If I could write a letter to me....

So I want to take you guys back to a day that has played though my head many of times the past few weeks...

2010.....2009.....2008.....2007.....2006.....2005 Ah! Here we are!

It's May 20, 2005 about 10 am. I am standing in the bus loading zone of Lowdnes High School after my change of command ceremony. It's HOT and all I want to do is get back in the AC and out of my uniform. After finishing up an interview with the Valdosta Daily Times and our Sr. Aerospace Science Instructor Col. Failor I figure I am pretty much free to go. Then this first lieutenant comes up to me, he introduces himself as the new so so at the detachment at VSU and he wanted to talk to me about weather I was planning on joining when I graduate in a year. I think man Col. Wes really set this guy up. See Brittany was a freshman at DET 172 and every time someone from there came to an awards banquet, military ball, softball game, etc they wanted to get the OTHER Falkenhausen girl to join to. I can't remember my exact words to him but I am sure it had something to do with never joining ANY branch of the service, but in true Katie form I added "I am gonna marry a pilot!" .....FAST FORWARD....... March 6, 2010 That LT (by now a Captain) stood up as a grooms man in my wedding....to a PILOT.

My point to this is that El Cappyton should have laughed in my face on my wedding day and told me CONGRATULATIONS Girl....you just joined the US Air Force!

Steve graduated pilot training on May 20th he left for SERE a week later. He returned this weekend for 32 hours and left again today for 6 week TDY for training. He will get back to Columbus on Aug 7th. We have to leave for Colorado on Aug 10th. Anyone picking up on anything here??? Someone has to make all the arrangements...any takers?? Yea I didn't think so!

The past few weeks I have learned that it can take up to two weeks for people to do their job and get someones orders done, but if you show up in their office and gently explain that if you do not have said orders done by 4 pm their Col and I will be in there office by 4:15 you can get them done in 15 mins. I now know the first paragraph of a Special Power of Attorney BY HEART! I memorized it while waiting in the TMO office for 2 hours to be seen. I can tell you even though they have a copy of your 5 different POA's you should always bring another copy f each with you because they never seem to be able to find them. I wonder who does have all the answers to my questions about moving because whenever I go up there I am told I am sorry the person who knows that isn't working today. I have learned that I don't know if I ever want to live on base housing again. I have so much crap to do to this house that it will look better the day I move out then it did the day I moved in. Tomorrow I have to get Steve's plane tickets for second half of the TDY he's on now because order issues I talked about before, go to housing and fill out paper work for us to get out of this GOD FORSAKEN house in 6 weeks, and go to TriCare to figure out how my doctors stuff is going to work out. OH yea in case you forgot I am 4 months pregnant.

I know I am not alone, but on nights like tonight I feel like it. I am running off roughly 4 hours of sleep. My entire body aches and I have acid reflux like you would not believe. I crawled into bed an hour ago and couldn't get to sleep. I just keep thinking this is a worse case PCS. My husband will be gone for pretty much the entire two months before, I am stuck with dealing with stuff on this end on a base that apparently can't get anything done right until it's done twice, and I am pregnant with our first child. If I can get though this move I can make it though anything the Air Force sends me right? So what would I have told 16 year old me on that May day back in 2005? Never say Never? You don't have to be sworn in to join the military? Or are you really sure you want to marry a pilot? Probably, but I would have added when your sitting at your computer at 11 pm completely exhausted wondering how am I get though these next 6 weeks remember why you are there...Because you fell in love with the most amazing man in the world and yes he happened to be a Pilot and you would walk though hell and back for him.

Second Trimester and Trucking along.....

So yesterday I officially entered into my second trimester!! However, I am still dealing with awful "morning sickness". I use that term lightly considering that mine usually hits about 5pm. I had my second OB appointment today and I was a little disappointed that I didn't have an ultrasound but tis life. I did however get to hear the lil ones heartbeat going strong at 166 rpm! The doctor said everything looks great which is a sigh of relief. We get to find out weather we are team blue or team pink on July 18th! Pending Baby Fett plays along. I cannot wait!

Steve is still in Washington at SERE. He will be graduating on Friday which I am sure cannot get here fast enough for him. Then he will be "free" for 5 days before he starts water survival training. He comes back home for a grand total of 24 hours before heading to Dallas TX for C-21 training. Needless to say the Air Force is doing it's job keeping him busy as a bee.

I am looking forward to Brittany coming to spend sometime with me this weekend. It's funny how prefect her timing is because pretty much all of my friends are going out of town this weekend so it will be nice to have someone around. Plus I want to spend as much time with her as I can because Colorado is a long way from LA! :-( Other then that life is pretty much the same old same old.

When does motherhood start?

So my sister and I had a conversation yesterday which made me think of a conversation I had with another friend about a year ago. At the time we were discussing when does a mother become a mother? My friend (who shall remain nameless) believes that you are not actually a mother until the day your child is born. To be honest I really didn't have an opinion on the subject as I was not a mother so I felt I could not possibly understand the full extent of a mother's love. However, things have changed.

