IERW DONE

YAY!!! It finally happened. Initial Entry Rotary wing is finished.. I have completed Primary, Instruments and Basic Warfighting Skills in a total of five months, topped off by a pt test. My unit has assigned me to flying black hawks, so I should be starting the UH-60 course early next year. Justin will be starting IERW in January. We are both excited to get through the courses and get home.

Flight school has been, as an understatement, OVERWHELMING.... I am excited to only have three months of class left... While the rest of my class has been promoted to 1st LT's, Justin and I have not yet, due to the Guard and Reserve policies. Oh, well we are both flying, which is something to be thankful enough for.

Now that I finally have a break I get to start Wedding planning. I am so excited to get married and start Justin and I's family. As of now, the Plan is to marry the summer of 2010, hopefully before either of us deploy.

Other than school, and wedding planning not much has been going on. We recently discovered our poor Abby has hip Dysplasia at only 9 months old. We are doing everything we can to help prevent it from getting bad. But in the end it seems like total hip replacement will be our only option if we want our baby girl to stay with us for years to come. We are looking into it heavily though and hope to come up with a good course of action.

We both miss Washington desperatly and family and can not wait to come home. We are already looking for a home to buy and hope to have one by the time we get back which should be fall of 2010.

FLIGHT SCHOOL

Well, I can honestly say that flight school has upheld its reputation of difficulty. I finally finished Primary on 8SEPT09. After two solid months of three or four hour study sessions an evening and many frustrating days of not flying well, I finally finished. From what I hear, the most stressful portion is over. Thank goodness.. Moving on all I have left of Initial Entry Rotary Wing in Instruments and Basic War Fighting Skills. I can't wait to finish, then I will be moving on to my advanced aircraft the UH60 next year. Justin has been here since may and it looks as though he will not start any training until OCT (SERE). He will not even step into an aircraft this year. We are both hoping this will set us on a path to be on hold together so we can finally get married next summer. I know I am ready for it. After being away we both miss Washington very much and are eager to get home and establish our own little family, starting with Abby :). Abby has turned out to be an amazing dog in deed. She is very smart and knows many tricks. At only six months old she can wonder around outside with out us checking on her and never run off. She sits when cars pull up and is very sweet and sociable. Hopefully you can all meet her.

In Loving Memory

A good friend of our Brian N. Bradshaw was lost in combat on 25June2009. Justin and I both met Brian in ROTC at Pacific Lutheran University. He was an amazing friend to everyone who had the opportunity to know him. I spent three years of school with him. He became one of my best friends and comrades. He was and still is admired by so many. His bravery will be remembered forever.. He was and amazing officer and man. I have never doubted he was proud of what he did. He died doing what he believed, which makes me smile. We will all miss him so much. Thank you for your service Brian. We love you and will always keep you in our thoughts.

ABBY

Shortly after we got a new addition to the Family... ABBY.. also known as Precious Abby. We adopted Abby on June 10th 2009. She was five days shy of three months old. Abby and her siblings were dropped off at the Ozark Humane society when they were about ten days old on March 25. So we are making her birthday March 15th. The owners took all the puppies home and bottle raised them, which made Abby a very sociable puppy. She is very smart. The two weeks we have had her she has learned how to sit, lay, look and get into her crate. Sometimes she will even stay, if Justin tells her. She is absolutly a daddy's girl. It is very cute. She has gained five pounds since we have had her, putting her at a wopping 20 lbs at 3 months 10 days. She is going to be a big girl. From What we can guess, she is a English Mastiff Shepard Mix. We love her to death. She is our Baby. While I wish she could stay little forever I can't wait to see her grow up.

Our Engagement

Justin and made a committment to our future with each other on 25 May 2009 when Justin asked me to Marry him.

I was in Washington that weekend to see my little sister Courtney graduate from PLU and commission. Justin had just finished BOLC II and had arrived at Fort Rucker, Alabama on the 22nd. We were both pretty upset I could not be there when he finally made it down here after 8 months of seperation.

In any case. I called and had told Justin I would be home later than I really would, just so I could surprise him. I came home all dressed up to find Justin was in the process of trying to set up a romantic candel light dinner for us. It was chinese. Ha ha, I know it sounds corny but it is a little tradition him and I share every year for Valentines day so it was special to me. After we had dinner, we danced to our song I need you (Tim McGraw and Faith Hill) in our empty home... It was very sweet. Then Justin had me sit down and said he was going to get desert which was cheese cake, my favorite. As I sat with my back to the kitchen he walked around the corner and came back around on his knee. I looked at him for a minute cause I thought he had dropped something. I did not realize what he was doing until he began to tell me how much he loved me. I was so excited I tackled him, knocking him on the floor. He was looking for the perfect way to ask me and that was it. I did not see it coming for a minute. I was very surprised. And that is how Justin and I officially began the rest of our lives together.