So much to say!

I haven't blogged in over a week because I have been quite the busy lady.

Ben and I had a great weekend trip to Orlando, which I will post pictures of later! We visited Magic Kingdom & part of Epcot. I had our whole day mapped out at Magic Kingdom and we were so on top of all the rides & getting to the park early that we got done w/ everything we wanted to do there by 3pm! So we decided to head over to Epcot, which was really fun, some of our favorite rides were there!

On our way back from the park we were trying to finagle a way to get back to Orlando before the year ends to see the rest of Disney! So all in all it was a great, fun filled trip that we were very fortunate to be able to take. Ben actually got stuck down in Orlando for a few days following, because the weather was pretty bad for flying. I drove back to Pensacola on Monday, Aug 17th (which happens to be my birthday) and had to get packed & ready to fly to San Antonio the next day!

Two of our sweet friends here in Pensacola, we call them our "couple friends", knew that Ben wasn't in town & had me over for birthday cake & coffee that night--- what a blessing! It was so much fun to be w/ them on my birthday, since Ben couldn't be here.

Then early Tuesday morning I flew out of Pensacola to visit SA for the week! One of my best friends growing up, Jacki Gonzalez (now Morris) was getting married the following weekend so I flew in a little early to spend some time w/ my mom, dad & brother. Its a rare occcassion when we all get to be together!

It was such a blessing to be w/ my family & friends that week, although we all wished for Ben to be there too! And Jacki's wedding was beautiful!! She married an Air Force guy so who knows, we could be stationed w/ each other in the future!

I got back from San Antonio on Monday afternoon & Ben was able to pick me up at the airport...I think it was the longest we have been away from each other so far, so we were reallly excited to see each other again!

We had just enough time to relax that afternoon/evening before he went back to work on Tuesday, and I started my first day of classes!!

I am officially starting my quest toward being a Nurse!! Classes are going well so far--I think I appreciate them more now, having had a year off of school..

Well thats all for now, I am also recovering from a cold spell...but all the "sick" type feelings are subsiding now and I am starting to feel more like myself, although still a little congested.

where dreams come true

So this is fun...

Ben has a cross-country flight this weekend to Orlando. His instructor is leaving him all by his lonesome once they get to Orlando b/c he has some other things to take care of, so we decided it would be fun for me to drive down and meet Ben for the weekend.

We will probably rest & tour Downtown Disney on Friday

and then hit Magic Kingdom all day Saturday!

It will be a short trip, so we will head back to P'cola on Sunday, him flying and me driving, but how fun to go to Disney world!! We are calling it my birthday celebration, since we won't really have time on Monday to do anything for it!

Sounds like a good bday gift to me...thank you flight training!

And of course, Ben has never been to Disney World before so he is about to live yet another childhood dream (the first one was getting to see GI JOE the movie). awww, my kid at heart :)

I'm sure we will have pictures to tell the story soon!

Ben Update

Hey all you devoted blog readers (aka, our moms & grandmothers...hehe), I thought you might like a little update on your boy Ben!

He is flying like a mad man these days. They have had him "double turning" this week...which basically means doing two flights one right after the other. So he leaves the house at noon or 1 and doesn't get back until around 10pm!

The neat part is that on these flights he is getting to go to places like Tallahassee, Alabama, New Orleans, and possibly Orlando later in the week!

How crazy would it be to fly to a different state almost every day!? Although he doesn't get to do much site seeing, they always make sure that they stop somewhere that has good food.

For example, if they go to New Orleans, you can bet money that they will go get shrimp po boys, and in Tallahassee they got $1 barbque sandwhiches!

Not a bad deal! So at least on his flights he is not only learning lots about the airplane and his job, but he is becoming a regional food expert :)

Its nice to have things like that to look forward to when you land, because it is a very stressful and mind taxing environment! With that said, we still covet your prayers and have felt God's hand on us so much in the past couple of weeks. It is evident that we are being prayed for and that God is working miraculous things in Ben's flights!

Thanks so much, we love you all!

On Mission with the Lord

On Thursday of last week, a marine who graduated high school with my brother in San Antonio was killed in Afganistan by a bomb, along with three others.

