Home for the Holidays

This year Justin and I were lucky. He didn't have to work on Christmas! A lot of my friends' husbands did have to work so I felt extremely lucky that I got to spend the day with Justin. We had a pretty good Christmas (last year was better because we were in California). But overall, it was a good day. On Christmas Eve, Justin came home from alert and we put a few ornaments on the tree and set out the presents. I got one good picture of everything. Here's our tree:

Shortly after I took that picture, I left the room and heard a crash. I came back to find this:

It took the kitties all of 5 minutes to try to climb the tree and subsequently knock it over. After that, I took down the ornaments and put the presents in the closet until we made the decision to open them after dinner. Even though they knocked our tree over, I love the kitties. They're just so cute.




On Christmas day, Justin and I went to the movies. We wanted to see Nine but it wasn't playing at our theatre. Then we were going to see Sherlock Holmes but it was sold out. So we ended up seeing Up in the Air with George Clooney. It was pretty good. I liked it. I'm not sure it was Justin's style of movie though. Then the day after Christmas, Justin had to go on alert again.

The weather has slightly improved since my rant about how much I hate snow. The temperature went up to almost 50 for a few days and melted all the snow. Then it got cold again and there was a thick layer of ice over everything, including the roads. Then it snowed again, right on top of the ice. But at least it's sunny here most days. Makes the weather a little more tolerable.

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!

Let It Snow

The last couple of weeks have been....interesting, to put it nicely. Justin had to work on Thanksgiving. At first, I didn't really care. Thanksgiving is probably my least favorite holiday (because of what it represents and because I don't really like the food). I figured it wouldn't be a big deal for him to be on alert. But when the actual day came, I was surprised by how sad I was that he was gone. I was comforted by the fact that I wasn't the only one without their husband on that day. My friend Ira invited me over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. Her husband was gone too. She was determined to cook her first Thanksgiving meal and I was glad to not be alone. The food turned out really good. I was happy I could spend time with her and give her a hand, even if it was just holding baby Nik while she cooked. Justin came back on Black Friday and we had a huge "Thanksgiving" dinner with all our friends (most of whom were on alert for the actual holiday as well). It was a lot of fun, really great to see everyone, and the food was delicious.

Since we've been in Montana, the weather hasn't been that bad. This fall has been pretty mild. I've been waiting for the winter to come. Well, last week, it came. Full force. Justin went out on alert on Friday and of course, Friday night the snow came. It didn't look that bad out Saturday morning but the decision was made to leave the missile crews out on alert for an extra day. So Justin didn't get to come home until Sunday. He pulled his first "48" as they call it. I have a feeling it won't be last for this winter. Heck, it probably won't be the last for this month. Overall, we didn't get THAT much snow. However, the lovely wind blew snow drifts onto my driveway and I had to shovel 2.5 feet of snow. It took me over an hour to shovel our tiny little driveway. I couldn't even finish. It was so cold that my entire body was numb underneath my winter weather attire. I was so frozen I couldn't take a shower for 2 hours afterward because my skin was so cold and the water would burn it. Winter in Ohio was awful. But at least it wasn't this cold. Today, it's -24 degrees. It's been at or below zero for almost a week now.

For longer than I have been alive, my grandparents have lived in Arizona. I remember when I was little I always wondered if they missed living in Ohio, with the changing leaves in the fall, waking up to a light powdering of snow Christmas morning. I asked my Grandma once if they missed the weather or the snow and she said they didn't miss it at all. I thought, how could this be? Snow is magical and transforms the world around us, making even the ugliest things pretty. Snowy winters mean sledding and building snowmen and the occasional day of missed school. How could they not miss it? My 10 year old self didn't understand. Of course, at that age snow is everything good. At 10, snow doesn't mean shoveling the driveway. At 10, snow doesn't mean scraping ice off your windshield before you can drive to work or school. At 10, snow doesn't mean your husband gets stranded underground in a missile silo for longer than he should. At 10, snow doesn't mean staying in the house because you're too afraid to drive since people almost crash into you daily when the weather is nice. At 10, snow doesn't mean worrying your car won't start. Oh yes, this morning Justin's car wouldn't start thanks to the ridiculously cold weather. He had to take my car, which almost didn't start after sitting in the parking lot for 5 hours while he was at work. My grown-up self can see just how smart my grandparents were to move to Arizona. For the last 7 or 8 years, I haven't really liked the snow. However, my dislike has hit a whole new level living here. I HATE snow, absolutely hate it. If I never see it again, it will be too soon. And unfortunately for us, it's only the beginning of winter. We still have 3 more winters of cars not starting thanks to the geniuses who decided to build houses on base with one car garages. Of course, the new houses at Vandenberg have two car garages even though you don't need any garage space there. Vandenberg has no weather. People use their garage for storage, not for parking cars. And yet, here, where it's absolutely necessary for a garage, they build houses with only one space. It makes no sense, but it's the military so I wouldn't expect any different.

