Two Posts in One Day!
Because I don’t have a whole lot else to do, folks. :)
Enjoy!
Smiles from the boys:
Why is she holding me so tight?
Squirrel…
I’m gonna kish you. Yesh I am. Hold shtill.
Tolerating. Barely.
Air Show, Stockings, and Waiting
What have we been up to in the last couple of weeks? #1, we went to the Blue Angels’ Homecoming air show. However, we did not stay for the Blue Angels presentation, since getting out of there would have been horrendous afterwards. Here’s the only photo I have of the event; not sure if you can see it in the photo or not, but those corkscrewing airplanes have dropped people that are parachuting to the ground…pretty neat.
One of our wonderful friends, Julie, has incredible artistic talent…plus, she can knit! So, I asked her to make us Christmas stockings. Here they are! I love the traditional style and colors; it reminds me of the stockings still at Mom and Dad’s place. :) Thanks, Julie! You did a wonderful job!
Can’t wait to fill ‘em up!
Now, we are just waiting on the arrival of the third stocking’s owner. :) Bristol will be here any day now, no later than 2 weeks from yesterday. Woohoo!
Oh Christmas Tree
Our “snow baby” Christmas tree. We decided to go miniature and super early this year! Now we can enjoy the tree before Bri comes. Pretty pretty.
Couples Retreat
Tobin finished up water survival training this week, and we packed up and took off for Andalusia, AL for a couples retreat at a lake house. We went to the same place last year, and once again it was beautiful and a wonderful learning opportunity for us as a couple. Five other couples from our church were there as well.
We ate like kings (and queens), and really enjoyed ourselves. I failed to take a lot of pictures, but here’s a couple for you:
Bailey, the paraplegic dog, outside to watch us play our “trust” game.
Kevin, unsure how to use the awesome blindfolds we provided.
Robin trusting Jackie to lead him through the obstacle course.
Candice trusting Michael.
I have movies, but it’s taking all day for youtube to upload them, so I think I’ll finish those later. Halloween is approaching…anyone planning on carving pumpkins or increasing the childhood obesity rate? I think Tobin vetoed giving out candy this year, since we mostly get teenagers with no costumes coming to our door. But we’ll see. I want to give the cute little ones some cavities. I have caramel apples on the agenda for this weekend and apple cider in the refrigerator. Yay! But I seriously can’t wait for egg nog to hit the shelves in the grocery store. Anyone know when that generally starts?
Surviving the water
Ok, after learning the ropes in surviving the woods & POW camp situations, Tobin is back in Pensacola learning how to survive in water. :)
Yes, my man is currently suffering through 2 parasailing adventures, floating in an inflatable watercraft on the ocean for a couple hours, and possibly being rescued by a helicopter (budget pending). Today is the last of the 3 day training. During the parasailing adventure, he gets to 500 ft altitude, then releases himself from the boat (WHAT?? crazy military dudes) and floats (ie falls) down to the ocean, where he has to practice landing, detaching himself from the parachute, and (today, anyway) inflating his life raft & setting up camp on water for a couple hours waiting for rescue.
All very cool. If I weren’t so afraid of tall places and especially falling from them, it sounds like something I would want to do!
I am hoping we can get a picture of these shenanigans, but can’t guarantee it. Will post if I get them!
Due date is less than 5 weeks from today! And during our officers’ Bible study (OCF), someone prayed for me as my November 6th due date was coming up. That’s 17 days early, folks, but I consider it prophecy now. :) Ha, just kidding, but it would be nice to not go past my due date.
Our couple’s retreat with our church is this weekend, so we will have some photos from that trip to post early next week. Should be fun!
Welcome Home
This is the red velvet cake I did not make myself. :) Thanks, Publix! You did a great job. I am very glad Tobin didn’t have to stay another week for water survival, or this cake would have been not so tasty.
I made him pose for this. We are at Mellow Mushroom, which has our favorite pizza in Pensacola. OH, and this meal was pretty much free, as we bought it with the proceeds from our garage sale. Ok, ALL the proceeds from our garage sale. I didn’t say we made a lot of money at the sale. :) After watching 2 Hoarders episodes, we have been feeling the need to let go of the stuff we don’t need hanging around. Oh, and I don’t think we’ll watch anymore of those episodes. Has anyone else seen those? Super gross.
At our OCF leader’s pool, enjoying some October sun. Unfortunately, it was also October water and COLD. Tobin was brave enough to jump in. I was not. Didn’t want Bristol to catch hypothermia. That was my excuse, anyway.
