Bob

I had the opportunity to talk to a sweet older gentleman named Bob the past two days. He’s 79, going on 80 in October…and just called me at work to ask a simple question about his voltage regulator on his plane (he still flys!). Let me tell you, this guy LOVES to talk. At first I was slightly annoyed…I won’t lie. I’m at work and have things to do and here is this guy telling me his life story. He kept me on the phone for 30 minutes yesterday!

I got the info he was looking for late in the day yesterday, and I was kind of putting off calling him back this morning because I knew that this would not be a short call. But today I had a change of heart for good ol’ Bob. He is seriously one of the happiest, friendliest people I’ve ever talked to in my life. He was so genuinely happy and optimistic when talking about his family and life that I thought to myself “I really hope I feel as fulfilled and satisfied with my life as Bob does when I’m 79”. It makes you feel good when you talk to people that are so happy to be alive and don’t take anything for granted. Bob really gave my day a good little boost :). If I had to choose between a cup of coffee to start my day, or a conversation with Bob…I’d probably choose Bob.

I think God puts people in your life for just a short while to help you put things into perspective and nudge you in the right direction. Sometimes it’s a conversation with someone sitting next to you on the plane, sometimes it’s the rep on the customer service line. Everyone we come in contact with has a purpose – God knows what he is doing. Sometimes I forget that we are also messengers for God when we are talking to strangers. Maybe we will affect them in some positive way, just like some strangers have that affect us :)

I'm going to go ahead and give myself a big fat FAIL at blogging

I am sitting here typing this as my husband is practicing his brief for tomorrow's flight- it sounds like a different language, but I'm actually catching onto some of his "pilot speak". From what I gather from this brief - he's the flight lead for a group of jets that are flying to the Gulf of Mexico to practice air-to-air combat with some F-15's stationed around there. It's kind of funny how Frank get's more nervous about getting his briefs right rather than the actual flying. I guess it's a good thing, he must know what he's doing :)

It’s been way too long since I’ve updated this blog. I’ve seriously been failing at this whole blogging thing. It’s something I like to do, though…it’s just that I really haven’t had enough time! Hopefully…eventually…I will be able to update more regularly. It’s just not really possible with all the stuff we have going on right now!

Frank taxiing

Home :)

Frank did finally return from S. Korea on March 14^th, so he’s been home for a little over 2 weeks. He ended up spending about 2-3 days in Hawaii on his way home from South Korea, poor guy. He just can’t catch a break! Ugh- speaking of Hawaii. We know a couple going to Maui next month and they invited us to join. I really…I mean, REA-HE-HE-HEALLLLY, want to go. It’s just not really feasible right now with all we have going on. Hopefully next time :)

After Frank returned we (ahem…he) didn’t skip a beat and put in 16 hour days working on the house during his week off. I mean, this guy didn’t even sleep in his first day home, guess he is somehow immune to the 15 hour jet lag! But really, I’m lucky he is so motivated to get a lot done, because he really did. He worked on baseboards, his parents came down again and they helped paint, he converted our pool to a salt water system, fixed some electrical issues…that’s just the beginning. Needless to say, our house is really starting to look like a house again and I am super excited. Check out the progress!

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

This makes sense....we don't have any furniture, but we have a big TV!

Foyer and Dining Room

Kitchen...need suggestions on cabinets (should we just repaint?). And what the heck do I do with the outside of the island??

Part of the Dining Room. The baseboards really do make a huge difference!

Other than working on the house, we haven’t been up to much else. We did go to Mississippi about a week ago for Frank’s sister Angela’s engagement/pre-wedding party in her fiancé’s hometown. It was a great excuse to get out of the house for a day and meet his sister’s fiancé’s family and socialize a bit. 

I'll leave it at that today. Hopefully I can update more regularly soon, that way it's not just a boring journal entry every time. I swear we do have interesting things going on sometimes! It's just hard to get down to the knitty gritty when you have limited time and are trying to fit a whole lot into a short post. Anywho - hope everyone is doing well and ready for the summer. I know I am! Alabama keeps teasing us with it's warm weather and then gives us a few days in the 60's to bring us back to reality. Not too much longer, though!

Apparently for northerners it's already the summer....so happy my goofball husband is home :)

I love him, but sometimes he's a little crazy. The roofers dropped about 100 nails into our pool, so Frank thought this weekend would be a good opportunity to get them out. When the water is probably barely 60 degrees. No thanks.

Flooring

Good morning! I’m feeling particularly good this fine Thursday after having a nice big ol’ cup of coffee. Usually coffee doesn’t really make me feel that much perkier, but today it has definitely helped! Just thought I’d give everyone a quick update and let you know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth! The past few weeks have gone by pretty quickly. The weekend of Feb. 26-27^th I was able to fly to TX to visit my family, it was a nice relaxing weekend…didn’t do a whole lot, but that’s okay with me. I was able to see my Uncle Johnny and Aunt Phyllis’s house, they are currently building and it’s almost done and looks great!

I spent last weekend cleaning out our pool, painting more closets (not my fav., but at least I got it done!), and moving more stuff around so the hardwood and carpet could be installed. That being said, the flooring was installed last week and it looks GREAT. It really does make a world of a difference and our house is really starting to look like a house again…no more walking around on dusty concrete slab…woohoo!

Here’s a photo I took with my phone, not the best quality…so I plan on cleaning up a bit and taking more photos with my good camera tonight:

In other non-house related news, Frank is taking off in a jet from Korea as we speak. He’s flying it to Hawaii and will be there for about 30 hours for crew-rest...so jealous...and then leaving for Montgomery. He will be landing here at home on Saturday afternoon; soo excited to have my hubs home! He’s probably going to be pretty tired after flying 20 hours, not to mention the crazy 15 hour time difference, so I’m thinking this weekend will be pretty low-key.

This is going to sound slightly strange, but I bought a few books on Islamic Law…mostly because I’m just really curious to know what the belief’s of the Islamic religion are, and how they are reflected in their laws. I’m also curious about how the women are treated too. This book looks pretty interesting and is written by a woman who grew up under Islamic Law in Egypt and later converted to Christianity and moved to the United States: Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

And no...I still have not even read the first page of my really humongous American History book I bought about a month ago...whoops. I need to get started on that one eventually too.

I am sooooo sooooo soooooo ready to be able to cook in the kitchen again. Tonight I am going to tackle that kitchen and maybe...just maybe unpack some cooking supplies. Then I might go shopping at our new organic grocery store Earth Fare(it's awesome!), and stock our fridge and pantry before Frank gets home.


And of course, while I'm writing this I get a call from Frank on the runway in Korea telling me that they just found out that they are closing the runway and there's a pretty good chance that he'll get pushed back 24 hours :(. You almost expect that kind of stuff to happen when there are so many jets flying back at once, but it still stinks. I'll keep my fingers crossed that he gets out of there on time, but if he doesn't it'll probably be Sunday or Monday before he's home. Bummer.