September has arrived!

Anyone else LOVING this amazing cool weather?  I sure hope its here to stay!!!  I am usually all about the hot summers but this year was just too much for me so I completely welcome you fall!!!  Along with fall weather comes the busy fall schedules filled with football, holidays, new clothes, and yummy foods!!   I CANT WAIT!!

Well I have a lot of catching up to do!!  A lot has gone on since the last blog!  It is probably best if I break things into categories!

House-
We have FINALLY unpacked ALL boxes and just about have everything where it belongs!  I am still struggling with all of my work stuff because our office space is just not large enough for everything.

Move in- things fall apart:  we had a small tragedy a few weekends ago.  It had been nice, sunny, and hot all day with no sign or prediction of a storm... when all of the sudden out of no where strong winds with vertical rain came blazing through and lasted about 10 minutes.  Once the storm passed we went out to find that one of our fences had fallen down.  Luckily Matts family was in town to help put it back up with temporary post until we can replace them!!

So now we get to start budgeting for fence repairs- YAY! :(

Matt- Sere:
Matt completed SERE training in Spokane, WA on August 26th!  It was so great getting to speak to him on a regular basis again!  Its hard for me to go into detail about this training because so much of it is "classified" and can not be shared for various reasons.  But I can give you an overview of some of the things they were trained on:  Captivity (as a hostage, prisoner of war, and peace time), escape techniques, interrogation, survival (with few items on them- like if matts jet went down), rescue, mapping (how to get to safe zone), and much more.  Matt was put into a group of 5 and here is a picture of them geared up!

When they were out for their week of survival in the wilderness, they were given a live rabbit and chicken as food for the week.  Typically this is enough food to for a few days but unfortunately they were under a burn ban and could only build a fire the first night- meaning they had to cook everything the first night and toss the left overs.  So for the rest of the week they basically lived off of berries and nuts because even if they caught anything (fish, squirrel, bird) they couldnt cook it.  So as soon as Matt got back from the trip he and some others ordered several pizzas and devoured them!!
Here they are mapping their route to a safe zone

 When Matt graduated from SERE, he flew back to Oklahoma and loaded up his car with the few things I left behind for him and he made is drive to Tucson, AZ!

Tucson-
Matt Arrived in Tucson August 31th and I flew down to meet him Sept 1 for our anniversary (which was the 29th)!! It was so great seeing him!  We stayed in a hotel on base because he hadn't found an apartment yet.  We spent a lot of the time being tourist and eating!!  Matt is fairly familiar with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base since his home unit does annual trainings there so he showed me around.  It is a  much bigger base then im use to.  One of the first places we went was the "boneyard".  The boneyard is where military aircraft is "sent to die" (as Matt stated).  There were just endless amounts of planes for miles and miles.  Many of these planes and parts can be restored and used but for the most part they all just sit there.

We also went and toured the Pima Air and Space museum which is one of the largest air and space museums in the world!! There were LOTS and LOTS of planes! First we took a trolly tour!

This one was one of my favorites!  It has SLEDS on it so it can land on snow and ice! Isnt that intersting??

Here are some other planes:

And the helo's (for joe)

After the trolly ride we went to the space hanger! 

we got out picture taken on the moon!!

And then we went and visited all the other airplane hanger and had some fun!

Looked inside an A-10 (Matts Jet) (please note Matt wearing my camera purse in pictures)

This is Matt explaining to me how they practiced rescue pick-ups with this helicopter at SERE.  They would have a sling hanging down and they would be running and have to grab ahold and hong on!!!  

And Matt standing next to the A-10!!  He is so excited to finally be flying this jet- His Jet!

The last place we went was Mt. Lemmon!!!  It was so much fun!!  When you start the drive up, it is ALL rock, weeds, and cactus.  There were several bikers going up and down as we drove past them in the car!! As you make your way up you begin seeing some trees and rock.  Once you reach the top it is ALL green!!  We decided to take the ski lift up and walk around some! It was so amazing to see the changes as you reached higher elevations!

 Tucson was a great place to visit and see Matt but not a place id like to call home!!  

Baby:

Baby Cooley continues to grow!!  I am no longer sick and have most of my energy back!  I had an appointment yesterday and heard the little ones heart just a racing!!!  My next appointment is October the 6th and will hopefully find out the baby's gender!!  SOOO EXCITED!!  So far we have a pool out for the date and gender!  Date: A few people are shooting for leap day, actual day, and others my birthday (march 4).  Gender:  most votes are a male??  Not sure what they are basing this on considering my sides dominate girls genes but who knows??  What do you think??