Good Times in Enid

This is just a picture to show you where we have been living for the last month since I'm pretty sure we haven't shown anyone pics of our place yet ("place" aka "dorm"). In the left corner, you see our cute little Christmas tree and on the right hand side, you see a tribute to "our" homestate (since I consider myself an honorary South Carolinian)...



Last weekend was a weekend of celebration- from one friend's last night in town, to another friend's birthday, to a sort of "byebye Pete and Emily/Aaron and Becca" party, there were many reasons to get together. On the left you see Aaron practicing some dance moves, while I don't look so ready to cut a rug. And on the right, Aaron and me with our friend Pete (who is also being stationed at McChord and in Aaron's squadron... and we're driving west with he and his wife, Emily)....


And a celebration is no reason to forget about "artsy" photography. These were pics we cropped and edited a little that would've been deleted, but we salvaged something... they turned out pretty cute...

And here's Emily of the "Pete and Emily" duo...

In the crazy weather that has been this week (snow to ice to sunshine and the 60's--seriously today I'm not wearing a jacket), we took an opportunity to bring the camera around town. We ran into these guys, who were more than eager to run up to the fence to greet us.

They lived on this beautiful street... the one street in Enid that we've found that is surrounded by trees as opposed to fields...

And last night, we took to downtown with Pete and Emily for a little double date. They had the square decorated with Christmas lights so we of course decided to take a family picture. Here it is.

Only 10 days left in Enid... I never thought I'd say it, but it's sort of bittersweet...

Winter Wonderland

I had no idea how cold Oklahoma could get... I knew it was windy, and even though I knew that, I was not prepared for just HOW windy it could get. But on an already cold day--say a day where it's 12 degrees outside, like yesterday--it can make it FEEL like it's -6 degrees outside. Yes. NEGATIVE 6. Last week, it snowed on Tuesday, stuck around Wednesday and by Thursday it was in the 60's again. Yesterday, it was 12, today the high is in the 20's and it's snowing and I think this weekend it will be in the 60's again. I wish it would make up its mind. Anyway... there's more to talk about than just the weather...

Our time at Vance is winding down. In one week, we leave to head home for the holidays. It will be a quick few days but we're excited to get to see everyone one last time since we don't know when we'll be home again--especially Aaron since he'll be working all the time, so we hear. As soon as we get back, we pack up the car for a day or so and then start the drive to Tacoma. We're going with our friends Pete and Emily and we've decided on what should be a pretty neat route, including a swing by the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, Sacramento and Eugene, Oregon before arrive in Tacoma around January 3rd or 4th. We've had a good run in our little dorm room on base here, and we do like the smalltown thing here in Enid, but we're definitely looking forward to having a home to put our own furniture in and just to get settled in Tacoma. It's hard to believe it was 6 months ago that we found out where we were going. Time absolutely flies...
Here are some pictures to update everyone:




A cute shot of the grandgirls that Aaron got when we were home for Thanksgiving...


Aaron and me before heading over to his family's Thanksgiving celebration...



The day after the snow in Enid last week...

Aaron and me playing in the snow...

Home Again, Home Again...

Aaron and I had to separate again after just about two and a half weeks of marriage. We were both flying out of the same airport on the same day--him to WA and me to GA, not to be reunited until the 23rd of November. I was so proud of myself when I told him goodbye- not a tear (which, over the last couple of years had become my M.O.)--only just an ever-so-slight trace of sadness. "We're each other's home base now... it's different this time..." I told myself.

It's true. It is different now. But it's almost been harder! That could be because I've been packing up all of our wedding gifts, all of my stuff from the house in town (or "The townhouse" as Lucy calls it) and the lake house, packing it all into boxes and moving it (via multiple trips to and fro) to Aaron's parents' house in North Augusta because "they" (being whatever company the military contracted our move out to) are coming Monday to get our stuff and move it on out to WA--all on my own. Talk about baptism by fire. This is my first military move. It's not even been a month since we've been married. And Aaron will (when they finally show up) be essentially unreachable. And you know what? Even if he was reachable, I wouldn't want to be calling him every 50 seconds asking him what to do and what this or that means, etc... I'm going to need to get used to this and I want to do be able to do it myself, even if I make a few mistakes here and there. He's been so sweet, walking me through bits and pieces of what to expect and the paperwork and the bureaucracy of it all and I've been pushed (or violently shoved) out of the nest and I'm officially on my own with it now. But, how hard can it be?.....right? Ahem...anyway...I'll just be glad when it's over, regardless of where our stuff actually ends up!

