Recreating Our First Date

Once upon a time, back in 2007, Nicholas and I went on our first real date.  

I say 'real' because we had hung out a few times previously, but it was always with a group of friends.  Then he returned to power school in South Carolina and our {unofficial} relationship consisted of just phone calls.  Such a glamourous long distance, military relationship life we lead.  

In April 2007, Nicholas took leave and returned home to Missouri.  He drove up to Mizzou and that night, we had our first real date.  It was your cliche 'dinner and a movie' date.  We started at Applebee's for dinner and then headed to the theater to see TMNT.  Yes, that is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I have no shame in admitting I love the turtles and was dying to see this movie.  As a boy, Nick was not opposed to the idea either.  And we loved it!!!  

Fast forward seven years and five months....

When the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies hit the theaters a few weeks ago, we decided it'd be a cute idea to recreate our first date.  

Friday night, we headed out to Applebee's.  Back then, we just talked about our lives, which were separate and now starting to blend;  more 'getting to know you' talk.  This date consisted of reminiscing about those days which transitioned into talking about visions of our future.  

While at dinner, talking about how crazy it is that this date happened over seven years ago, it was then that I realized we were truly reliving this first date weekend.
You see, April 6, 2007, we went on our first date to Applebee's and to see TMNT (and we became "official" that night after the date.)
And the next day, the reason Nick came in town, we attended a wedding.  Which was the exact same thing we would be doing the following day!!!!!  We had been trying to see this movie for a few weeks and things kept getting in the way.  It's pretty ironic that the day we made it happen, was the day before a wedding.

So we were truly reliving the first date weekend; the first date as an unofficial couple, and the first official date!!!!

As you might have seen on Instagram, I was poking fun at my husband.  You see these four shirts below?  Well, the first two are brand new. He bought them last night before dinner (along with a new tie and three-piece suit).  And the back two are two he already owns.  Ummm....they're almost identical!  Sure, they're different, but just barely!!!  But clearly to my metrosexual husband, they are "significantly different" and he needed these two new ones.  {insert eye roll}

So while I love to give him trouble about how long it takes him to pick out clothes, or complain because he has far more clothes than I do, loves fashion and shopping, and drives me nuts sometimes, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it.
After he got dressed, I was feeling pretty lucky to be bringing such a dashing man as my date to my volunteers' wedding that afternoon.

I always have and always will be attracted to metrosexual men.  I just love a man who is well groomed, does his hair, loves to dress nicely, and looks damn good while doing it!  I mean, look at him!

So dapper!  And he even cooperated and let me take many, many photos of him.  

{Y'all, I'm not even sorry I'm bombarding you with photos of him.  This is my blog and I love looking back on posts after months and years.  And I know I'll love looking back at this handsome husband of mine.}

I mean, clearly I'm biased since he's my husband, but he's not hard on the eyes so hopefully this isn't too painful for you to look at him ;)  

(Sadly the sleeves became wrinkled by the time I had the idea for him to take off his jacket).

And it just seems appropriate that today I participate in my first ever #ManCrushMonday.  I've never done it.  Mainly because my husband is my crush, but that's cheesy and lame to post. However, I'm here today to be lame and cheesy and declare this man as my #ManCrushMonday...today and everyday.

Okay, so enough of that.  We hopped in the car and headed to the wedding.  Of course, I wanted to snap some more photos.  They were going to be just for myself but then he decided to be an ass and stick his tongue out and act like an angry elf, then declare "Don't post those anywhere".  So naturally I had to post them.

Then it was wedding time!  We were lucky enough to score seats in the shade (although we still sweat half our body weight away).  Thankfully the ceremony was short and then we got to move inside to some air conditioning.

The reception ended early in the evening so we decided to carry out the date by heading to a wine bar and enjoying an evening on the patio.

