Robin's Trip to San Diego: Part 1 of 2

On the way back to Stillwater, Oklahoma on Sunday August 2nd, Chris dropped me off in Wichita, KS so that I could fly out to San Diego, California in order to drive back to Oklahoma with my younger brother, Paul.

Ecstatic to spend the Monday morning traveling through airports and around aviation, I was excited to take a trip on the “big planes.” Here’s a pic of us just taking off from Wichita:


Little did I know that this particular Monday morning, I would have the pleasure of seeing a good friend and colleague, also departing for Denver, at the Wichita airport. It was none other than our K-State pilot friend and Marathon runner: Heath! He wasn’t sure if he would make our flight, as he was “jump seating” over to Denver. Lucky him, he got to sit in the cockpit and made the flight! : )

*When we arrived in Denver, Heath was kind enough to show me around the airport on my lay over and also escort me to my departure gate. What top-notch service!*



It was not too long before starting to see mountains:


And some pretty clouds (Which is my most memorable part of airline flights. I remember my first airplane ride-and the big clouds! I think at age 6, I was hooked, even though I did not know it yet.)


And, I’m not sure, but I think this MAY be the Grand Canyon we flew over??



And soon we arrived in Denver, Colorado-known for its unique airport:


And here is whom I came to see: PAUL!!!!


Paul toured me around the area for a bit and showed me the coast : )




He took me out for a picnic lunch (some delicious local food) of fish taco’s and what I like to call “American Burritos.” The fish tacos were SO delicious. Lightly breaded fish with some fresh tomatoes, cilantro, lime….and some type of homemade taco shell. Oh, and the American Burritos were a collaboration of a soft shell which housed some sautéed meat, French fries, cheese…and I’m not sure what else, but it was delicious. What a great picnic lunch.

After our picnic by the water, we were off. I enjoyed the signs, like this one below-a combo of California and Mexico--"Calexico":


It was not too long before we met our good friends: The Border Patrol.

NO I didn’t do anything wrong—they just have lots of checkpoints on the way out of California. Each station asks: what is your residency. At the first stop, I looked at Paul, thinking "are they kidding? Is this a trick question?"

ANSWER: United States.
I just wonder what they have to do if you said anything but U.S.? As we are born and raised here, I was not in any hurry to find out nor did I want to cause any trouble!


And here, my friends, you can see the Mexico Border--that black fence off there past the "sand mountains" as I like to call them:


After several hours in the car, we stopped for the night near Flagstaff, Arizona. Next stop-The Grand Canyon. While this is a detour from the route home, we think it was well worth the trouble.

More to come on an upcoming post.

Here's a pic from driving to the Grand Canyon bright and early the next morning:

Clint's Quilt Update

Oh Clint, you are sometimes MORE impatient than I am : o ) But I guess Santa's Elves have to work all year to get all those toys done for the Christmas holiday...so this little Elf is hard at work to make that Christmas deadline too. You can tell Clint has been giving me a hard time, as last night I got a text message saying:

4 months and 10 days left. Tick tock tick tock.

Haha. Thanks Clint.

Well, If anyone knows the "Mikols" in me, that would be the Polish half of me, you know that I cannot do things the easy way. SO-I have to leave a bit of my own artistic touch in each of my masterpieces I create. The design I am using for this quilt is based on a design I saw in a book. However, I wanted a BIGGER quilt...so with the help of a friend of mine, we extrapolated the dimensions and ta-da! We designed a bigger, better quilt--Robin style!

Well, for those of you as anxious as he is to see this long-awaited quilt in progress. Here are a few pictures.

Me working hard. Notice the stack of blocks to the right of this picture *(my left). These will all be sewn together and made into a large quilt. Yikes! If I'm going to make my deadline, I better get to sewing!



And an up-close view of the quilt blocks which incorporate the Crown Royal bags that Clint wanted make into a quilt:


So there's the "sneak peek!" So now this elf is going back to work : )

2009 Fair

So, as promised, here I am updating about the fair a few weeks ago.

We ended up driving this year. Yikes...long drive, but totally worth it to spend quality time with family. We even dropped in to Wichita to pick up our long awaited wedding album! yay!

Here's a pic of the sunset that night:


We got in late on Thursday night, but had a good drive. Chris, being the gentleman that he is-wanted to drive so that I could fall asleep (like I always do on a long drive). Being stubborn, I managed to stay awake (although, I didn't tell him how nice it was to be away from the city lights and see ALL those stars! It is so beautiful when you can see that far in the country. So, I guess it was a combo of me being stubborn and my own selfishness of taking in the beautiful evening sky!) We even got to town early enough to catch the last 30-45 minutes of the fair that night.

We got to sleep in on Friday, July 31st. That is a rarity any more. I could not believe how amazing it was to actually have a good night's sleep (after b-sitting for the 2 year old all week and getting woken up at around 3am.) After we woke up, we spent the day around town, taking in the sidewalk sales and checking out Leoti's new quilt shop. I was SO excited to get to FINALLY go after Carol has been talking about the new quilt shop for awhile now. It is really quite cool. There are SO many fabric options! AND...I have my eyes set on my next quilting project...but I have to finish Clint's first....! However, we are planning on being out in the Leoti area around the holidays, so maybe I can get my fabric and start it up then...hmmm...