And this is what I finally decided to do with Bristol’s letters from the shower name game. The memo board will be useful for handily posting her feedings/diaper changes. It’s right above the changing table at the moment. The nursery is pretty much ready to go, we will just purchase a few last minute items with gift cards from our showers and be done!
I am 34 weeks along today, and it’s beginning to hit me that “full term” is only 3 weeks away, and the due date 6 weeks. Oo.
Oh, I know some of you don’t have facebook, so here is a picture of me today. Holy moley!
Twuck
Here’s the new truck, as promised:
4 doors so we can put baby, groceries, and puppies in the back seat
Seats fold up in the back for extra storage room if needed
Truck has a towing package so we can hook up the trailer & four-wheelers
See, they fit!
And videos of the dog’s pool: CLICK HERE, HERE, or HERE.
What’s up, guys?
Haven’t updated in a bit. Funny, considering I have lots more time now…I bet there’s a theory about that somewhere. Betsey, Dad? (you two know the most random facts, generally)
Guess what? Tobin and I got DATES! Here’s the list:
- Water survival, parachute training, and SERE (survive, evade, resist, escape) school in Washington state: September 20th-October 16th
- Training starts in Shreveport, Louisiana (Barksdale AFB) for B-52′s: April 1st
- Original report date for Shreveport: November 17th
We are putting in a request to push back the report date! That is kinda on top of my due date, and I don’t feel like moving when I could go into labor at any second. No thanks. So, if all goes well, we will be moving to LA in late February, which will give us time to get a schedule going with the baby and adjust to our new lives a bit.
I will put up a post SOON with pictures of our new truck. Tobin & I are one-car people for the first time, traded in the Tahoe & the Yaris to purchase a used Toyota Tundra. We thought it would be a good move since I currently don’t have a job, and so far it has been working out well (I think it’s been about 3 weeks). I swear, pictures to come! It’s raining & I don’t have the car to take pictures of right now. :)
July (the 4th, vacation, & misc)
Pictures below!
Tobin promoted the 4th of July to 1st Lieutenant…there’s a picture of his rank (2nd, then 1st), that he sewed on himself! We saved some cash by having him sew on all his rank. He did a great job!
We celebrated the 4th with the help of Tobin’s parents (Mike & Jacque), his younger brother Kellan, and Kellan’s girlfriend Staisha. One of the activities that weekend was a four wheeling trip. Our friends from Hillcrest, Mike & Haley, and their precious baby girl Sarah Kate, joined us for an hour or two as well.
For the last two weeks of July, we took an extended vacation and took a tour of the great Midwest. Starting with a stop in Louisville, Ky, we spent a few days in Troy, Ohio, trekked across Indiana with a quick stop in Fort Wayne, ended up in Chicago, IL, and took a couple day trip up to Grand Rapids, MI as well.
Some of the many activities we enjoyed were:
four wheeling
shooting
a picnic & cornhole tournament
the Dayton air show
lunch with my sister in her new apartment
meeting my new dog niece Zelda
swimming & trail riding/walking in Chicago
homecooked food
a day in the city
a tour of my dad’s campus
lunch with my parents
a four-hour traffic jam in Chicago (ok that wasn’t so enjoyable)
a lovely shower in Grand Rapids with oh-so-patient family & friends
a picnic with family at a Michigan park
and a two day trip home with a stop in Louisville, KY.
In the photos, you can see the condition of the Torrent (borrowed from Tobin’s parents) on the way home…the poor dogs had barely a place to lay down! You can see they managed, though. Yes, Rogue is completely on top of Titus in one of the photos. Once we made the switch back to the Tahoe, space got smaller as we added a head/footboard in Louisville. The completed bed, set up and everything, is in one of the photos. Thank you, Gpa Jim & Gma Dixie! The bed is beautiful.
I’ve included a photo of me with my new diaper bag. My friend, Ashley, made it herself. She is very talented, and has an online store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/AshleyNicoleCarter?ref=seller_info.
We are glad to be home!
Bought the pups a wading pool & some fish; videos to come!
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- Kellan at Styx River for a 4th of July four wheeling trip
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- Mike & Sarah Kate at Styx River for a four wheeling trip
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- Haley & Erin at Styx River, ready for four wheeling
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- Home at last!
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- Sporting my new handmade diaper bag. Thanks, Ashley!
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- A beautiful new addition to our furniture. Thanks, Gpa Jim & Gma Dixie!
