Camping Trip

Peace from inside the tent. It was late, and Kevin had fallen asleep. Yuki and I were still up.

Cooking hot dogs and roasting marshmallows on the porch. It's been in the seventies here and it was our last really nice weekend to do something. Kevin had fun putting the grill together.

The tent we bought awhile ago and never got the chance to use, and my twinkle Christmas lights.

For Halloween Kevin was Paul Bunyan and I was his Blue Ox. It was really fun and everyone got a kick out of our costumes. I had a blue tail too.

I made some California rolls for dinner one night and they turned out so well I decided to take a picture.

That's what weve been up to. Enjoying life and working hard each week. We're going to go to the premiere of New Moon, in two weeks I think, and the Monday after that we'll be on our way to Boise. Can't wait to see everybody. We're still waiting to hear from the reserves. It's been about a week and a half and though Kevin seems to have endless patience I'm going crazy not knowing. Hopefully this week is the week one way or the other so we can set one of the plans into action. Still loving my job as a nanny.

Goju Ryu

So Kevin and I decided we should take a class on something and Kevin picked martial arts. (I'm going to pick ballroom dancing) and I think We'll take a gun safety and concealed weapons class too. Anyway Our class is M-Th 6:30-8:00 PM. What a work out! Wow. It was fun, fast paced, and combined kids, men and women. Everyone is learning and practicing the same stuff at first (at their own pace) and then they break off into smaller sections of people your own level. Right now we're white belts because we're starting out. Next is yellow I think. Anyway Go means hard, and Ju means soft and Goju is a traditional Okinawan style of Karate that combines them both harmoniously. I'm hoping mostly it will help me shed some pounds. It really was a lot of fun. Also I made Sukiyaki tonight which was really good, it's favorite japanese dish with lots of veggies and thin beef in a yummy home made sauce. We like our cultural foods. Italian and Asian are probably our favorites. Getting pretty good at Chicken Parmigiana. ha ha, Anyway I've been up since 5:30 this morning being busy and productive, it feels great but now I'm mucho tired. Just wanted to update since we did something new and exciting.

Fall OKC pour ma mere

I just like this picture, Kevin after a hard day of work and a very happy pooch. Life has been good, slow but good. Kevin was sick and put on quarters, bad being sick, but I got to see him a lot more. We've been having a lot of cold weather which isn't helping his cough, but other than that he is much better.

This was our day at the park, it was gorgeous and sunny with a slight breeze. We even took Yuker's down the slide, he liked it. We had a pic-nic on the grass and talked on the swings for awhile then went home. All in all I great day.

My happy/sad pumpkin head. It was awhile before Halloween, but Holidays get me so excited so I bought a pumpkin early and carved a happy face on one side, and a sad face on the other. I was going to roast the seeds but forgot and threw them away, I'll have to remember with the ones we get this week.

I just thought this was Hilarious.

Our anniversary, Kevin bought me a pretty dress and took me out to the Elephant bar and grill. It has everything and was pretty much... delicious! I've been working at my new job for a few weeks now and love it. I love the family, and the baby. I'm a nanny for a four month old baby boy. He doesn't really cry, just gets a little fussy when he is hungry or needs to be changed. He smiles a lot, and giggles. It's been great. It makes me anxious to see my nephews! I'm reallllllly looking forward to Thanksgiving. I've been going through Family withdrawals. I bought Yuki a sweater and lots of treats to practice my spoiling skills. I think I'm getting pretty good at it, so I will be ready when I meet Jett and Sawyor. Although I don't think they'll appreciate it until they are at last a year or two. It's been getting chillier here, and I heard it's already snowed in Idaho and Utah! Other than that not much has been going on. We've been trying to get out to the shooting range so Kevin can practice for his marksmanship test coming up. Oh, and in a few months Kevin gets a promotion in rank! Woot! We're both pretty much stoked. Anyway, I hope everyone is well and happy! Lots of love from the Hinman Clan!

It's my favorite time of year

It's September 1st and life is great. The high this week has been right around 75, which is low for this time of year in Oklahoma, but just makes it feel like Autumn that much more. There's been a fantastic breeze and the stores are starting to bring out the Halloween decorations and candy. I love September it begins, at least for me, a "Holiday Season". Fall is it's own holiday, and then Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year! I love it! Not to mention in twelve days I will have been Mrs. Hinman for a full year. It flew right by! This past week I have been working at Papa Murphys, which has been fun and though it's not ideal, it's something. Kevin's back at work and on swing shift. I'm looking forward to making a pumpkin roll, carving pumpkins and roasting seeds! I've got to go to an optomestrist in a bit, hopefully I'll be able to get some new contacts so I don't have to wear my glasses anymore.

