Family Day

Matt passed his final checkride on November 24th, yes that was a long time ago, and then he had a few weeks to "out process" from Ft. Rucker.  On December 11 I drove by myself to St. Louis.  On Monday I had to do the walk-through on the house to be ready for the Friday closing.  Tuesday morning bright and early, Matt's parents, brother, our friend Chris and I headed back to Alabama in my parent's mini van.  It might be more fun to make a 12 hour trip with 4 other people, but it's still 12 straight hours in a car.  Wednesday we got to hang out with Matt and see the Apache up close.  He flies a pretty cool aircraft.

Chris

The Pilot

Steck Family

This was going to be our Christmas card but if you were wondering if yours got lost in the mail, it didn't.  Just didn't get them out this year.

A little game of cards after a long day packing up the apartment.

The 4-time Poop-head himself

Thursday morning Matt headed out for graduation practice while the rest of us finished cleaning the apartment and packing the truck.  We then went to graduation and a luncheon (post with pictures to come as soon as I get the pics from Chris) and ate some good southern fried chicken.  Around 2:00pm Chris, Matt and I headed back to St. Louis.  We arrived around 2:30am and then Chris continued on to Columbia so that he could be at work.  That should be my last drive from Ft. Rucker to St. Louis.

E

It's Been a While

It's been 7 whole weeks since my last post.  A LOT has happened in the last 7 weeks.  Instead of trying to cram it all into one super long post I'm going to break it up into several shorter ones.  So coming up really soon... Matt's family day, graduation, moving, the house almost completely decorated and unpacked and my long awaited haircut.

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Thanksgiving

I can't believe that it's almost December already.  Because we didn't get to see any family, it doesn't really feel like we had Thanksgiving yet.  I think it's also hard to believe because for Thanksgiving I was in shorts and the A/C was on.  I'm not sure how warm it was but it was some where in the 80s and we were sweating in the kitchen with the oven and all the stove burners on.  We celebrated with some friends here and had all the food you could think about eating.  I was entirely too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures and that's probably a good thing because I'm not sure it would have been pretty.  It was a fun relaxing 4 day weekend, the first weekend with no studying in a while. 

Speaking of it almost being December, I have 2 weeks before I head back to St. Louis for the house walk through and less than 3 weeks till we close!  I had better get busy packing.  We've got a good start but still a long way to go!

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Matt Has a Cool Job

Well, it's official!  Matt has passed his final checkride and is now just waiting for graduation day which is on Dec 16.  I'm so excited and proud of him!!

About a week ago I went out to try to watch him doing some of the shooting at night.  I just have to say if I was a terrorist, I would be scared of these things.  The moon was really bright, but I still could barely see them.  I took a couple videos and you really can't see much but you'll know when he starts shooting.  The flashing light is the helicopter and the video isn't much worse than in person.

This first one is him coming in and then firing a rocket and then the guns.  I'm not that far away but the sound is definitely delayed.  The second one is just him flying toward me and going directly over head and then passing another aircraft as it comes the opposite direction.  It's not that exciting since all you see is a flashing light, but that was the best I could get.

They also shoot at a target while hovering but I pulled up just as he was finishing.  I was a little uncertain about whether I could drive back near this area and apparently when I pulled up his instructor pilot noticed my car sitting over on the side of the road and called me in to the tower.  A couple minutes later a truck pulled up to check me out.  They let me stay and watch but I was a little scared for a second.  I was standing right next to the big "Do Not Enter" sign with warnings about live fire.  At least I was on the right side of the sign!

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It Looks Like a House

or at least it's starting to.  I've probably said this a hundred times already, but I'm getting very excited about the house!!  I got some pictures from last week that really show how much has been happening.  First my friend, Jeremy, went and took pictures after work on Thursday.  Then my mom and Tara decided to drive to St. Louis on Saturday to look at the progress in  person.  It was actually good that we got pictures when we did because there are several things that weren't the way they were supposed to be.  It isn't anything that can't be fixed now (some different color paint and the wrong cabinet) but I'm glad we can get it corrected now and not when we're trying to close.

