From Turkey to the ER

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that all of our friends and family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so many amazing things in life to be thankful for and we feel so blessed by God's amazing presence in our lives.
Jason - "I'm thankful for family, of course."
Megan - "I'm thankful for being a mom and wife to two of the best guys I've ever known."
Jaxon - "I'm thankful for health and sleep and my great parents." (Interpreted by Jason).
Cooper - "I'm thankful to be the only dog in the house." (Interpreted by Megan).

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Tricia and Jacques' home. Jacques is a student in Jason's class and he and his wife, Tricia, opened their home to anyone staying in Columbus for the holiday. There were about 20 people who went. I made some sweet potatoes and fruit salad and Jason made his famous apple pie. It was a very nice day with great food. I did giggle halfway through the dinner when I took a minute to listen to conversations around the tables and realized that every single pilot was talking about flying. Such kids! We missed being home and being with family, but we are counting down the days until we are back in Kansas for Christmas.




We think this was the BEST apple pie Jason has ever made!! It was so yummy. In fact, there was none leftover. We're thinking about making another one this weekend, just to have some around to sanck on.





First Thanksgiving...for Jaxon. He has been eating table food more and more each day, so we decided to give him all the "real" Thanksgiving food. He loved the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and (mushed) green bean casserole.






Jason can't resist a beautiful day, lots of sky above. Gives me a heart attack everytime, but you can see by the look on Jaxon's face that he LOVES it!





Eating Thanksgiving dinner!





Chris and Mae enjoying some Jaxon time.





Some of the group eating turkey and chatting about flying.





This is the student in Jason's class from Iraq. He loves the kiddos.





Jaxon has been feeling icky most of the week. I think it was about Monday when we discovered he was having some trouble breathing and heard a lot of congestion in his chest and throat. I had good intentions of taking him to the clinic on Wednesday, but didn't get them called until it was too late. When he woke up Fri with the same symptoms, I decided to call the on-call flight doc. He suggested taking Jax to the ER, just in case it was something serious. The ER was extremely busy, since all of the walk-in clinics in town were closed, so 6 hours later we finally went home. After Jax got his temp taken, some chest X-Rays done, and blood drawn, they decided he had bronchitis. Although it stinks that he is sick, we were extremely thankful that is wasn't anything more serious. We went home with some cough medicine, an antibiotic and a steroid. We're hoping he kicks this soon and really praying for him to get a good night's sleep the rest of this week.




Jaxon and dad waiting patiently in the ER room. We were amazed at how well Jaxon did at the ER. He hardly fussed the entire time we were there.






They drew some blood so they could run a few tests. The blood was taken from his tiny finger. The technician told us he would probably fuss a little, but he never did. She pricked his finger and he didn't even flinch. Then he sat as still as a stone the entire time she squeezed blood into her catch tube. He was mesmerized by the band-aid on his finger.





A respiratory technician came and did a breathing treatment with Jaxon to help break up the mucous in his chest. He sat there the whole time with his mouth open while the tech held the tube in front of his face. Every tech, nurse, and doctor we saw complimented Jaxon on how well he did and what an amazing attitude he has. I guess he gets that from his super-positive, super-laid back dad.






Once we were finally home, Jaxon was sitting on Jason's lap and he just passed out. Jason was on the phone and just started rubbing Jaxon's head to calm him, the next thing we knew, Jaxon was sound asleep.

There's No Place Like Home

Jaxon and I went home to Kansas City for a few days last week. It was extremely busy, as we went from place to place visiting loved ones. Jax and I enjoyed seeing friends and family, but we missed Jason terribly. We are glad that our next visit home, Christmas, Jason will get to come with us. We were in KC for about four days, and we realized that that is not near enough time to see everyone and everything we want. We will plan better the next time that just me and Jax come to KC. We look forward to seeing more people when we're back in KC in December.





Here's the little traveler on the airplane. Jason thinks it's pretty ironic that Jaxon has flown twice in his little 9 months of life, and neither time Jason has been with us. Jaxon was an excellent traveler to and from Kansas City. He slept a lot of the trip and just played in my lap when he was awake.





After a long day of traveling (we missed our connecting in Atlanta and had to fly stand-by for another flight out), we were relieved to land in Kansas City (only an hour and half later than we thought). Aunt Jenn and Cousin Pay Pay (Page) picked us up from the airport and we met my mom (Memaw) and Uncle Austin for dinner at Olive Garden. At this point, Jaxon and I were exhausted and you can see in his little face that he was quite serious. Everywhere we went during our visit home he seemed to just stare for the first 10 min and observe everything. After that, his personality would come out and he'd be all smiles.







