Our New Life

This past month has been a crazy month! We are finally starting to settle down..the only problem is that Nate is in Pueblo, Colorado for the next three weeks for IFS (Initial Flight Screening) so I was left to finish organizing and cleaning our place, make new friends, study for the NCLEX (which I don't have a date to take yet--that is the national test to become a nurse), blog, and scrapbook. I know...it doesn't sound all that bad, which it isn't. It would just be much better if my best friend were here with me. Luckily, I have my new friend Kathryn to hang out with. We hung out with her and her husband before the guys left. They are also LDS, which is good because the two of us can carpool to church while the guys are gone. We've had fun so far though--going to get glitter toes together (which another new friend from church, Alisa, did) and just heading into town to go to Walmart. It would be a lot worse if she were not here going through the same thing.  I would feel much more lonely. We are planning doing fun things together in the next few weeks like a Twilight movie marathon, swimming, and taking the place of young women leaders who are gone this month by going to girls' camp.

IFS is really going to be a challenge for Nate. The first week is mainly academic so he has to learn all about the plane, how to use the radio, etc. The next week or so he will start going up in the air. Then, after about ten flights with an instructor, he will have his first solo flight. Keep in mind that Nate has never been the pilot of a plane before and in the next few weeks he will be on his own up there. Scary!!! I am so proud of him and so glad I get to at least talk to him on the phone this time.

I know lots of people are curious about our new place. It is definitely an adjustment living on an Air Force base. It feels very tropical here with all of the big birds waking me up at 6:30 in the morning, the palm trees, and the heat/humidity mix. The heat has been nice for a change but I can't stand a hundred degree weather for very long so it is nice to have an air conditioned car and home. If the birds haven't waken me up at 0630, chances are I will wake up to the sound of the horn playing "reveille" on speakers all throughout the base at 0700. (go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille and you can be reminded of what that is if you don't remember-there is a sound clip). The national anthem is also played twice throughout the day on those base-wide speakers. I can't remember what time the one in the morning is played (I think it's at 1000) but the one in the evening is at 1700. Once you hear that playing, you must immediately stop what you are doing, look toward the closest flag, and salute or put your hand on your heart. If you are driving on base, you have to stop the car and wait for the music to stop to start going again. Another thing that is different is that to get on base, you have to show your military ID or get a guest pass. This is especially strict (it's at the bravo level) since you-know-who was killed. Pretty much every time I am approaching base I get scared that I might have left my ID somewhere but I have been lucky so far. There are quite a few helpful places on base--the commissary (a tax-free grocery store), the BX (which has uniforms, clothes, and household items), a library, a very nice gym, a swimming pool, a post office, a gas station, and more. One thing about base that is kind of annoying is that the fastest speed limit is 30mph. When driving near neighborhoods it is 20mph and in the neighborhoods, it is 15mph. If I get pulled over and get a ticket for speeding or not stopping completely at a stop sign, Nate will have to tell his flight commander. I better just deal with going extremely slow.

Here is our new place. It is a duplex--not the prettiest, but it works. 

Our grass is in pretty bad shape. Most of what you see there is weed so we threw down some grass seed before Nate left and are trying to water lots. All houses have the name above the door, like you see in the right picture but most people have their rank before their last name. They told me they were running out of letters and could only do our last name.

 Here is the view from our front door. Don't you just love the linoleum that is all throughout the house? We are really missing carpet.The shark steam vacuum/mop is my new best friend.















To the right is our living room. We just bought that rug so we would have something soft to walk on somewhere. We quickly learned that rugs do not come cheap.  If they did, we would have more of them throughout the house.

Another view of the living room

The view from the dining room into the kitchen.

Our very spacious kitchen. There are lots of cupboards, which is really nice.

Our awesome new washer and dryer.

I was going to take that coupon for Whataburger off the fridge before I took the picture but forgot. That's okay..it adds personality to it. I am saving it for when Nate gets back because we LOVE that place.

This is the view from the back of our place. This grass is bad too, I know. We can add a chain link fence around the entire backyard but there's not really a point because we don't have a dog and then we would have to mow our own lawn in the back. It's nice having someone else do it. 

 

The office-- Nate's desk, where he will be spending lots of time in the next year.

My desk, which looks really messy. I will hopefully not be spending much time at my desk in the next year.

Another view of Nate's desk. If the pictures are not centered it's because I hung them. Nate is better at doing that but he wasn't here. Isn't the wood the closets are made from pretty bad-looking? I think so, but at least they work.

The baby's future room--yeah, we will have to buy furniture eventually. We have to go to San Antonio for that because no furniture stores in town have baby furniture.

Our bedroom. We were hoping to get a bedroom set soon but the room is just too small so we will just have to live with this for awhile. 

The view from our bedroom into my pink/green bathroom. I realize the stripes in the two parts completely clash but I don't care since it's a view not many people will see.

The view from the hallway into Nate's/guest bathroom. It's nice there are two sinks and two toilets. At the back there is the shower room where those clashing curtains are. They don't clash with this bathroom though.

There is just a quick glance at our place. It is not completely done yet...we are still working on hanging some pictures and getting more rugs. We will just do a little at a time from now on. So, about our baby. I am now 19 weeks pregnant. Please do not scroll lower if you do not want to see a picture of my unclothed belly.

It took a lot of pictures to get a decent one...and it still is not good so sorry. I'm kind of handicapped when it comes to taking pictures of myself. 

Sorry mom and dad...but I had to. It shows better this way. That line is a line from my pants-not a stretch mark..don't worry.

So we are about half-way into it, which is crazy! Last time we went to the doc, he did an ultrasound and said he thought it was a boy but not to bet our mortgage on it. Nate and I have thought it would be a boy since the very beginning. Hopefully we will find out when I go in on the 17th. It's too bad Nate won't be here for that. I am loving the second trimester. The only side effect I am really having is the need to relieve my bladder constantly, but I don't mind that. Hopefully I will start feeling kicking soon. I get really nervous each time we go to the doctor that there will be no heartbeat so if I can feel the kicking, it will be a big relief.