Monday, August 4, 2008

Last Update From Alaska

Sorry for the very overdue update.  Quite a bit has happened since January, but I will try to sum it up quickly.  Around April sometime we found out we would be moving.  This news was both exciting and nerve wracking.  Exciting because we would be moving to Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL (we are going home... or as close as we can get to home!); nerve wracking because we need to sell a house we just bought a year ago.  Most of May and June were spent cleaning and hosting Open Houses.  Mom Sailer, Austin, and Travis came to visit the first week of June, which gave us a much needed break.  We also celebrated Jack's 2nd birthday on June 14th.  
After about 6 weeks on the market, without a single offer, we felt the need to advertise our house for rent.  God provided us with someone almost immediately.  My new favorite saying has become "God may not always give you what you want, but He always gives you what you need"!  The movers arrived at our house on July 7th and on July 8th we celebrated Trinity's 5th birthday.  (Can you believe my baby is 5?!)  
On the night of July 8th, I flew by myself to Minneapolis, where I met two other girlfriends for a much needed break.  We enjoyed several days of shopping, eating at restaurants (without needing to cut up food for children), and relaxing in the jacuzzi.  Within a few days of my return to Alaska, Tyson flew a jet to Guam where he stayed for two weeks.  A couple of days before leaving Guam, Tyson had his fini flight.  For those of you who may not understand pilot jargon, a fini flight basically means your last flight with the squadron.  He was able to fly his fini flight with Keagan "Waldo" McLeese and Ryan "Race" Graf, both good friends.  They were also able to each drop a live bomb for training purposes.
Now we will spend the next couple of days preparing for our trip to Florida.  We will be driving the whole way from Alaska to Florida, which will take us about 10 plus days.  We were fortunate enough to have already found a home in Florida, so we won't have to spend any time house hunting once we arrive.  I will try to post some of our favorite pictures from the last few months and keep everyone posted on our whereabouts over the next few weeks.  We will be seeing many of you very soon!!!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Happy New Year!!

Hey all and Happy New Year!!  2008 has started off pretty well for us way up North where it is cold.  On New Years Day I was sitting 24-hr Alert away from family, but all the other pilots have been busy doing that so I was glad to finally help out.  Plus, New Years day was all football, so I was able to watch games all day (yes, including the Gators losing).  For New Years Eve, we had friends over to play some Rock Band (addictive 4 person video game) and Cranium.

Crystal is doing great with the kids and has started to meet some of the other wives from the 90th.  We are however the youngest couple being joined by other young couples that we already knew from before, so many of the faces we spend time with are familiar.  Plus, we still have many friends remaining in the 19th.  The kids are doing well and still enjoy playing with the many items received for Christmas.  Winter is a good time for toys & reading!

I have been busy with work along with everyone else in the squadron.  We now have 23 pilots up here including all the leadership (about half of those), 14 jets, and a new building that we are preparing to move into.  I have been put into Scheduling for my "job" when not flying and am looking forward to it.  I hope to be shooting some missiles off the coast of Florida sometime in early February if everything pans out, but that TDY still has a chance to get cancelled.