A Giant Graduation

Today is the day that we've been holding our breathe for, for quite a while. He made it! And not only did he make it through these last two months of school to his tech school graduation, he came in second in his entire class. Only two points away from being honor graduate which is only awarded to one person with the highest overall score. Now, that's an accomplishment! I am so proud of my Giant Hubs.

I wish I could be in Texas today at his grad but unfortunately we couldn't make it again. Instead, his dad flew down and is pinning his wings on him RIGHT NOW as I type. I sure hope Giant Grandpa brought his camera!

The Giant leaves Texas for good tomorrow (woohoo! so long Tex) and goes to his next place of training. I wish I could share where this next place is but not yet, so let me just say, I'm not excited about it for him. Not one bit. It is going to be rough and i'll be worried 24/7 for a while. So, if you are a prayer, keep him in your prayers please for the next month. Hopefully I'll have pictures to post shortly of today's events.

A Giant update

I have not given a solo update on my Giant in a long time! I'm sorry about that. Its not that nothing has been going on with him, trust me. Far from it. I think that things have been so all over the place, that it was just easier to not discuss it and wait for it to all be over and then update. But, he really does deserve his own post. And since I've had so many of you asking me recently, I thought, "Oops... I should really get on that!" So here I am on it.

He is 3 weeks from his Lackland AFB tech school graduation. Time has slowly flown by during this stretch of training. Oxymoron, yes I know. He has exceeded expectations and has a 96% average in his classes. He was appointed class leader in this current one he is in. He was also chosen to be a "green rope" which means he is in charge of his dorm floor, similar to his duties when he was a dorm chief in basic. A new term in his everyday vocabulary is "voluntold." His definition of this word is "to be assigned something which is meant to be voluntary and not desired."  He's made quite a name for himself with his instructors which I think will really help him down the road. 


Yesterday, he had a test to pass his current class. With a 93, he passed with flying colors. YAY Hubs!! You get your geniusness from me, you know? After every class, he takes a final test then moves on to the next class. There is lots of pressure put on these tests from the Air Force, his instructors, and from himself. Last week, a new law was passed that takes away any second chances to pass them. Basically, you fail, you're out. Not that that is even a possibility for my genius man that is working his tale off every day. I swear all the boy does is study, study, work out, study, PT, study, talk to me, green rope duties, and study more. I assume somewhere in there, he finds time to eat and sleep. After Texas, he will begin his traveling part of tech school for a while. We're not sure details of that part yet, but we will in the coming weeks.


So, anyways, that's my update right now on him. Honey, keep up the good work. Your family is proud of you. Very proud. This challenge is almost over and then on to the next step of the adventure. And then, one day, we'll all be together again. I sure hope time flies.

Texas Highlights

What a fantastic trip last week! I could not have asked for a better time. 

From the minute we landed, everything just seemed to work out. From being able to stay at the hotel on base (saving us mucho dinero!) the entire time to being upgraded to a larger rental car to getting to spend extra time with my husband, it was just easy. For the first time in four months, we truly felt like a family again. Even though it was short lived, it was the best feeling being a wife and a mother all at the same time at the same place. What a novel idea, right?

I first have to brag a little and say my Giant is such a good daddy. Three months without changing a diaper and he jumped back into it like its an old habit. Baby cried? He's calming her. Baby's ready to get up? He's got her. Baby needs to take a bath? Go for it Daddy! He's such a natural. No matter how long he's away, he knows what to do when he's back. Thank you babe for all your help this week. It was a nice change and break for me.

Quick highlights of the trip (in no certain order of sequence): 


1. No crying from baby the entire flight to TX. Go baby!


2. Plane diaper explosion tradition continued.

3. Flight attendant almost got punched for not wanting me to take care of said diaper explosion.

4. Formentioned flight attendant's jacket accidentally got used as diaper changing cushion due to this Momma's slight annoyance and silent accidental vengeance issues. I'm working on it.

5. The giant looks fantastic. He's gained some muscle definition back and no longer looks like a string bean out of basic training. Sexy sexy, if I do say so myself, which I do, cause its my blog. ;)

6. First time we've all slept in the same bed (yes all three of us) in three months. Insert big awesome here! And we have established that a certain high maintenance baby girl does in fact require the most room in the bed. Not only does she sleep with arms completely sprawled out beside her, but she now has begun to roll in her sleep. Yes, roll.