We still weren't ready to call it a night so we headed to Jax Beach and grabbed a late dinner on a beachside patio.  It was an amazing evening!  The breeze coming off the ocean was perfect.  Afterwards we headed down the street and met up with some of my co-workers until we finally thought it might be good to head home and be good dog parents and stop neglecting the dogs.

It was such a perfect evening.  My husband truly is my best friend so add that in with getting the opportunity to dress up and have a nice evening out; it was the perfect recipe. Work has been getting back into the long work weeks of crazy stressfulness for me and this next week is going to be long and rough for Nick as well.  It was a much needed date and it was nice to bring some sentimentality to it by recreating our first date.

For fun, here's a photo from then, and now!

How did you spend your Labor Day Weekend?
Have you ever recreated a first date or an older moment or event??

The Shitfest That Was Our Move

We have safely arrived in Jacksonville.  And holy crap was it a shitfest!!! Let's have a recap, shall we??  (It's a long one!)

Let me just say that the past week has been downright awful!  I do not like deviating from "the plan".  Yes, I know I'm a Navy Wife and deviations are just a part of every day life.  But that doesn't mean I like them.  {And you telling me that just wants to make me punch you in the gut.}  Especially when it can be avoided.  I will never, ever, be accustomed to straying away from the plan.  It's the OCD planner in me.

What was the plan, you ask?  The plan was to have the entire house packed by Friday.  Pick up the truck Saturday and have it loaded that day.  Sunday was a day spent for cleaning and saying goodbye to friends.  Monday was to check out and detach from NAS Whiting Field (for Nick) and head to Jax.

However, NONE of that happened.

Friday came and went and we were FAR from having the house packed.  Let me just tell you that made me a ball of fun.  Nicholas takes far too many breaks from packing.  'Oh look, I packed a Wii controller.  Time for me to play with my dog for 25 minutes.'  Then 'oh hey, I'm hungry, let's go get some lunch.'  This caused us to stay up until 1am loading the truck.

Saturday comes and we pick up the truck at 11am.  At least that stayed on task.  But after that?  Not so much.  Saturday we continued to pack and load the truck.  Until about 2am.  Ob-nox-ious.  And we were nowhere near done.

Nick drove his bike up the ramp and secured it with rope.  I sure hope this holds for the move!

See ALL of that in the back corner?  Allll of Nick and his mother's random crap.

Sunday was spent loading the truck some more.  The new tenants also complicated things.  We told them we were moving out on the 16th.  We never gave them a time.  We simply said the 16th was our last day there (and we paid our utilities and rent until the close of that day.)  The guy texts Nick and he tells him we aren't anywhere close to leaving.  The new tenant then tells us that he has a couch he needs to drop off by 1pm.  Um, okay?  (Let me also add they stopped by the day before and dropped off a lot of stuff).  Cool dude.  It's not like we're trying to load a truck or clean the house.  Come on by.  Drop your shit and clutter our space.  So he shows up with the couch in a U-Haul trailer...and then has NICK help him carry it in!  Seriously, dude?!?!  Can you not see we're a little busy here????  I wanted to stay until 11:55pm just to spite him.  Annoying.
Anyway, Nick continued to load the truck Sunday and I cleaned the house (and replaced our screen door since the dogs and their friends decided to create their own doggie door by running straight through it.)  Then we ran into some issues.  It appeared not everything was fitting on the truck.  Yes, the 26 foot U-Haul truck (the largest they have) was not big enough.  So we had to run up and get a trailer to pull behind the truck!!!!!  I'm telling you, Nick has too much shit!!!!
We finally got the truck and trailer packed and we were on our way around 7pm.

Sure, we still managed to leave on Monday, which WAS the plan. But this was NOT at all how we expected it to happen.  I have never been more stressed in my entire life.  Also, this late departure and all day packing meant we didn't get to do the things we wanted.  We had plans to say goodbye to friends but that just wasn't possible.  We had wanted to have sex one last time in our house (not apologizing, I'm a TMI person and it's not crazy to think we'd want to do that one last time in our first home).  But with the late nights, sore bodies, and now rush to leave, there was no way that was happening.  We took one last stroll through the house, hand in hand, remembering all the great times we had here.  Then we packed up the pups in my car, Nick climbed in the truck, and we hit the road.

