Where The Grass Is Greener...

there's no place like home...

or no place like your OWN home anyway.  so i promised a little timeline of pictures of the progress of our house so far.  while we know this may not be the greatest time to buy a house, let alone build one, we decided this is what we wanted to do.  the biggest factor in our decision was the fact that we weren't planning on selling it once we leave in 5 years.  (so if you're looking for a house to rent minutes from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, National Museum of the Air Force, Mall at Fairfield Commons, and The Greene please let me know in about 4-5 years :) haha)  we also may be returning to wright-patterson before our time in the air force is through...sorry for those of you hoping we'd be heading back home in the near future :(  anyway, on to the house.  We decided we were tired of stairs for now and went with a ranch model, but also added an unfinished basement for entertainment purposes and an office...eventually.  it has 3 BR, 2 baths on the main floor with vaulted ceilings in the kitchen/living room and owners bedroom.  the kitchen looks out into the living room giving it an open feel (something we absolutely had to have).  i attached a couple pics of the elevation and the floorplan...sorry for the crappy quality, they were the best i could find online.  unfortunately we won't have a stone front like in the picture, but our house will be slightly elevated with a small front porch that starts at the front door and goes to the garage.  anyway, on to the pics:

just for fun, i put in a "before" picture...

 

breaking ground...exciting times!!

basement walls and drainage system...maybe not so exciting...

back to exciting...structure :) :)

starting to take shape...

 

 

and the first "mechanical" to go in the house...

 

and since i know you asked...yes, it comes with a remote :) so you can fall asleep in the lazyboy, start to wake up cuz you're cold, flip it on with the remote, and fall right back to sleep cuz you didn't have to get up and fully wake up.  oh wait, that's in a dream world.  real world: "aubriee stop playing with the fireplace remote!!!" :) :)

and finally, the (hopefully) finishing product in the next 60-90 days:

jammin'

good evening good evening everybody.  well it didn't take long for aubriee to get back in the groove of running our lives.  i'll throw a couple pics at the bottom...one of her relaxing at aunty missy's and one of her jammin tonight after everybody headed home (pretend there isn't a bunch of clutter behind her :) although i think the nilla wafers add a nice touch haha).  so it looks like a house update is on deck so i'll try and find a few pictures of what's happened so far and get a post ready for tomorrow. 

but for today's post, the only thing on my mind is school.  today's the last day of spring break (why do i feel like i'm 16 again??) and i don't feel like going back to classes tomorrow...maybe because my books this quarter consist of "Solid State Physics for Engineering and Material Science," "classical chemical thermodynamics," and "thermodynamics and kinetics in materials science."  ugh, puke.  lol, jk, i can't complain for a second.  *me being positive* i get to learn about new and exciting things in the world of physics.

ok, if you made it through that last paragraph, you're better than me.  on to more exciting things.  aka, march/april madness.  how in the world did friggin' memphis make it to the final four????  oh, i know, their "pressure defense."  or as i like to call it, lets foul them so much that the refs become oblivious to what's really a foul and they only call the worst 10%.  and how about stephen curry in the last 10 seconds of the KU/davidson game...um, let's see, i'm the only guy on the team that can shoot...so let's pass up taking my man to the bucket (which i've been doing all night, even when 3 guys come to help him), pick up my dribble with two guys on me, and pass it to a guy that can't even hit the rim??  choke. 

ok, sorry for the boring post...i promise tomorrow's house construction update will be better.  and here's how i turn a boring post into a fantastic one...pictures :)

 

 

home sweet home!

short post...today's a great day!  little winkerbeaner is home from her trip to virginia :)  i mean, seriously, who wouldn't miss this sweet little girl...haha :) :)  p.s. we keep these 2 pics for proof that she's not a complete angel 100% of the time :)

the game of life

first, i want to thank everyone who is commenting on my blogs!  you guys are the best!  okay, so i'm making a command decision and saying i have enough votes to declare a winner.  so here are a few family updates:

