Sunday, Rob spoke in sacrament meeting (doing a great job), then after church we went to my parents' home for a family dinner. This year, even some out-of-towners were there. These past couple of weeks Guy's loved playing with his Oklahoma cousins, and Graydon was in for the weekend, too.

Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at a park. That was okay, but then we spent some family time (about 2 hours) just playing at the park--and just snapping away.

Monday after work (and our usual family pizza Monday) I wanted to go to the Verizon store to look into getting a new phone so we could video chat while I am at COT. Caitlin was fine with that, but asked to "run an errand" first.

I agreed without a second thought and just had my mind on cool new smart phones, since my current one is a 3 year old brick

Off we went on an errand and after driving for a bit, not knowing where this errand was taking us, I asked. I was told "You're not allowed to ask questions."

After about 15-20 minutes we arrived outside of someone's house, shortly after that the garage door went up and what did I see but....

...My Dream Bike!!!

An orange 2008 Suzuki M109r! I have been wanting this motorcycle since I knew it existed and thanks to Caitlin I now have the title in hand.

It has the Guy 2 thumbs seal of approval.

Thanks Caitlin, you are the awesomest!

Worth a few minutes of your time - I promise.

I'm grateful for my knowledge of and faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and for this Easter season to celebrate the glory and miracle of His resurrection.

Rob posted on the blog for the first time yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny, and we appreciate all the feedback. For now, the story is unfinished, but when it is, I'll share it.

Funny story . . .

Before Rob and I got married, I became resigned to the fact that I would never have a kid with blue eyes. After Guy's eyes, I was more than okay with that (I love his eyes). Even when I was pregnant with Cooper, I told a couple of people that I'd never have a kid with blue eyes, my only hope was for blue eyes grandkids. My sister, Eden, kept telling me that wasn't true.

Turns out, Eden's right. So far. And yes, I still have to have that little disclaimer just because I'm still not ready to believe they'll stay (that's me, trying to not set myself up for disappointment). My mom was actually the first one to say they could be blue - when he was born, they were gray. I was thinking hazel at that point.

These 9 weeks, I've become more and more hopeful that they stay, and now I think it would be a cruel trick if they changed.

We're still figuring plenty out about this whole new job and things, and some of the stuff that I've recently learned is a little surprising. So far, nothing is a deal breaker, but I still wish I'd known it ahead of time.

To give you an idea . . .

The officer pays for his own uniforms before training. From two sources we've heard different numbers: $1,500 or $2,500. Neither one is chump change, right?

In the military, you get 30 days off each year (I think Rob knew that part, I forget). However, not for interns (that's how all social workers that are getting their LCSW are classified). Minor detail, right? For the first year, if we're lucky, he might get five days off (depends on the Commanding Officer - some give none). He does get holidays, and he does accrue the 30 days, but can't use any of them.

Because he doesn't get any official time off he has to stay within 300 miles (or maybe 200 miles?) of base at all times--including holidays. No family visits for us in the next year.

We still have a lot to learn. All that we have learned, in fact, comes from extraneous sources--thank goodness for them!

I'm ready to create a new blog dedicated to revealing all of the gems of infomation that the recruiter maybe could have considered sharing sometime in the very drawn out application process.

By the way, the security process has been kind of crazy. With Rob working his 2 jobs he hasn't had time to hunt things down. So I've been doing that sort of thing. Including numbers off his sister's "born abroad" certificate (or whatever it's really called), friends (personal references) he's known longer than 7 years, all of my parents info. I joke that soon they are going to need the name of my mom's first grade teacher. It's kind of crazy.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base - right outside of Dayton, Ohio