Our Life

Jack has arrived

2005-10-27T08:21:00.000-04:00

Jack Pearse W was born into the world on September 11th at 1024am. He weighed 3lb 11oz. For his first three weeks, he was housed in Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME. For T and I, this meant making the 45 minute each way drive, every day. The drive itself was not too bad. The problem was the parking situation. MMC is redoing its parking garage/adding a new garage/redoing the surface lots. Final result, on small, 200 spaces, surface lot for half of the hospitals employees plus all visitors. The other half of employees get reserved spaces in their own lot. With the record amount of rain in September, construction equipment and materials kept sliding down the hill of mud/future garage and into the streets. Numerous delays have followed and the project will not be completed until 2007.
Since Jack has been home, the W grandparents have visited and his Grandma G as well. All on our street have visited as well.(more on that at a later date) Jack now weighs 6lb 12oz, which is about right since he would have been born on the 29th of October or so. That's all for now. I will encourage T to post soon, since hers are more entertaining than my boring fact laden posts.

preterm labor

2005-08-13T07:37:00.000-04:00

T and I have been in the hospital since August 10th. We'll write more when things have calmed down.

A Question

2005-07-17T07:49:00.000-04:00

When a member of the Armed Forces, any branch, comes home from deployment, why do people ask if they've killed anyone? I asked this question when I was younger, and have since been asked it from a variety of people. Please weigh in.

Living "Single"

2005-07-13T19:28:00.000-04:00

Post from M:
Well, T left for Pensacola last Thursday and I have been on my own ever since. T was going to have a baby shower, but that has been cancelled to the hurricane. She and her Mother drove up to Memphis to escape the storm and visit family. T will return late this weekend. Since T has been gone, I have been catching up on some guy stuff. I went to see "Land of the Dead," a movie about zombies from the master himself, Romero. Any horror movie fan would love it. Stays in the mold of "Night of the Living Dead", "Return of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", etc. Also went to see the "Fantastic Four." It was better than I expected, since I expected a big pile of manure like "Elektra." Anyway, I've also been keeping busy with work. I have been progressing through the squadron and now only have one flight left. This is a check flight, which basically means that I can be the NAVCOMM (Navigator/Communicator) on a P3 by myself in an operational(war time activities) environment. Work, or as I call it fun, is a blast. I just love flying low over the ocean and doing all the various activities that the P3 is capable of. For some basic information on the P3, go to http://www.navy.mil/palib/factfile/aircraft/air-p3.html I have also been busy looking around for things for Jacks room. We are doing a nautical theme, so we already have a lot of things from the Navy as well as a shopping run to St. Augistine. Of course, as he grows up there will be plenty of Blue Hen and Nittany Lion things as well. In fact, for Halloween 2007, I'm going to try to find a full Nittany Lion baby costume. If not, we can always put a touch of face paint on, and put him in a Nittany Lion jersey. Speaking of football, is anybody not excited for the season?!! Penn State is on a list of "surprises" for the year, and the mighty Blue Hens hope to repeat their National Championship run of 2003!!

Ms Favorites

2005-07-05T07:27:00.000-04:00

The following is a list of M favorites for the past few months.
Favorite car: Mazda RX8
Favorite Movie: Tie between "War of the Worlds" and "Batman Begins"
Favorite Documentary DVDs: "Soldier Child", "Afghan Stories"
Favorite DVDs: "Dumbo", "Hotel Rwanda"
Favorite Current Event Books: "The Arab Mind", a little dry, but very informative, this book was originally put out in the 1970s, "Atomic Iran", talks about how lovely our Iranian friends are, "Rogue Regime", a brutal look into the history of North Korea starting with the Ming Dynsasty.
Favorite CD: "Music from the US Navy"
Favorite Video Game: "Donkey Konga 2", played with electronic bongos. Really lets me put my college education to good use. :)
Favorite Person: Tie between T and Jack Pearse
Favorite Country: USA USA USA

Oh, Boy!

