my wonderful pilot

Hello world! Are you still out there? I feel like I have been in somewhat of a twilight zone lately. Yes, I am still alive for those of you who may have seen my husband attending ward parties alone, grocery shopping solo, and all in all looking for people to keep him company. I am so proud of him and all that he has done these last several long weeks, while I have pretty much just been working. I have been working a lot...that kind of feels like an understatement. Let's just put it that way.

I am not complaining, just explaining. It has been quite an adjustment for us--I am working nights, Dane is learning to cook his own dinners (and is getting pretty good at it, might I add), and we are learning how to make the most of the time that we do get to spend together. Now that the weather is warming up we have found ourselves spending more time outside and getting creative with our activities.

So probably one of my favorite afternoons with Dane was a week or so ago when he called me and asked me to pick him up from school because he wanted to "take me out." I was excited to enjoy a nice lunch together and was very curious to see where he had in mind. So, I got to the airport, Dane jumped into the driver's seat and drove me not even a block next door to "Million Air", a small fixed base operator where people can charter flights, rent planes...etc. He turned to me and said, "We aren't going to lunch, we are going flying!"

I was sooooo excited, and a little nervous, but as soon as he checked out the plane and had run through all of the pre-flight procedures and check-lists with me, I could really see that he was in his element. I could not have felt more proud of him, and I do have to say that it hadn't really ever sunk in that he actually knew how to fly a plane until we were up there in the air. We had a very smooth take-off, flight, touch-n-go and landing. He makes a mighty fine pilot.

Here is a picture of us on the wing right before take off:



So, in other news, we had a great weekend. Dane took me shopping to get some much needed clothes for work and this new, white watch for Mother's Day. I never really saw myself as a white-watch-girl, but I have really been needing something that I can wear in the temple (did I mention that I have been working in the Provo Temple as of about 6 weeks ago....LOVE it!) and something I could wear to work, so I was in the market for something white or silver. We fell in love with this beauty the other day. It is way comfortable and I love it more that I thought I would, especially because it has been almost 5 years since I have been a watch-wearer.


So, that is pretty much a little bit of what we have been up to lately (I always manage to make these posts way longer that I think they will be, and not nearly as eloquent...oh well). I am really enjoying my work, the hours are not that great, but working is really giving me the opportunity to appreciate the time that I do get to spend with my wonderful pilot. He is all I could ask for and more. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Recent Happs...

Hello friends and family! We are both sorry that we have left you wondering what is happening in our lives. We know it has been a while... such is life sometimes, right?! 

We have been busy with work (only Bridget), school (only Dane), going on bike rides in the nice weather (only Dane) and being just plain awesome (both Bridget and Dane). I am here to fill you in on two of our most recent activities that have kept us busy and happy.

On  Saturday, Apr. 18th, Bridget and I travelled to Green River, Wyoming to see Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin (Dane's maternal g-parents). It had been a while since we'd seen them, so we decided to do a warm up road trip in prep for the summer, and take the 3 hour drive to go see them. Here is some photo explanation...

Above is a long stretch of road right before Ft. Bridger (only one letter away from Ft. Bridget!). We listened to some good tunes and did our best to conserve gas. We usually get about 35 to 40 MPG on long road trips such as this! We love our little Honda Civic (better known on long trips as "Vic"). Vic keeps it real.

Speaking of keeping it real, here is a picture of me waiving to the Antelope we saw outside of Evanston. They were keeping it real for sure.

Speaking of keeping it real, above is a picture of me waiving to the Antelope we saw outside of Evanston. They were keeping it real for sure.

This is Bridget and Me with Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin. We went to lunch at the "Golden Corral", apparently Grandpa's favorite local restaurant in Rock Springs. Let's just say it was nice to see Grandpa happy there. After lunch, Grandpa gave us a two or three hour tour of Rock Springs and Green River and all of the buildings he had built. I actually enjoyed learning more about Grandpa's past. He had some really neat stories. My favorite was that he would not allow bad language on his work sites. He had some stories about firing people that would break this rule. Either that was my favorite, or the story where he had a crane operator put his friend's Jeep on top of a Courthouse they were building. I laughed at that one for a while! 

Moving on... yesterday (Apr.22) the weather was hecka nice out, so Bridget and I ate lunch outside in front of our house. As I was sitting there, I had the brilliant idea to set up a lemonade stand. I got my neighbor in on the idea, and we set up camp on our corner. The weather was awesome! We brought a boom box out and played all 4 albums of Jack Johnson. We had a party and ended up just offering lemonade instead of selling it. We did ask for donations though, and ended up making $8.05. We played it chill, wore leis. We had a great time, and improved our tans. In all, I think we spent about 4 hours out on our corner.

