Casey Ryan

I'm so proud of my husband. He does so much for us I don't think I could ever thank him enough. Casey has been a recruiter for 2 years now and I think is finally getting in a groove. There's alot of stuff to go through in order to enlist people in the Air Force.

Yesterday Casey had his fit test and annual evaluation. Of course he blew everyone out of the water during the fit test, that's just Casey. He's 29 can out run anyone and eat anything and not ever gain weight, without having to work out. Must be nice. I look at food and gain 10 lbs.

Well when you do your annual evaluation you get the form that your flight chief, superintendent and commander fill out. At first I just glanced over looking at the checked off boxes but then Casey told me to read the whole thing. His flight chief and superintendent wrote some really great things about him.

Msgt Miller wrote that he was a true mentor, has stellar appearance and is a team player. He also wrote that he's the flight's top recruiter and has out performed 6 other recruiters. His last sentence was the most important.
Ready for next step; only missing stripes... has outperformed more seasoned Tech's and Master's-- promote to Tech now. (For you non military people this is awesome.) TSgt is the next rank up and would mean more money!!! Now the odds of this actually happening aren't too good but it's still great to think his flight chief thinks so highly of him.

Ok so his Superintendent is his flight chief's boss (am I losing you??) and she wrote:
Casey's enlistment success was key to the squadron vaulting 14 positions in the national competition moving up to #3. He is a superstar recruiter; exceeds all expectations... will excel as a career recruiter---promote to TSgt immediately.

How great is that? Now remember, odds are against us that this could actually happen, but this is so flattering none the less. Casey is an awesome worker and doesn't always get the recognition he deserves. So here's to you baby!! I'm so proud of you. I love you!

Yes I'm fully aware that I'm a dork!!

I can already here it from Katie on how big of a dork I am. But in honor of our 10 yr. reunion coming up next month I made a playlist of songs. Since I got my new car and I have XM for 3 months I've been hooked on the 90's on 9 station, it plays so many songs that we use to listen to in high school.
I loved high school and it's fun to go back through pictures and remember all the stupid crazy things we did. If I had to pick a favorite year it would probably be my senior year. I'm sure that's the case for alot of people. But our senior year we were all so close.

Some of my favorite high school memories:

Parties- it's hard to just pick one since there was several every single weekend. But halloween at Marks and all the parties at my house would probably be top on my list. (Jeni owes me big time for all of those. She always promised to stay and help clean up but would disappear at the end of the night).

Soccer games

Men in Black and the stupid dance that went with it. Jessica and Shannon I expect you to bust it out at our reunion so get practicing.

Listening to the Grease soundtrack and the remix one Shanny had. I think we had that whole cd memorized. Ya we were cool.

Slumber party at Shannon's for the first day of school. (Not sure it was the smartest way to start our senior year, but it sure was fun)

Katie always having cups that were bigger than her.

Making signs at Wendy's for the Martin/Mansfield game and then going to roll all the mansfield people. The best was Kristen Jones' house. And yes Katie you were there, I'll get my pictures out to prove it. Twizzlers

Eating popcorn and peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies with Jessica and watching Hope Floats for the 10,000th time.

Taking a picture in my car with Jessica while listening to Sister Hazel. Jess I know you remember what I'm talking about.

All for you by Sister Hazel. This obsession started my junior year after a party at Blake Hays' house. To this day it is still my absolute favorite song.

The upper gym lobby. This was probably the only time in my life that I ever got some where early. Some how I managed to get to school at 7 just so I could socialize before the first bell. Atleast I had my priorities straight.

Playing darts with Katy.

Watching all the guys sing Road goes on Forever at Prom. Looking back it was kinda silly, but it was still fun.

Our graduation party at Courtney Marnell's. There are no words to describe how much fun we had there.

Our senior trip. All of it was fun but the thing that sticks out most in my mind is Katie packing Jeni's suitcase the morning we had to go home. Katie was always such a good mom. And this memory makes me laugh out loud every time.

Matt Craft's apartment and the fact that Jessica and I spent an entire day cleaning it from top to bottom. Jess I don't think he ever took us out to Chili's for payment.

