Homecoming

It is quite depressing to finally post homecoming pictures after Luke has already deployed again.  But some of these pictures turned out great, and I wanted to share.

Getting ready to go watch Dad fly in

Bronson LOVED looking at all the helicopters.

 Look at this COOL backpack Dad got me in Hong Kong!

I'm so happy Dad's home!

Warlord Pride

Last week was Badman week on the base.  It was a week filled with sports tournaments.  Each squadron on the base competed against each other in basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, softball, bowling, 5k run, golf, and others.  Luke participated in quite of few of these.  It was a nice break from the usual work schedule, and it was fun for the families to get together with all their gear on to cheer our teams.

This is the dodge ball team.  Obviously they won best uniform.

 

They wore loin cloths for their uniforms.  Luckily, most of them wore shorts underneath.  When they disrobed, gasps were heard around the gym.  I think they also did a little chest pounding as they were approaching their opponents.  The Warlords sure have squadron pride.

The first game ended with Luke against 4 guys from the other team.  He swiftly and gracefully got them all out, and Warlords won!  The second game didn't end in our favor.  Maybe next year.

A Parents' Night Out

The last weekend before Luke went out to sea we decided to get a babysitter one night and go out and do something fun.  We ended up meeting up with a group of friends for a concert in Tokyo.  It just happened to be our friend, James' birthday, and it was super fun to celebrate with him.  We saw Owl City in concert.  Neither of us had really heard of him except for his song, "Fireflies".  But we enjoyed the concert immensely and decided to do some more research on this guy.  It turns out that many of his songs have Christian undertones, and he is a neat guy.  We could not get over how much he sounded like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.

 

 Big  fast moving sea creature carousel that we could not resist

 

 

We actually became quite a spectacle on the carousel.  The Japanese who were around crowded around the carousel to watch and wave at the big American adults riding.

 

It was a very fun night.  I had a hard time knowing what to do with myself because I've gotten so used to being attached to a baby.  It was very nice to give Luke my full attention for a full night before he left again.  I'm looking forward to another date night in the future.

4 Months Old

The day after my 4 month birthday, Dad has to go out to the ship.

I wore my helicopter shirt for the occasion of seeing him off.

I LOVE playing in my baby gym.

This is my cool Chinese outfit Mom and Dad bought for me in Chinatown.

Watching the dog calmed me after a long cry.

Holding my first bottle

Sweet sleeping baby

Hook 'Em Up

On Tuesday, I was scheduled to fly my "UTIL" flight. It's a flight to practice flying with a load of cargo suspended underneath the aircraft. One of the things Navy helicopters do is "vertical replenishment" (VERTREP). When the ship needs to be re-supplied, and they don't want to pull into port, a Supply ship will pull up close and the helicopter(s) will go back and forth carrying pallets of whatever from ship to ship until everything is where it needs to be.

So when I came into work, I was ready to get in the air and move an 800lb barrel of concrete around the airfield. But I wasn't expecting to also do this...

 There were 3 of us flying the same event with the same instructor, but since only one of us could actually fly at once, the instructor had the other two take turns learning how to be the "hookup man."
This job consists of:

• waiting until the ~19,000lb comes into a 10' hover over the load
• running through the downwash from the rotor to stand directly underneath the helicopter
• hooking the load to the cargo hook on the belly of the bird
• checking that the cable is securely connected to load
• then running back out from under the helicopter
• don't forget to keep an eye on the helo in case it starts falling on you.

Definitely a little nerve-wracking the first time you're standing looking up at a hovering helicopter (being controlled by someone with no more flight experience than you). Not to mention everyone (2 pilots, one crewman, one LSE, and one hovering aircraft) are waiting on you to attach a rubber loop at the end of a 8' pole onto a 2" wide moving target. No pressure.

I definitely love my job. But getting to do something else for a day, with the added bonus of a little adrenaline rush, was pretty cool.

Nursery Projects #1

Nursery before

 

Nursery after cleanup

Luke made me some shelves.

We bought a dresser on Craig's List to also use as a changing table.  It needs a little cleaning up, but it is really solid and nice.

Step #1:  Clean out room and put up shelves.  Check.

Next step:  Steam clean carpet and clean up dresser.

Experimenting with New Toys

Luke gave me a pasta roller that connects to my Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas this year.  I wasn't really sure about it at first, not because I didn't appreciate the gift.  I just didn't know how it would work.  I remember when my mom would make egg noodles a long time ago, it was almost an all day event and a huge mess.

Today, I finally attempted to make some fettuccine noodles.  The recipe I had called for duram semolina flour....which, I found out was impossible to find around here.  (Thinking about it now, I bet I could have found some at Fresh Market.)  So I used whole wheat flour.  Healthy pasta!  :)  I asked Luke to help me because I was a little intimidated and knew I would not get as frustrated if he was also partly responsible.  With a little modification of the recipe, it turned out great.  (I found out that I really need to invest in a sifter if I am going to be doing projects like this.)  It took us a little while to catch on to the process, and we did make a huge mess, but the noodles looked and tasted good.  And...the batch made enough for 3 more meals.  I froze the extra for another day.

We were starving by the time we were finally done.  A good hearty pasta meal was perfect!