Modeling update!

Just a little update on my modeling career! :)  You have maybe seen my Arkansas Bride pictures already but finally the magazine is in Barnes & Noble! I was also told it was in Hastings as well!  I'm so excited!

I also just did a photo shoot today.  It was for the company Leisure Arts.  They make crafting books that are sold in Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Walmart, etc.  I shot 3 outfits for the upcoming Hats & Scarves book.  It was super fun!  My photography team was the same group that did Arkansas Bride - they were awesome!  They are amazing at what they do!  While there, Jason (the photographer) showed me the "behind the scenes" video he made while shooting for Arkansas Bride.  He was also kind enough to send it to me and now I can share it with you!

I love having this..that was such a great day and it brings back great memories!  I'm not really sure where this career is going to take me but it sure is fun finding out!  I'm really going to miss this part of Little Rock for sure!

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  We had a really great one! Well, I, Kori, did not have the best of one because I recently found out I am being randomly AUDITED!!! AHH!! So, I spent the day gathering digging up old documents! What a nightmare...word  of advice to my entire generation:  Do not throw ANYTHING away and keep everything ORGANIZED!

Anyway, we decided that we did not want to fight the crowds on actual Valentine's Day, so our Valentine's Day began on Monday.  We went to dinner at the Cajun's Wharf, a really nice cajun, seafood restaurant in Little Rock on the river.  I had some of the best Seafood Gumbo I have ever eaten, even after living in Pensacola!  YUM!

We also exchanged our gifts Monday.  I made Neal his favorite rare treat - White chocolate covered Oreos!  (I tried my hand at decorating!)

Neal gave me the Taylor Swift perfume gift set that I have been wanting for a really long time!! It smells so good!

Tuesday, as I said, I was having a pretty rough day so Neal surprised me with pink tulips and a box of chocolates!  We also just got a new tripod for out camera so we had to try it out for this picture!  (super dorks!)

For dinner, we ordered this super awesome heart shaped pizza from Papa Johns!  We followed dinner with a James Bond movie (our favorite)!  It turned out to be a pretty great day.

Here is everything we gave each other for the special day (minus the cookies, Neal already ate them all!).  The beer was our Valentine beer we got for our wedding called Sam'l Smith Organic Strawberry beer.  It was really good!

We thank you all for the Happy Valentine's wishes and we hope you had a good one too!

SERE

I have just returned from a long journey called SERE.  It was a wonderful adventure located in Spokane, WA. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resist, and Escape; we did just that.  I got my orders to go at the end of January and yes it was freezing!

This is the view from my hotel window when I had first arrived.  It snowed and iced for a week straight!  Fortunately, I was inside doing classroom work during the blizzard era.  But like any good Air Force training we will train no matter what, either rain or snow or sun (a rarity).

To give you a detailed agenda of what we had to go through would take forever so I am only going to give a short story.  We all arrived on the Thursday before we started the SERE training for parachute training.  This isn't nearly as exciting as it sounds, all we do is jump off platforms two feet high then zip line off a platform that is five feet tall to simulate hitting the ground.  Really not that exciting.  Then we had the weekend off!  This is the only time I actually had off, other than that, it was straight 19 days of training.

I got really lucky and made friends with a great group of guys.  This was a huge factor when it came to us leaving for the field.  Once we started our SERE training we did classroom work for a week just learning the basics of how to survive and evade.  On Saturday we left for the "field," which was basically a national park about two hours north east of Spokane.  We packed up 60 lbs. of gear in a ruck sack and were off.

Once we got to the mountain, in which we had to spend the next six days, our buses got stuck about 200 yards from our destination.  The first bus got too close to the mountain on its way up.  The bus I was on tried to go around it.  The driver stopped when the back end started sliding out towards the edge of the road with no rail.  He got out and the parking break slipped!  Luckily someone saw it screaming "Oh God!"  running up to the driver seat.  We all were relieved when we saw her do this, but then our hearts sunk as we closed our eyes and she followed those words with "which pedal do I press?!"  We all screamed "the left one, the break!"  We came to a stop and evacuated the bus from back to front thinking we want the least amount of weight back there.  We were literally inches from the back tires rolling off!  What a great way to start six days out in the middle of no where in the heart of winter!