Mine and Jeni's apartment. I'm a really hard person to live with (shocking, I know) so Jeni and I really only got along the first and the last month out of our lease. The crazy lady underneath us would bang on the ceiling if we were to load. She would also throw trash up on our balcony. Classy.

Jessica. Everytime we were together we did the stupidest things and thought they were hilarious. We still do and everyone still thinks we're crazy. Zima, windshield wipers, taking the picture in the middle of the night in cancun and hearing Jeni and Katie getting mad at us. (just to name a few)

There are so many more memories but I don't want to bore the people who weren't there. Plus I'm kinda forgetting some of them. I guess I need to bust out my planners.

If I was in the 21st century I would have a scanner and be able to upload some of these pictures, but I don't. And it would be so hard to just pick a few.

Family pictures

My friend Wendy took our first set of family pictures last weekend. It was so good getting to see her and for the chance to have her take our pictures. She's been taking pictures for about 2 years and she's awesome!! Since she has kids close to the age of ours I think it really helped Emilee feel at ease. Thanks again Wendy I absolutely love them!!! Check out her blog it's giggles n grins.

Not your ordinary bed

This is not a picture of just any bed, this is the cutest bed in the world. Emilee slept in this morning till around 8:30 she came out and watched some cartoons with Lily and ate some breakfast. It wasn't until around 9 I walked into her room to check on Lily and this is what I found. She came in and told me that when she woke up she made her bed all by herself. How cute is that?!! Granny is teaching her well. Part of me really wanted to fix it to make it perfect but then realized that it was perfect. She did it and that made it perfect.

Still unpacking

Well this is my first week back at the house by myself. We're so use to always having Granny here with us, and when she's not it takes about a week to get adjusted. The first week is by far the hardest for me.

We got back home on Sunday from DFW. We had so much fun, too much actually because now I miss it even more. Thanks to Granny and my mom we came home with suitcases full of clean and ironed clothes. So you think unpacking the rest would be a breeze. Well I hate unpacking. It's such a pain. Alot of our shower stuff, swim stuff and shoes still need to be unpacked and I just can't bring myself to do it. Laziness I guess.

I did however get up and dust, vacuum and windex the house this morning all before 9 am. It's always good motivation when you know people are coming over. Especially when it happens to be your neighbor with the perfectly spotless house.

I still need to upload all our pictures from our week in DFW and I'm still waiting on a cd of pictures that my mom took. So as soon as I get around to that I'll post again. Until then I guess I need to go unpack. BLAH.

Our weekend and Hawaiian Falls

The girls and I came up to DFW for a week. I figured since this will be my last summer without a job I needed to take advantage of it. We've been here 4 days and we've been so busy. Saturday I had a shower for Katie in the afternoon and after naps we went out to Southlake to see Mimi, Vernon and Stacey. The girls had so much fun out there. We went by Mimi and Vernon's house to see it because I hadn't ever gotten the chance to see it. Then we went by Stacey and Greg's model home. It was the most amazing thing ever and I can't wait to see their's finished. After that we went to Stacey's to swim and eat pizza. The girls were so good and they had a blast. Needless to say they crashed when we got home.

Sunday we got up and went to Casey's parents house to swim. Casey's aunt and cousins were in town so it was nice to get to see them. And of course I didn't take pictures because that's what a good mom would have done. We left there and went back to my moms for a nap. After nap time we went out to Becky's to go swimming at their country club. It was a little hot but there was so much for the girls to do and they loved it.

Emilee and Becky

Lily at the splash pad

Monday we got up and met Katie and Brooks, Jess and Reed, Jeni and Jackson at Hawaiian Falls. Lily and I had never been and I fell in love with that place. The splash area was completely covered so my albino baby didn't get too much sun. Mom took Em all over the rest of the park while I got to catch up with the girls. It was so nice. I wish we could all get together more often.

Brooks and Jackson playing

Jackson and his wheels

Time for a lunch break

Sweet Reed

Grapes and cheetos yum...

Brooks with one of Em's diving toys

Em, Reed and half of Lily

Reed was facinated with the bucket

Out of 10 pictures this was the best. It's hard with that many kids.

Thanks girls for driving all that way so we could hang out, I had such a good time. Thanks mom for going with me and helping me with Emilee. It sure did make the day more enjoyable.