Couldn't Be Prouder

Have you met my sister, Allie? You need to. If I had known how awesome a friend she was going to be, I wouldn't have been so mean to her when we were kids. But then, she got me back plenty when she ratted me out to Mom and told her about the contract we had. You know, the one where in exchange for total control of the remote she would tell Mom that I had completed my flute practice. I knew I shouldn't have put that agreement in writing...

Thankfully, we both grew up and in the process became best friends. Allie is the funniest person I know. Except for my husband. No, she's the funniest. Ok, so it's a constant back and forth. But truly, there is no one who knows me better and can make me laugh quicker than her. She's the kind of person who plays catch at WalMart by throwing those giant bouncy balls up over their massive shelving units. She's the kind of maid of honor who wrote this beauty in honor of the bridesmaid dresses I picked.

Y'all, words don't do justice to her kind of funny.

But she is also brave. And bold, so bold. After realizing that college wasn't really working for her and she needed something more compelling in her life, Allie enlisted in the United States Air Force. She did her four years (and I won't even tell you how much I wept with pride at her Basic Training graduation ceremony) and then came back to NC to finish school at UNC-Charlotte and serve in the NC Air National Guard. She serves as a Communication & Navigation Systems Technician for the C-130 aircrafts.


I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that the government put my baby sister in charge of a massive planes's systems.


But clearly, she was destined for it.

Allie is currently at Bagram Airforce Base in Afghanistan, serving for three months on a voluntary deployment. Yup, voluntary. She just feels that if she wasn't doing this part of her job, she wouldn't really be doing what she signed up for.

(Landing at Bagram. The incredible irony of Allie being in the Air Force is that she gets really bad air sickness.)

(Allie working on a wiring problem in the flightdeck after having to move about two hundred pounds of aircraft floor armor.)

It certainly has broadened her clothing options.

(Allie's daily wardrobe includes her weapon, "Polly")

(Training with her chemical warfare gear. Please tell me you spot the irony in this picture.)

Thankfully, we've been able to keep in touch through email pretty regularly and this morning, I received the following under the subject, "guess what...where's waldo?" {You're probably going to want to click on this to make it bigger.}


Oh, yes. In between having shoes thrown at him, President Bush made a visit to Bagram!



I don't know if this makes up for the fact that she'll miss out on Aunt Melba's Chocolate Trifle this weekend, but it is a pretty neat perk of serving overseas.