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