On a slightly happier note, we set up the Christmas tree the other day. The cats thought it was their new climbing toy. Here is one cat in the tree:

And here is the tree after they knocked it over:

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to leave the tree there and not decorate it or move the tree to one of the bedrooms upstairs and keep the door closed.

Even though the snow makes me angry and makes me wish we still lived in California more than ever, the cats make me smile on a daily basis. I'm not sure why she decided to sit behind the curtains but I saw her and it made me laugh:

The next few days are supposed to be cold but next week, supposedly, it's going to be in the 30s. Hopefully it will warm up enough to make going outside bearable.

Time Sure Flies

This fall has flown by. I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already. The beginning of October passed without much excitement. Justin worked every day but one for three straight weeks. He took leave at the end of October so they packed his schedule at the beginning. The weekend before Halloween we went back to Ohio to see Justin's family. It was pretty fun and we really enjoyed seeing everyone. I think we managed to at least visit for a short while with everyone. Robin and Ned came in from Columbus for the weekend. All the cousins have grown about 5 inches since we last saw them. Justin's brother Jared is probably a whole head taller. His sister Jessica got her driver's license and I have to say, she is a really good driver (possibly better than Justin haha). The weekend was great. As an added bonus, we went to Half Price Books, which doesn't exist around here, or anywhere the Air Force has taken us actually. We left with only 16 books between us, which was good considering more might not have fit in our luggage for the flight home.

The weather around here has been surprisingly good. It's cold, yes. But it hasn't really started snowing yet (knock on wood). The sky is really pretty at night. I was able to capture a fall sky a few weeks back. This was from our backyard.

The only downside has been the air. When we got back from Ohio the air here felt abnormally dry. I don't know if it was because of the change from the humidity in Ohio or the changing of the seasons. But either way, it is really, really dry. Every morning I woke up with a sore throat and my nose burned really badly. I thought maybe I had a cold but decided it was the dry air. So I got a humidifier. It has helped some which is good. I'm okay in the house, but when we go out for more than a half an hour or so, my nose starts to hurt and burn so I know it's the dry air.

The last two weeks my dad has been overseas for work. He went to India and China and literally flew around the globe. Apparently there was some security situation in India while he was there. There was supposed to be a terrorist bombing or something. Luckily, he made it home safely.

This month, Justin's schedule is slightly better than last month, thanks in large part to his crew partner going down on PRP. Justin has 2 less alerts because of it which is awesome for me! He has this week without much on schedule. He does have to work on Thanksgiving but that means he should (fingers crossed) get Christmas off. My friend Lindsay's husband is also working on Thanksgiving I believe, so we might have a little Thanksgiving with friends.

A few weeks ago I discovered that one of the cats likes to sleep in the sink now. Whenever I can't find her, I go in the guest bathroom upstairs and find this:

She loves it in there. The only problem is that she climbs in our bathroom sink when I need to wash my hands or brush my teeth and I have to pull her out of the sink so I can turn on the water without giving her a bath.

The kitties got an early Christmas present a few days ago. Our friend Nick built these for the cats.
They love climbing on them and scratching them. Hopefully this means less scratching on my recliner and sofa. The pillars make a good place to lay and look out the front window. The cats have also discovered that they can jump onto the bookshelves, which is a new place for them to lay. Speaking of bookshelves, we got another one a few days ago. We had a giant stack of books on the floor that are now in the bookcase. Here is our expanded library.

As you can see, there is a cat on top of the shelf on the far right. She loves to hang out up there but keeps knocking everything off the top. Seeing as both Justin and I feel like we need more books constantly, a fifth shelf is in our future, quite possibly after Christmas.

Overall, things are going well here. We're actually looking forward to snow so we can learn to ski!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted. This is a combination of computer issues, lack of what I consider interesting news to report and a lack of pictures to go with the post. But, I decided to write anyway. So this entry might be somewhat redundant since most of this was already shared over the phone.