But not for long.  We hit some insane rain and Nick realized the truck was really hard to drive.  It was scary for me just following him.  I could see the truck swaying from left to right.  Nick said it was exhausting driving it so after just three hours, we decided to stop for the night.  We pulled off at a security monitored rest area so Nick could get some sleep and be fully rested to drive the next day.  Unfortunately, I cannot sleep in a car.  I cannot sleep sitting up.  I can only sleep laying down.  So I didn't sleep that night.  Which was rough considering I only got about 4 hours the previous night.

For some odd reason, Nick climbed in the crowded back of the Accord with BOTH dogs and slept back there.

At about 4:30am, we hit the road again and arrived at the Robida's house (our friends, Jenny and Matt, our best friends from Pensacola whom you've probably read about who are kindly letting us stay with them) in the early morning.  We slept for about 2 hours and then it was back up to go unload our stuff into storage.

This was just a bad day.  We began unloading the truck, putting the odd shaped things out on the concrete (patio chairs, vacuum, office chair, bed frames, laundry baskets, Shop Vac, lacrosse sticks, tool boxes, garment bags, etc.  (The furniture, boxes, and storage tubs were in the back of the U-Haul.)  Then the dumb ass clouds opened up (we were in such a mode that we didn't notice the black clouds that set in over us) and it started raining on us.  We just started throwing everything back in the truck and into the storage unit.  Absolutely no organization at all.  By the time we got it all out of the rain, we were soaked.  We decided to take a break so we went back to the Robida's house and showered.  It wasn't looking like the rain would clear up, so we headed back to the storage unit.  We unloaded that damn truck until 6am.  It was painful.  We had to stop for the downpours which really slowed us down.  It was the most difficult all-nighter I've ever pulled.

I am so incredibly mad that we have to do this again in a month when we move into our house!!!!  Hopefully that won't be such a fiasco!!!


The only positive thing to come from this is that Nick has FINALLY agreed this is stupid and the few thousands of dollars we've made off this move are NOT worth it anymore.  The next move, Nick has agreed we'll do a partial DITY (do-it-yourself) move (where we move some of our belongings, such as his electronics and my clothes and shoes) and the Navy will move everything else for us.  Alleluia!  Praise the Lord!!!!

Unfortunately, we were only able to get another 2ish hours of sleep before we had to take the U-Haul back.  (They made a big deal about it being back by a certain time for the new renters.  When we got there, no one was there!!!!  We waited for a good 30 minutes before someone returned.  And yesterday (one day after returning the truck), we called to see if the new renters found our car key.  She tells us the truck is still there if we want to come look.  So WHY did I not get any sleep to get this truck back to you for someone else?!?!  Annoyed and crabby didn't even begin to describe us.)
Thankfully when we got home, we FINALLY got a few solids hours of sleep.

I'm happy this moving thing is over with, for now.  We have about a month to relax.  I guess I should say *I* have a month to relax.  Nick will soon head off for SERE and when he returns, he checks into the squadron and begins training on the MH-60R.

Finally relaxing.

Random tidbit worth noting since we received this comment a few times:  We heard from multiple people that this move would really test our marriage.  And that we'll get in fights and seeing how we overcome them or deal with them will tell us a lot about our relationship.  We were shocked by this because it didn't test us.  Not once.  Honestly, there wasn't ever a time we were legitimately mad at one another.  No harsh words.  No raised voices.  Nothing like that.  We were most definitely annoyed and frustrated with the entire situation, but not at all with each other.  It just reinforced how strong our marriage is.  Nick and I really don't have those fights.  Never.  Sure, we got annoyed but that's the same annoyance I feel on a daily basis with random things.  Annoyances aren't things I consider a "test" in your marriage.  We're both very understanding and patient with one another (not with other things for myself, but with each other.)  Throughout this entire process, even under insane amounts of stress (and tears on my end) we were able to laugh and joke around with each other, toss random items at one another's head, etc.  And that's what I love about us.  In the midst of something shitty, we're able to still laugh and hug and kiss one another (even when soaking wet, with half our belongings dripping in rain water.)  When I tell people this, that this move didn't "test" our marriage, they roll their eyes and accuse me of lying.  Okay, biznatches, hate on!  It's the truth!

