Tobin Family Website

It has been awhile since I have posted as I was out of town in San Diego much of last week, and have been working crazy hours ever since. 

This past weekend, we put on a birthday party for Delaney (just prior to the end of the school year so she could invite her friends…her real birthday is Jul 30th).  She invited 12 friends and they all showed up!  It was a themed party that Karen went all out on (as she always does).  The theme was a Luau.  We had much of the house decorated and I found Luau music to play to add to the mood.  We bought enough Lai’s for each of the girl’s to have, and they all got to take home plastic coconut drinking cups with little umbrellas in them.  Karen also decorated a coconut tree and dressed the girls in grass skirts and colorful lai’s to take their pictures.  We printed the pictures of each girl and sent it home with them as a memento.  All in all, it was a lot of work, but quite fun.

Ben and Delaney finish school this week.  They are real excited about that.  Karen has been working every day and will through Thursday (the last day of school).  She thought that this week would be a breeze with the kids, but the lack of class structure near the end of the year has posed more challenges in keeping control of the class.  I think she is looking forward to being done with substitute teaching for the year and taking a break!

Yesterday, I had a unplanned trip to the Emergency Room of the local hospital as I was experiencing a “fluttering” feeling in my chest.  I have had these once in a great while in the past, but it usually happens and passes immediately.  Yesterday, it kept doing it over the course of a few hours.  Needless to say, I was a little disconcerted.  I also had a bit of mild discomfort and felt a little light-headed.  After spending 8 hours in the Emergency Room (half of it in the waiting area), I left the hospital with a clean bill of health.  Of course, by the time they finally put me on the constant monitoring EKG, the palpitations had stopped. They took blood and ran a bunch of tests which all came back normal and said that it was likely nothing to be concerned with unless it reoccurs.  If so, I need to follow up with a cardiologist.  I guess a lot of things can cause palpitations and they ruled out many of the systemic medical reasons (thyroid, low electrolytes, etc).  It is possibly the result of stress, caffeine, and lack of sleep (or all three)….although I am not a big consumer of caffeine these days.  I guess I will just keep an eye on it. 

Yesterday (1 Jun), Karen and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary.  It is hard to believe we have been married for 17 years!  It seems like just yesterday we were dating, she was in college in Virginia and I was a brand new Lieutenant in Dayton, Ohio. 

We were introduced while I was still in College at the University of Vermont.  She had been a long-time babysitter for a family that managed the Farm, Home and Garden store I worked for and they introduced us.  After dating (mostly long distance) for a little over 2 years, we got marrried in 1990.  We had an evening wedding on a beautiful sunny day.  We spent our first night in Vermont at the Inn at Essex before driving to Albany, NY, for a flight to Florida for our honeymoon.  We spent our honeymoon between Vero Beach and Orlando, FL. 

Since that time, we have covered a lot of ground.  We spent the first 4.5 years in Dayton, Ohio, which we really enjoyed.  The nice thing about Dayton was that it was near the bigger cities, but yet was still quite rural with wide open spaces and farms just a few miles drive away.  We then moved to Los Angeles, CA, for 3 years and lived in Redondo Beach and San Pedro.  I really enjoyed the novelty of living in LA, although Karen was less comfortable there.  Ben was born in Santa Monica while we lived there.  After LA, we moved back across the country to Satellite Beach, FL, where we spent another 3 years soaking in the sun and dodging hurricanes.  Delaney was born while we lived there, and in a strange twist of fate, was born in the very hospital in which Karen was born some 30 years earlier.  While this may seem not such a big deal, it was quite a coincidence since neither Karen nor I have any family in that area.  It just so happened her parents lived there for a short while when her father worked for IBM……and we lived there a short while when I was assigned to Patrick AFB.  After that, we moved to Washington, DC (Springfield, VA) for just under three years while I was assigned to the Pentagon.  We were there for 9/11 and 2 years after.  Then we moved back to Florida, but this time to the panhandle for more hurricane dodging and soaking in the sun.  We ended up dodging more hurricanes in the panhandle, but really enjoyed our time there.  Now we find ourselves back in the DC area for what will likely be my last assignment in uniform.  I plan to retire at (or near) 20 years of service in ~Oct 09.

So, while we have covered a lot of ground in 17 years, the time has really flown by.  I can’t imagine having shared it with anyone else.  Quite honestly, I know of few people who would put up with that many moves, the long work hours and excessive travel that I have to maintain.  I am looking forward to many more years together on this wonderful journey.  I am sure our biggest adventures still lie ahead.