Last month, my parents and brother came to visit. We had a great time showing them around Great Falls (which didn't take very long). We went down to Helena and went shopping since there is a severe lack of stores here. Probably the best thing we did was the Gates of the Mountain tour. The tour is a guided boat adventure down the Missouri river through limestone cliff walls and forest. The boat adventure was gorgeous. Halfway through we were able to get back on land and go for a walk. We hiked a mile or two. Justin and Stephen went off on their own and climbed up the mountain, almost to the peak. It was really scenic and had great opportunities for photos. Sadly, my camera batteries died halfway through. But I was able to get a few good pictures before that happened.

Here is the view down the river from the boat. We went through the mountains. We saw a few bald eagles and ospreys. They nest along the river up in the trees.

There were also in tact drawings from Native Americans from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We had a really good view of the sketches from the boat.

Here is what Montana looks like in August. I thought this was a pretty landscape with the wheat and the big, puffy clouds. Some days the sky is perfectly clear and then other days the clouds are huge. The sky looks very different this far north.

The base had its annual inspection the two weeks after my family left. Justin got called in to do a test and did really well. A lot of people failed the tests during the inspection, but overall, the base passed. Justin also got a new crew partner, Capt. Bassman. His new crew partner is working out really well so far. Justin likes him a lot and they get along well. Granted, Justin gets along with pretty much everyone, but still. Not too much else is new with the Air Force.

My computer died again. Third time since I've had it and second time in the last month and a half. We went to Missoula yesterday to go to Best Buy and Red Robin and check out the used bookstore. The Geek Squad guy at Best Buy said that the laptop I have has known motherboard issues and that's why it kept dying. The laptop got sent off the get fixed again. But in more exciting news, I got a new computer! We got a desktop for me since my laptop has so many issues. That laptop will just be a backup now in case anything happens to either of our desktops. Also, if we need a portable computer, we will have that. We had to rearrange the family room area to fit another desk.

Here's Justin setting up my computer. We moved the couch and sort of sectioned off the room to make a TV area and then a computer area. Justin's computer is just out of the picture on the left side. It's strange for me to use a desktop since I've been using a laptop for the last 6 years or so. However, I'm really enjoying the huge screen and not having my computer overheating.

That's about all the news from Montana. I will leave you with a picture of a kitty looking down from the banister upstairs.

She's so cute.

Return of the Blog

My computer is fixed! The motherboard died again so it had to be sent away to get a new one. Luckily it was under warranty or it would have been $960 to replace the motherboard. You can get a new computer for cheaper than that these days. Oh well, it's fixed and they didn't wipe the hard drive which is super exciting because I hate having to reinstall things and reorganize my music. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this motherboard lasts a while.

Justin worked something like 12 days in a row the last two weeks but he finally has had some time off. The other night we went out to dinner with our group to celebrate the marriage of one of the guys in the group. Now 7 of the 9 people in Justin's class are married. It makes for a lot of built in friends for me which is really nice. Then yesterday we drove down to Helena to see Luke and Joanna, our friends from Vandenberg who are stationed in Wyoming. Luke's family is from Helena and they were in town so went to meet up with them. It was really good to see them. Justin and I realized on the way home how much we missed hanging out with them.

In a few hours, Mom, Dad and Stephen will be here!

Hiatus

Last week my computer died...again. So there will be no new updates until I get my computer back.

State Fair

The last week or so Justin has been pretty busy with work, but he only had a back-up alert this weekend so he had the whole time off. Saturday morning we went to the local farmer's market in downtown Great Falls. It's there every Saturday morning but this week was the first time we've made it over there. It was pretty neat, lots of fresh fruit and produce, stands with homemade jam and bread, tents with arts and crafts. It was bigger than I thought it would be given the size of the city. We walked around and Justin, of course, had to get a coffee. There was music and people everywhere. It looked like that was the place to be on a Saturday morning.

Later that day I was vacuuming and had a slight mishap. The vacuum was already upstairs so instead of carrying it downstairs, vacuuming up the stairs and then carrying it back down again, I decided to just vacuum down the stairs. It was going fine until about halfway down, when the vacuum fell and I caught it with my forearm. For about 15 seconds it felt like my arm had been broken in half. Then when I was almost done, the vacuum fell again, only this time I caught it with my forehead. There was a cut and welt near my temple. It was quite painful, but luckily, nothing too serious. I've learned my lesson and instead of being lazy next time, I'll just make the extra trips up and down the stairs.

