Livin in a Fly Over State

It takes a special person to be an avid country music fan, so for those of you, like my sister, who have not crossed over and cant stand country music let me tell you about a man named Jason Aldean. Last summer I got to experience the crazy town of Nashville, TN for CMA Festival, which basically is heaven on earth for a country music fan. One day, while we were waiting to get into the place where artists were signing autographs, Jason Aldean drove into the parking garage. He wasn't in a limo, but rather driving his own black truck, we will say it was a dodge, and a lady yelled out hi Jason! That's Jason Aldean!! He waved and smiled at us, because country music artists, in my personal opinion, are down to earth, care about their fans, oh and they are all over Nashville. This short story is the only real connection I have to the country artist who wrote the hit song "Fly Over States", which is where the title for this blog originated from and here are the lyrics I am referring to:

 A couple of guys in first class on a flight
From New York to Los Angeles
Kinda making small talk killin' time
Flirting with the flight attendants
Thirty thousand feet above, could be Oklahoma

Just a bunch of square cornfields and wheat farms
Man, it all looks the same
Miles and miles of back roads and highways
Connecting little towns with funny names
Who'd want to live down there, in the middle of nowhere

On the plains of Oklahoma
With a windshield sunset in your eyes
Like a watercolored painted sky
You'll think heavens doors have opened
You'll understand why God made
Those fly over states

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. We moved to Oklahoma, the flattest land, where you are in the middle of no where while on a highway, which isn't good if you have a smaller bladder. All in all it is a "fly over state" not one you chose to stop in, but they do have some gorgeous sunsets and lots of planes.

Sunset at Vance AFB in Enid, OK. That is a T-6 coming in for a landing, which is the plane Sam flew during his pilot training at Vance.

Making the transition to Enid, OK was pretty easy for the most part. Enid is only a four hour drive from Springfield, so I didn't feel too far from home. However, Sam had spent nine months prior to my move in Enid. Therefore, he already had a life set up, as a bachelor, which made it hard to transition into being a married couple. Sam and his friends spent most of their free time playing a video game called Call of Duty; Modern War Fare 3, which they referred to as COD for short. Sam's friends at Vance were either married, engaged, or in a relationship, which is great except for the fact that all their wives, girl friends, and fiancees lived far away!

Though they played COD Sam did try to get cable the first night we moved in so I could watch the Bachelor. And I got to continue to have Bachelor parties like we did in Springfield, but with Sam's friends and then eventually Lauren, Sam's friends wife joined too!

Our new bedding we purchased with BBB gift cards!

Fiesta!

Making it a home

Watching three hours of people playing video games is not very entertaining, so I had to find other ways to occupy my time. I filled my time by unpacking boxes and hanging pictures for the first week. When it is all said and done we will have lived in this house for a total of 3 months. I figured I had two choices, we could unpack just the essentials and have lots of rooms full of boxes and less work in September when its time to pack for England, or I could heed the advice of my best friend Stephanie, who told me before I left to do whatever I can to make every house we live in a home, no matter how long we are there. I chose the second option, and I think that is the best advice anyone has given to me and I would give that advice to any military couple. After I finished unpacking the house I spent a week writing thank you cards for all our wonderful wedding presents that I enjoyed unpacking. Once I completed that task Sam and I basically just watched "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflex, worked out at the gym, and I read the last two books in the Hunger Games series. That pretty much describes our entire month of February and I wouldn't change it for the world, it was almost like a second honeymoon, just relaxing together. We finished the month of February by heading to Springfield to see family and friends before moving to Altus, OK and to celebrate my birthday. 

I love exploring new recipes and making meals.

Why not practice cooking in all my free time? And use the pretty Fiesta!

I had to use all my new stuff so we hosted a Super Bowl party with four of Sam's guy friends.

Things I did to occupy myself when the boys played video games. 

We had a great visit in Springfield. I was spoiled by family for my birthday! Getting married is awesome because you get a birthday celebration from both sides of the family! I even got to have a Thin Mint concrete while we were there. My actual birthday was on Monday, February 27th and we headed to Oklahoma City to celebrate. We had been in Oklahoma City over Presidents day weekend, meeting up with Anna and Stephanie (my roommates from college) and their boyfriends, it was a great weekend and we loved OKC, but the main reason I chose to go there for my bday was for Cheddar's. We explored Tinker AFB while we were there and also hit up Target. While we were walking into Cheddar's we saw a KC-135 land, which this is the plane that is set as the background to my blog, but its also the plane Sam will be flying, so that was pretty neat! Sam's friend Kedem and his wife Lauren came over that night to watch the bachelor, which was the perfect way to end my birthday and kick of the beginning of our "tribe", which is what we refer to the four of us as in our experiences at Altus Air Force Base.

Pancake that Sam made for me and brought to me in bed for my birthday.

Before heading to OKC

One of my bday presents from Sam

Sam and I thought we would wait a while before having children, but at the end of February we gained a son, Sam's friend from pilot training came to stay with us for a week before he had to head off for training. It was great to have someone else to eat the recipes I was experimenting with and I figured that's what being in the military is all about, helping friends out here and there and then when you need help or when Sam is gone and I need help, there are people I can call on. Sam enjoyed having someone there that he could play his COD with whenever he wanted. 

Sam and his friend John, who stayed with us, wearing their Zuba's pants

John in a Hurricane simulator. This was in the center of Enid's mall, we thought it would like blow him away but the winds didn't get that high. Disappointment.

One thing is for sure, theres never a dull moment with Sam and his friends. I have truly enjoyed meeting all of them, and their significant others, and spending time with them. Having fun people to spend time with made living in Enid tolerable and they also moved to Altus at the beginning of March when Sam and I moved again. The two biggest lessons I learned in the month we spent in Enid were that cake balls are more challenging than one might think and if you heat pans up in the oven too long they will smoke....alot. Sam learned that you cannot put wax paper into the oven, it smells like burnt crayons and sets off smoke detectors. Thanks for reading!

Love,

Amanda