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