Thanksgiving

I know, I've been slack at posting lately. It seems that I never have a spare moment anymore!! But now that the house is decorated, the Christmas cards are done, and most of the Christmas shopping is done, I have a chance to sit down and tell you about our Thanksgiving.

Well fortunately we had the opportunity to head back to NC. Even though I was there a month ago, it was still good to visit again. And Garin hasn't been back since Mason was born, so it was high time for him to go home. So, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we packed up the car and headed North.

On Thanksgiving we got to enjoy our customary Thanksgiving feasts with each of our families, mine in the morning and then Garin's in the afternoon. It was great to spend time with family and of course to eat the yummy food! The rest of the weekend we enjoyed hanging out with friends that were in town and of course we spent lots of time with my nephew! Here are some pictures:

Mason eating his Thanksgiving turkey

Chillin with Uncle Garin...he looks like a natural

Granddaddy makes Mason laugh!

Family Photo

For those of you that don't know, my dad is quite the hay artist. Below is some of his recent endeavors.

Before Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving

The HEY Man...he becomes and angel at night!

6 Months Old!

This past weekend I got a chance to drive back to NC to see my family and my nephew that is now 6 months old. He is soooooo adorable! He is starting to get some teeth, rolling all over the floor, and eating anything in sight! I had so much fun hanging out with him and his mommy! Here are some pics:

I'm amazed at a baby's flexibility...forget sucking your thumb, try a toe!

My Pumpkin and me :)

This is the face I caught just after Mason tried biting into a lime...despite the face, I think he liked it because he took a couple more bites and made the same face.

Flying high with Daddy!

Checking out the watermelons that Grandaddy grew.

Like I said...eating everything in sight! Don't worry mom, he never got any any his mouth!

Trying on hats with Aunt Lauren in Walmart...check out those big blue eyes!!! They can melt an Aunt's heart!

Recent Happenings

Well, its been a while since i have posted so I thought I'd do a post of a couple of things that have been going on here and there. For the most part, things are same ol', same ol'. We are enjoying life and enjoying the ways God is working in and through us here in Florida.

About 3 weeks ago Garin's mom, dad, and sister came down for a quick weekend visit. It was great to get to see them. Garin took them on a tour of the air field where he works. Here are some pics I got while I was there:

Mr. K is ready for his flight lesson!

Meggsie and G on the "pre-flight bird" (the airplane they use to study all the parts they have to know about the plane).

Garin beside the plane that he did his first solo on (thankfully they both made it back safely!)

The next few pictures bear some explaining. Since I have been down here I have joined a coed soccer team. I've really enjoyed the exercise and getting to know new friends. One of the guys on the soccer team recently hosted a "skeezoween" party where the theme was for everyone to dress up "skeezy". I didn't really have an idea of what to wear, so my costume came out more as tacky than skeezy...but I did have a mullet! Garin dressed up as himself...well himself when he goes out to mow the grass...I didn't get a good picture of him.

Scary...about the only word I have for this!

The "girl" in the middle is one of the guys on my team...I didn't even recognize him for about 5 minutes after sitting next to him...until he finally talked. He was a very convincing girl...nails and all! The other guys on the team seemed to be fascinated with his chest...little weird!!

This past week one of my girlfriends down here had a Birthday. Since we don't get a chance to go out as often as we like, we decided to have a girl's night out to celebrate. We went to a VERY nice steakhouse in downtown Pensacola and had a blast!

Jess, Kendle, and Haley after a delicious meal

Then, this weekend we got to celebrate ANOTHER birthday. This one happened to be a for a special little 2 year old! Her parents are in our Small Group at church and we have really enjoyed watching her grow over the past bunch of months that we have been here. Garin really took a liking to her and I think he spent more time in Bible Study playing peek-a-boo with her than paying attention!! The Yo Grabba Grabba themed party was at this awesome local park. Man, I wish they made parks like this one when I was a kid!!

The Birthday Girl!

I about didn't make it out of the plane after I got in...apparently there is a hip width limit...

And finally, this weekend I also got to celebrate the retirement of a woman that has become very special in my life. Mrs. Mary started the Pregnancy Resource Center where I volunteer and has faithfully served as director there for the past 17 years. I can't begin to think about all the women and children that she has impacted through this ministry; how many children owe their lives to her counselling and her faithful prayer for their mothers. I pray that God will allow me to have a fraction of the legacy that she has built throughout her life. She is one of those women that you meet and you never forget because she is living out her faith...even at 83 years of age! Praise the Lord for women like her and for her willingness to share her wisdom and love with me. I'm going to miss all of our talks and her sweet spirit at The Center...but I hope that I'll still be able to keep in touch with her, there is so much more I want to glean!!

