Merry Christmas!

Time Flies!

Sandi is almost 3 months old in this picture....

Now she is almost 8 months!
She is HUGE! (55 lbs now, to be exact!)

Wing"woman" Sandi! haha
This picture is from our move from Pensacola to Milton a few weeks ago!

Thanksgiving in Milton...

This year we had the Butlers over for an early dinner... they had us over for last year, when we all lived in Virginia... It was a small gathering, but we had lots of great food!

While the guys watched a movie, Angela and I went through the ads to see where we would be heading for the after-Thanksgiving shopping adventure!
Wow! I doubt I will ever do that again!

I was up at 3am... to leave by 3:30am to meet Angela at Kohl's by 4am! AT 3:50 the parking lot was FULL and the line wrapped around half of the building! Holy COW! I wanted to take a picture, but I figured I would seem silly! Around 4:10 or so we were like the 600th and 601st customers in the door... We roamed around looking for the things that (mostly Angela) had picked out... I was too busy people watching - they had 3 and 4 of one thing and had a bag/basket full! Once we got in line... we stood there for over an hour and half! WHO KNEW! Oh geez - not fun!

Finally we got out of Kohl's, headed over to Sears for stuff for Jason, Angela's husband, and that went quite quickly (we made up for lost time) Then we headed to Old Navy (at 6:30am!) and Best Buy (who opened at 5am - still had a line!) Old Navy was a good stop - I found some $15 jeans and a $30 cashmere sweater! At 7am, we were one fo the first 100 customers at Cost Plus World Market, so we got a free chocolate bar... :-) Then to Best Buy.... WOW! Thankfully, one of the special ed aides saw me and said hi, so we just gave her the movies Angela wanted and seriously probably saved ourselves another hour or two of waiting!) I gave my chocolate bar to my hallway neighbor teacher to say thanks for buying the stuff Angela needed! :) Then to McDonald's for a bite to eat; into Home Depot! The sad part of Home Depot is that the train that was going to go around the bottom of our tree (and play Christmas music), was all gone! :( I'm still looking b.c I/we really want one... Then to Michael's and Target and we were done! What a whirl-wind of a morning! Thank God I was able to come home (around 10am) and sleep until 2pm! I was exhausted!

That evening we got a tree, from a youth group's fundraiser; a noble fir! :)

(Does the tree skirt look great?!) Thanks Mom!)

YAY for a real tree for US to enjoy for over a month!

See the green ring on the right... who knew that the trunk of our tree would be waaaaay to big around to fit into the tree stand's ring! Thanks for letting us use your hand saw Jason!

A few lights on the house!

WinterFest in downtown Pensacola!

Some may be wondering who the cute little 2 year old was in our top picture!?!?
No... she's not ours, Madi is Jason and Angela's daughter, whom we enjoy spending time with... and with her parents. She is hilarious; she constantly says "Hi Nona, (pause) Hey Bage or Hi Nona and Bage" This is even after we spend a few hours with her/the Butlers, it's pretty funny!

On the Road Again...

It's been 8 months since we moved from VA to FL... so it's about time we move again! :)

This time we are only moving about an hour northeast of Pensacola to Milton.

This is our new house! (that we will be renting)
Cottage Woods Drive

Milton, Florida

I will be taking my first day off of the school year this Friday, Nov 2nd, to help Nolan pack up the house into a U-Hual and drive it to the new house... It has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a GARAGE (which we've never had!) and a backyard for Sandi! It has a somewhat of a wierd layout, but simply put the master bedroom is above the garage, and the front door is that tiny space to the left. We will take pictures later. :)

Nolan finished API a week or so ago, so he now has/wears a flight suit! :)
Congrats!

This was the first day that he could wear it...
He starts Primary at Whiting Field on November 5th

This is going back to August, but Sandi graduated from PetSmart Beginner Training class!
She doesn't look too happy.... she's not a fan of sitting still! haha

And for Sandi's lastest acts of mischief...


Gutting Her Toys...
I think they lasted the afternoon...
You can see the green one by her paw and the brown bear in the background on the left...



Digging Holes!
Since she was spayed, two weeks ago Monday, she hasn't gotten out much and she really is going stir crazy! Good thing she stuck to digging down or she might have gotten out!

Helping Nolan take a part the guest bed...

Now for the real scoop! haha ;-)

Nolan's 24th birthday was last Wednesday and I totally forgot the camera! (sorry no pictures :( )We went to TGIFridays for dinner with our good friends, the Butler's. We also went to Best Buy to get a new XBox game... I did get Nolan a card, but for all of the other drama, hadn't found time to get him a gift... what a crappy wife! :( I have to do better!

What drama, you might ask...
Well, as of late, I have come home and cried or just been livid thanks to my oh so crappy teaching assignment. Thank God for an understanding husband, who has done nothing but listen and be supportive! :-)
The school district and school that I teach at are just plain screwed up, and now that we are 10 weeks into the school year, the kids have gone off the scale in the behavior department... They totally run the school (we average one lock-down a week if that tells you anything)
It is all just so ridiculous. So far the school nurse and one of the self-contained teachers have quit. I was going to add my name to that list. I thought about it, thought about how I could try to fix the problem, sought wise counsel, from many different places and finally planned to give my 2 week notice as of last Wednesday and what do you know... last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were GREAT! I felt like a normal person again!
Now tomorrow, Monday, may be back to hell, but I can't help but wonder if God is proving to me that He really will only give you as much as you can handle. I had reached my breaking point and things got better... I have no idea at this point. I will give it another week, and pray that things continue to stay somewhat normal, so that I can stick it out for the remainder of the school year, but there are no guarantees. If I do stay, I will now be making the 45 min commute to and from work... 3 weeks til Thanksgiving break (we get a whole week!) and then 4 weeks til Christmas; survival mode for this, my 2nd year of teaching, is in full gear! Say a prayer! (for Nolan too - that I will stay more like myself!)

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! :-)