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- Stackable puppies
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- How close can I get to you and still be in the backseat?
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- Aww
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- Barely room to breathe!
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- Diaper cake made by my talented sister, Betsey!
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- Tobin & Kayla at the bbq in Ohio
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- Tobin & Erin under a B-52 from Shreveport!
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- A B-52 from Shreveport…in Dayton, OH!
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- Tobin’s future home
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- 2nd Lt promotes to 1st Lt!
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- Mom Bolton at Styx River
Winging
Tobin had his official winging ceremony on June 25th. His parents, Mike & Jacque, flew down for the weekend; and my mom and two of my sisters, Betsey & Elyse, drove down for the day. Thank you everyone who made the long trip from the Midwest! It was so great to see everyone, to have you there for the ceremony, and to hang out for the time that you could stay. We love you guys! For the actual ceremony, our life group leader’s wife – Vicki – made it out as well. She has an amazing camera, so as soon as I get those pictures from her I will try to post them. She got some of the whole clan together, which would be wonderful to see.
For more pictures (and some of the same), see my Mom’s website – she also has a pretty great camera and was able to catch some events I missed.
Here’s the start of our day, at a blessing of the wings inside the special aviation chapel on base. Behind us is one of the several glass showcases of the wings of aviators who graduated from the Naval Air Station’s Naval Flight Officer program. Tobin left behind one set of wings that will be displayed in a similar showcase to be prayed for by anyone who visits the chapel. It’s nice to know we might be in someone’s prayers at any time, and complete strangers at that!
Tobin volunteered to read the Scripture for the blessing ceremony. Unfortunately, our camera’s automatic focus picked out the tall chandelier as the obviously most important part of this picture. Thus the blurriness. I apologize.
During the prayer. Is it ok to take pictures during prayer? Hm.
The priest blessing the wings (which are on top of the altar). He also sprinkled water over them from a fancy gold thing, but I missed that part. It was interesting to be part of a Catholic ceremony! I certainly hadn’t done anything like it before. To the left of the altar is the chaplain who is a really great guy and helped us out when the going got tough during training. They call him Chaps, but I’m not sure of his real name.
Speaking the Aviator’s Creed.
Tobin’s wings are the set on the far left. He left behind one of them and I put the other set on his chest at the next ceremony!
Not sure if these are saints or what their names are, but the one on the left is a navigator. The one on the right has a plane in her hands.
At the actual ceremony inside the Naval Aviation Museum, we listened to a speech by a 3 star Admiral (yikes!). Here is Tobin (the first to get his wings!) with me pinning his wings on. I was so proud of him!
Look at those shiny wings!
Next, we went through a reception line with the CO of each training squadron Tobin has been through, plus the guest speaker & chaplain. The man shaking Tobin’s hand is the CO of VT-86, the squadron Tobin just completed training with. Tobin received a certificate stating that he had his wings, signed by a big kahuna in charge of training. I also received a humorous wive’s certificate, plus a tiny pair of gold wings that I wore today on my dress. :) They are lovely, and a very nice gesture by the squadrons to appreciate the stress of training life.
If you took pictures at this event, please send me any you don’t see here! We will put together something as a reminder of all of Tobin’s hard work. He earned it!
Birthday girl and military update
Here’s the birthday girl on her first birthday, June 10. This was during our picnic outside (in the backyard). We grilled hot dogs and yes, the dogs each got one. I know, I know. But it’s once a year, really.
Here’s a mouthful of hot dog. Mm mm!
Titus was there too. But he’s the inside kind of dog.
The various sleep positions of Rogue. Here she’s sleeping with her panda.
Sprawled in the kitchen.
The tile’s her favorite place, nice and cool!
And for the military side of things, check out the About Us section for an update. Tobin is winging on June 25th at 10 AM! It’s very exciting to be watching the culmination of all his efforts the past two years.
We don’t know how long we will be waiting before getting PCS orders (permanent change of station), but we know we will be going to Shreveport, Louisiana to report to Barksdale Air Force Base for the first 8 months at least for B-52 training. After that, we may be going to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota or we will stay at Barksdale.
We may be here in Pensacola long enough to have the baby, but there are no guarantees. I’m sure we will be finding out in the next couple of months.
Oh, and July 1st, as long as the baby cooperates, we will be finding out the gender! We’ll let everyone know ASAP after we find out.
Selection and Soft Winging!
