Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We were able to spend the day with some friends who also stayed in town. This seems to be our "tradition" since we've not been able to go "home" for Thanksgiving for the past 3 years. Each year (and we've been with different friends and different bases each year!) we've spent the day with some great friends!

Our meal was delicious and we had enough leftovers that we all got together again on Friday to do it again! :)

Then we went to Walmart at midnight for some crazy Black Friday shopping! I was also able to drag Grant into Boise on Friday for a few other things, even though I did most of my shopping online! It's great because many of the deals were available on Thanksgiving day and I didn't have to leave my house in the wee hours of the morning!! Wanna know my best Black Friday deal?!?....

So excited for delivery!!!

Visitors!

Wes, Katie, & Brianne (Grant's brother and his wife & daughter) came to visit from the 10th through 14th! It was great to be able to spend some time with them and show them a little bit of Idaho. Unfortunately, Wes had the flu on Thursday, so that was a lazy day for all of us.

Friday we headed to base to show them the squadron and watch a few jets take off. Then we headed out toward the Bruneau Canyon Overlook, which we've been to before, but it's pretty neat so we wanted to show Wes & Katie. On the way there, the road crosses through part of the Air Force's bombing range, and we were lucky enough to see two A-10s practice shooting their guns (I'm sure there is a better term for it, haha!). They would fly down super low, shoot their gun, and then fly back up pretty quickly. We could even hear the guns. It was pretty cool!

Saturday, Grant and I had jet photos, so Wes & Katie took a short trip to Sun Valley for the day. We all met back up Saturday afternoon and ordered pizza and hung out for the night. They left early Sunday morning. Hopefully they enjoyed their stay in Idaho. We enjoyed having them! :)

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween with some friends in Boise. We got all dressed up, headed to dinner, and then went to the Old Idaho Penitentiary. We thought it was going to be more of a haunted house, but we were WRONG. They had some "actors" roaming around pretending to be old prisoners, but basically it was just a museum at dark. Lame. So we left after about 20 minutes...big waste of money. Plus, we were walking around outside and it was freezing!

Hanging chamber above...and then the bodies dropped down into the room in the picture below.

We headed downtown to the bars after that. I was DD, so it's always a good time being the sober one in a group of drunk-o's. The things I do for my husband.... ;) Enjoy the pics! Happy Halloween!!

Illegal? Maybe. ;)

Don't ask...if you know Grant, this is normal.

Co-cheese (Beastie Boys) & Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)...last minute costumes!

We passed out candy on Sunday evening...Wizzo dressed up as a Tiger!!

I love fall decorations!

Happy Birthday Husband!!

Happy Birthday Grant!

Grant was able to get out of work at a decent time, so we headed to Winger's for dinner. We even got there in time for Happy Hour...$1 shots! ;)

We came back and Grant opened up his gift to find his very first Cleveland Browns t-shirt. Go Brownies! :)

Fall Visit to Ohio

I spent the 15th through 25th in Ohio, and it was a great trip! It was so nice to be able to spend time with family and catch up with friends whom I have not seen in almost a year or more! I really enjoyed being able to devote time to "my" friends instead of trying to split the time with Grant's friends, as we usually have to do around the holidays when we are back in Ohio.

Anyway, my flight went smoothly and I landed in Detroit and headed to the car rentals. (First, I grabbed Hungry Howie's pizza for dinner in the airport...yum!!) Basically, I think I got ripped off because they recommended I upgrade to the next level car since the one I had reserved didn't have cruise. Well since I like my cruise and figured I'd be driving longer distances most of the time, I went ahead and upgraded. I ended up with a 2011 Ford Fusion, and I must admit that I really liked it! I've grown up having a negative association of Ford (thanks Dad & Mom...haha!), but I was actually impressed with this car. I finally made it "home" and visited with my mom, brother, and grandma for a bit. By the way, if you want to feel like you've completely wasted a day, take a 3 hour flight across country where you lose 2 hours due to the time change! I didn't eat lunch because my flight was during that time and when I got in Detroit, it was dinner time! Geesh!

The next day I went shopping with Mom, of course! :) And then I got to meet my niece Brianne!! Love her. :)

Sunday I had plans to go to Cedar Point for Halloweekends!!! I was so excited for this since it had been a couple of years since I had been to CP. I met up with Christine and her friend there, and my brother and his friends also came along. It was fun to spend time with my brother and catch up with Christine also. We rode some fantastic rides and took some excellent pictures, as well.

