Lucky Army Wives

Lucky You!

Want to wander around Vegas with us? A trip with girlfriends is always fun; and, this trip is free!

Let the strains of Sinatra’s "Luck be a Lady Tonight" play in your head. Imagine huge, sparkling hotels with beautiful flowing water fountains – perhaps the Bellagio? Can you see the dazzle of incredible night shows and colorful light displays? Survey the gaming rooms filled with people and poker chips. The roar of the winners, the ringing of slot machine bells, the calls of pit bosses, the cheers of the players, the laughter of winners scooping up their rewards – I bet there are some lucky ladies in the crowd!

Let’s survey another scene…… Consider your early morning start. Can you hear "Reveille" playing as our American flag is raised high above the Post headquarters? Do you hear the sound of children waking for play and getting ready to go to school? Whew! Is that the smell of your husband's P.T. clothes? Did he really just track muddy shoes on your kitchen floor?! Glancing at your watch, you notice it’s time to tackle your activities and chores - many having to do with your work and family as well as the needs of others in your FRG (Family Readiness Group). As the day winds down, can you hear the sounds of retreat played at 1700? And the day closing at 2100 hrs with the bugle call Tattoo?

These are the sights and sounds of Army life. They cross all social boundaries. They cross all religions, and races. We are lucky, we are lucky, we are lucky...keep telling yourself that and click your heels three times. Positive thinking is quantifiably proven to take you farther in life. Lucky Army Wives are exactly that - Lucky in their Army life associations and rich experiences.

What do you think?

Coffee or tea in the morning?
Nickel slots, roulette table or no gambling at all?
Live on post or off?

12/2/2009 11:00:00 PM - http://luckyarmywives.com/2008/11/28/lucky-you.aspx?ref=rss

HawkersWife

A Sad Post

Today has been a very sad day for the 327th family as we remember 5 soldiers who passed away recently. One in particular was a best friend to two of my best friends. I had the privilege of knowing him even if it was for a short time. He is survived by two small daughters.

Someone once shared that the worst thing is to be forgotten. So this is in memory of a friend. May we Never Forget....

Matthew Catlett 1986-2010

6/8/2010 4:58:00 PM - http://blackhawkhunnie.blogspot.com/2010/06/sad-post.html

Do All Things in Love

The Big Day: WINGING

Winging kicked my butt.

Late nights, early mornings, but so much fun!

Uncle Dan arrived in Pensacola on Wednesday evening. We took him down to Pensacola and ate awesome seafood. Uncle Dan converted us to raw oyster lovers. They were so good! I think whenever Blake and I had tried them, they were just bad oysters. These ones, though, were AWESOME. Great meal and great stories from Uncle Dan.

The next day we got up early and headed off for the Naval Aviation Museum. Uncle Dan is a retired aviation maintenance duty officer who now works for Pratt & Whitney. So, as you can imagine, it was mind blowing to go through the museum. Between Blake and Uncle Dan, it was like going through the museum for the first time ever and I learned so many interesting things. Plus, I love that museum. They always have new exhibits, the staff is so friendly and nice, and the Cubi Bar makes good food.

We didn't stay the whole day (though we could have) because we had to get back for the soft patch ceremony. Blake went ahead of us to base because he had some paperwork to finish up. And here's where the messy confusion starts. Blake got orders to report to Mayport on July 26th, as in a week and three days from when he got his orders. Meaning we would have to find a place to live, set up the move, get all our stuff in order in basically five days because of weekends. It was an almost impossible task. So that kind of put a downer on the day. Anyway, on to the soft patch we went.

Lots of funny stories (and frankly, some not funny ones), but it was fun and I finally got to see some of the instructors I'd heard so much about.

After the soft patch we went to Texas Roadhouse because it's awesome to eat there.

The next day was busy. SO busy, it went by in a blur. Most people got to have a leisurely breakfast and maybe the church service. Not us. We had things to do, paperwork to fill out, and things to be stressed over.

First, though, the most fun thing ever in my life. The Sim. Blake has spent many hours in the helo sims (in fact, he's in one as I'm typing this, observing for someone). I've asked many questions about the hydraulics and how realistic it is. Well, I finally got to sit in one. Let me tell you... it is REAL. I sat in the student seat and Blake sat in the instructor seat and it was just like looking out at Whiting. It was weird. The guy running the sim had turned off the hydraulics, which I must say, was not a nice thing to do because I was flying around and my body wasn't moving, but my eyes were saying I was and I got a little nauseous. I didn't feel bad, though, because Blake said he was too.

I took off, flew around Whiting. I tried to hover, which, needless to say did not go well. I didn't crash! And it was super super fun. I could have sat in that thing for hours. Best. Video. Game. Ever.

Then, it was Uncle Dan's turn. The guy running the sim put them on a carrier. Man, was I glad I had the nice solid ground for mine. All that blue water and blue sky was seriously disorienting.

I sat behind them, near the control panel and the guy running it saw my curious looks at the panels and started showing me everything he could do. It was amazing! He was like, "look I can put them in a snowstorm!" And he pressed a button and all of a sudden, there it was, a huge snowstorm and they couldn't see anything. haha. He put it back to moderate snow so they could actually see where they were landing. They did go belly-up once in the ocean and got the red screen of death. They got reset and Uncle Dan successfully landed on the carrier. Yay!