I know, a teapot doesn’t have anything to do with anything. But this is our first teapot…isn’t it cute? Got a good deal on Memorial Day.
New haircut, new hair (it’s much straighter now that I’m pregnant, weird), and first maternity shirt!
Ok, on to the relevant stuff. Tobin selected on June 4th. Here he is after he opened his envelope. B-52 for us! (sorry it’s blurry)
Shaking the CO’s hand. Unfortunately, I had no idea (nor did Tobin) that the CO was about to replace his name tag with an official WINGED name tag! If I had known, I would have done a video instead. Apparently, the tradition is to replace the name tag and punch the new one, sometimes pretty darn hard. By the time we got out of there, Tobin’s chest was sore. :)
Freshly winged!
Both of us after the winging:
For those of you who wanted to come down for Tobin’s winging, you didn’t actually miss it. This was a surprise, and what they call a “soft winging”. His actual ceremony will be later on, and we should have some advance notice. It will probably be at the end of June, but we will let you know.
So, we have the B-52, with base options at: Minot AFB, North Dakota or Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana. Although it’s not the aircraft we were going for, the needs of the Air Force trump our little plans. We’re excited nevertheless, and Tobin doesn’t have to wait for the T-39 to come back up, which is an answer to prayer.
Hope some of you can make it down for the winging! Tobin also promotes to first lieutenant in July.
Spring pictures
(there are two more new posts before this one…I know, THREE posts in one day…crazy!)
We’re pretty well into summer, but during April I took a bunch of pictures of spring blooming all around our neighborhood. I was so excited! We were tired of the cold. It was an unusually cold winter for us down here.
Couple of trees in a neighbor’s yard. The pink flowers looked just like tulips.
I assume these are daffodils? They had yellow and white.
Here’s a white one!
Flower boxes in a neighbor’s yard. I loved the colors!
These are goooorgeous!
Same flowers, but shown on the bush. Aren’t they beautiful?? I have no idea what they are, but there was an entire neighborhood that was full of these bushes…it was the best part of my drive to work, seeing all of these flowers everywhere. :) I’ve never seen a bush so completely covered with flowers until I experienced spring down here.
A dogwood tree. This tree was absolutely stunning, but the picture doesn’t do it justice. It was such a bright white, it glowed in the sunlight! The neighbor was in his yard when I took this, and that’s how I found out it was a dogwood. I’m not so good with plant names!
News from around the house
On the Air Force front: we learned that we will probably be waiting until the T-39 accident investigation is over before Tobin can finish his last two flights and get winged. Probably. Things can always change. That means about 2 months off for Tobin. In the meantime, we are trying to get some leave so we can go on vacation.
On the home front: I’m officially a housewife at the moment, taking a hiatus from work that involves paychecks for a while. Here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to in our free time:
Strawberry picking! Did you know sometimes these berries are available in JANUARY down here??? Crazy, huh? And they don’t have two seasons, just one. We barely got there in time to get some.
Sewing project again! We sewed light-blocking material onto the back of our curtains, using Grandma Norma Jean’s sewing machine. It worked like a charm! Tobin did the sewing, but we cut the cloth and pinned it together.
Proof! I was there helping.
And there are always the dogs. Here are some pictures and videos of what they’ve been up to.
First introduction to a turtle. Tobin found this guy in our backyard. Well, Rogue did, and was barking up a storm until Tobin went out to see what was up.
They didn’t know what to do when the turtle took off. We released him outside our fence soon after this video. I don’t think the turtle or the dogs would have been happy about having the other around any longer.
Here are the rest of the videos we took, but the best 2 are linked above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuGnhFOJ9vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kUPJpuACfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyg7AxqnZ8I
We got the dogs a new doggie door, one that fits into our sliding door frame. We got rid of the one in our window, which keeps the study a lot cleaner. We like this a lot better so far.
Tobin’s birthday
Tobin turned 24 on May 7. Finally, he can’t make old jokes anymore…until next December.
I made him wait to open gifts until some had arrived through the mail (he’s always trying to get me to let him open them days in advance). So here are Tobin’s birthday pictures!
He also got a game, Call of Duty (World at War, I think) to play on the PS3. The next day, another package arrived and he got a variety of things, including dinner at Olive Garden. We used it right away!
For dinner on the 7th, we went out to a new Asian restaurant, 2 Stix. It was wonderful, the sushi being the best part, although we sat at a hibachi table and that was very entertaining.
Happy birthday, Tobin! Thanks for all the phone calls, cards, and gifts. We will enjoy them immensely.
