Things Part 1

I do this every year, whether publicly or privately, to reflect on what I've accomplished in the past year and set goals for myself for the next one. I feel like this year is a bit different for me, although I'm having trouble pinning down exactly why. Perhaps it's because I'm happy to see 2011 go and so excited for what 2012 holds. Perhaps, for the first time in a few years, 2011 didn't mean any big, life-changing event for me. Perhaps because 2012 will be the FIRST year of my life that will not spend as a student (I say that now...).

In any case, I am pleased with how 2011 went. I did a lot of pretty awesome things, but I am so looking forward to 2012 and all the amazing things it will bring. Here's to ya!

10 Things I/We Did in 2011:

1. The first three months went by in a blur. I had my nose in my planbook and Art was busy moving from Check Flight back to Dragons on the flight line. In April, Art and a couple of fellow IPs competed in the Adventure Race out by the lake. They decided that having me on the team would be too much of an athletic advantage, unfair to the other teams really, so they finished the race as a three-man team. They still let me have a t-shirt.

2. Later that month, Lily Marie Sanford was welcomed into the world and we officially became Uncle Art and Aunt Amy. I met Lily for the first time over Christmas, and although she's not this itty bitty anymore, she is all kinds of adorable. Emily and Kirby are moving to Italy in a few months, but I will most certainly continue to spoil her rotten via UPS.

3. Being in our mid-20s brings weddings, weddings, and more weddings. We were more than grateful that so many people wanted to include us in such a special day, but unfortunately couldn't make it to all of them. We did make it to a few, starting with Clay and Lacey's in Austin:

 Then Brian and Lauren's in Mackinac, Island:

And finally Brandon and Erin's in Lexington, KY:

(PS - 2012 will see the first 108 BABY, as Jill and Aaron are expecting a baby boy in April!!)

4. One of our dreams since I can remember was to buy a boat. Art grew up on lakes, and even though I didn't and can't really swim, there are few things more relaxing and freeing than a day on the lake. In early 2011 (can you tell I'm not going in any order whatsoever here?), we bought a Malibu speed boat off of Paul and Maria who were PCSing. Best purchase ever?

 5. Brian and Lauren got married on Mackinac Island (see above), where motor vehicles are allowed. We could have taken a ferry, like normal people, from mainland Michigan, but as soon as Art discovered that he could rent an airplane in Columbus and fly us up there himself, there was no reasoning with him. So into this mini Cooper on wings we went, all the way to Northern Michigan. And now Art wants a plane. And I just want to sit on solid ground for a minute. A really, really long minute.

6. Our travels also took us to Ft. Myers, Florida for my mom's 60th birthday. It was a real treat to be around my whole family, which doesn't happen very often since all of us kids have scattered across the country. There are few things I love more than hanging out with my brothers, and I'm so glad their girlfriends Dawn and Jamie were able to make it out there with us. It was a great way to end the summer!

7. I made my second Thanksgiving dinner this year, with lots and lots of help from the many visitors we had. This year my mom, Mikey, Aunt Cathy, Grandma Jean, Jeff, Mary, and Charlie all DROVE down from Dayton to celebrate my favorite holiday with us. We made all the regular fixins, including brined turkey, cranberry sauce, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie and apple pie. I was happy to put somebody else in charge of the gravy, something I always ruin! I also vowed never to wear this white top again.

8. We got a NEW ASSIGNMENT, which was definitely the highlight of 2011. First, it was the B2 bomber to Dyess AFB, Abilene, TX, which we were stoked about, but it was by far our 2nd choice. Art was then picked up for an interview for the U2 Dragon Lady, landed it, and now we are headed here:

(Technically we won't be living here, but this will be our new Lake Amistad. It's Folsom Lake near where we will be living in Cali Cali!!)

9. I was awarded a grant from the state of Texas to teach math and participated in the Regional Math Collaborative out of Region XV. Even though I won't finish the school year, I loved being a part of the grant! I have no picture of math camp, sorry.

10. Last, but certainly not least, I finally graduated with my Masters degree from UD in education. That wasn't even the highlight of the day though... the real treat was meeting Roosevelt Chapman, famed UD alum, basketball great, and middle school teacher. :)

Peace out 2011!!

Mackinac Island!

Last weekend we were in Mackinac Island, Michigan for my college friend Lauren's wedding. As anyone who lives far from their hometown knows, going anywhere for just a weekend is exhausting and not much of a vacation at all. In order to help that issue, and spend some time with our family, we flew into Ohio on Tuesday, up to Mackinac for the weekend, and back to Columbus/Dayton until yesterday.
Of course, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on Mackinac Island, so our options were either to fly into mainland Michigan and take a ferry (yuck!), or fly on a tiny plane from mainland Michigan. Art, hearing the word "fly," instantly began researching airplanes for rent and how he could fly us from Columbus to Mackinac himself. Several months later, we talked Jeff and Mary (Art's parents) into flying with us and off we went.

Let me just say that I can't believe I actually did this. I'm not the best flier.

 

 

There's Art and the headphones we wore so we could all talk in the plane. My brain was NOT making the connection that Art does this every day of his life and is very good at it, and therefore I have nothing to worry about.

This is the hangar where our plane lived. At this point, I was about to throw up just at the fact that the car we were in was the same size as the plane!

I asked Jeff and Mary how they felt about Art being solely responsible for their lives for the next 2.5 hours... Mary's not so sure! 