Me and Mrs. Mary (in the middle)...I'm not sure who the other lady is, she just hopped right in the picture like she belonged, I figured it would be rude to ask her to step to the side...oh well!

My Sweet Baby

Also, when we went up to NC for Meggsie's wedding, I got to spend some precious time with my nephew Mason. He is 4.5 months old now...wow time flies! He is so adorable and is really starting to respond to his environment and I think he really likes his Aunt Lauren (and Uncle Garin)!

Hanging out with Granddaddy

Getting ready for bed with Aunt Lauren (Mommy scares me when she gets the camera out)

Uncle Garin likes to copy me and my faces

Aunt Lauren makes me laugh!!! (I was laughing so hard that I didn't get my "camera" face)

Yes, I am a cool little man...check out my hot dino outfit! (Dude, he LOVED these sunglasses!)

Yummy...I found my thumb!!

Aunt Lauren and I had so much fun playing together. Aunt Lauren sure is gonna miss me when she is gone...hopefully Mommy will take me to see her down in FL sometime soon!

Welcome to the Family Eli

Over Labor Day Weekend we had the opportunity to go back to good ol' NC and be a part of Garin's sister Meghan's wedding. She wed her (now) husband at 11AM on Saturday Sept 5th on the roof top of the Holiday Inn in downtown Charlotte. It was a beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple!


Eli is currently serving in the Army as a 1st Lieutenant. He will be leaving to serve our country over in the Middle East in December. So please remember this precious couple in your prayers as they embark on a new life together and as they spend much of their first year of marriage separated as they follow the call of duty and serve our country!


Here are some pictures I snapped:

The happy couple at the Rehearsal Dinner

Newly married couple secrets!

What a beautiful couple! Yes, Eli is very tall...6'5". I look like a dwarf next to him! Fortunately Meghan is 5'10" so it works out well! Love the dress!

Sweet moments during the first dance.

The Cake. Beautiful! Garin's aunt made this cake (she also made ours for our wedding). She is sooo talented...and not only does it look good, it tastes amazing!!

My cameo with the Bride.

Off they go to the Honeymoon! (That's dental floss that is creating the web all over the inside and outside of the car...very clever!)

Well, welcome to the Kirkpatrick family Eli. We look forward to many fun family times in the future with you. We will be praying for you guys and we can't wait to see how God is going to bless you in your marriage! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day, it was beautiful!

Coche Nuevo

Well we finally bit the bullet and traded in the ol' Jeep Liberty for a more fuel efficient 4 door sedan. The ol' Liberty had served me well since my sophomore year in college (over 8 years ago), but the gas guzzler was taking a toll on the ol budget. You may remember a post a couple months back where the beast hit its 100,000th mile, so it was about that time where all good American made cars come to an end.

After much research and evaluation we decided on a Volkswagen Jetta. We were able to get a really good deal on it because it was a demo car at the dealership. We also, thankfully, didn't have to use the Cash For Clunkers hogwash and got a really good trade-in on my Jeep. For all you guys looking to trade in a car...the secret is ARMOR-ALL. I armor-alled that baby up before I took it in to the dealership and they gave me a wonderful offer for a trade-in because "it looked so clean and in such good condition" (I promise you, it didn't look that great before I took some elbow grease to it that morning!).

So here is our new car...I LOVE IT so far (especially since it averaged 30 mpg on the last tank of gas)!

Well I also must post my husband's new "invention". Note the tennis ball hanging from the garage ceiling below:

Well apparently, my dear friends, I was not parking the car properly in the garage. I was either leaving too much space in front of the car or pulling in too close. So this tennis ball on a string, my dear friends, is so that I know when the car has been parked in the correct location. The tennis ball should be barely touching my windshield....

INGENIOUS!!

YUMMM!

Well I was very excited yesterday as I was checking out at Wal-Mart to see that M&M's has now come out with a COCONUT flavored M&M. Many of you might not know, but I am IN LOVE with anything coconut. So, I immediately grabbed the bag and threw it in with the rest of my purchases. Well my review is that they are pretty good. I was hoping there would actually be real coconut inside, unfortunately there is not, but there is a pretty good coconut flavor. So for those of you out there that are coconut fanatics like me, I do recommend you give them a try to get your fix!

New Job

Well I FINALLY found a job here in Pcola! After 6 months of scouring the newspapers, career builder, usajobs, and any other job website, sending in countless resumes, cold calling engineering firms, and signing up with every staffing company in the area, I am finally employed! I actually got the job through a staffing company, so I guess that is technically who I work for. The job is a "temp" job...but for 2 years...which works out perfectly for me being that that is about how much longer we will be here.

So, about the job. I'm working with a local school district in their Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Dept. This Dept. is district wide, so we have teachers/staff in each of the 65 schools in the district. Due to one of the recently passed stimulus bills they received quite a bit of mula, and my job is to spend it for them! I don't exactly have a job title but its somewhere close to a purchasing clerk with a couple of twists. Basically I receive orders from all of the teachers and staff and then I go and purchase the equipment/supplies, then I will receive, distribute, and track the items that we receive.

