Dear USAF, you're giving me gray hairs.

As if being a spouse of a deployed service member isn't stressful enough, AMC (Air Mobility Command) at BWI made my morning absolutely miserable.

Every time I come home, I travel on the rotator since it's convienent and cheap. The plane leaves from beside Kevin's shop and arrives at BWI, which is where I'd fly into if I flew commercial. The rotator goes by space available, so you're never guaranteed a seat and you don't know til that day if you have a seat. You are categorized by priority and that's how they issue seats. For example someone on emergency leave is a higher category than a retiree that's just traveling abroad. There are 6 categories. If Rosalie and I fly with Kevin, we are considered a Cat 3. If we fly without him, we're considered a Cat 5. Since Kevin's deployed, that makes us a Cat 4. Anyways to fly on the rotator without your sponsor (Kevin) you need a command sponsorship letter.

Rosalie and I came to the US as Cat 4s and had no problems with our letter. The other day I faxed it to BWI and I called this morning to confirm that they received it and that we were signed up. The guy gave me a hard time saying our letter said Kevin was only TDY and wasn't deployed and that didn't make us a Cat 4. I argued with him and it got me no where. I had the letter in my hand it said "CAT 4: for dependents of deployed service members who are deployed for more than 120 consecutive days" and then it listed his deployment dates, which was more than 120 days. Even though there were FOUR paragraphs saying I was the spouse of a deployed service member, they wouldn't accept it because when the girl typed the letter she wrote "TDY DATES FROM x days - x days" instead of writing "DEPLOYMENT DATES FROM x days - x days." One stupid lil typo cause me one big headache this morning.

So. I do the first thing I can think of.. email Kevin's flight chief. Sure enough, he was on vacation. That's the kind of luck I have lol. I needed to get a hold of Kevin's squadron because that's where they do the letters but I didn't have a phone number or an e-mail. One of the other spouses gave me the email address of the MSgt in charge while the flight chief was gone. I emailed him and he got me a new letter from the commander within 2 hours. I faxed it to BWI and they said I was good to go. Everything worked out but needless to say, I was a wreck all morning.

Onto some happier notes!

I started planning Rosalie's "big girl" room for when we PCS. I'm doing it in a Paris theme. I found this bedding at Pottery Barn and had to order it as soon as I saw it! It's a hot item right now. It JUST came out and the sheets are on back order so those are the only piece to the bedding that hasn't came yet. I ordered her a paris themed growth chart and a sign for her door. I found a shelf with hooks on it, baskets, a big eiffel tower to stick on the wall, and tons tons more cool stuff. I have it all bookmarked and am going to order stuff here and there. We still have 11 1/2 months.



I also treated myself to a new diaper bag. RARELY do I buy anything for myself. I absolutely LOVEEE it.



Since I've been back in the states, I have REALLY blown my diet. Well, when I realized my jeans were getting snug I decided it was time to get back on track. Before coming to the states I was down 6 lbs of my 20 lbs goal. I decided to start back at zero since I wasn't exactly sure how much I had gained back since my mom's scale is naturally off from mine. Since I started back at zero, which was less than a week ago, I'm down 4 lbs and I feel great! I'm going to weigh myself every Friday and I'm hoping to be down 20 before Kevin gets back from his deployment.

In honor of St Patty's Day, Rosalie and I decided to do a lil photo shoot. The pics turned out so cute! Hope everyone has a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!!!

MY FAVORITE!