BIG NEWS!!!

We have big news…and no, I am not pregnant! We are moving!

I am so proud to announce that Larry has been accepted to attend the Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland ( Naval Test Pilot School). As part of the process, he will be sworn in as an Army civilian engineer on January 5, 2009 and we will be reporting up to Maryland around January 12, 2009. He will be involved in a rigorous academic schedule until the 2nd weekend in December – 11 months of intense classes. He was selected by a board of previous Test Pilot School graduates at his work and was told of his acceptance on December 11, 2008. Not too much time to plan!

Alex and I will be joining Larry in Maryland. He will be extremely busy with school, but the downtime that he does have, we want to be able to be with him and spend time with him. I will be holding down everything on the homefront to allow Larry the chance to focus primarily on his school work. Last week, we (Larry, Alex and I) went to Maryland to find a house to live in for the next year. Luckily, we found a very nice rental townhome. We are renting from a great couple – the husband just graduated from Test Pilot School two weeks ago! The townhome is 3 floors and 3 bedrooms/2 full baths/2 half baths, it has a cute little fenced in yard for the dogs and a deck out back. It is right near a Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Old Navy and is only about 10 minutes from where Larry will be going to school. We are moving to a town called California, Maryland!

This is such a great opportunity for Larry and I am so proud of him! Larry will be in TPS class 136, his class will have roughly 30 pilots and 3 engineers. After finishing this course, he will be a few classes short of his masters (something that I have wanted him to get for quite some time)! At Larry’s work Christmas party this past Friday night (December 19), his boss was telling me about TPS. He mentioned that when Larry walks into the building that classes are held, he will notice a bunch of plaques on the wall. On those plaques are the names of previous TPS graduates – some of those names include Neil Armstrong and Alan Sheppard (among several other historical figures). In December, after graduation, Larry’s name will be among some of the most influential people in Aerospace history! I can’t even begin to tell you how proud of I am of him and all that he has accomplished and continues to accomplish in his short professional career!

It will be a big change for our family – a big move and getting used to a new town, but we are doing it with open minds and eager hearts! I think this opportunity will be what we make of it and I see nothing but great things that will come out of it!

We welcome any visitors in Maryland this next year! Larry will be super busy with school work and won’t have much time to spend with anyone, but Alex and I will be excited to have visitors! We are about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Washington, DC (I can’t wait to see the Cherry Blossoms in the springtime), about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Baltimore and only a 2 hour train ride from Baltimore to NYC! Alex and I will be taking advantage of the great sights up there and can’t wait to show them to anyone that comes to visit!

Wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare for this next big adventure in our lives!