Happy Valentine's Day

Some call it "single's awareness day" while others call it the day of LOVE. I simply call it February 14. (I anxiously wait for Feb 15 when all the CHOCOLATE goes on sale!!)

This weekend I was able to travel to Lawton, OK to visit a college friend, Cristina and her two beautiful children. Since Cristina's husband and my husband are both in Georgia, I decided I would come visit her and the family for Valentine's Day.
(yeah-crazy-right? Chris is in the Atlanta area and Josh is somewhere not to far from there)

Here is a picture of Cristina and I:

As part of the festivities, I took a trip down memory land and thought it would be fun to make some Valentine's Day cards!! (we used to make them with Doily's--you know those funny paper things that look like lace? DOY-leeee? I am not sure I spelled that right above!)

Well, I did not have any Doilies (sp?!) but I did find some cool hearts and stickers. I thought this would be perfect for Jocelyn (2 years old) and fun for both Cristina and I to watch her put together a card for her dad. Here are a few pictures from the event:






Since it is one of my favorite things to eat...I decided to make our Valentine's dinner:


I was Olive Garden deprived (Chris didn't want to eat Olive Garden when I was visiting him in Tulsa a couple of weeks ago--I took it upon myself to order OG to go for our dinner Saturday night!! It was MUCH better than waiting the 1+hours in the restaurant. We had a fantastic dinner after the kids went to bed--and I even got to have my favorite dessert: Tiramisu!!)

So...now all I have to do is wait a few more hours....then the real holiday begins....CHOCOLATE SALES!!

Until then,
Robin

Expecting a Baby in August!!

As you can see from above, there REALLY is a little one in there! We are expecting our first baby on August 20, 2010. As of today, we are 3 months along!!

We will not be able to find out the gender for a couple more months--but all the better. We are not sure if we are going to find out or not...we are still trying to decide. Part of the fun of not knowing is the growing excitement...so I guess we'll just have to think about it more : )

We finally got to tell our family and close friends over the past day or so. It is SO nice to have the secret out...it's hard to keep such an exciting thing like this quiet for so long. We just wanted to make sure all went well in the first trimester. So far, so good.

The best part is-I haven't really been sick (thank the Lord!!). I only had one day where I was really under the weather-and for the most part, not really felt nauseous or anything. Although, despite my best efforts...naps are a wonderful thing. I do find that it is quite pleasant to take an after lunch cat nap when I get the chance. Oh, and I was in pretty good shape and used to eating all the time-due to marathon training--and it's a good thing because I seem to be hungry ALL the time. Since I only trained for 4 months for the marathon...I cannot imagine how hungry I will be in the last 5 months of pregnancy!

We are so excited! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our little one continues to grow and I am job-searching (preferably in the Wichita, KS area-fyi!).

In the mean time-Chris just left for simulator training in Atlanta, Georgia this morning. He will be there for a month--and I'm thinking he is going to enjoy actually applying all he has learned over the past 1.5 months. (So don't feel too sorry for him being away on an exciting adventure!)

To Infinity and Beyond....but NOT the moon.....?

NASA and the moon project.

: ( guess NASA is not my ticket to the moon....I suppose there is something else out there...but what? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Winter Wonder Land...AGAIN!

Well Hello Friends!

With a cup of hot chocolate at hand and beautiful, white scenery, the day begins.

Yesterday campus closed at 1pm. Unfortunately, that does not mean that my work was over. Why does there always seem to be some project with a deadline and only so many hours in the work week? Well, needless to say-I got to work on that project yesterday afternoon. It was nice to FINALLY complete it--as it has been on my to do list for a week now (with a deadline of this Saturday)! Somehow there always seems to be that "thing" that always "comes up" and distracts me from getting the things I need to do done!

Why can't my job be one of those where "waiting until tomorrow" doesn't affect anyone? Somehow I don't think the people calling in saying "my heater is broken and the storm is coming" would appreciate me waiting to call their heater in until I get around to it....SO I stop the work I need to do and call in their broken heater. Oh-a classic phrase--one that I do not mean to offend people on--but I hear A LOT is: "we have children." (Does that make it more urgent? There are only so many people that can fix a heater-and I am definitely not one of them!)

I just want to know--do people really think we do not call in heaters if they have no children? I don't care WHO you are--if you have kids or not--I AM CALLING IN TO GET YOUR HEATER FIXED! So-for all those out there--I just wanted to set the record straight.

Ok-done ranting : -)

So yesterday, I got the bright Idea that walking the 7 minutes to work was a good idea. I thought-well, I will bundle up..and this way I won't have to scrape ice nor drive! yeah...the 10-15 min walk home in FREEZING COLD ICE PELLETS told me otherwise......now I wonder what part of that sounded like a good idea because the wind on the walk home was NOT pleasant. Hehe...not to mention good ole Chris calls mid-walk....and you all know what he's going to say: "why in the heck are you walking in THAT weather?!" In my defense, my plan was to catch the bus home....but remember that project....well--it kept me later than anticipated, so walking was my option. oops. oh well.

Here are 2 pictures I took this morning. And that is about as much of outside as I want to see today! I have heard people scraping ice since early this morning (5am...!)

Lazy Morning

Shh! don't tell the boss!  :  -) With weather being foggy, that means no flying for me this morning. Up at 6:30 am...hmm...time for breakfast and some hot coco. Work begins for me today at 9:30 am....what am I going to do until then? I think catching up on some Facebook and blogging sounds like a good plan!