Over the next few days, I visited with friends. I drove to Sandusky to see my favorite J-Bil and her boyfriend Jeremy (now Fiance!! Congrats!!) and see their new house that they are doing a great job "fixing-up." Jeremy cooked us an excellent dinner, and then we made our way to Tofts for ice cream...yummm!!

I drove down to Columbus to have dinner with Jenny and Laura, my friends from undergrad at Miami. We went to Champps restaurant and caught up on life. I don't think I'd seen either of them since Jenny's wedding in July 2009!

I had lunch with Wanda and Karli (Grant's mom and sister) and Brianne too! It was great to see Brianne again, and catch up with Wanda and Karli some more. Thursday evening, I met Lindsey for dinner at Chipotle and then we went shopping at Kohl's, which was fun of course!



Saturday was my cousin Beth's wedding! It was a fall themed wedding held at a park. Fall in Ohio is so nice! The trees were gorgeous, as was the Bride! It was fun to see some of my family I hadn't seen in a year and a half too!

Sunday I packed up most of my stuff since I had an early flight back to Idaho the next day. I was supposed to go over to my dad's to visit with him and my step-mom, but she ended up being sick, so we thought it was best I didn't catch it too! Come to find out, my dad took her to the hospital that night, and she was admitted for pneumonia. She stayed for over a week and it was pretty scary at times, but she fought through it and is doing much better now.



Monday morning I headed back to the airport and made it back to Boise with a pretty smooth trip! Seems strange to say, but I'll be back in Ohio for Christmas in just a couple of months!

Headed East

I'm currently on my flight to Salt Lake City. Everything is going well and I made it to the airport on time! I think I have about 45 minutes at SLC before my flight leaves for Detroit, so I'll have to hurry once I'm there most likely. My flight to Detroit is going to be loooong, ugh. Hopefully they play a good movie!

When I was boarding I saw a sign for Internet on board, so I was really excited I could check my email and make this post. HA. Of course you have to pay for it! Really Delta? My already high ticket price and extra 25 bucks I paid you so I could check a bag wasn't enough to let you give me free wi-fi?! Nevermind that you don't even give out free peanuts or those delicious biscoff cookies anymore. I'm surprised you don't charge for water. So anyway, my post will have to wait to be published until I get Internet access.

We are starting our descent to Salt Lake, so it's time to "stow my portable electronics." See you back in the Midwest!

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, so Delta redeems itself a bit...they did have free peanuts and Biscoff cookies! Yum! AND, I got to watch The Grown-Ups (an Adam Sandler movie). SO funny! :)

Dreams

I was reading through an old journal I kept during undergrad and found this post about a dream I had. It's hilarious, so I had to share.

February 4, 2005
So I had these dreams last night. In the first, I had this boyfriend whose name was Gavin (or something like that lol) and we were at this school. Well he was working on a project and was on the roof leaning in a window and something electrocuted him. I knew something bad happened, but no one else paid any attention. So I started to run out of the school and my cell phone rang. It was him calling me and he said "help me, i'm on the roof!" and he told me to hurry. He could barely say it, but I knew I had to hurry. So I ran around trying to get on the roof...and it seemed like every time I tried to get on, something happened that I couldn't. It was like no one would help me or listen to me and I kept screaming that I had to get to him. I kept yelling his name to try to find him. Finally I found a way...I had to climb up these bookcases really close to where I was originally standing (go figure...). I got up there and he was laying there. (Here is where it gets weird(er)..lol) I got there and picked up a package of Swiss Cake Rolls and one of them was fried. It wasn't like he turned into it, b/c I found him there. But all of a sudden I had the swiss cake rolls in my hand and that was it. LOL.


A swiss cake roll, really?! So funny.

Let's Celebrate!

We finally had our first weekend where Grant was in town to officially celebrate our anniversary on the 25th. Last year, we spent the weekend in Charleston, SC, and I was hoping that an annual trip could be a tradition. Unfortunately Grant was TDY in Alaska this year, so we couldn't do a trip over the holiday weekend. And because he has other work trips planned for October, we probably won't get to do a trip this year. :(

Instead, we decided to spend the day together in Boise and then go out for a nice dinner. We chose Red Feather Lounge in Downtown Boise, and it was very good! I would recommend it. They use fresh ingredients and often get them from the Farmer's Market each week (another fun place to go, by the way!). Grant said he would drive, so I indulged in a glass few glasses of wine. :)

The night before we celebrated with some champagne in our engraved toasting glasses and a cake I made to look like our wedding cake. It's not exact, but it was fun to make, and maybe it will be another tradition. :) Regardless, it was yummy!

