Catching up with the Holbrook's

I just realized I haven’t updated my blog since Easter! You know how it goes; being newlyweds can get awfully busy! There really hasn’t been a whole lot going on here in Altus, Oklahoma during the month of April. We moved, for a third time, to the bottom floor of the building we were in so they can remodel. It is exactly like our last room, but backwards, which was strange to get use to at first. I put more wedding pictures and pictures of our niece on the fridge and then I got a frame for our favorite wedding picture, that we will take wherever we go, to make the place we are staying a home. Sam has moved from having two hour simulations (SIMS) to four hour SIMS. He won’t fly an actual KC-135 until July, but the SIMS are full motion so they feel like an airplane.  Most weekends he has been having SIMS, or something, which kind of cuts into our exploration of Altus on the weekends. While Sam was in a SIM I learned how to crochet. It is pretty fun, but I am very slow at it! I was going to make scarfs for mother’s day presents, but I am not even halfway done with the first one! However, I have found some other creative projects to work on that keep me busy when Sam is away, and I will be posting these crafts in later blog, after the mothers receive their presents, I don’t want to ruin their surprise!

Homemade Pizza night at the Alon's! Even the dough was homemade!

Delicious homemade pizza, better than any pizza I've ever had, the crust was like a Chicago style pizza when it was done!

My crocheting

Temperature in Altus one day this week! EEEK! Summer is going to be hot, but at least we will have a pool!

Sam and his flying partner were working in Simulator last weekend and the computers kept freezing up so they continually pressed buttons until something happened. The instructors began to smell burning, like and electrical fire. They had to evacuate the SIM building and it pushed everyone back about an hour while they called the fire department. They traced the smell back to Sam and his partners SIM, so basically they started an electrical fire and it caused them to have to go back in on Saturday morning to finish their pilot stuff. I use the word “stuff” because all this pilot lingo is way over my head. In fact when Sam and his pilot friends get together, unless you have experienced flying your own aircraft, you won’t get a word in edge wise and your mind can wonder off about twenty times and you will be as caught up in the convo as if you were listening the whole time. So to keep it simple and spare you readers of a bunch of words you have never heard of I will refer to it as pilot stuff. After Sam finished his pilot stuff last weekend we headed to the Quartz Mountain with some friends. Sam’s partner is big into rock climbing and his wife, Lauren, took us scrambling, which is basically rocking climbing where you don’t need any gear, like rock hiking. We went about as high as you can go without a rope; it was a lot of fun. I think everyone slipped at least once and had a few cuts/scrapes to show for it!

The view from the mountain

Sam and his friend John taking in the view

John telling an old Cherokee story, and our trusty scrambling guide, Lauren. She had a hurt foot and still climbed like a rock star!

More of the view

Some of the rocks where we stopped, as you can see it was getting pretty slick on the rocks, not a lot of friction, which is why we didn't proceed!

Since we both slipped Sam invested in some new tennis shoes for us both! These are mine, they are pumas and have some actual tread for climbing/hiking/train running.

This weekend, Sam had to take an instrument refresher course (more pilot “stuff”) and an open book test on Saturday morning. After he finished we headed to get lunch with some friends and go to Mangum, OK for a “Rattle Snake Roundup” Festival. We spent most of the twenty-five minute drive to Mangum, population 3,000, dreaming about what a small town rattle snake festival would be like. We had some pretty great images of people battling snakes and showing off the biggest one, which there was a prize for the biggest rattle sneak. The town of Mangum lived up to our expectations and didn’t disappoint us, but the Rattle Snake Roundup was more like a sell your crap festival. There were lots of little tents, with people selling pointless stuff. For example, one tent was full of old VHS tapes, like Fantasia, and old Nintendo games. There were also fair type rides, like a Farris wheel, and two tents that were for the rattle snakes, which cost a dollar to get inside. The first rattle snake tent had two rattle snake hunters giving you facts while they stood in a fenced in area with the snakes. The second tent was where they “milked” the snakes, taking out their venom, and butchered them. We didn’t care to watch snakes heads get chopped off so we just watched them milk to snakes. There was also a building connected to the tent where you could try rattle snake meat, which of course my husband was all over.