Friday

It's been a fast and busy week. We've been running around doing errands. All of sudden so much needed to be done, buts its been a good week as well. I got the title for my truck in the mail, and now we're working on registering it. Kevins tags just expired as well, so we need to re register his. I got the go ahead to get tickets for thanksgiving so we bought those, I like to buy way in advance because flying in general makes me nervous and I can be a control freak. Last night we went to dinner at our friends house, Trixie and Justin. We took the dog because we'd just rented a rug doctor and didn't want to leave the pee-machine home alone. The Carter's have a beautiful husky-ish dog and a big yard for the two dogs to play in together. It was fun, Trixie's dad and brother were in town too. I gave Yuki a bath today and then after he'd run around the house, found him shivering behind the bed. His teeth were even chattering. It was so sad! He also managed to find time to pee on the carpet today while we were gone for five minutes. I was not happy to say the least. He's lying on my arm and twitching in his sleep at the moment...kinda funny. Kevin and I decided to invest in wii fit, which I would highly recommend to anyone. It's fun, enjoyable and a good work out if you take the time to do it. It does weight and BMI and tracks your progress. We played with it for awhile in GF, ND. A friend let us borrow it, so we finally decided to get our own. It's about $80 for the board and game, and a gym pass or special diet would likely be just as much or more. It also measures posture and balance and helps you improve. I really like. We were going out to the track to run but with Kevins schedule being sooo unpredictable as well as crazy weather it was hard to find and make time to go out and get our exercise. Anyway I'll be done promoting wii fit. On another note, Kevin and I have almost been married for a whole year! Fastest year of my life, best too. I'm glad I've got such a wonderful, responsible man in my life, and we're learning to communicate better. I had no idea guys and girls really were so different, just the way they think and get from one thing to another. At first, at times, it was like we spoke different languages. We're applying to the reserves again in a month and a half, not much hope but we're going to keep trying til we get what we want. One way or another we'll get there. It's late and I'm sleepy but lots of love to all!

Dedicated to Kristen

I've finished my CNA class, YAY! That was a stress and a half. It did feel good to be busy though. We had class work, lab work and clinicals. I still have to take the skills and written test, but I'm planning to do that when I get back from Boise. I'll take some time to study and go back over everything. Our lawsuit is FINALLY over! Everything will be signed and done by next week. It was a week filled with mucho drama but everything worked out in the end, meaning it's over and that's about it. After months of searching I found the right truck for me, so Kev and I ran out to test drive it and snatched it up. It's a 2000 Ford Ranger flairside, with 87 k miles. It's a 5speed, has a bed liner, and an LCD screen attached to the passenger side dash. (We think it's a DVD player) The windows are tinted, and it's a lot nicer then I thought it would be. My requirements were, manual tranny, dual airbags, decent miles and price. I didn't think we'd find anything under 100 K, and wasn't planning to get anything more recent then 98. Anyway it worked out, and I love it. It is lifted though and has big tires, I'm wondering if it being lifted affects the ride because you feel every pothole and bend in the road more so then other ford rangers I've been in, and I'd really like it to be lowered (to what it was originally) not "low riding" Kevin is taking a training class and loving it he's usually home by 11:00 AM and done for the day. He's just learning more mechanics on the AWACS. I'm going to Boise next Thursday it's gonna be super fun, although I am still nervous to fly alone. It's been off and on stormy here, and currently it's sunny, clear and hot. Yuki had fleas but after a couple baths they seem to be all gone. He did however decide to dye his hair but running and rolling outside in the red OKC dirt with his white white fur, so now he's orange. Mostly on his belly and legs. I'll go get my car registered next week if I have time, or do it when I get back. The only other thing, and this is a complaint, is that I've had to wear my glasses for the past month BOOOOOO for that! My contacts have stuff on them that won't come off, and I'm pretty sure it's just time for lasik if I'm a good enough candidate. Alas the doctors are all booked up for a couple more weeks so I just jave to keep waiting to get in, get new contacts, or get lasik. Other then that, life is great!

CNA

I started my CNA class yesterday afternoon. It's from 3:00-9:00 July 13th-August 4th. Super fast. I love it. I can't wait to get into the hands on learning stuff I just wish CNA's did more. It's funny because I'm already certified on stuff I won't even be able to do as a CNA like administer medication. I guess I'll just have to work up the chain. I really like learning I've decided. I love having a backpack and carrying books and stethoscopes. It's a scholarship program for military spouses that's making this course and everything in it available, thank goodness, because I wouldn't have been able to do it any other way. Yay for scholarships! We ordered our scrubs and should get them within a couple days, and we'll actually work in hospitals or nursing homes for the last three days of the class. The class is also a trial class, and if it's a success then it will become a permanent option for spouses to participate in. It was a class full of about 18 other girls. Tomorrow we're doing CPR so I'll be able to recertify on that. It's three in the morning and I just sent Kev off to work. He was voluntold to wash a plane so he had to be there at 3:30 and since I got up and made him breakfast ( a protein shake) I can't get back to sleep. Oh well, I'm going to be tired tonight.