Panking!

Allow me to start by saying Congrats Mr. Rogers and Rochelle! Talk about a one-upper, poppin the question in Italy. For us we're slowly making headway on our plans. We did tour five wineries in the ATX/Dripping Springs area yesterday with some peeps from my work. I think we (mostly I) inadvertently scouted places to someday live. We feasted at Salt Lick and I can now die a happy man. The proper words to describe such a wonderful place are hard to find. We stumbled across a well named wine from one of the tastings that we might incorporate into the wedding, but a lady never asks and a gentleman never tells which wine it is exactly. We possibly decided on an invitation too, but again I ain't squealin. If we like you then you're sure to get one and you can see what it looks like then!

Jess is getting settled in her new trabajo. In due time she'll get to work in the trauma rooms and I'm sure shortly thereafter she'll be running the trauma rooms. She's so smart (and HOT!). Unfortunately, she gets to sit through a bunch of orientation meetings and classes this whole week. Talk about a blast and a half. I've completed most of my orientation meetings at Wilford so I won't get to have that kinda fun again until I go to BAMC and who knows when that will be. The situation at BAMC was described to me as a pissing contest where the world's water supply won't meet the demand. Oh well, I'll just keep on doing my orientation and learning how they do things here. In terms of things from my perspective, I love my job so they can keep pissing all they want. Well it's off to dinner...she wants pizza and who am I to say no!

Boom shocka locka!

She's gonna cry!...not Jess but some girl on TV who just lost minute to win it. We are still getting plans knocked out left and right. And by knocked out I mean narrowing them down to three or four possibilities for each decision. We did decide on colors..."Overjoy (goldish yellow) and Cityscape (gray)" according to the color wheel from Sherwin Williams. I actually did stop into a paint store and originally had the intention of snagging every shade of yellow from the little samples with three shades each on them, but the sales lady came up to me and offered to let me take the sample pack of every color they have so we had more than enough choices to look through and that's what we decided on. To give ya'll a hint without giving anything away about some of the decor, keep in mind that fire is yellow! We skidaddled up to the Wack last weekend and got great ideas on decor and scoped out potential places for the rehearsal dinner. Like I said, we're knocking out decisions left and right so I'll leave you with a riddle: You have two coins that equal fifteen cents and one of them is NOT a nickel, how do you do it?

officially official

The wedding date and location have finally been set -- November 12 in good ol' Waco. We visited the Earle-Harrison House (www.earleharrison.com) while we were in Waco over Easter. We got to spy on a reception in progress and I was pretty much sold on the spot. Yah, it is going to be outside. We know outside is always a wild card, but it is a risk we are willing to take. Now I guess we can start to figure out everything else...I don't even know where to start... let the excitement begin!!

In Waco - T nailed the creepster vibe we were going for. My creepster look needs work.

Updation

Well we're officially San Antonians, if that's what you call us/them? We're still getting acquainted with the new town, but so far we love what we've experienced. Jess' uncle dubbed us "09'ers", which Jess knew what meant right off the bat, 48 hours later I figured it out. The zip code for Alamo Heights, where we both live, is 78209...so put two and two together, we're a couple of 09'ers! We've hit up a bunch of the local flavors in an attempt to expand our tastes and so far we've been delighted in the local flavor. We've walked to dinner a few nights b/c the area is has plenty of options that allow us to walk off our evening's cuisine. There are plenty of good burger joints and of course good tex-mex to fill our guacamole fixes. Being nurses and given my maturity level, I still chuckle to myself when I call guac, "guaiac". If you don't know what that means, look it up and you too will find yourself chuckling. This weekend we went to Screwston for Andrea's baby shower. It felt a little outta place being back in the 713, but good nonetheless. We would have been remiss to not eat at Goode Co. Taqueria on a Sunday mornin' so we obliged ourselves and what a delight it was. Their huevos con tocino are still the bomb diggity and they still have a balloon artist to entertain me...and the kids. You're gosh dang darn right I stalked her from across the saloon and raised my hand like a first grader to get her attention. When she came to our table, two little punks walked up and played the "I'm a cute little 6 year old" card to try to get her to make their balloon figures first, but I batted my eyes and Hector flexed his muscles so she tended to us first. I asked for an alien from Toy Story (one of the 3-eyed creatures). A table full of 5 people ranging from 25-35 years of age sat in amazement for the next 6.5 minutes as this artist created a truly exquisite masterpiece that closely resembles my requested alien. In the midst of this, it dawned on me...I'm a 26 year old officer in the Air Force, wearing a Transformers t-shirt, and requesting a balloon figure from a child's movie...my life is awesome!!! Who says you have to be a robot in the military and can't have a beautiful fiance? To say I'm blessed would be a drastic understatement. But for now I've gotta run b/c there's an Anamaniacs marathon I need to partake in!