Breezeway Home Anniversary

Two years ago, at 5:30am, Nicholas, Yadi, and I pulled up to our new home here in Milton, Florida on Breezeway Circle.

This might sound crazy, but we quickly came to love our new home of Milton.  I know a lot of people hate it here, but honestly, it is what you make it.  If you keep telling yourself you hate it and it's awful here, then it will continue to be awful.  That's not how Nick and I live life and that helped us to come to love our last two years here.  Life is an adventure and it's all what you make it!

One of the reasons we have loved our time here is because of this house.  We truly spoiled ourselves here.  There were so many things we loved about our home, that we added to our "must have" list for our new home in Jacksonville. (Which made house hunting in Jax so much harder.)
This house has no carpet, all hardwood and tile.  It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  A separate office space.  A ginormous walk-in pantry.  An open floor plan with a huge living room.  A two car garage.  A huge, privacy fenced backyard.  A fantastic neighborhood with a really convenient location.
We learned that finding all of these things in a new home was difficult.  We are truly going to miss this home.

Just as we reached this two year mark, we're packing up our belongings and getting ready to say goodbye to our first real home.  I'd be lying if I said I haven't teared up as I've pulled photos off the wall and taken down curtains.  We have thoroughly loved this place.  If these walls could talk, they'd have stories full of love and laughter.  Our marriage started here and flourished!  We added our second "child", Vino, to our family in this house.  We learned what a marriage is all about, growing together as husband and wife, but also continuing to grow individually.  We grew stronger in friendship and love inside these walls.  I can still vividly remember the giddy, newlywed bliss as Nick carried me over the threshold, saying "Welcome home, wife" when we arrived that early morning on September 11, 2011.  I wondered how long that "honeymoon phase" would last.  I'm happy to say that after over two years of marriage, we're still in the phase.  And I don't see it fading anytime soon.
Of course these walls didn't always see perfection.  We faced some difficult times with illnesses, military stress, homesickness, and general uncertainty of life, but together we overcame them.
This house will always hold some of my fondest memories and I know I'll cry when we say our final goodbye and drive away from Breezeway Circle.  But I'm happy to have so many memories  and so many pictures, of the last two years here.
We moved into what was just an empty house, but it very quickly became a home.  These have honestly been two of the best years of my life.

We met the new family moving into our home; a husband, wife, and very young girl.  I can only hope these walls provide as much joy to them as it has to us.  I hope they too leave this house with deeper love and understanding of each other and themselves, just as we have.

I'm going to miss you Breezeway Home.  Thank you for all the amazing memories.  May you continue to bless each new tenant with the same wonderful experience we had.

We Have Orders!

We have orders...to Jacksonville!!!!!!

Nicholas found out his orders last week but with everything going on, I couldn't bring myself to post it on social media.  I was in a very depressed state and I just couldn't find the happiness in anything at the time (we found out our orders not even 24 hours after Grandpa passed away.)  I didn't want to post a status about the next chapter in our life and have it reflect great sadness (even though the sadness was not over the orders, just what was going on in my life at that time.)  Does that make sense?  Or did I ramble?...because I have a large tendency to do that.  By the time I was in a little bit better state, I was back here in Florida and my mind was on winging.  It felt odd to post about our orders in the midst of the winging hoopla since that is a HUGE deal!  (Those exciting posts coming oh so soon!)

