Virginia Women's State Record!!!

(ABOVE- the girls, geared up)

(ABOVE- record formation built! i'm in the lower right corner in black and teal!)

This summer, at Skydive The Point, we attempted the women's record for the State of Virginia, and we built it on the 2nd attempt! Go chicas! =)

Pics from Deployment....

(ABOVE- something special about ATFC was that we were probably the only unit in Afghanistan that had all 5 services serving within the unit itself... this was dinner one nite when we just happened to have one of each service exactly and Gunny had his camera!)
(ABOVE- prolly my favorite picture, this is me in Leatherneck, in the South of Afghanistan, holding the CG flag!)

(ABOVE- Tifanny, me, and Kalita... the ATFC girls... it was just us three for most of the time in Bagram as the girls for ATFC..., Tiff my roomie made me laugh all the time!)
(ABOVE- LTC and me... there is a story about this "thumbs down".... I will forever be known as the ATFC officer who on a big VTC (pretty much including all sorts of national level offices) gave a thumbs down when I was on camera, responding to someone... it was actually pretty funny at the time and was totally appropriate when it happened... it gave us all a laugh and LTC even mentioned it in his departing speech about me when he gave me my award.
(ABOVE- COL and I... he's awesome! really awesome O-6 to work for!)
(ABOVE- my going away shadow box with flag and coins! this was award nite... I got a DMSM! which is freakin awesome!!!!!, LTC said a lot of nice words about me which I wasnt expecting to hear, it really made me feel proud for what I had done here... )

(ABOVE- my Confirmation at EASTER!! I finally got confirmed this Easter, I'm so happy about this! Thank you for everyone for supported me thru this! My Saints name is St. Catherine Laboure! on the right is my sponsor, Kelly, he helped me thru the whole process and was very supportive!)

(ABOVE- We definitely got plenty of care packages through out the months, this one in particular is when our LTC rcvd a box of hundreds of boxes of girl scout cookies!!! omg we ate them all in like a week!)

Almost done...

Whew... what a crazy 6months in Afghanistan... wow... this is the first I've had internet to be able to post in a long time...

I'm in Al Udeid again, not quite home yet, still doing some work for my unit... but you all know I'm coming home soon... I'll post some pictures over the next few days when I have time.

I miss home so much!

Michael is also far away from home, but we will be together soon and I can't wait!!

Hurry up and Wait...

Anyone see Noah?
at least the mountain of seabags makes for a comfy bed!

Deployed... First Stop: Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar

So after a REALLY long flight to Doha, Qatar. Noah and I made it to Al Udeid.
We are extremely jetlagged, but here is a pic of us
Next post will be when I have internet somewhere in Afghanistan, I don't know where or when... but I'll try to post when I can. For anyone trying to keep up, I'm 8hrs ahead of East Coast time right now, and when I get to Afghanistan it will be a little bit more than 8hrs...
but anyways, I'm safe and sound and ready to go...

Good Times, Good friends... 5 yrs later!

Jan, Me and James in 2004...

and last nite we got together again... man its been WAY too long since all three of us got to hang out...
(BELOW- James, Me and Jan... 2009 hehe)
(BELOW- Me and Jan)

(Below- James and Me)
We had an awesome dinner and catchin up on old times last nite at Ceviche in Tampa...
Good times... Good friends... You guys are awesome! Miss you already! Hope we can all get together again soon... and Yes Jan, I will someday be able to get to Norway!

Soldiers hold joint Training

Check out: THE POST FT. DIX

I'm quoted in the article "Soldiers hold joint training"

They did take pictures of the Coasties but guess we werent pretty enough to put in the paper. =( They said they'd email me some of the pics though so if I get em, i'll post up....

In the "Narmy" Now....

(ABOVE- CDR, me, Noah, back row- Mike, Doc, Weiss, Big-O, Bills, Mike and Baylor

So, as you know i've been at FT. DIX for some predeployment training. Well i'll try to describe the madness... Above is the group I went through training with. We were a group of 4 navy guys and 6 coasties, all "attached" to a navy command on base. The ten of us did everything together day and nite 24/7 practically, we lived in 4 rooms right next to each other in one part of a barracks. Notice, i'm the only girl in the group.. yeah that was interesting..... The guys were great, they took good care of me... and of course they liked to pick on me a great bit too.

