Christmas Lists

Is it totally horrible for me to make a public Christmas list?

If I post one will you post one?

Debut Sister's Blog

My dear friends and familia!

My sisters and I have all pitched in and started a sister blog. It's super fun and almost informative... Ha ha!

Please check it out and Follow if you're interested! Any input is welcome!

www.5flewoutofthekookoosnest.blogspot.com

2009 Christmas Ornament Exchange

I signed up for this ornament exchange! This is the first time in my LIFE that I've ever done anything like this before! My swap partner is located in Portland, Oregon and I can't WAIT to see what kind of cute ornament I end up with!! Better get shopping/crocheting/knitting!! :0)

I will post pictures of what I end up with!!

Our house... In the middle of the street... Our house...

Name the band... :0)

HOME SWEET HOME

What one acre looks like with a privacy fence around it! The dogs LOVE this yard. Every morning they spend at least 2 hours out there sniffing and inspecting the perimeter of their kingdom. And just as often, they come in covered in mud...

The week we moved in to our home was a very rainy week. This October has been the third wettest October in Arkansas history with a whopping 16-point-something inches of rain! This is just one of the flooded roads we have had to cross after the rains. The first one was the FREEWAY! Pretty scary! Just for reference... The lake you see to the right of the road pictured above is actually a 5 foot ditch... Filled... Over flowing with water... Just to put it in a bit of perspective...

These are our new neighbors. So far they aren't very excited to be having their pictures taken but I couldn't resist! What beautifully adorable faces these girls have! What's that saying about a 'Brown Cow'? "Call now, Brown Cow..." Jessica? :0)

Dax has made it very clear that he runs the place... Well at least the love seat. Doesn't he look like he is sitting on throne?? Cute little guy! I love that the couch brings out his dog tags... :0)

Remember what I said about the 'covered in mud' thing? Well here is just one of many pictures I/we have snapped of the mud mess. Dax's beard is very prone it clumping apparently. Thankfully, Penny's coat is actually quite mud/dirt repellent. She only gets dirty on her belly where the hair isn't as thick. It's pretty nice! And Dax has proven to us lately that he has bath-time down to a science. He almost eagerly jumps in to the tub! It's very cute!

Penny looking adorable... As usual!

Nap time for poodle... I know, I know... It's pathetic.

Look who it is!! It's Kermit the frog! He just wanted to stop in and say Hello to us! This little guy was SO adorable in person! I've never seen such a vibrant little frog outside of the zoo before and the frogs we raised from tadpoles were never green... :0)

And this is my weak attempt at food photography... I'm not very good at this... However, these are the Biscuits and Gravy I made the other day. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog. They were super good. I don't even like the dish but as usual, it's easier to love something when you've made it yourself! And Biscuits and Gravy are the Aviator's favorite breakfast, so of course I needed to be able to make it at least once in a while right?

So what's new, you ask. Here is the scoop. The Aviator started class right after we got in to town here. As usual for learning a new air plane, there is tons of reading and studying to do. It feels quite a bit similar to UPT except that he is being treated like an Officer instead of having to go through the 'hazing' of typical UPT. I think we're both really anxious to get to Japan. There is quite a bit of footwork to be done to bring the dogs with us so I'm going to get started on that as soon as possible. In the meantime, I've been painting our new house! Our landlord had mentioned wanting to change the color on the walls that's gray, to something a little more warm feeling. She picked the color and I offered to put it on the walls of this 1300sq. ft. home... I'm not crazy... I'm not. I'm just bored I guess... Starbucks is hesitating to bring on another Barista for only a few months commitment. So I'm hoping and praying that they'll make a decision soon so that I can start looking for other opportunities to keep busy.

We're both really looking forward to the holidays. It's dawned on us that this Christmas and Thanksgiving will be our last in the USA for a few years. It's quite a strange feeling. We're spending Thanksgiving here and so far it's just going to be the two of us. We'll see if we can convince some of our friends here to do a potluck style dinner with us. :0)

Christmas is going to be super fun! I can't wait to see the Aviator's side of the family and I especially can't wait to see all of my amazing sisters again. I'm so thankful for them!

