Wonderful Weekend

Mom got back yesterday from a wonderful weekend in Maryland. It was great for her to spend time with family and friends (namely KK!) and actually get to do some shopping in stores! Although she had to get used to the traffic and lines. On Sunday afternoon was a gathering for her moms side down in Virginia. It was so nice seeing everyone.

Cousins

Three Generations

I admit I was a little jealous when I saw this picture. I heard mom liked her moms dog, Luc. I guess I have won to her over to liking dogs in general!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is Dad's 28th Birthday! We got up with him this morning and made him chocolate chip muffins and he is off to work. Mom is going to drop off lunch for him and his flight. Mom is actually heading out of town today to go to Maryland. He is such a servant for letting her go on his birthday. His big gift was tickets to the Dallas Cowboys game last weekend. Mom arranged for his brother to meet him in Dallas and they spent the weekend hanging out then went to the game Sunday night. It wasn't the best game for Cowboys fans but dad said he still had fun. The person dad was playing in fantasy had Brees, Bush and Hendersen on his team so he also had to watch his fantasy team go down.

I have a great picture of Dad and his brother but he didn't want me to post it and this is the only other picture they got. Psalm 133:1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

Blessings

Bible study recently has been a sharing of good news and God's faithfulness in our lives. God has blessed us so much, he is so kind. Here is a brief rundown...

-- Husband home safely from Iraq.
-- 2 babies on the way (we just learned yesterday that one is girl!)
-- 2 VSP's (Voluntary Seperation Pay) approved
-- 1 pilot job at Southwest Airlines.
-- 2 great FAIP assignments.
-- 1 got approved for grad school scholarship.
-- 1 got an SOS slot in January

We also are celebrating with those that have already moved on who just had a baby and another who got marreid this summer and husband is getting home from deployment. I am so grateful for this group of girls that God has placed in my life at this time. What a joy to celebrate with everyone!

Not the best picture of me but a good one of the group.

Family Day

Yesterday was one of those fun family days you dream about as a pup when all the people are seeing if they want to take you home and you are wondering what your new family will be like. All the trips and stuff are nice but so are the days when we are all just hanging out around the house getting ready for the holidays. It is actually cold here so it feels like Christmas is coming(even though dad is still wearing shorts outside!). Dad was working on hanging Christmas lights on the bushes and house, mom was inside working on Christmas cards and baking cookies. I went back and forth between helping dad with the lights and hoping some of the cookie batter would fall on the floor for me. The Christmas tree lights were on, candles were burning and football was on. Perfect!

Our first Christmas gift, the KSU rock from dad's parents. K-State football is heading to the Texas bowl in Houston to play Rutgers. We would love to go but we will be back up in Kansas for the holidays.
Yes, we have a small Christmas tree with very few ordaments but it is fun getting new stuff and see our collection grow every year. Mom could probably tell you where she got every single ordament and Christmas decoration. And when we actually spend a Christmas at our house we will get a real bigger tree!

Better Late than Never!

Dad got his assignment today and he got his first choice! He will be flying the F-15E Strike Eagle! I am so proud of him, he works so hard and we are excited to see him rewarded. For more information on the plane click here.

Our 7-11 Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend up in Colorado visiting with family and meeting family for mom. We left after work on Wednesday and got there early afternoon on Thursday. We ate snacks for lunch as the plan was to watch the Kansas City/Denver football game and order pizza. We were planning our big Thanksgiving dinner on Friday when the whole family would be there (so mom thought). We ended up going to 7-11 for some taquitos to tide us over till dinner. Well dad's aunt and uncle come over for the game with popcorn, apples and pie since all the pizza places were closed. Which would sound great if you stuffed yourselves for lunch and just want something lite for dinner. Well since we were pretty hungry we run back out and the only thing open was 7-11 so we grabbed some more taquitos for dinner. The dinner on Friday turned out to be at the nursing home so on the menu was taco pie, fish and macaroni and cheese. So needless to stay this is the most hungry we have ever been over a Thanksgiving weekend. But we were there with the best company - family!

Us girls were debating about going shopping early in the morning. But the whole family just ended up going later in the morning on Friday. We went to a model train museum on Saturday morning that is still in the process of being built. Dad's uncle knew the owner so we got a private tour. It is amazing the amount of detail that goes into the scenes.