Rattle Snakes

Rattle Snake

Some of the pointless crap people were selling

Preparing to "milk" the snake

Preparing to milk the snake

Taking its venom before they are butchered

Sam trying friend rattle snake

Fried rattle snake, I tried a small piece. It really doesn't have a flavor, Sam describes it as a tire covered in old batter.

Rattle snake hunter

Thank you for reading! I hope to write again real soon about all the arts and crafts I have been doing! I plan to attempt some more DIY projects this week.

Amanda

New Traditions = New Memories

Our Holy week kicked off last weekend with Palm Sunday, but before we get to that I will tell you about our weekend leading up to Palm Sunday. Friday night was the last "Stations of the Cross" they were having at the Chapel on base. We had made plans to go after Sam returned from his SIM, but he came home and told me that we weren't going to be able to go home for Easter. This news caught me at the wrong moment, at an already emotional time, so I was not in a hurry to rush to the Chapel. We ended up going through the stations of the Cross at home. Sam did the readings, while I prepared a yummy shrimp pasta dinner. For those of you who aren't familiar with the stations of the Cross it is basically fourteen different stations that takes you through all the events leading up to Jesus dieing on the Cross. It begins with Jesus being condemned to die and goes through all the parts of him carrying his Cross then the last station ends with Jesus being laid in the Tomb. The Catholic church offers the Stations of the Cross every Friday night during lent, which is the 40 days leading up to Easter. After we finished the stations and did the prayers together we ate dinner and headed over to Kedem and Lauren's house. Sam and Kedem watched you tube videos and studied for their SIM while Lauren and I researched yummy cupcake recipes.

I threw a small pity party when I found out we didn't get to go home for Easter. Complete with Nutella and Graham Crackers.

Sam had a SIM from 9 to11am on Saturday. Lauren and I went to the gym and by the time we were done and showered the boys were finished. We had a delicious shredded chicken sandwich lunch at The Alon's house. After lunch Lauren and I got started on making cheesecake cupcakes. We were making these cupcakes for the boys friend, Jeff, who went through pilot training with them in Enid and had finished up his C-17 training here in Altus and is heading on to March AFB in California to join his dad's reserve unit. After we made cupcakes we headed out to Quartz mountain to do some hiking with Kedem, Lauren, and their lab dog Tex. There were a lot of cacti where hiked, so this past week, Sam bought a pocket knife to be able to cut down the cacti so Tex won't get needles in his paws, I think Sam wants a big dog of his own! After hiking we came back to decorate the cupcakes, Lauren and I iced them while the boys made little C-17's out of blue sprinkles, for AF blue. After finishing up the cupcakes we headed to Charlies, which is the big hangout on base, to meet up with Sam's friends from Enid and some other new faces, and to celebrate Jeff finishing up his training. At Charlies you pick your own meat and grill them on your own, on Friday and Saturday nights, it was very delicious. The cupcakes were a huge hit with all the boys, cheesecake is Jeff's favorite and he loved them. I had a great time hanging out with all of Sam's friends, once you get past the pilot talk like "with the FMS there had to be an FD and the HUD is useless" or when a plane lands and they all look up saying "oh they are taking a low lying approach", or whatever, they are all really funny, great guys, and a lot of fun. It feels like a scene from Top Gun, hanging out with all the pilots, but it is a blast.

Cheesecake cupcakes. They were delicious and the boys did a great job making a C-17.

