Well, it has been a few months since I have written. We’ve been keeping busy.. and time just keeps flying by. I am really enjoying the benefits of having a more laid back job these days. It has been great to have the flexibility to do whatever I want to do. I have learned a lot through this job and will continue to learn through my stay here. On the other hand, this job is far more laid back than any other job I have had in my military career though. After the schedule we have been keeping over the past few years, we are really enjoying the time together.
I started taking classes for my Master’s Degree in International Relations. I have been really enjoying the classes. The Air Force has a different take on education than I ever felt like I had time for in the Army. I’m doing a program through OU. They have professor fly here once a month to teach us a class. We do the class in 7 days. We have class Monday-Friday 6:00-9:00pm, 8:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, and take our final 8:00am-12:00pm on Sunday. I have been really enjoying getting back into the books and reading. It seemed like school was such torture while I was in College. Now, for the first time in a long time, I have the time to read. I also bought a Kindle from Amazon. I don’t know if you have seen one of them, but they are ebook readers made by Amazon. They have come down in price quite a bit. When they first came out they were about $400. I bought mine for $250. It has saved me a considerable amount of money on college texts books, so it should pay for itself by the time I am done with my classes. I do enjoy the Kindle. It is pretty easy to read and carry a variety of books wherever you go. It will hold up to 1500, but I only keep about 10 on there. It also has a text to speech function, so on my way to and from work, it will read to me in the car. That is pretty slick... and makes it easy to get through a lot of material. What can I say, I’m hooked.
We had a nice time with a few visitors over the past few months. My parents were here in October. Traci’s parents were here in November. We had a couple from 3-29FA stop on their way through on their way to FT Benning for a new duty station- the Estanols. I’m sure we’ll get some more visitors here as it warms up in the spring.
We had the good fortune to stumble upon a great deal on a hotel in Orlando in early December. We took the kids and went to Orlando for a week. We had a great time. We went to Sea World for a day and spent the rest of the week at Disney. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast... and so did we. It was nice to see that Disney really offers a great savings to military personnel. We received a considerable discount on hotels and park admission. It was really a very nice vacation.
Over Christmas, we stayed right here in Navarre. This was the first Christmas we have had together in three years, so it was great just enjoying time together. Traci and I had fun looking for toys for the kids. We got a baby sitter for a night and took a trip to Toys r’us. It was so fun seeing how excited the kids were.
Traci and I have been keeping really active in our church. We attend Live Oak Church in Navarre. We really enjoy it there. As I think I mentioned before, we are teaching a Sunday School Class. I have been enjoying doing some odds and ends around the church too. We are currently in an older building. They just broke ground on a new building last week though.
Let’s see... Politics... I don’t think I want to talk about anything there...
Afghanistan-... I don’t know what to say about that... I have some friends there right now.. and I know that they are getting hammered... just getting hit by terrorists.. just out there killing US and Coalition Soldiers to cause absolute chaos.. the first class I took was on US Foreign Policy in the Vietnam War. It was a great course. I got to read a lot of great books on Vietnam that I had not previously read. In class we were engaged in discussions drawing parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan... at the time I didn’t... and I still don’t want to see the similarities.. but I have been really drawn to reading more and more of the accounts that are out there.. and I can’t help but see similarities... I don’t know that those similarities change anything for me... I’m still a Soldier... I’ll still defend the Constitution of the US from all enemies foreign and domestic and execute the orders of the President of the US and the Orders of the Officers appointed over me...
Again, I just feel so drawn to read... and to have a better understanding of things... looking back on things.... i just think it’s always unexpected to see how our lives go... as we are on this journey...
I do know that I love my wife and kids so much. I am so thankful for all that they have put up with from my chosen profession over the past few years. I am so thankful to God for giving them to me. Traci is so patient through all of this. She is home-schooling Elijah and LeAnn these days. We sat down and came up with our education plan for the year with different focus areas and activities for each week. Things have been going really well. Traci’s a great teacher, so patient with the kids and their unique learning styles.
Well, I think I’ll let you go.
Take care,
Steve