The fun part over, we headed to the moving office to see if it was possible to move our stuff on such short notice. It was. So we did all that paperwork, went home, had lunch, changed into respectable clothes for the winging!

It went by so fast. It was a huge winging class, but it was all a blur. When I pinned Blake's wings on (ever-so crooked), it was the proudest moment ever. Also, the Rear Admiral who was the guest speaker, was SO unbelievably nice.

We did the picture thing and headed to the after party. Speeches, toasts and chick-fil-a ensued. Everyone jokes about how newly winged aviators spend all their time in front of mirrors and can't stop looking at their wings. Well, I was the one who couldn't stop looking. It was unbelievable that the day was finally here. Plus, they're very shiny and I'm like a magpie.

For dinner we went to Frank and Lola Love Pensacola in the new Margaritaville Hotel. The food was really, really good, but it was so loud in the place that I would never consider going back. By the end of the meal, I was a little hoarse from trying to talk/having to ask Blake and Uncle Dan to repeat what they'd said.

It was a beautiful view, though, and a nice place.

The winging party was right next door at the Land Shark Bar. That place rocks. The bar itself is normal, but they have a huge open space behind it with Adirondack chairs and hammocks and palm trees and fire pits. They have a volleyball net and ping pong. It's just a really relaxing place. We stayed there until about 2. Then, I drove Blake, Evan and Uncle Dan home. Everyone (except me, the DD) took advantage of the open bar.

As an aside, Blake met the other two guys and their wives, who are also going to Mayport. They said their orders had gotten changed to a later report date and Blake's was too, but no one could find him during the winging to tell him because everything was so busy.

We got back, Uncle Dan went to bed, and we headed over to a friend's house where there was supposed to be another party, but instead, we sat outside of his house for 45 minutes because he'd locked his house key inside the house. Good times.

We all slept in Saturday. Uncle Dan's plane didn't leave until later so we headed downtown for lunch at McGuire's, which is always delicious. I'm seriously going to miss that place. Just like I miss McGillicuddy's in Montpelier. I'm sensing a trend in my life.

We dropped Uncle Dan off at the airport, dropped Evan at his truck down at the beach and commenced to vegging out because Blake and I were completely worn out.

The story has a happy ending. Monday morning, bright and early, Blake went to base to see if his orders had changed and indeed (after phone calls and much confusion), they were. In fact, we were already on our way to Jacksonville to look for a place to live when we got the call that his report date had been changed to a more reasonable one.

We went anyway, though, and have found a very nice 3br house with a medium-sized commute. But that is another story...

7/21/2010 11:37:00 AM - http://allthingsinlove.blogspot.com/2010/07/big-day-winging.html

Ovolina

Diets

This article originally appeared on the Operation Homefront Web-site. About five of years ago, my sister came to visit from Italy for a couple of weeks. We were both training for races and, as always, wanted to lose a few pounds. We threw ourselves headlong into a popular diet. We went out and bought all [...]

8/2/2010 5:09:39 PM - http://www.ovolina.com/lang/en/diets

Coffee & Diapers: A Lone Daddy's Fight

Gratitude

Today someone on FaceBook asked, "Why is it that there are a billion different boner pills, pills that can help you "manage" your disease, but nobody's actually cured a goddamn thing in half a century?"

Because I believe in fighting the attitude comedian Louis C.K. describes as "Everything's amazing, nobody's happy," here's what I posted in response:

Half a century ago there's a better than even chance I would be a widower and most likely, Theo would be in the ground with Ruth, if he'd been born at all.

30 years ago my grandfather died unexpectedly because of a congenital hereditary defect; today, his sons can be tested for that defect and will not die from it.

Twenty years ago HIV was a death sentence.

One of my best friends has identical twin girls whose chance of surviving birth would've been only 50/50 20-25 years ago; in this decade, they were never in any danger.

My cousin has a heart defect and would've been dead the day he was born, if he'd been born just 15 years ago.

One of my best friends had a heart defect repaired last year, a procedure that could add anywhere from 20-50 years to her life and greatly improve the quality of that life.

With the exception of HIV, these are just stories from the tiny, tiny number of people I know personally.

Some of these dates are almost certainly inaccurate, as I just wrote off the cuff. Regardless, I'm grateful to live in such amazing times, and to still have all these people alive to share it with.

8/12/2010 4:08:00 AM - http://bigdaddyavelis.blogspot.com/2010/08/gratitude.html

Thoughts of Household Six

Family Law

So, as most of you know, I'm currently in an Associates degree program working to my degree in Paralegal studies. I'm on board to graduate this November, and plan to go back after the holidays to work towards my Bachelors.

This term I am taking family law, which interests me to no end, but don't really think I could ever work in the family law field. Especially after going through what we are with our niece.

It infuriates me to no end, that her father gets his monthly visitation without any financial obligations. He doesn't pay child support, hasn't paid Karley any child support since April. Heck his oldest son is 20 and they are still trying to get him to pay back 5 years worth.

He didn't help with school supplies, or school clothes. He didn't help with her cheerleading sign up costs. We have to be responsible for all costs associated with taking her to VA for his visitation.

Someone please explain to me why Rob and I are trying to do the right thing, but are getting the short end of this deal with all the financial aspects? This ~~dirtball~~ low life gets to have the fun with her he wants, but has no responsibility for her. How in the world is this right???