2 Years

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my wonderful Husband!!

Photos courtesy of Shutter Love Studio.

2 down, forever to go...

New Job!

"Again?!", you ask.

Yep, that's right. I found another job, and the best part is that it's right here in town! No more driving 1 hour each way. AMEN. Before I start telling you about this new job, I should tell you that I didn't quit my previous one. I still work PRN for them. When I took my last job, I knew it would be part-time/PRN, and that the distance would be temporary for the summer. By the time August came around, I could barely take the drive. Even though it was only 2 days a week, I was filling in at other clinics on other days, and it was just too much. 9 hour days + 2 hours on the road = not much time at home to relax. So the timing of the new job was just perfect, as I finished my committment at the other job on August 30th.

So, how did this new job come about? Before we left North Carolina, and when I was first job searching here in Idaho, I googled "speech therapy" in our town. An official company name did not come up, but a person's name did, so I just assumed she was a solo SLP who gave private therapy. I moved on and figured there was nothing in town, and I started looking in Boise.

Come June or so, as I'm driving down the street in town, I passed by an office that said speech therapy on the window. Shocked that I wasn't able to find the company on the internet, I wrote down the phone number and made a mental note to call them. I tried to do some online searching about the company, but couldn't find much. I kept putting off calling for another month or so, and finally, as I was driving into Boise one day, I thought, "Why not? Just give them a call. It can't hurt."

It just so happens that I was able to reach the owner of the company on that very first phone call! We hit it off and she told me that my timing was perfect. She had just hired another speech therapist in July, but her schedule was filling up quickly, and they could use more help. We set up a time to meet in person, and she told me more about what the company had available. They offer private speech therapy in the clinic, as well as home-health (adults), Infant-Toddler (Early Intervention...a lot like what I did in NC), and contracts in the schools. The particular position the owner was looking to fill was in a middle school and an elementary school. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I said I'd try it out. I felt like I could give up my "dream job" in a hospital for the shorter drive. It would take me about 10 minutes to get to work now! Awesome!!

School was starting a little more than a week from the time I met with the owner. Since then, I've been working 3 days a week. I do my testing and see kids 2 days a week at the middle school (5th & 6th grades), and then travel a little farther to an elementary school (K-6) 1 day a week. I have an assistant at the middle school who helps see the kids while I do testing, and she helps with a little bit of the paperwork. The way the company has set things up with the school, we only treat articulation (speech sounds) vs. language (vocabulary, following directions, etc.). Usually it's the other way around, but I won't go into that. Anyway, I LOVE articulation, so this job is turning out to be perfect for me! I love the extra time I have at the end of the day, I love the shorter drive, and I love helping the kids learn to say their sounds better! I also work Tuesday through Thursday, and I can't tell you how nice it feels to have Monday off. Sunday is not such a bad day after all!

I'm so glad I was able to find this job. I'm really liking it so far, and I have a feeling I'm going to keep liking it! Plus, since it's a school position, I'll get holidays and summers off, with the option of working in the clinic if I want! LOVE IT! :)

"Play On"

I just realized I never blogged about this! I can't believe it.

Back in May, the radio stations were announcing that Carrie Underwood was coming to Boise on June 1 to do a show for her Play On tour. I would have loved to go, but I didn't think much of it because it was a Tuesday, especially once I found out I'd start my first day at my new job on the 2nd. But then, Grant sent me an email stating that Carrie was offering a military discount to get tickets for $10 a piece to say thank you to our service members! How could I say no to that?! Tickets at that price went on sale the Saturday before the concert, so I waited and found 2 "okay" seats, but I was fine with it for a total of $33! Grant and I both said being tired at work the next day would be worth it.

We arrived at the concert and found our seats, which were really not that bad at all. We were on the upper level, on the right side of the stage. We actually had a pretty good view. Sons of Sylvia and Craig Morgan opened for Carrie. Sons of Sylvia was an interesting mix of music...I honestly could not figure out if they were bluegrass, country, rock, or what. It was weird. Craig Morgan was really good, to my surprise!

Carrie finally came on and lived up to her amazing-ness!! She is so so talented and sounds just like she does on her records as she does live. She's super sweet and couldn't be any more beautiful. I LOVED the concert and enjoyed myself. And luckily, we didn't have to stand the whole time. :) If I ever had the chance to go to one of her concerts again, I definitely wouldn't hesitate!

She rode around the arena above the crowd in this truck! Super cool.