The gang got along real great, nicknames started pretty quick... there were 5 officers and 5 enlisted. Three of the O's were named Mike... one we called doc... bec he's a PA. We called the CDR, CDR bec he was in charge! The senior Navy PO we called Big-O or alphabet soup bec his last name was so long.. BIG-O did a lot of extra work and we owe a lot to him for finishing up! Weiss we started calling the kid, bec he was the youngest and is practically an olympic runner, weiss ran me to shame a couple times, i couldnt keep up! Then of course they had a nickname for me... they called me Princess... well mostly Mike (the NYC mike) called me that.

The gang was pretty good though!

The trng was definitly beneficial, the navy unit hosting us called it "You're in the Narmy now" bec we definitely played army. One thing i'm certain of... I'm glad I didnt join the army! It was fun but I wouldnt want to do this stuff forever.

We got combat lifesavor certified, that was fun, we did real iv's on each other in that class.. check it out

(above- Me just having successfully given a combat IV to Bills)
(below- Me after my 2nd IV, I volunteered to get stuck twice, one in each arm bec i'm not afraid of needles, fun stuff, hehe)

The land nav course was interesting, We went through the training with a lot of Air Force folks deploying. My land nav team was Doc, Doria, Me and Rosanne an AF Major who loves driving the humvee... man that course was crazy... we almost got lost but we actually finished all three courses really fast! we ended up waiting around for almost 3 hrs waiting for other teams to finish. At one point Doc surprised us all by climbing a tree! We couldnt figure out how to get around a swamp and all of a sudden Doc was up in a tree... OMG it was funny!

(Below- Rosanne and Me at one of our markers)

Ok... so one of the STUPIDEST things ever.... the Army has GOT to change this one... OMG, no wonder they have problems in theater with rapes and sexual harassment... they ADVERTISE where the damn females are... like are you kidding me???

look at what i had to have outside my tent on at the "FOB" (forward operating base). LIke seriously... lets advertise where all the females are! and this one I was in the tent by myself bec there were no other girls... not that I'm not tough, I am, I can handle myself, but still, the tent shouldnt be singled out like that!

(below- The dumbest idea the army had).

We did so much trng i'm trying to remember all the stuff we did... it was crazy... long days some days.

I'm really comfortable with my m16 now though, I can fully take it apart and clean it all by myself no problem, I'm really comfortable shooting it. I shot more the past month that I previously had in my entire CG career, so that was cool.

well i think thats all the highlights i have time for right now... i'll try to remember more later...

OMG we made it through!

So today... The 6 coasties made it through FT. DIX A-25 pre-deployment training... We just played army for over a month and OMG are we glad to be done!! I have lots of stories and photos to share with everyone, but dont have time to get the pics and blog right this second, but i'll try to get it up this wkd...

it feels so weird to not be locked down anymore... got a little bit of time before i'm gone and locked down for 6 full months in theater..

Pre-Deployment Trng at FT. DIX

(Above- post egress)
(Above- me getting in the gunner's harness...)
(above- Mike and I post trng, he saved my butt)
So most of you know I left DC for my pre-deployment training. It's been busy, I dont have much time to check email, but I wanted to post some pictures from the HEAT trainer yesterday, our team went through HUMVEE Rollover training, it was pretty crazy. I was the unlucky gunner position which is the position that isnt strapped in and if your team doesnt hold onto you, then you go flying all around inside... here are a few pics...

Just read....

I took this photo today of a memorial of a bunch of old war letters...

man... what a powerful love letter... almost made me cry to read it...

riding the plane down is not so fun...

When the green light comes on... this is NOT the view you want to see =(
Sadly unable to see the dz at all... we had to ride the plane down! I havent ridden the plane down in over a year! Luckily the clouds broke up enough the rest of the day to get some good jumps in, and the sky was GORGEOUS with the clouds, I have some really cool video of the sky yesterday with these clouds, me flying around them =) when I get some more time i'll try to post that stuff tonite...

But for now... I'm off to report in to my pre-deployment training! Wish me luck!

Good bye DC...