Winkerbeaner- she is now over 23 months old and closing in fast on 2 yrs.  this will be a good day for a couple reasons.  first, if it's anything like her first birthday, she'll bring in another motherlode of presents (this is good for daddy, too, since he loves playing with most of her toys when she lets him).  and second, she'll be able to say her age.  if you ask her how old she is today, she'll excitedly put one finger in the air and say "two!"  we're pretty sure two is her favorite number right now because when we race instead of saying "1, 2, 3, GO" she decides she doesn't like saying one and has no time for 3 (or maybe she's trying to get a headstart on daddy) and says "two, two, GO."  she's gonna miss having steps once we move into the new house cuz she plays "catch" with daddy by throwing a ball down the steps and then tells daddy "uh oh" and points for him to go get it for her...and repeat.  she loves. her. babies.  sometimes i worry that she's going to be a marine someday.  here's why: time to go to bed, time to head out for errands, time to take a bath....doesn't matter.  it all begins with her motto "leave no man baby behind."  we tried watching ice age.  wow...BAD IDEA.  she burst into tears when she saw the animals were taking the baby.  it seriously took us 20 minutes to calm her down after we quickly shut it off.  crazy girl :)

wifey- loving life as a stay at home mama.  or maybe she's a professional shopper.  sometimes i wonder...just kiddin babe :)  i asked her for input for her update and she said to put that 5 months into pregnancy she looks like a fat cow (this is not true of course, but good luck trying to convince her otherwise).  she's getting very excited about decorating the new house.  i think she's pretty much got every room planned out, including the basement that we don't plan on finishing for another year haha.  she loves scrapbooking and is anxiously awaiting warm weather to get outside and go on walks through the park.

me- i'm still enjoying my time in the air force...although sometimes i wonder why i chose to pursue this master's degree thingy.  i still play basketball every tuesday and thursday at 6:30 a.m. (dedication, i know lol) and i've finally gotten back to the gym to start pumping some aluminum again (i'm still working my way up to iron :).  i, too, am excited for summer to get back on the mountain bike and maybe bring aubriee to the practice putting green (she's getting pretty bored hitting balls around her room haha).

family- we've missed living next to the beautiful rocky mountains in utah, but are settling into the area here in dayton, oh.  it's nice to have a little family (miranda's mother's side) within an hours drive.  as i mentioned earlier, we're expecting little one #2 in july and are hoping to be moved in and unpacked into our new house before he/she arrives.  right now, the house is about to begin the "rough mechanicals" stage, so the foundation, flooring, walls, roof, windows, and doors are all in.  we're excited and nervous about our first home purchase, but hopefully everything goes smoothly!! :) 

this may have gotten a little long (sorry, i think all of mine are super long so far...i'll work on that in the future)...but hopefully those of you who i haven't talked to in awhile at least feel a little caught up on the life and times of an air force daddy :)       

as you wish...

i made the long treck over to walmart.com to snag some photos of my beautiful daughter this afternoon and so i have a few ready for you.  on a side note, i'm letting you, america, vote for the next great blog.  i must remind you that you are allowed 7 votes per phone line, 12 votes per snail-mail address, and 742 votes per email address:

1)  house update, with pictures

2)  "where the grass is greener: the making of a blog"--behind the scenes footage on where in the world this title came from

3)  life update...what the family is up to these days

ok...on to the pictures...

this is one of my all time favorites from when she was about a year old

   

                                                      

ready for boating daddy...

 

and a more recent one..."honest, daddy, it wasn't me..."

Ok, now don't forget to vote...voting will be open as soon as this blog is published :)

and you thought you were weird...

well it didn't take long for me to lose my "tagged virginity" :)  jess blessed me with the wonderful privilege of admitting 7 of my quirks.  i'm only going to do 5 because they'll be crazy enough to count for 7...trust me.  so here are 2 reasons why this will be a good thing.  first, it's always nice not needing to think of a post (even though i just began and actually have a few in my hip pocket).  second, and most importantly, this will make each and every one of you feel 10,000 times better about yourself and your quirks.  let the fun begin...

1)  shoes.  ok, so i know this would be more of an addiction than a quirk, but how many guys do you know of that could fill up 16 closets full if he had the money and still go shoe shopping every weekend?  yes, this may be typical for most of you ladies out there, but ask your men if they'd do the same...maybe i should start a support group for guys :)  i confided in another guy friend about this who has the same problem and we could only come to one conclusion: basketball players.  you get so used to spending so much time shopping for basketball shoes until you find the perfect pair that it must get ingrained into your head that this is the way you're supposed to shop for shoes.  i could go on about dress clothes, too, but i don't know where that one came from...although i was voted best dressed in h.s. (not sure how that happened when i look back at pictures from back in the day--i rationalize it by saying "that was the style back then" lol).