Saturday night we went over to Nick and Fiona's house for a little housewarming party. They finally moved in a few houses down the street. One of the other guys from Justin's class got married a few weeks ago and his wife is up here now too. So there are four of us couples living on base. It's really great being able to see everyone so easily and to just walk 20 steps down the street to go hang out.

On Sunday, Justin and I met up with Nick, Fiona, and Nick's dad at the state fair. It was pretty fun, completely different than the atmosphere I'm used to. Once we got there, the boys decided they needed some food. Nick ordered fries and this is what he got:

The wall of french fries were tasty, as was the funnel cake. I love fair food, but sadly wasn't hungry enough to fully indulge in it. After the food extravaganza, we went and watched a couple of horse races. I've never seen one in person, so it was pretty cool to watch. People were betting on horses and talking about the different types of tickets you can bet on. We all picked horses, just for fun in our seats, and of course, my horse came in last. Not just last, waaaaaay last. He wasn't even close to the other three at the finish line. I felt kinda bad for him.

Aside from horses, there was also a pig race. I've never heard of pig racing but I think piglets are really cute so I made sure we saw the pig races. The lady announcing the pig races was super loud and super annoying, but the pigs were really cute.

The pig race people were from Kansas and also brought other animals for a petting zoo. There was a baby zebra and a kangaroo. Where on earth do people from Kansas get a zebra and a kangaroo. It was really sad to see the kangaroo in there. He looked depressed. Not that I can really tell what the animal is feeling, but still, it was sad. Animals like that shouldn't be in petting zoos. Oh well. Not much I can do about it.

Seeing all the farm animals at the fair made me wish I had grown up on a farm. It would be really neat to have pigs and sheep and goats and rabbits and chickens. But then I remember how much I like being able to get to the grocery store in 5 minutes or less and realized that the farm life is not for me. I'm a city girl through and through. Maybe after four years here in Montana, things will be different, but for now, I like civilization.

Take A Hike

The last few days, Justin has been off, so we've been able to do some fun things. On Thursday we went down the Helena, the state capitol. It's about an hour and a half from Great Falls and it's a beautiful drive down there. Well, pretty much everywhere outside a 30 mile radius of Great Falls is gorgeous. We ate lunch at a place called the Staggering Ox. They had really good sandwiches that come in interestingly shaped bread. They hollow out a tube of bread and stuff the inside full of yummy goodness.

After lunch we went to the Cathedral of Saint Helena. The church is really cool, architecturally. It's almost 100 years old. The inside of the church has stained glass windows from floor to ceiling, with the New Testament on one side and the Old Testament on the other. The style of the church made me want to go to Europe even more. We might have to plan a trip.


We also went to the Original Governor's Mansion and the state capitol building. We were wandering around the capitol and we bumped into a guided tour so we tagged along. The tour guide took us into the state Senate and House chambers. I was surprised to learn that the Montana state legislature only meets for 91 days every two years. That gives you an idea of just how unpopulated Montana is. They have had to call emergency sessions to get stuff done outside of the biannual meetings they usually hold, however. It was all very interesting to me, the political science nerd, and to Justin too. Of course, it made us realize that as soon as we're stationed somewhere in the eastern half of the United States, we must make a trip to D.C. to see real governmental buildings.

There was construction going on outside which sorta ruined my picture, but you get the general idea. The flags are flown at half mast to honor a soldier from Montana who was killed in Afghanistan last week. I'm surprised anyone even heard about it considering every single time I turned on a news channel, all that was being talked about was Michael Jackson. Anywho, after we finished wandering around here, we went to a few bookstores and walked through downtown and looked at the shops.

Overall, we really liked Helena. It has much more culture and shopping than Great Falls does. Justin's crew partner said Great Falls is a cultural void, which I am now beginning to see. Our town doesn't even have a used bookstore. Oh well, Helena is a pretty nice drive so we can just head south when we feel the need to escape the cultural black hole.

Yesterday, we got the chair we ordered for our library! It only took a week to come in which was much sooner than the store predicted. The room looks much better now that there isn't a giant void in the one corner. The chair is firm, yet comfortable, which is perfect for reading.

We also got the kitties a little pot of pet grass. Every time the cats go outside they sit and chomp on the long grass strands that line the front walkway. So we decided to get them some pet grass so maybe they won't want to go outside so much. Supposedly, it's good for them to eat grass. It helps with their digestion or something. At first they seemed confused but they caught on pretty quickly.