My time at home so far has been fun. I thought I'd feel different now that I'm married- I don't. Same Becca. Same Augusta. Same parents' house. Same parents. Same sweet friends. I got the chance to hang out with a few of them this week- some in Columbia at my old watering holes--Hunter Gatherer and then Jake's--with Matt, Mary Neil, Lonnie, Michelle, Laura, Madden, Kristi, Meg-- and also with some Augusta pals at my hometown watering hole--Bees Knees-- with Victoria and Joanna...It's good to know that I still have good friends "back east" (as "us westerners" call it). A few highlights:





Siiiiiiiiiigh....Good times.


Where was I? Oh yeah, so only 9 more days until Aaron and I are reunited and he's done with the training he's been finishing up in WA. Also, not long until his birthday--November 25th. He'll finally be my age :) What to get your husband for his first birthday as... well, as your husband??

Where The Buffalo Roam

That's where I live. Sort of. Actually, about 3 hours south of us is where we spotted a few buffalo on our way home from hiking. Said buffalo was just standing on the side of the road, like it was no big deal that he was a buffalo and he was standing on the side of the road. It was to me. So I took pictures. Like these...

Buffalo spotting isn't the only change that I've adapted to over the last couple of weeks. First of all, I'm living on a military base. (Here's a pic from just outside the gate):

My first Monday morning here, I awoke to men outside yelling "Left, left, left right left..." and one of those "I don't know but I've been told" songs. I assume they were running in some sort of formation but I don't know. Since it was still dark outside, I didn't bother to get out of bed (like any normal person) to take a gander. After I was almost settled back into sleep, I was almost blasted out of bed by Revelry playing on the loud speakers all over the base. And sadly, that also happened while it was still dark outside. Needless to say, I've started to wake up a little earlier--at least when we sleep with the window open.

My favorite thing about living on base (apart from the Commisary- can we say savings?) is the flight show I get everyday. True, it's not the blue angels. It's student pilots flying little sputtering planes for the most part--with the exceptions of T-1's (the trainers for the heavies--like C-17's--they look like private jets) and the T-38's (the trainers for fighters--like F-16's--they're very fast). It's still pretty cool to see planes constantly flying overhead- sometimes low to the ground, sometimes taking sharp turns, taking off or landing. In this picture, you can see one in the very background.

That's all I've got of the planes so far...

This past Saturday, we took a trip south to go hiking like I said earlier. It turned out to be a really fun day. It was beautiful in this part of Oklahoma with these pretty large rocky mountains, covered in huge boulders. Who knew that was in Oklahoma? We hiked most of the time (and boulder hopped... yes, I did that... and I didn't even fall)

and then headed towards one of Aaron's favorite restaurants. It's actually famous. It doesn't look like much:

But, they grow their own cattle (so they don't feed them any hormones--just grass), grind the beef in house everyday (fresh!), make their own beer. All in all, pretty awesome. They've been on the Food Network a few times and are named one of the top 8 burgers in the country. A little gem in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. We decided to go all out: He got a huge burger (the seismic), I got ribs and we shared one of their beers. With all of that, we had managed to save room for their homemade icecream and peach cobbler, which we also shared (we were hungry--we'd hiked all day). And then we began the 3 hour trek home.

Unfortunately, not long after we arrived home, we both weren't feeling so well. We thought we'd just eaten too much and vowed to never do that to ourselves again. It turned out to not be that so much as it was food poisoning. Now, I'm sure this is a rare happening for this restaurant- like I said, it's very well known and very reputable. The only thing we shared was that icecream... but we were SICK. We didn't get any sleep all Saturday night and we made a Wal-Mart run at 6 AM on Sunday to get OJ, Gatorade, Tylenol, etc... that would be the only time we got out of bed all of Saturday- both of us were completely out of it all day.

But my sister made a very good point: At least reason we got food poisoning together wasn't because of my cooking. So we've still got that to look forward to...

It's Been A While...

...and my apologies for my lack of posting are sincere (to you two or three faithful readers!), but as you well know, things have been sort of busy.

First of all, I got married. YES, those grueling ten months of engagement have finally passed (looking back, rather quickly might I add) and we are officially husband and wife. Which means I'm officially a military wife. More on that later...

Second of all, I moved halfway across the country--to Enid, Oklahoma to be exact. We're living on base in his efficiency apartment until we make the trip out west to Tacoma sometime soon after Christmas.