All kidding aside... I was so glad to be back in Ohio.

 

 

 

There's our little plane!!

The hubs and I in front of the plane, just to give you a frame of reference. Tiny!

 

 

 

This was my view from my seat. Hello.

And this was the best I could do for barf bags. Just in case! (I didn't need them)

I'm ready to go! Kind of.

Art talking on the radio... I guess he actually does know what he's doing. It was actually surreal seeing him talk on the radio and flip all the switches and whatever else he did to make the plane fly. I never saw him practice or anything, so it was kind of like all of a sudden we got in a plane and he was good at it. Art will tell you that four consecutive years of 12+ hour days probably counts as practice.

This is the view from the air! After I got over my nerves to see it, of course.

There's Mackinac Island! It's the one closest to the top of the photo.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful island:

 

Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge... I loved this! It was 4th of July weekend, after all! And PS, the fudge was awesome. And those are peanut butter covered Milk Bones for... guess who! I was missing my Peanuts the whole time, so I had to bring him back a prize! :)

 

 This is where the wedding took place. The weather could not have been more beautiful!

Uhhhh speaking of beautiful... CHECK OUT LAUREN!! She was seriously the most beautiful bride. I could not take my eyes off of her dress all night!!

A few snapshots of the wedding. I love the one where Lauren is looking down. Such a gorgeous ceremony!

Here's where the reception took place. Beautiful!

And here's my hubs and me in front of the water. He's always the best date to weddings. :)

We had such an amazing time. I was so blessed in college to have some amazing girlfriends to party with, and now I have amazing girlfriends to celebrate life with. The eight of us live in five different cities in four different states but have managed to keep in great touch since college. They are such a great group of non-gossipy, kind-hearted, fun girls, and I feel like I can always be myself with them. And look how hot they are!!

Erin (the blonde next to me) is getting married in Kentucky in September, so we get to do this all over again in just a few months! I can't wait. There's no wedding like a 108 wedding!! ;)

New digs!

I have moved my blog... sort of.

Here, I will continue the crafting/cooking posts I so (un)faithfully shared with you over at Creative Therapy, but I will also add in some nuggets about our adventures in newlywed bliss. I couldn't let the antics of our first year of marriage go undocumented, and I thought it would be fun to invite you all to share with us. Please feel free to leave comments and to share the site with anyone you think would be entertained by our Del Rio wedded bliss!

For my first post, I'll recap the first month of our marriage (I can't believe it's been over a month!)... it was full of a few surprises, a lot of heavy lifting, and some good laughs.

After our wedding, we left for our honeymoon on the island of Great Exuma in The Bahamas. This was Art's baby, as he had been planning the entire thing without even telling me where we were going!! We stayed at the Sandals resort there, and came back fully recommending the all-inclusive deal. The particular resort we were at was very secluded, with little nightlife, which was great for a honeymoon, but if we were just vacationing there we would have gotten very bored very quick. We had two butlers, Imran and Deepak, who did silly things like draw us baths with floating flowers and bring us drinks at the pool or the beach whenever we wanted. It was a dream vacation and a wonderful way to start our marriage!

This is the view of the resort from the pool. Wish you could see the swim up bar!

The beach, Emerald Bay. I couldn't believe the water was really that color in real life. But it was!

Of course I had to take pictures of the food. This is Art's rack of lamb he got at the 4-star restaurant on our resort. I got the lobster risotto and died. Here's something else I got...

 I can't believe I'm secure enough to actually post this on the Internet, but it's too ridiculous not to share. If you've ever gone on vacation with me, you know that if there's a bizarre ailment to be contracted, I will be the one that gets it. On my honeymoon I discovered I'm allergic to a particular type of sunscreen called Panama Jack's. I discovered this because my face began to double in size in the course of a few days. This picture was actually taken before I woke up and couldn't open my eyes, so it unbelievably got worse after this was taken. They had a nurse on staff at Sandal's, so I was able to get some antihistamines and look closer to human than Klingon by the time we got home.

This was taken the last day. Klingon no more!

This was sunrise the morning we left. You can see the pool, the swim up bar (between the lights, and the ocean. I really looked at this every day for a week!

After we returned back to Dayton, we left in Job, my little Jeep Wrangler, to make the 22-hour drive to Del Rio. We were expecting the car to huff and puff and chug and die 20 times on the way there, but he worked like a charm and we ended up being able to make the trip in two days.

THEN - HOME SWEET HOME!!

This is our beloved house in Texas, although the front "yard" is currently overgrown with weeds. I've been given the task of finding a landscaper to come help us out, but I've managed to put it off for two days now. Tomorrow, I swear.

We are, for the most part, all settled in. The movers arrived the first week of June with more stuff than I ever remember packing, and we've managed to give most of it a home. Unless you enter our third bedroom, which, ideally, will house my sewing and crafting stuff as well as operate as my office. That's a disaster.

Art's back to work as usual, and I spend my days working out, going to the pool, drinking wine and cooking. It's a really rough life, but I'm trying to work through it. I am currently in my second week of P90X, which is the most absurd thing I have ever said. I really like it, and I pretty much hate any exercise that doesn't involve lifting a drink to my face. I will really surprise myself if I make it all 90 days, but so far, so good!

 That's all for today. :) I'll leave you with a picture of my good ol' dog, Harry, who went to doggie Heaven on Sunday. He died of being the oldest dog ever, but he left us with lots of wonderful memories. We sure will miss him!