Today, we went hiking in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. It took a while to get there because of the gravel road we had to drive down. People were camping and fishing back in the secluded area at the base of the mountains. We ended up hiking a trail that seemed to never end. We just kept going, thinking it would turn and loop back the way we came. But it never did, so we ended up turning around. My shoulders got sunburned, but other than that, it was a great afternoon.


We hiked through forest, up mountains, through grassland covered in wildflowers. It was really, really pretty and it wasn't too hot so the hike wasn't overly difficult.

Tomorrow, Justin has a back-up alert. Basically he has to be available in case the person on alert has an emergency or gets really sick or something. We'll have to stay in town just in case he gets called in to work. After hiking today, we might have to spend the day on the couch recovering!

Independence Day

Here are some highlights from our 4th of July celebrations. As usual, our group of friends is mostly Air Force guys and, of course, any excuse to blow stuff up is welcomed with open arms. Justin and I went over to Katie and Ben's for a barbeque and fireworks. Partway through the evening Justin left to go over to his commander's house. I stayed at Katie's to hang out with the girls. The guys had too much fun exploding things in the backyard, but it was a lot of fun to watch.
The fire that kept burning all night, thanks to fireworks wrappers that kept ending up in there.

One of the many explosions that took place in the backyard.

I tried to capture the fireworks, but without a tripod, everything just looks like colorful squiggles.

The sparklers were equally difficult to capture.

A group shot, after Justin left, minus Jarrett who took the pictures.

Movin' On Up

We've moved! Last week I packed up over 2000 pounds of our stuff and drove it over to our new house on base. I made nine trips with my CRV. The kitties, for some reason, decided that laying on top of the suitcases was a much more suitable napping place than anywhere else in the old house. They were quite disappointed when I moved the suitcases to put clothes in them.

The cats really enjoyed all the paper I took out of the old boxes that were in our garage. I think that was their favorite part about the whole thing. Even at the new house, anytime I threw paper on the floor, they were all over it. Every pile I made got thrown everywhere and pieces ended up two rooms over from where they started. But it kept the kitties entertained so it's all good.


I had to throw this picture in here because it's the first picture I've ever gotten of her where she doesn't look scary or evil or something. Usually she won't look at the camera or she moves around so much that all the pictures are blurry. But I finally got a good shot of her, after almost a year of trying.


Last Saturday, when Justin was on alert, it was Military Night at the Great Falls Voyagers baseball park. We got free tickets so a bunch of us went to the game. We had a bbq at Katie and Ben's house first and then headed to the game. It was weird going without Justin, but that is the life of a missileer. Fiona's husband was on alert too so at least I wasn't the only lone wife. This is the first picture I've gotten of us wives together. From the left: Katie, Katherine, Fiona, myself, Lindsay and baby Caleb.
Justin had Monday off, but that was the day we moved so he didn't really have the day off. This move onto base was the worst move we've had. Usually everything is fine. This time, the movers were AWFUL. It was two teenage boys and the driver guy. The boys just threw our stuff into boxes, no padding, no concern for putting heavier things on the bottom. They didn't put our mattresses in boxes so they all got dirty. The one guy's dirty hands touched all my dishes so I had to run everything through the dishwasher. It was not a fun day. But, thankfully, we don't have to move again for four years!

Justin went on alert again on Tuesday so I spent the day unpacking. I unpacked on Wednesday as well. Yesterday Justin was off again so we ran some errands and picked up some stuff for the new place. We finished unpacking, so now the house is mostly put together. All that's left is to hang stuff on the walls. Justin is on alert again today. He hasn't really had a day off in over a week, but after next Tuesday he has five or six days off, so hopefully he can relax and enjoy the new place.

Okay here come the pictures of our undecorated house.

Here is the kitchen dining area.

The family room is split into two areas. This is Justin's computer corner. He wanted to be down here so he could be on his computer and not feel like he was trapped in a cave or something.

The rest of the family room is the lounging, tv watching area. The video game stuff is still piled in the corner for Justin to deal with when he gets a chance. I don't do video games, so it's his job to figure out where he wants to put stuff.


This is my fabulous, giant laundry room! This might be my favorite part of the new house.

The kitchen is pretty nice too. We finally have counter space to have appliances out, with room to spare for cooking.

