It’s Quittin Time!
No, not forever. Just for the weekend…the loong weekend! Tobin and I are driving up to Ohio to visit his side of the family for Memorial Day. Yay! It’s been so long since Tobin has been home; we haven’t gone back to Ohio since we moved mid-June of ’08. Almost a year now. So, it will be a long day of driving on Friday and Monday, but well worth it.
Also, Tobin is classing up on Tuesday the 26th! That means he is starting primary, the next phase of training, which starts with 6 weeks of ground school. He will be in VT-10 (there are two training squadrons, VT-10 and VT-4…don’t ask me why “VT” stands for “Training Squadron”). They are known as the “Wildcats”. I’ll let you know more as I learn it once T starts up. No more mustering, woohoo! But I’ll miss my lunch buddy. 
I’ll have to feed Titus all by myself.
You can visit the Wildcats website to learn about the training squadron.
Sweet Birthday…Thank you!!!
Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday presents. Erin did a frustratingly good job at not allowing me to open any until the 7th! I’ve included some pictures of my loot as well as Erin’s creative puzzles. Erin gave me a choice for a birthday present: new phone (blackberry) or skydiving!!!
We ended up getting the new phone because mine stopped working just last night. They were running a deal at the AT&T store where if you bought one Samsung Propel you could get one free. So that’s what we did, and here’s a picture of mine…E was at work while I was posting so maybe we’ll post a picture of hers later (it is white and red).
Also Erin made an awesome red velvet cheesecake. I was in charge of buying the ingredients and we didn’t have any red food coloring, so I figured a green velvet cheese cake would be just as good, if not better! But we ended up mixing some yellow and a little bit of red to make what color…? ORANGE!!! So here is a picture of our cheesecake and you can’t really tell the color, but it was orange, and it was scrumdiddly.
Titus is growing big and strong…we are still having house training issues but E and I look at it as a test…or practicing the development of our unconditional love and infinite patience (haha!). I’ve included some pictures as well as posts to youtube where you can watch some videos of the rascal.
For memorial day we are planning on driving to Ohio to see the Bolton parents and we will be seeing the Rumley side in July.
As far as work goes, E is continuing work on her green belt project as well as replacing/refurbishing a belt on one of her lines, and her roofing project is nearing a close.
Now to my job…I regret to inform you that my tan has been lacking lately, but with the coming of spring/summer weather I promise to get back on top of that! On a more serious note I may class up one of two times, either the 26th of May or the 11th of June. So my beach bum days are nearing an end!
That’s all for now,
Love, T&E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2SrhX6GnsM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ergQCeZVStA
Happy Birthday, Tobin!
My wonderful husband turns 23 today. He couldn’t wait and opened a couple of his presents this morning; he’ll open the rest tonight after work. We’re planning on going to the Fish House, a nice local seafood restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try. Once we get back, I have red velvet cheesecake waiting for us in the fridge. Of course, it didn’t turn out quite like we expected; we didn’t have enough red food coloring, so we put in both red and yellow food coloring. It really looks like pumpkin cheesecake now. I still have to put the topping on and fresh strawberries…mmm!
Pictures to come! (I have to show you another little project T worked on…he’s pretty amazing!)
Happy birthday, love!
April’s treating us pretty well
We like not having training! Tobin works long hours about once a week, but otherwise it’s muster, work out, and come home! That’s nice, since I don’t have to worry about letting Titus out most of the time.
So, here’s a little fact about me…when I get home from work, I have a wallet and keys and work ID and planner and phone in my hands and sometimes the mail, and I like to just set them on the counter (which is the most accessible spot from the garage/front door) when I walk in the door. However, Tobin hates it. He doesn’t like having a “catch-all”, especially with it in such plain sight. Apparently, moving my pile to the seat of a nearby chair didn’t help much.
So! I decided to do something about it; a compromise of sorts, where I could still have my catch-all and Tobin could still have his neat, attractive entryway without a pile of junk sitting around. Here’s my purchase, which we got from Lowe’s and World Market:
I love it! It’s turned out to be very useful, and I would recommend it highly for you people who lose your keys or your purse or your phone all the time (I speak from experience…also wedding rings, but this hasn’t solved that problem yet!).
A random photo of our orange julius. Thanks for the recipe, Mom! Of course, we didn’t have vanilla on hand and I added strawberries, but it’s mainly the same thing. 
Super great drink, all you have to do is add some frozen orange juice concentrate, an equal amount of water, an equal amount of milk, half that amount of sugar, and like 1/2 a tsp of vanilla and some ice cubes and voila! Or you can skip the vanilla and add a couple strawberries like I did. Luke, you can use Splenda. It’s an awesome smoothie!
