Nebraskan Skies

 Some days I am pretty hard on Nebraska.

After all, we were supposed to be overseas right now.  And although we've built a lovely little life here, I can't help but remember our plans to live in Europe and spend the weekends exploring new cities.

The winters here are long and cold.  The wind is fierce.  The landscape turns grey.  Grey slush on the roads.  Grey dried-up lawns.  Grey skies.

Grey. Grey. Grey.

But then a day comes when you walk outside and gaze up, mesmerized.

The sky that has been grey for so long now seems impossibly blue.  The clouds perfectly white and fluffy move along at a snail's pace.  

I crink my neck to stare up at it.  I feel small in the most wonderful way possible.  It is as if the sky threw open her arms to reveal all that she has been hiding these dull, winter months.  She is tired of the complaints and the grumbles she has been getting so she is finally going to show off what she has.

"Fine, Nebraska!"  I yell at the heavens, "I'm sorry for saying so many horrible things about you!"

The sky is big.  I am small.

I take a deep breath.  It is as if I've been half-breathing all winter long and, just now, I'm actually able to inhale properly.

The calendar told me that spring arrived some days ago.  But today the sky is telling me with much more certainly than any calendar could have: spring is here!

 

p.s. all these images actually were taken in Nebraska.  I told you!  Mesmerizing!

Guest Post: My Story of Resilience

For the past two days I've been sharing about the Offutt Spouse Resilience program here at our base.  The first day I wrote about the bathtub of emotions and the second day I shared how resilience was like pulling the plug on that bathtub.  

Today I have one last post about resilience by Aimee Salter, who is one of the Spouse Resilience Training Assistants (RTA) at Offutt AFB.  

Aimee has been affiliated with the Air Force for 15 years, both as an active duty member and as a spouse.  She currently serves as the Key Spouse for the 1ACCS.  Aimee has a background in behavioral science and holds a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice and Behavior Analysis.  In addition to serving as an RTA and a Key Spouse, Aimee volunteers as a Victim Advocate for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and also as the Vice President of the Parent-Teacher Organization at her children's school.

My Story of Resilience 

A little over two years ago, I entered into a very difficult and trying time in my life. Around the same time, with the exception of my husband, my support network literally crumbled around me. 

For anybody, this can be pretty rough. But as a military family, it was especially hard.  Sometimes we rely heavily on our surrogate families to be our support when we don’t have to strength to face our situations alone. Watching my support network systematically disappear was nothing less than traumatic. Basically, I was left to carry the stress and burden of the situation alone. 

After a few months, this bled over to my children. They were mirroring my stress. The more I focused on the negative, the more they did. 

One day in the middle of a rant, I stopped. Enough was enough. I was done with the negativity. I was done being angry. I was done letting the people and the situation control me.  

After church, the kids and I went to the store and bought a journal. That evening, we had our first entry into our “Thankful Book.” 

Our "Thankful Book" is a journal where we write down one thing we are grateful for that day.  Each night we take the time to do this as a family. For the first few months, writing in the Thankful Book was a chore and some days, it was a struggle to find even one thing I was thankful for.  However, it got easier. 

By the time the worst of the situation hit us, the Thankful Book was a part of our lives, part of our routine. Hearing what the kids were thankful for and taking the time to reflect on all that I had to be thankful for was exactly what I needed. 

To this day, we still write in our Thankful Book. The kids even have their babysitters write in it when they come over. It is no longer something we “just do”, it is something we choose to do. 

Fast forward to a few months ago when I was presented with the opportunity to go to the Resilience Training Assistant class, to become a Spouse RTA. I wasn’t 100% sure what Resilience was, but I went anyway. Over the course of 3 days, I learned different strategies on how to effectively deal with stress, enhance communication, and strengthen healthy relationships.

However, the biggest lesson for me was the moment I realized that I was practicing resilience every single day and, despite all the things I'm convinced I am doing wrong, there are a few things that I am doing right. We now had a name for our Thankful Book strategy, we were practicing resilience by  “Counting Blessings.” 

Unfortunately, I am not completely through this trying period, but I no longer let it, or the people involved, have control. Through intentionally practicing resilience, I have been able to strengthen my techniques and I am equipped with new strategies to effectively deal with the tough situations that are sure to come my way. 

I know we all face challenges and stressors on a daily basis. I also know we are our own worst critics…this is why I am so passionate about resilience and have helped create and launch the Offutt Spouse Resilience program. My hope is that through the training, spouses will realize they already practice resilience, in one form or another. And I hope they walk away continuing to strengthen their strategies, but also with new strategies in their “tool-kit” to effectively deal different situations they may encounter. 

Thank you, Aimee, for sharing your story with us today!

So you're PCSing to Offutt AFB...