P.S. I love ending sentences with prepositions

Regresso!

IIIIII'mmmmmm BAAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!! We just got back to Houston and we've picked up Sully and already hit up Freebirds...it was delicious! Alabama certainly doesn't have mexican food (the one weekend we ate it) like Texas does, but they do have good BBQ. Thursday was one of the greatest days I've ever had. I was originally planning on surprising Jess at the airport, but couldn't contain myself and told her I'd meet her there. Getting to see her and give her the biggest hug ever was indescribable, so it will stay between us and you can just imagine some dramatic scene from a movie and multiply it by a hundred to start to get an idea of what it was like. We had the dining out Thursday night which means she got to look absolutely beautiful and I wore a monkey suit to a fancy shmancy dinner at the O club (officer's club). It was full of tradition and some laughs and was a good time. Friday was the graduation ceremony. We melted in our service blues while families and friends packed into the big red bed (the main lecture hall). Then we went and did the parade (march around a field), took the oath (again), threw our hats in the air, and said our goodbyes. Fast forward to Saturday and we finally made it home. It feels good being back. Sully did the happy dance when he saw us and took the liberty of peeing all over the floor in the process...that's my boy! Now that we're back, it's finally time to do what has been put off far too long...WEDDING PLANS!!! There are many to be made so adios!

Updation

Well I finally have a chance to update this thing so here it is. This is what a typical day looks like for me here at COT: 0420 wake up, PT (running, push ups, sit ups, etc.) from 0500-0615, Breakfast from 0700-0800 but we get about 8 minutes to actually eat, class from 0800-1200, lunch, class from 1300-1800, dinner, studying until about 2300 then sleep. We repeat this process monday through friday which means we're putting in about 16-18 hours a day. Weekends are pretty much the same schedule but instead of class we just study. It's actually pretty cool. We march between classes and meals and act like true military professionals in training, but when we're back in the dorms we go back to "normal" people our age. Everyone here, all 152 people, are considered the group. There are three squadrons in the group, and 3-4 flights per squadron. I'm in Echo flight and we have a really good group of people. There are lots of details I could fill you in on but I have neither the time or energy to type them. To give you an idea of how tired I am, we had a blood drive today and I was asked three times if I was ok after I donated. When I told the person asking "yeah, I'm fine. Why?", they responded with "because you look like crap!". No I didn't pass out, but I did wanna take a nap, which didn't happen either.

In terms of the really fun stuff (the wedding), we haven't made any official plans yet. We're still enjoying the freedom of being able to say we should do anything that comes to our minds, regardless of how feasible it actually is. I imagine the real plans will start being put in to place not long after I'm back, but for now it's all just fun and games. I better wrap this up b/c I'm using somebody's phone as a hot spot for internet access. Who knows when I'll be able to update this thingamabopper again so adios for now!

El Beginning de COT

Well here we go! This is my first real blog so I don't really know what to do on one of these things so I'll just wing it. I just got everything packed up to leave tomorrow and had Jess check to make sure I had all the documents and that all the t's were crossed and i's were dotted. I have two bags plus a carry on which is a serious blow to my manhood. Regardless of having to have all these uniforms, shoes, etc. I still feel like having more than one bag is a violation of man law. Oh well. And American Airlines better not charge me for checking my bags...or else (I'll just pay and it give them the fist of shame)!!! My flight is bright and early so we'll be waking up around 430 in the AM...get excited. It's going to be an emotional morning and day tomorrow seeing as emotions are already being felt by all three of us (Sully included). Sully is relishing his new found priveleges of being allowed on the couch and occassionally on the bed.

In terms of the more important event coming up (wuv and mawwiage), we've been tossing around ideas of when to conduct said mawwiage. We took the ring in to be resized today. It will be ready by Thursday, but hopefully/possibly Wednesday. We're having a date tonight that includes hitting up Barnes & Noballs to look at wedding books and literature. Although it's still a ways away, I'm already getting excited!!

Well I don't know what else to put on this blog. I'll update it when I came while I'm gone, but otherwise it'll be up to Jess.