So I packed up and left DC this weekend... PRE-Deployment training starts monday am...
I'm starting off in Portsmouth, VA... but will be at a few different places through now and December...
I"ll try to keep everybody updated through trng and before i actually go to Afghanistan...
thanks everyone for the well wishes! I'm excited!

BOOOOOOGIE

(ABOVE- Rick's 1000th!)

So this long wkd was an awesome boogie for Carol Clay's Birthday! I got 19 jumps in... it was SUPER crowded but way fun, we got in Rick's 1000th jump!! check out the video below from Braden's camera, i'll try to post mine as well...

Not a bad wkd of jumping...

(above-Belly flyers- myself, Carol, Dara, Jason, and ANDREW, hangers- Pete, Corey and Brett)
So above is a Hybrid we did for Andrews 100th jump! Go Andrew...

And today we did John's 700th...
a total of 13 for me this wkd... not bad not bad...
whew, i'm beat... now time for some time in the ijoy and then to bed!

Whew... the tour is over...

UPDATE... PIC taken by Irwin Photographer Steve Kifer and was on the front page of the Irwin Paper!




Man oh man, was that a busy two weeks with the 257 Army Band! It honestly was a blast though, the patriotism at each place we performed was amazing and it was great to be a part of the spirit.
I've uploaded a lot of the video to youtube, so just check out my youtube page.

Above, is Sing, King, Swing at Brevard College in NC, and below is Saxophobia



As soon as I get pics from John I'll post them up too =)

Kick off of the tour...

So tonite was the kick off performance of the 2week tour for the 257th Army Band... John and I were brought on as dancers to add some entertainment to part of the show...
above you can see our attempted costume of WWII theme... and below you can see the video... of our first time performing it... we perform almost every nite in the next two weeks, so hopefully it gets better and better, (we still have a few things to work out) but not too bad, we were pretty happy considering we had such few practices to put it all together... the crowd seemed to really like us!

7 yrs and 508 jumps until...

My FIRST CUTAWAY...
yep... had my first one this Saturday... AND Since I was videoing an AFF student I have it all on video... as soon as I have time to dl the video i'll post it up here...
Thanks everyone for spending hours helping me look for my main. SOOOOOO happy we found everything!

raw footage above...

500 Baby!!

UPDATE: HERE's the SLIDESHOW of ALL the PICS!!

So.... FINALLY after all the hold ups, of bad weather, trips to the ER, blah blah... , I was able to make my 500th jump this past Saturday. And it rocked, I was really lucky I had a great group of friends. And Michael was even able to make it on the jump, (though against my better judgment, he jumped with a torn bicep tendon... tsk tsk tsk, which he is now sitting in surgery for, and i'm in the waiting room blogging... ) but he was DETERMINED to be on that jump with me, I couldn't stop him, luckily it all went well, we made it through the points TWICE! and no one got hurt! So I couldn't have asked for a better jump! Thanks everyone!
oh and thanks for the fabulous pie filling that i'm STILL cleaning out of my ears and clothes!!! omg!!

Give me a little bit and i'll add some video and all the pics in a slide show... here's a quick shot of what Corey did... but I still have to DL the video from my helmet =)

Yay for me...

I passed the exam! I officially am a Certified Personal Trainer!!! I'll be working at MP location of VIDA on various nites... sooooo excited that i've added this cert to my resume...

When the rain ruins our day...skydivers will still play...

So this wkd, the rain pretty much took all our jumping fun away, we did get a few loads in the fireball (cessna)... I got one in, where Brett just watched me spin on my back trying to go into a sitfly... but we did learn that JoAnn and I are on the exact same jump number... pretty cool...

Jo... we better watch out, I heard Jason is gonna pie the hell outta us next wkd when we hit 500!

but anyways... instead we cooked and got our hair cut,... thanks Jarod!! u rok!

next weekend will definitely be full of jumpin our asses off though!!!

HONOR FLIGHT....

Above- LT Tongol, USCG and Homer "Mac" McCown, 92, ARMY AIR CORPS group engineering, Middle/East/North Africa/Italy Jan 12, 1942-July 31st, 1945.

11APRIL2009
On 11apr2009, a group of 32 Ohio Veterans were flown to Washington D.C. after my hometown high school raised money for their travel on what is now know as the "Honor Flight."

