Ohio Visit

Hey everyone we're back from Ohio. Aidan fared pretty well on the airplane again considering he knows how to crawl now and I had to confine him to such a small space, he jumped in my lap a lot! Not much to tell except that we had a great time getting to see old friends and I enjoyed the cooler weather immensely! It's insanely hot here but I still manage to keep the yard up by myself. I take pride in working myself tirelessly to make sure we don't have a jungle surrounding our house and other critters I want to keep at bay that I shall not mention because they make me shudder!

I am currently having Internet issues here because of a bad cable we have in our wall. I get very spotty service and never know when the Internet will be working, sometimes it's not working for the better part of the day. I need to get a contractor out here to fish new wire in the wall but that also means getting them to climb into the deathly hot attic, so if you send me an email or are expecting some sort of response from me don't worry if I don't reply right away, it may be because of my Internet problems.

Anyway, enjoy the new pics of Aidan!


Aidan was determined to get up that slide!


Aidan hanging with Emma, she loved watching him.


"Auntie" Melissa at the Tipp City Farmer's Market




"Uncle" Christian loved having another boy around the house. (He has 2 daughters)


Crazy Maclauchlan's!


Aidan devoured the Dairy Queen ice cream!


He did not want to get out of the pool, he splashed the whole time.


Aidan and the girls!


Aidan looks like the pillsbury dough boy in this picture, especially chubby looking!


Love that porch swing!

Desert Update

Hey all,

Everything is going great over here. I'm approximately 20% into my time over here and I'm happy to say I have no complaints. The guys work hard, the planes fly, the food is ok. Oh sure, I'm missing the family a helluvalot (Heather and Aidan are visiting friends in Ohio right now), but everything else is pretty good.

There's a lot of stuff that I can't really write about on the blog. Some of it is forbidden for security reasons. I can't write about some of it for decency reasons. But I know a lot of the readers of this blog are probably interested in what it is I'm doing over here...so here's the gist.

I'm the maintenance officer in charge of about 110 guys and gals who bust their asses every day in 110 degree weather. I'm out there helping out in every way I can - sometimes they teach me what they're working on, sometimes it's some mentorship on their careers for when they get home, sometimes I'm just out there enforcing standards - making sure that they are safe and doing things the right way.

I work on writing their decorations to make sure that they are recognized for their outstanding achievements over here. I make sure the small stuff is taken care of. I cultivate a sense of urgency when required.

There are some meetings to go to, but not nearly like at home station. That gives me the chance to get to know the maintainers and take care of them.

There's a fair share of BSing, but that's necessary for morale. But when the planes are getting ready to fly or are broken, I'm out there on the line. These guys are great technicians, but what they miss sometimes is the bigger picture - I provide that bigger picture motivation.

My day starts at about 3:00PM and ends the next day at 3, 4, or 5 AM (depending on what's going on). Every day is a Monday because there are no weekends...

It's pretty much sleep, work, sleep, work. I've made it to the gym a couple times after work, but after that long of a day it's hard to have the motivation to exercise. On the flip side, it's hard to do it before work because it's so frickin' hot.

We've got a BX here, a decent chow hall, a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, a Cinnabon, and a Popeye's Chicken. I've only eaten at the chow hall though so I can pocket my $3.50 daily per diem (Ka-Ching!). Though tonight I'm going out for coffee after work at a Green Bean (a Starbucks wanna be that they have at all the bases here - I last drank at one in Saddam's palace in Baghdad).

So, I'm busy and hot. But I have a pretty kick ass job and the best group of troops I could hope for.

I can't complain!

4th of July Festivities

The weekend of the 4th was a blast! We started out Friday morning running in the Firecracker 5k in Pensacola.

We were all decked out in the red, white, and blue, I even decorated the stroller.

We spent the afternoon hanging out with our friends grilling and swimming in their pool.



Do you like my mohawk?

We all went to Pensacola Beach that night to see the fireworks, Aidan stared in amazement. Great show!



We wished Scott could have been there, he told us they didn't have many "fireworks" over there that day though, thank goodness! ;)

Why I Serve

I thought I would take this chance on the Fourth of July to jot down some thoughts on why I serve in the Air Force. Believe it or not it's something I think about fairly often. Whether it's to help get through a tough time at work, or work up the motivation for a deployment that I'm not particularly fond of, reminding myself of some key points always puts the situation into perspective. Gen McArthur summed up the reasons for service well with three words, "Duty, honor, country." To him that was it. We serve because it is our duty. We serve, because it is the honorable thing to do. We serve for our country. My reasons are not as poetic or concise as those, but they are very similar.

I serve for my family. We've had to make several sacrifices already for this service, and many more will be asked of us if I continue to pursue this as a career. However, I firmly believe that the sacrifices (investments) today will pay huge dividends for my family tomorrow in terms of a better life, a better country, and a better world. This is my contribution to the future. I serve today so that, hopefully, others will not have to tomorrow.

While history will tell if the current conflicts that we are engaged in were smart decisions, I'm glad that we have the institution of the military capable of accomplishing these missions. Living a life that affords me basic freedoms - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - fills me with a debt of gratitude. It's my hope that my service will help pay that debt while honoring those who have come before me and given so much for so many.

It has been 232 years since we declared our independence. We are still a young country, but we have achieved much! Many times we in the military have been called by our civilian leadership to protect our way of life. For the past 35 years that call has been answered exclusively by volunteers who believe in three simple tenets: Duty, Honor, Country.

Kiss Goodnight

Splashing

Surprise Ending

I was recording Aidan while we played a peek-a-boo game but you have to watch this to the end to see the surprise ending, something new he learned!