Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Florida!

Friends and family from near and far, we appologize for not writing to you all in a while. The holiday season, as you all know, can be a very busy time. We enjoyed many firsts this Christmas: our first Christmas together, our first Christmas in Florida, and our first Christmas without our parents. Though the second and third of those could be a sad occasion, we made the most of it and thouroughly enjoyed the day together with just the two of us. My exciting gifts of the year were Racquett ball gear including glasses, balls, and racquets. LeMar's best gifts were a train set and some much needed jeans and shoes. I didn't get the puppy I was childishly hoping for, but I did get an adoreable puppy ornament for our tree.

May God bless you all in the coming year. LeMar and I are are constantly praying for health and the continuation of our steady incomes. Why? Well, we are expecting an addition to the family at the end of June. We are having a baby! I am 13+ weeks right now which makes the due date June 27th. Please join us in our prayers for health and financial stability. We are very excited about this upcoming year and the birth of our baby. May God bless you and keep you in 2008!


This picture was taken at 11 weeks, 4 days. The baby was measured at 5.6 cm, and we heard the heart beating at 156 bpm.

On the road again

We just got back from a glorious 4 day weekend in the Big Easy with the Turley & Pollard sides of the family. We had a great time visiting with all the relatives, at the Battle of the Bands, and at the Bayou Classic. We decided to pull for Grambling over Southern, so it was a bit of a disappointment when Grambling lost. However, the final score of the game worked out for us in the pool we had going and we made five bucks off of Southern's victory. Traffic was a bear getting back this evening. We got kicked off of I-10 just into Mississippi after a long hall of bumper to bumper traffic only to be sent into more bumper to bumper traffic on the the new route. All in all, our 5.5 hour trip took us 7 hours.

This wonderful delay now leaves me with an 11 hour turn around as I prepare to go to Tampa for a conference this week. Monday and Friday are travel days, so I will be home Friday night. Well, I better get on with the un-packing and packing.

Has our blog absence been puzzling?

Yes it has!

LeMar and I have been keeping ourselves busy working on puzzles. We had been working on the hot air balloon puzzle for ages. I got the Bear Lake puzzle for my birthday, and we finished both of those on the same day. Then we started going into puzzle withdrawal, so we went to Wal-Mart and picked up the huge puzzle of Times Square. We have loved working on this one together, and I can hardly wait until it is finished!

Heading Home

Though it seemed like it would never come, the last day of class is here! We finish up with a test and a "graduation ceremony" tomorrow morning. I will be home on Friday! Happy Halloween!

Hello from Ohio

Dear friends and family,

I am getting settled in at my temporary home of a hotel (VOQ) room for the next three weeks. My typical week day will consist of 7 hours of instruction, 1 hour of lunch, some evening reading/homework/study, and it seems like a fair amount of racquetball. If you happen to be reading this from a location near the great state of Ohio, drop me a line. I would love to hang out and catch up. Please keep LeMar in your prayers. These TDYs are always more hard on him than on me because the AF tends to keep me busy while he must go home to an empty house every night. If you are in Florida, give him a buzz. He just may get out and do something if you invite him to tag along! ;) Much love and God bless, Em

Picture & another TDY

This is me at Phoenix Warrior, and I know it is hard to see but that is a Blackhawk just over my shoulder.

I leave the day after tomorrow for my next TDY. This one takes me back to Wright-Patterson AFB in OH, this time for 3 weeks while I take a class. The downside is of course my time away from LeMar, but on a happier note, I will get to see the wonderful Kaisers of Indianapolis and some friends from previous TDYs. Please keep LeMar and I in your prayers during this current time we must spend apart from each other.

I am a clutz

On another note, I wiped out yesterday on the boardwalk to the beach for PT. Note, speed, stopping, and wet wood surfaces don't mix. I was hurting pretty bad yesterday but feel much better today. I scraped up my elbow, did something to my hip and knocked the wind out of myself. My back took the majority of the blow. Apparently I am a bit too bone-y 'cause my spine lead to some nice scrapes on my back as well.

September Recap

Sorry it has been a while since we posted. Here is a recap of the rest of September:
I got back from Phoenix Warrior on September 29th. Highlights of the trip include 3 rides in a Blackhawk, qualifying on the M-16, and firing over 300 blanks from the same weapon in various war-game simulations. I'll spare you the rants from the low-lights of the trip. I do have pictures coming, so hold tight.