We're still church hunting. It's so frustrating to put roots down and then have to pull them back up every few months. We were so blessed to be a part of our Real Life Fellowship family back in Texas. We made some amazing friends and I know that they'll be a part of our lives forever.

Prayer Warriors:

-Remember a few posts back I asked for prayer for my friend Jenn whose Mom's been diagnosed with Breast Cancer? She had surgery today. According to Jenn, everything went well! Thank God!

- Like I said... We're still looking for a new church to call home!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend! Much love!

C&J

Jacksonville, Arkansas

We're here! Jeff and I are hanging out in hotel while we wait for a house to open up for us. The dogs are at a kennel and as always, it was super hard to leave them, again.

One comforting thing that is different about the kennel they're at right now is that the people who work there took great interest in our mutts. They were so sweet to them which is just what Dax needs after 2 days in a car and no mommy... :0) Usually people at the kennels just look at them as two more yapping $20....

Jeff starts class on Tuesday. The base here is BEAUTIFUL! I've never been on an Air Force base that has a traffic light at every intersection. It's huge! So that's the update..

Corpus Christi IceRayz & Wedding dress pieces... :0)

So after washing and air-drying the two pieces of wedding dress I removed, I am left with two beautifully white pieces of satiny polyester... :0)

I'll keep the update going on these after I get to Little Rock this weekend.

We have been waiting all Summer long for Hockey season to start!! Saturday night, American Bank Center hosted the Corpus Christi Icerayz's first home game of the season! They played against the Shreveport Mudbugs! :0) They are a part of the Central Hockey League or CHL. The game was FANTASTIC! Over 5,000 people showed up and filled the place up! We had awesome seats just right of the net. Sadly, the Rayz lost by 1 in the last 18 seconds of the game. Very close game though... I miss hockey. :0(

On Saturday, Jeff and I hosted our second Corpus Christi garage sale.... The only thing we still need to get rid of is that couch... (See picture below) :0)

Here is a picture of our view from our awesome seats! Hockey might be one of the only sports that you might not want to be sitting center field/ice for... :0)

The movers are coming to pack up and move our stuff on Thursday. We have found a house that is 99% ours for the taking so that is very nice to look forward to. We learned from the last time we moved, that it's a smart idea to book a kennel before arriving at your new base! So when we pull in to town on Saturday morning, we'll take the dogs STRAIGHT to the kennel so that the poor mutts don't have to sit in the car freaking out at every one of our stops... I'll tell ya... Traveling with dogs is very annoying!

Anyhow, as usual, we'll keep y'all posted on what's happening... :0) Enjoy your weeks everyone!

Pumpkin Spice Bars

So perhaps it is a bit Fall-ish here now... 80 degrees outside? :0)

These bars are very much like the Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf you can buy only MUCH better!

Here is the recipe and some corresponding pictures...

Pumpkin-Spice Bars

4 Eggs

2 Cups Sugar

1 Cup Veg. Oil

1 Can(16oz) Pumpkin

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger

1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves

1 Cup Raisins (Optional) :-)

Cream Cheese Frosting (Recipe to follow)

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts (also optional...)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease jelly roll pan, 15.5"x10.5"x1". Beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cloves. Mix in raisins. Pour batter into pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until light brown; cool. Frost with Cream Cheese frosting. Sprinkle with walnuts. Cut in to 2"x1.5" bars. Refrigerate any remaining bars.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Cups powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth.

** Don't eat it all before you can get it on the bars...

Jelly Roll pan that's a bit bigger than the one the recipe calls for.