As you might have seen in THIS post, Nick's first choice was the MH-53E stationed out in Norfolk.  Virginia most definitely was not our first location choice but it is the only place the 53 is stationed.  Unfortunately, (as we knew was a strong possibility) there were no 53 spots available :(  {This happens all across the military.  When it's time for a new billet (job), you have to pick from what's available and in this case, 53s just weren't an option.}  Nick was pretty disappointed (this all also came at such a bad time.  He was already struggling with my grandfather's passing and not being able to be home for the wake and funeral as well as be there for me.  Then you throw this news on top of it....it made for a sad Nick.)  Nick's XO talked to him and let him know that this was not at all because Nick wasn't good enough, they just simply had no spots for a 53 pilot.  There was nothing anyone could do.
Thankfully, we got our second choice (our first choice from available options) which is the MH-60R out of Jacksonville, Florida.  We are so ridiculously excited about this!!!!  Jax was definitely our first location choice with the Romeo being Nick's second aircraft choice.
Thankfully Nick has this amazing ability to see the positives in every situation.  No matter how shitty something is, Nick will find the good.  Sometimes it's rather annoying but it is a quality I've always loved about him.  Needless to say, he found a million and one positives in this situation and we honestly cannot wait to PCS and start this new chapter in our life!  We get all giddy just talking about everything!  Nick enjoys flying, no matter what type of aircraft it is, and he's beyond grateful for the opportunity to be flying helos for the Navy.  I'm excited for him to learn all about the Romeo and start training and flying it.

As of now, we plan to head to Jax to do some house hunting (we plan to rent for a few months to learn the area and then buy a house!) and we actually PCS from Pensacola on the 16th of September.  Which is very soon.  Nick will leave for SERE that following Sunday and he checks into his new squadron for the FRS on the 7th of October.
(I will write another post soon about what all this is and means.  And for those wondering what PCS is, it stands for Permanent Change of Station.  Which simply means a "move" from one base/location to another.)

Sorry to those of you that have asked where we're going and didn't received a reply.  The past couple of days have been incredibly busy and I've overlooked some of the comments (sometimes when I get on social media, I just simply log on, type what I need to type (ie. post a photo or status) and log back off, without checking notifications.)  Thank you, everyone, for your support!  We are so excited to be moving to Jacksonville and starting our next adventure!

What's Next for Our Navy Family?

After my last post, I had pretty much every single person I know ask us when and where we're moving to.  So here's a post for everyone else I haven't explained it all to (which is probably only two people now)

What's next?  We don't know yet.  And won't for a while.  We keep getting this question all the time.  Friends and family seemed annoyed that we don't have an answer but imagine how we feel.  This is OUR life and we don't even know!!

Nick is still scheduled to wing on Friday, August 23rd.  This is the big ceremony where he will get those glorious wings of gold!  The Tuesday before (the 20th) he will find out what he's flying and where we're headed to next and then that Thursday, the 22nd we celebrate this at his soft patch ceremony (the soft patch is the patch he wears on his flight suit.  It currently just has the Navy crest on it but those will be replaced with wings).  It's a little frustrating but that is Navy life.  We aren't sure how quickly we'll have to move.  Some people get a month, some get maybe two weeks.  I really hope we get somewhere between 3-4 weeks so we can take our time packing because we plan to move ourselves again (after the money we made last move and the fact that we have no kids, it just seems logical.  Plus Nick has heard too many horror stories to trust anyone with his beloved belongings...he's very possessive over his objects lol. Moving ourselves from Maryland to Florida really wasn't that bad).