We headed out of town Saturday after lunch and made it home around 1:30pm on Sunday. Mom promptly went to the store, bought food and we had our own Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos and green bean cassarole. Didn't have time to make pies so we just had chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

The family with grandma. You can't tell in this picture but we look forward to welcoming a new member in the family in the middle of January!

Catching up...

We have had a busy past couple weekends. People always ask what we do for fun since we kinda live in the middle of nowhere. Well it causes you create your own fun. Last weekend we had a squadron progressive dinner/house crawl. Four different houses were a part of the crawl and each house had a different country as a theme. There was Japan with sushi and spring rolls, Ireland with guiness soup and car bombs, etc. We walked to each house and tried all the different foods and drinks. It was so much fun! We have been "tailgating" and watching K-State games with our good friends down the street on Saturdays. One game was great! We won't talk about the most recent game. The AWANA Grand Prix was on Saturday so mom and dad went to support the kids in their clubs. Last Friday night Georgia's mom has a birthday party for Georgia and her dad. I had fun with all my friends and playing with her toys. There was a fire for the adults to sit around and hang out. Playing with a ball that releases food when it is rolled around. I need to request one of these for Christmas.
Doggies and mommies.

Georgia's mom had a treat in her hand and it had our attention.I ate a little too much that night and didn't chew my food and I threw up all over Georgia's patio. So my dad took me home and I had to go to bed. It has been fun hanging out the past couple weekends. Mom and dad are excited to go up to Colorado with dad's family for Thanksgiving. I get to stay with Georgia.

Happy Birthday to me!

Thank You

We want to take a moment on Veterans Day to thank all those that have served or our serving our country. We know several people overseas now (including some neighbors and mom's good friend's husbands) and many more who have served in the past several years. We have even mourned with friends who have loved ones that have made the ultimate sacrafice.

Romans 13:4 "For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoer." We are so grateful to live in a country that is free, especially free to worship. So thank you to those that have made that possible.

Chili Cook off in Terlingua

This past weekend mom and dad went out to Big Bend National Park and the International Chili Cook Off in Terlingua. Our good friends who go every year invited us. This year they even flew back from Florida. It was great for my parents to see them this year. Last year I got to go but this year they took friends instead. Mom is still waiting on pictures from her friend from this year but here are a few from last year. Sammi and I at the campfire at the cook off. We never saw an ounce of chili while we were there. I guess they make very small portions to better control the ingredients. We basically were just there for the entertainment - Texas country music. Terlingua used to be a huge mercury mining town which no longer exists but parts of several buildings still do wso now it is known as the ghost town. They have a cafe there that has wonderful food, we really liked the guacamole. We never like guac till we got to Texas.

Fall Festival Fun Part 2

Since we get all the Kansas jokes we figured we would just go with it! Dad's costume was the best. Although some of the little kids were scared of him. We dressed up a couple years ago and since then everyone kinds of expects it. People at church were asking what we were going to be this year so we couldn't disappoint them.

At one point we had a line of kids outside our house. When there was finally a break in kids we snuck off to church to help out at the fall festival.

Help, the tinman needs oil!

Two A&M yell leaders.
Our game to be in charge of was the balls in a bucket. Those ping pong balls went everywhere! Dad's costume was a little tight so when he had to pick up the balls he ripped some seams. So mom was stuck chasing the balls and with the ruby red high heels her feet were hurting. By the end of the night we made the kids get their own balls!

Fall Festival Fun Part 1

On Friday night our squadron had a fall festival. Mom and Morgan. She did not like dad's costume at all. She is scared of him even when he is not in costume. When we first got our costumes in the mail and tried them on we laughed so hard we invited Morgans family down to laugh with us. As soon as she walked in and saw dad she got so scared. She hasn't wanted to be around him since.
The squadron was decorated and kids could go to each flight room to get candy. Then were was a lot food and games for the kids.

Recovering...

Playground Fun

We had a great weekend with family even though it was too quick. I was definitely not used to kids around but they are a blast.

I loved going to the playground with the kiddos. The slides were so much fun!

Nephews

We are so excited to get to see our nephews (and their parents!) this weekend as they are coming to visit. We are so grateful for those that take the time to visit even when we are not in that exciting of a place.

This is the most recent picture we have, sent by their dad taken on the first day of school.

Assignment - this week???

