They fly 'em...We drive 'em

Mike's squadron did a wife taxi day a few weeks back. I got to put on most of the flight gear they have to wear (not the g-suit) and walk out to the plane, climb in, and then taxi to the runway. Unfortunately Mike was not in the front seat but I had an instructor. He was way cool though, call sign Bum, he let me taxi the plan all the way to the runway. Once at the runway he took over and we did what was called a high-power taxi, where he ran the engine let the plane get to about 90 knots on the ground before cutting power off and coasting to the end of the runway from there. It was neat! Kinda crazy to be sitting in such an expensive piece of equipment touching buttons and running up the throttle and using the petals to steer! But what an experience. I'm so glad I was able to do it!

Europe so far...

Pictures and more details to come after I return to the States since I don't have internet for free here. But here is a quick update.

Day 1 - Made it to Ramstein and headed to Brussels, Belgium.
Day 2- Walked around Brussels. Made it to all the major tourist stops in one day walking around; Mannekin Pis, Grand Place, a bunch of chapels and cathedrals, the Royal Palace and gardens.
Day 3- Drove to Paris with an over stop at Versailles. Gorgeous. It is a must stop to anyone that goes to Paris.
Day 4- Paris. We did a total of 9 hours of walking and saw all the major stops, including into going into the Louvre for about 3 hours and seeing the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, as well as other major historic works of art.
Day 5- Drove to Lausanne, Switzerland with a stop over in Dijon, France. Walked around a little bit and got some Dijon mustard, had to of course.
Day 6- Today we drove to Zermatt and saw the Matterhorn, the real one. Very cool. It was about a 2.5 hour drive there and back so that was all we did one day. The town was a very cool Swiss mountain town.
Day 7- Spent the day driving around Lake Geneva stopping in little villages along the way. Saw a few chateuaxs. Went through the town of Evian, where the water comes from.
Day 8- Saw the town of Lausanne, where our friends live. Lausanne is the headquarter of the Olympics and they have a Olympic Museum we went to today. We also saw the main cathedral in town. Little side note: from the main tower of the catherdral a town crier announces from 10pm-2am every hour: The hour has struck; all is clear.

Tomorrow we head to Munich and then Salzburg. And then we try and catch a flight back to the states. And like I said pics and such to come when I return!!

Europe Trip

So Mike and I are traveling space-a to Europe for about two weeks! Don't know how much I"ll actually get to a computer while over there but I'll try and update at least once while there. But will post pics and updates when I return.

We plan to fly in to Ramstein, Germany and then road trip to: Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; Lausanne, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; and then back to Ramstein via Stuttgart, Germany!!! Fun, fun....wish us luck!

Getting close to the end...

So Michael will be going to the July boat and has a tentative winging date of August 7. All he has left to do is ACM and the boat!! So excited!!

Books...

So I had said I wanted to read one new book a month, and I've done a lot better than reading one new book a month. Lately I've been reading a lot...and Mike doesn't care for it too much. He says that I'm not paying enough attention to him because I'm reading too much. I read the entire twilight series in one week...I can see why everyone enjoys them so much. Now I'm going to see the movie and all that. My only problem with it was I wish she would have done an epilogue to the last book. Kinda like what JK Rowling did with the Harry Potter series. Not an entire book but maybe just 10 pages or so about how the future worked out. But oh well. I enjoyed them none the less.

I also have been reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels and love them too. There's about 15 of them I think and Im on number 9 right now. They are quick easy reads, I can usually do one in the evening after work. I love em! They are fun and totally just mindless reading.

I found a few Christian authors that I really enjoyed. Mindy Starns Clark Whispers on the Bayou and her one about the Amish (can't remember the name right now) were both very good. I like Whispers better than the other but they were both very good. Recommend them, they are both kinda dark gothic mysteries I guess you could say.

The other Christian author I really enjoyed reading was Denise Hildreth's Will of Wisteria. Gives a good perspective on life and what's important....even if you are raised with an endless supply of wealth.

I'm glad that I've gotten myself into reading. It has helped me make it through this crudhole of a town I currently live in. Yay, for reading!!!

So I found out that work is going to give me two weeks of to go home on vacation with my family!! Woot, we are going to DISNEYLAND for a few days and I couldnt' be more stoked about it. Especially since at first it seemed like Bailey wasn't going to give me the time off...no one's taken that much time is what she had said...even though I was gone for longer than two at Christmas and New Years, oh well. I'm going! I'm so excited to see friends and family. I think it's going to give me the rejuvenation I need to get through that last few months here.

Update

Alright, so it's been awhile since an update so here goes...

I am stuck in a job I don't really enjoy. For the most part I enjoy all my co-workers and even the family I would for. It is just the work that I do. It is not challenging and it is the same thing day in and day out. I input number's into the computer which takes maybe fifteen minutes, tops! I print the bills twice a week. I have to sort the mail. The only saving grace, ok well there's two things. First. I'm leaving soon. And second, I get to leave the office for about an hour each day to run errands. If we were going to be here any longer than the short time we are I would not still be working here.

Now on the Mike...he is set be done in July or August. Currently he is going through weapons training and learning to drop bombs on targets. So far he is realy enjoying his training. He probably only has about 30-35 events left before he goes to the boatto get his carrier qualifications and then he gets his wings.

From here in Meridian, MS we go either to the east coast and Virginia Beach, VA or to the west coast and Lemoore, Ca or Washington. We haven't really talked about what we want to put as our preference. Where we go from here we could be at for a year of four years before we might move again. And it also could be longer than that. Somewhere in our future could be a three year tour in Japan, which would be quite an experience. We also could do what is known as a shore tour in D.C. Which would mean no flying for Mike but an amazing place to live for a few years.

As you can tell we don't know what the future holds beyond August!!