Happy birthday love! I wish I could be there today to celebrate with you, but sometimes, that is just how this military life works out. I am so proud of you and can’t wait till you come home!
Archive for the ‘I *heart* a guy in uniform’ Category
happy birthday bryan.
February 20, 2010 7 days.
February 4, 2010Well, 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.
military wife.
January 17, 2010I have come to the conclusion that I am not a very good military wife. No, it has not taken me almost 11 years to figure it out, but I started thinking about it again today. I have never and will probably never understand how an entity as big as the United States military can’t have one ounce of common sense and often find myself quite frustrated (for lack of a better word) about it.
So, we all know Bryan is in San Antonio for his last two retraining classes before we PCS. These two classes were only supposed to be a Saturday and a Sunday apart, thus he would be there non-stop for both, equaling 9 weeks. Jacey and I were going to fly over for his graduation when he gets his wings (after 11 years of this mess, we both agree I get to pin his wings on:). We didn’t know beforehand it this would be the first class or the second class. If it was the second, we’d just buy one way tickets and ride back with him. If it was the first, we’d be there for his birthday weekend. Cool either way.
Well, we found out that he gets his wings at the end of this first class. Okay, cool, we can celebrate his birthday with him. Wrong. Come to find out, his RIP is wrong and they are graduating a week earlier. Fine, whatever. But, because the start date of the second class hasn’t changed, he *may* have to come home in between classes. AFPC has a policy that if there is more than 7 days between classes, they have to send you back home. Why? I mean really. Why pay him almost $900 in travel money twice over per diem costs for 7 days that would no way equal $900?! So, the instructor is trying to find out what they plan to do, send them home or possibly move up the start date of the second class by a week. At this point, I don’t care, just figure something out. I can’t buy plane tickets until they do. If Bryan has to come home, we’ll just buy one way and ride home with him (and save $380). If not, we’ll buy round trip, but I need to know. Not to mention, if I decide to use my frequent flyer miles, my booking/usage fee doubles if I book less than 21 days out. Grrr.
Am I really going to make it through 9+ more years of this?!
11 years. Part 1.
January 5, 201011 years ago today, Bryan and I had our first “date”. We had been chatting online for a month, but I finally kicked my boyfriend to the curb and he finally got up the courage to ask me out.
Now, here we are 11 years later. We were told 6 months max.
I love proving people wrong…LOL :)!
January 1999 – Not our first date, but pretty close to it.
November 2009
retraining.
November 23, 2009Well, 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.
