Back to School

August brought back to school time. I am student teaching in first grade this year. So far I am enjoying the experience, but it is keeping me very busy.

Jeremy has filled his free time this summer putting up insulation foam and new siding on the house. As fall pushes in the stack of siding in the garage is continuing to shrink!

Maybe not the most exciting fall we've ever had... guess we're grown-ups now..

Air Show

July brought a few rough weeks for us. We were very blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends to help us through it all. Olivia did a great job keeping Jeremy company during the Air Show at Elmendorf.

Summer Trip

We ended June by heading South to Sacramento for my Aunt Sally's retirement party. After Jeremy met all of my cousins we headed further South. We spent a couple of days with Michelle, Jason and the kids at their house in Tucson before driving to Albuquerque for Nano's Birthday week. I got to meet most of Jeremy's cousins and we celebrated the 4th with a great party for Nano's birthday. After a "quick" drive back to Tucson we spent another night with the Gastrocks and got in our Mustang to head for Phoenix. After a few travel delays, it was back to real life the next day. We sure enjoyed our trip and it was FANTASTIC to see so much family!

Anniversary Trip

So I'm a little tardy on the updates... For our first anniversary we spent a great long weekend with the Heinz family. Karl, Jamie, and Paige showed us all Haines had to offer over the beautiful sunny weekend, to include the 18th Annual Great AK Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival.

The tough life

Today I got our of the shower to the sounds of dogs barking from several directions in the neighborhood. I ran to the backdoor to assure our dog was not adding to this racket. This is what I found... She has become quite the sun worshiper and, on most days, prefers the comfort of her chair....

Here and almost gone!

May has presented itself as a complete whirlwind in the Vancil household. Jeremy arrived home by Cinco de Mayo, as promised. We hit a few Mexican food joints and enjoyed a few hard earned margaritas. From there, we hit the ground running...

First, and most importantly, after years of looking we found

the perfect rug for our living room at Lowe's! It has changed our lives. Annie agrees. She and Jeremy gave it a trial run while catching up on bonding time after his return.

Jeremy completed his in-processing while getting construction running on

the house

again.

After ordering a dumpster, which they originally delivered BEHIND my car in the driveway, we now have a dumpster in our side driveway to handle all the siding "we" are removing from the house.

Jeremy is working on adding several layers of foam to our house and then new siding, we are hoping to have that complete before the first snow! Between work and upcoming trips Jeremy will have quite the challenge with that.

I worked hard to finish my semester of grad school before heading up to Eielson, yes we

enjoyed all 9 days together before we had to part again. After a week long inspection, mostly working night shift, I am back to town trying to get caught up on paperwork, summer travel plans, work scheduling, and getting my next semester rolling. I guess studying for my upcoming checkride should also be on that list...

We are planning a get away to Haines for our first anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already! The time has flown by and I'm looking forward to the many years we have to come.

A little Easter

Without Jeremy here Annie and I dyed some eggs on our own. I went to church with my mom, had a nice breakfast with both sets of parents and then we had some dinner at the Vancil's. Annie was very excited about the mechanical hamster I got in the Easter hunt.

A little busy...

So I've been a little delinquent in my posting. Jeremy has been deployed for over 2 months now and between the house, work, school, family and friends I've managed to stay very busy. Somehow most of the picture for the last 2 months have been of the dog. So Annie will give a little recap of the last few months.

First, Annie is very helpful with my homework.

Next, Martha and John got a puppy so Annie and I babysit sometimes.

We had several fresh dumps of snow this spring.

I got to visit the Gastrocks in Tucson. The one sunny day we hit the zoo.

Finally, Annie is very particular about her sleeping area. This night she did not want her blanket in there...

Remembering

As I sit watching Miss America 2010 I have many thoughts passing through my head. Unfortunately, most of them are not about the paper on phonics that I am editing. Hopefully that comes out okay...

I am reminded of the first time I hung out with Jeremy's family. Mostly his mom, sister and I watched Miss America 2006 while I held 5 week old Olivia. Wow has time flown! I never would have guessed at the time that I would now be part of the family, and aunty to 4 year old Olivia.