 For Palm Sunday Sam and I went to mass at 9am and then headed to the kitchen for coffee and donuts afterwards. We waited about fifteen minutes then went back into the Chapel for the Protestant service at 10:30am. Two a days of Church. It worked out better in Springfield, because Sam's church has a 4:30 Sat night Mass, but here the Mass is at 6 on Saturday night, not very convenient. We headed to the classic Applebee's for lunch with Sam's friends John and Brian. Then Sam and Brian headed to play Frisbee golf and I took a nap. I talked to my mom on the phone for a bit and we were able to talk, through Face Time, with my sister and brother-in-law, which was very fun! After catching up with family, we finished our Palm Sunday by dying Easter eggs!

Our Eggs!

And Again.

Our Holy Week was pretty great! Sam had four SIMs and lots of classes, so he was gone a lot during the afternoons and evenings, because they were late SIMS. We were going to go to the Maundy Thursday Mass, but Sam had a SIM. My home church always does a Maundy Thursday Lord's Supper service, but I didn't find any Churches, other than the Mass, that celebrated Maundy Thursday. However, they did have a Protestant Tenebrae service on Friday night and Sam was able to come with me between his two SIMS. We had a delicious grilled tilapia dinner before heading to the service. This service was neat, they went through "The Shadows" which were the Shadow of Betrayal, Shadow of Denial, Shadow of Anguish, Shadow of Rejection, Shadow of Crucifixion, Shadow of Death, and the Shadow of the Tomb. After each person did the scripture reading they extinguished a candle, since Tenebrae is Latin for darkness, it leaves the the sanctuary dark and gives you time to reflect on Christ's suffering. We also took communion. I have never been to a Good Friday service and I loved it, I feel that every Christian should spend some time at the foot of the Cross, reflecting on the events and Christ's suffering that happened and took place on Good Friday. We know that Sunday is coming, but its still good to try and put yourself in the shoes of the disciples and experience the emotions they were having as they watched Jesus suffer. After service we headed to The Alon's, Sam and Kedem left for a second night SIM from 9 to 11 while Lauren and I watched Enchanted and drank some wine.

I bought new shoes on Friday! Super Cute! Not too comfortable. I got a nice military discount on the shoes and I bought Sam some No-Explode so he wouldn't be angry at my just buying shoes for myself!

My Easter dress! From JcPenny, thanks for the gift card Rachel and Josh! Happy Birthday to me!

My project on Saturday

Homemade peanut butter, chocolate covered eggs. They are pretty delicious.

Yesterday, Sam and I made breakfast. Then I spent most of the day making chocolate peanut butter Easter eggs. Saturday night we were invited to Kedem and Lauren's house for Passover dinner. Passover technically started on Friday night, but because of the SIMS they were celebrating on Saturday night. It was really neat to experience another culture and have such a great meal! We also learned a lot about the Jewish Passover and celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. It was fun to experience eating unleavened bread, tasting bitter herbs, drinking wine while leaning to the left, participating in readings and trying lamb. Thanks again, Kedem and Lauren, for inviting us to join in your Passover celebration, we had a great time! After the dinner we played a new game called Pictureka, in which Kedem told us Lauren was usually a sneaky cheat, however, Sam won, so I am pretty sure he is the sneaky cheat! We called it an early night, since we were heading to the sunrise Easter service. Kedem, Lauren and Tex walked us home and on the way we saw a cat...Tex took off running, pulling Kedem behind him and the cat ended up a tree. It was awesome, because when I chase cats they don't run up trees, and yes Altus is just so exciting that a cat running up a tree is a highlight! We ended the evening by a face time chat with my best friend Stephanie and her boyfriend Nathan, technology really helps you stay connected and not feel so far away. We finally made it to bed around 11 and our alarms were set for 5:15.