The Honor Flight Network, flies veterans to see their memorials at no cost. This particular flight flew WWII veterans from central Ohio to see the memorial of which none had seen before.

After my mother forwarded me the article and information of the group coming from my home town, I knew I had to be there at the memorial when they arrived. On the morning of the Honor Flight, it was nothing but thunderstorms and pouring rain, but I put on my uniform and walked from my DC apt to the WWII memorial and waited in the rain to meet the Veterans, as you can see the rain did nothing to our spirits, it was all smiles and joy when they arrived. It was a humbling experience to watch them all see the memorial for the first time, and it was definitely a reminder of why I joined the service myself...

Above is a picture of me with the oldest of the Veterans...

I was also told that when the Veterans returned home to Ohio, there was a large crowd awaiting their return to welcome them home as they deserve! God Bless them all... we all should take a little time to honor those that served before us, for this Country.

We love you Frankie...

A sad day in the lindy hop world today... the legend, the inspiration, the one and only Frankie Manning Passed away...
We will never forget you Frankie...

Time for a change...

Who's that girl???

yep... that's me ;)

Congrats Erika and Kevin

My best friend growing up found out that her 2nd child is going to be a baby girl!

Congrats Erika! So happy for you!
I love you!!

Making Choices...

So over the past couple years, my list of hobbies grew substantially from only skydiving... to skydiving, dancing, working out, triathlons/racing... and wanting to compete in all three...

With being a full time Coast Guard Officer, I really was stretching myself thin... but I thought I could do it all. The truth is, I was half-assing all three... not being able to focus 100% on competing in either, I was "good" at all of them, but not in the top like I want.

I raced, and while in 1 triathlon I was 1 second out of first for my age group, that was the closest I got... and in dancing I am just staying at the solid int/adv level, (which is still awesome and a lot of fun) but not devoting time to go to enough events to get better. Skydivng I was able compete locally and do well, but again not at the level I dreamed of...

So really, I would LOVE to be able to be incredible at all three and compete Nationally at all three and do well, it is just NOT possible, so something's gotta give... I gotta choose...

SO... this year, as most of you probably already guessed, I am choosing skydiving. No more dance wkds, no more racing... this year I'm focusing on skydiving. I want to go to nationals and I want that next level. It's hard, because I LOVE dancing, but I've decided that I can be ok with just social dancing weekly. And racing, while I love the feeling of finishing a race, I can't keep a training schedule that is feasible with the classes I already teach... so... choice made...

Lindy Hop, Racing-->back burner for now...
Skydiving is it...

and I'm thankful Michael now is involved and loves the sport too...

5-way video...

So Jason passed along a video of a 5-way we did a few weeks ago at sunset =)
I'm the one that comes down to the formation after everyone (because I dove out after them)... not bad.... a little shaky at times... but not bad

For the Record...

It sucks being stuck in your own car with your car keys and not being able to start the car bec some random alarm that you didn't even know the car had starts going off and doesn't let your own car key start the car!!!

OMG!!!!! seriously

other than that.. pretty awesome wkd.

Why I do what I do...

Today after I taught my POWER class at VIDA, one of the girls who has been taking my class regularly came up to me in the locker room and said, "Hey, I just want you to know that I love your class! It's my favorite part of the week, I look forward to it all day long!"

She also was excited that she was seeing results from taking the class.

It made me feel so good to hear that. It gives me such a boost of energy and motivation to keep teaching when students come up and tell me they enjoy my teaching and classes.

So thanks guys! I keep teaching because you guys are awesome!

My Cousin Becca...

So this is my younger cousin Becca... singing at her Senior Nite..

gosh Becca I remember when we were all running around in our little swim suits as babies in Michigan... and now you're graduating high school... crazy!
Awesome! You rock!

A beautiful Saturday...

ROLLIN into the parking lot of the DZ just after 9am... and this is what we see... GORGEOUS!!! perfect sky, perfect temp, no winds! OMG...
Yesterday the air was so amazing... just beautiful. I can't even describe it. All day, it was like butter, gliding through, so smooth, it was just an awesome beautiful BLUE SKY skydiving day.
I got 8 in! And I even packed for myself and didnt slow myself down, so I was happy with myself for keeping up with folks!
I met some awesome new folks yesterday too... thanks JoAnn for all the email arranging and the carpooling. Can't wait for all the fun this season!
Below are some pics of me waiting for sunset load... don't worry I remembered to put my rig on fully after that first pic...