What are we hoping for?  Summer training 2007, right before his last year at the Academy, Nick went on an aviation training with a squadron out in Norfolk, Virginia.  This is an MH-53 squadron (a type of helo) and Nick fell absolutely in love with the aircraft itself (it's a beast), the missions, and the close community.  The 53s are a very, very small community.  There are only two squadrons in the entire Navy and both of them are stationed in Norfolk, VA.
Nick put the MH-53 as his first choice of helicopter.  I'm not too excited to move to the east coast or Virginia, but it's Nick's dream to fly this helo and I 100% support his happiness and his career.  (And let's be honest, I'm me.  I'm a positive and optimistic person so I'm sure I'll come to love it there.  It's just not my first choice of duty station for quite a few reasons.)
Unfortunately, because this community is so small, they do not select for it too often.  Being a small community that doesn't need pilots often means there's a chance when Nick wings, they will not have any open slots and he won't be able to get his dream aircraft.  (Your aircraft is primarily determined by the needs of the Navy and also your performance. But you could be the best pilot on the face of the planet and if there's not a slot available, you're just shit out of luck).  Realistically, he said he'd be ecstatic to fly ANY helicopter, but his sights are set on the 53.  I really hope he gets it but even if he doesn't, I'm he'll love whatever he flies.  Nick somehow can say "Meh, it is what it is!" and be super happy with any situation.  I envy this trait about him.  

Seeing as the odds of flying the 53 aren't really in our favor, we have backups.  You can essentially choose your location plus a type of helicopter.  These are the 10 choices:
MH-60R East (Jacksonville, FL)
MH-60R West (San Diego, CA)
MH-60R Hawaii (Kanoehe Bay)
MH-60R Japan (Atsugi, Japan)
SH060F/H  East (Jacksonville, FL)
MH-53E East (Norfolk, VA)
MH-60S East (Norfolk, VA)
MH-60S West (San Diego, CA)
MH-60S Japan (Atsugi, Japan)
MH-60S Guam (Yigo, Guam)


So here's to nerves and butterflies the next week as we anxiously await where the next chapter in our lives will be!  I'm nervous to get out into the fleet, but I'm (surprisingly) excited for the change.  I can't wait to become a part of his squadron and meet more awesome women!!!  (However, I am NOT looking forward to house hunting!)

Roadtrip: Cardinals vs Braves

If you know me at all, then you know that my husband and I are die hard Cardinal fans.  Actually, we just love baseball in general.  One of the perks of this military life is traveling the country and getting to live all over.  We decided to take advantage of this perk in regards to baseball and added an item to our ‘Marriage Bucket List’ (we each have our own individual ones as well).  We want to visit as many Major League and Minor League stadiums as we possibly can, preferably when the home team plays the Cardinals or the Memphis Redbirds.

Living in Pensacola, we have the Blue Wahoos minor league team, but we‘ve yet to go to a game.  Nick getting his schedule only the night before makes it near impossible to plan things.  However, in just a week he will be finished flying and we’ll have a few weeks to complete our ‘Pensacola Bucket List’ which includes attending a Blue Wahoos game.

Pensacola obviously doesn’t have a Major League team but Atlanta is only a 5-6 hour drive from us so we knew we’d be visiting Turner Field.  We got lucky enough that the Braves were playing the Cardinals over a weekend so we planned to attend this series.  We had to hold off on buying tickets until the week of the game because with Nick’s flight training, everything is up in the air.  Once we knew his schedule, we were good to buy tickets.  Our original plan was to attend both Saturday and Sunday games but they changed Sunday’s game to a night game (7:05pm start time) which meant we couldn’t attend.  We were a little bummed but seeing one game was definitely going to be better than seeing no game!

Saturday morning at 5am we headed to Ft. Rucker, Alabama with the pups.  We dropped them off with my sister and Kyle and then continued on our way to Atlanta.  We wanted to get there a few hours before game time to walk around the stadium and explore a bit. 

