World Traveling Military Family

What do your kids do when they are home from school?  Mine like to come up with all kinds of creative and often messy ideas ;)

I found this the other day in Bub's room:

We were invited to a Culture Day on base this past St. Patty's day and we went to go check it out.  It was like the International Day we attended but a bit smaller with it being limited to who could attend.  Here are some photos from the event:

If you didn't know me in person (or don't know me) then some might think that I am a Teller of Tall Tales, especially when it comes to the ever flowing and abundant stories of Boo.  I have NO idea why he seems to be a magnet for freak incidents but I do assure you that they are indeed true my friends!  I am not in fact a Teller of Tall Tales, just the bearer of of some weird (and often wildly unbelievable) stories :)  I mean sure our life in general is often pretty crazy, like one roller coaster drop after another, but I tell you he indeed is often the highlight of those stories.

About 2 weeks ago Boo injured his hip. We're still not sure if the injury came from running track (his first time this year) or playing basketball with Mr. B, there is an ongoing debate about this ;p  Of course as usual he said he was fine and did not want to go to the Dr.  After a few days it was bothering him even while he slept so I decided to take him to get it checked out, but only after his track coach told him he should get it looked it...despite having to visit he Dr so much he's really not all that willing to go.  This is where we met our new to us PCM...aka Foreign Albert Einstein, for those of you who know the story I'm sure your chuckling at that experience.  Basically he was told to take it easy and not do anything with his hip.  I mean really is that possible for any 15 year old?  Especially one with a freakishly high pain tolerance?!  

Needless to say he ran his track meet that following Monday (we seen Dr on Friday) and while it wasn't getting worse it was still bothering him on and off some.  So this week on Monday (3 days ago) he had another track meet and all was going well.  He completed two of his events and was sitting with friends waiting on his last event.  His hip was holding out well enough for him to compete but still wasn't 100% and then IT happened....

What is IT you may ask?  It was the freakish event that occurred next.  As he was sitting waiting for the event talking with friends a boy was behind him picking up a 12 lb heavy metal shot put ball, and yet you guessed it...he just 'happened' to drop the darn thing right on Boo's hurt hip!  I mean are you kidding me?!  Of all the ways he could've gotten hurt that day I wouldn't have dreamed that it would've been by a shot put!  Needless to say he was in extreme pain and was unable to run his last event.  

People ask why we let Boo do sports because he is always in one story or another but I know for a fact that the only thing Boo needs to do to be a danger to himself each day is to wake up and get out of bed.  I've considered requiring him to wear a Michelin man or Ghostbusters Marshmallow man outfit 100% of the time but I have a feeling that wouldn't pass the school dress code ;)  And truthfully his incidents are really freak accidents....it's pretty hard to prevent that!  He he wasn't doing sports he'd get injured walking down the hall....trust me!  Needless to say we're leaning towards academic scholarships because he a live accident waiting to happen!

Thankfully this week they only had 1 practice and he did not do anything and then they are off until April so he's in a rest/recovery period...well he's supposed to be....except yesterday at school in 7th period they were playing basketball.  And no he did not hurt his hip but he did hurt his chest/arm!  I mean I give up!  When I picked him up he had a golf ball sized lump under his collar bone and was having pain when raising his arm.  After taking Motrin and by the time we got home an hour later we the swelling had gone down so we decided to wait and see how it was today.  Of course I put in a phone referral to see if we needed to take him to the Dr but never got a call back...ugh.  Thankfully we decided to see what the morning would bring and got out of an ER visit.  This morning he's doing better...it just hurts when he pushes the area...so I told him NOT to touch it...you would think that would be common sense.....

Then to really shake up the week we got some unexpected news that rocked our world late Wed afternoon, we're still processing it and in 'shock and awe' mode.  And as if that wasn't enough Bea had to come home from school yesterday because she was running a fever, which is all fine and dandy...we're just rolling with the punches around here ;)  You know what they say "Jesus, bring the rain!"  I was hoping things would settle down but next week's already projected to be a wild ride and we're just holding on tight and praying that He will guide us through the storm!

I Am Second.  Real Stories. Changing Lives.  By Doug Bender & Save Sterrett.

Do you ever wonder how Christians found their faith, especially those who found God later in life?  Have you read powerful stories of sinners at their worst saved by the grace of God?  This book is just that…stories of people lost and seeking to fill a void, one that is ultimately filled by finding Jesus.  And not only that there are stories form some high profile people like Brian Welch from Korn, and NFL athlete Sam Bradford to name few.  Spending a few minutes reading each story allows you to connect with each person and learn how they discovered God and are living a life in second place with God being first.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.  I always find it encouraging to read stories of how others found their faith and about real people overcoming real problems.  Another great aspect about this book is that it is 'interactive' with each story is also a video that can be seen on the website, you can go to the website to view it or just scan the barcode with your phone!  Plus at the end of each story is additional people with video links that you can view.  I was surprised to find that two of my favorite WAY-FM personalities were also in the book Wally & Brant Hanson (formerly of WAY-FM).  I think the videos are great because they can be shared with others and will help to reach even those who are not readers.  I am thankful that all of these people had the courage to share their stories and impact others lives!

Booksneeze has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review, all opinions are my own.  

And of course I'm talking about my teeth, and they've literally been shaped by the Orthodontist!

Taking a pic of myself is hard....so I asked  Bea to help....