Sam getting into the passover spirit by wearing a Yamaka

A Seder plate and Matzah (unleavened) bread

Delicious meal! Amazing job Lauren!! Lamb chops, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and spinach with Matzah

Yummy Dessert, lemon with strawberries

Sam and I woke up this Easter morning, to head to an Easter sunrise service in the back of a C-17. We met at the Chapel around 6:00am and a bus took us to the flight line, where the driver got out and did a FOD check, where he made sure there were no rocks in the tires that could be dangerous to the pilots and planes on the flight line. They had done lots or research and faced the C-17 exactly where the sun was rising. I have never been to a sunrise service, and it was a great experience to have church in the back of an airplane. They had chairs and a sound system set up so we could sing and sit. I am so glad we got up and were a part of this special service. Unfortunately, it was cloudy here today, so we didn't get to see the beautiful Oklahoma sunrise, but it was still special because as it says in Matthew 28:1 "After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb." It was neat to be sitting in plane, at dawn, remembering that when they went to the Tomb they saw and angel who said, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay"- Matthew 28: 5-6.

In a C-17 waiting for service to start.

Warming up the guitars in the C-17, as you can see it is still dark at 6:30am.

He has Risen Indeed

The cloudy sunrise.

Sunrise in the C-17.

Another picture inside the C-17.

It was chilly, unlike the 85 degrees last Sunday.

Waiting for the bus to come pick us up.

We really need to ask people to take our picture for us. But I'm embarrassed because we don't have a good working digital camera, just my Iphone.

In front of the C-17.

Another one. Still blurry. Its hard to take a self portrait with an Iphone.

After the service ended we had breakfast at the Chapel, with homemade biscuits. Then we came back our room for a few minutes before heading to the 9am Mass at the Chapel. Luckily, the Easter bunny had visited, so we looked through our Easter baskets, opened cards, and headed to Mass. After the Mass was over we skipped the coffee and donuts and headed back to our room. I began preparing our Easter meal at 10:50am and it was all ready to eat by 1:00pm! Most of it was even cleaned up. I made a ham, in the crock pot since we have no oven, with a brown sugar glaze. Then I made some garlic-cheese mashed potatoes, which didn't turn out so great in my opinion, I will look for another mashed potato recipe to try next time. I also made green beans, with onions and turkey bacon, they were amazing, sticking with that recipe! Finally, I made deviled eggs, which I was also impressed with and we had the peanut butter eggs I made yesterday for dessert.

Our Easter baskets!

Finally worked up the  nerve to get a family picture, I asked a guy after mass that we also saw at the sun rise service, to take it. He looked like Kevin Routh so I assumed he was nice.

Yummy Eggs!

Sam slicing up the ham! It was hard to gauge cooking times and temperatures in the crock pot.

My first ever Easter meal completely made by me. Sam did help with some chopping and peeling.

Ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, and deviled eggs. YUM!

I never moved away for college and I have never been away from home for this long, especially on a holiday, which is why I was disappointed when I found out I wasn't going to be home this Easter. However, I am a military wife now, married to a great man, on January 14th, 2012 we were joined in holy matrimony, becoming one, a family of our own. So after my day of being sad about not going home for Easter, I turned it around as an opportunity to experience new traditions, with my new family, in our new home. Keeping that motto of making every place we live a home. I was very happy today, didn't feel homesick, and I loved having our first Easter as a married couple. After lunch we took a two hour nap, then we talked with Sam's family, through face time, and got to watch our almost two year old niece, Hazel, have an Easter egg hunt! It was precious! Technology came through again, connecting us with people we love that are far away. I hope that everyone reading this blog had a great Easter, or Passover, or whatever holiday you may have celebrated this weekend, and got to share a meal or two with loved ones, making wonderful memories. For me Easter 2012, will be a special memory I will carry with my forever, and as we get older, and our family (hopefully, someday) grows, I know the holidays and memories will continue to get sweeter. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

XOXO,
Amanda

Awesome Altus

Exactly 31 days after we moved to our house in Enid, OK it was time for Sam and I to move again. On March 2nd Sam and I moved to Altus, Oklahoma, which is about three and a half hours southwest of Enid. I knew becoming a military spouse I would have to get use to moving around and become an expert at moving, but I didn't know I would learn this quickly. Just to give you a little timeline, as long as everything stays on track, Sam will finish his KC-135 training and we will leave Altus on July 30th. We will then head back to Enid, OK and about the second week in August Sam will fly out to Washington state to go through SERE which is survival training. He will be taking classes to learn what to do if his plane crashes, he will learn how to withstand being captured by the enemy, and he will live in the wilderness and practice the survival skills. While he does this for the month of August I will be in Enid. Then Sam will come back in September and we will have about two weeks to pack and get our stuff together for, yes you guessed it, another move. In mid September we will be moving overseas to the UK. But for now we are beginning to settle into our little "apartment" in Altus, OK.

