There are many perks of being in the military (many negative aspects too) but the best part is being able to live in different parts of the country (or world if your lucky) and making such amazing friends. The best lesson I learned in Milton, FL was that the military becomes your family. Yes we have our biological families and we will always be true and faithful to them, but the people you see everyday are the ones you count on for babysitting, jump starting your car, girls night out, FHE groups, play dates with your kids, Visiting Teaching, blessings, moral support while your husband is flying a plane he has never flown before, and so forth. It is so important to develop good friendships and foundations with those you meet in the military travels because we become each others brothers and sisters. After all, we are all brothers and sisters. That's my soap box.
These are some of the most amazing people. The boys are Sean (Marines), Taylor (Navy), Scott (Air Force), and Kevin (Navy). Aside from Kevin, the three men are pilots and as of today, 3 of the four have already left FL and moved on to continue their pilot training. The women are Sherrie (Taylor), Rhiannon (Scott), Lacey (Sean), and Me (Kevin). We spent hours into the night watching Greys Anatomy, making hair bows and other crafts, discussing life and the pursuit of happiness :), having play dates, and enjoying each others friendships. We even arranged most of our kids to be married!
In 2009, Joey had 5 EAR INFECTIONS! He would be fine one minute and the next have a full on fever. We took him to an ENT and it was determined that he had a lot of fluid in his ears that caused the infections and so the best solution was to put tubes in his ears. Before surgery they gave him Versed to kind of calm him down and make him not remember what was about to happen. It was the funniest thing because to some kids it totally sedates them and they are mello jello. To Joey, he was like a drunken child. He was trying to move and talk and he just slurred his words and was moving like he was a drunk trying to pass a sobriety test. He was wobbly, silly, and funny. IF he was to drink, which he will be grounded for life if he does, he would be a fun drunk. Be that is the extent of that. After wards, he was a totally different child-he was MAD! He cried for 15 minutes straight. I had to hold him and I was very upset when the nurses kept waking him up to take his vitals as if he had had a transplant or something. He was mellow the rest of the day and than back to normal by night. For the first few days, he had to wear this funny looking wrap on his head to protect him. So far so good!
Some of the last things we did before we left Milton, was go back to Naval Air Station, Whiting Field, and take pictures of the different aircrafts Kevin learned on. The above is a T-34. It is a 2 seater, propeller airplane. He completed 14 hours in this aircraft and went cross country with it to Oklahoma City. Definietly not as much time as a career pilot would complete, but enough to learn the basics, take off, land, and be able to earn his pilot wings. I do have to admit to you that he did almost puke when the instructor did Aeorobatics (a loop) and experienced 4Gs (about 4x the amount of weight of gravity is on him).
Below is the TH-57 Helicopter. In this aircraft he completed 10 hours in the air. Learning how to hover was probably the hardest thing he had to do. Its like when you are driving and you make small adjustments with the wheel left and right to drive straight without even noticing. Its the same concept in a helicopter but it is way more sensitive and much harder to keep the helicopter hovering over one spot.
This picture was supposed to be up on top. We played games one night as a last hoorah :)
So after all the fun and games, the movers came and took all our stuff away :( Kevin's parents were coming and we needed a place to sleep for them and to sit, so we kept some camping chairs and air mattresses behind. Emma loved the camping chairs. The kids were soo good about the whole moving process. Stay tuned for an update on that :)
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