If you ask me my answer is simple, I became a mother on April 10, 2011. This was the day that my life changed as I know it. I no longer worried about just Steve and myself my world suddenly revolved around a tiny lil human that I have yet to meet. My actions suddenly did not just effect me they effected my child. My friend's argument was that as a mother you had protect your child and help them grow up. She believed these were things you can not do for a child a in the womb. Well I have a whole perspective on said topic. I live everyday protecting and helping my 13 1/2 week old baby grow. He/She already means more to me then my own life. To me that is what being a mother really means.

I still do not claim to know the full extent of a mother's love, but I can only image what an amazing journey Steve and I are embarking on as parents.

SUPT IS OVER!!!!

YAY!! After 13 long months Steve graduated SUPT on Friday! I could not be more proud of him and all that he has made it though this past year. We got to spend a lovely weekend hanging out with family and friends celebrating all that the Class of 11-09 has accomplished.

Steve getting his wings!

(AND YES! There is a TINY BABY BUMP!)

Although, UPT is over for us there is no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Steve leaves for SERE (survival training/water survival) on SUNDAY. Yes, I said Sunday as in THREE DAYS FROM NOW. He will be gone until the 25th of June but will only be back home for 48 hours because he leaves again on the 27th for C-21 Training. He will not return until Aug 7th and We will be hitting the road Aug 10th. Which means Katie will be left alone here in Columbus to do all the prep work, packing, and such to get us ready to leave for COLORADO!!! SO if ANY of you are bored this summer you are welcome to come spend time with me and baby b!!!

Baby B Update!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't been on in a while. Baby B has been enjoying making me SUPER ill, but things are getting better! Our little soybean is 10 weeks old now doing well. We had our first official O.B. Appointment on Thursday. Baby's heartbeat was really good 176 BPM! Which apparently here means your having girl, but up north it means your having a Boy so I guess we still don't know what soybean is. LOL We will find out in July! And yes, we are finding out because God knows I could not possibly wait till December. LOL So here they are Baby B's latest photo shot. If you look really closely at the bottom picture you can see baby's lil feet and lil nub arms. So Exciting!!!

Wanna make God Laugh?

Tell him your plans!

So, for those of you who have kept up with Steve and my plans the last year you know that we had our hopes on getting assigned to the RC-135 in Ouffit AFB Nebraska. We knew that the RC is not a popular plane so we felt that our chances were pretty high. Like always though God had other plans. Friday night at the assignment night both of us had the BIGGEST shock of our lives thus far. When Steve stepped up for his roasting I was convinced that I would see pretty much one of two outcomes. Either the RC (which to be honest I was not excited about moving to NE) or FAIPing here at Columbus (which he was not so excited about). However, my jaw hit the ground when the slide with the words C-21 to Peterson AFB CO popped up. WHAT!!!! I was so shocked I could not even think the rest of the night. In fact until it was over I was convinced that they had screwed up Steve with someone else. Here's why... C-21 to Peterson is a DREAM assignment. It usually only goes to people who have it in the number one and two position on their dream sheet. It was number 19 on ours. Not because he didn't like the plane but it just wasn't something he ever expressed interest in. Yet, here we are. By the end of this year we will be living in Colorado Springs and I have to admit I am super STOKED!

I lived in Aurora CO for 4 years as a child and from what I can remember it was awesome. I know my parents absolutely LOVED it and they are super excited about coming to visit. It took Steve a little longer to warm up to the idea but now he is just as excited as I am. OR at least that's what he tells me. So I don't know what God has in store for us in CO but I cannot wait to find out.

Baby B's Impromptu Photo Shoot!

So for those of you who don't know I have been away this week on a road trip with my friend Rachel. We spent some time with both of our families and I personally had a blast! However, the trip came to a screech halt this morning when I woke up. I will spare you all the details but it was enough to scare the bejeezes of out me. I called the OB and of course they wanted me to come in just to have everything checked out. So Rachel and I jumped in the car ( Seriously, I am still in my PJ's) and took off like two Bats out of Montgomery! Sitting in the waiting room with Steve (Still in my PJ's) was the longest 20 mins of my life. All I could think was something was wrong and they are taking their SWEET time to get to me! I was in a panic but finally she called my name. So we went back to the ultrasound room and.......

According to the Ultrasound Tech everything looked "Fantastic!!!" The Baby was prefect length for 8wks and we got to hear the heartbeat (158)! Which was the most AWESOME sound in the WHOLE world. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying. Steve on the other hand was holding tight to the chair to stop himself from passing out! But I am proud of him because he had a smile on his face the whole time. :-) So even though we don't know what caused the spotting this morning we do know that right now everything SEEMS just FINE! Which is load off my back. I won't feel 100% better until until I see my OB next week and he tells us everything is fine, but I feel good enough now that I am calm. So that's always a good thing! :-)! So I am about to go LAY DOWN and tomorrow I plan on spending the WHOLE day on my butt! :-)