Easter decorations. Making every house a home!

Sam in front of an older model KC-135

Sam and I with the KC-135, one month of training done and Sam has yet to learn how to turn on the plane!

When we drove from Enid to Altus I felt like we were driving further and further into the middle of nowhere. My feelings were confirmed by the coyote that ran across the highway and in front of my car along the way. We arrived on  base around 9pm and I was already feeling far from home. We checked into the Red River Inn on base and headed to our room. As soon as we walked into our room I couldn't help but start crying. It was literally a hotel room, complete with just a microwave, mini fridge, bed and bathroom. My thought was they expect us to spend 5 months in this room?? I have heard that when your husband, boyfriend, son or whoever deploys you are never suppose to cry in front of them. They say it is hard enough for them to leave their families behind and seeing you upset makes it even harder. I adopted this principal with Sam and I's relationship, even while we were dating, however, I was not always successful at waiting until he left to shed a tear or two and sadly when I saw the room I failed again at not crying in front of him. Sam immediately went back to the front desk but learned there weren't any other rooms available.

Our first room. That was our kitchen.

The only TV, but at least there was a desk.

When life hands you lemons...make lemonade. I impressed my husband with this meal, made entirely by the microwave, delicious tacos, rice, green beans, and no bake cookies.

Another microwave meal. Chicken, rice and green beans.

The first full day we spent in Altus was a Sunday. We explored the town with Sam's friend, Kedem and his wife, Lauren. We discovered most places were closed on Sunday, but we found a local Hillbilly place to eat. Sam started his training on Monday, where he became partners with Kedem, which means that they are in simulators at the same time, classes at the same time and flying together. It works out great because when the boys are working the girls get to play! Lauren and I started hitting the gym together every morning, it is great having a workout partner again. I managed to keep myself busy enough during the day to stay out of our hotel room. It was tough at night, when Sam would need to study and I had no where to go, so sometimes I would hide out in the bathroom, which is where the blogging began. By the time our second weekend in Altus rolled around I was ready to get out of there. I wanted to go back  to our home in Enid, but it was too far, so what was the next best thing to make me feel better? Target of course! I found a Target in Wichita Falls, TX which is about an hour and a half away. Though it was a rainy day Sam and I were getting ready to head to Target, but before we left Sam decided to check one more time and see if a room was available. Luckily, we got a kitchenette room, so instead of driving to Target in the rain we moved out of our hotel room and settled into our little kitchenette apartment.

Our new room! Living room and Kitchen.

Bedroom.

We have a REAL closet now! And dressers.

This place felt like a mansion! There was an actual sofa to sit on instead of just a bed. And there was a living room! No more hiding out in the bathroom for me. The following weekend we went back to Enid to get a few necessities from our house. Though we have a stove and full size refrigerator we still don't have an oven. We packed another tub full of mostly kitchen supplies. We got a crock pot, toaster oven, George Foreman, and other simple kitchen supplies. I was so excited to be able to cook real meals. I take my stay at home wife job very seriously, I spend anywhere from 4 to 6 hours trying to find new recipes. Once I find yummy recipes I look for a great side dish to pair it with. After, creating the perfect meals I copy all the recipes, breaking them down by day, into a notebook. Then I check my kitchen and create a grocery list. Then of course the final step is to go to the store, which usually happens the following day, and then I use the notebook and I'm prepared and ready to go every night. I guess its the teacher in me that plans it all to a T and makes lists,  but in my free time I experiment with making yummy treats, like cake balls, which can prove challenging with just a toaster oven.