I was really hoping to land an engineering job to fulfill my 4 years of work experience so I could sit for the Professional Engineering (PE) Exam (I have 3.5 years and only need a half a year more of experience...ugh!). However, I'll happily take this job after seeing the extremely tight job market in this area....it is truly a blessing! Hopefully I can work this into experience towards that MBA I worked so hard for!

So, that is what I am doing for 35 hours of my week. I started 3 weeks ago, and so far I like it. It can get kind of slow when I don't have orders coming in, but when I do have orders, I really like the job (can't beat spending someone else's money, right?!). Its like Christmas when my orders start coming in...except the things in the boxes aren't really that exciting and I don't get to keep them...oh well, there is just something about getting a box with your name on it!

As for Garin, he is a busy big bee. He has had his first two flights in the Navy's T-34, and so far he has done well and come back alive ;) He says the only drawback is how HOT he gets while he is in the plane. He has to wear a flame retardant flight suit (that doesn't breath much), gloves, a parachute (comforting, huh?!), a helmet, and a harness...basically he can't have any skin showing anywhere...and the A/C barely puts a dent in it. And on top of that the exhaust from the plane comes out in front of the cockpit (makes a lot of sense?!) so add that extra heat into the equation as well. He is constantly studying for his daily flights so I feel like I hardly see him even when he is home. But fortunately God is blessing him and he is excelling in typical Garin fashion.

The T-34 (plane Garin currently flys)

The flight "get-up" (obviously not Garin sporting it)

Well that's the current life of the Kirkpatricks. Hope you all are doing well!

4 down, Many more to go...

Aww, don't I have a sweetie for a husband?! Yep, so this past Thursday marked our 4th year of marriage bliss. Some days it seems like we have been married forever and then other days it seems like it was just yesterday that I was making that walk down the aisle. But it truly has been 4 great years...we have been so blessed! God is good!

We weren't able to celebrate on Thursday because I had to work late (yes, I now have a job...I'll have to make a post about that later) and Garin had to study late and then had a 5:30 brief the next morning. So we postponed our celebration until Friday night. We decided to go all out and head out to one of the better restaurants on Pensacola Beach - Hemingway's (yes, after the writer). Oh man, it was SOOOO delicious...well worth the expense!

After dinner we walked around the "boardwalk" and then came home and watched our wedding video (have to brush up on those vows!). Its great to look back and remember that special day with all of our precious friends and family! God has been so faithful over the years and we owe our love for each other to Him - "we love because He first loved us."

At dinner

After dinner, on the pier with Hemingway's in the background.

My Turn to Post

Happy Anniversery Sweetie!!
I'm so glad you said "yes". Here's to many more years with you. I thank God for you.

I love you,

Garin

Our Week Playing Aunt and Uncle

This past week we had our youngest guest yet to come visit us...our nephew Mason (along with his mommy and daddy). They arrived here VERY early on Monday morning (they drove through the night). Monday we took the day off for them to rest. Tuesday we headed to Pensacola Beach for the afternoon and then grilled out at the picnic shelters there for dinner. Wednesday we headed over to Destin, where we did some shopping at the outlets and then headed out to the VERY crowded beach. That night we hit up some yummy seafood where we overlooked the Destin bay area. Thursday we had another chill day and Friday we went back to Pcola Beach to watch the Blue Angels Air Show. Saturday Garin and I went back out to Pcola Beach to watch the show again (more on that in a later post) while Alex, MW, and Mason headed off to Navarre Beach for there last day on the beach. Then they left us all alone early Sunday morning.

The week went by WAY too fast. I was in Aunt Heaven having my nephew around...he has grown soooo much since I last saw him. He is 11 weeks old now and is in the 95th percentile for his height and weight (so, yes, he is a big boy!). At his two month check-up he weighed in at about 15 pounds and I'm sure he weighs more than that now! He is absolutely adorable and I sure wish I got to see him more often!

Chillin in his Bumpo seat with his new Pooh toy

Laying out like his aunt - (don't worry we kept him in the shade!)

Bath time! Absolutely adorable!! I just want to squeeze him!

Garin and Baby Mason - Uncle Garin was about as enamored as Aunt Lauren; every time Mason started to cry, Garin would pick him up and walk around with him until he calmed down. He did everything but change diapers :)

Aunt Lauren and Baby Mason - he don't look too happy...

Mason and Uncle Garin taking a nap together...

One of my favorite pictures...Mason is sporting his Wolfpack pride! Don't worry, I will teach him how to make the wolf sign with his fingers soon enough! Mason says: Go Pack!