The JimAnna Chronicles

Anna and I had the pleasure of attending Chad and Andrea’s wedding in Chicago in late July. Before I get into the post, allow me to share a little background.  Chad is one of my first cousins (one of 5 on my mother’s side). Growing up, although we didn’t live in the same city and [...]

Hi Everyone, I know I am WAY behind in my posts, but I will just have to come back and do those a little later.  Right now, I have much more important news and photos to share … our new bundle of joy:  Alexander James Gingras.  He was born on June 12th, here in France [...]

Recently, I had the honor of leading a promotion ceremony for an Army Lieutenant. It’s not often sister services are able to partake in these kind of ceremonies. The order from the President authorizing the promotion was read in front of her platoon at the base post office which they run. Then, I administered the [...]

Hello again everyone. Things here in Iraq are still going well. In fact, this week, I had the opportunity to tag along with some Army engineers. One difference between Air Force and Army engineers is that the Army engineers use explosives to breech doors, or in this case to bring entire buildings down. It worked [...]

Well, it was off to Silver Flag (again). If you’ve read my posts since their inception, you’ll notice my first post was also of Silver Flag. Well, I had the pleasure of returning to refresh my training, this time in Europe instead of Asia. Of course, Silver Flag was in addition to going to a [...]

The recurring theme that everyone shared with us before we arrived in Germany (at least from those who lived here previously) was that the Christmas season was amazing. This post is dedicated to the three amazing Christmas Markets (Weinachtmarkt in German) we went to this year: Aachen, Trier and Dudeldorf. Here are the images from [...]

Two times during SOS we did what is called Project X. The first time, our flight was … a little less than successful. However, in the second one, we were better prepared and consequently, more successful. You’re probably wondering what is Project X? Well, I can’t speak for why the name was chosen, but basically, [...]

The last five weeks, as usual, have flown by. However, the difference was I spent these attending a class called Squadron Officer School (SOS) at Maxwell Air Force Base. It is here Air Force officers are taught the tenants of Air Force doctrine and allowed to practice their leadership skills amongst peers (not a common [...]

Do you remember when you were in high school? It seemed that only “old” people had high school reunions… it still seems like just yesterday, I was walking the halls of Arrowhead High School. Well, that was 10 years ago now… and we just had our first high school reunion. Fortunately, it was a very [...]

After we left Guam, Anna and I stopped in Los Angeles to visit with Julie (my sister) for a brief stay. Although we were only there for 26 hours, we managed to see a bit of the city. Here’s the port outside Julie’s apartment at sunrise when we arrived. Julie and her boyfriend Michael, share [...]