First stove top meal! Beef Stew!

Homemade Key Lime Pie

Yummy fruit, pudding and neutella treat

I consider myself to be very blessed to not have to be scrambling to get a job while we are here. I thought I would be bored, but with Sam coming and going throughout the day and having many chores to keep me occupied, I haven't felt bored or stir crazy. I tell Sam I worked hard, twelve hour shifts at times, paying taxes so he could sit on the beach of FL for a year doing nothing, so I have earned five months of not working :). I start every day on the elliptical for 60 to 100 minutes, depending on the day, come home, shower, make lunch, do any laundry, or shopping or baking that is needed, make dinner, clean up dinner, sometimes go to the gym for a second workout (again depends on the day) then come home and take another shower and relax a bit before heading to bed. Many people ask what I do all day, and that is a pretty typical outline, I find ways to stay busy and I love it! I am learning a lot, and who knows maybe I will even take up couponing and become an extreme couponing stay at home wife. Hopefully, this is good practice and someday I will get to be a stay at home mom, but I still have a ways to go before that can happen, I mean for one thing it still takes me hours and hours just to plan a week of meals for two people I couldn't imagine planning for more!

Saturday morning breakfast, complete with turkey bacon.

Sam and I have discovered some beautiful hiking here in Texhoma. There is a park area called Quartz mountains. We have gone there the last two weekends, the first weekend we went by ourselves and last weekend we went with Kedem, Lauren, and their lab dog, Tex. Sam also tried playing Frisbee Golf last weekend, which he claimed was for stoners and hippies when I pointed out the course a few weekends prior, but then he started playing it himself. We attend the Catholic masses on base, which are nice, they even use a guitar for worship which I love but the priest is getting ready to PCS to the United States Air Force Academy. We have also visited a few protestant churches, but I haven't found one to settle at yet. Last Sunday we went to a Southern Baptist church, where it was pretty traditional, using the organ, men wearing suites, women in dresses. The preacher reminded me of one I grew up with, where he raised his voice a lot as he got really excited. Everyone was very welcoming, but you could immediately tell you were in a baptist church as the back was completely full but the front was empty, and a sweet old lady in a joking way made it known that we were sitting in her seat! We met a nice couple, that we even ran into at Walmart today, but there are few more churches I would like to visit, hopefully we will find one that is a little more contemporary. There is a sunrise Easter service out on the flight line that will take place inside a C-17, I think it would be neat to attend that service next weekend, but of course that requires getting up before sunrise.

Awesome View!

What are you doing Sam??

Lots of cacti.

Rough Climb!

Hiking to the tip top

Hi Sam!

The reservoir. Before we leave Oklahoma Sam wants to go noodling there.

A few things I have learned about living on an Air Force Base:

1. It is basically like living at an airport, but the noise is somewhat soothing.

2. No matter how many times I see it I am stopped in my tracks when I watch these huge plans taking off and landing.

3. They are all located in the middle of nowhere  (except for Tinker in OKC, they have a Target and Qdoba which makes it a legit town)

4. Everyone dressed in a flight suit is not necessarily Sam, or one of his friends, so I should keep my big waving to a minimum, unless I am 100% certain I know the pilot.

5. Retreat is played at 4:30 everyday and I love watching the people who get stuck, especially when they are in uniform and have to salute, I also feel very patriotic when I get caught and stop for the playing of our National Anthem.

The C-17 and KC-135 on display on base. You literally hear these planes at all hours of the day, every day of the week. The C-17 is the loudest.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a great Holy Week and take a few moments out of your day each week to reflect on what this week was like for Jesus many, many, many years ago. Sam and I plan to partake in a few activities to remember and celebrate this Holy Week as we anticipate resurrection Sunday! We hope you and your family have a very blessed Easter, or Passover celebration, and enjoy some time together, or visiting, with family and friends!

Love,
Sam & Amanda