It's Fall, Y'all!

It has been over a MONTH since I've updated the blog! That's the longest I think I've ever gone! Fall is always a busy time of year, but of course this fall has been busier than ever, what with all the recent changes in life. I truly don't even know where to begin with updating.  I think I will just start with posting pictures.

 Chris' Birthday was October 16.  He turned 26! Upper 20's...seems so old! Haha.  It was a Tuesday, so I came home from Tuscaloosa to cook him dinner.  Unfortunately the brussel spouts got a little...toasty.  I partially blame our oven because it doesn't cook evenly! I promise, they didn't taste as burnt as they looked!

Linguine pasta with a cream sauce and cherry tomatoes, seared scallops over crab salad, and the little burnt balls...those are brussel spouts, haha.

For dessert, I made chocolate fondue! Yum!

Tammy contributed this bottle of port wine, which I picked out at a great wine store in Tuscaloosa called Carpe Vino.  The owner used to teach band at Drake Middle School in Auburn, where Chris went! Small world, huh? Aunt Bette gave us the glasses we used...she and her husband used to use them on special occasions.

The following weekend, we went to Nashville for the Auburn-Vandy game.  Yet another loss.  Don't get me started on Auburn football! I'm so over it this year! Not really, but I am trying to pretend I am.  Arg! I feel a rant coming on so I'm going to stop talking about it and share some pictures.

Smiling.  This must have been BEFORE it was obvious that we were going to lose...to VANDY!!

With Matt and Lauren Emily and Belle Meade plantation and winery

Cute pic with the photo op fall display at Belle Meade!

The guys were not understanding why it was so important for us to take pictures with this wagon of fall stuff! Haha

Getting ready to hit Broadway!

Singing some Karaoke...of course

The weekend after we went to Nashville, I went with Meredith to Dayton, Ohio to work on the Romney/Ryan campaign.  This was a really neat opportunity that we got through the Alabama GOP.  For 3 days we knocked on hundreds of doors.  It was very rewarding to actually work on the campaign for the candidate that I truly believed could get our country back on the right track.  Unfortunately, the election did not turn out how I wanted it to.  I'm very worried about our country's future but, like Auburn football, I am going to try to contain my rants! Because I could go on...and on...and on! But I'm going to try to spare everyone.  Between Auburn football being terrible this year and Obama being re-elected president, I honestly don't know how I'm making it through this fall! Okay stopping now. Here are some pictures.

We left from Birmingham and stopped in Huntsville to pick up more people.  There, there was a group of people to see us off with signs, balloons, and Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

Getting ready for door knocking on the first day.

At a rally to see Paul Ryan.  D.J., a guy Chris and Jon knew from the Air Force Academy, came with us.  He is stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton.

Doing an interview for a local news station

Paul Ryan! We were on the front row so we got a lot of good pictures.

So exciting! I got a picture with Paul! I'm a little sad that I look less than beautiful in it! Haha.  I had to take it myself because I was afraid that if I asked someone else to take it, that I wouldn't get it fast enough before he had to go!  I told him that my husband was in the Air Force and that we appreciated his and Mitt's support of our military.  He asked where we were stationed, and I told him at Columbus AFB.  He said to thank my husband for his service.  It was so awesome to get to meet and talk to him!

Meredith meeting Paul

I'm so glad I got the opportunity to dedicate my time to something I believed in.  One of the many awesome parts about my job now is that I have the flexibility to do things like that.  I will definitely be participating in the next election, as well, and getting involved in between as well. 

A few days after I got back from my Ohio trip was Halloween.  I came home so that I could hand out candy with Chris, but we didn't get many trick-or-treaters.  As many of you know, we live in the older part of the base with the smaller houses (planning to upgrade to the new neighborhood after Chris graduates!)  We decided to walk over to the newer neighborhood just to see all the kids walk around in their costumes and join in the festivities.  We dressed up Mason in his bee costume, which was quite the hit...there were a bunch of kids dressed up as bees too.  I wanted to ask them for a picture with Mason, but I didn't want to be creepy (haha).  We left a bowl of candy out at the house, and when we got back, all of it was gone.  So either we got a few trick-or-treaters, or one greedy one.