I went to bed early last night, as I was tired from getting up early this week. Tuesday I got go to down to Oklahoma City to do some paperwork and renew my CFI. It is so nice to go to the FSDO and only have to do paperwork and not be SO nervous about flying or teaching! In an effort to get there early, I left my house at 6 am. Since I am unfamiliar with exactly what time rush hour is in OKC, not to mention construction (if they had any), and weather, I decided to sacrifice the sleep and get up early. Well, the sacrifice paid off, as I arrived there (through the thick fog) shortly after 7 am. Nice, right? Well, my appointment was not until 9 am. Hoping my faithful GPS got me to the right location, I drove around the building and counted that it was 6 stories-as the guy on the phone told me the office was on the 6th floor. Well, I thought, I hope I'm at the right spot! So I noticed just a short distance away there was an Ihop. yesss! Breakfast! After a short cat-nap in the car, I ventured there for breakfast. Delicious.

It was approaching 9 am, so I went back down the street to the FSDO to do paperwork. After a short visit and paperwork complete, I was on my way back to Stillwater, OK. What a pleasant morning, despite the early wake-up!

The rest of the day on Tuesday, I could feel the lack of sleep coming on....so I decided that I would have to catch up on the Z's soon. Wednesday and Thursday flew by...literally. I just started another multi-student and am in the process of finishing up 3 other individuals. So it's crunch time for them and they are keeping me super busy with ground school and finishing up flights.

I did receive a phone call from Mom the other day, just to make sure I wasn't too lonely with Chris being gone in training. (Thanks Mom!!) I ensured her that I am keeping plenty busy (as last night was the first night all week I made it home before 6 pm--and actually got to bed early!

This weekend I (conveniently) am headed to Tulsa for a flight team practice for a ground event. The folks from Spartan (another aviation school in Oklahoma) invited us to a practice event for flight team called "Pre-Flight." This is where they "bug" (mess up) an aircraft and the contestants are supposed to go around the entire plane and pick everything out that is wrong. It's a fun event and I am thrilled the Spartan team invites us along.

Conveniently, I will get to see Chris too :  ) I'm getting spoiled-but I guess I better take the time to see him while I can, right? (he informed me that he got an update on his schedule and he'll be gone for almost a month straight coming up here--I think he said from the beginning of Feb to March) Well, when he is away, I have projects to keep me busy. I have homework (yeah--I do!! I know it's hard to believe, but that's what happens when you are in school.), a graduation project to finish by April....oh-and of course, Clint's quilt. Ah--the quilt......

So the plan and goal was to finish it by Christmas....well for me it was December 23, 2009 as we were leaving to spend the holiday with the Laws family. Unfortunately, with 90% of it complete, the only thing left to do was put the big blocks together....easy, right? Well, at 9 am on December 22, I receive a call from Chris. He said that there was bad weather coming and lots of snow, so we needed to leave THAT NIGHT if possible. BUT I HAVE A QUILT TO FINISH THIS AFTERNOON!! (somehow, the weather seemed more pressing, sorry Clint!) But, now that a new semester has started, that means a new schedule. Despite my trip to Tulsa this week, I am hoping to get the quilt finished soon....date...? Well....how about we keep that a surprise? heheh :   )

Pictures to come...!

Weekend at home, FINALLY!

It seems like the past month has been a quick one. With the holiday season come and gone, I am happy to have spent time with family and friends--and now be back at home.

Chris has been in training for about 2 weeks, and has been working hard. He got to come home last night to spend a few days with me before going back and studying his brains out. I could tell that he has been ultimately focused, as he kept mixing up his words last night. hehe...when you study hard all week, consulting books--it is hard to have a logical conversation without mixing up words when you haven't been talking all week because you have been SO focused!

I am so proud of him, and I know he's working hard. Oh-for the inquiring minds: he will be finishing training sometime around March-ish. He goes for sim-training at the end of February. Much past that, I don't know really where he will be, but the journey will sure be fun!

Other than that, I have been trying to get my feet on the ground this week with work and students. I have only 6 class hours left to take to finish my Masters, yay! Earlier this week, I received an email that said one of my classes was CANCELLED due to low enrollment! UGH! This class was one to be taught by an FAA employee, who has been in the industry for a number of years--and I have been looking forward to taking for over a year (as it is only offered in the springtime). While I am disappointed about this class being canceled, I guess it provides the opportunity for another class. While I'm not quite sure where this opportunity will lead me to, I'm sure that the Good Lord has something in the works, right!?

Purging Emails!

Ah......so I have gotten a BIT behind on emails....my sincere apologies to those of you who I missed important correspondence with! oops! Well, as I am sure many of you can understand, I have gotten busy with life, and well-my emails have lacked importance in the list. Well it's almost a new year--and that reminded me: Last year, my new year's resolution was to keep my inbox to a MINIMUM....like as soon as I read and respond to an email, I delete or file it.

I as doing SO well until June when I started my new job last year. Somehow I just got busy doing marathon training, working, flying, keeping track of Chris, traveling....and the list goes on. So here I am...almost back to a new year....and had some time on my hands...SO...I decided: What better time to PURGE my inbox?

I regrettably admit I had over 700 emails ! (I know-you are speechless !...so am I!)

NOW: 23

: - )

So it's not the zero I was hoping for, but a few of those I need to take care of at home...so I will settle with that for now,

PS: THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO FORWARD ME THINGS JUST TO FILL UP MY INBOX! Please be green and help me not get bogged down in garbage : )

So, whatever each of your new years resolutions may be...I hope that you continue to work on them...even if it does take you until the end of the year to finish it!

Happy New Years to All!