It broke my heart to hear the news from my mom the other day, I guess it just hit too close to home, now that Ben is in the military, and being that my family knew this godly young man.

But I was so moved by the news article I read about him, that I had to share...one to ask for your prayers for his family, but also just to recognize such a godly, faith-filled young man!

Travis Babine was no more than 20 years old and was in Afganistan with his troops, fighting and defending freedom, but also sharing Jesus with his buddies. He held Bible studies for the guys because it was hard to get a chaplain to the area that they were in! How awesome is that? His mom, also shared in the interview, that his favorite Bible verse is Isaiah 6:8,
"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said I, ‘Here am I; send me."

Travis was sent by the Lord into the military and into the battlefield. He knew 100% that this was where God had him, and its obvious that God was using him greatly there, for His glory.

I am so thankful for his bravery and his willingness to follow the Lord where He would send him. I know that this is why Ben is in the military too, along with several of our friends. The Lord has sent them into the military, it is their mission field. Thank you soldiers, for your willing spirit, bravery and obedience to the Lord.

If you want to read more about Travis, you can go to the article I referred to above.

Its hard for me to read these things sometimes, knowing that Ben could be put in very similar situations, but thank God that Travis knew Him! And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. Travis is with his Savior now- praise God!

Food for Flight

So a while back, Mama Carter got me this book for kids on how to hide vegetables in their food! Now, Ben is really good about eating his vegetables, so this gift really wasn't a reflection on his eating habits at all, she just knows how much I love making foods more healthful! Its a really fun book and I have gotten some fun ideas from it recently on how to spruse up our foods :)

For example, the other day I made omlettes and mixed about a cup of cauliflower puree into the egg batter! You really couldn't tell the difference at all! And having the cauliflower in pureed form just makes it a lot easier than stuffing the little white trees into an omlette.

We put lots of other yummy vegetables in them, and they were scrumptious!

I also added some pureed butternut squash to blueberry muffins (I know it sounds weird, but you really can't taste it!) and added it to our spaghetti sauce the other night!

The nutrition nerd in me just loves to do this kind of stuff and thankfully Ben doesn't mind (as long as he gets a good old hamburger every once in a while).

In other more important news, Ben has had a pretty packed week, but the Lord has been answering prayers daily for us (thank you to all those who were praying for him!)

Two of his flights got cancelled this week due to weather, which was kind of a bummer but ended up being a good thing because it means he won't have enough flights in to go on a cross country this weekend.

Cross country flights (where they fly to another city and usually a cool one) can be really fun, but Ben really wanted to have the time to rest and not to be preparing more flights & studying all weekend so praise God for the weather that changed what we thought was going to be a really intense weekend for him! One more flight tomorrow and then he is home free for the weekend :)

A fun date night

This is a picture of Ryan & Erin Hutton. I am a creeper and I found this picture on Erin's facebook account and downloaded it for my blogging use, but anyway...I do have a reason for my stalker-like habits.

Ryan and Erin are in the Air Force too...well actually Ryan is, but an active Air Force spouse or any other military spouse might say that they are "in it" because pretty much they are.

AND another cool thing about Ryan and Erin is that they are fellow Aggies that graduated w/ Ben & I. Ryan and Ben went through Air Force ROTC together and I got to meet them at Ryan and Ben's comissioning ceremony.

AND the best part about all this Air Force/Aggie commradery is that they live in Panama City, just three mere hours from us! So, Erin facebooked me recently w/ the brilliant idea to meet at our halfway point: Destin and suggested that we go to Whataburger because they are deprived & don't have one in Panama City. Of course poor Ben is pretty deprived too and hardly ever gets to eat a Whataburger since his wife is not all into that fast food business :)

We met them last night for Whataburger and coffee and had a great time! Its amazing how much we have in common being Texans, aggies, believers & Air Forcers. And it was so good to be able to relate to people in a similar position that we are.

Ryan is training to be an Air Battle Manager...basically he gets to play chess w/ the airplanes and tells them where to go in combat and what enemies might be near- He is the man w/ the plan... pretty cool stuff! And he gets to fly in that really cool looking plane in the picture above w/ the huge satellite on top!

It will be fun to keep up w/ them throughout our Air Force careers! Yay for Texan Aggie Air Force people!