2005-06-26T20:59:00.000-04:00

M and I are thrilled to announce that we are having a boy! We have informed all of our friends and family of the happy news. The best part is that he is healthy as well. We are having lots of fun choosing things for the nursery. Blue is still the preferred color for the trappings of infant manhood; it also happens to go well with the "theme" for the room. Until now, I hated to refer to any decorating project as having a "theme", but in the case of decorating for small children/babies I think it is appropriate. I still hate the term though. The sea life/nautical theme goes well with blue. Blue is also the primary color of m's alma mater UD, and Grandpa J's alma mater PSU. GO HENS and LIONS!! It also goes well with daddy's chosen career field of the U.S.N. Grandpa P's former chosen field of service (U.S.A.F.) and alma mater M.S.U. (now known as U. of M.) both have blue as the main color of choice. Last but not least, mommy's alma mater U.N.O. also has blue as the favored hue. So it goes to show that we are glad to make everyone very happy with our choice........This just in, M's mom also had blue as one of the colors at her alma mater as well. I'm sure little J will certainly benefit from everyone's pride in their respective alma mater's and current/former fields of endeavor. His little room will be filled with representative tokens and trinkets from the Armed Forces to the football mascots from various colleges North and South of the Mason/Dixon line. Go Tigers and Privateers!

Oh, Baby;It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

2005-06-12T21:06:00.000-04:00

We are happy to report that we are (approximately) five months pregnant. It is a joyous time for us filled with excitement and (what else?) expectation. There are also some things that I have discovered along this journey that although I had an awareness would happen, but until they began to I had no frame of reference the impact they would have. For instance, my once lovely complexion has now reverted to a repeat of the adolescent breakouts I endured as a teenager. Luckily, my face has been spared for now. My skin on my neck, shoulders, back and chest has not fared so well. Those stylish little flowing tank tops that are so cute to wear during the summer months of pregnancy are off limits for my broken-out skin. My face and hair have always been so dry, but now are so oily you would swear that I applied olive oil to them twice a day. I went last night to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith with M. Angelina looked so incredible-- not that I ever even was remotely on that scale of hotness, but you begin to realize that try as one might, I may never be back to the pre-pg hotness that I once had attained no matter how much memory my muscle has (without the aid of cosmetic surgery). Don't get me wrong, there are some sure benefits at the end of this ordeal. We will have a beautiful child to have and hold until they finally move out into the real world. I will do everything in my power to try to get back into the best shape of my life, in as little time as is possible. I want to be a source of pride and inspiration to my child(ren). I know that I have another four and a half months to go and that this pregnancy could hold many more surprises, but I plan to meet each new challenge with the assurance that I will get through this and M will help me as much as he can. I know that he loves me even when I am a hormonally crazed demon. I thank God that I have such a loving, supportive and enthusiastic husband. He will be a great DADDY!

Accident!

2005-06-09T09:13:00.000-04:00

Last night I, M, went to Spouse Night at my squadron. All went fine until I came out to the car and..... DAMN IT!!! Someone hit my car. Now, it's not a huge deal, the front bumper and grill had a 3 inch dent in them. However, with the new materials for bumpers, plastic, the whole thing has to be replaced. Well, there was a note on my windshield with a number to call. I called the guy, an instructor for my specific job, and he said he'd take care of it. This morning I got an estimate of $850. He then told me he'd pay me $1000 to include the cost of a rental car. We agreed that if it comes to less than $1000, he would get back the difference. Isn't it great when people act the way they should when they've done something wrong. I couldn't ask for a better experience, given the situation, than this. When I mentioned a receipt for his cash, his response was, "We're both Officers, no need for all that." It's that type of trust in eachother that I so value about the Officer ranks. By the way, on Monday I was promoted to LTJG.

Insurgent vs Terrorist

2005-06-08T07:25:00.000-04:00

I'm wondering when terrorism became insurgency. The very definition is of terrorism is to use non-traditional (traditional would be a countries armed forces) violence to instill fear and get political change. I'm sick of the news reporting homicide bombers as "insurgents." These bombers are being organized by Zarquiwe, a known Al Queda member. We all know this organization is responsible for many attacks on civilians all over the world, American and otherwise. Why then, would their members be called insurgents? Is it because terrorist strikes people from all over the world as bad, and we can't possibly cast people as being bad? I have no idea. Why not just say that terrorists are attacking the Iraqi government? On another note, we're sending Africa a whole lot more money to "fight" AIDS. Though AIDS is a problem, we have been sending money to Africa for about 20 years. Is this helping? In my limited visit to Africa, it appears not. The country we visited had a 98% AIDS/HIV rate. I think that liberals and conservatives agree that there are many things in our country that we can fix with money. Why not use the money to ammend social security so that it no longer is a welfare system? Transit to allowing people to control their own wealth, instead of getting the 1% interest rate that my parents are getting, or the negative 100% interest rate that I will receive?!