They've come a long way baby and I'm in the final stretch, I'm scheduled to get them off April 18th which will be 2 years and 3 months total wear time.

What amazes me the most is that they don't even look like 'my' teeth anymore..its like some other person's straight teeth are now in my mouth and my ginormous overbite is no more!  

I'll post final pics when they are off but for now here are a few before/after of the shaping process:

Last Wednesday evening was amazing, we're finally now just settling back into the 'real world' after news that Mr. B is one of the newest Senior Master Sergeant Selectee!  (SMSgt)  Out of the 12,351 eligible people Mr. B was one of the lucky 1,702 to get selected and receive a line number.  He's now a member of the top 3% of the Air Force.  Sure we'll have to wait a year before he sews on but it will be a year well worth waiting for :)

While any promotion within the military is great and often hard worked for this one has been the 'best' one for us to find out about...for several reasons.  First being that he 'beat' the AF statistics in many ways! As always when testing and making promotion early time is not on our side, meaning that the longer you've been in the more points you get and the more likely you are to make the next rank.  We always get the lowest points because he's generally one of the ones testing who has been in service the shortest.  The average time in service for someone to make SMSgt is 20 years, Mr. B will be at 16 years in April!  

Next is the fact that SMSgt is one of the hardest ranks to make first time, I think because it's a combination of test scores and board scores (I know military jumbo), since this is first rank where board scores are given, but since I'm not an expert on the matter we'll have to leave it at my guesstimate why it is so hard.  This was Mr. B's FIRST and LAST (due to selection) time testing for SMSgt!

Studying for the PDG test really pays off.  Each year he has to study he really dedicates himself to the process and as a result his test score goes up every time.  This year he scored better than 98.2% of the other testers!  I just have to brag and say how proud I am of him and his commitment :)  He's board score was also excellent for a first timer...hence the selection and line number :)

And truthfully he couldn't have been so successful without the support of all of our amazing family, friends, and leadership.  We've met some amazing friends along the way who have served not only as friends but mentors and we are so blessed for those people in our lives.  I'm also thankful for my friends who've been my support system throughout the process (which starts when you enter the military and ends when you retire or make Chief ;p), we succeed only because you walk beside us :)  And while I was really not thrilled to be on our 2nd tour here, it hasn't been horrible (yes, trying/frustrating at times but I'm surviving) and I'm starting to see the bigger picture...something that He seen all along... and I can say this experience has been about walking by 'faith and not by sight' (2 Cor. 5:7).  

Next stop will be Chief, the final rank to achieve on the enlisted side, we'll see if he can make it by 20 years ;)  And now it's just 'hurry up and wait' to see where we'll be moving to and when....

I am LOVING cooking with my crockpot!  Ever since I stumbled upon the blog A Year of Slow Cooking over a year ago it has changed our lives!  

Sure I knew you could cook a roast, ribs or a whole chicken in the crockpot before that site but now our variety has greatly increased!  I love using it so much that we normally use it for meals 1-2 times a week.

And of course when I stumbled upon Crockpot freezer meals on Pinterest I could hardly believe my luck, and even EASIER way to use the crockpot?!?!  I couldn't wait to try it out!

So after a trip to the commissary I kept out the items to freeze for 2 Crockpot Freezer meals...and I was even more surprised when I found that it only took 5 mins to throw them together to freeze...that's my kinda cooking!

I made BBQ Chicken & Teriyaki Chicken, of course adapted for our peculiar likes/dislikes :)

I started with 2 gallon sized Ziploc bags and wrote the name of each meal on the bag with a Sharpie.  For the BBQ chicken I threw in 4 chicken breasts (already frozen so no prep needed, yipee!), a largely cut onion (so I can dig out all the pieces before we eat it) and 1 large bottle of BBQ sauce.  Sealed it and threw in freezer...too easy I tell ya!  For the Teriyaki Chicken I put in 3 chicken breasts (also already frozen), 1 can of pineapple chunks (undrained), large cuts of red onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves (I used the already chopped ones in a jar), and 1 cup of teriyaki sauce.

Now all I need to do is throw them in the crockpot when needed and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 3-4 hours, I'm loving it!  

Since I go shopping for groceries/meals every 2 weeks I think I'm going to start doing this after every trip that way I'll have 4-5 meals in the freezer ready to go until the next shopping trip!

Saturday we had Bea's Basketball team party at the bowling alley.  It was fun and Mr. B (who was the coach with Boo helping some) ended up having the #1 Championship team.  The Championship games were intense and ended up being nail biters but we won :)  

One of the neat things about being here is that the base has an International School were military members from other countries come to school for a year.  This basketball season we had a boy and his family from Turkey on our team.  After the game the dad really wanted us to come to an International day with him at a nearby hanger so we decided to give it a try.  

It turned out to be amazing.  There were booths from MANY countries with free food to sample from them all!  We started at the Turkey booth at his request :) and was given a plate full of foods to try.  While despite my intense love of living/traveling overseas I'm really not the most adventurous eater, but I do know that by NOT trying it I could offend them...so I dug in and tried it...and thankfully most of it was good!  

Mr. B & Bea are the foodies of the family and were eagerly sampling the offerings from each booth, even Bub was branching out and trying some different things.  My favorite was the chicken from Egypt.  We tasted treats from Turkey, Bangladesh, Australia, Egypt, and Philippines to name a few.  

 They are having another one in a few weeks and I plan to go back with a good camera!