We had a really great time at the game!!!  Their stadium is really nice and the Braves fans were great.  I was shocked at how many Cardinals fans were in attendance.  I am not joking when I say half of the stadium appeared to be in Cardinals attire.  Our fans are just amazing!!!!  What’s even more awesome is that a “Let’s go Braves” chant was started and within two chants, “Let’s go Cardinals” was ringing throughout the stadium so much louder than the Braves fans!  (Just another reason we’ve been dubbed the best fans in baseball! ;) )

The game itself was pretty freaking boring and we lost which didn’t help, but despite those two things, we had a great time!  This was my first Cardinals game in another team’s stadium…heck! It was my first major league game outside of Busch Stadium and it didn’t disappoint!  We had great seats just a few rows up in third base line/left field corner by the foul pole and we got to see a lot of our favorites before the game and in the bullpen.

Sexy Waino (Wainwright for you non-STL fans)

A few people (Atlanta natives) had warned me that Braves fans can be rude and disrespectful but we didn’t experience any of that!  Everyone was so nice and welcoming and there wasn’t any rudeness or disrespect.  After the game, one Braves fan made a comment to me about losing the game (in a joking manner).  I refrained from reminding him that (at that time) we were the best team in baseball.  And that we’ve upset their beloved Braves in 2011 and 2012.  Instead, I just smiled and reminded him we still have long way to go until October.  But again, this was all in good fun! 

{{Please excuse this rant:  My only complaint would be that they tend to make fun of their fans a lot.  They have two different “games” (for lack of better words) that they put on their jumbo screens.  One is an “Oblivion Cam” where they zero in on someone (usually a larger person shoving their face full of food) and start a timer to see how long it takes them to notice they’re on screen.  The other is a look-a-like game.  They post a photo of someone/something (Snooky, Jabba da hut, Mama June (Honey Boo Boo’s mom), Duck Dynasty members, etc (basically, all unattractive people) and find someone in the stands who resembles them.  I’m sure this is meant to be in good fun, but to me, it was cruel.  Maybe it’s because I don’t find humor in cutting other people down and I’m a big advocate for ending bullying.  And that’s exactly what this is.  How do you know that person you just zeroed in on isn’t already suffering from severe depression or self-loathing?  By putting them on the screen, publicly making fun of them to THOUSANDS of people, you just set them back in healing or recovery from their issues.  Again, I’m sure the Braves staff think this is humorous but I think it’s just downright mean.   But then again, our society thinks cutting down others is amusing and a great form of entertainment.  Which is really sad.  But I’m just not the type of person who likes to sit around and gossip or make fun of others.  But this was my ONLY complaint and it obviously didn’t ruin my time so it’s not a huge deal.  It’s just something I’d wish they’d do away with.  Until we as adults stop things like this, bullying in children won’t stop.  They’re learning from us.  But I’ll get off my soapbox now.}}

The Cardinals/Braves game was definitely a great experience!!!  I'm happy to put the check mark next to Turner Field!  And excited to explore more stadiums!  I'm so happy to have a husband who shares this same love of baseball with me.  These adventures together are going to create a great scrapbook!

Nick Update: Almost Finished!

In exactly one month, I will be pinning wings of gold on the sexiest aviator ever!
Time is starting to go by so quickly!  Nick could very well be finished flying by this time next week!!!!!

My last update was back in early April so a lot has happened since then.

Me in front of Nick's helo, the TH-57

Nick started out flying the TH-57B (Bravo). It allowed to them learn the basics of flying and hovering.  They learned to autorotate, a term which sounded fun until Nick explained it's learning to "crash land".  Essentially, when the engine is cut, the blades autorotate and provide a little lift and lighter "fall" while they try to regain power or control.  (These are the things your wife doesn't want to hear.  While I'm happy he's learned to do this and it could save his life and his crew's life, I'd just rather not know.  A simple "training went well today.  I've landed safely" text will suffice.)

The TH-57B has one set of instruments (or gauges), no stability and although it can fly at night, they only flew during the day and it had to be flown in good weather. They start out in this learning the basics of flying a helo and hovering in about 18 flights. 

They start with the “contact” flights which is just familiarization and learning to fly a helo, then a checkride to determine if they’re safe for solo and then a solo. 