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-22T10:45:00.000-04:00

WOW!!!!

Newsweek and the media

2005-05-17T03:17:00.000-04:00

Can anyone come up with a reason that the media would use un-named sources for major stories? I can understand if it's in relation to a sex scandal where you would not want to be identified because you're ashamed. Otherwise, why? I can make up any story I want, and cite an unnamed source. This is simply a method of making an opinion piece into a news story. In the latest media lie, Newsweek cited an unnamed source and told the whole world that Americans were flushing the Koran down a toilet. Common sense would tell you that this would make a lot of people upset. These same people have been known to have violent protests and terrorist activities in response to ANY small event. I would not call destroying a Holy book a small event. Why then, can Newsweek not figure this out? The story was released and broadcast all over the terrorist supporting Al Jazeera. Many Afgans saw this and took to the streets to protest, a newly found right thanks to the USA. Sad to say, people died in the protest. Newsweek has, as of this time, done nothing to help the victims of the violence that Newsweek spawned. This is a sad state of affairs. The very people that we rely on for a check and balance of the government, journalists, are throwing their opinions around like fact. Take CNN, they routinely use words like "ghastly" when describing terrorist attacks against the Iraqi government. "Ghastly" is an opinion word. Compared to WWII battles, these terrorist attacks would be considered nothing. Compared to the Cole bombing, about the same, but nobody was calling that "ghastly." Everyone knows of Dan Rather and his made-up story about the President. The NY Times couldn't control it's employees and sent wacky things to print as well. I do not want government censorship, so perhaps the media can learn to control itself. Use sources are willing to take responsibility for what they say. Double check facts BEFORE going to print. If they must use unnamed sources, they should assume that the source is lying and try to verify the story with sources who are willing to take responsibility.
One last thing, totally unrelated: M gets promoted on June 6th, the same day that T and M may find out the sex of their baby.

Maine

2005-05-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

This past weekend M went to Brunswick, ME. It was beautiful there, truely Gods Country. M was there for a Navigation Extend. Basically, M and 5 other officers decide to take the plane, P3C, somewhere for training. Once a location is chosen, enlisted sailors are added to complete the crew and as passengers. M had a good flight from FL. He flew over to Bermuda and then up to Groton, CT to do some fly bys, followed by landing in Maine. When he got there, M noted how nice the VP 26 hanger was. (VP26 is Ms new squadron as of August, for now he is in VP30.) It had bathrooms that would fit in any upscale hotel as well as large "geedunk." Navy speak for sandwiches, soup, junkfood, etc. On top of all this, the Wardroom, basically an Officer lounge, was great. It was complete with bar, darts, fooseball table and huge TV. M is pumped about joining the Tridents of VP26! While M was in Brunswick, he was able to get to a couple outstanding local seafood places. Seadogs is a local brewery with outstanding beer, try the Blueberry, and good food. M had a lobster roll, New England clam chowder, crabmeat and havarti, and an outstanding desert, spread over two meals. Joshuas is the local tavern near the college and served up an excellent swordfish steak. Downtown Bruswick reminds us of the perfect New England village. With it's local shops, low speed limits, trees everywhere, and sidewalks, it's a great place to relax and raise children without fear. The police don't even carry guns!! Compare that to M and Ts current state, FL, where the sexual predators are all around and there is always plenty of bad stories for the national media to grab up. The flight back to FL was a little bit stressful for M. He was scheduled to be starting preflight at 11am on Sunday. This much he did accomplish, until the plane had problems. I will not bore you with details, but let's just say that M did not get off the ground until 1230 on Monday afternoon. That is all from us here. As always, we welcome comments and look forward to the day when M and T don't get a negative 100% return on our Social Security taxes.