The wonderful beginnings of an addictive frosting... :0)

So I forgot to rotate the picture... But this is what the large bar should look like coming out of the oven... You might be able to notice the the sides pulled up from the edge?? Does that make sense to anyone? :0)

AND the marvelous after product... :0) Cut up and ENJOY!! :0)

** This recipe is from my Betty Crocker Cookbook!

After the wedding

So, any married woman out there probably has a very beautiful, worn once wedding dress hanging up somewhere in their house... I was/am one them them... :0)

Today I began the tedious process of taking a wedding address apart very carefully. My dress still hasn't been washed since our wedding over a year and a half ago so I was worried about having to wash it at home... Luckily it turned out fine after one go on a gentle cycle in warm water/cold rinse and it's hanging to dry. The dirt came right out of the ends!!

You're probably wondering why in the world I am disassembling a perfectly fine wedding dress... Any of you that know me, know that I HATE clutter... I don't enjoy 'saving things'... :0) So having a dress sitting around and just waiting to be packed in to another box to sit for 7 months only to move with us for a THIRD time around the world does NOT fly with me...

After googling " What to do with a worn wedding dress", I found some pretty cool things that people are doing with their dresses. Some of the more ornate and expensive dresses are being sold on eBay while others that are more simple (like mine) are being turned in to a different kind of family heirloom...

I am making a BABY BLANKET out of my wedding dress. I got the idea forever ago from a website and today I worked up the courage to start taking my $250 dress apart! Ladies out there that paid more... You might want a glass of wine before you take the seam ripper to your 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'... :0)

First off, I used my little seam ripper to gently separate the bodice(boning, tooling, slip) from the outer dress. The two were attached by several cleverly hidden stitches around the waist of the dress. Then I began taking the stitches out of the zipper... The whole process took about 45 minutes.

This is what it looked like before I tore the tooling out... :0) I hate to say it but it felt really good taking it apart... Ha ha!

I promise to keep everyone posted on how the baby blanket comes along. As usual, I don't really have a plan for what the finished product will look like... If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them!!

More pictures from Grad week!

My wonderful in-laws and us at Bob Hall Beach, Corpus Christi, TX.

Jeff and me at the winging.

Jeff and his friend in the Italian Navy, Michele(Mikel).

My Mom and me at the Bay Club after the winging.

My ridiculously good-looking husband and me. The only picture of us with his wings on from the night!

Special Request: Prayer warriors! Please pray for my sister-in-law's family in Pennsylvania! They've suffered quite a bit off loss in the passed few weeks. Your prayers are appreciated!

Also please pray for my friend Jenn's mom. They found a lump and it's cancerous. they are meeting with Docs tomorrow to discuss treatment options and get more info about what they're up against... Thank you!

Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Graduation Class 09-32

First and foremost, God is good. The past year has been described to me as the toughest year of a couple's marriage and that making it out of UPT alive is a miracle in itself. I can say with complete honesty that being married to a man of Jeff's quality and character has made this year quite a pleasant ride. No matter how busy or stressful his training day could become, he always came home and asked me how my day was. He always made time to give me a hug and let me know how much he loves me.

When we went in to Srgt. S's office on 1OCT to pick our assignment, we didn't know what we'd get. We prayed and prayed and hoped for some guidance in picking our three-year assignment. We were called in and sat down in front of a Colonel and a sheet of paper with 7 assignments for our taking... Japan was the only overseas assignment available and the decision took approximately 30 seconds to make. We looked at each other and smiled. Japan it is!

It's really been a neat to learn to trust in God's plan for our lives. Here we were planning out the next three years of our lives in England... Silly us! On we go as missionaries in this dark world, illuminating it with Christ's love.

09OCT2009 Jeff graduated from Pilot Training! As the day approached, the realization that the Operational Air Force is almost upon us hit me like a ton of bricks. This means that after our next stint of 'training', not 'competing', Jeff will be lined up to start flying real missions. Yes, 12 hour days are rough, but I'm thinking they're better than weeks at a time without Jeff around...

So this week we had Jeff's parents, Win and Susan, and my Mom in town for the winging. It was absolutely wonderful to have family in town to share this momentous occasion with us! I hope y'all enjoy the pictures I posted in this post and the one before it of the last week....

