Decorate Your Soul

Welcome to Edwards Air Force Base! This is our new home for a few years… it’s located in the Mojave Desert of California, about an hour or so north of the Los Angeles area. I grew up about an hour and a half from here, but there are completely different surroundings than good ol’ Ontario/Chino. The biggest difference? It runs about ten degrees warmer here. And by ‘warmer’ I mean hot. It hit a high of 109 degrees yesterday. Nice if you’re a reptile, right?

photo by Andy

There isn’t a whole lot out here. Once you come through the gate, you get a view of some dry lake bed and desert shrubbery. The dreary monochromatic browns and tans here are quite a change from the beautiful green and lush trees of Southwest Ohio.

But I will admit, the skies are pretty blue. Like, all the time.

Edwards is home to a division of NASA- the Drysden Flight Research Center and also houses a dry lake bed where space shuttles land. You can see the large low-lying area there in the photo below, but if you check out this link, it’s much more impressive and you can see the world’s largest compass rose from an aerial view.

Off in the distance in the photo above is a place known as Rocket Ridge. That’s where Andy works- it’s about a 25 minute drive from our home ant not apart of the Main Base. It’s officially the home of the AFRL (the Air Force likes their acronyms), or the Air Force Research Labratory. They work with rocket stuff that I don’t understand, so google it if you’re curious.

Here’s a closer shot of his work’s hill:

(Andy was driving when I shot this, so no worries on driving and taking pictures at the same time… As you know, I already have enough issues with driving)

Back on base, our basic needs are all being met- the Commissary (the version from 1954) where we buy our groceries:

And a stand alone Starbucks (I know, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?):

What else does one really need, right?

I’m kidding, of course. The base also has a gas station, a bowling alley, a movie theatre, a gym, a clinic (without an emergency room! ack!), a fire department and of course, the schools. Edwards is also home to a large test pilot school, so we are surrounded by many planes and pilots and we daily hear sonic booms. I’m getting used to them, sort of.

Here’s our new home with the Xeriscape landscaping. I like that the architects were thinking “low maintenance” or maybe “water conservation.”

We prefer a lawn, especially having younger children that like to run and play tag, but then, there’s the backyard that’s fitted with about 50% live grass.

Andy’s thinking about mowing it, too.

So, that’s it for  now. Our welcome mat is out (figuratively) and would love for you to come and visit

When I walked into my bathroom last night, I saw a pile of hair on the floor- more hair than I brush out of my own on a given day, and definitely the color of one my children’s.

Oh no, I thought. Which one did this? After a closer examination- I saw it was longer than Sarah’s hair and darker than Ashleigh’s hair. And so I marched into Lauren’s room after midnight, woke that kid up and verified that she indeed turned Edward Scissorhands on herself. She was missing the back right side of her locks. And some on the left. And a little up front.

Sigh.

This is the face I got when I confronted her about it this morning. She knew I wasn’t happy with her.

The majority of the damage.

Luckily, she already has a hair appointment on Monday, although I’m pretty sure we weren’t thinking pixie cut in her near future. The thing is, I know better than to leave the scissors I use for bang trimmings in reach of small hands. This has happened before with the three-year-old version of Sarah. I suppose I was in need of a good reminder  in putting the scissors away in a locked cupboard.

Of course, with a face this cute, it’s not hard to forgive her for cutting off her precious hair. Even if it’s only taken three years to get this long.