She wore some awesome shoes throughout the show, by the way. ;)

 Here are some video clips...hopefully they don't take too long to load. Enjoy!

See what I mean about how awesome she sounds live?!?

"Undo It" is probably my favorite song of hers ever! So sad it's blurry.

Worst. Flight. EVER.

Okay...I haven't flown that many times, but I've had my fair share of flights. Dear Lord, this was the worst one of all time. My return flight out of Fort Wayne left around 7:30 eastern time, with a layover in Chicago and arriving in Boise around 11:30pm mountain time Saturday night. Everything was going great until we were about 30 minutes from landing in Boise. The pilot came on and said we'd be experiencing some turbulence on our descent. And that we did. Like up and down, side to side, make you nauseous, fear for your life turbulence.

Just as we were about to land, something happened and we started going back up. We "went around" and the pilot told us the airport reported wind sheer (winds blowing at different speeds and directions at different altitudes during landing...can flip the plane), making it too dangerous to land. We were diverting to Twin Falls. AWESOME.

We landed at Twin Falls to refuel and wait to hear back from the wind situation in Boise. Apparently, they were having some crazy 70 mph wind gusts that night, and later I learned that it caused some damage to buildings and houses in the area. The pilot also mentioned that we may have to divert to Denver. DOUBLE AWESOME. Since Twin Falls is only about an 1 1/2 hours from Mountain Home, I wanted to get off and rent a car and just drive back. I figured I'd pick up my car in Boise the next day. No such luck. The Twin Falls airport does not have any stairs or a jet bridge big enough for our plane, so noone is getting off. Are you kidding me?!? So we wait...for an hour.

It's now around 1:15am, and the pilot tells us winds have not improved in Boise, so to Denver we go. I really wanted to cry at this point. I just wanted to be home. We arrived in Denver around 2:45am. The airline (United) told us we could get a voucher for a hotel if we wanted, but our return flight to Boise would depart at 6:00am, with ticketing to begin around 5:00am, so there really was no time to go to a hotel. They did hand out meal vouchers and blankets and pillows, so I charged my phone for a bit and then found a spot to try to get some sleep. I was able to sleep a little bit on the flights, but probably only a total of 2 hours. I tried to get about 2 more in the airport, but this one cleaning lady was using the LOUDEST, MOST OBNOXIOUS machine I've ever heard....right next to all the people at our gate (probably the only people in the airport). I'm pretty sure whatever she was doing could have waited. So anyway, I think I got about an hour or so.

We finally re-boarded, took off, and landed....much more smoothly this time. I used my voucher at McDonald's for breakfast before leaving the Boise airport, and you better believe I tried to get as much as I could out of that $15 voucher, haha! I finally arrived back at home around 9:00am and let the dog out, fed him, and headed straight for bed. I'm pretty sure I slept until 1:00 or so.

I really pray I never have this type of experience again. I'm not even kidding when I tell you that I was really scared, envisioning the airplane flipping. I was gripping the arm rest and closing my eyes every time we hit a pocket of turbulence. And praying I wouldn't puke. I don't think I'll ever forget this flight, but I really hope I do...for the sake of my nerves the next time I fly.

Grandpa

Sunday morning, August 15th, my dad called me and left me a message to call him back. We had talked earlier that week, but never "finished" our conversation, so I figured he was calling to do just that. Instead, he says, "I've got some bad news. We lost Grandpa this morning." I was stunned. My grandpa has always had health problems, but usually we know when he is doing well and when he's not. I had no idea he wasn't doing well. Come to find out, Saturday night, he hadn't been feeling well and was having trouble breathing. He woke up Sunday feeling the same way, so my grandma was getting ready to take him to the hospital. Unfortunately, they never made it, and he collapsed at home. The doctors were unable to revive him.

After I hung up the phone, I walked into the other room and told Grant what had happened. I'm not normally the type of person to cry, but that day, I couldn't help it. I started thinking about the last time I saw him, and honestly, I could not remember. Once I left for college, and now especially that I live so far away, I was never very good at getting over to see my grandma and grandpa when I was at home visiting. So I felt guilty for that. And then I thought about my grandma...and how that night, she'd go to bed alone for the first time in 50+ years. I put myself in that situation, and my heart ached for her.

Over the next couple of days, arrangements were made for my grandpa's visitation and funeral, and I debated on whether I should go back or not. Flights were EXPENSIVE, I'd be going back in October anyway, I'd miss a day of work, and Grant was leaving that Friday for 3 weeks in Alaska. Despite that, I decided that I needed to be there, especially to show my support for my dad and my grandma. I'm very glad I made that decision. I flew back on Wednesday, the funeral was Thursday, and I spent time with family on Friday and Saturday before flying back to Idaho on Saturday evening.

