate! Anyways, I am very excited to have some visitors come our way and show them our new house and introduce them to Mississippi life.

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So there ya have it. All my updates and probably much information than you wanted to know 🙂

Check this out!

My sister is in Panama right now teaching English with a group from our church and she has been blogging everyday about her experiences. God has really been doing some amazing things through her down there and it’s been really encouraging to read so I thought I’d share it with ya’ll. It’s http://jaclynwilliams.blogspot.com. Please pray for her and her team as they wrap up the last few days of their trip and begin the long travel home!