And We're Back!

I am going to start blogging again... maybe on a regular basis? I hope so! :-)


From the time we moved into our base house in Milton, Florida... here is a brief run down...

Christmas came and went... Nolan's mom came out to visit for the holidays, so we had a great time showing her around Pensacola and MiltonUSMC Pelican in Downtwown P-cola

Happy New Year - 2009

January - February
Hung out - waiting for Nolan to start helicopter training...

Did a little shooting to pass the time...

Last weekend in February - flew out to Temecula, CA to see our good friends the Butler's!

Had a great visit and trip to DisneyLand..Madi's first slurpee from 7-11! Nolan LOVES slurpees!

Spent a day re-grouping before driving out to Jacksonville, NC - where we will be moving to in 5 weeks or so...
Made a stop at the CMP to buy ammo and look at guns...

Spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday driving ALL over J-ville, getting the lay of the land and looking at prospective houses to buy along the way...

March 19th

Last day of glasses and contacts!
Thanks to LASIK eye surgery - I am now 20/20 and 20/25!
Thanks to my friend, Inga, who drove me to and from the surgery AND made dinner for us!

Same day...
Nolan checked in to start helicopter training!

The rest of March and April were spent learning/practicing EPs (Emergency Procedures) and learning how to fly the helo...

Nolan did make a homemade carrot cake to take to the Osprey Easter gathering at the Semler's...

A 1st Lt. USMC Bunny at that!

May sneaked (is that a word?) up on us and before we knew it my Masters Graduation day - May 2nd - was here!Notice the super cool gown... I had by far the nicest one because my dad bought mine! Most rent them... as they run a little over $400!
My mom and step-dad, Tim, as well as my Grandfather (Mom's dad) and his wife, Dorothy, came out for graduation and were able to get to have Nolan show them around Whiting Field (T-34s and Helos)

My graduation gift to myself was a high speed HP Laptop - Love it!

May is OVER! Nolan's winging is just around the corner! I am so excited for Nolan getting his aviator wings in a little over a month! :-) He should be done with all events in about 10 business days! (from today 6/2/09)

Check back soon - I really will try harder to not be so lazy with our updates!

Back in Florida

The reason we are back...

Nolan will be learning to fly this now... a Sea Ranger Helicopter!
It's the last part of training before he learns to fly the Osprey!

Where we used to live...
UHAUL packing Saturday...
House cleaning and Christmas Cantata Sunday...

Drive 14 hours straight to get to Florida Monday!

After about 6 hours of sleep on Tuesday morning at George's (Nolan's partner for learning to fly the C-12 back in Corpus, who moved to Florida the week before us...) we unloaded the UHAUL at our new (to us) base house on Tuesday!

While the maintenance men defrosted our freezer (it was draining into our refrigerator) we put up our Christmas lights on day two - in the cold!

The end product of the Christmas lights...
Notice the perimeter of the yard in lights... we hope to hit the after Christmas sales (although they seem to be going on before Christmas too) and get a few things to put inside there for next year!

Close up of the front door...

Sandi by the tree
(eyeing the treat I am holding)
Because she knows "stay" a lot better, this was a pretty easy picture to get, aside from her being deathly afraid of touching the train!

Our tree!

My attempt to decorate... ;-)

A close up of the stocking holders I purchased this year...
Now to finding some nice stockings ;-)

Sandi's 1st visit to Santa
(the base was offering pet pictures with Santa for a $5 donation to the Humane Society)
Notice her tongue... she is ready for the treat they are showing her!

The fence project I planned to help Nolan with...
He and Sandi were done by the time I got up and outside around 8am!
Unfortunately our house doesn't have a fence, but we did have 3 of the 4 sides we needed to make an enclosed area for Sandi, so Nolan built the 4th side in no time!

And finally....

I cut my hair!
(about 3 inches, so it is taking a little time to get used to, but I think overall I like it!)

Come back soon for pictures of the inside of our house!

Email if you would like our new home address!
paigedean@gmail.com

Florida, Here We Come!

Well, it seems it is that time again!
Time to MOVE!

Nolan has flown most everyday so he has finished his flight training on the TC-12 and is ready to move on to the next phase of training! Helicopters!

After spending Thanksgiving with my family here in Texas we plan on moving (ourselves this time) back to Florida on December 8th... arriving in Florida on the 9th... We have a "renovated" base house awaiting our arrival, so that it exciting!

While we are excited to move on to Nolan's next stage of flight training, I am sad to leave a job that I truely enjoy! My last day officially was Nov 25th, however I will be volunteering in our classroom (Dec 1 - 5) to help make the transition for my replacement (if they get on the ball and get one! ahhhhhhhh) and our students, as smooth as possible... :-)

Being a full-time 2nd grade classroom special education paraprofessional has been a wonderful learning experience. With a class of 17 students, 7 of which having special needs, there has yet to be a dull moment. Every day is a new day, and what worked yesterday doesn't always work quite as well (or even at all for some) the next! :-)

The wonderful ladies I work with... (L to R)
Mrs. Louth (spec ed teacher) Mrs. Hoff (2nd grade inclusion teacher)
Mrs. Meador (2nd grade teacher next door to us) and me :-)
At the pumpkin patch field trip!

Being a certified teacher and taking a job that only requires a few college hours and "experience working with children" there was a bit of adjusting to be done... and it was a learning experience in many respects...I'll leave it at that for now... ;-)

On a teacher note -
I passed the Texas Special Education Teacher Test! I scored 280 out of 300! I was elated to have passed as the test cost $120 AND the fact that I was depending a lot of my knowledge learned from my Master's and what I had experienced in the classroom.


Our 24 hour round-trip to College Station for Midnight Yell and the Corps of Cadets March-In

A few pictures from Halloween night!

Sandi was a "Devil Dog"





Doesn't she just look thrilled?

Our pumpkins!
(I cheated and used a stencil from the internet)

If you line up your pumpkins along your neighbor's (Nolan's flight partner - George) garage door (so he can't park his car in the garage... as a joke) they make a totem pole of your pumpkins in your front yard! Hilarious! :-)

Mom and I at the King Ranch
(Mom and Tim came to visit :-) Halloween weekend...
Nolan was running a 101 - 103 fever for 5 days! Poor guy was at home when these were taken)

Tim and I at the King Ranch