So basically the outside is 95% finished, the painting has begun, the cabinets are up in most places, the linoleum is in, the trim is finished, the doors are installed, and all the lights are up.  There aren't any pictures of the upstairs because we are going to paint the colors up there and there isn't as much to see.  Enjoy!

Only 5 weeks till move in weekend!

E

Peanut Festival

Last weekend we went with some friends to check out the National Peanut Festival.  I don't remember why we didn't go last year, but I thought we needed to attend before we moved back to Missouri.  It was basically like a fair with peanuts everywhere.  We decided to go on Saturday since it was military night so our tickets were discounted but also because that was the night of the demolition derby.  I didn't really know what a demolition derby was before last week.  It's quite a country experience.  Basically it's bumper cars in real cars.  The arena was packed and the people got really into it.  It was funny.  Here is one of the rounds (sorry I can't edit it down a little shorter).  Rules: the last car moving and hitting wins, if you can't move for 60 seconds you're out, no crashing into the driver's side door.

Demolition Derby Video

The entire thing took about an hour.  At some point during that hour I realized I hadn't dressed properly for the night.  I hadn't really been outside at night for a few nights and didn't pay attention to the forecast where I would have found that the low was something in the 30s.  Dressed only in jeans and a hoodie, I was frozen!  One of the vendors was taking advantage of the cold and under dressed because right outside the arena was a stand selling hot chocolate for $2.  Not a terrible price until you walked down a ways and saw you could get twice the size for the same price. 

We were all hungry and headed to the food area to see what we could find.  All the guys decided to get turkey legs.  I still don't see what's so good about gnawing on a giant turkey leg.  It would have been a good picture of the night, but at this point I wasn't taking my hands out of my pockets for anything but fried Oreos!  That is probably the highlight of my night! :) 

At this point the others in our group were going to go ride some rides.  I was already frozen and knew that spinning around on a ride was only going to make me colder so I chickened out. Matt doesn't really do rides so we decided to head home. 

That was the highlight of the week.  Matt is going strong with gunnery and work is crazy right now for me.  I work late just about every night.  I do have new pictures of the house though!!  Look for those soon.

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Playing Catch Up

Anyone still there?  It's been a while since I've posted anything, but it isn't for a lack of activities like usual but this time because I haven't had time to sit down.  So this is going to be a hodgepodge of all that's been happening and kind of long.  Sorry!

End of St. Louis Trip
The house had all the mudding finished by the time I left.  I have pictures somewhere but I can't find them now.  I'll put them in the next house update post (which will be another week since my friend is traveling for work again).

To end the week of my trip to St. Louis I went to Ashley and Anthony's beautiful wedding.  I don't think I'd seen Ashley since my wedding over a year and a half ago.  I was so glad that it worked out that I was in town to be there.  I didn't take one picture though (insert shrug shoulders smile here).  I'm still getting used to the whole "take pictures of everything" thing (since I used to be the one who never took pictures of anything) and was worn out from the week.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

After the wedding my dad and I took out for the start of the drive back to Alabama. It was so fun to have my dad traveling with me. It sure is a lot nicer of a drive when someone is with you.   We stopped for the night in Tennessee and were supposed to sleep in and take our time the next day.  Dad apparently calls 7:00 am sleeping in.  Because we got up so early, we had plenty of time on Sunday to finish the trip.  We stopped at the rest stop right after we crossed the Alabama line and walked around for a while.  It was a beautiful day!

Dad trying to figure out how to type a text message on his brand new iPhone.

I dropped Dad off in Montgomery for his flight back to St. Louis and drove the last 2 hours home. 

