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

The week before last we traveled to the Florida Panhandle for the kids school vacation.  It was kind of a last minute decision as we were planning on staying closer to home and possibly staying at a resort near Shenendoah or near Williamsburg.  As the time drew close, however, we didn’t find a resort that everyone could get excited about.  I thought that maybe the kids might like to go back to Florida and visit their friends instead.  The response was overwhelming, so I made soe last minute plans to travel to the Fort Walton Beach area.

We ended up staying at the Hampton Inn in Crestview, which was about a mile from the house we used to live in.  Our very first night there, Delaney went to see her best friend Jennifer and ended up sleeping over at their house.  Ben went and saw his best friend Matthew and he ended up staying at the hotel with us for a sleepover.  As it turned out, the week was spent shuttling the kids to and from their friend’s houses so that they could get as much time with them as possible.  Of course, the kids vacations don’t line up, so their friend’s were in school during the week.  They were each able to get a day off from school in which we coud go do things together.  We spent a lot of time in Destin at the beach, and at a small amusement park that has go karts, bumper cars, mini golf and more.  We also went and saw Horton Hears a Who at the movie theater one day and did some bowling on another.  All in all, the time flew by quickly and we all had some fun seeing old friends and looking at houses in the area (for fun).  Click the picture below to see  pictures from the trip.

We returned from vacation last Sunday, but I extended my leave through Monday so that I could take Delaney to a doctor appointment that we had scheduled at Walter Reed Hospital.  The appointment ran long, and she had to fast before the appointment, so I took her and Karen to a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  It seemed a good reqard for having 5 vials of blood drawn.  On Tuesday, my return to work was slowed by an early morning migraine.  I ended up not going in until the afternoon after the worse had subsided.  The meds I am taking for migraines are only marginally effective, especially if I wake up with a migraine already in full swing.  That evening, I slipped and fell down the stairs and I think I broke my big toe!  It was very stiff and painful for a few days and had swollen up and turned purple.  It seems to be doing much better than the last time I broke a toe, so maybe I only sprained it. 

Yesterday, I was a chaperone for Ben’s school field trip to Gettysburg.  It was a great field trip!  It took about 2 hours to get there by bus.  Once we got there, we had a docent who got on the bus and gave us a tour through town and then through the battlefield.  We would get off the bus at various points and spend time getting some history and hearing stories about the Civil War and the battle at Gettysburg.  The kids had to learn how to march so that they could re-enact Pickett’s Charge in the afternoon.  For the re-enactment, they were led by a Park Ranger who was very good at providing historical insights.  The kids (and I as well) really enjoyed walking the 1-mile re-enactment of Pickett’s Charge in the soldier’s footsteps.  It is hard to even imagine the carnage that took place there.  I would like to go back when we have more time to see all of the monuments that are erected all over the town and throughout the fields there.  Click the image below to see pictures from the field trip.

This weekend is a time to relax and get some work done around the house and get caught up on some cleaning.  My parents will be stopping back in next Friday on their way back north after spending a month in Florida.  They will probably spend about a week with us before heading back north.   

Tags: Family, Vacation