And last but not least…
Aaaaaaaaahahahaha! So helpless. I think he’s saying, “Stop taking pictures and get me out of here!”
We’re doing well and getting things done. Love you all and hope to see you soon.
Camping/Four-Wheeling
I’ll be taking over the blog duties today. Erin and I just returned from a camping trip this past weekend. We headed out to Apalachicola National Forest. We missed church; you’ll have to blame me for that one, but we had a great time enjoying the outdoors we are blessed with. Titus came along and was a great companion for the most part. We slept in a tent and cooked all our meals over a fire; we did great considering we forgot to bring eating utensils.
Hiking, four-wheeling, cooking, and of course sleeping in took up all the time we had. We arrived on a Friday evening, found the trailhead for the ATV’s, then found a place to camp at William’s Landing. The first night we met some “snowbirds” making their annual stop at this campground; one of the older gentlemen was an exceptional guitar player and singer, so we had some entertainment while we cooked our aluminum foil potatoes.
Saturday morning we went out to the trailhead at Silver Lake and took off. Titus stayed behind in the truck and we came back every hour to check on him etc. We ran into very few people and the forest was gorgeous. The trails were very fun with some areas where you could go extremely fast (good thing our ATV’s are relatively underpowered) and others where you needed a canoe. In fact, in all my wisdom I got stuck in one of these lake-sized mosquito-infested flooded areas and had to get off the ATV and start pushing. I was up to my knees in water; when E came out to help she found the deepest spot and fell in all the way to her shoulders. It was very funny for me, but I don’t think E laughed until we were back at the campsite and had showered.
I forgot to mention; in between our riding sessions we would come back and check on Titus. One of these times I had no water so I gave him some blue gatorade, probably not good for your dog, but it was funny. Check out his tongue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpHaaFPL3Q&feature=channel
That took us all the way to the afternoon, and once we were cleaned up we drove to some foot trails on the state side of the forest. We headed out on the 2.9 mile trail with a good 2-3 hours of sunlight left. Titus did great, and was walking along with us, hopping over fallen trees, and crossing bridges with no problems. Everything was fine until we noticed the sun descending below the tree line. Yup, we emerged from the forest at dark…but we weren’t worried, not at all! Also, here is a video of Titus doing an exceptional job of walking with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWthDVsl2cw&feature=channel
The next morning we went to a different trailhead and swore to ourselves that we wouldn’t get as wet this time around. It went according to plan until near the end of the trail where once again I underestimated how deep some water was…but we didn’t get stuck that time!
So after packing up, and thanking God for watching over us, we headed home exhausted and ready to unload. In the midst of unloading we had a new surprise…ticks! Erin had five and I had three…Titus only had one, lucky guy. So after that horrific experience I may be hard pressed to convince E to go camping with me again…ever.
So that’s that, it was a great weekend. We thank God for good weather and safe travel, and to our family we love you all and hope to see you soon. For videos of our experiences click on the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WE5GJw3ZCg&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GHxpkYwZLQ&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyyfjhTUkg&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUr8arY1eko&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPcVhxdzciU&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnmISYBkBhM&feature=channel
T&E
TITUS
The Sunday morning finally came, 3/29/09, when we could go pick up our new puppy, Titus! We were so excited; I had to work that Sunday, so we went to get him during my lunch break. We had only just said goodbye to all of our friends from Rose that morning, and then we were off to the breeder’s house.
We have learned several things about Titus since we have gotten him.
He likes to play with your head.
Exhibit A: 100_2776
Exhibit B: 100_2775
He has to use the bathroom at the worst hours of the night. Even when you look like this. Ha.
He’s not too sure about baths. Even though he STILL smells like the kennel. Ew.
Uncertain puppy vs first time puppy bather: 100_2780
He’s not much of an eater still, but is much better if you soften his food with water.
He hates being on a leash.
And he’s just plain cute.
Titus, he’s awesome: 100_2768
Sleeping under the futon, his favorite place to rest if we’re on the computer: 
Gosh, just look at ‘im!
Don’t think I’m completely infatuated with him, though…I’m well aware he has a stubborn streak a mile wide. And, he had an aversion to dogs as well. I say had, since the Jack Russells that live two doors down paid us a visit and wouldn’t leave him alone until he played along. It was SO fun to see him romping with dogs his size! He was definitely worn out before Chaps and Mina, but just wait a few more months…he’ll outweigh them once he’s full grown.