The visitation and funeral were very nice. There were pictures of my grandpa from his childhood that I'd never seen before. He was wearing an ornery shirt (just like him!) and had a lottery ticket. He looked so peaceful lying there, but it was still surreal. I wanted to keep looking at him, but I couldn't without crying, so I had to stay back. It was very strange. I think I was just feeling so sorry that it had been so long since I'd seen him, and we'd never get to talk again.

We made our way to the cemetery for the funeral service, where Grandpa was buried with military honors. They folded up the flag and presented it to my grandma and had a 21 gun salute (which was crazy loud!). The whole flag thing brings tears to my eyes whenever I see it. My cousin Samantha interviewed my grandpa a few years back for a college project, so she read a portion of her report and interview. My grandpa had fought in the Korean War and was given a medal for his service, honoring him as a hero. However, he never saw himself as a hero. Samantha ended her "speech" by telling us that my grandpa said, "only a deceased person is a hero." It was a very sweet moment and made me appreciate my grandpa even more, to learn of him in that light.

We all made our way back to my grandma and grandpa's house to have dinner and spend time as a family. It was nice to see all of them, as I don't get to see them very often. It was a tough day for everyone, but I'm so so glad I was able to be there. I think I would have really regretted it if I had not gone. So here's to you Grandpa...I hope you're watching over all of us now. We will miss you, but we look forward to the day we'll see you again. :)

It's Finally Finished!!

Well, here it is, finally finished and in our bedroom. It might have taken us quite a bit longer than we thought, but we did it. We built our own bed from scratch! And we LOVE it! There is really only one thing I would have changed, but it's not that big of a deal. I will edit this post and add more pictures with our plans and how we built it later. For now, enjoy the beauty of it. :)

(Please ignore the "spots" throughout the picture...apparently we need to clean the camera lens!)

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of what we've been spending our weekends working on.

Adventures in Idaho

Here are some photos from places we've visited during our first few months in Idaho!

Shoshone Falls "Niagara of the West", near Twin Falls. Actually taller than Niagara Falls.

Bruneau Dunes State Park - The tallest single-structured sand dune in North America at 470 feet. These are only about 30 minutes from Mountain Home! Pretty crazy.

On our way to Bruneau Canyon...the road actually crosses through a part of the AF bombing range that MHAFB uses!

Used to be used for Native American human sacrifices!

Pink Flag (girls weekend) in McCall. Really pretty!

Craters of the Moon National Monument &Preserve in Arco. This place used to be used for astronaut training because it is similar to the moon's surface. The "mountains" are actually spatter cones (miniature volcanoes) and cinder cones (formed from erupted lava with high gas content). Most of the eruptions that have occurred in this area and across the Snake River Plain were not your typical volcanic eruption where lava spews from the top of the volcano. These eruptions occurred from the ground and lava flowed out as the earth's crust heated up.

On top of "Inferno Cone", 6181 ft. elevation. It was hard to breath as we hiked up this steep, half-mile cinder cone.

 

Joe & Wanda were visiting!

It was so windy! This was probably right before we got dirt in our mouth.

Grant the explorer...haha! We hiked around the Broken Top Cinder Cone Trail Loop. Broken Top is a result of the most recent eruption, occurring 2,000 years ago. Geologists believe that future eruptions in the area are likely. So cool!

Those are flowers on the side of the hill. They grew randomly out of the hardened lava and cinder.

Grant in one of the caves, actually called a "Lava Tube," formed by a lava flow that cools on the outside with hot lava flowing within.

I explored the cave all by myself! Everyone else was too scared. I crawled through the space in the picture below and came out where the light is shining through. :)

One side of the Broken Top Cinder Cone was covered in trees and shrubs, while the other side was basically all lava and cinder ash! Very cool to hike around.

He picked me a flower.

This last photo is the actual volcano! As I said earlier, the mountainous cones are not the volcanoes. The volcanoes were in the ground and the cinder cones were formed as "frothy, molten rock was sprayed high into the air from linear eruptive fissures like this one" (from my Broken Top Loop Trail Guide). When the cinders fell back down to the earth, they piled up forming cinder cones.

We also floated down the Boise River in a 4 person tube while Wanda and Joe were here. The water was freezing, but it was a nice 6 mile float that took a little less than 2 hours! I'd love to do it again!