Here is our little set up. Good times had by me and Bryan for sure. Be on the look out for the return of our lemonade stand.

That is all for right now. We will try to be better about posting in the future.

P.S. I don't know what is up with the underlined text, but i couldn't make it go away!

Well, I am no longer on the job search, but I thought this was hilarious and described my experiences pretty well.  I found it on a great site here.

So I have never been one for tagging.....

Seriously, I have never responded to anything like unto a tagged post on blogs, facebook and the like, but this one caught my eye. Maybe it is because I get something, or maybe it is because I get to make 5 somethings and give them away!!!!

Here's how it works: the first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me personally. What I make is my choice, but it will be made JUST FOR YOU! My choice. For you. However, like all things that sound too good to be true :), this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- There is no guarantee that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you personally.
3- It will be completed sometime this year. :)
4- You will receive no clues as to what it's going to be. I'll let you post a request of some sort with your comment, but still... it could be anything! Mwah-ah-ah! JK.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange if I so desire... it may blow your mind! Or it may not. It may be very simple and predictable... but hopefully you will benefit from it!

And like most things that sound too good to be true, there is a catch. You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same deal to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. Not too bad, huh? In fact, I think it'll be a lot of fun!!

So-- on your mark, get set, GO! The first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they posted this on their blog and want to win a free, super-sweet homemade gift from me will receive just that!!!

Come Fly With Me!

Okay, so it has been a really long time since I have posted. That is a phrase I think I have started all of my posts with. Anywho, the most interesting events in my life right now is all the happenings at school. It is a great conversation piece to say that I am in aviation school. Everyone wants to know if I've started flying yet. I think that is kind of funny because I actually started flying before my classes started.
So, I have reached the coveted time to be able to fly solo. So, on Friday, Febuary 13th (yes, Friday the 13th! Yikes!) I went up by myself for the first time! This is how it went down in picture form...This is the plane I flew solo in. It is called a Diamond DA-20 C1 (affectionately known as a Katana). This plane, 988CT (niner eight eight charlie tango) goes by the callsign Wolf 18 (wolf one eight). These planes are amazing and solid despite how small they look. They are widely known for being some of the safest planes to fly in. They're very good trainers.
My instructor and I actually went up for about thrity minutes and did three takeoffs and landings to make sure he was comfortable with my flying alone that day.


So, turns out he did feel comfortable with me flying alone! Here I am after I dropped him off.
Here I am in good ole Wolf one eight getting the plane ready for departure.
Here I am going through the last of my pre-start checklists. Right after this, I started the engine and made the ten minute trip to the runway. While I was taxiing and doing a run-up check, my instructor went and got a scanner so he could hear my communications with the tower. He stood outside and watched me fly around.
And here I am returning in one piece! All safe and sound. You can't really see me, but I promise I am in there.
And here is my instructor, Josh Williams. He reminded me of my Dad when he put up a stink about taking a picture, and then refused to take off his sunglasses! I laughed inside. This is the guy who has taught me all I know. He is a great instructor, and pushes me to study hard and progress fast. He knows I want to get my private pilot's liscense by the end of the semester, so he is very accomodating.
One last thing. While I was waiting for clearance from tower to takeoff, they told me to "hold short" because of incoming traffic. I then heard them warn all the other planes that an A-10 warthog (a military attack jet) was doing practice instument landings. This means we have to watch out for it's wake (just like a boat's wake) or we could stall and crash. I thought, "great, I've trained how to avoid the wake, but what if I crash?!" Everything was smooth though, and I felt like I was treated to a cool "show" of sorts to be able to watch it do it's practice landings and take offs. We shared the pattern with the A-10 for about 15 minutes. I thought it was cool! Here is a video from youtube of an A-10 just in case you don't know what it is.

cold toes and valentines

All in all, it has been an extraordinary weekend.  For everyone who has been wanting to ask, but to nice to approach me: yes, I did get a job!  I am very excited about it.  It is going to be a challenge, keep me very busy, but be very rewarding.  I am excited to work for a great company with great people and have the opportunity to push myself to succeed and work hard.  It is good to have something to do with myself and to feel like someone out there thinks that I will be a valuable member of their team.  Yeah for getting a job and feeling like a contributing member of society!

