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7 days.

February 4, 2010

Well, we are in the single digits now. Yes, I know we were *technically* there 2 days ago, but I have been too tired to sit down and attempt a coherent blog post. Only 7 more days, till we fly to San Antonio to spend a week with Bryan and see his UAS BSOC graduation where he gets his wings. Oh, sorry, it is RPV BSOC now. Sigh. You know the military, the ONLY constant is change.

We fly in Thursday evening and graduation is Friday. Then Saturday morning, we’ll meet my Mom halfway and she will have Jacey till Monday evening. Can you say alone time after a month apart ;). We are going to hit The Melting Pot on Saturday for an early V-Day dinner (I didn’t like the V-Day menu and that is all they are serving on the 14th), mariachi mass on Sunday at Mission San José, the rodeo and Trace Adkins on Tuesday and then we’ll celebrate Bryan’s birthday on Wednesday (it is on the 20th but we won’t be there). Oh, and don’t forget REAL Mexican food…yum! We fly back home on Thursday, the 18th and while J goes back to school that Friday, I don’t go back to work till Monday, the 22nd. Woohoo! Can you tell Jacey is excited too?!

Bryan is doing well in his 1U0X1 training. He has made a 97.5, 95 and 92.5 on his tests so far and only has one more on the 12th. Poor guy is so ready to be done though and he still has one more class to go after this one, plus 3 months of FTU once we move. They definitely never said retraining was fast…LOL! He is excited though, because they went last week and got sized for their flight suits (they get to start wearing them as soon as they graduate this first class) and yesterday, he got his name badge in.

Still no word on orders though. Everyone else in the class got them this past Monday, except 4 people and of course we have to be one of those 4. It’s really a no brainer, there is only one base option for us medically but it would be nice to have the *official* word. They plan to call the chief tomorrow and find out what the hold up is, since it is not normal for some to get them and not all. We shall see.

Anyway, I’d better head to bed. Even though I don’t have to work tomorrow, I do have to get up with Jacey and then go get my allergy shots, hit the gym (I really wanted to run outside but the rain won’t allow that) and the commissary for a few things to get us through the next few days till we fly out.

Posted in AFYFE life, I *heart* a guy in uniform, planes, trains & automobiles, random ramblings | 1 Comment »

i’m alive…

December 17, 2009

I think…LOL!

Work is nuts, you can definitely tell it is our busy season. My boss today informed me that sleep is overrated. I don’t agree :). 3 more work days till the Christmas Eve rush is over and 5 more work days till vacation!

Monday, I had my routine appointment with my oncologist. My white blood cell counts are up to 24 from 18 at my last appointment, 3 months ago. Sigh. She’s not worried, because in her eyes that is a small jump but it still bugs me. I am back up to where I was when I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago. Wow, has it really been that long?! It’s still just watch and see because I feel “okay”. I have gotten sick twice already this season (a minor cold and pink eye) after not getting sick at all last season. She wants me to keep an eye on it and if I keep getting sick, she will check my immunoglobulin levels. If they are low, we can always do IV immunoglobulins but she has only seen about a 50% success rate in her patients. Her goal though is to do anything possible to prolong the amount of time until I have to go on chemo and I agree with that approach. She did contact the hospital at Nellis AFB and I can be seen on base, so now it is up to the chief and AF to send us there instead of Holloman AFB.

Tuesday I had my band appointment. We won’t even discuss my weight, let’s just say I have gained a few pounds (if you really want to know, up on the top under about me is my band page). I’ve been really battling head hunger and mindless eating lately. Not sure why, boredom I suppose, but it needs to take a hike. He gave me a 0.5cc fill bringing me to 4.5cc total in my 10cc band. He thinks one more feel and I will be at my sweet spot (something about the pressure that comes back on the plunger when he fills). I actually get a real dinner again tomorrow night and I can’t wait to see where my restriction is although I am thinking it is going to be pretty good. Last night I ran a little over 4 miles and proceeded to gulp my water like I usually do. Bad idea, I could feel it not going down. Thankfully none came up, it eventually trickled through, because that would have been embarrassing (totally full cardio room with lots of cute guys in uniform, including mine but it wouldn’t have phased him).

The weather here sucks. It has done nothing but rain the last few weeks. Jacey even asked me the other day if we really lived in the “sunshine state”.

This weekend, I am doing all my Christmas baking/goody making. I do plan to have a piece of each (just being honest here) but the rest of those calories are going on some one else’s hips *insert evil laugh*!

Posted in AFYFE life, CLL, bragging on the {military} brat, da band, no more SAHMommy, random ramblings | 2 Comments »

retraining.

November 23, 2009

Well, I guess since Bryan is already in Texas and well immersed into his first class, I ought to get this post written. It has only been sitting here in draft form since November 9th. I am such a slacker here lately.

September 28th is the day that changed (or will change, however you want to look at it) our Air Force lives forever. It is the day that we found out that my oncologist was deploying and then separating from the AF when she got back. Why does this matter you ask? Well, Bryan has wanted to retrain for years now and there was always something holding us back. Most recently, it was my medical team. I have a fantastic medical team here and we really didn’t want to jeopardize that. But, with her being my favorite and most important doctor, it was almost as if it was God’s way of saying go for it. Bryan hates being on the maintenance side of things with all the BS that goes on and I hate it because it trickles into our home life constantly. I know, there are no guarantees it will be any better on the ops side, but I really don’t see how it could possibly be any worse.

