A very busy decade.

My Sweet Husband and I were watching the CBS Sunday Morning Show this weekend.

They were reviewing the last decade. It seems like this decade has lasted more than ten years.

In January of 2000, our lives were completely different.
At home, I was a busy Mom who lived in a busy neighborhood of North Charleston, SC.
Our house was a nice one, and good sized, but it was modern.
It had a fireplace, but it was so small the only thing you could burn in it was those "dura flame" artificial logs, one at a time. Our yard was tiny. We purchased our first home computer that year.
The United States was not at war with anyone.
I was a Technical Sargent serving in the US Air Force.

My career field was Aircraft Electro Environmental systems Technician, but in 2000 I was serving as the Squadron Security Manager. I was a few years from retirement, so we started looking into what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.
My Sweet Husband started looking at Real Estate on the Internet. He found an 1830's Antebellum Plantation House in a national forest that reminded us of a dream from long ago. We came up to look at it, twice, then made an offer. Shortly after our offer was accepted, the house appeared on the real estate sampler page of Country Living Magazine. (Yes, I bought several copies). We were very lucky. If the magazine had chosen this house a month before, they might not have been willing to accept our offer so quickly.
(click here for more pictures of the house)

We were supposed to sign the papers for the house Mid-September of 2001 but after September 11, my scheduled leave was cancelled. The US went to war.
Our plans were put on hold, but not for long. We signed for this wonderful old antebellum before the end of  2001. We figured I could come up on the weekends for the short amount of time I had left. 

Then I got promoted.

In order to accept the promotion, I had to agree to stay in a little longer. It meant living apart longer, but it also made a significant difference in retirement benefits. We had a family conference and decided to go for it.

The gentleman on the left, wearing Red, white and blue, is my big brother Jimmy, MSgt US Army, retired.  Click here for Jimmy's Post The one on the right in BDU's like mine is my commander, Major Gerald Frederick.

Here they are "tacking on" my stripes. 

As a new Master Sargent, I became Non Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of the Technical Order Distribution Office. (TODO) Not the most important or glamorous job in the Air Force, but an interesting one. I got to work with some great people.

I took advantage of the more predictable hours and went back to school.

In May of 2003, I completed my Community College of the Air Force Degree in Aviation Technology. I had been working towards it on and off for my entire career.

There are not many jobs in the area of our lovely old house for aircraft maintainers, there are even fewer for a forty plus year old female. In September of 2003, I started taking pre-nursing courses after work.

In 2005, I finally retired. The gentleman placing my retirement pin is Maj Mosley, my last commander.

 Finally, I could move into this wonderful old house full time. I attended Piedmont Technical College and went to work as a Nurse Extern until I received my Associate Degree in Nursing in December of 2006. One of the literature classes I took, required us to keep a blog. It was only viewable to other class members and all posts were class assignments, but I did learn to use the blogger format.
In January of 2007, I became licensed as a Registered Nurse.

 The new nurse.
I took one semester off, and started working on my Bachelors.
I got a new digital camera for Christmas in 2007 from my Sweet Husband I started taking pictures again.
A good friend introduced me to photo shop and I discovered digital scrapbooking.
I found a copy of "Artful Blogger" magazine next to the scrapbooking section at Barnes and Noble.
I wrote my first post for this blog on May 18, 2008. (Click here for my first post if you missed it)

I completed my Bachelors of Science in Nursing in May of 2010 and started working on my Masters in September. When I graduate in a couple more years, I will have a Masters in Nursing Education.

So, you see, I have been a busy girl.
I like my new life, but I better get some home work done.
See you later.
Kat
p.s. comments are always appriciated!