So, onto other things,

Have any of you ever experienced bad circulation?  Well, I am a victim of this sad syndrome...if you can even call it that.  And needless to say, Dane has become victim to my icy cold toes each night as I slide under the sheets in search of warmth.  He has on multiple occasions mentioned great concern for the health and well being of my toes and circulation system.  So sweet.  He is patient and loving and so he has time after time put up with the ice-chilling torture of warming my feet at night.  This is all very important background information.

So, we (actually Dane) decided to celebrate Valentine's Day Friday night instead of fighting through the crowds on Saturday.  Genius if you ask me.  So, when I got home from a day of substitute teaching on Friday he came out the car to great me with a blind-fold.  He then took me into the bedroom where he made me wait until things were "ready."  A few minutes later, Dane came back into the bedroom, the blind-fold went back on, and he brought me out the the kitchen to sit at the table to see his presentation, where he had laid out a beautiful arrangement of little kind gestures.  Chocolate-covered cinnamon-bears.  Enchanted, rented from the local video store.  A gerbera daisy plant, that will hopefully not die in a week.  Pink frosted sugar cookie hearts from Smart Cookie, where else?  And a very cute purse/bag, have I mentioned my husband's great taste?  yeah, better than mine.  Oh, and inside the bag was a very large box of foot warmers, those little bags of sand that stay warm for up to 6 hours. 

Those are to keep my feet warm at night.  He is so cute.  

There are actually some in my socks as I write this.  

What a great weekend.  We stayed home tonight, worked on homework and prepared a lesson for church tomorrow.  And we dipped strawberries in chocolate.

I am so grateful for a loving husband.  Really the best I could ever ask for.  He is amazing.  I am grateful to know that we can be together as a family forever.  I am grateful for the temple and for the Lord's mercies in my life.  Life is good.  The Lord is good.  

job search (cont.) ....well, and maybe a little venting...

So, yes, unfortunately I am still in search of employment. I guess I gave everyone a lot of information about what was going on in my last post about this and then didn't follow up. Sorry if I gave you the impression that I was no longer searching. Unfortunately my lack of follow up was due to a lot of those employers not really following up either.

Sad to say, however, as I have been searching for the last few weeks for more options, today I finally heard back from my "original four". The job search continues....

I cannot tell you how many jobs I have applied for over the last week, let alone over the last month. Today it was about 17. I can already tell you that I would be way good at most of those, but my resume doesn't have exactly what they want it to say, like 2 years experience working in the same exact job that I am applying for, (p.s. none of them really pay that well, so if I had a job working somewhere else doing the same thing, why would I apply for these jobs? Seems like a pay cut to me!!) so, needless to say, I would be lucky to get into most of them for even an interview, but I know something is bound to work right? Let's try to be optomistic here...

One of the most frustrating things about searching for jobs online, as opposed to knowing someone there is that employers post a job and then proceed to get literally hundreds of applications and resumes everyday. So basically, I have no hope. (At least that is how I am starting to feel.) Especially because I have resorted to applying for jobs at places like PetCo. Which, don't get me wrong, there really isn't anything wrong with working at PetCo--to be honest, I love animals, and I would love to work there. BUT I don't know if they are interested in hiring ANYONE like me. Why you may ask? Well, I am pretty ambitious, want to work hard, have a bright future ahead of myself, and am very qualified. Granted I haven't ever actually opperated a real cashregister, but how hard can it be? I think if anything, having a bachelor's degree might over qualify me.

I feel like if I actually made it into an interview at somewhere like PetCo (or I have also applied at Einstein's Bagels) they woule hire either someone older with little education, who looks like they are there for the rest of their lives because they aren't really qualified for anything else, or a high school/ college student with a similar sittuation as mentioned previously.

So, maybe that is being a little pessimistic, and judgmental. I guess I really did come off like I was venting....So on the brighter side, I do have some jobs that I still feel a glimmer of hope for getting, and I have an interview tomorrow morning to be a sub for Provo School District. I will definately keep you all posted and don't worry, you will hear when there is good news. :) I think when I get a job I am going to run around the whole city shouting with joy, so hopefully you should hear without too much delay. :)

So, in the mean time I have been enjoying lots of sleep, exercise, re-painting some of the rooms in our house (pics to come) because everything is white, and trying to get motivated to do the little things. Life really is good. I guess today was just one of those days. I am so blessed to have a husband who loves me and who loves what he is studying.