Pictures!

End of July...

A bowl I made with some other military wives...
(take notice of my long boring hair here...)

Nolan and Sandi studying for IFS

Nolan's First Solo Flight on August 8th
Milton, Florida

Laying on the couch with Sandi...
I spent a good two weeks in August doing just this...
After a horrible trip to the dentist!

The dentist knew I had TMJ, but still scheduled a 2 hour fillings session!
I had no idea that my TMJ would be as bad/worse than the day I fell of the horse 9 years ago!
Thank God for Naval Medicine...

I made at least 3 trips to the clinic to see a doctor (in about 6 days) and was given various over the counter meds and (eventually) controlled substances to manage my pain... and one trip to the ER for a shot of pain meds.. all paid for by the expense of my husband's military service
(but nothing out of pocket!)
I finally got in to see my dentist on her day off and she made me an NTI

In some ways I guess it was a blessing in disguise... I was having LOTS of headaches before this dentist incident and this NTI was made for headache relief, as well as to help with TMJ... I am excited to say that I have had VERY few headaches since I began wearing the NTI at night... :-)!

Nolan's Osprey Model!
Nolan has taken up a new/old hobby!
This was his first one - now he is on to #3!
Very cool! :-)

Paige is now the Big 2 - 5 !

Because of all of my jaw pain, my birthday outing almost didn't take place! So very glad I started feeling better!

For my birthday, Nolan SURPRISED me with a day at the Day Spa with my best girl friend, Angela!

We got a pedicure, an hour massage, and I got a (somewhat) real hair cut!!
(which I had been telling Nolan I just couldn't find time to go get)
(we also get to go back for a facial, they just didn't have any more appointments)

my toes!

hair in the making!

Ta Da!
(as Madi says when she is done with something)

AND my final surprise...
Dinner with the Butler's! at Tri Fratella
JUST LIKE I HAD MENTIONED WOULD BE FUN! :-)
Thanks Guys!

Madi enjoying the ice cream cake! :-)
It was so good, that after we ate my birthday cake, Nolan went back to DQ and got us another one! :-)

I now have the coolest Texas A&M purse!
Thanks Angela for making it for me!

What a Happy 25th Birthday it was! :-)

Quick Update!

Nolan solo'ed for the first time on the 8th of August! YAY Nolan!

He is done with his 25 hours of IFS as a pilot and will start API on September 14th!

My school (that I teach at) is pitiful. That's the nicest word I can find right now. I almost quit on Day 4 of classes, but thank God day 5 - Friday went better.... It has nothing to do with the kids (discipline and such isn't a problem) and the curriculum is fine too - vague, but fine - so it's EVERYTHING else I never had to deal with at Jane Long.....
A FEW examples -
I started out with 32 kids in each class (was given 24 desks)... the law here is 22 students/class... yet somehow I am down to 28 at the moment, but I get a new kid every period (almost every day) so much for laws?!
I was given 3 reams of paper for the entire school year - I seriously thought it was a joke... It's not.
I can't make overheads without having someone make them for me. (Do I really look that helpless?)
No one talks to me.... they all come right before the bell and leave shortly after the last bell....
I don't have a printer that I can print to that I can actually GET the prints (it goes to someone's room who is of course has GONE HOME by the time I want to print something)
It is all a total joke! I can't imagine quitting, but we will see how the next two weeks go....

My school (FSU classes) are going to keep me busy, but don't look TOO bad, as of yet!

Okay more later....

The Simpson's

You may or may not know, but Nolan absolutely LOVES the Simpson's!
Fox airs two episodes every week night and since we moved to Florida in March

we have had a DVR so we have all of those episodes recorded too! ;-)
Back to the movie... Of course we saw it on opening day! (yesterday) I personally think the Simpson's are just okay, but the movie really was funny! I would recommend it for sure!

All Dress Up... for
Spouses Night Out at The Melting Pot!
(I'm even wearing make-up! Can you believe it?)

This is my best girl friend here in Florida, Angela, who I met while we were in Virginia... She and her husband, Jason invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at their house last year! Crazy thing about it is, I was really nervous about going, since I really hadn't spent any time with her and looking back I am SO glad Nolan convinced me to go! I can't say enough great things about them... we love that we are able to spend lots of fun times with them! :-) They are both originally from California, so they hope to be stationed there again once they are done with flight school!
(Jason and Nolan carpooled together to the airport in Manassas while completing IFS...)

Back to The Melting Pot outing...
it was an interesting and fun (thankfully Angela was there with me!) experience, but it seems to be one of those things you do once and you're good. We did get a discounted rate of $32 since it was "Ladies Night," but WOW! the portions were tiny! We absolutely LOVED the chocolate fondue for dessert! Not worth even going back for just dessert, but worth putting Angela's fondue pot to use in the future! ;-)
Oh and the make-up I got when we were down in Orlando... Bare Minerals - LOVE IT! I got the recommendation from Amy and Charla and I don't think I will ever buy another brand of make-up -- EVER!

While I Was Gone...
Nolan captured what Sandi was up to...
"Who me?"

It's interesting that Sandi has pulled (literally) this blanket out of the laundry room to lay on it. When we first brought her home, this was her blanket, so I kinda wonder if she remembers that... or maybe I'm just crazy! haha She has almost outgrown her blue and yellow bed, so maybe this is its cheap replacement.

The Next Day... The short story:
Sandi didn't get let out (yes, out of her kennel, but not out of the house) one morning, so her morning potty was left by my desk in the office ( I guess she came looking for me?) for 3 hours until I found it... of course by that time it had really soaked in! :-( So off to The Home Depot I went to rent a carpet cleaner. It didn't work quite as well as I had hoped, but I did try cleaning the couch cushions since I had the machine for 24 hrs! Fun times!

"I'm Ready!"

Every so often, and sometimes a few times a day, Sandi will bring me her leash...
It's usually on top of her kennel, which as you can see in this picture is in the dining room/living room, so she has easy access to it! She's too cute and not to mention a lot of fun!:-)