FTAC Graduation!!

Jonny is officially done with his FTAC-First Term Airman Course, and begins in processing at the fire station on Tuesday! The ceremony was casual, but had a lot of attendees. There were representatives from various base professions, and a handful of guys from the fire station came to meet us and chat for a moment after the ceremony.
The FTAC ceremony includes 2 different awards; The Sharp Troop Award which is given by the FTAC instructors for "Exhibiting outstanding customs and courtesies, dress and personal appearance, and professionalism while attending the 48th Fighter Wing First Term Airmen Center", and the MATES Award, which is awarded by the fellow Airmen in the FTAC class. MATES stands for Mentoring Airman Toward Excellence and Success, and is given for demonstrating exceptional Airmenship, professionalism and dedication throughout the course. And Jonny won both! Of course, he says "I didn't do anything special..." but we all know how hard Jonny works and I'm very proud of him! Needless to say, the Assistant Fire Chief did a bit of gloating because their Firedog won both awards :) Not a bad first impression to make on the new boss. They were a nice group of guys, after the ceremony, he came over and introduced himself to me, then introduced me to the others as "Mama Merritt". Sounds like a firehouse... ;) Jonny gave quite a laugh when I told him that one!
On another positive note, I passed my UK drivers test Wednesday and get to pick up my new license next week, and who would have thought, our belongings will be delivered and unpacked for us on Monday! 2 weeks early! We sure are grateful for that! Then on Friday Jonny will pack up for a Readiness training at one of our US bases in Germany! He is going with a group from the station, so a great way to get to know everybody! Sounds like the days there may be a bit dull, but come 5pm, its a great opportunity to see parts of Germany. So we are looking forward to him having that experience too! He leaves on Friday the 7th for about 8 days, then will come home to regular 24 on 24 off shifts at the department. And this will give me time for some much desired job hunting! I've tried this stay at home thing for a couple of weeks and I've decided, that's not really me, so I will be looking at a few places possibly here in town and on base as well. There is a Leisure Center about 1-2 miles from our home and a new Nursery down the street I was interested in checking out, as well as a few things on base that seemed worth looking into as well. I also started the application process for The University of Maryland today, so hopefully will finish that and move on to start school in January!
As for this weekend, we are hoping to do some more furniture shopping in Thetford and Feltwell, possibly Cambridge, depending on how much we want to drive ;) Also, I'm sure you have seen, but we added pictures from last weekends trip to Castle Rising right outside of Kings Lynn. It was a cool thing to see with a lot of old history! The castle was built in 1140 I believe...it's an interesting experience to walk through hallways that have been around for so long. To imagine all the people who walked through the same halls and doorways 500 years ago! To think, everything anybody has ever been taught in a U.S. History class happened CENTURIES AFTER that place was created! A very cool experience!
Just a quick note, I know some of you mentioned having trouble with the photo slide show...we're still trying to figure out the best way to do those, but if you click on the X or the box or whatever shows up on your screen, it should take you directly to the photobucket.com website with all the pictures available! We'll keep looking for a better way!