Baby Clothes/Lebanon is FREE!!!

2005-04-26T17:01:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since our last blog, let me catch you up to speed. T and M moved from San Antonio, to Jacksonville over Christmas. We visited upstate NY over New Years. During the first week or two of February, T got pregnant. For our one year anniversary, we went to 2 Disney Parks, 2 awesome restaurants, and one totally cool murder mystery theatre show. M did not get the killer correct, and T claimed she did, but didn't write it down until after it was announced.
Today, two major events occured in our world. Number one, our "Baby Blue Hen" onesie came in the mail. M is super excited about the new edition and is making plans to buy every piece of Blue Hen kids clothes. T rolls her eyes at this thought, but smiles anyway because she knows that the Blue Hen is the best mascot ever.
Second event, Lebanon is officially free of, terrorist friend, Syrias control. Since September 11th, four hostile regimes have moved towards/actually become democracies. Afganistan and Iraq fell to our military might. Lebanon and Lybia have changed without any american shots fired. It's great that the Lebanese people can now speak for themselves. On May 29th, they will elect their own ruler. What a beautiful thought for Israel and the world in general. Israel will no longer deal with Hezbollah on three fronts, Syria, Lebanon, Palestinians. Instead, Lebanon can now speak for itself, without being strong armed by terrorists. Again, what a beautiful day!!
As of now, about 1500 troops have been killed fighting the terrorists over the past 3 1/2 years. The sacrifice that these people made has allowed millions to flourish. Women are no longer beaten in the streets of Afganistan. Political opponents of "Sad"dam Housain no longer have to fear being carted off in the middle of the night, executed, and buried in mass graves. We should rejoice that there are people in this country who are willing to fight for the right thing. The news seems to report every death as a tragedy. Though this is true, imagine how many people are not being murdered, abused, starved, and beaten as a result of their service. 1500 in 3 1/2 years vs over 2000 in 20 minutes on our own soil? You choose which you'd rather have, but this American will gladly choose to fight and get killed for a reason, than get killed while sipping coffee at work in an office in the World Trade Center.
Thanks for reading, future posts will follow, we promise.

Week in Review

2004-08-14T16:42:00.000-04:00

This week was not quite standard in T and M's world. T worked from Saturday through Wednesday, then left for Memphis on Thursday. Of course, M had to drive her to the airport at a time described by science as, "butt crack early." M had 2 simulators and a flight this week. Actually, 2 flights, if you count the number of planes. On Wednesday, 0600, M arrived at the squadron to find the flight routes changed from 2100 the night before. Once in the air, a generator was lost, and the flight had to be turned back. After a quick change of planes, M was off to Colorado. Of course, M isn't able to see much from 30000 feet and the window shades closed. Let me say that the Rockies and small towns in them look lovely on a green and black radar scope.
With T gone, M had plans to go out with the guys, then the schedule came out. "YES!", thought M, "a FRIDAY NIGHT sim!!" M was overjoyed to miss the Eagles game on TV and was too thrilled to go out. M then had visions of going tubing down the river on Saturday, until he looked in the fridge. Hmmmmm............. out of just about everything. M went to base, got a haircut, and went to the Commissary. By the time he got home, the sun was far to bright to endure it for six hours with only alcohol to cool him off. Tonight he has plans to see A vs. P and then go downtown. He is excited about this, if Sable stops pooping on the floor long enough to let him leave the house.

