.. that is one expensive piece of paper ..

well it is official. He is finally done, at least on record from UVU. we got his diploma in the mail the other day and he couldn't wait to show everyone, although his face doesn't show it. 

so proud of you!

. officially a gun owner, yikes .

so this last weekend cody wanted to go buy a gun. I have been waiting and pushing this one off and I couldn't do it any longer. I thought for sure we would be gun owners when we got prego and if it was a girl. but nope, we are gun owners because he now has a concealed weapon permit, a requirement from me if he was going to be a CFI. I get nervous. So I told him he had to save his pennies and buy it himself. so all of a sudden he was in to work and saving what he could, even change to save enough. And he did it this weekend. man oh man. 

on saturday we made the trek to Cabela's and started the 3 hour process of getting a gun. We had to wait 30 minutes just to get the gun pulled from the case, they were busy that day. After we told him what gun he wanted and tested it out made sure it was what he wanted we had to fill out paper work and have a background check ran. this took about 50 minutes. We shopped around, checked out the big animal hall and got a drink and a cookie and then went back to sign paperwork and then purchase the gun. We had to of course show everyone, and tell everyone in our families so that is what we did the rest of our Saturday. 

He can't wait to go shoot it, and get good with it. I am a little afraid of the fact that we are now gun owners. oui. 

. officially a pilots wife .

so, as I mentioned in the previous post I am on proud wife of a new commercial pilot. Cody has spent months, and years studying and it all came to fruition two weeks ago. Cody took his commercial pilot check ride and passed on the first try and was done about an hour shorter than we expected and were told. He got great marks from the examiner, and was told that he had the knowledge already for his CFI which is wonderful! He started working on his CFI this past week and should be able to take on students soon. Woot Woot!! We are officially done with school, *sigh*.  

Congrats babe, so incredibly proud of you and your drive, dedication and passion. 

.. the date that comes every year & signifies how long you have been 'stuck' together ..

two posts in one day?!?! what in the?!?

okay.. it is because it is our anniversay. ha ha yep, 6 years. dang. so instead of the long post that i did last year i thought i would just list the lessons we learned with a picture..

. 2005.

. adjusting to change takes effort on both sides, and requires daily efforts for success .

. 2006 . 

. remembering each other every day makes all the difference in the world .

. 2007 . 

. having a family means more than you ever could imagine .

. 2008 . 

. a positive attitude can make all the difference in the world .

. 2009 . 

. hard work pays off, just stick to it .

. 2010 .

.  loss is one of the hardest life lessons, but if you stick together life isn't that bad .

. 2011 .

. giving 100% of yourself to the other pays off ten fold .

happy 6th anniversary babe, here is to yet another year being 'stuck' with you!

.. its your day of birth ..

alright so it is the hubby's birthday and since I haven't ever done this for him.. here are 28 reasons why I love Cody.

1. His hilarious sense of humor

{mini golf summer 2010}

2. the way he claims he will stay awake during movies but always falls asleep

3. the way he takes care of me when i am sick or hurt

4. how he loves jet and tyke

5. his willingness to put up with my retarded requests

6. his dedication to aviation

7. tickle fights in bed late at night, and how i always win

8. his sense of adventure and trying new things

{jazz game january 2011}

9. that he works for delta and i can fly for free {don't judge it is a rockin benefit}

{washington dc may 2011}

10. how his mind is made up of gears and oil {it revolves around cars and planes}

11. his sweet thoughts and gifts

12. his ability to handle my emotional swings and crazy rants

13. loving my family, even if they are crazy

14. being patient with me when i act retardedly

15. how he still loves me even when i make him sleep in 'coffin' sheets. {i have a thing with sheets in my bed. they have to be pulled tight with no wrinkles, i mean none. on our first night in our apartment i made the bed and he got it and asked me if i was trying to kill him by putting him in a coffin cause they were so tight}

16. how he knows when i say maybe i really mean yes, i just don't want to sound mean or demanding

17. how he believes in me and my dreams

18. his back / shoulder rubs, they are divine.

19. he allows me to have an addiction to books and reading

20. his family, they are some of the most wonderful people i know

21. how obsessive he is about his car {it is always the one to get cleaned and vacuumed, when we had tyke he wouldn't let him ride in his car because of his fur.}

22. how he supports my efforts to be healthier by working out and eating better

23. his bear hugs, seriously the best

24. his work ethics. he works 2 jobs and goes to school, and when i was in school he worked full time and did school so i could finish my degree

25. how he loves me for me

{maui august 2010}

26. how on our wedding day despite being sick and in the hospital he powered through the day, thanks to many naps, and made it one of the best days of my life

27. his beautiful blue eyes

28. because he is my knight in shining armor and i wouldn't trade him for the world.