The formal living room/dining room has been turned into a library. The cat bed in the corner is where a chair is going. We bought one yesterday and it should be here in 2-4 weeks. Then the room will be a little less empty.

Here is the view from the top of the stairs. We already have 3 book shelves full and more books on the way from Amazon. We will probably need another book shelf before the end of the summer. Justin and I are both really happy that we had the space to make a library area.


And here's the master bedroom. Our furniture we bought a few months ago actually fits in this room. And there's enough closet space for both of us. AND there's an attached master bath. It's really great.



Once we get stuff hung on the walls, the house will feel more like ours and more like home. Even so, this place is the nicest place we've lived as a couple.

Tomorrow night, Great Falls is having fireworks for the 4th.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We Have Keys

Today we got the keys to our new house on base! There is only one word to describe this house: amazing. I can't believe we're going to be living in a house this big and new. I'll post some pictures of it once we get our stuff moved in. We took two car loads of boxes over today and I'll continue to move stuff in over the weekend while Justin is on alert. The movers are coming on Monday to pick up the rest of our stuff and furniture. So by next week, we should be all settled in. We met the neighbors who live in the house attached to ours. Their last name is Jones as well. And there's another Jones who lives down the street. Go figure.

Packing Up Again

So this past week has been pretty busy. Justin had his trainer rides every evening this week. All he has left is his evaluation and one more certification and he should be on-line and ready to go. His first alert is scheduled for next Saturday. He's really looking forward to getting out into the field and actually doing something as opposed to training. I met his crew partner on Thursday at the 10th MS change of command ceremony. The guy seems cool and is supposedly good at his job so that's a relief.

We found out we are getting the keys to our on-base house on Thursday! I spent the whole week packing up boxes and sorting through a lot of our stuff. The rental house is hard to walk through now thanks to the stacks of card board boxes lining the halls. You never truly realize just how much stuff you have until it's time to pack up and move. We decided to make a little money and move some stuff ourselves. Since I don't have anything else to do, I figured I could make trips back and forth and move a lot of boxes myself. I'm never comfortable with random people going through and packing up my stuff. But after packing some stuff myself, I realize that having the Air Force pay people to move us is a much better option. I'm starting to get really anxious waiting for moving day. I want to move now! But it's only a few days away. Then I'll be able to walk to the commissary if I have a craving for something we don't have. Plus, the new fitness center is super close. I keep telling myself that once we move on base, I'll go to the gym every day. I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not. My friend Lindsay is running a half marathon in August. I'd love to run it with her but I don't know if one month is enough time to get in shape for it. I think I might try though. It's only 13 miles. About 9.5 miles longer than I've run in a really long time.

Last night there was a really huge rainbow visible over the houses across the street. It was a complete arch but I could not back up far enough to get a picture of the whole thing. There was a second one on the outside of this one but it was really faint and I don't think the pictures captured it.One of my babies always sleeps in really weird places. Here she is curled up in the random shoe pile that accumulates by the front door. She always likes to sleep on hard surfaces and on the edge of things. She was sleeping on the end table the other day and when she rolled over, she fell right off the side of it. It's not the first time something like this has happened. It was quite funny to watch. The cats have been restless the last week or so. I think they can sense that we are moving again, especially with all the boxes everywhere now. They will love the new house. Lots of space and stairs to run up and down. I bet they can't wait.

Welcome to Our Life

Greetings from Great Falls, Montana.

I created this blog as a way for family and friends to stay up to date on what is happening in our lives. Since we don't get to see you all or talk to you all regularly, you can check this blog to see what is new up here in Big Sky country.

Yesterday Justin went on his training alert. He left early in the morning and came home today around 3pm. Pretty soon this will be his regular routine, leaving for approximately 36 hours to man the launch facilities for the ICBMs located here in Montana.

The weather here has greatly improved since we arrived. It's been mostly sunny and warm. A few times the temperature has dipped into the 30s. We even had snow last week. Nothing substantial, but still. Snow in June is not something either of us is accustomed to.

For the 5th time in a year, we are packing up and moving. We were offered a house on base and plan to move in the last week in June. The house is almost 3000 square feet, has 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths and is only a year old. We are really excited to get into the new house and plant some roots. After this move, we'll be stationary for the next four years. Two other couples that we are friends with will be living on the same street, John and Lindsay Madsen and Nick and Fiona Edwards. We can't wait to be living on base again and in such close proximity to friends.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for updates on our crazy Air Force life.