The next day was Page's birthday, so we had the waiters sing to her and bring her some Olive Garden chocolate cake! Yummy!







On Page's birthday, Jaxon and I surprised her and showed up at her school with Mr. Goodcents for lunch. She came running to us when she saw us waiting in the school lobby for her. Later that afternoon, we went back up to school to help Jenn pass out birthday treats to Page's classmates. This is Page in her classroom loving on Jax. I think she really enjoyed getting to show him off to her friends at school - again a serious face for Mr. Jaxon.







Here comes trouble. Seems like every niece, nephew, and now grandchild, can't resist Memaw's Tupperware cabinet. I came downstairs one morning and found him like this. Looks like he was having the time of his life amongst all the containers.







Dawn Marie and Kelli Jo came out on Friday night to say hi to me and Jaxon. Seeing them made me miss coaching cheerleading so much!







Friday night we also went to see my dad and Nancy, Grandma and Grandpa Hager. Jaxon had a lot of fun with their dog, Sabrina. He loved watching her run after her toys and he even helped Grandma throw the toys for Sabrina to fetch. He played hard at Grandma and Grandpa's and eventually crashed on Grandma Hager's shoulder.








Between meeting Page for lunch and helping pass out her birthday treats, Jaxon and I had lunch with Aunt Jenn at a local coffee shop. There were no high chairs, so Aunt Jenn held Jaxon while I fed him lunch. We didn't make too much of a mess either!!







On Saturday night, the Christie's came out to my mom's to visit. We had lots of yummy food and played Taboo. We missed having Jason there for game night, so we'll have to plan another get-together when he's home in December.


Hollie and Troy



Aunt Titi (Teresa) cuddling Jaxon.



The future Mr. and Mrs. Justin Chrisie.




Hollie and Memaw enjoying a game of Taboo.




Our annual picture! Although the dogs have changed from time to time, Hollie and I have taken a picture like this for the last 14 years. This is Cozy and Hollie's dog, Tia. Maybe at Christmas we can take a picture with Cooper and Tia - that would be the first time that both dogs in the picture are not borrowed from one of our parents!!





On Saturday morning, Jaxon and I went to the Riggs' house to play. We had lunch at a local restaurant, then went back to Ouma and Oupa's house for the kids to play. This is our 2 year old nephew, Braden. He wore this K-State sweatshirt just for Aunt Mimi!! He enjoyed seeing us, but I think he was really missing Uncle Jason.




Here's Jaxon with his cousin, Wyatt. They are just 10 weeks apart. What fun they are going to have in the next few years! Wyatt was moving all over the place, but Jaxon was content to just sit and watch him. At one point, they reached out their hands and held each other's hand for awhile. My sister-in-law got some better pictures of their interaction, I'll try to get them up on the blog when I get them from her.








Monday morning, Jaxon and I went to Cedar Creek Elementary, where I taught for the last five years. We visited with the fifth grade teachers and made our rounds through the school. It was great being back in the school and seeing all of my co-workers. I really miss teaching and being with these great educators, but I'm not ready to give up my job as Mommy just yet.



"Aunt Casie" - fifth grade teacher


John - special education teacher. He had Jaxon laughing so hard!



"Uncle Blake" - fifth grade teacher



Lynnlea - fifth grade teacher and Mommy-to-be




What a great 5 days! Jaxon and I came back to Mississippi exhausted, but we are glad we had the opportunity to come home for a few days and see friends and family. It was really special to be home for Page's eighth birthday! The day after we got home, Jaxon and I stayed in our PJ's most of the day and just chilled on the couch. Neither of us were anxious to get in the car and go anywhere. By day 2, it was back to the grindstone. There were groceries to get, and Jaxon and I had a meeting with the other wives of our class.

Next week should be a pretty exciting week for us down here. Weather permitting, Jason could solo as early as Wednesday of next week. Thanksgiving we are planning to go to some friends' house on base. So far there are 25 people planning to have Thanksgiving together! These houses aren't huge, so it should be pretty crazy!

These Boots Were Made for Walking

Jaxon in Daddy's "work" boots. Jason put him in them and Jaxon just started to laugh and clap his hands. Jason was pretty excited when he let go of Jaxon and he was able to balance himself.