(BELOW- sun goin down... me waitin on the plane... we ended the day with a pretty good 5-way, i can post the video once jason sends it to me!)
(BELOW- wheres the plane?wheres the plane?... we wanna jump!!)

My annual sweets fast....

So today is Ash Wednesday... the start of Lent for Christians. As a Catholic I find this time of year brings me back to the Church if I've gone astray a little. I give up sweets every year... and so again this year, today marks the start of no chocolate, candy, ice cream or anything of the sort, for me!
And since most of you know how BIG of a sweet tooth I have, its a pretty big deal. I usually lose a few lbs over lent because of the amount of sugar decrease in my diet.

So... what else are folks giving up for Lent?

Red Dress Ball...

(Above- Charlie and I dancing ...)
(Above- Ben and I)

(Above- Charlie and I)

So on Valentines Day, there was a RED DRESS BALL at Glen Echo. The ballroom was filled with red dresses galore! It was quite a sight. And the gentlemen all looked great, as most were dressed up in suits and red shirts. It was a lot of fun...

Ben has a few more pics HERE

POWER is here

So TUESDAY we launched POWER at VIDA at the METROPOLE location. It was awesome. We taught back to back classes that were absolutely packed to capacity. I was totally sore wednesday, but it was worth it. The first class I taught with Adriane and Ty, the second class I taught with Adriane and Lauren.... so much fun!

Wednesday nite I taught my first full POWER class that nite. It was fun, I had a pretty full class, I hope people keep coming back!

The sad part is, We forgot the camera and so no pictures from the launch =(
so sad considering how cute we looked in our matching outfits!

So right now my schedule at Metropole is POWER on tuesday's at 1800 and POWER on Wednesday's at 1915

Pre-launch of POWER

So last nite was our "preview" of POWER at VIDA. Juliet, Ed and I were the team taught at Metropole. It was a lot of fun. We had cute little outfits (i'll get a better picture on tuesday from the big launch). But the class was great, full class! and we had lots of fun!

More to come on TUESDAY when the BIG LAUNCH happens!!

POWER is coming....

TCO at Glen Echo....24JAN09

So last nite was a typical Saturday Nite for the local DC lindy hoppers. Tom Cunningham Orchestra rockin it out at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo. As always, good times. Here's some videos, Charlie and I just goofin off =) and Ben and I for some reason went into the jam and here's what we ended up doing... a little silly entrance but hey... we got some laughs!

BEN and I...

CHARLIE and I....

(ABOVE- DEB and ME)

(ABOVE- Jerry, Me, Ben)

First Prize...

Soooooo, tonite's Jam Cellar Dance was a Black and White Ball. Everyone came all dressed up in their finest. The JC crew decided to have a Jack and Jill comp for the special nite. I entered because I figured what the hey, and the Prize was a WHITE CHOCOLATE replica of the Capitol!! I SO wanted it....
Luck was on my side tonite, because I randomly drew Doug, which of course gave us a LIL bit of an advantage than the other 6 couples, Lily and Kevin gave us a good run for our money though!.

Result: WE WON! =) and I, of course, fought Doug for the chocolate hehe.

UPDATE:
Just got these emailed to me from last nite... Jerry and I, and Doug and I, before the dancing begun...

Pics from Squeak...

(ABOVE- Ben and Me doing a cheesy dance move which is why we're laughing)

(ABOVE- Ben and Me exiting the Jam Circle)

(ABOVE- Dave and I...Swinging Out!)

(BELOW- The COOL DIPS!)

So, Jennr8r brings Squeak and Mrs. Squeak out to Glen Echo last Saturday for the dance. Squeak is a skydiver from Australia, who Jenn and I know from dropzone.com, and no, we still dont know his actual name, he just says ... call me Squeak. Squeak and Mrs. Squeak were good sports, they watched, they danced, had a good time, and Squeak was nice enough to take pictures =). Which I thought was cool, because I hardly ever get pictures of me dancing. He mostly took pics of me dancing with Ben and Dave.