Anyway-

On Saturday morning I had a LONG run. (20 miles!) My goal was to try to get up early enough to finish my run by the time the parade started. I MADE IT! I woke up at 6ish and hit the road. I was so thrilled!!! I made a 9-minute mile time for the entire 20 miles! I must say that running out in the middle of nowhere is kinda nice....you don't really know exactly how far you have run because there is nothing but mile markers out there....not much else. AND....it's FLAT! Here in Oklahoma, there are some hills, which is good traning for my marathon...but it was nice to have a nice, flat run for that distance.

At the parade, I sat eating my can of peaches, sipping on some water, and watching the horses, cars, semi's, and floats roll by. I was a bit sore, so I talked Theresa and Chris into running and getting the candy : ). Oh, and I did get to meet the rest of Chris' Great Aunts and Uncles from Illinois. I knew a few of them from visiting my brother, Paul, but now I know the whole bunch.

After the parade, I took a nap : ). A few hours later, we went to the fair grounds, had lunch, and ran the "muffin tin toss". This is one of the games that you toss 3 baseballs into a set of muffin tins. If your baseball lands in a muffin spot that is colored, you win a cool hat. Here is Chris, working hard:



After our shift at the muffin tin toss, we went and rode some rides. This is one of my favorites:


It was such a beautiful and enjoyable day. Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

This is Chris and Terry working hard on the Ferris Wheel:







Here is a video of a number of the rides. (I some how missed the little cars that go around...I don't know how, but I did! sorry!!)

**you should be able to "fast forward" through the round up, as that one goes on for a few minutes, but there are still other rides after that, so don't miss those!**




On Sunday, we had to head home. Sad to have left so soon, but we'll be back in no time!

Office Mania

It seems like one day all is bliss, then the next..... DRAMA!



As many of you know, I changed jobs on June 1st to work as a Graduate Assistant for the Facilities Manager. As my job is slowly evolving into a handful of tasks, I am gradually figuring out exactly how to keep things rolling from day to day. Since I only work 20 hours per week, I have been working on the transition from full time to part time, as well as the division of tasks, managing a group of workers, and dealing with things that are completely out of my control. A day in the life of Robin. Yikes!



So after I get back from California with my younger brother, I learn that our secretary put in her 2 weeks notice and is moving to another position on campus....YIKES for ME!



While I was not prepared to have my co-worker quit and the floodgates open the week school starts, I guess there's no better way than to learn but than by just jumping in head first. I guess this just helps me prioritize more and plan better, right?!



With the facilities office in extreme transition, I think this change is coming at the right time. While the transition from a full-time coworker to JUST ROBIN and the boss man will be a hard one, it should be good until there is a replacement to help carry the load. The next few months should be interesting, but a great learning experience. I guess this is how all "self-run" businesses are at some point, right? All seems like it's going to fail, but it will turn out fine, right? I guess we'll have to wait and see.



So, when I get overwhealmed, I think of this video, and remember how small each of us are, and how peacful the beauty of the Earth is.



Here's a video I took while at the Grand Canyon:

August...ALREADY!?

WHERE have the last few weeks gone?!?
No-Seriously-where?

As Chris always says-where time always goes-duh! (HAHA, Thanks honey.)

I have not posted in awhile, but will do my best to recollect what we've been up to for the past few weeks:

The last week of July (or so) Chris and I got to play "parents" for a few days. We have a friend who has a 2 year old and we watched him for a few days while they were out of town. Despite Chris' love of kids, he was unable to watch the kiddo with me, as Chris came down with a rash : ( We think the rash came from their dog-but who knows for sure. Chris was miserable...even so much that he cancelled a few days of flying and considered not going home for the fair! But-the Good Lord was watching over him and the rash cleared up, with some help of modern medacine.

I jokingly told Chris if he didn't want to watch kiddo, he didn't have to go through the trouble of getting a rash and be so miserable.!!! ...needless to say, he gave me that "now why would I do a thing like THAT" look. haha. love you darlin'!

While I did enjoy b-sitting kiddo, Chris did get to have dinner with us a few times-at our house, away from said dog. We enjoyed the week and were glad to have kiddo's mom and dad come home, so I could get a sound night's sleep (without being woken up for dirty diapers : )

The last few days of July were spent at the Annual Leoti Fair. (Which of course, will have its OWN post : )

Then on Monday, August 3rd, I flew out to San Diego, California on the Airlines to drive back to the midwest with my younger brother, Paul.

More to come on both of those events.

Other than that, Chris and I finished out summer classes, both making top marks in all summer courses : )

The past few days have been somewhat relaxing. We re-arranged our office at home, which is FINALLY looking amazing! Now Chris has his perfect office space, and I my own sewing space --yet still enough room for a gues when our friends/family come to visit.

With our office re-arranged and some of our final boxes unpacked, I was able to get out my long-lost quilting project! yay! This year's project is to finish a Crown Royal Quilt for my good friend/college buddy, Clint. Yes-Christmas is my deadline....so ...... I better stop slackin!

More to come soon.