Also, he growled at our next door neighbor, the mailman Patrick. Patrick said they can always tell he’s a mailman. Haha!
We are going through getting Titus to sleep through the night right now; a slow process. But he likes his kennel and lays in it during the day on his own, so that’s nice. But boy is he loud at night when he wakes up! Hopefully he’ll sleep through the night soon. He is also mostly housebroken, although sometimes we mess up his signs and think he’s just whining (he likes to do that); we’re learning just like him!
Hope you enjoyed our puppy! We sure are. We’re also getting a small taste of parenting. Getting up in the middle of the night, cleaning up poop, and staying patient no matter what…tough stuff!
Spring break visitors (second group)
Our Rose friends came down to see us this past week/weekend. Skul, Dani, KT, Pattenaude, and Brunner were all here. It rained most of the week, but we got in one great day at the beach with giant waves. It was great to see everyone and for our house to be so full! We tried out a restaurant on the beach we hadn’t been to yet called Crabs; it was wonderful food, but a bit rainy that night. Everyone left on either Saturday or Sunday. These are the only pictures we had on our camera, although Dani got lots more. Yup, we played a lot of cards.
Disney World – belated pictures!
Here are selected pictures from our trip to Disney! We had sooo many photos, so these are nowhere near all the ones we had. But we had to stop somewhere! Some of the events we captured include the various theme parks, the tail end of a shuttle takeoff, Tobin eating from a makeshift bowl, rhinos crossing our path on a “safari”, us goofing off, and our final picture on the way home. Enjoy!
Quick note
Thought you might all like to celebrate with us! We have officially paid off 3 out of 4 of my student loans as of early this week. One left, and it is not interest-accruing, hallelujah!
We are safely back from Disney, by the way. Betsey and Micah are still visiting, now in P’cola instead of Orlando. Will update soon with Disney info.
Dizzy Land!!!
This is my very first post!!! I like it better when Erin posts because she is a very gifted writer but I’m going to fill in for today. I’m gonna get right down to it. Erin has taken on several new responsibilities at work, some of which are a cause for headache and grief…but she’s done very well. Scrap reduction team, green belt project, and a very needy husband have her very busy nowadays. She was cooking up a storm last night and made all sorts of dishes for our Disney trip including: pea salad, egg salad, some type of bean salad, and has every meal planned. Erin is the logistician for our “Disney Army” which currently consists of Erin, myself, Micah, and Betsey. Any other takers?
The “plethora” of salads
More food…including taters
My job is moving along, I graduated from API (Aviation Preflight Indoctrination) this past Wednesday and received a snazzy looking paper certificate with my name on it, and a firm congratulatory handshake from a Marine Corps Major. I’d have to say my favorite part of the whole 6 week course was the helo dunker. It was the most challenging and scary thing I did while I was there! Now I am in C-pool and am waiting to class up for Primary. C pool consists of daily 0830 musters…piece o’ cake.
The Snazzy Certificate
In other news, the truck brakes went kaput so most of the money from Erin’s car is going to getting that fixed, but the rest is going towards our vicious 25 lb watchdog…TITUS! We can’t wait to go pick him up…looks like it may be around the 28th of March.
Other than that we are currently packing and making final preparations for our trip. We ask that you keep us in your prayers for safe travel, and for Erin to forgive me when I take her on all those roller coasters with me. We will post pictures when we return.
Titus, five weeks old
Baby Titus
Pictures say a thousand words…not much more to say but that we love this puppy and he’s gorgeous! We get him for real in three more weeks.
So much going on…
Many important things are happening. And I have no pictures, yet…
The first thing happening is that Tobin is ALMOST done with API! He will graduate on Wednesday of next week. I am so extremely proud of him; he spent so many late nights and early mornings studying for the first four weeks of API, and now he is in the last two “fun” weeks. Today, he experienced the dunker; something like the back end of a helicopter that they fill with student navs and pilots and lower into a big pool. Then they turn it on its side and upside down (somethin’ like that) and the ppl have to unbuckle themselves and get out. The first time, they do it without blindfolds, and the second with. I don’t know the whole story yet, but he passed! Also, not sure if you all knew this or not, but he also did really well on the mile swim too. He said he was swimming pretty close to an hour, and he never stopped! He even put in a couple extra laps because he forgot to call out what lap he was on. Ah! Can’t even imagine…
The next important thing that is happening is that on Saturday, Tobin and I are going to visit our puppy (who is five weeks old today). Pictures will be posted later!