For awhile now I've wanted to collect the names of businesses, attractions and restaurants in the area where we are stationed.  That way when new families moved to the area, they could quickly find things to do and learn about the area.  Originally I was going to put it on this blog, but I decided to use Pinterest instead.

Oh, Pinterest.  You really are best.

(I avoided Pinterest for a long time and when I finally caved, I fell in love).

If you have orders to Offutt, check it out and see what there is to do here!  Or if you're currently stationed at Offutt and have suggestions of what I should add to the board, let me know!

base housing (one year later)

It's been one year since we moved to Offutt AFB!  We were just remembering what it felt like to drive here for the first time, explore base and see our new house.  In September, I shared pictures of our house and talked a little about base housing here.  If you want to know more about which style of house we have, that post will fill you in.

Since we've lived here for a year, I'm sharing a little update on what we've thought of base housing.  This is solely based on our experience here with Rising View.  I am receiving no compensation from Rising View for this review, I simply wanted to help other families who might be considering where to live when they move to Offutt.

• Overall Neighborhood
• We like living here!  We are close to base and close to other amenities (Target, movie theatre, Churches, Walmart, restaurants, etc).  Since we have friends who live in the neighborhood, we can walk to their houses.
• There are playgrounds everywhere!  They vary in size and style which keeps it interesting.  It's really nice to have so many options for the kids.  When it's warm, we go to the playground once or twice a day because they are close and convenient.  However, most of them are not shaded and there's no running water, so come prepared.  Also, there aren't trash cans.
• We love taking neighborhood walks.  There are a few areas with bumpy sidewalks, but overall there are nice sidewalks throughout the neighborhood for pushing a stroller.
• Our area of the neighborhood is very active.  Lots of people walk/run for exercise.  Our street has a lot of children who play outside in the evenings.  In the summer, there are many people sitting on their porches which gives it a friendly, family feeling.
• My one major complaint about the neighborhood is completely out of Rising View's hands:  the birds!  There are some very territorial birds who try to build nests each spring near people's front doors.  I happen to be petrified of birds, but even my husband (who normally isn't bothered by birds) thinks that these birds are mean.  We've seen people put up fake owls or wind chimes and that seems to keep them away.
• Maintenance
• We've had a good experience with maintenance.  I've called about four or five times this year and have always had someone come within 24-48 hours.  
• When it was something serious (my fridge wasn't cooling properly), they sent someone over within about an hour. Even though I hadn't given them any details about the fridge ahead of time, he guessed what was wrong and walked in with the proper part in hand.  It was installed in about ten minutes and my fridge was working again!
• The smoke alarms can be very sensitive which can be frustrating if it happens while cooking or in the middle of the night.  However, when we called they had someone out that day to replace it and we haven't had a problem since (11 months).
• We have had some problems with bugs (crickets, water bugs, etc).  Rising View will come out and fill holes to keep them from coming inside and if the problem persists, they will have a terminator come.  We have had them come out twice to fill holes (about six months apart).  I was very skeptical about it, but the second time it really did seem to help.  We also spray our garage regularly for bug and spray inside the house with a herb-based bug spray (so we don't fill our house with nasty chemicals).  
• House Condition/Size
• Again, if you want to see more about our specific house, you can read about it here.  Our house was clean upon arrival and was in very good condition overall.
• The house is basic and is built with some cheap material (e.g. carpet, paint).  The appliances are also basic (e.g. fridge doesn't have an ice maker).  While it would be nice to have beautiful, cushy carpet, painted walls and a fridge with all kinds of cool features, it has been fine for us.  
• The downstairs rooms can be awkward due to size.  This is also true for a friend of mine who lives in a different style of new housing.  We don't have a lot of furniture, so it has worked out for us, but if you are coming with a sectional couch or a big dining room set, you may have problems getting it to fit nicely.
• Backyards vary in size based on the house, but most of them are good sized.  If you would like a fence, there is a rental company that you may use.
• Moving Out 
• We don't know because haven't done it yet!  :)  We have heard rumors that they are strict about cleaning and maintenance before you move out, but we have no personal experience.

Again, I can only speak to our experience in Rising View.  I know that other people have had different experiences living here, but overall, we have liked living here for the past year.  We plan on staying here until we PCS again!

air force life: base housing at offutt afb

Edited to Add: I wrote a post in May 2013 (one year after we moved to Offutt) to give an update on what we thought of the housing after living here for a while.  Check it out!

Edit #2: I've gone through and updated a few of these pictures after almost two years of living here to give you a better picture of the size of some of the rooms.  Updated pictures have our name in the corner.  :)  ALSO, if you are PCSing here, leave a comment or shoot me an email!  I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have about Offutt!

Tour Our Home/Tour Base Housing ;)

I kept waiting for it to be perfectly decorated.

And perfectly clean.