7. Cheyanne loves her Daddy. Those two are insperatable. Two peas in a pod, no matter the length of time apart.

What a daddy's girl. Those two melt my heart instantly.

8. Cheyanne was christened at the base chapel Sunday morning. Her attire composed of a christening gown made for her great grandfather (my Grandaddy, RIP) one hundred years ago worn by many family members along the way including me, a gold diamond ring given to her by her great giant grandparents, a baby bonnet worn by her giant grandma, and sweet shoes from her nana with her name and birth date embossed on the soles. She looked more than perfect and behaved like a sleeping angel- because she shockingly slept all the way through the service. Miracle!

9. We asked my sister and brother in law to officially be her godparents and most importantly they accepted.

10. I had the best gelatos I have ever tasted in my ENTIRE LIFE. Seriously. Best. Ever. Wine raisin flavored I think. Not rum raisin. Wine raisin. Mmmm.

11. The giant and I got to enjoy some adult time down on the san Antonio riverwalk with a big (and I mean big) margarita that got us a lot of attention. Well actually I don't know if it was the large shared margarita or the baby asleep in her stroller as we downed that margarita. Once she woke up and saw that pretty glass "toy," there was no going back to sleep. She was in awe. And despite the look of the picture, she didn't get that close :)

12. The Giant was able to get time off and take us to the airport to say goodbye. Bitter sweet.

13. We were delayed 2.5 hours in the Dulles airport waiting on a working plane, because ours didn't. Entertaining a very tired baby awake way past her bedtime in an airport with tons of people and no quiet place to sit? Awesome.

14. All around amazing time. I'm ready to go back!

Fly baby fly

Guess who's going back for a visit in Texas! WE ARE!!! We leave next Wednesday and are staying for 6 days. Since the Giant has off Presidents' Day, that will give us a whole extra day together. Oh man, I've got to start packing again. What am I going to wear in 75 degree weather? All I've got here in BrrrRoanoke is 20 degree winter clothes. Anyone have suggestions on inexpensive summer clothes sales going on?! I don't think my two short sleeves will cut it. Lots to do in the next few days! Let the list making begin.

Texas cont'd Part Two

Let me start by just saying, this post is picture overload. Enjoy.

Picking up after the Honor Grad/ Coin Ceremony, we had the Giant all afternoon to ourselves on base. Unfortunately though, as we did every day that we were together, we had to return him to his dorm by 7:30pm. Talk about ramped emotions. Try seeing your Love for the first time in 2 months, getting reacquainted as a family for a few hours trying not to think about what was coming, then having to say goodbye all over and send him back at night to sleep by yourselves FOUR times. Not easy. But those hours together as a family made it all worth it.

Friday was his graduation parade.

His parents and brother had flown in pretty much just for this day, so I had help with Peapod during the ceremony. She was such a good girl the entire time. She even let her Grandma hold her during it allowing me to take pictures and video finally. Good girl! Not a peep, even with the little girl next to us screaming her lungs out.

Her Daddy sure looked good as he marched by us, didn't he?

After the graduation, we again had to go "find" him.

Somewhere in there.

Chey got him first.

This was the first time his family had seen him.

I think they were just as surprised at his appearance as I had been, but at least they were warned ahead of time.

They congratulated my starving Hubs by taking us all to his favorite place, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Sorry for the horrible photo quality. It is a picture of a picture via phone. Best I can do on the fly.

Y.U.M.m.m.m.m! Oh I could just die for those delicious mushrooms! Salivating is an understatement right now. Anyways, off the food topic as my hips and arss can't handle the idea of any more food at this point. So, we ate (and ate and ate- mHmm)... and then...

We made it to the Alamo. If you haven't been to the Alamo, maybe you are like me in what you imagine it to be. You see the old John Wayne movies of the Alamo in the middle of the desert, open land, dusty, cowboys shooting at Indians wrong story somebody shooting at somebody else hiding behind a water truss. Well, nope, wrong. It is literally smack dab in the middle of downtown. Literally. Roads circle the outside walls, hotels towering over it. Its like this little mini fortressed lush island (no water surrounding it, but oh wait there is a creek that runs through it...) hidden by commercial properties. Very unusual. Davie Crockett is probably rolling over in his grave right about now.

By about half way through the Alamo, I was itching to get my Giant to myself again, to spend time just the 3 of us. Its been a lo-o-o-ong two months. So, as it was time for a little someone to eat and take a nap, my little family headed back to base to spend a few hours to ourselves before we said our nightly goodbye.