The rest of the time there was uneventful.  I was lucky enough to be in the same group as most of my friends.  I don't think there wasn't a time we weren't laughing or having a good time.  And according to our SERE specialist we were the fastest group he has ever had and one of the fastest and most accomplished groups to go through the program!  We were pretty stoked about that.  I can't go in to that much detail about all the stuff we did out there because I'm not sure what parts were classified and what was not.  The parts I know that were not was just like making fires, building shelters, cooking game, and improvising basic needs.  It was really awesome and I absolutely loved it!

This is me after six days without shaving or a shower!

This is a "survivor dog," a 2 lb hot dog!  One of the guys I was with got it after he got back

Once we got back from the field we went to resistance training.  I can't really go in to detail about this because just about all of it is classified.  Sorry, but just know that this was the not fun part about SERE.

After I survived the resistance portion I was so excited to come back home!  I couldn't wait to see Kori and Bailey!

Our New Camera!

We finally got it!  Our new camera!  We decided to invest in a good camera, especially with all the traveling we do.  We did our research and truly feel this is the best point-and-shoot camera out right now.  This camera is REALLY hard to find.  Neal and I spent a whole day, a few weeks ago, trying to track one of these down.  After no success, I called the Sony company and they informed me that there simply "isn't any made".  Their factory in Japan was destroyed by the tsunami and are in the process of rebuilding.  However, I happened to check on Amazon the other day and there it was! IN STOCK!  I just received it yesterday and LOVE IT!  I was going to try to surprise Neal with it when he gets home from SERE in 6 DAYS(!!!), but that didn't happen.  He's just as excited as I am!  (Maybe we should get out more.)

Here it is!  The Sony Cyber Shot HX9



Of course I had to do some test shots!  This camera has so many features, ones I never knew existed, and even shoots in 3D!  It also has full 1080 HD.  The pictures are phenomenal.  I'm definitely no photographer but this camera helps out...big time.

This is Rocco...being cool..

This is Bailey....being shy..

This is Panoramic of our living room...and Dad just chillin...

WET NOSE!

Outside..

Me!

Again.. (using the Beautiful Skin feature)

Mom's shadow box..

Sophie! (All the dogs I used the special Pet Portrait function...perfect!)

These 2 I used the super cool soft background setting...

Still have a lot of learning to do, but at least we have something to take nice pictures with!

A little about us...

I began this blog to track our adventures, because with the military, we sure do have a lot of them! Also with the military, we don't always get to share with our friends and family everything we get to experience because we are always moving somewhere far away from home.

We are currently stationed at Little Rock AFB but only for a few weeks more. We just moved here in July from Pensacola, FL. In March, we will be going to Albuquerque, NM at Kirtland AFB and then, only 4 months later, we will be packing up AGAIN and moving to Valdosta, GA at Moody AFB. Whew! We hope we are able to stay there for awhile...and finally make a home!

 Neal and I are both from Southeast Missouri and both graduated from SEMO. Neal left for CSO (navigator) school in the fall of 2009 and I stayed behind to finish college, with a degree in Fashion Merchandising. I followed him to Pensacola the next spring, the day after I graduated in fact. We adopted our pup from a rescue shelter not long after. Bailey is pure mutt and 100% love of our lives. Neal proposed to me in Pensacola, on the beach, and this past November 26th, we got married! It was beautiful and the best day of our lives.

Neal is still completing his training for his HC130 aircraft. Actually, right now he is at SERE (survival) training with only 1 week left to go. I cant wait for him to come home! I'm visiting home and family, planning our move, and making a blog :). While trying to find my niche as an Air Force wife, I thought I would try my hand at modeling. I was recently the cover model for Arkansas Bride magazine, my first real modeling job! I'm so sad to leave my agency in Little Rock but I know there is something even better out there for me! I am also new to yoga, which I am obsessed with, and I love to read. I am also obsessed with my new found faith in Jesus Christ and plan to join Neal in becoming Catholic as soon as we can settle down long enough! As you can see, we always have something going on and adventures to be had..so check back and see what's new!