Happy Birthday, Ryan!!!!

Happy Birthday, RyRy!!!

I hope that your birthday is just as special as you are! I have a feeling that year 25 is going to be one of your best yet as you have so much to look forward to.

Thank you for spending choosing me to spend another year of your life with. You are the best husband that I could have hoped for and even though our life is far from perfect I am so grateful for you.

Photo Credit: MNR Photography

 I can't wait to see what's in store for you/us/our family this year. I love you to the moon and back! 

XOXO,

Allison, Calli, Rocky and Dominick

Sr.A BTZ

On Monday, Ryan went in front of a board for Senior Airman Below The Zone (BTZ). He had previously told me that he was really just ready for it to be done with. I think he had been feeling the pressure and the stress and it was just starting to weigh on him. On Sunday night I spent my evening ironing his service dress, while he read through his package and scrolled through the Professional Development Guide (PDG) again.

Ryan has worked so hard in and out of the office. He's volunteered countless hours and many weekends. He is dedicated to his job and he is a really good Airman (in my opinion). A lot of people worked really hard ensuring he had a strong package going in and I know he appreciated their time. He spent countless hours last week practicing in front of a mock board with his shop and getting advice from others so he would feel more prepared.

At lunch on Monday, Ryan was getting all his service dress that was freshly ironed and hanging ready. I asked him if he was nervous and if he felt ready. He told me that he was nervous, but he was as ready as he was going to be. He said he has done all he could up to this point and he was going to give it his best shot. I don't know why, but I am always so nervous before any of his tests, boards, etc. and this one was no different. His board was at 1:00 and I was constantly checking my phone waiting to hear how he did. He finally text me and told me that he thought it went pretty good, but he stumbled over his words one time. From that point on...we just waited.

Today, he found out that he got BTZ! If you don't know what BTZ is, it's basically an early promotion. In the Air Force you go from an A1C to a Sr.A after a period of time without testing. BUT if you get BTZ, you basically get another stripe a little bit sooner. (Basically that's the gist of it...and if I'm wrong, please correct me) For Ryan getting BTZ means so much, he will be able to test for Staff Sgt. in March which is a year earlier than if he had made Sr.A on schedule. He went up against 7 other Airmen and only 2 of them (including Ryan) got another stripe.

I'm just proud of him and I can't wait to see all of his accomplishments and what's in store for his career in the USAF!

Weekend Fun

This weekend happened to be a busy, but good one.

::Friday after work Ryan and I started dog sitting for our friends. They have a St. Bernard and a little mix dog. They're so well behaved, so it's been fairly easy. We just have to go over there and let them out 3-4 times a day. They'll be gone for 2 weeks so it's gonna be a little while, but it shouldn't be too bad. They've been so playful whenever I go over there, so that's really been fun.
::I had ordered a bunch of items off of Amazon and Target earlier in the week with gift cards that we got from our baby-que. On Friday when I came home from work there was a ton of packages sitting at our front door. It was so fun opening them all (even though I was expecting them).

::Also on Friday, we had to run some errands so we made dinner and then headed into town. It was nice to get off base for a while and we had a good time. When we were out and about we had to stop at Target. When we were walking inside Ryan got stopped by a young girl with her daughter in a shopping cart. She asked if he wanted to buy a couple flower pens since it was her daughter's birthday and she was trying to buy her a present. I walked away because I left my phone in the car, but I really should have stayed. He not only bought 1, he bought 2. He's such a sucker for people like that; he claimed it was his good deed and asked if I would have bought one. I told him no, I would have said I didn't have any cash. Come to find out, the same girl was there a few months ago and our friend also bought a pen from her.