The wedding, to us anyway, was so fun. I never wanted the night to end. Our band was above and beyond anything we could've hoped for (The Tony Howard Band- if you're getting married soon or know of anyone that is, I would HIGHLY recommend this band... they made the night!) We also were lucky enough to get a photobooth at the wedding, which was seemingly a little unconventional, but it turned out to be so fun. People loved it! (If you're getting married soon or know of anyone that is, I would HIGHLY recommend Oh Snap Photobooth... seriously...)

Okay, so enough advertisements for our vendors... highlights of the wedding include (but are not limited to):

Waking up to a torrential downpour the morning of the wedding before the sun came up and talking myself down from a breakdown because of it... "I knew this was coming" I told myself... "It's going to clear up by 1 pm..." (And it did...more or less...though the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler than it had been the day before) And then eating breakfast with friends who had come over that morning...

Hanging out in the fellowship hall at the Church with my bridesmaids and Kelley Kirker and her twin, Kristin Rochester (hair and make-up extraordinaires) for hours before the wedding, getting made up and eating little teeny sandwiches and just relaxing.

After my Dad gave me away and was making his way back to sit with my mom, he tripped over my veil and subsequently ripped it from my head. The pastor even laughed and whispered "That's okay..." My sister put it back in...backwards.... haha... and we proceded with the wedding, me having to put my money where my mouth was the day before: "I don't care if everything falls completely apart. We're getting married. And that's all that matters..." I had said...ha...

My subsequent father/daugher dance with my dad at the reception... we'd been practicing... and though he did step on my dress a time or two, he did a great job :)

Seeing my cousin Glen dance all night long with every girl on the dance floor, sometimes joined by my niece Lucy, both of whom were having the time of their lives.

Aaron, his dad and Tufik getting up on stage with the band to sing My Girl.... at times while harmonizing.... not too shabby

Hanging out with TONS of my old friends from college and high school and Aaron's friends from high school and college...

Running to the car at the end of the night, waving goodbye to everyone out of one door, and Aaron's pal Ben running up to the other side of the car to give us one more hug :)

Lowlights from the wedding.....

Absolutely none.

It was a perfect weekend to us and we could NOT be more appreciative to our family and friends who gave up their weekend to travel to Edisto and make it so special for us. We hope y'all had a blast and we miss you so much already!!

He's Done!

It's official... as of yesterday, October 7, 2008, Aaron is an Air Force C-17 Pilot!!! He had his check-ride yesterday and passed with flying colors, and today will be heading back over to Vance to make some final preparations before he heads to the Southeast on Monday to pick up his bride. He has worked so hard these last couple of years-- so many hours of studying, in simulators, making himself ready and able to be in command of such a big plane, and I could not be more proud of him. With everything else he's had to deal with (namely, dating, getting engaged to and being engaged to me) at the same time he was going through the most rigorous pilot training the world has to offer, he has done everything to the best of his abilities and become the best fiance AND pilot that a girl and this country could ask for.

Aaron in his class picture, standing with his training aircraft

The Last Days

These last couple of months have flown by so quickly -- and everyone told me they would but I didn't believe them. Now, here we are, 10 days from the wedding, 5 days from seeing eachother for the first time in months, less than a week from what will be one of the busiest weeks of our lives. I feel like I've tried to fit months of living into a couple of weeks so I can make sure to get all of the good stuff out of my last days with family and friends.

This weekend, Marcus and Emily and Marjorie, and Rachel and Adam and Punkin and Maybay came into town so that Rach and Em could come to my kitchen and linen shower. After the shower, all of the kids went to WPS for Homecoming... it was literally like stepping back in time. We took a stroll through the old S building and checked out each of the old classrooms. Of course we got there late so we didn't get to see a lot of the teachers we were hoping to see, but the little ones were able to play around where their parents spent most of their formative years, so that was fun...

Sunday, Rach and Emily and I drove over to Edisto to check out the beach house for the rehearsal dinner and it looked great... we were even able to sneak in a little lunch over at Folly Beach before dropping Rach off at home on James Island...

And then Monday, I got a day with "the guys"-- Marcus, Dad and I went hunting. I had been begging my dad to take me hunting and found out that he was taking my brother, so I piggybacked on their hunting trip. We hunted right outside of Statesboro, so we packed Dixie and Duke into the truck and made the trek down to South Georgia for a day of quail hunting. It was so fun... I'm glad we got to go before I leave.

With Rach and Mom at the kitchen and linen shower
With Dad and Marcus before we left for Statesboro
Me with our guide Dustin, looking for some birds
Little photo op mid-hunt
And after with some of our kill