Last Friday was the Friday we've been waiting for for what seems like forever- the day Lance got his assignment.  We're so so so happy and excited to say that we'll be moving to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, and that Lance will be flying his dream plane, the C-17 Globemaster III. 

Before I get into all of my excitement, I'll give a brief rundown of the actual assignment night.  A ton of people showed up for our class' assignments, the largest swarms of green flightsuits were spotted around the room-temperature pizza. After showing the class' noble attempt at making a funny video, each student is asked up to the front of the room, while a funny quip that their classmates wrote is read about them by their flight commanders- who obviously censored some of the more colorful stories!  The projector then displays 3 labeled photos of various aircraft, which are then eliminated one by one until the final plane remains. 

When we ranked our planes and bases a few weeks ago it was clear that this would be a good assignment night, meaning there were a lot of cool planes going to a lot of great bases.  By the end of it all it seems to be acknowledged that this was the best assignment night in a long time! While most classes usually get 1 fighter, ours got 3, and the rest of the planes were all on the cooler end of the spectrum- we would have been happy with a lot of the other assignments, but were even more fortunate to get our first choice.

I'm beyond excited to be going back to the West coast, (best coast), to an area where 'fine dining' does not mean Chili's, there's a Nordstrom, 'seafood' does not just mean catfish,  hiking won't first require a 2 hour drive, and its a place that's just plain nice to look at!  I'm optimistic about the job market there, happy that my family is just a short, and usually cheap, plane ride away.  Its imminent that Lance will deploy early in our stay there, and I'm happy to be in a place full of diversions for when that happens.

I'm anxious to start prepping to leave Enid, but alas, we don't have any dates or orders yet- its more that likely that we'll face another Oklahoma summer, as C-17 training takes place at Altus AFB in southern Oklahoma.  Apparently its a pretty chill training program, we've heard 5 hour days only 4 days a week.  Hopefully we'll also get a few trips in before going down there.

Obviously, with it being Good Friday, it would be a little trite of me to write a post complaining about the trivial misgivings of my life in Enid.  Truthfully, with change in the wind I've been feeling a little sad and even scared to be leaving, because the good here far outweighs the bad. Here are some good things I'll miss about Enid/Vance:

FRIENDS! We've both been beyond fortunate in the friends that we've found here.  Whether its a good laugh, joking about Eniods, or an in depth discussion about Harry Potter, they've really what has made our experience in Enid a good one.

Barbeque- oh, sorry, did you think this was going all be thoughtful and meditative things? Because even if you did, you're in luck- we've started taking our BBQ very seriously! I'm definitely an amateur connoisseur, but boy to I like learning!

Our Church- We've been attending St. Gregory's Catholic Church, and though I can't say we've been especially involved, its such a sweet little community that I think has a really good focus and grasp on what it means to be a good, loving, and tolerant Christian person.

Pilot Training, At the beginning of pilot training there's a bunch of hoohah to students and wives about this being the most difficult year of their lives, and how you'll basically only see you husband for a few hours on Saturday if he isn't flying.  For us at least, this has been total baloney! While it hasn't been all easy, and has at times been very stressful, I can't say that it has been overly trying.  Lance deserves all the credit for this, he's great at getting what needs to be done completed in the flight room, and carves out room to hang out with me every day, and we usually have plenty of time for fun on the weekends. 

There's a bunch of other little things that have been giving me little pangs of sadness when I realize we'll be leaving, like the nice guy at the deli counter at the commissary, the cool movie theater in Kingfisher, the hot dog store, and the man on Broadway that walks his 5 pugs everyday at 4.  I'm starting to get really excited though, to get to discover the new quirks and gems in a few new places this year and next!