So, for the next few days we scoured the retraining availability list and job descriptions. We managed to narrow it down to 3 that sounded like the best fit (uav sensor operator, imagery analysis and space something or other) and on October 5th, he submitted his retraining eligibility packet. That came back the next day saying that he was eligible for all three, so now we had to pick one to apply for. UAV sensor operator is one of Bryan’s dream jobs and it is brand new to the AF so he would be getting in pretty much at ground level (the AFSC was just added in January 2009 and the first tech school class just began in August 2009). The next 2 weeks were spent getting all the required medical forms and such that were needed. On October 21st, we submitted the package and on October 26th he was approved and already had class dates! Umm..hello…LOL! When he submitted, it said they had 21 duty days to respond and everyone knows the AF motto is “hurry up and wait”. Not so, this time. Bryan was thrilled, me…I was in total *shock*.

So, now we begin the true journey. Bryan’s first class started at Lackland AFB on November 20th, he’ll be home for Christmas and then his 2nd and 3rd classes are back to back at Randolph AFB starting on January 14th. He’ll finish training in the latter half of March and then we’ll PCS for his 5 level training. The two choices are Holloman AFB, NM and Creech AFB, NV but our only option because of our Q coding (we are coded because of my leukemia) is Creech, so that we can get services at Nellis AFB/Las Vegas.

I am excited now, although these separations suck. I’ll be completely honest, I do not deal well with TDYs/deployments but, what can you do?! It is all a part of being a military family. I am not excited about the uniform change though…LOL! I love ABU’s and hate flight suits. Darn pajamas :). But, Bryan will look good in wings, he deserves them.

Change is all around!

In case you haven’t seen this on TV, this is what Bry will be doing. At the end of the commercial, he would be the guy in the chair on the right.

Posted in AFYFE life, I *heart* a guy in uniform | 7 Comments »

Tuesday Tidbits

November 17, 2009

Today was a not so great day. Started off great, but let’s just say boiled eggs are no longer my friend. Headed to work, my boiled egg breakfast in hand. Started working and eating my egg which resulted in me not paying attention to my bite sizes or how well I was chewing. Stuck, big time. Severe pain was practically immediate and none of my normal methods for relieving the pain worked. Finally after trying to battle the pain and work for an hour, I gave up and came home. Experienced my second vomiting episode since being banded 15 months ago, this time, foam and all. Yuck. Managed to doze on the floor for about 30 minutes when the pain subsided a bit and then was rudely woken up by the severe pain returning. The pain finally subsided enough (mind you it was still pretty rough) for us to head up to the hospital for immunizations where I paced the floors until we got called back. Thankfully, 4.5 hours after the pain started, the food finally made its way through right before I had to get my shot. Maybe this was God’s way of giving me a wake up call, I dunno. I keep saying I need to get back on track and keep putting it off. I have no choice but to do liquids for a few days now, due to the irritation so I am going to do the 5 day pouch test while I am at it. Get this carb monster killed and get these last stinking 18 pounds off.

Today, Jacey and I both got our H1N1 vaccines and Jacey got her 2nd seasonal flu shot in her series. Now she just has to go back in 30 days for the 2nd H1N1 and she’ll be done for a year. I really had mixed feelings about the whole H1N1 vaccine. My oncologist recommended it but Bryan and I still weren’t 100% sure. We finally decided that for us the risk was greater to get the actual swine flu than to get the vaccine. Bryan leaves tomorrow, so if J or I got sick, we would be SOL and me being immunocompromised, who knows how it would affect me. Bryan is not eligible right now, but at least J and I will be protected. Bryan never gets anything (illness) anyway, he just always bring it home to me. Lucky me.

My hard drive comes in tomorrow and this one is still chugging along…YAY! If I disappear for a few days though, you know why.

We had our Relay For Life Team Captain Party last night and it went really well. Bryan resigned his online chair position (because of retraining) but it was picked up by another sub-committee member, so we still have a full committee roster. We don’t have another meeting until January and while I love relay, I am looking forward to the break. I just really have a lot on my plate right now and it is one less thing to stress about.

And, like I mentioned earlier, Bryan leaves TDY for his first class tomorrow. I hate watching him pack, even though this first TDY will be cake. He’ll be gone a week, we’ll see him for 4 days at Thanksgiving and then he will be home a week and a half later. Now the TDY in January, will suck. He’ll be gone 2 months since the 2 classes are back to back. Oh well, right?! I made it through 2 months last year and at least he is not deployed. I am thankful for that every day!

Posted in AFYFE life, CLL, I *heart* a guy in uniform, bragging on the {military} brat, da band, random ramblings | 3 Comments »

Thank You

November 11, 2009

Image is linked to the source where I found it.

To all those that have served in the past and in the present, THANK YOU for your dedication and service from a granddaughter of a Marine and a Soldier, daughter of a Seamen and proud wife of an Airman. We are only free because of the brave and all too often, we take that freedom for granted. Some are around to share their stories, some have died in battle and some are sacrificing on this very day. We all need to rise up and shout our appreciation but not only on this day but always.

And an extra big THANK YOU to my Veteran. Thank you to everything you do to keep us safe and free. We love you!

Posted in AFYFE life, I *heart* a guy in uniform | 1 Comment »