The next important thing is that Betsey and Micah are visiting for spring break not this weekend but the next…and staying for a week! PLUS, Tobin gets one free 5-day pass to Disney, and he was able to get discounted tickets for me, Betsey, and Micah; so we all chipped in our share and are going to Disney the 13th-18th! We’ve never been (except maybe Micah???) and we’re SUPER excited!!!! Should be loads of fun, will post pictures of that as well.
And the NEXT important thing…after Betsey and Micah leave, our Rose friends are coming to visit! Yup, that very next week. My roomies, Dani and KT, will be here; Tobin’s roommates, Brunner and Pattenaude, will be here; and our good friend Skul will be here too! We will only be seeing most of them Thursday-Sunday, but Dani will be here all week! Very excited, will post pictures of them too!
AND…we get to pick up our puppy in three weeks! That’s the same weekend we have all of our roomies/friends in town, so we might wait a few days. Getting close now!
Finally, we are looking forward to Tobin starting primary, and sooner than we thought. Looks like it will be anywhere from 2-6 weeks after he finishes API. Wow! We thought we would be getting 2 months or so, considering the backup we have been hearing about from Navy and Marine and Coast Guard friends. But we will find out the exact date later, sometime after Tobin is done with API.
Let us know how you all are doing, and when we can schedule you for a visit to our little vacation getaway. We miss you all!
365 of the best days of my life!
To the most important person in my life: I love you, I’m so glad we get to celebrate year #1 together, and I’m looking forward to year #2, 3, 25, 50, and however many more God wants to give us!
Married life is still great, one year later. We may still be in that “honeymoon” phase, I don’t know…but it’s wonderful. He even likes me in the morning, and believe me folks, that’s not pretty. So far, in our first year together, we have moved (over 700 miles), been apart for over 2 months, started 2 new jobs, bought a car, sold a car, made it through 2 1/2 training sessions for the AF, and even set up a budget and did our taxes together!
Happy anniversary, Tobin! (he’s pretty great)
*We will try to keep everyone posted on where we’re at with Tobin’s training on the About Us page.*
I forgot we had PICTURES!
That’s right, we had proof of the Bolton/Thompson visit! Here’s Tobin’s parents…
And Grandma Dixie celebrated her birthday with us while she was down here! (Zach, she was born on the same day as you!). We got her a Marble Slab ice cream cake. Mm mm!
And the last and the least…at work, the guys putting in our sprinkler system ran over a pipe with their little vehicle. The result was a lovely geyser. They walked around for a long time shaking their heads and raising their hands in confusion. Finally, my boss found out and had the maintenance guys turn off the water supply. Bye bye geyser. So the guys walk over to their vehicle and start examining it…and the water turned on again! Oh, the hilarity…anyway, it kept turning on and off, not sure if that was a maintenance prank or not. Haha! Anyway, by the time I got my camera, there were no guys or vehicle, just the pretty fountain in our front yard!
Please keep Tobin in your prayers, he has a lot of studying to do every night, and two more tests (his LAST YAAAY) next week. My poor husband. So just be thinking of him, thanks!
Gasp!
I can’t believe I forgot to tell everybody…on Monday, I think it was, we SOLD the Prizm! Yaaaaaaay! We are so excited; this will really help us out. Plus, we sold it to somebody we didn’t know, so no more complaints about my poor little car and it’s issues! Very good news, huh?
Happy birthday, Mom (Rumley)!
It’s my wonderful mother’s birthday; all of my siblings will be visiting her this upcoming weekend to celebrate. We’ll be thinking of you, Mom, even though we can’t be there! Enjoy your special day!
Wow, what a busy few weeks! Tobin is in his third week of API…he had a test and a mile swim this week so far, and another test on Friday. He’s doing so well! I’m amazed at how long he can stay up at night studying, and still get up at the crack of dawn to head to the base.
We got a visit from Tobin’s parents and his maternal grandmother this past weekend. Very fun! We even got anniversary presents. We now have our own set of grilling utensils and some sticks to roast marshmallows/hot dogs on. That will come in handy with our new portable fire pit. I can’t believe it’s already been a year (almost!) since we were married. Time really has flown by, and we’ve been too busy to notice. We are still planning on celebrating our anniversary by going to Disney World, but it will have to be later, once the puppy is older and we can get the time off. So, we might just have dinner together on our actual anniversary. Not sure yet!
We are still playing volleyball on Thursdays, and having a great time! I think we are going to start playing on Saturdays too, since we really need the practice (and it’s just plain fun).
