Beginning of the career

So, I graduated Tech School on Friday Dec. 18, 2015.

I left Ft. Meade en route to Illinois on Saturday.

After a grueling 852 mile, twelve and a half hour drive, I made it home. That following week we visited with family, had our entire house packed, and I traveled to Palm Harbor to visit [my ex-husband’s] family.

Christmas this year was fantastic. I wasn’t expecting any gifts because the greatest gift for me was just being around my family.

I got to surprise majority of the family! I captured most of the reactions in a youtube video. The reactions that T didn’t really get to capture were from Tracker, Grandma Raenae, and Brandt.

Tracker went absolutely ape shi*. I think she missed me more than Diesel and Copper. Well, that’s probably not true, but she freaked out more than they did. Oh, how I wish i would have recorded it.

Grandma Raenae’s facial expression when she realized who I was when i walked through the door was absolutely priceless. Although I got her visit on camera, she wasn’t really in view.

Brandt’s reaction was by far the best one out of everyone. I was at the end of the bleachers visiting Riley and Kelsey yelled something out to Brandt. I looked up and Brandt and I made eye contact and he just threw his hands in the air and jumped up and down. Another priceless reaction not captured on video.

Honestly, that’s how it goes. The things you want to capture and keep forever can never actually be captured on film. Those moments are just memories that I hope never fade from my memory.

After visiting family in Illinois, visiting [ex-husband’s] family in Florida, and packing our entire lives into cardboard boxes, [he] and I set out for our trek to Minot AFB, ND on January 4, 2016.

The trip to Minot AFB from Scott AFB is 1,149 miles. 16 hours and 40 minutes (if you go the speed limit) (and you don’t have dogs).

Since I have a hard time even driving a few hours, we decided to stop in Minneapolis for the first night. We didn’t do anything. Although I wanted to visit the source of the Mississippi River sooooooo bad. (AND, it onlllllllyyyyyy would have added about 2 hours to the trip).

Oh well, it will probably be there for…. forever.

So wake-up Tuesday morning, and we continue the trip to Minot AFB. As we travel, the scenery around me starts to morph into the most beautiful terrain I have ever laid my eyes on.

Traveling through Missouri can be quite beautiful, however, I have never seen such terrain. Yes, it was mostly flat, but, there was various amounts of elevation that caught my eye. Missouri has beautiful hills, but for some reason this just captured my attention.

As we neared our future home, I saw a billboard for the ‘Largest Buffalo’. Umm, of course I had to stop.

The largest buffalo was in Jamestown, ND. They had a small village that was “Old West” theme. It was very cool to see.

When we made it to the Super 8 in town we settled in, but i had to go to work the next day so I went to bed early-ish.

As I write this post, I’ve been at work for exactly one week and I haven’t really done much.

I have gone to my Finance briefing. Which was pointless because I don’t get a damn dime. In the same room, immediately after the finance brief, I had my MPF briefing. Which, quite frankly, i don’t even remember what we did.

In the office, I haven’t done much. I have worked on CBTs and that’s about it.

I did however receive my camera gear! And it is beautiful.

I have FTAC Jan 19-22.

Stay classy.