After their contacts solo, they do “super-FAM” (familiarization) flights to fine tune the previous skills.  Following these is “tactics” flights.  These are exposure to confined area landings (for example, landing in a gap of a trees), pinnacle landings (landing on a raised surface, like a plateau or building), external load operations (pick up weights and drop them, lift, transport).  Since it’s an “exposure” to them, they only do one flight for each of these 
Below are videos of him doing the external load operations:

Once they've "mastered" flying, they move up to the TH-57 Charlie model. This is a different model of the helicopter (but to me looks exactly the same):  It has two sets of instruments, stability control, and is capable of flying at night and under poor weather conditions (such as conditions where you don’t have to see outside.)  Again, they start out with familiarization flight learning the new helo.  It begins with basic instruments, which is learning to use JUST the instruments in the helo, without visual.  For these, Nick flew with a hood attached to his helmet that blocked his vision outside of the helicopter.  (An instructor sits in the seat to the left of him and is his eyes for the left side of the aircraft, with another student sitting behind Nick, acting as his eyes on the right side. Just in case.)  These skills will greatly come in handy when he’s flying over the water at night when it’s pitch black with nothing visua to reference. 

After these flights, Nick moved onto RI flights (radio instruments).  This is where he started flying to other airports in the area such as Mobile, Tallahassee, or his “cross country” flight to Memphis.  During this phase of flights, he uses the instruments that are receiving signals from navigations devices on the ground to fly.  Essentially, this stage allows them to learn to fly and operate under instrument flight rules (IFR) which allows them to navigate without seeing where you’re going using things like GPS, signals, etc.  This is THE most important and biggest stage of all of flight school because once he completed this, he was essentially “instrument rated” meaning that if he were a civilian (or Navy pilot) he could fly under instrument/IFR conditions without having to have someone else who was qualified for that. 

During this time, Nick was pretty non-existent around our home.  He was putting in about 10-12 hour days on base, coming home, showering, and going straight to the office to study.  He spent the rest of the night in there until about midnight (sometimes later.)  It was rough on him and he was downright exhausted all of the time.  (Good thing he loves what he does!)

After this, he did a “cross country” flight to Mobile where he took the helo off by himself (with an observer, but no instructor because there must be two people at the control at all times), landed somewhere else, shut down the helo, went and grabbed lunch, then came back. 

After this it was on to “low levels”.  Despite the biggest hurdle being accomplished (the instrument rated part I just mentioned) and the rumors that flight school was all downhill after that, there was still a lot of work to do for the remaining flights.  Low levels (there were 5 of these flights) required a great deal of planning, preparing charts and planning routes at low altitudes, beginning at 500 ft and later flights at about 200 ft above ground.

Next was “formations” (4 flights), which is exactly what it sounds like.  Helicopters (two of them) flying in formation together.  The last was a low level formation flight at 200 feet.  He has just finished this block of training and now he's moving on to Search and Rescue flights.  This is just one flight and it gives him exposure to search and rescue, which includes running search patterns.

Following those will be his last block of training, NVGs (night vision goggles).  It sounds pretty basic (and fun) but apparently it's more complicated and exhausted than one would expect.  

After that, he's flight school complete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I hope all of that made sense.  Nick tries to explains things to me in terms I understand and therefore I tried to do the same for our friends and family.  I probably know a little more than the average person since my husband is in this field and talks aviation all the time, so I apologize if I still used phrases or words that didn't make sense to a non-aviation follower.  I tried to remember things Nick said that provoked a "uhhh huh?" look from me so if I didn't explain something well enough, shoot me an email or comment under this and I'll try to furhter explain.  I know you all back home love these updates so I tried to be as thorough as I could to let you peek into what Nick's life has been like (and why you rarely see him on our Skype sessions, hear him in the background of our phone conversations, or why he himself doesn't communicate often with you all.  I promise, he loves you all, he's just busy.  I live with him and barely see or speak to him!  Give him a week and he's all yours!!!!)