After Halloween was over, I didn't waste any time getting up my Thanksgiving decorations! I love the holiday season.  From October to December is such a festive time of year, and I love getting the house all decked out for all the big holidays. 

Well, I couldn't very well do all that decorating and not have people over to see it! AND, for Christmas last year, my parents got me a set of Thanksgiving plates. So I decided what I needed to do was have a Thanksgiving dinner party. 

Start of the buffet with apple cider sangria, the turkey wine glass I painted one day when I was feeling crafty, and my turkey plates!

Those are acorns in those vases with the candles.  Yes, I picked them up off of the ground myself, with the assistance of my helpful and dutiful husband!

Dinner! I cooked the turkey breasts in the crockpot with a stuffing recipe of Paula Deen's, which included dried cranberries.  Also, squash casserole and roasted asparagus.

Kevin, Jon, Autumn, and our new neighbor, Sam

Evan (Sam's husband), Mason (in his new sweater), Chris, me, Ralph, and Jenny

Buffet...in the middle was the hot spinach/artichoke dip appetizer I set out before dinner.  Like an idiot, I forgot to take a picture of the main course...the turkey...on my prized turkey platter!! Oh well, there's always next year.

Pumpkin cheesecake trifles!

This weekend, Chris is going on another cross-country trip, this time in the T-1. He will be flying to Lincoln, Nebraska...and making some other stops along the way, like Indianapolis and St. Louis.  I'm very excited, not because he will be gone, but because my girlfriends Tori and Sara are coming to visit for the weekend! Sara has been to see me a few times, but this is Tori's first trip to the lovely Columbus, MS.  She lives in Atlanta and has a demanding accounting job, but she finally has a chance to come visit and I'm so excited!

Some more exciting news...Chris and I are both getting new iPhones in a couple of weeks.  Our contract is finally running out with AT&T so we are moving our business to Verizon.  We have found AT&T's service to be completely terrible.  We don't even have service at our own house, despite 2 years of promises that AT&T was placing a new tower near the base "soon".  Now that I'm getting a new phone, hopefully the pictures I post will be much easier to see.  I dropped my phone over the summer and the screen broke.  I got the screen replaced, but I'm pretty sure it cracked the lens, too, which is why all my pictures are blurry now and the flash doesn't work properly.

Chris and I are both excited about my generous holiday breaks! I don't have to go back to school until November 26! I will still have to do some work during the break, but I can do that from home.  My classes end December 9 and Spring semester doesn't start until January 7.  Breaks like that definitely make it worth it for me to be away from home several nights a week. We are actually going to get to spend some real quality time with each other and family over the holidays! Last year, that wasn't the case because I only got one day off for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I also didn't have any vacation days to use since I had just started, so we barely got any family time for the holidays.  I am so excited about Christmas...I think I'm going to go ahead and start decorating for it today.  Yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but I've just got all this Christmas spirit and I need to do something about it. I'm going to spend my time off doing some of the things that have been on my to-do list since August, and making our home super cozy for the holidays.

Chris has been enjoying the T-1 more since they started the navigation phase.  He has gotten to go on several flights to different parts of the southeast, where he can stop and have lunch or dinner and then fly back. He's been flying at night some, and just completed his first low level flight, which is a flight about 500 feet off the ground.  Here are some pictures he's taken while the co-pilot has been flying the plane. In T-1s, there are 3 pilots in the plane...2 are in charge of the plane...Chris and his partner for that day...plus the instructor pilot.

This is Columbus AFB

And, this is Auburn!

Everything in life (other than politics and football...) is good now for both of us...it's hard to believe that Chris is just about 3 months from his assignment! And that I am almost done with my first semester back at school.  Thanks for reading, and I will try to be much better about keeping the blog updated during the holidays!