While I was gone, LeMar had a nother visitor. This one was reptilian in nature. A small but very quick little lizzard. He didn't get a great shot of him, but here is the best one. Also included is the picture of the capturing technique. The litte guy was released to the wild.



The same weekend I got back from PW, our good friend Cory came down to visit us for the weekend. We enjoyed the short time we got to visit with him as we took in some of the things Panama City has to offer. We played mini golf, took a look at the 15s and 22s on the flight line, enjoyed some time on the base's beach, and :'( watched the Broncos loose to the Colts while eating amazing hot wings. Here are some pictures from our day at the beach.

John & Prayers

A good friend and a groomsmen in our wedding, John was involved in a serious car accident this past weekend. The doctors initially wanted to amputate a hand, but were able to save it with extensive reconstructive surgery on his hand/arm. Prayers are working! They now think that he made regain 100% use of his hand. His surgery was yesterday, and I expect that he has a lot of physical therapy ahead of him. Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to heal, and give praise to God for the successes the doctors have had thus far.

Phoenix Warrior

My first TDY is coming up this week, and it is a bit abnormal as it is essentially a mixture between an average TDY, a camping trip, and a deployment. I will be spending the better part of the rest of September out in the field somewhere on the Ft. Dix Army instilation in NJ. I leave Wed. the 12th, head to the field on the 14th, return from the field on the 28th, and fly home on the 29th. As a result of all of this, I will most likely be out of e-mail, blog, Facebook, and cell phone contact. Please pray for LeMar and I during this time as he tries to manage everything at home and isn't able to communicate with me. I know I will miss him emensly.

This TDY will hopefully be pretty cool, at least at times. I'll try to get some pictures taken of me while I'm all suited up in flack vest, kevlar helmet, camo painted face, and M-16.

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . .

FOOTBALL SEASON!

Our beloved Rams kicked off their season yesterday against our big rival, the Buffs. Sadly, we suffered another devistating lost at the foot of the Buff's place kicker as we lost by a fieldgoal in OT. At least I was lucky enough to watch the game from Florida. LeMar was at work, so he missed out.

The Broncos first game of the season is next weekend. You can sure bet that I'll be watching every game televised in these parts, but it figures that I would be TDY for their Monday night game against the Packers.

The Jena Six

Racism still exists in the 21st century. Please do your part.

4 day weekend!

Happy Labor day family and friends! Thanks to the glorious employer God has blessed me with, the good ol' Air Force, I have a four-day weekend! Sadly, my husband has a one-day weekend on Monday, but hey, up until yesterday, I thought we wouldn't share a day off at all over the next four days.

I have been assigned to the "Air Team" in the "Airbase Sciences Branch (MLQL)" of AFRL. Yup, "MLQL" doesn't really stand for anything. It is NOT an acronym. I didn't even know the AF had non-acronyms. At any rate, I will be working on either an atmospheric chemistry project or a geopolymer project. I could possibly do some of both. I'm preparing for a simulated deployment right now. Four of my fellow CGOs at AFRL-Tyndall and I will be joining other CGOs from the larger AFRL for a 2 week exercise held at Ft. Dix, NJ. I get to pretend to be deployed basically. There are several reasons AFRL does this for their people, but the benefit for me is a lot of free stuff. I've been given Gortex pants and a jacket, 2 new pairs of boots, 5 pairs of socks, reflective belt, flashlight, and 4 T-shirts all FREE and all mine to keep. I keep hearing the exercise really sucks, but like much of the things in the military, it is very beneficial to have a positive attitude. I will be TDY from September 12 - 28.

LeMar has been plugging away at school and work. He has gotten his Police Academy uniform and will start wearing that to class daily next week. His uniform consists of combat-like boots, solid black BDU pants (un-bloused), a royal blue polo shirt with a police academy emblem, and a terrible, old-farmer style (no offense), blue hat with foam front, mesh back and an ugly braided rope across the base of the bill. I'll try to get a picture up soon.