The scoop for when we move is in... Jeff starts his C-130 training on 27Oct. We are moving out of this house in Texas on Friday the 23rd. We have been looking for homes to rent in the Jacksonville area. I'm hoping to transfer to a Starbucks near the base for convenience sake. After Jeff is done in Little Rock, he will go to Washington for three weeks of Survival training... And then we head to Japan! So we are looking at mid to end of June for departing the USA.

The Air Force's newest Pilot! 13 months of hard work and long hours have finally paid off! Notice the shiny new set of wings on his jacket! :0)

My Mom was able to make it down here for Jeff's graduation! It was awesome to have her hanging out with us in our home finally! :0) Thank you SO much for coming out here Mommy!

On the day of the winging, a reserve unit from Florida flew a MC-130 to NAS Corpus Christi in honor of one of their newest grads. We were able to take a tour of the massive airplane. This plane has the exact same body as the C-130 that Jeff will be flying except the MC-130 has a bit more bells and whistles...

Off we go!

My Mom and I sitting at the front of a T-44A. This is the plane that Jeff flew in training here in Corpus Christi.

Yokota Air Base, Japan

SO the news is that we're headed to Japan! Yokota Air Base to be precise!

That is just about all we know right now... I will keep y'all posted as we find out more about when we leave Corpus Christi!

SUPT SYLLABUS COMPLETE!!! Words we've been waiting for!

<--- Shadow and DJ, 2 of 3 beautiful boys at the Aquarium. They are actually half brothers! They swim together on a regular basis! They are 4 years apart and never met each other before being here! So sweet!



Hello, hello!

It's been a while since our last update... That's for sure!

So far... I got the job at Starbucks and I've been volunteering at the Texas State Aquarium right here in Corpus Christi. I am so lucky to volunteer at their Dolphin Bay! I work right alongside the trainers as they refine the behaviors and training of Shadow, DJ and Kai, their three male Atlantic Bottle Nose Dolphins. My bestie, Brit, came to visit at the beginning of this month! It was so much fun to introduce her to all of my wonderful friends here and she was a great encouragement when it came to doing some shopping... :0) I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. God has truly blessed me with amazing friends!!

Jeff FINISHED SUPT!!! He had his last flight on Friday and his assignment will come on Thursday. We are almost beyond words. It's really hard to describe what it feels like to think about how close we are to the end of 'training' as a whole. It's been a wild year of highs and lows, excitement and upsets, moves and settling... :0) We are very much looking forward to what God has in store for us. We had been really anxious about putting on paper what our top 5 dream spots would be. After many prayers and deep breathes... We came up with this...

Jeff & Caitlin's Dream Sheet

#1. MC-130P/H to Mildenhall Royal Air Force, UK

#2. Slick C-130 to Ramstein, Germany

#3. C-12s to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska

#4. c-12s to Yokoda, Japan ( just outside of Tokyo)

#5. MC-130P/H to Hurlburt Field, FL

Thursday, October 1, we will walk in to a Commander's office and be handed a sheet of paper. There will be a list of ALL the available assignments for the entire class. If it isn't crossed off, it's free. We are so excited and cannot believe it's finally time for our permanent assignment. Jeff has worked so hard and dealt with tedious 12 hour days, weekend cross countries, studying for hours on end when not at the flight room.... <--- (The T44A that Jeff's been flying for the past 5 months.)The list goes on. I'm so proud of what my amazing husband has accomplished. :0)

Friday, October 9, Jeff will finally graduate from the program. 13 months after he started Phase 1 back in Columbus, I will pin on his silver wings. :0) Seems like forever ago that we were talking about those 'gold bars'! :0)

I will keep everyone posted! As soon as we know what's next you'll know!

Thank you all for the prayers and thoughts! Much love!! XOXO

Jessica and Kyle's wedding

OK... Let me start by saying that not one of the pictures I took of Jess do her any justice... If you want to see the really great ones you'll have to check out the photographer, Benjamin James' blog.

