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

Happy Birthday Nolan!