This weekend, I am hosting a brunch for military wives; fiesta-themed! Time to clean the house. Good thing it was slightly clean already from our preparation for last weekend’s visitors.
*Be sure to check out our About Us page, we’ve updated it to fit our current situation.
Effects of a bad economy
I really wonder how it will touch us all. Or where it will stop. You never know when the next Great Depression will hit, even though it seems ridiculous to think about. Had another guy disappear from Pall today. That makes about 3 in the last couple of weeks, and the layoffs haven’t arrived yet. This guy was in IT (we had exactly 2 IT people), and it was completely out of the blue. He does a lot here, so I don’t know how they are planning on replacing him, since they can’t hire anyone. Makes you not feel safe no matter where you are in the company (especially those of us with less than a year of service!).
The good news is, Tobin is doing INCREDIBLE in API. He just had a test today and passed with flying colors. Such a smarty!
At work, same ole same ole. My roofers were applying a coating and the people in R&D complained about the smell. Had to shut down the air handlers, call the roofer for the MSDS’s, and have our safety guy go take air readings on the roof. Hmph, babies. Can’t handle a little nail polish smell.
Volleyball tonight! Time to go take a nap.
What a day!
Good news: Tobin passed his first test in API! I am so proud of him. He has been doing well with the swimming as well. He’s been swimming in flight suit and boots for a while, learning to float and how to do different strokes. He has a test on weather on Thursday too. He has been working so hard! He’s the best.
Bad news: The plant manager announced this morning that we are having to cut the weekend shift at my plant. So there will be layoffs, we just don’t know who yet. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks. The last weekend shift will be at the end of the month, so it’s not too far off. Yay for the wonderful economy.
Volleyball is something we look forward to each week. So far, we have played 6 matches and have won them all! Hope I didn’t jinx us just then…anyway, last week we played the church staff (the Staff Infections), and pastor was playing against us…haha, it was a good time!
Going to go rest up for a bit, it’s been a long day. We appreciate your prayers for Tobin as he begins his second week of API.
Ah yes, the presentation. Thanks for asking! Ha… The good news is, I was at the very beginning of my presentation when the fire alarm went off. And we aren’t going to reschedule it. So, looking back, the presentation went very well. The bad news is, the reason the fire alarm went off was that my roofers (for the roof project I am in charge of) were torching by an air vent that they weren’t supposed to be by. It’s never a good thing when you’re the first one called back into the building after a fire alarm! But, the good news is that everyone was very understanding about it. They have all done it themselves before, and my boss’s comment was that if I’m not making mistakes, I’m not doing anything. So that was good. But I did have to go yell at my contractors and make sure they understood that I had to know EXACTLY where they were going to be and what equipment they would be by. Then I had to shut down certain smoke detectors temporarily. And that’s my story about my presentation!
Tobin is doing very well; he finished his first week of API. On Monday is his first test, and he has another on Thursday. He has been doing a lot of swimming. The instructors had the guys swimming for seventeen minutes straight, just for a warm up! And they have been jumping off the high platform and learning to tread water in flight suits and boots…he kind of likes it; I think it sounds like torture! But he’s learning a lot. He’ll have to swim a mile and perform each kind of stroke that he learned as well for a length of the pool.
That’s it for now. I’ll let you know how API progresses…one week down, five to go!
Correction…
So I may have jumped the gun. There’s some waffling going on about the name…so it may change! But 90% sure that it’s Titus.
Tobin is doing a lot of swimming at API; yesterday they were taught different strokes, and today they are going to play water polo…in flight suits! They will learn to tread water in flight suits and boots, swim a mile, and escape from an overturned helicopter. !! Plus, they are going through 6 flight books for ground school. His first test is on Monday. I know he’ll do great, though; he has been doing a lot of studying.
We are starting a study at church on Wednesday nights, and I’m kind of excited about it. It’s called Defending Your Faith, which is something I could really use in my work environment.
And lastly, I have a presentation today at work that is kind of important. I was stressing about it yesterday, but on the drive home the perfect song played on the radio and helped me relax. It’s that country song about how it’s alright to be little-bitty. “Might as well share, might as well smile, life goes on for a little-bitty while…” It helped put some things in perspective. The job’s not the most important thing in the world. And it’s alright to fail; I’ve been trying to get used to being the young engineer at work and feeling like I don’t know anything. But I’m learning that it’s ok to not know everything at first, to try and to learn from my mistakes. Not an easy thing to do! I’d rather be perfect the first time around. But really, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem to matter so much.
First picture
One of those cute little guys is Titus, our new puppy!
We get to pick him out in a few weeks.