Back Home

I got back on Sunday and had a normal couple days of work and other activities.  On Wednesday I got a call from my boss saying that I needed to be in St. Louis on Friday for interviews.  It wasn't a total surprise, but the last I knew the interviews were off and my trip was cancelled.  At least I hadn't cancelled my plane ticket yet.  My flight was early Thursday so that evening I quickly packed to head back.  Besides and hour delay in Atlanta the trip was pretty uneventful.  I stopped by the house to see what had happened in the 4 days I was gone.  There wasn't really much to see so I didn't take any pictures, but the garage door was installed and the fireplace in the living room was in.  I helped conduct interviews for an opening in our department all day Friday and then headed to the airport Friday evening. 

My round trip flight was back to Montgomery scheduled to land around 10:50 pm and then the 2 hour drive to get home so it was going to be a long day.  I had about 1 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta so I took my time getting to my gate.  As soon as I sat down I heard over the intercom for someone to report to the gate next to mine as final boarding to Dothan, Alabama.  Dothan is only about 30 min from our house but we never fly into there since it's about twice as expensive.  I walked over to the counter to see if there was any chance I could get on the flight.  The Delta lady became my best friend that night.  I landed in Dothan at about the same time I would have just been taking off from Atlanta to Montgomery.

Promotion
And finally, Matt got promoted to First Lieutenant!!  He found out a couple weeks ago when he got an email saying he was promoted, but it took a little while for the paperwork to come through.  His promotion ceremony consisted of him pulling off his old rank and sticking on the new one.  I'm so proud of you and all that you've accomplished so far. 

The new rank is much crisper and not faded.  It doesn't really match his uniform now.

E

Two Days Work

How much can two days work get you on home construction?  Actually, quite a bit.  I went to the house after work today and was very excited with what I saw.  The drywall was finished on the whole 2nd floor, the 1st floor had all the ceilings covered and the siding was almost finished on the outside.  It's really looking like a house now!

The view from our bathtub... not too shabby.

I do have one question though.  What does this street sign tell me?

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Back to the Lou

I'm back in St. Louis for 2 weddings, a week of work and lots of catching up with friends.  I drove by myself and decided to stop and take pictures of the state signs to break up the monotony.  I couldn't get the Illinois and Missouri ones though because I didn't want to stop in the middle of a bridge.

The first wedding was Adam and Andrea's.  It was beautiful and couldn't have been a better day for an outdoor wedding.

I went by to see the progress on the house this afternoon and am getting very excited about our return soon.  It's hard to tell by the pictures what you're look at since it's just framing everywhere, but basically the plumbing, electrical and HVAC stuff is almost finished and drywall will be going up soon.  There's also siding up on one side.

 

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Matt is Funny...

...except at 2 a.m.

Matt is now in his 4th phase of the Apache course which is nights.  His day starts around 1 pm with class and then he goes to the flight line around 6 pm.  This means he gets home around 1 am and tries to sneak in bed without waking me up.  This morning, for some reason, he forgot about the sneaking part. 

I was asleep when I heard him come in around 1:30.  He was actually really quiet brushing his teeth and getting ready because I don't remember any of that.  I was just vaguely aware when he slipped into bed.  I had just fallen back to sleep when all the sudden I was jolted awake by my sheet being ripped from the bed.  As I rolled over to see what was happening, the very bright overhead light in our room was flipped on.  I quickly shielded my eyes with my pillow but could just see Matt with the sheet wrapped around him standing next to the door where he had flipped on the light.  In my state of confusion and sleepiness, all I could muster was a moan to question what was going on when I hear Matt say "I think I saw a snake in the bed."  I was still too asleep to care but remember thinking that I was starting to get cold and frustrated that the light was still on.  I tried to voice that but I'm pretty sure I only moaned again.   He quickly searched for the snake and didn't find anything, turned out the light and came back to bed. 

As I tried to fall back asleep, I think Matt was already out and maybe dreaming about that snake because he was the most restless I think you can be and still be asleep.  Needless to say I wasn't getting much sleep and I didn't think it was very funny.

This morning after Matt got up I asked him what happened last night thinking maybe he was sleep walking or something.  He remembers "seeing" a snake and his heart rate skyrocketing as he jumped out of bed.  I have to admit it's kinda funny now. :)

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