Let me say though, the time we spent with the Giant In-Laws was the best time we had spent all together for as long as I can remember. Probably ever actually. We just really enjoyed being together and I know the Giant was so pleased to have them there. I don't think I can thank them enough for making the long trip out. So, if you are reading this Giant In-Laws- Thank you!

On Saturday, I was able to go pick him up first thing in the morning and I had him for the entire day. We joined his family for lunch then said our goodbyes as they had a plane to catch.

We had a fantastic rest of the day together. Sunday too. We were able to go to church, the chapel he had been attending during basic. Once again, Peapod was wonderful the entire time. Something about church always intimidates me with her. She could scream bloody murder anywhere else and I'd handle it just fine. But, I stress so much about her being in the church service.  I don't really know why I do since every time we have been, she is so good and sleeps through the majority of it. She slept on her Daddy's lap the entire time. I think that made us all very happy.

After a very emotional few days, Sunday came with extra added emotion. No matter how happy we were spending time together, the end of the day came way too fast. We geared up all day for that night. It was our final goodbye for the trip. 5:30 came and so did the floods. I slowly drove him back to our dropoff location and held it together as best I could. Which was not very well at all. Those four days had flown by way too fast. It seemed like I had just seen him for the first time and then we had to say goodbye again, a real goodbye. This time for who knows how long. I won't or can't describe how I felt at this moment. Sad. Heartbroken. Ugh. Yeah those touch on it. You can imagine how the rest of it went, can't you? . As I watched him march down the 20 minute path to his dorm, farther and farther away from us, I felt myself losing it. After taking a few moments to get it together, it was just Peapod and me again to continue down this adventurous road.

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Wow, this was one very long post!

We made it... to Texas and back that is

Peapod and I had a fantastic trip to San Antonio Texas to see the Giant who is now the Giant Airman! He made it through 8.5 weeks of hell and graduated with honors. He was awarded Honor Graduate while finishing in the top five percent of 700 airmen. Even bronchitis and a temperature of 102.5 that landed him in the ER his final week didn't slow him down.

I'm going to break our trip into a few different posts so it doesn't drag on. Here are our first days of the trip.

At 11pm the night before baby and I flew out, I got a collect call from him letting me know he had been admitted (and later discharged) from the base hospital with a fever and what we thought was the flu and strep turned out to be severe bronchitis. I knew he had been sick most of the time he'd been there with something or other as germs flew through the flight, but things had gotten much worse by our last phone call Sunday prior. Fast forward to this night of the phone call, 8 hours before I was boarding a plane to head his way... After being discharged by the hospital, he was put into the sick dorm 319th. After our 11pm phone call, I didn't hear from him again until right before his Thursday coin ceremony. Yeah, that was 2 days of being a mile away from him on base and not knowing how he was, where he was, or what was going on. Fun. But thankfully, after 48 hours of antibiotics, he was feeling well enough to return to his 321st flight and graduate along with the rest of them. I, in the mean time, had been staying in a temporary housing hotel on base. Baby and I took Tuesday and Wednesday to explore the base. Thursday, even though very cold and windy, was the most special day. It was the first day we were able to see him at the Honor Grad and Coin Ceremony. I wasn't able to get many pictures or video during the ceremony because I had to keep the baby bundled away from the wind.

But after the whole ceremony, we were told to "go find your airman." So, that's what we did. He wasn't allowed to move until I found him and touched him to "release" him. Finding him was the best feeling in the world. From that moment on, I don't think we let go of each other all weekend while we were together. I hardly recognized him to find him, my Giant is a skinny Giant now. Getting sick just prior didn't help him in this area. For the first time since middle school, he weighs under 200 pounds. Seriously. For you who don't know him personally, this is shocking. He was almost 300 pounds when we met in 2007. In November 2009 when decided to apply for the Air Force he weighed around 290. He had to drop 70 pounds to join. He did this by March. Maintained 225 until September. Was 213 the day he left for basic on November 23rd. And now weighs under 200.

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And, side note, all my worrying prior to the trip about Cheyanne flying was a waste of time. I could not have a better baby! She is a fabulous flier. Not a single cry the entire day. She smiled so much that even the flight attendant picked her up and carried her around during the long flight. Although she didn't go far- Mommy didn't want her too close to all those germy people.

My good girl! She flew with Mommy all by herself and was perfect the entire way. Thank you God!