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