Metal Earth: Gifts

For my father in laws birthday I bought him this: Steam Locomotive.  He likes to put things together. He's got lots of free time (lots!!).  And he likes steam engines.  Perfect gift, right?!?!  

After putting it together recently, he questioned whether I got the gift at "some old person torture store". You can read more about it here: Little Engine Blog

After discussing the difficulty with David, David was inspired to come home and put his set together. For Father's Day, I got him a set too.  His set had 4 landmarks: The Eiffel Tower, One World Trade Center, Big Ben and The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  

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You can see how small the details are.  This plate contains all the pieces for The Eiffel Tower.  

For your information, I found a large selection at Barnes and Nobles, which is where I got there.  After further investigation, there is an even larger selection online.  Think Millennium Falcon.  

It took David about 40 minutes to put together this one.  

It took my father in law two days to put his together.  

In all fairness, the steam locomotive is supposed to be one of the most difficult ones to put together.  

Anyways, all of ours are put together.  It problem took David two hours to put all four together.  They look.  Although Bob griped about the tedious effort in putting his together, he said he enjoyed it.  I'll give Bob this: he doesn't have good eyes and the little pieces do put a lot of strain on your eyes.   

Hannah's birthday gift

This year for Hannah's birthday we decided to do things a little different.  Her gift from us was a party at Wine, Paint and Canvas.  We scheduled a private party for 10 friends and arranged for them to paint Olaf, from Frozen.  

On party day we had two open seats, so David took one of them and painted Olaf too.  

Big Hannah and Billy, in usual form: non stop hilarity.  

Hannah and Vivian, birthday buddies from day 1.  

Vivian, and Jared and Kadence in the background.  

Here you can see Sara Beth, the little girl in the front left.  Beside her is Logan, beside Logan is Aria and her dad Paul.  On the other side of the table is Ashley, Logan's mom.  

Here you can see Aria and Logan again.  Across the table is Alayna, with her mom Karen.  

On the right side is Alayna and Karen.  Then Iris' head and her mom Ashley.  On the other side is Aria, then Sara Beth beside her.  In the far back, on the left, is Big Hannah, Billy and Grandpa Bob.

Hannah and her Olaf. 

Vivian and her Olaf.  Jared, fixing Kadences' Olaf.  My understanding is parental fixes were needed in all of the kids' paintings.  

Hannah, with all her friends.  

David said the party went well, but he thought the 2 hour time block for that age group was a bit too long.  He also said all the kids had to have some kind of parental recovery with their painting.  However all the kids had fun, and they all liked their painting, which is what mattered.  

A Proud Dad Moment

Here's some pictures from our Thanksgiving Day target practice.  

After a little rearranging, Grandpa and Daddy were able to figure out the right set up for Hannah.  

And she hit the target, over and over.  

Possibly more importantly, she had fun.  And wanted to continue doing it.  Which is what makes this a proud dad moment. 

Among all the dresses, high heels, make up and barbie dolls, Hannah has qualities that are the opposite of all that.  Like target shooting, apparently.  

Riley, never one to be overlooked, even just a little, expressed her desire to try as well.  

She looks so tiny, it's pretty cute.  

Remember that obstacle course...

David's dad was intrigued from the moment we told him about it. 

He wanted to see what he was capable of doing.  He did many things while in the Marines, years ago.  He's kept in shape and still works out regularly.

It really irks me how well David can still do these things.  I mean, he never exercises now!!!

This was pretty funny to watch.  It took 3 or 4 times to get across the logs.  

At the end of the day, he tackled all of the obstacles.  And conquered most!  ; )  But had fun doing it all regardless.  

Sylva, Nc and Graduation

It was the finale to many, many years of hard work.  When I met David, I was going to school to be a nurse.  It was a goofy decision.  My dad had mentioned one time that he thought I would be a good one.  Compliments from Garry Davis NEVER happened, which is why I allowed it to dictate my career choice at the time.  Though right out of high school, I  said I wanted to go to law school.  My dad also told me he didn't think I had the patience to make through college, then law school.  So David and I meet, during my first semester of college.  We got married right after my second semester.  Then he deployed.  I went to school while he was gone.  Then he came home and we had orders for Italy.  So after 4 or 5 semesters, I can't remember exactly, I put school on hold to move to Italy.  Going to school became mildly complicated after that.  I took off a couple of semesters, so we could get settled and acclimated to living in a foreign country.  When I was ready to go back to school, I faced more complications.  Completing nursing school would be nearly impossible in Italy.  I had no way to do clinicals.  So David and I began to talk.  He said he wasn't sure why I didn't go to school for criminal justice.  He knew how much I loved it.  I realized he was right.  And I could do that from Italy.  So I changed my career path.  I finished my AS right after we moved back to the United States.  I had to take a public speaking course, and it was the only class I couldn't do online.  After completing my AS, I knew I wanted to go on for my BS.  I found Western Carolina University, which had a BS in criminal justice in distance learning, meaning I could complete my degree online.  I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, because I had been taking classes online for so long, I actually looked forward to sitting in a classroom.  To this day, I will tell you that sitting in a classroom would be so much easier than than sitting in front of a computer.  When you have a teacher, lecturing right in front of you, you are aware of everything they put emphasis on.  It's not so clear in online classes, which can take some time to figure out between online communication.  

All that brings me here, to this cabin in the mountains.  Where I would walk the stage for my BS in Criminal Justice.  I give all credit to Bob Cernock and Hannah Cernock.  You see, I wasn't going to walk the stage.  I had initially turned in my application saying "No" that I would not attend the ceremony.  Then I got this email from Bob, telling me what an impact it would be for Hannah to see my walk across the stage and receive my diploma.  As I read it, I knew he was right.  I emailed the people at the school, and asked if I could change my answer to "Yes."

They did.  We decided to make it a short weekend getaway.  We found a cabin in Sylva, NC and decided to stay for 3 nights.  

I may not have been able to enjoy a glass of bubbly to celebrate, so I made myself a bubble bath in the jetted tub.  And sat in there for an hour reading.  It was wonderful.  

Sunrise, the morning of my graduation.  

I was so nervous.  I thought they'd forget to call my name.  I know, it's ridiculous.  

The girls, being silly upstairs.  

Heading to the college.  

Walking up to the auditorium.  

Inside.  

I'm sitting close to the left end, in the 3rd or 4th row back.  

They did not forget to call my name!  Because Bob is so familiar with the graduation process, he had everyone positioned so I could see them well.  So when I walked in to the auditorium, there was Hannah and David.  And when I walked off the stage, after receiving my diploma, Hannah was standing right at the rail, waving at me.  

Sunrise from our bedroom.  

After graduation, we went out for dinner.  Then went home and played Sorry for hours.  

I'm glad I did it.