{new years eve 2010}

happy birthday my prince!

happy oct.. i mean november!

alright so I am terribly lame, I know. I got so busy with work and stuff at home that when it came time to try and update the blog all i wanted to do was sleep or not be around a computer. ha ha. so my bad. so here is a catch up of our october. cody went on a trip with the school on the 14th for a week. he toured the FEDEX facilities out there and flew in a simulator that costs $8,000 an hour to run. yes I did see about a million pictures of planes and listened to hours of stories and factoids he had to give. but i love him. so, yep just me and jet bug at home. so our nights consisted of late night photo sessions and watching loads of greys anatomy. love that show. 

he was home for a week, and in that week we did this.. 

went and saw thriller, great tradition we have. it is a dance show in utah and it is amazing. fun for halloween and even has funny stuff in it. you can check it out here. this year we went with my brother m* and his wife e*. 

we carved pumpkins, this one is from another time we did it cause I forgot to take a picture of the one i did on halloween, don't worry it was lame. 

i dressed up at a ramp agent, aka cody at delta. it was awesome. we looked like twins for the day. ha ha. i did this for work, in attempts to win a costume contest yep sure didn't. 

{jet tried on the headphones.. too funny}

jet was a devil for halloween, pictures to come. he filled the part well and even left his costume alone. grand. 

we hiked the y with cody's mom. her and i had never done it so we did it, and took jet with us. he was a trooper and made it up and almost down on his own, and he slept the rest of the day only getting up to eat and drink. splendid. 

i made a few desserts, I have gotten into baking and decorating stuff it is actually pretty fun. i made spider cupcakes, cute forgot to photograph them. with the left over icing i made sugar cookies. we made frankensteins. 

then sure enough cody left us again for SEMA, the car show in vegas, for 4 days. So you guessed it, pictures, greys and loving the pup.

so i guess it is on to november. we have a bunch coming up it seems. cody just got back from vegas, he is taking his stage check in flying as we speak. his little brother r* gets married tomorrow, so we will be doing that wedding party stuff again. my mom has a knee replacement on the 16th. cody turns 28... ha ha! and we have our 6th wedding anniversary on the 22nd. thanksgiving is on the 24th, and dad's birthday is on the 26th. talk about a packed month. so i guess i will be updating the blog a bunch in the upcoming weeks. 

happy november!!

.. cruise preview anyone? ..

alright, so i thought i would post a sampler of the cruise to get you excited to hear about our wild adventure for 10 days. it started out kind of rough got better, had a down and then got great! so for the preview i give you a picture and two videos.

{the grand tour of our bedroom.. narrated by yours truly}

{video from maho beach, cody's favorite i'm sure you can tell why}

{me at maho beach on st. maarten}

.. it's just a little cut ..

okay lets rewind and review.. thoracic outlet syndrome. remember the post i had way back when on this? alright. so after we did all the testing i made an appointment for surgery, since the surgeon is booked 6 months out. you heard me right, 6 months. i made the appointment in February for august 24th. it was his earliest appointment. it could be cancelled if therapy and strength training worked in restoring my feeling and motor skills. i started working extra hard with my trainer, doing stretches and following directions to a t. after 6 months of effort, nothing had changed if anything it had just gotten worse. so surgery was the only option left, other than dealing with it which we determined wouldn't really be a good option. 