We’re still alive
…we swear.
Sorry for the delay in pictures/updates about us! We will be posting again soon with those kind of fun things.
Truth is, things have been kind of nuts around here the past few weeks. Tobin is in his second-to-last block in training, meaning he is scheduled a lot and studying constantly. He is doing a great job! He should finish up within a month; maybe a month and a half.
I (whine whine, I know I know) will have worked 24 days in a row as of this Wednesday, so I haven’t even thought about posting recently. In fact, I’m at work right now…but seeing how it’s Sunday, I figure I’m entitled to a break. Speaking of breaks, this Thursday/Friday I’m taking vacation, so toodle-oo work! Maybe I’ll have time to catch up on that housework that’s been waiting for me…sorry, Tobin!
We’re excited about the changes coming our way, including a winging ceremony for one hard-working airman. Until then, just give us a call if you want an update, it’s faster that way. Catch ya later!
Fence!
Here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks (PS we didn’t build it):
And a youtube video: CLICK HERE
The dogs (and we) love it! It’s already seen a lot of use, including barbecues and campfires.
Spring is coming to Florida! We hope to see all of you very soon…come down and enjoy some warm weather. It actually hit the 70′s today, woohoo! Can’t wait for warmer days & especially nights.
Two Year Anniversary
This post is belated, Tobin and I actually had our two year wedding anniversary yesterday, the 23rd. He’s the greatest! I can’t believe two years have flown by already!
Funny thing is, last year Tobin was in training so we only had time to go out to Olive Garden for dinner on the 23rd…this year, Tobin is still in training and we went to Olive Garden again! Haha, but on the 22nd this time, because the 23rd was crazy busy. In fact, we actually only saw each other for about 1 hour yesterday, mainly due to 5:30 briefs yesterday and today, lots of study time on base, and an evening volleyball game (for me…don’t I have it rough? Poor Tobin…).
So….long story short, we’re going to celebrate for real another day, probably after Advanced is over.
Happy Birthday, Titus!
January 30, 2010…Titus’s first birthday! We celebrated by making him a cake…ok, I made the cake. Tobin thought it was all a little silly. But here are the dogs enjoying their carrot/peanut butter cake with plain yogurt frosting!
Here’s the two scalliwags:
Here’s what they do when they get a soft squeaky toy:
Don’t worry, they got the squeaker out!
Also, I received my green belt in 6Sigma from Pall! Here’s the green belt, certificate, and award to prove it! I had to give a presentation at a “roadshow” Pall had at a local hotel. There was a vice president there as well, and some other bigwigs. I was in a group of about 13 other people who got green belts that day. The presentation was supposed to be 1 minute long, so it wasn’t a big deal to talk for that long. But I am very excited to be done with this project and to finally have a green belt. :)
Tobin is doing very well in training, something like 13 events left. He has a flight scheduled tomorrow, but has recently been canceled due to weather, so we’ll see if he gets to fly or not. He’s been enjoying a few days off, although he’s studying most of the time and he also worked a night shift, so he didn’t really have time “off”. We’re looking forward to the winging ceremony, hopefully coming up within a month’s time!
Ah, the military…
We are back in the swing of things, that’s for sure! Tobin has not been put on the schedule for the past two days, so he has been able to spend a lot of time in the simulators and even got to ride along on a flight to see what would be expected of him.
But then late last night we got a lovely surprise! 
Tobin has completed ground school and is in the sim phase, so all he has done so far is his very first simulator training (which he was rushed into anyway). He’s supposed to do many more of these sims, then go flight side. But, instead, we learned he was scheduled for his first flight this morning at 6:45 AM. 
And that’s the military for you. He’ll be flying to somewhere in Georgia today, and probably won’t be back until late.
Work is workish for me, no news there.
But, on a positive note, we had a wonderful Christmas holiday in Michigan with my family. We even got to see Tobin’s parents and grandparents on our way back down to Florida.
And the best news of all: Emily was home for Christmas! She is doing wonderfully, better than I expected and improving every day. She is able to speak and think as clearly as ever. Her mobility is back, she is walking and cooking and going on shopping errands…but not driving yet. Besides getting over the general weakness that a month in the hospital gave to her, her major obstacle is getting complete control back of her left arm and hand.
Thanks for all your prayers, the family really appreciates all the support that has been sent her way. Cards and gifts and encouragement from people who have never even met her…it’s been amazing and a great way to keep Emily’s environment positive and inspiring.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s!