11/15/06 - 14th Letter

14th letter
Wed. 11/15/06

So we are pretty much frustrated out of our minds with the Education Center here. These are the people that are the stepping stones to get Bryan commissioned as an Officer. They don’t know what they’re talking about, and try to turn it around and make it look like WE don’t know what we’re talking about. Either that or the guy we’ve been dealing with the last couple days is COMPLETELY scatterbrained. We know everything we need to do; we just need them for a few things that we can’t do ourselves….like getting them to administer the Officer Qualifying Test….SHEESH. So, we wanted to submit an officer packet in December for the board that meets in January, but that’s not going to happen due mainly to our crappy education center here and their lack of knowledge. So looks like we will be submitting a packet in May/June, for the board that meets in July. This means sometime around August 10th of next year we’ll find out if he was selected or not. We are disappointed in this turn of events…but perhaps it was meant to be. It will give him a chance to put together a more effective packet, and to get a more worthwhile Letter of Recommendation. Plus, he has to go down to Tokyo (Yokota AB) to take a TBAS test that pilot applicants have to take. We had to find out that one on our own…had we known earlier…people here don’t even KNOW what this TBAS is (the people who SHOULD know)…they act like they know, but only after we tell them what it is. I’m so extremely frustrated and I can no longer talk to this guy about any of it, Bryan will have to, because I gave this guy my piece. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t let him make us (me) look like an idiot when he was the idiot. Ugh!!
Alright, I guess I’ve got to let it go even though I’m bugged to death. Tomorrow morning Bryan finally gets to take the test he’s been trying to schedule since August. The Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. A huge deal as it will TOTALLY affect his whole future with the Air Force – his life-long dream of flying for them. This last week he has been doing extra studying for that, finishing his huge 20-page paper, and working on his CDC’s (upgrade training for work) – all with a much longer work schedule. Isn’t he amazing? I think so. That’s why I married him.
Brock is 7 weeks old today which of course as you know, I think is crazy. He is getting chubbier and balder. Soon I suppose he will look like an old man. He has quite the thigh roll. Man, rolls make it hard to wash him! Bryan does an excellent job at washing our babes – I cannot do it! It just makes me frustrated. Brock averages 4-5 hours from each feeding time. And I am learning his little ways. I will send pictures of a bunch of different face “poses.” On one of the last ones I tried to cover some of his chubs (neck and cheek chubs) with my hand… It is really easy to get him to smile. His favorite things to do are to eat, be held, poop, pee, sleep, and grunt.
On Monday I had my 2-week follow up with Dr. Blake concerning my gallbladder surgery. He said that I heal well and all looks fairly good (he didn’t get to see it when it was bad – it itched so very badly all around the 4 surgery sites that I thought I was going to lose my mind – it finally let up and tons of my skin died and peeled off). He said that I might have some pigment change around some of the sites – great. He looked at my c-section scar too – I told him that it is sore here and there and has a few bumps in it. I told him I cannot pull on it to look at it because that hurts. So he looked at it and pulled on it. Later that day I realized I was bleeding on the scar. After a few band-aids I realized the bleeding wasn’t stopping…and I touched it and it felt like a hole! Tuesday I had my 6-week OB appt and I showed them this. The doctor was alarmed but after pushing a Q-tip into the hole to see if it went all the way through (OUCH!!!), she found that it didn’t. So she put some stuff on it to burn it, to help it to heal (OW! OW! OW!!). Man do I wish all could be back to normal on my stomach! Ploka.
Monday morning before my doctor’s appt I took another one of my tests with the proctor here. Bryan was too busy and so Brock had his first babysitter experience!! I had asked Melissa the night before at the potluck if I could bring him in the morning while I took the test. She was great and took him for over 2 hours – what a lifesaver! It sure was hard to be out of the door by 7:30am though!!
Bryan had to get a ride to work so I could take our borrowed car. Yes – our car isn’t working. It completely died the morning Bryan was picking me up from the hospital the morning after my surgery. He had to have it jumped the night before when he was leaving the hospital, then again when he was leaving to come get me, but the car died on the way. Some kind soul picked up Bryan and brought him back home and a guy Bryan works with came over (cuz at this point most of the people we know are at church!) and they went and got a tow rope to bring the car back home. It could not be jumped – it was completely dead. Bryan figured out it was the alternator and after putting that $150 thing in, it kept blowing a fuse when he tried to start the car. Last night Bryan’s supervisor came over and they worked into the evening…and they actually fried 2 sets of jumper cables. They figured somehow the polarity in the alternator must be reversed. So this is where we stand here. So yeah, Bryan has been working on the car this last week, on TOP of everything else he’s been doing. Like I said, amazing. So right now we are driving the work buddy’s car (this is the guy that’s actually his trainer) that helped tow the car back, because he left for the states for a couple of weeks. But now he’s coming back on Sunday…and we still don’t have a car that works. I guess we were just glad it worked long enough to get me to my gallbladder ultrasound, and to the ER when I thought I was going to die.
There was quite the earthquake here last week. It felt like someone was shaking my bed as hard as they could and even went on for a bit. I even got worried. But not worried enough to actually get out of bed of course. It was like the one that happened when my mom was here that scared her pretty bad – it shook the sliding glass doors, and shook the couch she was sitting on…it was funny when she jumped. But this one was even worse. Bryan was already at work, and he didn’t even feel it! It seems like they never feel them there.
Well, I think that’s it for now….yes I can’t think of anything else…
How about some of you that I haven’t heard from in a while let me know how you’re doing….JASON.
Love you all,
The little Blumenkrantz Family (the Japan appendage)

For all the pics, click on the link and then click on the picture to view the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.4ql0x9u0&x=0&y=-10d5ds&localeid=en_US. There are a lot of "repetitive" pictures - but you know how it is - the grandparents want to see them - so for the rest of you - you can skim! Bryan's dad is always asking for more pictures so I try to do so. The one where Brock's face is being squished together while I'm holding him - I realized it looks like those could be my arms - they're not, they're Bryan's! (I don't have nasty man arms). I also realized from these pictures - I need some sun - sheesh! We can't quite figure out why pictures distort the color of Brock's hair - it doesn't make sense. ...and the camera adds 10 pounds on Brock... haha. Ever so often he likes to look at his nose - hence some of the crossed eyes in the pictures - not so attractive! And then the ones saying goodbye to my mom at the misawa city airport - sad! And it's funny how when Brock is sitting how his head sinks down and really makes him look huge! Oh well - a fat baby is a healthy baby I hear! Love him to death!
**There is also one in there towards the end of a new baby bundled in a blue blanket - that is Ashley Castleberry's boy, Cadence, born Nov. 1st.

And here is the slideshow of Brock's faces: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.8o4rm7ew&x=0&y=u0h4xq&localeid=en_US. He's a chunk!!