The wedding was an absolute blast! Jessica and Kyle had the help of an amazing wedding planner, Heather Rouse, soon to be Heather Lam. :0) Everything was perfect, down to the details on the table.

Here Brit Tarr and I are towards the end of the night... We were dancing fools for most of the evening! It was freezing on the beach by my Texas standards of course but it was nice and warm inside the reception area. The wedding was held on the beach around sunset at The Sunset Restaurant in Malibu, CA.

I got to see friends and family that I haven't seen in ages. The only thing that was missing is my other half! Jeff couldn't get leave in the middle of training. Soon enough though... :0)

And... Props to Brit... Thanks for the awesome new do! It feels and looks amazing !

Forgive me as these pictures are going backwards in time... :0) My Mom, sister Natalie and the bride, Jessica right before we had to be in our places. See what I mean? Just beautiful! Our dresses looked so cute once all of us were done getting ready and my Mom rocked a super cute strapless knee-length dress.

My Niece Hunter and my sister Natalie as we were all getting ready at Kyle's mom's house. We were treated like princesses! Thank you Kathleen and Randy for everything! It was absolutely wonderful!

And of course, my favorite picture from the entire morning of getting ready... My dear sister has the most amazing hair! The stylist was doing a great job doing everyone's hair.

Thanks for being a sport for this one... Don't kill me, Jessica... :0P

USS LEXINGTON, WHATABURGER FIELD

These pictures are from the first couple of weeks of July! In this picture you see my Dad and Hannah being greeted by a Pelican. The fisherman on the pier were telling us that this guy is known for snatching their catches before they can even get the hook out of the fish! He was probably wondering why we weren't fishing! :0)

That Aircraft carrier you see in the background of this picture is called the USS Lexington. This ship was retired or 'decommissioned' in the early '90's. Before then it was used as a training ship for new crews and such. But before that it was an active war ship. My Grandpa Ray was on this ship on her last tour before being used for training. He has tons of neat stories about life on this monster. The greatest thing is that it's right here by our home!

On our tour of the USS Lexington, there was a plaque for some other ship, I'm assuming, but this name caught my eye for obvious reasons! Here's to my littlest sister, Hannah! I love you sis!

Here we are on the Fourth of July at a Hook's game. They are our local Minor AAA baseball team... They lost miserably but we got two fireworks shows! Our friends Brandon and Jenna were in town for the Fourth of July weekend as well.

After we got home from San Antonio, picking up Brandon and Jenna, all that we wanted to do was absolutely nothing! We had a blast of a weekend! We took a pontoon boat out in the morning to try our hand at fishing but we had zero luck... Only gooey catfish to be had... And the wakes were terrible!

Dax's Haircut

AFTER

BEFORE

"Remember the Alamo"

Berges Fest 2009! We're talking lawnmower races, a Dachshund race, vendors selling just about anything you could imagine... And of course an authentic German Polka band... :0)

The lawnmower pictured above is 14' long... 10' of that is ENGINE ! :0)

This handsome little guy is Hasani (African for Handsome ;-)) , is a North African Crested Porcupine. We had the pleasure of meeting and greeting him at the Fest, as well as Taz the Wallaby and a 6' long Boa constrictor! It was amazing! Kinda made me miss my old corn snake... But not that badly... :0)

The above two pictures are from the Mission San Jose in San Antonio. It is known as the 'Queen of Missions' because of how beautifully built it is. The entire compound is enormous! The church pictured here is an addition to the original one that wasn't much bigger than our living room. At one point, 350 people, Indians and Missionaries alike, crammed in to a tiny Chapel for Mass. The carvings on the church are fantastic! The frescoes were also beautiful.

We also visited the Alamo. I must say... I should've done a bit more research on the story before gracing the place with my presence... :0) I would like to read a book on it... If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know!

All in all, it was a splendid time. The drive from here to San Antonio is SO beautiful... Just fields upon fields for miles and miles, flat as can be! We even passed a "Cowboy Community Church"! I can just picture riding up in my boots and tying my horse up outside to attend service... Only in my dreams! :0)