::Saturday Ryan was up fairly early as he had a long list of to-dos. He took our cars up to the Auto Hobby shop and he changed the oil. Our friend sells Ams-Oil and the last time we changed the oil in our vehicles was over a year ago. It was definitely worth it, so we went ahead and did that again.
::One of our friends was having people over for a BBQ and to watch the fight. So after Ryan got back, he had to go help him. When he got back, it was time to get ready and head over there.
::We obviously spent the evening with friends and watched the fight. It was a really good night, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. There were quite a few people there and it was just a good time. We didn't get home until after 1, which lately is pretty late for us.
::Sunday morning Ryan had to do lawn work, so he was out of the house at 8 and didn't get done until after 11. He had also offered to help 2 of our friends, so he went right after that and when he got home he was so tired. He took a quick nap and I made lunch. He was gone again and didn't get home until dinner time.
::My Sunday was a little more relaxed than his. I ended up spending my morning writing (and completing) thank you notes and doing laundry. We also started dog sitting for another one of our friends, except their dog will be staying with us for 2 weeks. It hasn't even been 1 day yet and it's already thrown our house for a loop. While he's a really well behaved dog and our dogs are adjusting well to having another dog in our house, it's definitely been an adjustment.
::As a thank you one of our friends made us dinner . Lumpia and some sort of soup (neither of us know what it's called) tonight. It was SOOOOO yummy! We really are so thankful for the friends that we've met/got here at Edwards.
::And I also ordered some monogrammed onesies and I got pictures of them. I think they're absolutely precious.

Michigan Trip: May/June 2012

Coming to Michigan is so bittersweet for us. We love going back to the familiarity, being around our families and seeing our friends, but we worry for weeks about Calli and Rocky, prep the house for no activity for a week, come back to a furry house {due to the dogs blowing their coat-this is nobodies fault}, and in the end it can all be pretty exhausting. We have gotten into a routine in California; we miss Michigan (mostly the people) so much, but being away for an extended period of time you learn to live day to day instead of constantly wanting to go home. When we go home, we realize how much we love being around our best friends and our families and it's always tough to leave...which is why it's so bittersweet.

This trip was probably our most relaxing one that we've had when we've been home. Ryan hadn't been home for almost a year (our wedding) and the last trip I made home was over the holidays, neither of which were very relaxing. We had high hopes of not being on the run every minute of every day and for the most part I think we succeeded.

So without further adieu here are some highlights of our trip:
::we missed our original flight out of CA and spent a few hours at the USO before hopping on a plane and meeting my parents in Chicago. They are so wonderful and picked us up ribs and salad from Portillo's for the drive home. We pulled into their driveway around 6 {something} AM!

::spent the day in Holland with my parents:
ice cream at Captain Sundae's, the statues are in downtown Holland and the pier

::A couple of days were rainy and kind of chilly. Ryan really enjoyed the smell of fresh rain (instead of the smell of sage brush like we get in the desert)
::We ate twice at our favorite Chinese restaurant
::Spent countless time in a favorite store of ours.

::Spent some time with my niece Kyla. She had my cracking up most of the time.
::Loved on Kora (my brother and sister in law's pug)
::Had dinner with some of our friends
::Went to my little cousin's baseball game.

::Enjoyed my parents property where they're building their house (row 1)
::The first and the last picture are of my moms flowers, the middle is some wild flowers (row 2)
::Baby birds, cutting some dead spots off a tree in my parents back yard and a field. We really enjoyed all the green surroundings that we were able to see. Living in the desert, you don't get to see that.

::The package that we got for our wedding/vow renewal a year ago had a free night stay at the hotel for your anniversary. Since we weren't gonna be in Michigan for our anniversary, we stayed when we were home. It was a great little night away. We went to dinner with friends, hung out in Lansing all day (I got my hair cut), went swimming and had a relaxing night before the busy next day. It was fun and we were glad that we could do that. They gave us a bottle of champagne, chocolates and a free breakfast the next morning.

::The last day that we were there my parents threw us a baby-que. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with our families and some of our friends. We had the best time and I have to admit, it was way more fun than an actual baby shower. When we are home, it's hard enough to see everyone, so this was kind of our way of celebrating Baby Dominick AND getting to see a large amount of people all at one time. If we had to do it all over again, I would definitely go this route again. We had it at my parents house that they're in the midst of building. We were crossing our fingers for nice weather, but it turned out to be a cold evening. We were still able to hang out inside and it was just such a fun way to spend our last evening in Michigan.

::We also got to spend time with Ryan's family, eat at some of our favorite restaurants and much more. We are really hoping to get back in November around Thanksgiving for everyone to meet Dominick.

We are so thankful for being able to get home once more before we have our little guy. It's always hard to leave after being there, but we are back to our normal schedules. We have lots to look forward to within the next couple of months and we are simply so excited.

To everyone who joined us at the baby-que: thank you so much from the bottoms of our hearts. We love you all SO much and were so thankful we got the opportunity to spend that evening with you.

To my parents: thank you for your hospitality and everything you did for us while we were home. We can't thank you enough and are so excited to see you in a couple months.