Tobin Family Website

I just checked the Tobin Family Website and realized that I hadn’t posted here in quite some time.  I guess with hockey season well underway, I have spent most of my free blogging time over at http://NHLPens.com and have neglected keeping the family site up to date.  Additionally, I have been engaging with family and friends through Facebook (http://www.facebook.com), which is quite a great application for reconnecting with people and keeping up to date with them.  Since I last posted, I have turned another year older and supposedly wiser, and we also ate some Thanksgiving turkey (good for us, not so good for the turkey)!  Unfortunately, we still haven’t won the lottery, but it is still high on our list of priorities!

With time winding down on my Air Force career, I officially submitted my retirement application last week.  It will take four to six weeks for the Air Force to review and approve my application, but I have requested an effective date of retirement of 1 November 2009.  That means that the clock is now ticking.  What a wonderful time to join the ranks of the unemployed….right when the economy is going down the crapper!  Better judgement would dictate that maybe I stay in a bit longer and ride out the recession, but I think it is time to turn the page and continue the next chapter in our lives and in my career.  The big question remains, what will that chapter be?  Only time will tell, but I continue to scope out the options and have some leads. 

Karen has been working a fair amount lately as she continues to substitute at Delaney’s school.  Somedays she absolutely loves it, somedays not.  A lot depends on the class that she gets and whether they are controllable or not.  This past week one of her students put liquid soap in about half of the other students water bottles.  I guess she ended up having to have all the kids shake their bottles, and if they bubbled up they had to toss them.  I think that was one of those “love it not” days for Karen.  This past week she taught in Delaney’s class which she really enjoyed.  Delaney also loved having her mom as the sub. 

Speaking of Delaney, she continues to grow and is becoming a wonderful young lady.  It blows my mind how incredibly smart she has become.   She has adapted quite well to Virginia and has developed a number of good friendships.  Tonight she is staying at a friend’s house and will be going to a Christmas party with her in the morning.  She has stayed over at this house once or twice before, and her friend has had a couple of sleep overs here as well.  This past week she helped me decorate the yard with Christmas lights.  We hung the icicle lights from the front porch and wrapped three trees in lights in the front yard.  We also put some lighted wreaths on the porch and on the front windows.  It looks pretty good….we just need some snow now!  Delaney is a very smart and creative girl.  She is also very artistic and loves to draw pictures and make things.  Her penmanship is flawless (unlike Ben) and her drawings are all very good with lots of interesting details.  We try to encourage her to keep drawing. 

Ben is continuing to grow like a weed.  I think he grew over an inch in the last two months.  He is starting to look like a young teenager, and he is not yet 12 (January 20th).  Ben continues to play the trumpet and has gotten very good in a short period of time. I don’t remember picking it up that fast when I was his age, but maybe my memory fails me.  He also wants to learn guitar and has been playing around with my electric guitar.  He has also taken an interest in making videos with the video camera.  So much so that he has offered to get ME video editing software for Christmas.  I actually just bought a new video camera a couple of weeks ago and will surprise he and Delaney with the older (but still very good) video camera that we used to have.  The old one runs on 8mm tapes, while the new one has a built-in Hard Drive.  He can still move the videos from tape to digital pretty easily, but it will be an added step.  I think they will like the old camera because it is a fancy Sony Handycam with lots of features. 

With Christmas rapidly approaching, we are looking forward to some restful time at home with each other.  While I would love to get home and see everyone in Vermont, I am trying to save up my leave for my upcoming retirement.  I have to admit I also like the idea of not going anywhere during the holidays.  We do think we will need to take a week off around winter break time and take a breather, but for right now we will

Tags: Family, Family Update, Vacation, Work/Professional

I have to admit that this is my favorite time of year in Virginia.  The temperatures stay in the 70’s by day and 50’s by night.  The humidity is all but gone.  The air is fresh and the skies are clear.  Last weekend we took advantage of a gorgeous weekend and drove to Markham, Virginia, where we went apple picking at Stribling Orchard.  The orchard has been in the Stribling family for almost 200 years and it is a beautiful place set in the mountains roughly 35-minutes from our house. 

We spent some time at the orchard picking apples (mostly Delicious and Macs), and then the kids picked out a couple of pumpkins for halloween.  There were quite a few people there as the weather was just right and the picking season is in full swing.  On the way out, we grabbed a quick bite to eat as they were selling grilled hot dogs and chicken by the main buildings. 

After leaving the orchard, we drove west about another 15-minutes to Front Royal, VA, and briefly stopped by the Skyline Caverns.  Like Luray Caverns, Skyline Caverns is an underground series of caves where there are lots of impressive geological formations.  Although we didn’t take the tour this time (we have done so a couple of times before), we did tour the gift shop and took some pictures of the kids by the fake dinosaur in the park (we have similar pictures from about 5 or 6 years ago).

We left Skyline Caverns and drove a couple of miles into the Shenendoah National Park on the Skyline Drive.  We drove about 4-5 miles in and stopped at Dickey Ridge, where we parked and took in some beautiful views of the Shenendoah Valley.  After getting some pictures, we crossed over the Skyline Drive and took a short 1.2 mile hike along the Fox Hollow Trail.  While hiking along the wooded trail, we came upon a couple of deer.  The first one startled a bit and jumped up, otherwise we would have probably never seen it.  We stopped and once the deer settled a bit, I was able to get about 15 feet or so away from it.  I got a couple of good pictures (see the photo slideshow below, which includes pictures from the Orchard and Dickey Ridge as well).  It ended up being a great family day.  We may head back over to the Shenendoah National Park again today.  I purchased an annual park pass (it only takes 2 visits to break even on the $30 annual pass price). 

This past week, I ordered a new trumpet for Ben as he is now in the school band.  I found a quality trumpet at a reasonable price that is made by the LJ Hutchen company.  I purchased it through Amazon.com as I had a $50 gift card from them from the “picapp” promotion I did with my websites a couple of months ago.  I was amazed that we ordered the trumpet on Monday night and it was delivered on Thursday (even with UPS Ground shipment)!  It is the perfect trumpet for a new band student.  It is well made and has a very nice tone.  Ben has started practicing and I can help him while playing my trumpet with him.

Tags: Family Update