I also thought about the girls up on that stage. I'm obviously not the pageant type. Something about grace and walking in heels. But I do have to admit it takes some guts to get up in front of that many people that are all judging you on how you take care of yourself and everything that comes out of your mouth. As hard as I try to be a good person, I think I would not fair well if I was being judged on everything that came out of my mouth.

Finally, and mostly, I thought of the strange juxtaposition of watching this contest of beauty while thinking of the people in Haiti that just suffered such tragedy. I was sitting alone on Saturday watching Miss America because of that tragedy. I am greatly missing Jeremy, but I am glad that he is doing good work flying in and out of Haiti. I guess it is the definition of the phrase "the show must go on". I am glad that as a country we can step up and provide so much aid in a time of need. I hope that as we do begin to move on that we don't forget these people and the support they will need to rebuild any semblance of a normal life. I hope that I can a balance between dwelling and forgetting, for the people of Haiti and for so many more around the world dealing with tragedy I can barely begin to imagine.

Why I should have been a dog

This is how I spend a good portion of my day

And this is how the dog spends a good portion of hers....

Enough said.

A new low to share a laugh

I don't know how many of you will find this as funny as I do, and it is definitely taking our blog to a new low. So here goes! In the military particularly, but I assume it applies to most business, people say "Poop (censored for wide viewing) rolls (flows, runs, as applies) downhill." Today I observed a "concrete example", as we would say in the "education" field, of this. As we were out for our morning walk, and I was pondering where Bald Eagles sleep, since they are not in the tree where they perch all day if we walk too early or too late. I came to an abrupt stop at the end of the leash to realize that Annie had perched herself on the side of a snowbank to do her business, looked quite precarious not sure why she chose that over the flat ground at the bottom, but that is when I realized that poop does indeed roll downhill. Since I am apparently the recipient of poop in this relationship I discovered there is no dignity to dog owning as I scurried around the bottom of the snowbank collecting the evidence of her hard work. Hopefully you are finding this amusing and not totally disgusting, oh and hope you are not trying to eat right now... Sorry if I ruined your meal!

Attitude Adjustment

I don't know who reads this blog, but I'm sure this will speak to any ladies. Yesterday, I pulled things together, along with studying I shaved my legs and blow dried my hair. I found, what I thought was, a pretty cute outfit and proudly entered "hot pink" on my facebook status line. Thanks ladies for all my fun treasures at girls night! After more studying I made my husband a nice dinner of Pad Thai, okay I cheated and it was a kit, but I made it. As we sat down to eat with our glasses of wine I was feeling pretty proud of myself. However, about half way through dinner I managed to lodge a piece of shrimp tail, from my "ready to cook, peeled and deveined" shrimp on my tonsil. I proceeded to cough and choke until I threw up. In front of my husband. If I was smart I would have removed my oh so cute they have to put the tag there because there is no where else to put it underwear, put on some granny panties and flannel pjs and headed to bed. But I for some reason waited three hours. This morning I crawled out of bed at 7:15 with a residual bad attitude, compounded by the fact it was 7:15 and I was up because tomorrow at that time I will be arriving to take a miserable test that I'm not prepared for. Who schedules tests at 7:30 Saturday morning? And why are they all the same weekend as drill forcing me to PAY to go up to Eielson? And how unfair is it that I had to pay $75 extra because I read the schedule wrong and missed the sign up deadline? Digression. Okay, the attitude part. After my other morning tasks I dressed to take our dog for her morning physical therapy walk. She had knee surgery and is now missing fur in several places (shaved, not stress) and is ever more high maintenance than before, but oh so adorable. And once I got out of the house I found that it was a beautiful sunny, though chilly, day. As we walked our two blocks I was looking at the Bald Eagles that have lived in a tree in our neighborhood since I was in high school. Something about it all struck me. Have these Eagles really been married for 10 + years? Kidding! I am so lucky to live in a place where, in the heart of the city, Eagles live in my neighborhood. Where everything is so beautiful covered in snow, and there are mountain views from everywhere. I think I need to take more time to appreciate the beauty around me. And perhaps I should feel thankful that the Eagles haven't prayed on my splotchy, limping pup. So that is the beginning of my attitude adjustment. The beginning!

Bad picture, but there are two Eagles in that tree. The one you can make out looks like a dark blob sitting on a branch in the middle of the picture. I'll try for better pictures when the dog isn't annoyed I'm interrupting her walk.