i was told to show up at the hospital at 11am and check in. we did that and i did the whole pee in a cup draw blood put on a funny gown and attach bracelets and a tube to me deal. i was ready to go by about 11:45. we were sitting in our room waiting and the nurse came in an informed us that his surgery this morning took longer than they expected and that he was running about 2 hours behind. wonderful, cause starving to death was on my list of things to do that day. so we tried to keep my mind off of it, we watched some Steven seagal show on tv that happened to last 2 hours. perfect. after the movie i did one last potty break, just to make sure and when i got back to my bed the nurses moved me into the quarantine  room. your family can't be there the only people who can are the nurse and the anesthesiologist. so i waited for another 15 minutes and my dr showed up. he talked to me about the meds he would give me and asked if i had a bad history with anesthesia. after we chatted, you guessed it. i waited. shortly after a nurse showed up to pull me into my OR. yes i was awake for this whole thing. i had my surgery in OR 9. they wheeled me in and had me move beds. i climbed onto the other bed, adjusted my gown (i.e. untied it for the dr) and they gave me some oxygen. and i waited. after about 5 minutes i remember seeing my dr and then the world disappeared. i woke up in the recovery room with a huge bandage that went half way up my neck, to my arm pit and half way down my chest. and it killed. i was crying it hurt so bad. the nurses gave me meds and pillows and within about 20 i was feeling good. i had to stay one night there due to the fact that breathing can puncture your lung, nice huh? so they prepped me to move. we left the recovery room and out to the elevators where they tried to find cody. he wasn't in there, apparently he was going to the bathroom but his biological dad was there. yep so not the person i want to see when i first wake up from a painful surgery. i told the nurse i didn't want to see him and to take me up and come back for my husband. 

i was taken to my room 468. i was promptly greeted by my nurse and my pca. they hurried and changed my gown from the stupid itchy paper one to a nice cloth one, got me situated with my leg pumps (to prevent blood clots) and ice. sweet girls. within about 10 minutes cody got there and started feeding me ice and water, i was on a liquid only diet which later proved to be a good choice. i ordered some dinner, if you can call it that. it was tomato soup, diet coke and pudding. it arrived and i ate. after eating it was time to try and walk. this is where the liquid diet was my friend. i did well until about 3/4 of the way then i felt really faint and sick. cody had to run and get me a bucket before i lost it. yep everything came back. so it was off to bed and a dose of heavy duty anti-nausea medications for me. I did have a few visitors, my family all came and saw me in my super hot purple moo moo. Cody stayed with me until 11:30pm, bless his heart and then i told him to go home and sleep good. Good thing i sent him home. the night was filled with wake ups every 1-2 hours. the pca would come in every 2 hours and check my oxygen levels and blood pressure and then my nurse came in every three to give me more pain and nausea meds. crazy night, i think i slept a whole 4 hours between it all. the only plus was i was drugged so i was out within minutes of them being done. 

the next day i had some pudding and water and was up to walk again. good news, this time we did 3 laps, felt great and was in hardly any real pain. the dr came by, he took off the bandages and told me it went well. the surgery took a little bit longer and was a tad harder than he expected. he said everything in there was really tight. (really?!?! i could have told you that!) i stayed until 1pm, because they could give me a hospital grade anti inflammatory then that i definitely wanted before trying to survive at home. cody was glad to leave, if he had his choice we would have gone home at 9am. but it was alright. the next few days were spent living in the lazy boy chair at home, the only place that is comfortable, on pain killers and muscle relaxers and living in pj's and blankets. 

i am glad to report that it has since been a week and i have returned to work and normal-ish activity. it still takes a lot for me to wash my hair and to do my hair. i still take pain killers every 4 hours and i still sleep with ice and 7 pillows, but doing much better than before. as for recovery, i can't lift anything over 10 pounds until the end of September, and then gradually add stuff in. so it will be a journey. 

sadly this is the only picture i have from the hospital stay, i wanted to see the cut after the bandages came off the next morning.

.. it's just a little cut ..

i have seriously been so bad at updating the blog. like bad. so i thought i would take a few and give you an update. June was busy, we were both working (Cody has 2 part time jobs and works 7 days a week - crazy). we decided to join my brother and sister in law and some friends on a cruise this august and have been planning for that. 

the end of June Cody had to have some surgery. it was his first ever and needless to say i think i was more scared about it then he was. i woke up the morning of a bundle of nerves and scared for him and he was totally relaxed until about 5 minutes before he went in. we got there at 9am, and they took his blood and got him changed. look at his super cute purple gown. 

this gown is pretty rad, not gonna lie. they finally got smart down there. they have inside the gown a expandable space that connects to a hose that blows either hot or cold air into the gown. thus you don't need 19 heated blankets to stay warm in the hospital only like 2. here is a vent you can kind of see in, this is with the air on and going. 

we got all settled answered about a million questions and then we waited. about an hour later the doctor showed up and explained it all to us and then told us that he had a patient that was in ICU that was in critical condition and might not make it. He was going to go and check on him and if he could stabilize he would take Cody first, if not then he would have to butt in line. so we waited, and sure enough the guy couldn't make it. so we had to wait some more. after about 2 hours i asked the nurse for a check up. they said it was pretty bad and that it would be another 2 hours before he could get in. so we waited until 3. at 3 they finally took him back. the surgery was quick only 45 minutes and he was done. the doctor came and talked to me and said he was great and that when he had woken up that they would call for me. so i waited for another hour for them to call and finally got to go back around 5. i got to walk in and see this cute face.