2)  pacing on the phone.  now you can have a visual if you ever call me.  i can't stop walking back and forth...around in circles...doesn't matter.  gotta. keep. moving.  the funny thing is that my 23 month old daughter has picked up on it and now when she grabs the phone to gab on and on, she's walking around and around the entire townhouse.  i'll have to get a video of it sometime :)

3)  "even-ness":  let me try and explain this.  if i'm walking and step on a crack near the heel of my left foot, i have to, at some point, step on a crack in the exact same spot on my right foot.  obviously i can't always do this immediately on the next step (cuz that would just look goofy right? lol) so i have to keep track and eventually get back to "even".  if this isn't possible, then i revert to looking goofy and making things right in my world :)  this is just the beginning...i have to stretch the same amount on each side.  if i have a song in my head, the syllables in the lyrics have to be even...if not, i'll "accidentally" skip a word or add a word or sing the lyric twice in my head to get it even.  wow, this is getting bad isn't it...and i'm only on #3!!!

4)  numbers: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing...why were these invented???  apparently for me.  if i add two numbers together, i have to add them a different way to see if i get the same answer (which is always the case...isn't math beautiful?? haha)  e.g. 12+8=20...but if you just take 2 off the 12 you can add 10 and 10 and it becomes an easier way to get to 20.  this is a very simple example...believe me, it gets waaaaaaaaaaay worse.

5)  efficiency.  ok, this is the absolute BANE of my existence.  i was destined to be an engineer looooooooong before i knew what one was and what they did.  here's where engineers really came from: lazy people.  if there is a way to make something to easier to do (most of the time in theory :) ha!)...if there's a way for something to be done just by pushing a button, or simply to do nothing at all, call an engineer and he'll spend hours, days, years, trying to figure a way out to be lazier.  ok, so back to efficiency.  it begins in the morning.  if i'm wasting time, it drives me crazy.  another example: why stand in the front of mirror and swish mouthwash while staring at myself in the mirror when i could be putting deodorant on or putting toothpaste on my tooth brush or putting away my contact solution while doing it.  i drive wifey crazy in stores (especially the grocery store)--me: ok you go down this aisle while i go grab this this and this and i'll meet you here.  each item is picked up in a specific order to prevent wasted steps.

OK...i think i'm going to stop now.  i doubt anybody is still reading this since it's like 12 pages long.  but, if you are...don't you feel sooooooooooo much better about yourself???  i'm pretty sure i've assured myself that nobody will tag me about quirks again so they don't fall asleep :)

And so it begins...

Well, after much blog-stalking (yes, it's been me that's been visiting your blogs and refusing to comment without having something for you to read as well :) lol), I've finally started the steriod blog-era of my career.  For the record, I have never knowingly taken blog-enhancing drugs (this will become quite evident very quickly).  So on my very first post, I thought I'd share "Trav's Top 10 Reasons For Starting A Blog"...here we go...

10.  The ability to leave comments on other blogs and not feel guilty about not giving them something to laugh at, too.

9.  Funny stories.  Okay, I'll be honest and say that the embarassing ones will more than likely be about me...and the funny ones will be about the rest of the family.

8.  Venting.  While I'll be trying my hardest not to turn this into a complaint shop, I think it goes without saying that everybody needs to vent every once in a while :)

7.  Advice.  Any kind.  Places to eat, recipes, games, shows, whatever...and of course, PARENTING! :)

6.  Vacation news...yours, ours, suggestions...you name it.

5.  Golf tips??

4.  lil' gomper updates: he/she is only 4 months away (if all goes well :)  and i'll try and keep the updates steady.

3.  i think the only thing that might save this blog is pictures of lil' winker beaner (aka beaner-winker, beaner, bree-bree) and eventually her sister/brother...so hopefully this blog will remind me to take. more. pictures.

2.  Not. Do. Homework. :)  (Wifey, if you're reading this...please skip #2 and proceed to #1)

And the number one reason...............................

1.  Let's just say my cousin who is 5 years my senior...oh wait, that would give away her age...let's just say my cousin who is greater than 4 years but less than 6 years my senior is more in touch with my friends than I am :)  love ya jess!