New Year News

No, I’m not pregnant. I was a bit concerned people might read it that way, but I’d hoped that many of you know that we have been blessed with all the children we are going to have (biologically, anyway).

Gratuitous picture of said perfect beebees

We have entered our 3rd year here at KAFB which means it’s time to think about what’s next. Normally we’d be on this winter’s VML and T would be looking at what’s available and where we’d like to go. However, this PCS is not normal. 

Last spring, T submitted an application for special assignment. The Officer Instructor and Recruiter Special Duty (OI&RSD) board. We were hopeful and excited at the prospect. But the process. Oh man the process has been a slog! First apply to the board to be allowed to be considered for those jobs. Then learn what openings are available and rank what you want. Wait for the programs to select—and possibly rank?—you & other interested candidates. THEN wait for the AF personnel people to say yes this is okay with us. And then submit an additional application because reasons. After that, wait months until the AF makes all the matches official/final. Well orders aren’t cut yet (that’s a separate thing) so while there is a minuscule chance things could still change—seriously nothing is truly happening until orders are cut and occasionally not even then, where my fellow spouses at, what whaat—but the Safety Center got the formal notification of selection to PCS. We were told to expect finalization in January so Merry Christmas to us! 

And where are we heading …

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Is this annoying yet??? 😝

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Dome, sweet Dome, babaaay!!

© 2019 T’s iPhone

That’s right, we are returning to Notre Dame. T will be an AFROTC Instructor at Det 225, the Flyin’ Irish, in July 2022. It’s still kind of unbelievable. It was always a “wouldn’t it be cool if you could end up back here” pipe dream from before we even graduated. It’s a wild ride this career path has been. Absolutely nothing that we daydreamed about back then has gone as planned except this longest shot, ha. The most difficult part of this whole process was keeping it hush! We didn’t want to jinx anything, and, more importantly, we didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. It was hard enough to keep our expectations in check.

We have been back to campus 5 times in our 15 years since graduating. Once for the baptism of each of our beautiful children. Once for a wedding in South Bend. And this year for the kids’ first football game. The landscape and buildings have changed over the years, but the atmosphere and sense of home never left. We look forwarding to navigating the ever growing environment without ever feeling lost. And our hearts forever …