Pinky, Sable and other wildlife

2004-08-09T07:15:00.000-04:00

Sable, Ts black cat, has had problems lately with doing her "business" in the correct area of the house. She seems to think that the two fresh litter boxes are for show. She doesn't want to screw this up, and therefor she leaves her deposits on the floor about 6 inches away. T and I have been debating what to do about this problem. First idea, the litter box wasn't clean enough. We went on a litter hunt everyday for two weeks while Sable still refused to use the box. Pinky, Ms orange cat, found this awesome. He would run upstairs and watch as we toiled with his deposits. Immediatly upon cleaning, Pinky would get his tail fluffed up, eyes bugged out and commence jumping into the litter box. He would dig and spray litter all over the house, pausing only to look at us with his wild "Nittany Lion" face. Sable would then come over and poop, on the floor.
So we determined that she was protesting the fact that she didn't have her own box. We brought the second box home, filled it and watched. Again, Pinky would do his best wild animal impression in the new box. Sable stopped protesting......... for about 5 days. We now don't know what do. My idea, putting Sable outside, was met with disgust from T. "She doesn't have front claws," T would say. "How will she protect herself?" Well, besides the frog that lives in our laundry room, the largest cat predator would be two families of ducks. These aren't the type of ducks that attack cats. In fact, the first family has gotten very fat from people feeding them. They can barely even jump up to eat food from my hand anymore. The second family is a mother with 8 babies. This family is getting bolder, but still will not come up on our back porch.
For now, M is relegated to Sable poop duty every morning when he rises at 0515.

Hello/Background

2004-08-09T06:50:00.000-04:00

To all reading this, thank you for taking time out to check our little corner of the Internet. Let us first introduce ourselves. We are Tricia and Matthew Watson. T works as a make-up artist for Lancome and M works for the US Navy as a Naval Flight Officer in training. We currently live in San Antonio, Texas.

Characters of the BX (base store)

2004-08-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

Working at the base exchange at Randolph AFB is always a great place for people watching. Unfortunately, I don't just get to "watch" these folks, I have to help them with their purchases and selections. I work in cosmetics (the high-end brand of Lanc.). I get told often by the older patrons that my company that I work for is "French" (read with disdain). Nevertheless, these same folks buy the products produced by said "French" company regardless of their prejudices against the policies unpopulaire of the government of said company. I still think that what brand of lipstick you purchase, or what origin of wine you purchase, or whatever you plan to call the potatoes that are cut into thin strips and subsequently fried in oil will make very little difference in the global socio-political environment of today. Anyhoo, helping these particular individuals does require an extra effort to "be sweet" as the southern people say. I'll admit that I get paid plenty to do a pretty "cush" job; I can't complain. But if I may, what is up with the old ladies who don't even know what the bottle of their foundation looks like. Think about it. I have women come up to me everyday asking me to find their foundation (which they have purchased through Lancome previously). They can't tell me what the color is, what formula it is, or even what the bottle looks like. The thing is, they take the bottle out of their cosmetics case and use it everyday. The worst part is that they get annoyed with me because I can't read their mind.
The best one is when they get mad at me because their favorite lipcolor was discontinued. I do think it would be pretty boring if cosmetics companies made the same lipcolors, and never changed them because Miss Betty from Meridian, MS would just be devastated if they did away with "Dusty Rose." Several of the people I have had the pleasure of helping at the Lancome section of the BX are the most fascinating individuals. They have a way of standing-out that is unique to each and every one of them. There is "sandal-sock woman" ( a name given to her by one of my colleagues). She wears socks with flip-flop sandals--in the summertime and year-round, I'm told. There is another woman who got upset because I didn't wish for her to take the tanning tester and plop down at the neighboring station of the Est Laud. counter and begin to self-tan her body on the spot. I told her that the product would not perform to her expectations without first bathing, shaving and exfoliating. To which she replied, "well, can I take it home to use it and bring the tester back tomorrow?" Of course I informed her that that would be impossible. My favorite customer, as of late, was the one who stood too close to my face. Everyone has an invisible circle of personal space which surrounds them. Apparently, this person was out of the loop on the unspoken rule regarding personal territory. She wanted a product that was carried by Est Laud. Since the Laud. person was not in yet, she was sure that I should be willing and able to help her (Note: I am paid by Lanc.; not the BX. Hence, I am only to work for Lanc.). Although I informed her of the constraints of my position, she insisted that I would somehow be able to help her find a suitable fragrance for her friend. After spraying me down with several contraband scents, she pronounced that she would wait for the Laud. person to help her. She came back several times with increasing distress to inquire of the whereabouts of the Laud. person. "Why isn't she here yet?", "When will she be here?", "Is she even coming in, today?" Oh the pleasures of working in the sales/ customer service industry. You know, the dayjust wouldn't be complete without the requisite pseudo-embarrassed/homophobic male asking me, "Do you think I need a makeover?" Wow! I haven't heard that one before. By all means, please have a seat.