It started off as a prayer request at bible study last night...another girl prayed for peace as assignments might come down today or tomorrow. Then we get a call from a friend at another base who left a message asking what plane we got. (For those that don't know all bases hand out their assignments the same day.) So we might be getting our assignment soon! Word is the commanders have the assignments on their desk they just need to wait for the go ahead to hand them out!!!

(But then again knowing the US goverment - we might not get them for another month!)

The Dump

Mom and dad got some new toys the other week and enjoyed riding them around. They finally decided to go out to the "dump" to do some mountain biking. Mom was a little hesitant at first, there could be snakes and some of the hills were pretty steep. As she got more comfortable with the bike she was a little more daring. It really was an old dump with tons of hills and paths that people have paved with bikes and ATV's.

The was one little that was a little too steep! We enjoyed the view from the top though! As we were riding mom kept on getting reminded by dad that she will likely ride where she is looking. So if she sees a snake or big hole not to look at but focus on the level path. How true is that for our lives as well! If we focus on the holes and snakes (temptations and circumstances) it is a lot easier to get distracted by them. If we focus on God (the right path) we will be less likely to fall. We have to remind ourselves not to get distracted by our circumstances (ie. our upcoming assignment) but to look to our Savior! I had my friend Georgia over this weekend and we enjoyed watching football on Sunday especially the Cowboys vs. Texas as we are both Texas natives! I got in a little bit of trouble yesterday when my neighbor ratted me out for eating chocolate. My mom set out some fall colored Peanut Butter cups on a pumpkin plate and I ate the entire plate when they left for dinner. We were over at our neighbors later that night and they found my droppings which had tons of foil in it. So they called to confirm that I had indeed ate the chocolate. But I didn't get in too much trouble because all the dog books say I wouldn't know what I was getting punished for after the fact!

Fall

It is finally starting to cool off down here so it feels more like fall. Our camera is still missing (which I assume means gone for good) but mom's work says we can borrow the camera when we want to so that is nice - we won't be in a rush to buy a new one. We bought a pumpkin over the weekend and dad enjoyed carving it on his day off for Columbus Day. It was a powercat until the rain came yesterday and now it is just a weird hole. I am not sure what to think of it. It kinda smells like food.....


Mom tried her hand at flowers this past weekend. We can flowers free on base (thanks taxpayers!) so we figured she had nothing to lose. Any and all planting tips are appreciated!

Finally, if you have time you have to check out this link. (Quick before dad makes me take it off)

http://uoflsports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/091606aaa.html

Then click on photo gallary in the middle of the page and look at the first picture. Dad is plane #4 in the flyby. Pretty cool huh! They all got introduced during the game and everyone started chanting U-S-A! Dad is so grateful to be "living the dream!"

Mom hard at work!

Thought these pictures would give everyone a good laugh! Mom has an old school superintendent on the job who doesn't like "paper shufflers" like mom's job. So he takes great pride when he gets her outside working. So here we are pouring 2 sections of a concrete sidewalk.

Learning to dance - doing the jitterbug!

KSU vs. Baylor

Mom and dad went to the game, K-state lost and they left. That is all we will say about the pathetic game. Mom lost her camera which is very upsetting. Mom said she checked to make sure she had it in her purse before heading out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. She didn't use it there but when they got to the game she was going to give it to dad to keep in his pocket and it wasn't there. We have called the restuarant a couple times but it has not turned up. We will keep praying and hope it will turn up. Times like these are frusterating but it is important to remember that it is only a material possesion and not the end of the world!

Weekend Recap

Since dad has been gone the last couple weekends it was nice to have everyone home and hang out. Saturday we had some people over to watch the K-state vs. Louisville game. We had a good time with everyone even though K-state lost. My friend Morgan was the life of the party, she sang the Fight Song and does the K-S-U Wildcats.

We had our new neighbor, Delilah, over for the weekend. Mom and dad forgot how hard it was having a puppy around. Even though they are so cute, it is a lot of work when they are not potty trained. Delilah did very well though and we had fun playing all weekend.


Sunday was mom's 26th birthday. Dad did a great job making the day special with breakfast in bed and gifts creatively hid in the house for her to find at different times. He even made a yummy cake for everyone to eat at their couples bible study. I was hoping to get a piece but all I got were some crumbs. Mom also had a softball game on Sunday and they won! It was the last game of the fall season. I guess now they want to start a winter season so the playing never stops!