Then I decided that those days might be far off.

So instead I am posting the pictures that show our home for what this is: not always impeccably tidy and a long way from being fully decorated.  But here are pictures nonetheless.  Base housing is different at every base, but here's an overview of our life at Offutt AFB.

This is a stock photo of the outside of our style of home (via Rising View website).  Our neighborhood is made up of duplexes.  Some of the houses are older (perhaps built in the 60s?), but have been renovated.  There are also a lot of newer homes - built in the last six or so years.  We qualified for one of the newer, three bedroom houses.  Most of the houses have nice backyards (usually about 50 feet from the back of the house) and you can rent a fence if you'd like your yard enclosed for children or pets.

We are responsible for yard work, but the housing office takes care of any maintenance issues we have and so far they have been very helpful when we've needed something done.  We're not allowed to paint - this was probably the saddest thing for me to find out when we arrived here.  Instead we are slowly working on filling our walls with pictures and art, but (as you can tell from the photos) we still have a long way to go.  I'm a little too indecisive about where to hang things, but we're working on it. 

The Kitchen

This is the view when you walk in from the garage.  Those windows overlook the backyard.  To the right you can see part of our family room.

This is opposite the picture above.  That's the door to the garage.

The skinny door to the left of our fridge is the pantry.  

This is the view of the kitchen from the family room.  The laundry room is on the other side of that wall.

Pantry

The Family Room

View of the family room from the kitchen.  The family room is technically supposed to be two room (family room and living room), but it's sort of an awkward space with the furniture we have so we just use it as a family room.

This view is from the living room into the kitchen.  We have a little coloring table for Hadden and store his high chair next to the back door.

This is the view standing in the hallway.  The door leads to our back yard.  The space behind the couch could fit a small table and a couple of chairs.

Downstairs Bathroom

This room is in the hallway off the living room and across from a huge under-the-stairs closet.

Dining Room

This room is technically supposed to be a living room, but we're using it as a dining room.  The two windows on the right look onto our front yard.  From where I am standing to take the picture, the front door is on my right and a coat closet is on the left.  The wall on the left a half wall to our stairs (see next picture).  In the back is the collection of wall hangings that have yet to hang on the walls.  We really need to buy a big dining room table for this room!

The door is to a big closet under the stairs.  Across the hallway from that closet is the downstairs bathroom.  

The landing upstairs.  From left to right: Master bedroom, Hadden's nursery, linen closet, guest bathroom.  The guest room is further to the right.  There is also a huge closet upstairs and a desk space (see picture below)

Desk on landing upstairs (directly below is the front door)

View from the desk

Hah.  Our "guest bedroom" is an empty room with an air mattress waiting to be filled for our next guest who is arriving in a couple days.  Window overlooks back yard.

Guest bathroom

Nursery.  Window overlooks back yard

Master bedroom.  The window overlooks the front yard.  This room has a small walk in closet and a linen closet (there is a third closet off the bathroom as well)

View from master bath

View from the corner closet (the door you see is the bathroom)

Master bath

The closet back there is so big!!  It wraps around on either side.  Now I just need to buy more clothes to fill it!  ;)

Overview

Overall we like our house!  If we were to build/buy a home we would definitely do a few things differently.  I dream of painting the wall, redoing the cabinets and changing out all the light fixtures/door hardware.  I would love to someday live in an older home with history and with a story.  But that's not where we're at in life.  This house is more than sufficient and we are grateful for it.  And we are slowly turning it from a house into a home.  :)

Independence Day (and more)

We celebrated Independence Day starting Tuesday night with fireworks!  Offutt AFB has a beautiful base lake that is open to military families.  It has a campground, a sand volleyball court, picnic areas, boat rentals, fishing, etc.  On Tuesday afternoon/evening the FSS hosted a special event for the base families and ending with fireworks.  We showed up about an hour before the fireworks which is when I snapped the picture above.  While we were waiting, one of the AF bands performed and it was fun to hear the music floating across the lake to us.  The fireworks were directly across from us so we had great seats.  :)

The only thing Caleb requested for the 4th was fruit pizza, so I whipped this up.  It reminded both of us of last year when we celebrated the 4th of July with my sister, brother-in-law and niece and we made fruit pizza with them.  I had one very happy husband.  ;)  We spent the rest of the day running errands and relaxing.  

Twice a week, I go to the hospital for special monitoring which means I am getting to know the maternity ward and the nurses very well.  In addition to those, I still have regular appointments with the OB.  We're thankful that I'm getting good medical care (and especially thankful that the AF covers it all). The downside of all these appointments is that it makes sharing a car a little more complicated.  One day last week I made ELEVEN trips back and forth between base and our house/the hospital/the clinic.  Caleb made a few more trips later on, but I was wiped out by that point, so I stayed home!  :)