His newest trick - clapping! We say, "Yay Jaxon" when he's clapping. Sometimes he'll look at us to get our attention and then start clapping.





Starting to fall, but still has a big smile on his face!

Get Me a Tool Belt

Normally these blogs are all about my boys, so today I decided to "toot my own horn" and blog a little about what I did yesterday.

I have been looking for a bookshelf for Jaxon's room for the last 9 months. I wanted something where the book covers face out so he could choose a book while looking at its cover rather than its spine (since he can't read the names on the spines yet). Pottery Barn for Kids had one, but it costs a bit more than I planned to spend. I looked in stores at home and in Mississippi, online, and at garage sales and finally settled on one online. It looks very similar to the Pottery Barn one, but a bit smaller and takes less from the checkbook.

Jason had been teasing me that it most likely would arrive while I was home in Kansas City and then he'd be stuck dealing with it. I tracked it online from the moment I purchased it and knew it was to arrive yesterday (Friday). I decided to surprise Jason and have it completely put together before he got home. Now, I typically don't enjoy projects like this. I'm impatient when it comes to following directions and usually quit mid-project and have Jason finish. So, I must say that I was pretty proud of myself for seeing this one through and it only took me about 30 min to get together and fill! I think Jaxon's room is completely finished now, minus the paint on the walls.




Here are all of the pieces and the one-page directions. Basically it was a bunch of pieces of wood, some canvas, and about 30 screws with one allen wrench.



Here's my little helper. He played along side me as I put all of my sweat into this project (literaly I was sweating, but that's probably more because the heater was on and it was like 70 degrees outside).



Here it is! We had plenty of books and toys to fill the empty spaces too. In fact, we still have a stack of books that weren't able fit in it - and as an educator, I find that to be a great problem to have.






I put him up to the bookshelf and he didn't waste any time. He just started digging in, looking for just the right one.






How perfect is this picture? I treasure moments like this.

Planes, Planes, and more Planes

This past weekend the base had a career day. They had a number of Air Force aircraft fly in from various bases. The student pilots sat in on a morning briefing where the pilots and crew of each aircraft spoke about their airframe, the missions of the airframe, and the purposes of the airframe. Then in the afternoon, families were invited to view the airplanes on static display.


Here she is: The Great Herk. This is a C-130 from Little Rock, AK. Little Rock is the training base for C-130's, which will be our next step after Jason gets his wings next October.




The boys referred to this one as the "biggest, baddest airplane" on base this day. This is a B-1 bomber. They were letting military and civilians climb the ladder into the cockpit, but we got in line a little too late. This plane is a monster!




The boys in dreamland. Here's Chris, Brad, and Jason standing near the KC-135 boom. All three of these guys are Air National Guard and commissioned together at AMS in Knoxville, TN this past June. Chris will fly KC-135 refuelers and Brad will also fly C-130's.



Our pilot in his "candy store."




Chris was a crew chief for his KC-135 unit, so he knows a lot about the plane. We all enjoyed hearing about the ins and outs of the plane from Chris' perspective. The guy all the way to the right of the picture is part of the crew and is an non-pilot aircrew instructor. When he overheard Chris giving us the tour, he started firing questions at Chris about how the 135 operates. Chris held his own and gained some respect from instructor!



Mae, Chris and Jason inside the 135! Jaxon and I stayed grounded because the only way to climb up into this monster plane was a ladder.




Here's Jaxon in one of the engines of the KC-135.







A pilatus right off the showroom floor! After serious modifications this plane will be a U-28.




Jason calls this one the "Gucci Tanker" because it's fairly new and has an interior similar to an airliner, including passenger seats. This is a KC-10 refueler. We all climbed up into the plane. Mae and the boys even went down into the boom pod.



Before the student pilots could leave, they had to do a FOD (Foreign Object Debris) Check. They stood shoulder to shoulder and walked the length of the runway in search of trash and rocks that might get sucked up in the plane's engines. Mae, Jaxon and I even helped with the FOD check. Here's a picture you don't see everyday: fifty plus student pilots walking slowly, side by side, looking on the ground for debris.






The happiest baby in the world! Jaxon was a trooper as his daddy took us from plane to plane on Saturday. It was very warm that day and I had the poor kid dressed in long sleeves! It was like another air show for us!