 

he slept for another hour and then we took a stroll around the halls, he had to walk and go to the bathroom before we could leave. he did both and we were released around 7. we stopped and got him a jamba juice to add to the 8 oreos he scarfed in recovery. 

he is doing well though, we are on day 8 and he is great. the cut is healing nice and he is moving much better. he can't lift anything over 5 pounds so that is making life a bit of work seeing how i have to do double the amount of work since he can't. but if all goes well he will get clearance on the 13th of July.

hallelujah! 

.. interview, its pretty much a big deal ..

so as you know, cody is reaching the end of his schooling days. woot woot! during these last few months we have been making a game plan for what we would do when he graduates, like where to live, jobs and income stuff.

at school recently one of cody's instructors told him there was a job opening with the air national guard flying a kc 135.

{ the refueler jet, aka kc 135, aka the plane with a tail.. he he}

he said it was open to all graduating seniors and that they should try to apply. he warned him there would be a lot to do, but could pay off.

over the next few weeks cody gathered all the papers they needed and took two military tests. one was a air force officer qualifying test (AFOQT - it sounds like a swear word to me..) and the TBAS which is a flight simulator test. he did alright on the AFOQT, he had a tad rough patch in the word association portion but did alright. he did great in the TBAS, scoring an 84. which i guess is VERY competitive, according to his professor. so he mailed all his stuff off to the base and started the waiting game. we were told that there was a very likely chance that he wouldn't get called, but that it could happen. and that they were hiring only 2 pilots.

so we waited.

and waited.

and finally on monday, we got a call. monday night we were chatting with cody's parents and attempting to have jet be friends with his mom's cats {tracks and luce}, it didn't go well by the way, when cody's phone rang. he answered and started talking excitedly. he had been one of the lucky candidates to get an interview. he was told over 100 people applied for the job and they chose 9 to interview. WHAT?!? that is nuts like .09%. his interview is today at 2pm. he is nervous and excited all at once. we had his suit dry cleaned and his shirt pressed, and even got a new tie so he would look super sharp. we will see what happens, it will most likely take a few weeks, but at the least we can be proud that he got an interview.

so now, we wait..

.. there is light at the end of that tunnel ..

well, it is official. cody is graduating in april. he applied last week and couldn't be more excited. this is a big deal for us, cody is the only kid in his family to graduate from high school with a diploma and now the FIRST to graduate from college.

i couldn't be more proud of him and the work that he puts in to studying and making the most of school. he is an amazing guy, who when he decides he is going to do something he goes for it and wastes no time. he has been studying hard and working for this for a few years, and he is going to be an amazing pilot. so watch out world, there is a going to be a new graduate in your midst in a few short months!

.. jazzin' it up ..

this year for christmas cody got me tickets to the jazz game. he is trying to help me cross things off my " list ". one thing on my list was to be more adventurous. {and secretly i have always wanted to attend professional sports} the only information i got was that we were going on january 3rd and i had to be ready to leave by 4:30.

so i left work early and went home to get all ready for the night and we were off. when i was in the car and we were on my way my cute hubby allows me to see the tickets, finally.

the sneak found a great deal and got us tickets as VIP's. yep. our seats were on the first row and we got dinner at the stadium and unlimited snacks and drinks. WOW! i was so excited. we got to the stadium and found our way through all the hallways to the VIP lounge and we ate dinner. they had potatoes, pork roast, veggies, salad, bread, desserts and drinks. all you could eat. it was delicious. after dinner we walked through the arena and found our seats. we were on the first row, like 3 rows from the floor. so close we could hear the players curse and see the sweat. unreal. i was so excited!

the game was off and it was good, before i knew it half time was here. we ran off to the VIP lounge and grabbed refills and some snacks, and were back before the second half started. the second half was more intense than the first, i couldn't believe it!

to make it even better the jazz won over the detroit pistons. and it was intense all up until the last minute! you could feel the tension in the arena.

it was honestly one of the best night i had had in a long time. i loved it! we got home late and i was pooped all day but this was so worth it! thanks babe for the wonderful gift!