Getting Settle At Shaw Air Force Base

We're now officially in SC and spent this past week inprocessing the base. As is always the case when showing up at a new base, there are inprocessing checklists to complete and newcomer meetings to attend. In addition to this, we found a second car, purchased our baby furniture and spent six hours at another furniture store in Columbia, the states capital, getting other things we'll need for our new home...we move in 31 March! During the four years overseas, I stayed in apartments or a dorm room on base which were furnished, so there wasn't a need to buy much. Lets just say we're now thankful for zero down and zero % interest for 24 months!

Over the next couple weeks, I'll continue to inprocess and get ready to fly while waiting for my security paperwork be corrected. I was supposed to be at Luke AFB in Phoenix now attending a course, but due to this paperwork issue we flew direct to Shaw in the meantime. Plan B is now for me to attend this course in April about a week after we move into the house. I'll update more in a few weeks after we're in the house and I know what the next steps will be with my training.

Bavarian Mortor Works (BMW)

Before Lana and I flew back to the USA, we took a tour of the Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) plant. The BMW headquarters is just to the north of downtown Munich, near the Olympic complex from 1972. It was a very interesting tour showing how the BMW 3 series is made from start to finish...back in 2001, our BMW was made at the same plant. The tour started with the parts section, then moved to parts assembly. There are over 600 robots in the assembly section alone putting the different parts together...it's felt as though we were in a terminator movie of some kind with sparks flying around as the robot moved and welded.

From there we moved into the paint section, door assembly, drive train and finally the final assembly belt. There are 900 cars rolling off the assembly line each day, taking 39-40 hours each to build. Sadly, we weren't able to take any pictures during the tour, but the pictures you see are from BMW World...I think I'm sold on BMW for life!

Vacation With Our American & German Family

After signing the contract on our new house early Friday morning the 12th of February , Lana and I made our way quickly to the airport to catch our flight to meet up with the American side of our family after 15 months of not seeing them! So quickly that I had to mail my keys back to a friend in South Carolina to pick up my car from the airport parking lot. The southern part of the States was having a cold spell with snow, so naturally flights were an issue; even more of an issue when you're flying standby through your wife's Lufthansa job. To make a long story short, we ended up renting a car and driving to Charlotte to get on a flight which wasn't full. And, instead of flying to Ohio we flew to Michigan. At the end of a long day, it was great to be back with family again.

Our time with my family was spent between my parent's place in Michigan and my older brother Brent's house in Ohio. My three brothers are in Ohio near each other for both work and university. Lana and I were also able to see our new nephew Seth for the first time and spend time with our niece Elli who is growning like a weed. Towards the end of our week together, we were back in Michigan spending time with my sister Jenna who drove over from the Chicago area...it was at her wedding in December 2008 (read that post here) the last time Lana and I were with everyone. After a fast but great week, we drove with my sister back to Chicage where we caught a flight direct to Munich to be with our German family.

As I write this, Lana and I are sitting in Starbucks (I know, there are better places to get coffee in Munich, but the internet is free =) near Marienplatz...the city center of Munich. We spent our first two days back in Germany with Lana's grandparents in Chieming near the popular Lake Chiemsee. I'm pretty sure I always leave her grandparent's place a bit heavier than when I arrived because her grandma is always feeding us...mmm schnitzel! We did some sightseeing in Wasserburg on our way back to Munich and spent Thursday preparing for the Air Force movers to pack up Lana's things for shipment to the USA on Friday; we're looking forward to having all of our belongings back in the same location soon! Our shipment from storage in Virginia, from Korea and from Munich will be in our new home early in April.

Yesterday, we woke up to a great spring feeling day in Munich and I suggested we drive to see Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps. When Lana and I first met in Garmish back in September of 2006, we spent our second day together at this castle...great memories! The weather during our first visit wasn't the best, and we had wanted to make another trip back. It was the perfect day and is an amazing place...a man made wonder in the God created mountains!

Lana and I will be in Germany one more week. This was not our original plan, but we're not upset with being able to spend more time here. The short if it is, the Air Force messed up some of my paperwork and some of my training has been postponed. This paperwork is also a requirement for me to fly, so I've opted to stay here rather than sit around the base in South Carolina. We'll update again soon...God bless!

More Pictures:

Germany

Our New Home At Shaw Air Force Base

After one week and looking at close to 30 homes, Lana and I bought our first house together in Sumter, South Carolina about 10 minutes from Shaw Air Force Base! There are many reasons we chose this place; it's new construction, it's in a great location close to both the base and town and most importantly there are no neighbors behind our home. After a few days of looking, we had made a list of our top three homes but none of them had completely caught our eye. As Lana and I were searching on the internet Sunday night, we came across a newly constructed 3 bed (with an unfinished bonus room above the garage) / 2.5 bath home which looked very nice to both of us. It was dark outside by that time, but we decided to check it out anyway. As we pulled in the driveway, we both thought this could be our future home. I pointed the car's headlights towards the house and looked around some...it was very nice! We told our realtor the next day and returned to check out the inside, which we also liked. A finished bonus room, tile and wood floors, landscaping and sod were not included in the list price and we also wanted a shower put into the half bath. So, the rest of the day and some of the following, we spent getting bids on all of these things. With all of this data in hand, we put in a bid Tuesday night. The counter offer process went back and forth over the next couple of days until I finally requested to meet with the builder himself to talk over the pricing details. After an hour of negotiations, we had a signed contract by Friday morning at 10:00! Lana and I will be official owners of our first home on 1 April. It's a very exciting time as we move to the USA after four years overseas and prepare for the arrival of our first child in May. God has blessed us both with good jobs and we're thankful we're able to afford such a place. Give Lana and I a call if you're passing through the area...our house is always open!

Squadron Officers School Graduation

I finished SOS this morning after five weeks at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL. Near the middle of the graduation ceremony, they began read the list of distinguished graduates (DGs). The DGs are those who were able to make the top 10% of the class based on many factors, a few of which are class member ranking within the flight (we had 14 flight members), the flight commander ranking, academic grades and physical fitness scores. There were about 425 people in the class...about 42 DGs. Overall, our flight was great and thankfully all got along. However, we weren't ranked very high when it came to the overall flight ranking due to various reasons...some out of our control. Due to this, I didn't think any of us had a chance to get DG. As the list was read in alphabetical order by last name, they eventually came to E and I wasn't anticipating my name being called when they hit F...but it was! Praise God...it all goes back to Him!