Please keep us in your prayers as our hunt for a Baptist church home continues to be challenging. We have yet to find one where we can get connected with people close to us in age and stage of life. There are two Catholic churches within a reasonable distance; each is unique and enjoyable. The deciding factor between these will be a timing issue with the Baptist service we find.

Pink Eye

LeMar has pink eye. I'm praying I don't get it.

Big Week

LeMar and I have embarked upon a new week, and it is a big one for us. I will finally be assigned to a permanent lab and project this week. By permanent I mean where I will spend the next 1-2 years. There are 3 different labs were I could be working and about double that for available projects. At least I was able to voice my preferences for my lab/project assignment. Interested in what we do at the Air Force Research Lab's at Tyndall AFB, check out these websites: http://www.ml.afrl.af.mil/mlq/default.html, http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=148 or http://www.united-publishers.com/TyndallGuide/associate.html#det2afrl.

LeMar begins his class work at the police academy today. His classes run 5 days a week from 8-1. For his school, check out: http://ps.gulfcoast.edu/cjta.htm. He's excited to get started in this area, but also a bit sad to have to cut back his hours at Sam's Club. Instead of pushing 40 hours every week, he'll be scaling back to less than 30 and probably even less than that. It should definitely give him more time to focus on homework and studying, but will take away the extra money we've been enjoying.

We shared a Sunday off yesterday and were able to drive over to Ft Walton Beach and visit our good friend Brian. It was a real joy to see him again and get to visit with an "old friend" by which I mean someone we've known longer than 6 weeks!

Florida Weather

Now, it's not something that I normally do, but for some reason only known to God, I decided to check out what the weather would be like for the next couple of days..in Florida. Why don't I? Well simple, every since I've moved here it has been all about they same: hot. Maybe I was hoping for a change, maybe I was holding out for a glimmer of hope that it would snow, maybe I was thinking that it would get cooler. Maybe, just maybe the summertime heat bestowed in me a momentary instant of insanity.

Here is what I saw on a 10-day stretch during the month of August beginning on the 15th:

93 - 93 - 91 - 93 - 92 - 93 - 92 - 93 - 91 - 91 all degrees Fahrenheit

What's more each caption beside the temperature read "Scattered Thunderstorms" and most said partly cloudy. Can you believe it?..big whoop, who woulda thought!

Pointless as though it may seem, I have just come to the realization that checking is a futile and mundane task that can be crossed of my list of to-dos- Indefinitely! The moral of the story? There are no need for weathermen in the summer, everyday is just as miserably hot as the last.

Our . . . visitor

LéMar and I had a . . . visitor last night, an unwelcomed visitor. I guess you could call him/her an intruder. LéMar went into the linen closet for a towel and saw him on the wall. It was a fiesty little bug and wouldn't be sprayed or squished to death. Hopefully it was mortally wounded before we pushed it onto the dustpan and threw it out into the night. I hope that scorpian and all of his/her little friends get the message that this is not a bug friendly household. Add this little guy to the list of reasons we prefer Colorado over Florida.

Welcome to our place

We are pretty well moved in now, and would love to give you a tour of our house. There are now some pictures uploaded of our new place, which is the best we can do for now. We also took some video and will try to get that uploaded soon. Thanks to all of you who gave us wedding presents, they are fitting in nicely in our home. Anytime you are in the neighborhood, drop us a line. We would love the opportunity to visit with any of our friends and family and have the opportunity to give you a tour in person.

In the beginning . . .

So, we've started this blog to update friends and family of our lives now that we are separated from the majority of them. To start things off, we are now residing in Lynn Haven, FL near Panama City (Beach) in the Florida panhandle. I am working at the Air Force Research Labs at Tyndall AFB which is about a 30 min drive from our place. LeMar is still working part-time at Sam's Club and his classes for law enforcement certification start very soon, on August 15th.

We found a great place to rent in Lynn Haven, as I said before, which splits the driving difference between my work and LeMar's school. It also puts us close to all the stores and resturants of Panama City but off the beaten path a bit. The place is 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a nice open floor plan. We will soon put up pictures and maybe even a video tour.

We took a lovely trip to the beach today and enjoyed the sun, sand, salt water, breeze, and in my case some Harry Potter. LeMar has already finished the 7th book, and now it is my turn.

Please check back often, we will try to update frequently.

God bless, LeMar & Emily